FAQ

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Thanks for filling out the survey! Since we received many questions, we’ve compiled the most commonly asked ones in a FAQ here for you all!

 

How do I torrent?

 

Your files are too big!

  • We strive to strike a good balance between quality and file size. Given that the original files on the BD may be up to several hundred GBs in size, our current releases is probably the furthest we would like to go without unacceptably reducing the quality of the source video
    • Some groups release re-encodes of our releases into lower resolutions like 720p. Perhaps you could check those out if file size is an issue, though we are unfortunately unable to vouch for the quality of these re-encodes

 

Will you upload subtitle-only files again?

  • Yes! Sorry for the delay. Check our website, and do let us know if any of our releases are still missing the subtitle-only files!

 

My computer lags when playing your videos!

  • This might be because the typesetting effects that we use to make the signs look pretty might be a bit too much for your computer to handle. However, most modern computers should be able to handle our releases just fine
  • If possible, try switching to mpv, or upgrading your CPU

 

Some of your subtitles are difficult to read/decipher because of the color scheme used

  • We’ll gladly take suggestions on possible style changes to improve on this aspect. We do want to assign a unique color for each seiyuu as much as possible, but as you probably already know, this is getting much harder now that there are more than thirty colors to watch out for!

 

I like your karaoke effects (KFX), can you add more in?

  • For anime releases, we’ll keep it to just the OP/ED or any previously-released songs, (like HOT PASSION!! in episode 7) in order to strike a good balance between having a relatively short time to release and quality (KFX is hard work!)
  • We’ll try to add it into the (eventual) BD release, but no guarantees since it depends on whether we are able to find something that looks good and fits the song
  • For concert releases, we’re probably not going to do anything too fancy, since it can be a little too distracting against the backdrop of the seiyuu performing

 

Would ONIBE ever be interested in coordinating or compiling translated content for Love Live! created by the community at large?

  • This is actually much more difficult than it sounds, and there are many, many people who have tried only to have such lists be abandoned
  • For one, it takes quite a bit of work to even know which people/groups are translating Love Live! content in the first place, especially now that the Love Live! umbrella encompasses so many projects
  • Digging up work from the distant past is also very difficult. Due to legal complications, it is difficult for us (or any other creator) to post their work in any convenient or visible place (e.g. YouTube) without having to watch out for takedowns. Many a translator have had their entire channels banned for copyright infringement, and tracking down the content that used to be there is challenging, to say the least
  • The fact that many in the team already know Japanese to various extents is also one reason why we probably aren’t the best people for the job. Many of us don’t even watch subtitled videos, so we might not be the best people to ask…
  • Due to the various challenges above, this probably isn’t a project that we will pursue. You’re certainly welcome to take up the job, though!
  • All of our major releases should be on our website, and various minor releases can be found on our Twitter account. Do let us know if you spot anything that’s missing/broken, though unfortunately we don’t have any guarantees that we’ll be able to fix them either.

 

Do you know of any places to find/access old streams and videos from the old μ’s and Aqours days?

  • The cat site might have compilations that people gathered and uploaded as torrents, so perhaps try looking at that?

 

Is it hard to translate so many lives, anime episodes and such?

  • Of course it is! But it does get a little easier the more you do it.
  • Anime episodes probably take about 25-30 man-hours per episode based on the current team, and lives definitely take many, many more man-hours, potentially in the hundreds!
  • Fun fact: Our release for Hajimari wa Minna no Sora, while being only an hour in length, managed to generate a quality check (QC) document more than 30 pages long!

 

How do you actually translate an anime episode/a live? What tools do you use, and what’s the rough process?

Here are some guides that may be useful if you would like to learn more:

 

That sounds like a lot of work. Why does ONIBE do all this for free?

  • In the simplest words possible, all of us love Love Live! enough that we’d also love for as many people to be able to love it even more as well.

 

When will <insert project here> be released?

  • As you might have noticed, our team has shrunk over the years (just take a look at the credits section for our Aqours 2L release!), due to members naturally moving on from the Love Live! series and various other personal factors
  • Even our currently-active team has mostly moved to a different stage in life after being here for more than five years. While many of us used to be students with ample amounts of free time, almost all of us have since graduated and are now working, which comes with all the usual adulting responsibilities
  • Also, with how big the Love Live! series has grown over the years, the list of potential things we could be working on is also growing longer and longer. Gone are the days where we could cover almost every major release from the series with a small team!
  • Another unfortunate truth is that many of us simply enjoy content from certain parts of the series more than others. Some aspects of the series may resonate more with some of us, while others, not as much (I’m sure all of you have your own favorite characters/seiyuu/projects as well!)
  • ONIBE is mostly a passion project for most of us. We aren’t paid to do this, nor are we expecting to be paid, but it is simply difficult to find the time to motivation to work on projects that we’re not deeply invested in, especially because one of our key guiding principles is to release the best work possible if we are to work on a project
  • So yes, while we do indeed have some projects currently underway, we unfortunately have no concrete timeline on when they’ll be finished. There’s also a chance that we may never get to the thing that you’re looking forward to seeing, but there simply isn’t much we can do about it

 

How do I join the team? I just want to help out!

  • There’s actually a ton of things you could do without formally joining us! In fact, Team ONIBE was originally just a group of fan-translators each doing our own thing on our blogs or channels and only got together occasionally for big projects like concert subtitles
  • If you’re confident in your Japanese abilities, some good places to start may be:
    • Magazine/Online interviews
    • Magazine features (Love Live! Days, Dengeki Gs, etc.)
    • Voice dramas/drama CDs
    • Niconamas/Niconama clips
    • BD bonus footage (Tekuteku Aqours, Yu Sanpo, Liella! Doko Iku?, etc.)
    • Or anything you really want to share with the Love Live! community!
    • Smaller projects like these can feasibly be done even by just one person and will probably give you a pretty good idea and feel of what it’s like to be a fan-translator (not to mention many of the challenges involved in what we do!)
    • If you need help with some aspects, just talk to anyone from the team on Twitter/Discord or email us and we’ll be glad to help! Things we may be able to help with include:
      • Procurement of raw videos/video encoding
      • Translation checking (TLC)/Quality checking (QC)
      • Advice on how to more effectively use tools (e.g. Aegisub, etc.)
    • Otherwise, feel free to let us know about what you’ve already done! If we really like your work, we might just broadcast your work on our social media platforms!

 

But I really want to join Team ONIBE…

  • For every role, you are much more likely to be considered if you already have some work that you can show us!
  • Here’s some more details on roles we’d like to fill:
    • Translator
      • This is usually the bottleneck for most projects, since nothing can start without first having a translated script
      • Some major projects that we aren’t currently actively pursuing mainly due to a lack of translators include:
        • Aqours subunit lives
        • Love Live! Fest!
        • Nijigasaki subunit lives/fan meetings
      • Given that translation quality is a major focus of Team ONIBE, as a general rule, you should be:
        • Japanese: At least N3 or equivalent
        • English: Native/Near-native
      • It would be nice if you knew how to time using Aegisub
    • Quality check/Editor
      • Basically, your job is to make whatever the translators are producing sound more like proper English
      • You should be a native English speaker
      • Though not necessary, it might be helpful if you could understand a little Japanese
      • Since it might be a little difficult to show previous work for this role (of course, we’d love to see it if you do have something to show!), if you’re interested in applying, we may be able to provide you with some unedited work for you to edit to demonstrate your abilities
    • Typesetter
      • Basically, your job is to take the Japanese text that appears in an image/video and replace/augment it with English text
      • For video releases, we exclusively soft-sub (i.e. we do not modify the original video file, and turning off the subtitles should reveal the original, unmodified video). This generally excludes doing anything to the video in video-editing software, and all effects must be done in Aegisub
      • Ideally, you already have experience with typesetting in Aegisub. Otherwise, you should have experience with work of a similar nature and be willing to learn (often from fragmented sources) on how to typeset using Aegisub and the various community-maintained tools for Aegisub
    • Karaoke effects creator
      • Basically, your job is to make nice-looking effects that go on top of the song subtitles in our releases
      • Ideally, you already know how to do this using Aegisub and can show some examples of your work
      • Programming knowledge (e.g. in Lua/Python) would be helpful for this role
    • Here’s some roles that we probably aren’t looking for at this point in time:
      • Timers
        • We usually prefer timers who can also serve as translators because in live concerts, the seiyuu talk over each other a lot of the time and it becomes rather difficult for a dedicated timer (who may not know Japanese) to tell who is saying what. It’s also hard for a dedicated timer to fill in lines that were missing during the translation pass
      • Translation checker
        • At the moment, we probably don’t need dedicated translation checkers, since they’re usually not the bottleneck and our translators usually just cross-check each other’s translations
        • If you are interested in this role, you should probably apply to be a translator!
    • Here’s our recruitment form: https://forms.gle/NoaMeFcPcpAj77sG9

 

I just want to throw money at you. Do you guys have a Ko-fi, Patreon or something similar?

 

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