Let me say it this way: I picked a useful minor at university :P
It's a labor of love, but that doesn't mean that some people put a different level of love in it. While there is no one right way of translation, there's certainly room for mistakes, especially when you just have the audio. And TV-Nihon's main problem used to be mishearing stuff. However, they never give the impression of wanting to learn from criticism, so we can be glad there's more subbers out there with a different approach.
I'm back home already, but it was certainly and amazing experience. I wish I knew when I can go back there, though. Plane tickets are expensive :/
Being that, ATM, my Japanese is at a sub-kindergarten level, I stay out of the debate over translation accuracy and quality. Being that this is all a labor of love, I'm just happy to have any at all!
Well, thanks to speaking a good chunk of Japanese these days, I'm fine with the HQ raws. But it would be cool to have newer subs with better image- and translation quality.
Thanks!
I think the major problem was really the TV Nihon subs. Though the visual side was more the problem than the actual plot. Damn, those video encodes looked awful
Blade is still one of my all time favorites, even though it's really, really depressing. I though about writing more essays, but I didn't find the time so far.
Liked your essay on the early episodes of Blade. Personally, I was never confused but, I'm glad everyone was able to overcome that and recognize it as the major Heisei Rider (always at battle with Ryuki and Gaim for this distinction in my head)!