Apocalypse Meow trailer – English subtitles

Here it is!

For those keeping track, you can check my quick translation below.  There are some places where I clearly made mistakes.  On the other hand, there are places these subtitles are just wrong.  For example, where Packy says “We have to snipe from here,” it’s clearly “You snipe from here,” but overall I like the translation, especially “we’ll get’er done” for “yareru sa.”  That’s funny, even if I do think it clashes with Packy’s professionalism.  (“We can do it” is technically better and in character.)

On the lines I had the most problems with, this must be a rough ‘translate the sense and not the sentence’ situation.  “I’m better with this gun than you guys thought …” is not the literal translation, but it’s as good as anything I came up with (“I killed him!  This might work!” — not my finest moment as a translator).

The one line I’m a bit baffled about is “Don’t go easy on them, just ’cause they’re cute!”  I translated it the exact opposite: “With such cute faces you’ll forgive them!” because I think the ending ‘nee’ indicates agreement, while whoever did the subtitles seems to think it’s a negative.  But, the negative would be ‘na,’ surely.  Or maybe I’m missing something.  Of course “So cute they can get away with it!” might be better w/ my understanding of the line.

Anyway, comparing translations is interesting.  It’s also interesting to go back to something you’ve done before and see what you’d do differently now.  I enjoy doing this – does that make me odd?

Oh – Go on!

(H/t to Anime Comments and Review again for this.)

Apocalypse Meow manga $175 at Amazon

Now YOU TOO can own the English version of the manga new for only $175.67.

That’s right! $175.67 for 146 pages of Vietnam War SpecOps action – FOUGHT BY BUNNIES!

Or, you can buy it in Japanese for about ten bucks. Your choice.

Beret tip to Anime Comments and Review, who’s clearly on top of this.

(What’s Apocalypse Meow?)

Oh, Go on!

why have bunnies blow terrorists away?

Yes, back on my Apocalypse Meow theme again.

I don’t know who Patrick Macias is, but I intend to soon. Anyway, he claims the series objective is:

… the development of real and fierce combat by cute and fluffy animals. In these days when people have become too used to seeing people die in movies, we wish to use cute animals as the characters to give viewers a stronger feeling of the misery of the wars that are taking place in this world.

I don’t actually believe this. I think this is a classic case of it not being PC to say “I think watching bunny rabbits blow away terrorists is wicked cool in and of itself. I also believe it demonstrates the absurdities of contemporary life — among them that we can’t call people who would saw off our heads if they had the chance ‘enemies’ — in a way that I and a lot of unheard people out there will find deeply satisfying.” After all, if someone’s mom reads that, Taro can’t buy the DVD, whereas if mom reads that it’s a protest against war, he’ll be sure to get it.

Go on!

Apocalypse Meow – Bugs’ Grandkids Go to Town

It’s everywhere – I first saw the trailer over at Mad Minerva’s and had to translate it. Just had to. Then I found it at Ace and HotAir.

According to Anime News Network, Apocalypse Meow is a new anime series that’s an update of the old Catshit One manga. Apparently, it is still in production and is planned to run 12 episodes.

Here’s the official website, though there’s not much there besides a cool photo. Here’s the story on Wikipedia.

Here’s the trailer. My translation follows.

NOTE: This translation was done quickly and for fun, so there are certainly errors. Also, there are characters in the opening that were too blurry to read, so I just guessed in places.

NOTE 2: The video is clearer at Affenheimtheater (link below) and so I’ve made some corrections. It’s still a rough translation, however.

(Opening story)

Private Military Corporations (Minkan Gunji Kaisha)

A new type of military organization.

Due to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the end of the Cold War the USA became the center of many nations who decreased military spending, and many of a new breed of soldier were born.

With the end of the Cold War the strength of the great nations declined and around the world terrorist activity and civil war raged, there were a number of ethnic conflicts, and the need for those with special skills rose. Soldiers who had lost their places in the great armies answered that need and sold their combat skills.

That was the beginning of the private military corporations.

(dialogue)

Botasky (Sniper): Wait! Packy, can we do this by ourselves?

Packy (w/ hat): If we don’t do it now, those two will be killed. We can coordinate by wireless. You shoot from here. I’ll flank them and go in close. Don’t worry; we can handle it.

[Packy flanks, Botasky acquires a target and fires]

Botasky: I killed him! This might work! (Trans. note: This is pretty iffy; I really have no idea what he actually said. Maybe even: “That’s a lot of blood! You heard, right?” Or maybe something completely different.)

[scene change]

Packy: You just increase the risk, so it’s better not to come.

[after Packy takes out bad guys w/ the rocket launcher, the following appears]

With such cute faces you’ll forgive them!

…

Update: The video quality is better over at Affenheimtheater.

Update 2: Oh how I wish I had titled this post “Apocalypse Meow — Bugs’ Goes Blackwater”!

Update 3: Okay, I added a bit to the translator’s note. And I took a paragraph out for a new post. So this post officially wins the award for most sliced, diced and spliced post of the month.

Update 4: New posts on this topic – why have bunnies blow terrorists away, English version manga $175, and video with English subtitles, so you can check my work.

Go on!