I wish someone competent was subbing Touch. There are two groups, “Crossfade” and “Genbu & Meisei”, and neither of them is particularly good.
There was one really embarrassing moment in the Genbu/Meisei sub of episode 16–embarrassing for me, watching, because it’s such a stupid mistake on the part of the fansubbers. Minami has caught a cold/flu, so Tatsuya brings her some lemons (apparently lemons make you well? I don’t know). Minami says, 「レモンじゃない！」 (“remon ja nai!“) . Genbu/Meisei translated it as, “These aren’t lemons!”
Now, technically, that is what she said. “ja nai” is a way of saying “is not”. But this structure is common in feminine speech (slang, if you will) for adding emphasis to a statement without being direct. It’s akin to saying, “Aren’t those lemons?” or “Those are lemons, aren’t they!” In other words, it’s a rhetorical question whose answer is patently obvious. (Men use this structure too, but they tend to say “jan” instead of “ja nai“, from what I’ve noticed. For example, when someone impresses him in tennis, Ryoma might say, “yaru jan“. I think we can assume here that the “yaru” means “to play [a game/sport]”; most of the time Anime-Otakus [who I highly respect as fansubbers] translate it as “not bad”.)
Given that the phrase can technically mean (with different intonation) “These aren’t lemons,” the phrase Tatsuya says next, which Genbu/Meisei translated as “What, do they look like pumpkins to you?” makes sense…but Minami’s line doesn’t, because they are obviously lemons. Meanwhile, Crossfade, which had Minami say, “Lemons!”, didn’t bother translating Tatsuya’s line at all. It looks like rather than taking the time to do it right, both fansub groups conveniently omitted things that made the conversation complicated.
On the whole, I guess I would trust Genbu/Meisei over Crossfade, though. From the easy stuff Crossfade’s getting wrong–“ice milk” as “ice cream”? “Straight” as “strike”?–I have to wonder how much of the story I’m missing. I may as well be watching it raw. Don’t even get me started on how the umpire is somehow the “crossbreeder”(!). Unfortunately, Genbu/Meisei seem to have stopped at 16, while Crossfade is up to episode 22.
The story is one of those wacky love triangles–this time involving two twin brothers and their next-door neighbor–but it’s serious, too. I really enjoy it, despite the horrid subbing. I doubt it will ever be licensed, because it, like other quality shows–Miyuki, Yawara–is pretty old. The animation is outdated and not flashy enough for today’s core anime crowd. Plus, there are no giant robots, and the T&A is pretty tame (gee, a girl in a leotard–and her body is actually human proportions, too). Good story isn’t enough to get something released in the US…yet.
And so that’s why I want someone else to fansub it. Or for Genbu/Meisei to catch up–because at least they use a nice big font that I can actually read. I was trying to screencap some of the latest Crossfade release to demonstrate how terrible it is, but unfortunately I can’t seem to do so. Just believe me when I say that they picked the most swirly, serif font they possibly could, and then made it about three pixels high ;P