About Me/FAQ (2021)

Hi everyone. First of all, thanks to everyone who’s enjoyed my work so far, I hope you’ve had a decent experience. With the current circumstances bringing more people here recently, I figured it’s time to give introduce myself again, where I’m at now, and how I do things. This might get long so buckle in.

The WHO and WHY of IzuSubs
IzuSubs is something I started to both try my hand at subbing myself, and to answer some nagging questions I’ve had about subbing over the years. I’m sure many have experienced the common response of “just learn Japanese!”, or “do it yourself then!”, as rebuttals to gripes you may have over subbing styles, so that’s exactly what I did. To this day, IzuSubs is still a one-person venture, so I handle everything from translation to timing to editing. While it does mean my work will always be a little rough around the edges (i.e. the occasional v2/3s to fix typos and wording), it does mean that I can stay true to my direction I’ve decided.

But let it be known that my work is undeniably amateurish at heart, and what I do right now is about the limit of what I can manage on my own, doing this as a hobby. I am by no means aiming to be a professional translator, nor am I the most fluent person in Japanese you’ve ever met either.

Goals
Half the reason I started IzuSubs was because my preferred style leaned more towards literal subs, which is almost certainly less popular these days. I never really found a group that struck the happy balance I would’ve liked between the two ends of literal and liberal subs. So as far as an objective is concerned, IzuSubs has always been an on-going process of me trying to grope in the dark for that magical balance between the two. When this all first started, my work was most definitely much more literal in the way things were translated and written, but things have changed over time (hence the do-overs for some scripts in the past). I hope I’ve gotten closer to that goal, but I do also fear that I may eventually tread towards one extreme or the other as well if I don’t show the necessary restraint.

Despite that, there’s always been a couple quirks of literal subs in particular that I’ve always enjoyed (the odd untranslated proper noun and honorifics for example), such that truth be told, the old “TVN 2.0” moniker and “what you read is what you hear” motto were both red herrings mostly to see who would actually give my subs a shot, rather than dropping me immediately at face value. Do forgive me for being cheeky.

When I say “what you read is what you hear”, what I meant is that I wanted to create subtitles that deviated as little as possible from the original meaning and tone of the original dialogue, not necessarily to create a word-for-word translation. Across the years I’ve often found that subs that push too far in either direction tended to annoy me more than it probably should’ve. This commonly occurred as subs being too literal, or writing lines in a manner that I found off-tone (i.e. excessively humourous, and where my gripes with memes comes in), for example.

Why aren’t you using social media to get yourself out there more?
Consider it the older-timer soul in me if you will, but I’ve never been a fan of engaging in social media too much. Especially with the combination of the style I’m aiming for, and the irrefutably amateur nature of my work, I always intended my subs to be for a niche crowd, hence why I left it up to people to seek me out instead, and why I appreciate every single person that does stay and continue to enjoy my work. Rather than any sort of public face, I would prefer people to remember my work. This probably isn’t going to change for now, but if you do enjoy my work, please do share it with others.

Why use curse words/swear words from time to time?
I’m aware that a certain translation choice of mine has been making the rounds recently, but in my view, curse/swear words can be appropriate depending on the context, emotion and situation the dialogue occurs. For me, the character in this scene was suitably enraged, and a literal translation of “no way!” wouldn’t have matched the tone of his denial. Is it an ideal or perfect solution? Probably not. But it is what came to me at the time, and I do still stand by it. I hope that clarifies why I do use curse words in my subs from time to time.

Why are your subs so minimalist?
As stated before, IzuSubs is a one man operation. While I certainly am fascinated by, and am interested in the other aspects of fancier subs such as Karaoke, Typesetting and Transition Effects, the bare necessities for a basic subtitle release is about all I can manage on my own right now. Everything I’ve done is mostly self taught as well. If I happen to have oodles of free time to dive into those things proper in the future I’ll consider doing it, but just know that it isn’t likely.

Whatever it is, thanks for sticking around, and I hope you continue to enjoy IzuSubs for as long as I’m doing this.