tvnihon is down, possibly gone.
 

last night i checked the site and found it down, thinking they may have been upgrading i didn't think much of it. but it's still down this morning. usually i wouldn't worry so much about it but with the recent happenings i fear for the worse. anyone know whats going on, have i lost my best source for sentai and kamen rider. and what perfect timing too with the finals for dairanger and gokaiger due out this week.

No need to panic, according to their twitter, @tvnihon they are just having server issues and are working on it.

well thats a relief, although after that "No one in Japan gives a Sh*t what we do" post it would be hilarious on a very dark and depressing level.

I think the days of DDL are going to be okay again ... with FileServe going back to how it used to be I don't think anyone cares.

MegaUpload just pissed off the RIAA by preparing to offer an alternative for music downloading.

I'm sure I read Toei know about TVNihon, and the only time they asked for them to take something down was when Kamen Rider The First got a US DVD release. I don't think it's going away any time soon.

thank the gods, not only would i be pissed if i didn't get to see how gokaiger ended, i would be super pissed if i didn't get to see gobuster. but i don't think toei would have anything to do with tvn's death would it happen, that would probably come from the gungho DOJ.

I think we can relax a bit. The Megaupload takedown was among the scariest, most tension-inducing moments in DDL history, but now all that media frenzy is gone and the status quo has sort of returned with alternatives. It's just a scare phase.

From the TV-Nihon Twitter feed:

that would stink, but at least this time it's just a server issue, Back when Gundam Seed was airing in Japan, Bandai announced it was licensed for US distribution with TWO episodes left, finding a group willing to sub those 2 episodes was a pain because Bandai immediately went after each group and making them pull their subs.

This exactly. The doom and gloom was just unfounded panic.

When isn't doom and gloom unfounded panic :lol?

Quote of the day!

It's up. You may have to clear your browser cache to see the torrent page.

no offense man but theyres other sub groups than TVN, most of which get there stuff out weeks before TVN ever does

hell HON finished Dairanger before TVN did and they were behind by quite a bit

The two groups that worked together to release Dairanger complete proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that if you focus on:

1. Translation
2. Editing
3. Quality Control

You can get a superior sub out. With out wasting time on useless effects, typesetting, and gaudy karaoke... Dairanger was released in a very timely manor.

your right, but the TV-N company line is as always "If they're out faster than us...it's a speed sub and therefore no where near accurate"

The thing is that TV-Nihon seems to sell more than just subs, they sell the presentation as well. TVN has this consistent quality about their subs that make them fit nicely with each other. Their releases are nicely packaged and convenient, and form a large library with all their other series. In that sense, it appeals to the "collector" who likes keeping neat libraries of their subs.

TVN's somewhat OCD approach has also kept their subs more error-free. Less spelling errors or English grammatical problems (though their earlier ones like Magiranger were quite problematic), and Version 2 releases to fix problems are appreciated.

TVN isn't perfect though, for some bizarre reason video encoding quality has escaped their scrutiny. I often see issues with significant framerate drops at certain points in their episodes.

Thus, TVN is a respectable subber that is rather prolific in Toku subbing and in my opinion, their only true rival is Over-Time. Lately though, Over-Time has become my main subber while I download TVN subs for keeping. Over-Time also has superior video encoding and faster releases. If Over-Time proves good enough I may dispense with TVN in the future for current releases. Time will tell.

To be fair, HON and Hikari Senshi seemed to just released the whole thing at once rather than do it on a semi-regular basis. They were probably never THAT behind TV Nihon.

I'll just leave this right here:

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/6151/tvnthreadfuck.jpg

Well, even with those problems, none of the other subbers address the same issues except some like Over-Time. What I'm trying to say is that right now there are very few subbers that are as stable and prolific as TV-Nihon. When you follow other subbers for current releases, you have this dread that one day they'll drop it in the face of competition. TV-Nihon just seems like that reliable route for now.

Make no mistake, I want to see more subbers on scene, but I just have very little faith in them aside from Over-Time. Even with Over-Time, we weren't sure if they were going to do Go-Busters or not. When people asked "Who's subbing Go-Busters?" a lot of the replies were "Definitely TV-Nihon, but I think Over-Time will do it too. They haven't decided yet."

You seem to be really angry with TV-Nihon, and I'm not sure why. I'm not defending TV-Nihon, heck I don't even use them as much as I used to anymore (Over-time is my main subber now). I'm just justifying why I still rely on TVN for subs and why I feel they're relatively reliable.

Perhaps if you want other people to try other subbers, you could post in threads like this to give us your opinion on which subbers have good translations, good encoding, etc. Inform the public like me.

I won't deny that TV-Nihon need to translate more things in their subs, but arguably some groups should translate less. I had a flick through HON's Dairanger to see if I preferred it over Nihon's, and was instantly put off by the fact Ryuusei-Oh was translated as "Dragon Star King" or whatever.

Okay I get that its Japanese, but at the same time it packs far more of a punch than the English translation. Gurren Lagann probably wouldn't have been as exciting if everyone had been calling it "Crimson Face" all the way through.

But it all comes down to preference. The magic of softsubs is that if you don't like something you can just edit it yourself, and TV-N should really embrace that. Its true that the viewer shouldn't HAVE to edit the subs themselves, but its nice to have the option. Its better have the choice of two kinds of subtitles than just being stuck with the one :)

Don't take this as me attacking your opinion because I'm not, but that part about things sounding better in Japanese.. That IMO is what is holding back subbing. People think that the Japanese language is some how cooler because their favorite shows are in Japanese. The Japanese language is just another language. I mean a lot of us rag on Engrish that the Japanese use in their shows. They think that Engrish sounds cooler, so they use it.

I don't think it has anything to do with being exciting. I think it has to do with how you and others view and hear the Japanese language. Again it comes back to your favorite shows are Japanese, so the Japanese words sound cooler. The problem with that is that translations should be done in order to have a person with ZERO knowledge of the source language, to understand what is being said. "You coffee-tach-sama's with your kisama one sans" doesn't sound cool to me. It's just gibberish. Yeah I know what the Japanese language is, but I should have to pause the show to look up what some random words are that a translator was either to lazy to translate or didn't have the Japanese language knowledge to translate in the first place.

If people enjoy half done translations with gaudy karaoke and giant spinning colored letters.. that's great. What ever makes you happy. But IMO, that kind of subbing does a disservice to the shows that we are trying to watch. It becomes more about typesetters showing off and so called translators trying to show how SUPER COOL Japanese words are.. Rather than the show itself.

I am really glad the days of anime sub groups having giant group name logos plastered over the shows title.. Well I am glad the majority of anime groups have stopped doing that. Those logo's t-n puts at the start of each show are, IMO, insulting. T-N shouldn't be the focus of those shows. The show, the shows actors, producers etc should be the focus.

And one last thing. I tend to agree with you that the viewer shouldn't have to edit a script, but neither should a viewer be forced into pausing a show to look up words that were not translated.

Maybe if I'd started watching these earlier I'd have experienced TVN's problems with not translating words that really should be and be on your side wholeheartedly. But I'm not.

I do agree, though, that the examples you gave present a good argument. All they really do anymore is keep honorifics, which I'm just used to from anime and manga. Yes, that's a complacancy you probably don't agree with, but you'll have to deal with it.

But what I can't stand is changing a proper noun - a name of anything is its name no matter where you are. If a sub group changes a mecha's name or god forbid a person's name in their subs ("Brotou"...), they are doing something very wrong. And that's one of the main reasons I don't like some of the other random subs I've looked at in the past year or so I've been actively watching Sentai and Kamen Rider.

T-N does a lot more than simply keep honorifics. Tachi is not an honorific. "mou" is also something that has 90000 ways it can be translated. I agree about brotou. I thought that was pretty damn stupid. I also agree about a persons name, but I am fine with translating mecha names, group names, and words like kamen and sentai.,

Not at all, in fact I was interested to hear your opinion on it :) I completely agree with you on issues like "tach-sama" etc, but like I said there's something about translating a mecha name that just doesn't sit right with me. How is something like "Ryuusei-Oh" any different from something like "Gurren Lagann" (sorry that's the only example I'm using, I can't think of any others off the top of my head right now :lol)?

Couldn't agree with you more on all accounts there. Karaoke subs are stupid, and fansubbers that plaster their name all over their work are arrogant.

Don't get me wrong. For a long time, even now at times, I love the sound of an attack yelled in Japanese. When I first heard Ohred scream CHORIKI HENSHIN.. Well you can imagine how damn excited I was. I was very pleased many years later to learn what he said. The English Translation.

TV Nihon isn't just trying to translate they're also trying to teach the japanese language and culture.

Eh. I don't mind the karaoke on the TVH subs I have watched (Boukenger and Gokaiger) because so far in what I have seen its limited to the Romanized Japanese text during the opening and closing credits. And then they have the translation on the bottom so it's all good. And when they don't translate a Japanese name of an attack or proper noun in the main subtitle track, they typically put it on the top (this has been true of several characters from Dark Shadow in Boukenger as well as several attacks in Gokaiger). So I don't sweat either of those techniques.

The stuff like sama and mou and the rest is annoying, though. Just translate it. But I am getting the sub for free, so I really can't complain too loudly. I don't mind the title splash or putting their names in the credits, because honestly I don't find it overly intrusive and the subbers deserve some recognition for their work. At least that's the thoughts of a lifelong tokusatsu fan who knows no Japanese besides a few trivial words and the names of dozens of monsters. :D

The "I get it for free so I can't say much" thing I don't agree with. Just because it's free, doesn't excuse lazy, sloppy, or bad work.

The subbers shouldn't be getting the kind of recognition t-n wants for their work. The subs should be about the show and the show only. Yeah this is my opinion, but it is one shared by a great many people. T-N puts their own names on the credits, but they don't bother translating the Japanese credits of the ACTUAL people that did the show in the first place?

While it is extremely ridiculous for TVN to credit themselves, at the same time, I could care less about the people who actually did the show :( Nihon shouldn't pat themselves on the back with their own names in credit sequences. We know whose doing the subbing so we don't need a reminder with every episode. But honestly I don't need the actual credits translated either. Those names honestly don't mean much to me and whoever the people are that are credited won't change my opinion of the show in general or the episode in question. That's of course all personal preference. I'm sure there are plenty of people who would appreciate that bit to be translated but for me it isn't necessary.

Thing is, I don't think they do sloppy, lazy, or bad work. If they did, I would find another source. But their subs are readily available, generally well done, and allow me to see these shows, all of which I appreciate.

As far as recognition, I can't name a single person involved with T-N. So if recognition is the goal, they aren't getting it from me.

My attitude is that through the efforts of T-N and other subbing groups, I get to see the tokusatsu shows which I otherwise would have no way of seeing with any sort of English translation. If that means they want to put their names in the credits that, to me, is worth the price of admission.

I don't think something like "Brotou" is really wrong, they're just writing around honorifics, rather than saying "$#%* it, can't be translated." and leaving them in.

I don't know, the name "Takenoko" is pretty deeply engrained into my mind now. I guess a few hundred episodes does that to you. Couldn't agree more with that last bit, though, as long I'm can get the gist of the show, a sub-group can have whatever quirks they want.

I will never understand that "As long as I get the gist of the show I am happy". That's the same kind of mentality I see when people say how great HK's are, the stuff made up from RRR, and the CSC releases.

How do you watch tokusatsu? I'm curious to hear the answer.

I've been watching toku since before there really was a toku fandom online. I've watched it raw for years. I also watch it subbed now. I only bother to watch a series subbed if it's one I really loved. Most sentai i've seen before, so unless it's a sentai I really love I just pass. Some of the ones I am damn glad to see subbed are Dairanger, Sun Vulcan, and Changeman. I hear changeman is getting a better sub.

If you meant more in general. I watch toku on a tv.

Well, I can relate. I watched a lot of tokusatsu raw for many years before subs became more common. If you searched hard enough online you could find raw stuff, but it would require watching along with a guide (like the old Jill's Super Sentai Site or the like) in order to make sense of a lot of it.

This was exponentially worse with daikaiju movies, since Toho's theatrical efforts tend to have a lot more plot than an episode of Ultraman, Kamen Rider, or the Super Sentai, heh.

In the end it always comes down to personal preference. I'd prefer to watch a tokusatsu movie or tv show with a quality set of subtitles, but if I can't get that I am willing to go with a HK sub (for years my copy of Godzilla vs King Ghidorah was a HK sub) or raw. (Dubbing is a whole other issue which I won't get into now.) I generally like the subbing jobs I have seen from T-N but I am not married to them; I'll try other outfits to see how I like their work. But at the end of the day we're all tokusatsu fans, however we consume it. And that's the important part -- the entree, not the utensils.