Digital release: Eve no Jikan ACT 01: AKIKO
Someone told me she wouldn't watch this unless I subbed it. So I did. This is Studio Rikka's latest production, and is the first of six parts. Which is great, because this one is only 15 minutes long, so when we combine six of these short-length animations together we get a feature-length! Studio Rikka, for the newbies, is Yasuhiro Yoshiura (of Pale Cocoon fame). Sub quality disclaimer: expect the subs to suck. But there is a reason for this -- I really suggest reading the rest of this post during your download. Click on for screenshots and subtitle updates. *UPDATE*: Major revision (v1.2) subs released [Download: Directory (includes an XVID encode and the subtitles)] or watch the official version on Crunchyroll.
Subtitle revisions
3 August 2008: Version 1.0 of subtitles bundled with release and torrent
3 August 2008: Version 1.1 of subtitles released. Changed: (1) Eve no Jikan rules sub stayed on for too long: FIXED (2) Chiya-chan is actually Chie-chan (ref: official webpage character list): FIXED [Download v1.1], replace original subtitles with the file in the RAR.
3 August 2008: Version 1.2 of subtitles released. Changed: Multiple line clarifications and several critical corrections of meaning. [Download v1.2], replace original subtitles with the file in the RAR.
The anime
The music in Eve no Jikan is pretty good (indie-mix, sounding similar to Pale Cocoon's BGM), but there is no tying-together vocal. The voice cast is also pretty great with some big names for this independent anime. Rie Tanaka does Sammy (Rikuo's android) great justice. And Akiko's voice actress...boy she is a pain in the arse for the fansubber, because she talks so friggin' fast. But great voice. But I must say I fell in love with Nagi's voice.
(Check out the Pale Cocoon appearance on that last pic)
I must admit that even now I don't fully get the story/plot, but I'll leave that to Internet discussions. But the anime does bring up some very pertinent philosophical questions regarding the self -- namely, how does one differentiate oneself from an android, if the android is capable of acting humanly, and looks just like a human? Not that the android-human boundary hasn't been prodded by sci-fi before...
Another theme some might want to explore is the concept of "dori-kei" (Android obsession) which is treated by society in much the same way as Japanese society treats hikkikomori or otakuism. Yet, the dori-kei might be onto something real here. The social criticism is very obvious.
History of the hunt
(The boys hunting the elusive...cafe)
I have of course been keeping up with the status of this latest indie anime production, from the beginning, to the launch of the site, its feature article, release announcement, and trailer release. More recently, I threw in a small announcement of the full release of the first act, but there's nowhere more suited for such words to hide than in an essay. :P
1 August 2008 saw the full ACT 01 of Eve no Jikan released onto the Yahoo!Douga Japan video site. As I noted in my trailer post, Yahoo!Douga is a bitch. It requires Internet Explorer, Flash, and a Japanese IP to access its content. And then when you are through all that, the WMV is still DRM'd.
Let's just say I used a combination of VPN, packet sniffer and streaming video download software to get my hands on the file. The VPN would have cost money, but I wriggled out of it somehow.
DRM WMVs are such a pain in the arse that no one has actually managed to properly crack them. I did manage to use FairUse on the thing, but it corrupted the file beyond repair. In the end, I used some software to convert it into XVID, but while avoiding quality loss, the filesize just exploded into its current 305MB size.
If you want the original file, go ahead. It is still playable. You must open it in Windows Media Player first and get the permissions to play it (I think it's pretty lax, most people should be able to get the permission), before it can play in Media Player Classic (and thus make use of the subs).
Subs were done on-the-fly using Aegisub.
So what the video that accompanies this release is, is an XVID converted from WMV at a display width of 640 pixels. Small amounts of artifacts still remain and the aspect ratio has been letterboxed. Think of this as a pre-release bonus. More reason to look forward to the DVD.
Open Script and Continuous Improvement
(Mizu no Kotoba cafe has been upgraded!)
That said, I really need some of you Japanese-speaking/fluent/learning people to jump on this and get the ball rolling in regards to the quality of the subs. I'm just a fan you see. No qualifications in Japanese under my name except "Watched a lot of anime". Plus I couldn't cheat because this time there was no script. So while I am pretty sure about most of the simple lines, some of the stuff (the lines that do heavy plot lifting, unfortunately) was guesstimated. I mean, that reference to fapping...well, that was a desperate move wasn't it?
As a result, these subtitles are meant as a foundational building stone on which others may erect their work. If you have improvements for the script, drop a comment and I'll do the edits. Otherwise if you decide to overhaul the script, drop a comment with a link to it and we'll all check it out. If your group decides to release and you are basing it off the raw and/or script here, I would appreciate a mention of "pireze.org" in your credits.
(Second pic: "Have fun, ne?", last pic: "WATCH ME TALKREALLYFAST!")
So what this is, is a continuation of my dream to have an Open Script project. The concept of an Open Script is nothing new. It's basically the open source model transposed to fansubs. The .ASS subtitle script is there for everyone to view and edit as they please. All I ask is for the beginning credit to pireze.org to remain intact in all future versions, and for no one to make a profit out of it. Translate, parady-sub, improve or just watch...do all that stuff freely.
IBU-BLEND TSU! (Eblend in the subs)
"What do you think about me?"
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The animation looks very well done. I know I can expect myself to be watching this ^^
[...] , subbed blog (that was fast!). [...]
I’m not been funny, but kudos to you son for havin a go at least, ive been learning japanese for 2 years and still wouldn’t try this kind of project, that said you aint done 2 bad. Cheers
can you please mux the subtitles together with your xvid encode cause i don’t know how to do it :(
cant wait for the next acts
nice release man. luv it. thank you for subbing this mini series. looking for the rest of acts. :D
what is the genre of this anime?
i want to ask, if ther will be an release without the black bars on top and bottom of the avi clip?
man this webrip of yours seems so close to the real video over timeofeve net. idk how you do it but its gud that youd able get a perfect webrip. i hope that some raw provider of other web anime can be like yours. anyway, thank you again. hehee..
@josh
muxing xvid and sub is pretty easy.
just download mkvtoonix and use its mkvmerge (mmg.exe) to mux those two files and youll get a muxed mkv file.
Hooray for you :) Banzai! I was looking forward to this. Only problem I have now, is that the subs are gone :O When I first watched it, it was subbed. When I rewatched, they were gone! how did this happen?
deluxe: I’d say sci-fi.
ani: when the DVD comes out, but some other group might get to that before I do. The problem is although I can remove the black bars, i’d have to re-encode another time and then the quality loss will be very bad.
macoy and josh: yes, mkv will work, but also, if you want to do hard sub, I suggest the virtualdub + vobsub (or there’s a new one now called VSfilter or something?) plugin. That’d involve a re-encode though; the mkv method is lossless, I think.
Gelmir: ensure the subs are in the same folder as the raw file, and they have the same name (extension differs only).
@ Icie:
Hooray, it worked. I love you :) hahaha But I am really grateful though, so truly, thank you.
Love this show, thanks a bunch for the release!
I really like the camera in this show. It’s always moving around and switching focus, makes it very interesting to watch.
Gonna keep my eyes out for more acts :D
“In the end, I used some software to convert it into XVID, but while avoiding quality loss, the filesize just exploded into its current 305MB size”
Mind sharing? I’m having a bitch of a time getting a Yahoo!Douga video to work. D:
…sweet, though, for the subs. ^_^
macoy + Koroku: just a bit of a technical discussion here. I ripped the video from the WMV file on Yahoo!Douga, not the FLV file on the timeofeve site. I’m not sure how the quality would be if I had ripped the FLV from the site.
I normally don’t advertise the commercial software I use, but I used Daniusoft Media Converter 2.0.25.0 (works best with XP, probably not with Vista). The version is important because the “Pro” version and later versions effectively screws around when you are converting DRM files by downscaling your video resolution by 50% before upscaling it again, resulting in a horrible video deterioration.
Many thanks. I had came to know on this title while reading No.7 issue of ‘Animation Notes’ magazine. I am really impressed after watching and will love to support this anime by buying the original DVDs.
hey icie,
just thought i would say thanks for subbing this series. I really enjoyed the first episode and if there is anyway i can help let me know!
cheers, sam.
I heard about this after watching Pale Cocoon! Thanks for the release!!! And the subs are really good! Great work! Be proud!!! This blog is one that I think I’m going to visit more and more often!!!
[...] have to thank hikago for reminding me to watch this series. Pireze also provides a nice sub for non-Japanese speakers and those wanting to access the episode in other [...]
I don’t often comment on subbers’ posts about their latest releases (I have barely enough time to watch the things in the first place!) but in this case I have to add some extra-special thanks. Sadly my knowledge of the language is still too limited to say how accurate the subs are but in terms of video/audio quality it’s fine and the Version 1.2 doesn’t have any glitches either – good job!
It’s a fantastic episode so I hope you’re able to continue subbing this one. I don’t know what help I could possibly have to offer, but if there’s anything I can do…
WOW!!!! Just watched it and I am HOOKED big time! Can’t wait to see more. Going to get a few friends to watch this and then have a sit down and a LONG discussion on the story as well as the topic.
Thank you for posting this!!!! Please do the rest of the series.
I really appreciate the release…
Having just watched 水のコトバ and Pale Cocoon, this is every bit as good as I had hoped it would be. Interesting themes and beautiful animation!
Thanks for translating! And for external subs )
かわいい !
Thank you very much! I like this anime. OK, the quality is not the best, but better than nothing. Animation, music, voice and ’story’ are wonderful. I can’t expect to see the next episodes.
Thank you again for your work ! ! !
Hmm… it reminds me of Armitage and Appleseed. ^_^
Why I was not born in Japan. -.-
Thanks so much for the subbing! I’m definitely hooked on this and can’t wait to see the rest :D
I know you’ve probably been asked this a million times but I was wondering if you had any tips for someone who is trying to self learn Japanese. I’m having a bit of a difficult time with it even with the somewhat large amount of anime I watch. Would turning the subs off completely help me in any way? @_@
Thanks again for the subbing! I hope one day I can know enough Japanese to sub as well :D
Very much interested in where this will go, please continue to sub!
Bravo, well done, arigato etc etc
Thanks for subbing this one.. it’s really interesting and I can’t wait to see the rest of the episodes :)
how to add the sub?
sorry being a noob around here.
anyone hav the solution?
lukawa2: put the subs in the same folder as the video file. Use media player classic or zoomplayer which should automatically load the subs. otherwise, google vobsub or similar.
If you want wmv without DRM, check my link (click on my nick)…
“Methinks thou doth protest too much…”
Many thanks for your hard work, you did an excellent job!
Thank you for getting this and subbing!! It was fantastic!
Thanks, icie! I was thrilled to see you and Windbell produce the first subs to Byousoku last year and am glad to discover Eve no Jikan from your blog. Just curious, what VPN and packet sniffer software did you happen to use? You can just email me if you’d prefer.
Wow, that was a freakin’ awesome anime, even though it was short!
Can’t wait for the full series (and the next “Act”, of course :D)!
By the way, where was the reference to fapping O.o? Maybe I’m just dense, but I didn’t notice any :P (Or did you get rid of it in the newest sub edit?).
the fapping reference was in v1.0 and 1.1 only, it’s something one of the girls on TV said. :P I found out what the correct translation was so it got taken out.
Love this anime. I have already watched this several times, and even made an mp3 of the “entering the cafe” song.
The big question is, what’s the release schedule?
Thank you, thank you thank you for subbing this!
I’m not really sure about the release schedule either. I think it’s one every two months or something.
Damn! This looks so good! Just watched the first one.I really liked it.
The next show has my name IRL! :D Sammy!! Well, almost… Mine is written with one M…
Anyhow, thanks for the subs! ^__^
I took the liberty of typesetting the episode.
Pretty much all signs are properly done, and I added a overlap style when 2 people talk at the same time as well. For best compatibility, you need vsfilter 2.3.9 (2008/07/28), but most of it should look ok with mplayer/VLC nightlies or an older vsfilter version. Might look screwed up with the ffdshow “subtitle” option, as it doesn’t support the font rotate tag.
A rar with the ass and the needed fonts (all free) can be found under:
http://rapidshare.com/files/136812783/EVE_no_Jikan-v1.3.rar.html
http://www.zshare.net/download/16929702f43a5c43/
http://www.speedshare.org/download.php?id=BCBAFC0A12
I’m currently making a H264 embed[soft]sub out of the v1.2 script. v1.3 runs into problems with the locations of the type set ones converted to the srt format. I’m forced to use this though as mp4box doesn’t take .ass subs. The encode I made is around 120 megs and looks considerably better then the 310meg xvid version currently up.
I’ve cropped the letterboxing amongst some small debanding/deen tweaks. And will probably upload a final within a few hours. This is my first sub mux so bear with me as I’ve noticed issues with MPC.[While for me MPC doesn't load the subs at all, some of the people who quality checked told me the subs were roughly 4 pixels tall..] VLC however works perfectly fine so thats the player I’d recommend people play it with.
ETA Post with video link 2 hours.
I recommend VLC over MPC.
http://aieli-ileia.com/Niotex/Video/Eve_no_Jikan_-_Act1_Akiko_V1.2.mp4
I appreciate the work you’ve put into that, but again I must point out that v1.3 subs is very much improved in terms of translation integrity compared to v1.2.
I’ll try and get v1.3 to work later on tonight. I can’t promise anything at this point. But you might see an updated 1.3 version pop up later on tonight/early tomorrow depending on when I get around to it.
Also are you considering doing all 6 eps? If so I wouldn’t mind helping with the encoding. As long as I have a sub to go along the ep I’m good to go. Drm isn’t a problem either as you can see.
I am indeed considering doing all six, but that whole Yahoo videos thing is a pain. The VPN trick was a one-off, really, although I might be able to do something funky with SSH and a webhost. There are also issues with time, since I work full time, so I have to fit projects around that. Still, your ability to get around DRM would be a boon to any future subbing ventures.
I guess what it comes down to is yes, I’ll work with you for encoding, but everything is tentative at this stage.
http://aieli-ileia.com/Niotex/Video/Eve_no_Jikan_-_Act1_Akiko_v1.35.mkv
After some problems here and there I present to you embed v1.3[5]with some slight position tweaks.
Forgot to mention MPC > VLC. VLC breaks the subs.
Excuse me, but is there a way to convert the video file and the subtitles into an mp4 format so i could watch it on my ipod?
The subs that were made [.ass] aren’t compatible with MP4. The subs would have to be dumbed down in order to work. And in case of Ipod the subs would have to be hard coded rather then embed. A simple consumer Ipod video converter should be able to convert it just fine without subs though.
This anime sounds really good. Thank you for all your work!
If your able to get all the episodes, why not drop the raws out to the public so those who don’t need subs can see them :D?
RE raws: I suggest reading the post a bit more thoroughly and looking up how soft-subs work.
[...] would like to extend our thanks to Pireze.org for their open-source script. All we did was some minor TLC, Typesetting and reencoding. Hope you [...]
i don’t know how accurate the translations are nor do i care. i really enjoyed your release. i’ve been checking animesuki like a madman where i found a link to your website.hope to see act 2 ASAP. thanks for all your hard work.
The translation for the latest subs version is accurate as far as I know. I know the earlier versions sucked a bit, but they have since been checked and corrected by an advanced Japanese learner, so I am pretty assured.
Still, I’m not sure how to take the fact that no “real” Japanese speakers/translators have actually come forward with any concrete suggestions, nor have any groups edited the lines (I might have lost track of this). Is this a good sign, or just an indication of disinterest? Are there really so little translators out there?
I know there have been some forum moanings about “not really sure how accurate”. I’m only interested in criticisms of stuff people are sure about, like ‘I think this phrase was mis-translated, it should be “blah” as opposed to “whateverIwrote”‘, but so far no one has come forward with those.
It would be a shame if there was a lack of interest in this series; I certainly liked it a lot! Thanks again for pioneering the subs, icie. Can’t wait for the next episode.
I really enjoyed your release, Can’t wait for the next.
you did a really good job with this. Thanks
i love this show after only watching one episode still waiting for the second one to come out
Where is the second act? This anime seems to have lots of potential.
Loved the show. It has a lot of potential–art wise and story wise. Loved your translation from a non Japanese speaker but a person stationed there for three years. I was disappointed that Act 2 wasn’t out. Saw all you had to go through to get it … I’m impressed! PLEASE email me when the rest of the acts are available! Sorry I can’t help. I have no Japanese language skills and no subbing skills. Otherwise, this one would be a fun one to work on!
Omg the raw for act 2 is out!
[...] Act 1 [...]