The Subbers in the Rye

Hello, World!

2009-01-06T00:00:00+01:00

Hello!

Still alive

2008-12-24T00:00:00+01:00

I come bringing big news.

There shall be no further Death Note-related releases from us. And that includes the specials. Meaning that they are dropped, and you can’t convince me to pick them up again.

Kuro-Hana released a H264 720p and shitty xvid of the first special, so go download that instead.
Also, there are rumors that they are going to do the second special as well. Therefore, no need to pester us about it.

Happy holidays, you bastards!

Death Note summary

2008-11-03T00:00:00+01:00

So, with our first project finished, it’s time for a tiny little summary. (And yes, we consider the series as one project, and then each special as their own project).

Without these people, this project would never have seen the light of day

Animanda — for translations up to episode 31
Kuro-Hana — translations from episode 32 to 35
Ruberia — translations for episode 36 and 37

Then, the staff from TSR that worked on the project

gorken — QC, distro, public relations (some website-posting and IRC management) and whining
pnb — everything else, plus walls of text on the website.

Finally, to all of you incredibly patient people who kept pestering and nagging for updates and releases. Without that, we would never have bothered doing this all over again. And possibly not even the first time.

Also, I just updated the scripts available here, so if some of you for some reason want the ASS-files only, they’re available in ass/dn. And going on AniDB to rate us and/or comment is also appreciated.

Release checksums

2008-11-01T00:00:00+01:00

In case you ever started wondering what the real files look like.

Episode	Sums

Failure.

2008-11-01T00:00:00+01:00

Failure. A word that describes the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, opposite of success.

Failure. A word that describes an object, person or endeavour in a state of failure or incapable of success

Failure. A word that describes the termination of the ability of an item to perform its required function.

Failure. The english language cannot describe TSR with one word any better.

Rebirth. We startet out pretty great in my opinion. Fairly regular releases. Good video quality. Some v2 and v3s, but hey, we had never before done anything like this. I have to say I am pretty proud of our releases. That was the beginning of TSR.

Frenzy. And so we managed to finish the complete Death Note series. The first group to complete the whole series in English. We were high up in the sky! When looking back it all seemed so easy. So we decided to do it all once more. But this time we wouldn’t settle for less. Ordered chapters, alpha-timing, even better quality, double quality checks and whatnot. As I said; we were really up high. That was what should have been the end of TSR’s Death Note work.

Doubt. As we started on the batch-rework we soon realized what we had done. The work morale soon disappeared, and work started to slow down. So slow that it soon stalled completely. We lost interest. Death Note was not fun anymore, and we were sick and tired of working on it. This is was the first sign of our failure.

Silence. Weeks and months passed by. Our Death Note work had as much activity as your generic american ghost town. People started to get more and more impatient and nagging in our IRC channel. After a while I just tuned it out and responded in a fairly cruel way. Unfortunately people didn’t seem to care that much about my responses and slowly I lost interest in that too. This was the death of TSR.

New World. The fight between Kira and his pursuers finally comes to an end. In the same fashion we have decided to let Death Note go. I know we promised a release in time for christmas, and I regret that we have to let you down. Death Note and TSR is taking up too much time in our lives and we are not going to have the same enthusiasm as before ever again for this project. TSR might return some time for another project but from our mood right now that doesn’t seem likely. This is the failure of TSR.

We are sorry…

…that we lied. Because we have finished the entire batch! Death Note is complete!

Torrents can be found at: NyaaTorrents
The bot in #TSR on irc.rizon.net should be updated in some time.

We hope you enjoy this full batch of Death Note. Although we didn’t enjoy the making of it so much at the end we are going to look back at the work with pride. On a side note; 1 of November 2008 is exactly one year after when we first published an episode of Death Note. A year is a long time, but rest assured, this is quality! Good night.

I have a dream!

2008-10-30T00:00:00+01:00

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration of fansubbing in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great fansubber, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, subbed the Death Note series. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of anime fans who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the batch still is not finished. One hundred years later, the life of the fans is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the fans lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the fans is still languished in the corners of fansubbing society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my fans.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the anime dream.

I have a dream that one day the magnificent series of Death Note, a series so great it can be watched over and over again, will be subbed by the subbers of TSR.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they can watch Death Note subbed in their own language; english!

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; and the slow TSR will finish their project!

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My Death Note ’tis of thee, sweet subbers of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of L’s pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if TSR is to be great fansubbers, this must become true… but not today.

Instead of focusing on actual QC, fixing and completion of our Death Note batch we have shifted focus onto our website. You may notice the new header, and we are coming closer to the look and feel we want from our site now. I guess we should soon shift focus back onto the batch and doing work on Death Note. For our regular readers you know what that means; moar delays, plz!

Regarding specials

2008-10-21T00:00:00+02:00

Now… I’ll explain it one more time, since you (I’m looking at you, suiton) seem to be too dense to understand the numerous explanations given.

Special 1 is not listed in the informational section on top of the site, since the that’s for the batch of the series. The special is not being worked on, because you’ve all been singing and dancing happily wondering when the batch would be released, and we’ve therefore focused efforts on that. Plus other things unrelated to TSR.

I would also like to point out that the header for our informational section on top of the site reads “Detailed QC-status”. Now, special 1 isn’t nearly ready for QC yet, hence, there’s no reason to list that there now, is it?

According to CD Japan, which seems reliable enough, the DVD for Special #2 is released sometime in November. We might do a release, because, as I’ve said several times before, WE DO NOT HAVE ANYONE ABLE TO TRANSLATE FROM JAPANESE TO ENGLISH FOR US. Is that clear enough? We can’t provide subtitles on our own, and therefore we depend on another group to do the translation, or finding someone who could help with the translation.

Now, the most likely event is that some other group releases their own version, and, based on the quality of that, we may, or may not, steal their translation and release our own version. Meaning that if we think their version is good enough, or better than anything we could have done, we would not release our own. I don’t care if you want to have everything from one group or not. If we can’t provide a better product, we won’t do it. Period.

I’ve also stated several times before that if we don’t say anything, nothing has changed. So since there hasn’t been any news about any of the specials, assuming the status is the same as last time isn’t such a bad idea. To summarize once more; if we haven’t told you anything, nothing has happened. We have not dropped anything simply because there hasn’t been updates.

TL;DR: We have not dropped anything. If we don’t post updates, there hasn’t been any.

Now STOP ASKING!

Also, as a final little note:
We are not actively looking for anyone to help, but send a mail to rye@eastblue.org or contact one of the operators on IRC (we live in #TSR@irc.rizon.net) if you are able to translate, and would like to help. A joint could of course also be considered. (Means less work for us, right?)

And no, suiton (and others), you do not have to recommend other groups that might be able to help, or groups you like. This is for people able to do the actual work themselves only.

Looking back

2008-10-20T00:00:00+02:00

Looking back at the old files, I can’t understand how we actually released this shit. Or how you people could actually download it, and like it.

This crap sickens me!

Wrapping up Yotsuba

2008-10-13T00:00:00+02:00

As some might have noticed, there’s been an update to our little informative header. A few more episodes have been through the QC. Episodes 18 to 25 waiting to be fixed now.

Ninjaedit: The Yotsuba mentioned in my post was just a reference to the Yotsuba Group, since the episodes just QC’d was about them. And since he’s now done with that little arc. Haven’t you guys watched Death Note at all?

Crawling forwards

2008-10-05T00:00:00+02:00

I’m now very much sick and tired of this project, and it’s time to get it away, so I can focus on other, more interesting things. Therefore, I’ve finished fixing up a few episodes, and when gorken returns, I can get the required fixes for episodes 15 and 16, and start nagging for some more.

Update: He’s back, and I’ve fixed up those episodes as well. Nagging has begun, but doesn’t seem to have an effect.

Keep watching the header to know what’s done and what remains. Can’t be bothered to type it out here as well.

The QC Marathon

2008-10-03T00:00:00+02:00

Final update to the post: Removed the summary, and moved it to the header instead. Every new update will come as a new post, so it registers as a new feed entry for those using that.

Update to the update to the update: Some progress at last. Some spare time, so I commited a few tiny changes to a few episodes. Meaning that the QC-fixups for episodes 3, 4, 6, 11 and 13 is mostly done. Also fixed up a typo in ep30.

Update to the update: Seems that this is a bit hard to understand.
WE. HAVE. NOT. DROPPED. THE. REWORK.
Better now? It’s not dropped for Christ’s sake. It’s just the usual delays and lack of interest, as we’ve already informed about plenty of times. Therefore, kindly shut your pie-holes, and wait patiently along with everyone else. It will be done, eventually.

Update: I address you tonight not as the President of the United States, not as the leader of a country, but as a citizen of humanity, the QCer of TSR. We are faced with the very gravest of challenges. The Bible calls this day “QC” – the end of all errors. For the first time in the history of the planet, a species has the technology to prevent itself from its own errors. All of you praying with us need to know that everything that can be done to prevent this disaster is being called into service. The human thirst for excellence, knowledge; every step up the ladder of science; every adventurous reach into space; all of our combined modern technologies and imaginations; even the wars that we’ve fought have provided us the tools to wage this terrible battle. Through all of the chaos that is our history; through all of the wrongs and the discord; through all of the pain and suffering; through all of our times, there is one thing that has nourished our souls, and elevated our species above its origins, and that is our courage. The dreams of an entire planet are focused tonight on that one brave QCer traveling into the heavens. And may we all, citizens the world over, see these events through. God speed, and good luck to you.

QCer will prevail!

2008-08-11 The QC Marathon is ON! 42.195 hours of QC.
As promised I will try to do a full QC batch of all the remaining episodes. Although the earlier rumors about the QC starting at 0800 turned out to be nothing but lies, I will start as soon as I have made myself a delicious breakfast and not stop until the job is done (expect severe delays in this segment of the marathon).

Bummer...

2008-09-30T00:00:00+02:00

Now I’m in the mood to do something Death Note-related. But…

I only have my Mac here, can’t get Aegisub working on it, and didn’t bring any files related to the special, so I can’t do anything on that one either.
Also, QC-tasks belong to gorken, and I can’t just try to do anything about that.
Working on ASS-files using a regular text editor is awful, and especially when changing timings, so that is also out of the question.
I don’t have too great internet, so downloading the required files is not an option.
And using BootCamp just to get this fixed is also not good. Plus my Mac would feel so dirty afterwards…

Therefore, nothing being done after all…

Making progress...

2008-07-27T00:00:00+02:00

…is not something we do. At least not lately. So I thought I’d make a little post explaining things.

First, I got a job. Full-time until school starts in about a month, and then part-time from there, which means I won’t have so much time to work on other projects, such as Death Note (which I assume is the project most of the visitors here is interested in). Now, this isn’t actually so bad, since I don’t have very much Death Note related work at the moment. We’re just waiting for some QC, and then I can start doing something again.

And that brings us to our second problem, our QCer. He too works a lot. And has a girlfriend. And other things he would rather do. So things are going slow. Got a mail from him 11 days ago with a list of fixes for the three first episodes. Which proves that things are getting done. Albeit not as quick as many of you surely hoped.

Thirdly, the report contained a funny line:
“ep02 —> 09:25: subs gone”.
I naturally assumed that somehow the timing of that one line was botched, so it didn’t show up, but as it turned out, every single line from that moment on was gone. And not just lines with zero duration or accidentally marked as being a comment, or something like that. They were gone from the file.

Now, “how could this happen?” some of you might think. As it turns out, quite easily. When I was done timing, I had to “syncronize” the styles, so that each file had the same styles, since consistency is important. Instead of opening every single file in Aegisub and copy-pasting the right styles there, I decided to write my own little tool, which, creative as always, I named ruby-subtitles. Since it’s written in Ruby, and made to alter subtitles. Ingenious, is it not?

So my library, and very untested ASS-parser got it first test on our scripts, and failed magnificently. Turns out it barfed when it encountered a comment, and silently stopped parsing the file. Which is bad, since I added a commented out line whenever the eyecatchers appeared, and so there was plenty of files with only half the subtitles present.

Luckily this doesn’t really affect anything, since we use Subversion for our scripts, and the fix was as simple as reverting back to before I commited my synchronized files, fixing ruby-subtitles, and then trying again. Only I haven’t done that last part. So our QCer is stuck with the old scripts where parts of them are only half. Until I fix it. Which will be soon. I promise.

Finally, we conclude this wall of text with another problem. And this might very well be the biggest problem of them all. We are not interested anymore. It started out fun, but I lost interest very quickly. Even before the first version was completed. And then the rework started out promising, but faded even quicker. And the QC-guy is the same. Which kind of explains why none of us really want to do any Death Note-related work after a day of full regular work.

The way I see it, we have several options:

Drop Death Note, and close down TSR until further notice, taking everything with us to the grave.
Drop Death Note, closing TSR, releasing the things we have so far.
Keep working at our current pace, doing some work whenever we feel like it (which is not very often), but eventually releasing something.
Release what we have, and keep working at our current pace, then finally releasing the completed TSR-version.

This is just me rambling. Nothing has been discussed with the rest of the staff, since he’s out real-lifing yet again. But even so, I’m the one with the final say in the matter, and I would like to hear some opinions. Which is why I enabled comments for this entry. And IRC is always acceptable as well.

Finishing up

2008-07-08T00:00:00+02:00

Just commited my the two last episodes to the repository, so the end is near. Now I’m going to eat, and then do some final checks, making sure that we use the same wording for the rules, all episodes having the right styles and things like that, and then we only have to wait for the QC to be done.

Our QCer was planning on watching several (a lot) episodes in a row, but real life intervened, and it doesn’t look like he’ll have time for that in a while, so instead, he’ll watch one or two episodes, give his report, and then do some more whenever he gets time. But don’t worry. It’ll get done, and won’t be too long now.

And again, unless we know you personally, we probably don’t want you to help QC or anything. At least not officially. If you’ve noticed some errors with the old releases, do tell, but you won’t get access to the new scripts until they’re released.

mini-FAQ

2008-07-01T00:00:00+02:00

Yes, we’re still working.
No, we’re not going to drop Death Note.
No, we haven’t dropped the special.
Yes, it will be done after the rework.
No, don’t download the old releases.
Yes, the QC takes forever.
No, it’s not my fault.
Yes, it will be finished.
Yes, we know the QC is slow.
No, we don’t want you to be our QCer.
Yes, he will be whipped if he doesn’t start soon.
No, it’s not too late to suggest changes/improvements (IRC or mail)
Yes, you may do whatever you please with our encodes, scripts, styles or any combination of them.
No, you don’t have to credit us.
Yes, you may even sell it, because no matter what we write here, if you feel like it, we can’t do anything to stop you.
Yes, I know you probably have a clever question that’s not answered here. Goto IRC

Downloads

2008-06-24T00:00:00+02:00

<takeit> how do you download from the “new” website?
<takeit> I cant find anything but the news, no links, no torrents.

Short answer: don’t.
The reason we’re doing the remake is that we’re not satisfied with the current versions, and would want everyone to download the new release when it’s ready.

But, if you insist on getting them, our unofficial xdcc-bot, [TSR]Laith, has them all. And we also have the old torrents (and the first batch that I accidentally uploaded anonymously)

I would however, suggest that everyone waits for the new releases.

IVTC...

2008-06-15T00:00:00+02:00

…sucks. That is all.

Regarding the previews

2008-06-02T00:00:00+02:00

The decision to cut previews has met some resistance. A few people actually dropped by on IRC to complain about it.

Since we’re so democratic and all, if you have any opinions, feel free to drop by our channel (#TSR) and tell us within a week as of this post (meaning before the end of 2008-06-08).

End results:
9 resisting, 6 in favor, 1 care.

Therefore. Previews stays. :/

More delays, and a new website.

2008-05-31T00:00:00+02:00

Got sick and tired of hand-typing each single line of HTML. So now I battled with Textpattern, and made it behave kind-of like I wanted to. Which means that the feed, if any of you used that, has changed URL, and you’ll need to resubscribe.

Then, for some sad (or great) news. Death Note (meaning the complete batch, and the special) will be delayed even more. The problem started when I was re-timing ep01. At the end, the preview was gone, and replaced with an error message from AviSynth, which I hadn’t noticed at all. Same with the 11 others. Meaning either cut them out from only the 12 first, or re-encode them.

And that got us talking. Who actually watches the previews at all? I know that with all the episodes I’ve seen, I’ve never, ever watched a single preview, except when I had to work on them. And since it has already aired and every episode is available, is it really a point in including them?

Additionally, when we started working on Death Note, I wanted to use ordered chapters, but our silly QCer refused. He has now changed his mind, and suddenly wanted us to release a version with them after all. That, plus the other episodes could use some tiny touches here and there made us decide to do everything over again. And to do it properly this time >_>

Update: Forgot to mention that this will be the last time we do any more Death Note-related work. I don’t care if they release a super-high-definition remastered Blu-Ray-edition or a new season or the subtitles say something completely different from the audio, or anything. After this, there will be no more updates whatsoever. This will be the final version.

TL;DR: Re-release of every episode. Ordered chapters. Rips from R2 DVD. No dual audio. Softsubbed english. Ogg Vorbis audio. Over 9000 fixes! No updates after this!

Ancient history

2008-04-04T00:00:00+02:00

Imported from the old website, in case anyone is interested in reading.

So it looks like our first project will be Death Note. A very nice anime that’s desperately needing some good and consistent subs. And we believe that we can fill that gap.

First, the translations are mainly based on Animanda’s old releases. After Animanda dropped it, we’ll use Kuro-Hana’s subtitles, and finish off with Ruberia’s version. These episodes, being from three different groups, have some issues with grammar here and there, and the consistency of names, fonts, colors and so on. Which is what we’re aiming to fix, as well as improving both video and audio significantly.

Our releases are fully softsubbed, video is delicious H.264 straight from R2DVDs, and combined with the 2.0 Vorbis-sound, we are hoping that this release is something you will keep.

2007-11-10: Some issues with the DVDraws. DTV-version of episode 7 is out.

2007-11-21: episode 7 DVD, episode 8 and episode 9 is ready.

2007-11-30: New things have been learned, and old things needs revision (already). So there will be v2s, and v3s of all episodes released so far, as soon as possible. Episode 10 and 11 is ready, and hoping to have 12 ready within a few days as well. A batch with 1-12 will then be uploaded.

2007-12-05: Passed my exam! Episode 12 is ready. Revisions are going at full speed.

2007-12-12: A few days in the hospital make releases delayed. But things are happening, although slowly

2007-12-17: First batch ready. GOGOGO! ^_

2007-12-28: Ended up in the hospital for a few more days, but this time, they could almost promise that they fixed me properly. Then, some delays because of christmas and real life and all, but finally, after some inactivity, a new release. Death Note episodes 13, 14 and 15 is ready! (And since it’s christmas and all, a torrent is also available!)

2008-01-03: First release in the new year. Wanted to release episode 19 as well, but that other lazy guy said no. So it’ll be released when 20 and 21 are ready as well. Which may take a while, since 20 has a new opening and ending, and my karaoke-skills are pretty much fail. If anyone want to time it for me, you will receive eternal glory. Anyways… episodes 16-18 is released!

2008-01-19: Another release. School has begun, so less time to do work on Death Note. But we haven’t stopped just yet! Episodes 19 to 21 is out.

2008-01-26: As expected, there’s a lot to do in school. And I have been lacking motivation for this kind of work. But fear not. Episode 22 is on its way for QC right now, and work on episode 23 has just begun. Hope to get the next three episodes (that is, 22 to 24) out next weekend, but might have to wait two weeks, depending on how much spare time I get.

2008-02-03: Another weekend. Another release. Due to various circumstances (mostly lazyness) only two episodes are ready. We’ll try to release two episodes every two weeks until we’re done. So for now, 22 and 23 is released.

2008-02-09: New episodes. Enjoy

2008-03-04: Almost a month since last release. Been busy and lazy. Will try to increase the pace. And with this, there’s only ten episodes to go. 26 and 27 is out!

2008-03-11: Hoped to have a few more episodes ready this time, but school got in the way. Luckily, there’s a whole week off now, so I hope to have some more episodes by the end of that week. Go get episodes 28 and 29 now.

2008-03-17: Quick release this time. And with this, it’s time to leave Animanda behind. Liked their releases a lot. Next episodes will be Kuro-Hana-translations, before we end it all with Ruberia-translations.

2008-04-04: A release. And what a release it will be! Here we have a grand total of six episodes. Meaning, all the remaining episodes. But don’t start burning just yet (or do so after you have consulted the list). There’s some updating to do. This will be the last update ever. After these, we won’t release updates for the updated versions unless there’s something terribly wrong with them, which, after our rigorous QC, there won’t be. A list of all episodes to be updated, and their changes will be announced shortly. If you know of something that should be fixed, drop by our IRC channel and tell one of the ops. In the meantime, please enjoy these last episodes!

If, for some reason, you should want the subtitles on their own, they can easily be extracted from the mkv. But for those few who wants these, and is unable to figure out how, they can be downloaded here. Please note that these may not be the most current versions. If in doubt, drop by on IRC and ask.