EDIT: If the font for episode 6 looks weird, use this patch
MegaAnon:
This project has been a goal of mine for quite some time. It all started one boring summer day in 2011. I was watching episode 7 of Megaranger, and I was getting quite frustrated at the quality of the subtitles. The breaking point came when the monster of the week was subtitled as HachiNejire with a little sign at the top of the screen telling me that Hachi was Japanese for Bee. It was then that I desperately hoped someone would fix up the subtitles for Megaranger, and a few moments later I decided to do it myself. A little over a year and a half later I had scrubbed 23 episodes of Megaranger. Along the way I learned a lot about subtitling, and the Sentai fandom as a whole. Because of Megaranger I’ve gotten to do a lot of really fun things, and talk to a lot of great people. So you can probably imagine that this is a very special show to me. Zyuranger might have been the first Sentai I ever saw, but Megaranger holds the honor of being the first show I ever subbed. It means just as much to me as Zyuranger does, and I hold it very close to my heart. I’ve come along way since that boring summer afternoon, and it’s all thanks to this show. But you guys don’t care about that, you wanna hear all about Megaranger!
In 1997 Denji Sentai Megaranger aired as the 21st entry in the Super Sentai Series. It was about 5 high school students who turn into characters from a popular arcade game. They fought against the twisted Nezirezia using their new powers, all while juggling school life, and being superheroes. It was an interesting premise, and the high school thing hadn’t been done since Turboranger in 1989. But Megaranger has this spark that sets it apart from other Super Sentai. There’s something about it that makes it really unique and enjoyable. I can’t really say what it is myself, but I hope you all enjoy this show, and find that spark for yourself. You’re gonna laugh, cry, and laugh again. Megaranger is just that good.
Compared to my older work not a lot of terms and names have changed. If they have it’s simply the spelling. The biggest changes to this release is the title which is now translated as Electronics Squad Megaranger, as opposed to Electromagnetic Sentai Megaranger, which was actually something I just swiped from wikipedia. The other big change is the Opening and Ending songs. We decided as a group that subbing each episode in the “classic style” would be a fun, and interesting, way to do things. Basically this means that every other episode will feature the translated English lyrics, and the other episodes will feature the romaji lyrics. Kinda weird, but it’s fun. If you’ve already watched my old scrub then we’ve thrown in episode 24 just for you!
Thanks to Kou, Lynxara, and Alkaid for taking on this project. I really couldn’t think of a better team of people to work with. This show has very much become a part of me. I think about it way too much, and I can’t imagine going back to those boring summer days when I knew nothing about subbing. I’ve personally talked about Megaranger’s first 20 or so episodes more times than I can count, and I’m really drawing a blank about what else to write here; so I’ll end this by saying that if I had to describe Megaranger in one word, I’d say that it’s just “MEGA”. I’ve hyped up this show like crazy and I really hope I haven’t over hyped it for you. There’s 27 episodes left so let’s all hop on our Cyber Sliders and make it a Mega ride!
Lynxara:
When I was deep enough in Sentai fandom to keep track of which shows were on the air, Megaranger was the show currently airing. They say that most people develop a special attachment to their first series in a fandom, and maybe that’s true. I’ve always been especially fond of Megaranger, before I even knew that there was anything noteworthy about the show.
Megaranger is often described as the “video game Sentai,” and that’s true to a point. There are many video game references in Megaranger. But video games don’t encompass everything Megaranger is talking about. In a broad sense, Megaranger is a show about advancing technology, and the consumer electronics explosion that occurred in the mid-90s. For Japan, video games were a huge part of that. But so were cell phones, the earliest HDTVs, digital cameras, hand-held camcorders, and the potential of satellite-based technologies.
Writing from this point in time, in the year 2013, it’s easy to take this stuff for granted. Every smartphone includes a digital camera, now, and can talk to GPS. In fact, the smartphone I own now is in every conceivable way a better computer than the pricy PC I used back in 1997. So is the smart HDTV that sits in my living room.
But I also think that makes Megaranger special. In a lot of ways, Megaranger was a show about the future, but the future it looked toward wasn’t a far-off sci-fi dream, as in Timeranger. The future Megaranger looked forward to was the world we live in right now, almost 20 years later. In Megaranger, you see a dream that in many ways has come to fruition in our own time. Megaranger, in its way, is the past dreaming about the world we live in right now.
Perhaps as a consequence of Megaranger, I like my Sentai to be forward-looking and optimistic. The future looked terrifying and uncertain in 1997, and many worried that the children of the day were inheriting a world that was beyond saving. Megaranger defied such cynical thinking, and showed teenagers becoming heroes who could save the world with the power of ever-advancing technology.
It’s not 1997 anymore, but Megaranger’s message is still a good one, and the show is still extremely enjoyable. The characters are likable, the action is plentiful and well-done, and there’s no shortage of classic Sentai goofiness. With this release, we hope to bring Megaranger into the future that is now, for a new generation of fans to enjoy.
KouAidou:
Unlike my colleagues in the group, I don’t have a long and deep connection with Megaranger. Like Carranger, it’s a series that I get to discover as I translate it. Fortunately, so far, I’m very happy with what I’ve seen. If this is your first time watching through the series, I hope you’re up for some classic Super Robot storytelling. amazing suit acting, and one of the greatest mentors in Sentai history (well, he’s my favorite, anyway!)
You can also look forward to seeing Sentai’s move to the morning timeslot and return to the 25 minute format not seen since Dynaman, starting with episode 8.
In addition, as you watch the show, I hope you’ll spare a thought for the show’s head director, long-time Sentai veteran Nagaishi Takao, whose name you’ll see in a bit over 1/3 of the episodes released in this batch. Mr. Nagaishi passed away this year from Parkinson’s Disease, but his legacy — which spans nearly the entire existence of Tokusatsu as we know it, beginning with the original Kamen Rider in 1971 — will never be forgotten.
Alkaid:
It was back in 2011 when I first learned of MegaAnon’s scrub project of Megaranger. I had actually been learning a bit more about scrubbing myself and this was the perfect opportunity to work alongside another subber. Megaranger wasn’t my first sentai or my first ever project but it did have another first for me. It’s not necessarily a secret that I happen to have an ability much like Akiba Yellow’s; the ability to easily recognize seiyuu. And it’s also not a secret that probably one of my favorite seiyuu happened to get his start on this very show. But, luckily for me, my enjoyment of Megaranger is expanding far beyond just ‘Ah, I know that voice!’
Of course, time goes by and the original scrub by MegaAnon expanded and we now arrive at today and 24 episodes of Megaranger. 24 funny, serious, amusing and all-around great episodes of Megaranger. From the first formation of Galaxy Mega to the arrival of this ‘silvery guy’, there’s lots to watch and enjoy. This is a series not judged by just its actors, its suit actors, the music or the production team but by the whole of its parts. This is just the start…of something very MEGA indeed!
MillionFold Curiosity Fansubs 
Fuck yeah dude!
Stigma through idiot hearing
So, are the episodes 1 – 23 different from the previous releases by MegaAnon?
Yes.
I’m assuming the difference is just the translation. Is there any way you can release patches? Re-downloading 23 episodes is pretty hard for me.
I’m curious about how you decide which Japanese words to leave unchanged, and which you replace with a translated equivalent. For example, in the above article you mention disliking the unchanged ‘hachi’ in one version, but in the new release, you left ‘yakiniku’ untranslated. What’s the process?
Just wondering. Thanks for all the great work!
Yakiniku is the name of the food, and should be left alone. I saw another sub “review” that complained because a group left “manjuu” as “manjuu.” Names and proper nouns should be left alone, at all times, because that is what they are. Hachi being left as Hachi included; sure, maybe someone will miss the reference, but if you’re concerned, leave a TL’s note on your page, during the credits, after the video, somewhere, it doesn’t have to be at the exact scene its said. If I’m translating salt water taffy, I’m going to still call it taffy, because an equivalent in another language may not exist, and even if it does exist, does not properly convey what it is. Yes, yakiniku is a kind of grilled meat; however, it’s not the same thing as what is traditionally called grilled meat in English, and by translating, you’re implying that it is.
Names, as well, should be left alone. I’m fine with translating Denji, however, in my opinion, Sentai should always be left alone. Virtually anyone who is watching these with subs knows they are part of the Super Sentai series, and each show makes it quite clear that a “sentai” is a type of team, with no translation note needed. By leaving it, it establishes continuity across the entire spectrum of sentai series, and helps keep their own unique identity. The same thing, I feel, with the names of monsters, weapon names, etc. We live in an age where information is at our finger tips. If I was really concerned with what “Hachi” meant, it would take me mere seconds to find out. Meanwhile, I’m hearing all of these other names in the show as exactly what they are written (maybe backwards, but whatever), however, the monster’s name doesn’t match what they are saying; while I personally know better, a more inexperienced watcher could easily decide that the subtitle is simply inaccurate, and wonder whether the rest of the subtitles are accurate. Obviously, that’s an extreme response, but with the quality (or lack thereof) of some subtitles out there, it’s not that hard to come to that conclusion.
I’ve always been more curious, what with this “everything must be translated” attitude gaining ground, why exactly nearly every group that releases Kamen Rider shows still actually calls it Kamen Rider, when even the logos spell out Masked Rider in plain English… And with translating the monster names to bring out what they mean better in English, why don’t we do this with the normal characters as well? Most of the time their names have one or more special meanings with the characters used (such as most of Fourze’s main characters being references to classic Riders), so why not translate these as well? Why are they so immune to it, but not monsters?
Again, I don’t want to imply I’m unhappy with anyone’s releases; I’m very glad I’ve been able to watch these shows thanks to hard working people. However, after I seed these fully, I am most certainly going to edit them before I archive them, in order to achieve my own “perfect” release. So, thanks for putting these up, and even going back through and re-doing them to make them even better.
Hey Luminous. Thanks for the question. I can’t speak for MegaAnon (who has the final call in all translating decisions), but there were a few reasons I tended towards yakiniku (instead of “barbecue” “Korean BBQ” “grilled meat” or various other options):
1.) In general, food words tend to be considered within limits for leaving in their native language, since that’s often done in the real world to differentiate cultures’ preparations of similar ingredients. By the same token, you’ll notice all the names of Korean foods are left in Korean, because that’s how they’re sold in restaurants (and Korean kalbi is a very different food from an American short rib).
2.) You see Kenta preparing the food while he’s saying the word in the first episode, so it seemed to me there wouldn’t be any difficulty for the audience in basically figuring out what it is on their own.
3.) Most of the options for translating it would either sound kind of awkward (Kenta singing a happy jingle about “Korean BBQ” wouldn’t quite sound right) or would give the audience the wrong idea of what the food is (most westerners would have a different idea of what “barbecue” or “grilled meat” entails).
(We did a similar thing by leaving “imo-yokan” intact in Harorangers’ Carranger release; after all, while “imo-yokan” might not mean much to the viewer, neither does “potato jelly bar”; in the event that people want to look up what it is and how to make it, at least “imo-yokan” will give them results and recipes.)
By contrast, I see no real issue and no harm done in translating the names of the Nezire Monster animals. The animals they represent are simple and common; no meaning is lost in translating them, and can be translated easily and elegantly while giving the audience just a little more information than they might have had otherwise.