tomas_room2

(credit: http://stock-by-kai.deviantart.com/art/Sunflower-on-blue-sky-66874305)

(sorry about the lines in between the paragraphs, but i have 2 add it cuz stupid LJ doesn't save the spaces i put in from my draft on notepad)

i finished it yesterday!! =) though it was kind of weird because i watched it backwards. episode 10, then 8, 9, and then after a long while, i got to watch ep.7 yesterday. haha...

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this was because i agreed to help TFGirls last month. i was asked to check the grammar for episode 10's subs, but they weren't sure about 8 and 9 either, so i decided to do all of it!

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well, i don't have a lot to say about the drama, actually. umm...i did feel that things got a little more interesting and exciting, starting from episode 8. it was nice to see everyone dealing with their problems straight on instead of just being gloomy and lost.

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like i said before...i don't like this drama. it's just more boring and sad than inspiring and positive to me. but i think for the last few episodes, i was finally able to "connect" with the characters and empathize with them. their friendships, their troubles...how they help each other overcome their fears and figure out what they want in life. (and i don't know why i didn't think of it sooner, but toma's character, joutaro, is a lot like his character, takemoto in Honey and Clover!!)

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i also started to really like the mr. children song that they use a lot (the instrumental, too). now i understand why toma was saying he was crying after he listened to the song! it's such a beautiful song... *__* if you like it too, i want to share some links i found with you.

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http://www.languagebymusic.com/2012/10/mrchildren-joutoku-lyrics-english.html

i didn't pay attention to the lyrics before, but it's actually quite nice and sweet!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxF8h7GVN0s

Mr.Children 常套句の (joutoku) PV

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCE66cMsibo

a fan's piano version

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below are screencaps of cute toma moments

or scenes that i liked from each episode, 7-10. ^_^

episode 7

episode 8

episode 9

episode 9's beautiful scenery

episode 10

---------------------------------- about correcting the grammar for the subs:

(MY NAME IN THE CREDITS!!!! SO COOL TO SEE IT THERE!! *_*)

(this is how it looked like when i was editing the softsubs using aegisub!)

wow...it was the first time i was involved in the process of subbing toma's drama, so i was excited and honored! but it took a longgg time. lol. around 4 hours for each episode. but i'm sure translating, timing, etc. takes so much longer, so i am just so grateful to the people who completed those steps before me! thanks for your hard work, everyone!! the amount of work and time it takes to sub one episode...they are really devoted fans, the people who are on subbing teams.

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well, actually episode 10 was just a word file and i had to look at the text and play the video at the same time. it was frustrating because about 70% of it was wrong (episodes 8 and 9 were not as bad, but for some reason took me around the same amount of time to correct?!!) and i kept having to stop and correct the mistakes. thank goodness there were some words that i actually knew what it means, like "yokatta", "bezuni", or "otsukaresama", so when those words came up, i could actually know for sure what it should be in english. but a lot of the time, something wasn't worded right, and i had to fix it, but i tried to word it close to how it was, to avoid changing the meaning too much.

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at times, i really wish i understood japanese, because i was afraid what i THINK they are saying might be wrong and i hate to change the meaning of the script. it was really tricky! i had to look up words often too, to find similar words that would be more appropriate. but sometimes i had to change it to a completely different word that made more sense.

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then again, sometimes i just had no idea what they are saying. i know the translation doesn't make sense, but i just had give up and leave it like that. one of those times was when joutaro finished helping on the rice field for that day and he was saying he's leaving, and the old man said "i'm saved". i couldn't think of how to make it make sense, so i left it like that. but now when i think back, maybe he was saying something like "thank goodness" or "i'm relieved" or something??? i guess it's not that important anyway, but it stuck in my mind. lol.

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at least that part was not important, but i had a big problem when there were 2 important scenes that used the same phrase, that i thought sounded really weird. in episode 10, both joutaro and kayori talked about following their dream. and what they originally said is "my dream is mine." that is both repetitive and sounds weird. xD and i had to think about it for a while. finally i decided to change it to "this is my dream". i am still not sure if that is right, but i guess it is pretty close to what they said in japanese...i hope?? it can't mean that they've reached their dreams, because they're still trying to work towards it, right??

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i also had trouble with the end of episode 10. when they say they miss each other. i wasn't sure to use the present tense "i miss you" or the past tense "i missed you". IT'S SUCH AN IMPORTANT MOMENT!! but then i finally decided that the present tense seems better, and in the opening song, it's "i miss you", after all.

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so...i used aegisub for the first time ever to edit the softsubs of episodes 8 and 9. luckily it was easy to use and i figured out how to use it pretty fast. it was really cool to see the subtitle change on the video immediately after i changed it!! and it felt a little strange that i was able to control what toma was saying!! haha. it's a weird feeling to have that kind of power, if that makes any sense. like, i was literally putting words in his mouth...speaking for him in a way.

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well, i am just writing about my experience and maybe just want some people to know about and appreciate the work i did. i don't mean to brag or anything, what i did was just quality check. the translators are the people who did the real hard work. the time i spent on it is nothing compared to the work they did. but all in all, it was an interesting and challenging experience, and i'm glad i was able to do it and help out with the process in order for toma fans to be able to watch the last few episodes of his drama! i'm not sure if i want to do it again in the future, though. lol. it's hard work...

(except 1 scary moment was that the dreaded blue (error) screen showed up once while i was using aegisub and it FREAKED. ME. OUT. i guess it had something to do with a memory problem, since aegisub did something like load the audio of the video into the ram or something each time i opened the video?? i don't know. luckily it only happend once. whew...)