Digital Release: Eve no Jikan ACT 02: Sammi
Well, here it is. The pireze release of Studio-Rikka's Eve no Jikan ACT 02, Sammi. I had doubts as to whether I should have worked on this, because Directions had already released an English-subtitled version on Crunchyroll. Official subs are usually hard to compete with, both in terms of timing (obviously they have a head-start), as well as other stuff (original versus fan-made). However, after perusing the subtitles a bit, I found there was probably a demand for a fansub. So here it is. For a thumbnail preview of the entire video, scroll to bottom of post. [Download: h264 video and subtitles] or watch the official version on Crunchyroll.
Technical:
It's rather abstract, but this release is for the subtitles. I usually see the bundled video as just a vehicle for the subtitles: thus my reluctance to hard-sub my releases. But of course, it is a necessary part of the viewing experience.
As always with soft-subs, modification and enhancements may be available later. Check back later to this post for new versions of subtitles.
The video was ripped from the original WMV stream off Yahoo Douga Japan. Of course, Yahoo Douga is region-protected (you need to be in Japan to watch). This time round, I used a Japanese webhost and SSH-tunneled my way through to get to the video stream, which I then downloaded and ripped.
The first step after that was to get out of the confines of DRM. I used Super C to encode the file into lossless YUV (using mencoder, directshow enabled, etc).
I then used MeGUI to convert to the final raw file found here, in h.264 (x264.exe). This also allowed me to crop out the letterboxes (original video was 4:3), putting the video into widescreen format.
Why is the video this big? (Original WMV was around 90MB). Well, I might have over-compensated in an attempt to minimise any quality loss. And I also encoded audio in 320 mp3.
Subtitles:
Subtitles took a bit more than one day to complete. This time round, a translator (who did not want to be named) helped me out greatly. I timed the subtitles (taking around 4 hours, because I suck), and the translator did the majority of the lines, leaving some of the more obscure ones for me to do when I got home from work.
I also edited the lines, did some signs and typesetting, and finished off the difficult parts.
We then did a QC pass of the subtitles, completed final edits, and here it is.
As is the tradition here, the translations tend to be as literal as possible. This is where it varies from the original Directions subtitles. Most lines were also translated originally (that is, most lines were translated without reference to Directions subtitles).
Remember to keep to the rules stipulated at the end of the subtitle, and have a fun time!
Story:
ACT 02 SAMMI continues where ACT 01 left off. The plotline develops further, especially during the second half of the video, where not only does the issue take on a more personal meaning for Rikuo, but we also get to see a bigger picture of what "the Man" (or woman, as is the case) thinks of the whole thing.
I'm not going to discuss the finer points of the story here, but this is what I found interesting in this episode:
- The loophole in the Robotic Laws.
- Rich little girl with entourage of androids following her (a brief shot).
- The capacity for robots to understand and anticipate emotional pain.
- Secrets.
- Pantsu. Seriously.
- Glasses, and the ability to see. This played the part of being such a key plot device that there should be something significant behind it. Chie-chan is mightily curious about Rikuo's seeing instruments, but notice how the old man has glasses too? Don't see her grabbing THEM.
- Blade Runner reference. Epic.
- The book: does not seem to correspond to any existing publications.
- Sammi is cuter with ponytail.
- The cafe's client privacy protection.
- Rikuo's mom and the human instinct: apparently she talks to Sammi normally, and "plays dress-up" (gives Sammi clothes). Also, the classmate's instinct to thank the android.
- Piano: to play or not to play.
- Do Androids Have Nightmares?
- It's Evlend, not E-blend. Hmmm.
- Nagi's star-emitting powers: What 'bout my staarrrrr, what 'bout my staaa~aaar~~
- Dodgy music during the "I'm ronery" sequence.
- Individuality, suppression circuit.
- Conflict with Ethics Committee (oooh politics).
- Next episode: Love and androids.
I must say, I had a bit of a problem determining whether to use She or It to refer to Sammi. I figured the characters still don't recognise her (in the case of the viewers, we do) as a sentient being, so they still call her It.
Here's the thumbnail preview.
59 Comments so far
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Finally, thanks!^^ The story gets better. I love this series
Many thanks again. I love it!
h264 in avi? D:
you can rename it .mp4 if you want to :P But I didn’t feel like mkv because of that extra level of complexity.
Did you renamed it to avi manually? I don’t remember MeGUI giving option to output x264′s encodes to avi…
No, one of the auto-encode option stages allows me to choose AVI as output.
h264 avi?
щ(ﾟДﾟщ)
Not only are those at CR absolutely annoying, but their quality isn’t that great at all. ):
I enjoy your release much more, and I hope you continue to sub the series.
Thanks for your hard work!
Many thanks for this episode to! I like this anime every time more and more. ;3
I find it a pity that there are no more than 6 episodes will be. But i hoppe, that the next 4 episodes will be entertaining to.
I will leave my pc for the next days on in order to support your hard work on this project. ;3
Sorry for double post, but i like to thank to translator (who did not want to be named) to. ;3
Wow – been looking forward to this! Thanks for subbing what promises to be a great little series – and certainly better than Pale Cocoon.
When I try to play the video with Quicktime, the subtitles mask the entire thing. So all I see are the subtitles and a white background, no video.. If I open the video in VLC, I can see the vid, but subtitles don’t work in VLC for me. So there’s something funky with the subs for me.
Well done on getting the job done so fast – seriously, I didn’t expect you to be done already so that was a nice surprise for me when I got home from work this evening. Good work, icie and Anonymous Translator!
I don’t mind the video being a bit on the large side – for sure, it takes a bit longer to download but for a series like this, going the extra mile for video quality is worth it I think.
Again, thanks for all your hard work! ^_^
Is this open-source like episode 1? EMiNA would like your permission to use your script, as we did with the previous episode.
Thanks for the work on the subs! Love the setting of this title.
Thank you for the subs! The official subs really are a mess compared to good fansubs – they display translated written text as if it were spoken, for one. I wasn’t sure if you’d do episode 2, but I’m glad you did.
Keep up the good work!
TY for ep2 :-) and gj for subtitles..
I cannot thank you enough for subtitling this. I found this blog just two weeks ago while looking subtitles for Eve no Jikan ACT 01, and I generally love it now. Thanks for the great work!
Silencers: Yep, it’s the same as before. Feel free to use the subs as long as you credit pireze.
Thanks so much for the subs. Will seed once I’ve downloaded this.
Whats the date for next release (act 3)?
Releases every two months, apparently. So beginning December? I’ll probably be in Japan then (and I’m not going to spend 2 days subtitling while on holidays). If no one else does it first, I’ll work on it when I come back.
thanks pireze!!!
eve no jikan is really a great anime
At the end some guy is talking, and he refers to a “shadower”. Is that the guy from the cafe talking about Masaki following him?
Well, that’s what I think he’s referring to. :)
I had the same problem with the video on QT and the subtitles on VLC. Not sure why it’s like that but you can just do it like I did and time up the QT and VLC video so the subtitles and audio match and position them so you can see both. Kinda a lame way to do it but it worked at least.
There is definitely a demand for fansubs of this, and the hard work on the literal subs and the quality on the video and audio is much appreciated.
Please continue to sub the series as the episodes are released. Thanks!
why isnt there any subtitle on the avi version??
Thanks again, icie!
“Sammi is cuter with ponytail.”
I agree 128% percent. xD
thanks for the subs ^ . ^
[...] great release by icie is out for all you Eve no Jikan lovers. We get to explore more of Sammie’s life I guess. I [...]
This anime is EPIC! I totally reccomend this one to all otakus.
@enishi
its because there no subtitle in the AVI.
just download the .ass subtitle here http://pireze.org/files/releases/%5Bpireze%5DEve_no_Jikan_ACT02
then play the avi using Media Player Classics
The subs don’t work for me neither, but you can just hard-encode it into the video. that’s what I did, and it works fine.
Thanks for the work, and I hope you keep subbing this. Quality has been top notch.
Thank you so very much for your work! I really enjoy this anime and it wouldn’t be possible without your kind effort. Please continue subbing it in your free time. I guess you can do away with your doubts now since you’ve got this many appreciative fans :D. Thank you!
Pireze, it’s just a question of fireing up mkvmerge and merging the subtitles, audio and video in a mkv container, no loss of quality at all, maybe even a slightly smaller overhead on the file and less complications with the playback of the file.
it’s epic!
but the subs are a little off maybe 30~40 secs off ^^ but it’s ok at least the sound and picture is great !
if you can understand japanese it’s fine
i have a mighty bet that girl~ with 4 robots will definitely pop up in the later episodes and i hope this story will like somewhat lead into a more diversified like that guy in the big screen tracking all those droid who are coming in and out of eve no jikan… something big that’s all ^^
thankies agains!
kudo~sz! to supplier of the anime!
Yenkaz: I didn’t merge everything into an MKV because the point of the project was to make subtitles as accessible as possible.
If the subtitles were merged in, yes, it would still be soft-subbed, but further patching of the subs would be more complicated than simply replacing a file.
As it is now, anyone can open the subs straight off the folder and make edits according to what they want, and with the exception of some people who are not equipped with the right technology, there are no complications in playback.
The subtitles are open for editing and redistribution. If people want to make simple XVID hardsubs for their own purposes or for others, they are totally welcome to do so with the file (as long as they retain the pireze.org credit).
n1tr0: 30-40secs off? That’s a massive failure. I’m pretty sure the subs are timed closer than that though.
thx for all.
I love this anime. ^^
Again just to bother you some more; most .ass editors such as aegissubs can open .ass files right from an .mkv file.
I’m very happy about this project being subbed, so I should remember to thank you for the hard work as well.
[...] script by pireze.org ( Episode 1 | Episode 2 [...]
Dear Pireze,
I am writing from Directions, Inc., producers of the Time of Eve series.
Quoting from the “What is Pireze” page:
“Let’s be honest here: most of the digital releases do not hurt the bottom-line of the copyright holders (due to their elusive nature, most of the material cannot be easily bought from the source anyway).”
In response: Making Time of Eve available via BitTorrent severely damages the bottom-line for Directions Inc., and more importantly, Yoshiura. The material is legally available via Crunchyroll.
I think we share the desire to see innovative creations. So let’s not tear down each other’s houses. Please respect our work:
- remove the BitTorrent link for Time of Eve act01 and act02, and post the link to Time of Eve on Crunchyroll
http://www.crunchyroll.com/library/Time_of_Eve
- for future Time of Eve releases, link to the authorized version and refrain from releasing a sub on BitTorrent.
We look forward to your response.
Best regards,
Ann
Directions, Inc.
I had a feeling this would happen. This site does not aim to be an aggressor to producers and licensed distributors, and if my practices are demonstrably damaging the financial wellbeing of the creator, I will voluntarily terminate such actions.
The two points of your requests are reasonable, and I will comply.
However, I would like a clarification: can I still subtitle this anime, or would you like me to stop all future work on Eve no Jikan?
I find it highly ironic that Ann has the audacity to say
“I think we share the desire to see innovative creations.”
while posting a C&D request on a blog offering superior subtitles and quality when compared to the CR offering. Or maybe it’s what the corporate machine does effortlessly all the time, hand in foot. Who knows.
Besides, icie, how do you know this isn’t a fake request? I’d ask for an official e-mail or something, I dunno. Practically all the companies do that anyway.
“Sammi is cuter with ponytail.”
“I agree 128% percent. xD ”
i think i fell in love with her. XD
I hope you’d still be able to release your own scripts. The official one…sigh…sucks.
crunchyroll has bad quality of video and if you ask me direction subbing isn’t that good.
this is just my opinion if you ask me there’s nothing wrong for fansub to sub a anime i mean once the dvd release shows up anyway only hardcore fans will buy it even if they already watched it or downloaded it.
most normalfans/nothardcore wont buy it for many reason but i will only tell two its expensive, most normal anime fans don’t buy anime they don’t like that much they only buy anime they really like.
the only back draw of a fansub is most people dont watch them on tv anymore but in the dvd releasing im 100% sure fansub has nothing to do why people dont buy them.
/agreed
The email doesn’t look real at all its possible that it was written by an CR member of higher up in an attempt to stop you from fansubbing its a conspiracy! if you ask me all i can say now is “welcome to the NHK”
Hello everyone,
This is Ann from Directions.
First, icie complied with 100% promptness and courtesy to our request to link to Crunchyroll. Thank you icie.
And thank you to Owen S, Silencers and Sora for your feedback on the subtitles. Of course criticism always takes a beat longer to digest than a compliment, but criticism is more valuable in the long run.
Fansu, you get to the heart of the issue – why aren’t people buying DVDs? This is the question that keeps anime producers up late at night.
Owen S and Otenko, these emails are for real! Although it would be fun to be part of a conspiracy . . .
BTW, we did an interview of Yoshiura about the themes in Time of Eve. You can check out the transcript here:
http://www.crunchyroll.com/forumtopic-339608/Whats-the-BIG-deal-Yoshiura-responds.html
Enjoy the time of eve!
Ann
I was just surfing and came across this discussion about Anime. And the remark about about why people don’t buy Anime DVDs.
I’m 30 years old, professionally employed, and an avid anime watcher.
First off, I don’t buy DVDs (or Blu-Rays, preferably) of something I haven’t seen before. If I like a movie at a theater or after renting it, then I consider buying it. Fansubs provide a vehicle to see the product before I buy it. And I’ll tell you right now, the end of a series is as important as the beginning. If I can’t see the ending of a show because of a C&D served on a fansub group, I won’t buy it.
Secondly, Quality. Many of the dubs/subs done by anime studios/distributors are amazingly bad. The voices don’t match the characters, and the translations are often localized to make things easier for a wider audience. Personally I can’t stand dubs, and as an anime fan for 15 years, I have enough background knowledge of Japanese customs and idioms that I feel localized translations do a disservice to the original scripts and the messages they try to convey. I know the research suggests that dubbed anime sells better. But I suspect the research is flawed and/or skewed to specific titles.
Third, glut. Anime studios are on track to produce more shows in this decade than have been produced in the last 30 years. Only the richest fans can afford to buy DVDs of every show that comes out. There is only so much money, and instead of it going to a few studios/distributors, it’s going to 10x as many. This is a problem of your own making. I’m sorry, but your industry will suffer because the current market and distribution scheme cannot support you.
Fourth, wait-time and hypocrisy. American distributors have used fansubs as market research for years. By watching reactions and fanbases, the distributors decide which shows to import. They then send C&Ds to the fansub groups and make consumers wait months (or years, in a few cases) before they can finish watching a series. combined with the glut in the market, consumers’ attention is no longer on your localized and dubbed series and you suffer decreased sales as a result.
Lastly, Cost. Some studios/distributors milk DVDs for everything they can get. 5 DVDs at $30 each? Are you kidding??! I don’t care about localization/dubbing costs, because I don’t want that stuff anyway. I’m a movie-buyer, the Anime I tend to buy is movies, not series. I prefer well-animated, well thought out shows. Princess Mononoke, Ghost in the Shell, GITS:SAC, Cowboy Bebop, Eureka7, to name a few. Eve no Jikan so far has a fantastic story and is very well drawn. It is a very strong contender for my money – depending on how the show continues.
Crunchyroll’s video quality is terrible. The font for the subs is too big, and ugly. The translation isn’t the best. Plus the number of ads on CR is obtrusive.
I have yet to understand why studios don’t embrace bittorrent and the online community. A short ad at the front, break, and just before the preview of an episode, literally translated and released on bittorrent 24hrs after the air date, would make you more money with less overall cost. You could even embrace the community further by having well-known groups gain the rights to sub specific shows/episodes through online contests.
That’s my view.
I agree with Andrew. I have only watched one Anime in English in the past 10 years (Armitage) because it did not come with subs. I prefer to buy, but I refuse to spend $30 on Vol 1 without any knowledge of what I’m getting in to. Localized dubbing detracts from what I like about anime–that its from Japan. I can watch holywood movies if I want American slang.
Dear Ann,
It is not that I dislike what you have done with Crunchyroll. Actually, I believe it is a giant move in the right direction. However, the problem with streaming something on Cruncyroll is that it is by far inferior quality especially for such a great anime such as this. I want to see this anime in its great detail, on my TV with surround sound and in as high definition I can get it. With such a beautiful anime with amazing sound track like Eve No Jikan has I only wish that a high quality version would be available to download. Pireze’s subs have given me at least a little of that. I was able to sit back on my couch, stream it to my TV and watch in relatively good quality and sound.
woo, someone official.
HD pls.
lol
I like the Pireze translation and am interested in a particular difference versus the Crunchyroll translation: At 9:15, when Sammy is talking with the Nagi the barista, Pireze’s translation reads “he hates it when I do anything independently” while the Crunchyroll translation reads “they don’t like it when I do things on my own.”
Does “he” or “they” fit more closely? The Pireze translation seems much more personal to Rikuo than the Crunchyroll translation.
Dan: interesting pickup. I am not referring to anything here, so this is just off the top of my head.
I recall the dialogue was one of those which did not have a subject (where there is an assumed subject, but not mentioned). Sammy was either talking about the family or Rikuo.
The logic behind my translation was that from what we have previously seen, Rikuo was really the only one who got pissed off when Sammy took independent action. In fact, from earlier dialogue, his sister was just embarrassed/indifferent to the robot, and his mother actually cared about Sammy like a real person. Given this, I narrowed down the subject to just Rikuo.
After watching it a few more times, that rationale seems to make a lot of sense. In fact, at 11:30, he expresses dissatisfaction at her doing things by herself. As you say, there’s no indication of dissatisfaction from anybody else in the family about this type of thing.
Thanks for the translation!
Awesome second episode (Or “Act”, as the case may be)!
I must say, the “loophole” in the 3 laws of robotics were well played (evidently, they were not using the strict laws created by Isaac Asimov, since that would necessitate the 4th and “Zero”th law, which could make the plot even more interesting had they both been correctly incorporated).
—–
@Andrew:
Hey Andrew, I respect your views, but allow me to provide some simple retort.
1) I won’t say you’re necessarily in the minority, but I believe (myself included) that many people buy DVD’s for shows/movies that they both loved after having watched it, and shows/movies that they would want to see but never had the time to. Regardless of whether or not I’ve already viewed something, if it’s something that interests me, I may buy it. Continuing on this train of though, you can see why NA Distributors of anime don’t mind sending out C&D orders, because they know there are people like me that’ll buy the anime regardless of whether or not I’ve seen a fansub version of it. And evidently, that business model still works (Otherwise they’d be out of business, no?).
2) I agree that most dubs are downright horrid, but think about it for a minute: It’s not only avid anime fans that buy dubbed anime, and chances are, the dubs are targetting NA natives and not the hardcore fans like you or I; whom already seen the show via fansubs. The research does not seem skewed at all, if you think about the total market in NA. Hardcore anime fans in NA are still a far minority, and if the distributors wants to actually break even, and hope for profit, then they need to target the absolute bottom line in terms of demographic: And that means the show has to be in English.
It’s like the old saying, “When in Rome, do as Romans do.”
Quite honestly, I’d be very surprised if a non-localized anime were able to outsell a localized version of itself in a head-to-head contest.
3) Manga consumes more paper than toilet paper in Japan… And yet they’re still going strong, with many ranging in the hundreds of volumes, each costing approximately 10-20 USD in Japanese Yen… That “scheme” is still being supported, so to speak. Unless you can back this up with factual numbers, I don’t think it really holds water.
4) Again, you’re under the assumption that they are targeting ‘us’–the hardcore anime fan base. That’s not true, as I tried to explain in point #2.
5) Ugh, yeah… I can’t disagree with this horrid practice of over pricing anime DVD’s. If they weren’t so darn pricey, I’d probably have more full collections of anime by now.
6) Regarding bittorrent, this is very simple: There’s no method of control for bittorent. How do advertisers know how many viewers actually watch the ads? With DRM’d online services like NetFlix or Yahoo! Video (that Eve no Jikan is released on), the advertisers KNOW that you can’t skip the ads because they’re forced on you! I’m sure digital distribution is far more common in Japan than it is in NA since they have far more bandwidth and distribution infrastructure than we do here in NA (I’m sure you’re aware of the recently expanded 1Gbps internet service they’re offering there).
Now, this is all written in the point of view of (and under the assumption that you live in) North America, so things might differ if you live across the pond, but the basic business reasoning behind doing–or not doing, as the case may be–things should still hold water.
[...] Act 2 [...]