Cruel Angel Productions FAQ

G00) Why did you write this?
    Fansubbers have to deal with a lot of people. So it's no surprise when people accidentally offend fansubbers by doing things that seem innocent enough. If you ever plan to talk to a fansubber, be sure to follow these guidelines and be sure of what they're cool with and what they're not. Of course these rules can be broken sometimes, but stick to them unless you know otherwise.
    I've been on the receiving end of this as well. Once in Elite fansub's forum, I made the mistake of a)making a translation suggestion/complaint b)requesting raws. Man, they came down on me hard and now I don't download from elite anymore if given the choice. However, I don't want others to make the same mistakes as myself, so read through the rules and keep them in mind when dealing with fansubbers
    The main point, fansubbers are great people, they do their work, (a lot of which is better than commerical translation) and a lot of them do it for free. Their actions merit admiration and gratitude. After all fansubbing isn't easy, requires work and time, and it only takes a few "fans" being annoying to ruin a good thing for the rest of us

G01+) Rule 1+ Don't sell fansubs
Like most fansubs say, they're not for rent, sale, or auction for a profit. From this rule, people have derived "fansubs should be free" which isn't necessarily true

Why it exists:
A couple weeks ago, I reported an ebay auction for the fansub of sailor moon live. It had gone over $200 for 5 eps, clearly very morally wrong. This rule exists to prevent this kind of fan exploitation.

Plus the fansubbers put a lot of work into their fansubs, why should other people sell them for a profit when they're doing it for free?

While it's good that fansubbers are doing their work for free, that doesn't necessarily meanall of them can afford to. A lot of digi subbers can just download their materials, so they can afford to distribute for free, HOWEVER, not all of them can. the main reason this rule exists is so the fans aren't exploited

How I feel:
My fansubs are unusual so I use the old school method to pay for raws. In this digital age, a lot of fansubbers get their raws online, however, NONE of the raws for my subs can be obtained online. To fansub them without going bankrupt I sell my fansubs.

Which is kind of a good thing. If I'm in charge, I know that I won't take advantage of those more ignorant (plus if I did it for free, people would sell them anyway.) At least this way what I earn can go back into paying for raws

Please don't throw that "fansubs should be free" thing in my face unless you're willing to do it yourself first.

G01) Rule 1 Don't be annoying AND use common sense
Each irc channel has it's own set of rules, read them or you'll be justifiably be kicked/banned out. If there's a faq, you should read that too. Also, use a little common sense when dealing with people, if what you're saying is annoying the moderators, you should be quiet and quit while you're ahead.

Why it exists:
Fansubbers deal with hundreds, if not thousands of people. If people don't follow rules and don't use common sense, it becomes a great burden on the fansubber.

How I feel:
While people with no common sense bother me, I'll still deal with people even if they truly offend me. I mean, very few people are "truly evil", there's got to be something respectable about your opponent, or some explanation for why someone is behaving in an offensive manner. (sometimes it's just immaturity)

G02) Rule 2 Don't complain about fansubs
Most fansubbers become offended if their translation is criticized. Before complaining, you should know whether or not the fansubber is receptive to such comments.

Why it exists:
It's a lot of work for a FREE fansub. Such critism might be taken as ingratitude. Plus if hundreds of people complain about the same thing, most people will just snap. I think this rule is true for most fansubbers that you will encounter (it's like writing a novel and then having people criticize it)

    How I feel:
    This is not a good rule, but it exists so people can get along with each other. The reason it's not good is because it encourages fansubbers to not improve on their translations. Pride is a bad thing here, but you can't fight human nature
    I mean, there are some awful fansubbers out there, they're green horn, they're incompetant, they do rush jobs instead of taking the time to do a quality job, they're not willing to learn to make their fansubs better, etc. I mean, if you're like a babelfish translater or animejunkies or 7something, you aren't doing the fans any good by inflicting your translation upon them.

G03) Rule 3 Don't ask for raws
Don't ask for raw Japanese footage from the group doing the fansub

Why it exists:
The main reason this exists is so people don't take the raws and do their own fansub. Also, even though it seems like you can download everything nowadays, it's still quite a task to obtain raw Japanese footage. If the fansubbers put effort/perhaps sometimes money into getting the raws, it's understandable if they don't want to share (since it was obtained for their own sub)

How I feel:
As much as I love raw footage, life's not going to treat you well if you act like a grabby leech. You have to be a sly leech and use cunning and charm to get what you want :-)

G04) Rule 4 If on irc, don't serve subs from other groups if the channel you're in is doing the same sub
Don't serve fansubs from other groups in the channel you're in

Why it exists:
Isn't it obvious? Hosting fansubs from other groups is like saying that particular channel's work is no good.

How I feel:
This rule is sound

G05) Rule 5 Don't ask for files, behaving like a needy leech is very bad
Don't ask for stuff or make requests

Why it exists:
It seems innocent enough, but if many people make requests, it becomes harassment for the distributers. If someone is giving away something for free, you do not want to make things difficult for them. If you don't know how to download, most places have a FAQ that will explain how their files are distributed

How I feel:
This is also a sound rule, although it's also a very easy rule to break. However, if someone acts leechy, it's very rude and offensive, so imagine how it's like if many people act like leeches.

G06) Rule 6 Don't ask for translations
Unless you know your opponent well, you probably don't want to ask for their translation

Why it exists:
Again, a lot of work goes into translations, more than likely, they probably don't want to give their translation away so that people can do who knows what with them. In the past, there've been a couple groups that have plagerized the translations of other fansub groups, this is very bad and offensive and would get you kicked out of my college if you were caught doing it. Don't plagerize, and don't ask for scripts.

How I feel:
Well I can certainly sympathize with that, most fansubbers don't give away the scripts that put a lot of hard work into, and neither do I. :-)

- DVD-R Related questions
D00) What is DVD-R?

A recorded DVD. With the right data format, I can make a DVD very similar to those that you can buy commercially. Out of all my formats, DVD-R is the highest in quality, and comes with menus and track chapters.

I started offering this a year or so ago. It's become my favorite format, and the biggest headache. It has so many advantanges (like it's cheap to send), but is prone to playing problems (unlike vhs, which plays perfect each time).

D01) Will it play on my DVD Player?

That really depends on your DVD player, and my DVD-R Brand. Some older DVD players can't play DVD-R, some only play DVD+R, some say they can play DVD-R, but only certain brands. It's a lot of trial and error. To check your dvd player brand, go to http://www.dvdrhelp.com

D02) I bought your DVD-R and it doesn't play properly, help!

First check to make sure the disc is clean and not scratched up. Look at the coloring, if it looks like only half the disc was written on, then it must have been a bad burn. I heard one guy say that having labels on the dvd cause his player to hiccup, so he (caretfully) peeled them off and they worked fine. Finally if you have a friend, try playing the dvd in their player.

The last resort for me is to send replacements, however, if the problem is a compatibility error, then me sending the same thing won't fix the problem. (A lot of people have told me they just go off and buy new dvd players ^_^;;)

Fansub related details

F*) How do I order?

Please format your order to be something like this (Just be sure to have the necessary info:

Name and Address:
<name>
<Address>
<City, State, Zip code>
Payment Method:
-Paypal.com?
-Money order?
-cash?
-etc?
Order (Keep everything being ordered in a list):
- Program CD (Don't mention that you want the CD a paragraph later, keep your order together)
- FFS vcd
- Senshuuraku video (Please don't mention FFS if ordering the last day, it gets confusing)
- TnM Guide video (The TnM is called a guide video, even though it has the fankan)
- Dracul VCDLabels or VCD-LABELS (Yes, anything to keep info together, and alert me is good)
X Black lady musical video (Please don't order stuff I haven't subbed yet)
X TnM musical raw video (It's my policy to not do raws anymore, the fansubs take too much time to fill)

F**) You're a fansub distributer? Do you fansub yourself? What do you distribute/trade?

I create all the fansubs on my page and I only distribute my own translations. That's why there's a bit of an extra fee for labor, since I'm an one man show. Yup, I do all the translation (for the most part), timing, encoding, subtitling, tape/Cd buying, tape recording/CD burning, and sending.... Whew!

I only like the translating part... but I want to help out the Japanese-challenged so I guess I'll keep distrubiting my fansubs.

F00) You use all this Japanese vocabulary, how do I know what you're saying?

I'm lazy, just read the FAQ that I wrote for the yahoogroups that we have:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/seramyu/files/%20FAQ/UsefulTerms2.txt

F01) What's a fansub?

As it sounds, a fansub is a fan produced subtitled video. Someone (me) sits down and uses my crappy 40% inefficient Japanese knowledge and a very useful dictionary to create a script, encode, subtitle, and distribute.

Most fansubs are anime, and there are very specific fansub codes to follow (like stop fansub distribution once a title is commercialized). These codes are followed to support the companies that pay the licensing fees, pay for the professional translators (rolls eyes), and distribution of a title. In this case, since Sera Myu has so many factors against it, I'm just assuming Bandai will never pick it up to distribute outside of Japan.

By the way, I hate illegal Chinese bootleg DVDs of anime. They usually look real, but you can tell they're fake by being region free, usually have Chinese/English subs (the translations 90% suck). Plus I don't like bootleggers profitting of the hard work of the Japanese.

Technically these are just as illegal as fan copies, but since Bandai doesn't provide an English language version, many non-Japanese speaking fans are subsequently left out. But since they are not legal, I always encourage people to buy the original videos (better quality) to support the company (they are producing these wonderful musicals after all).

F02) Do you mind if I distribute, sell, trade your fansubs?

Most people don't ask this but it's important to make this clear. I don't mind it being distributed, so long as it isn't being sold for more than I would. However, recently a lot of my fansubs (From the looks of it, it's my original four fansubs :-p) have been sold on ebay for more than twice of what I sell on my page...

(factor in the fact that it's low quality and cheap VCDs while I distro tapes created from Super VCDs... and if it is the original four, the scripts are outdated... Frankly the buyers of those auctions are screwed every way...) By the way, a VCD is like a crippled DVD. You cannot sell a VCD/DVD since they are COMPLETELY different formats. :-P A VCD is just a VCD, later in the FAQ I talk about VCDs, read if you don't know the difference between VCD, SVCD, and DVDs.

It's more work for me (I hate distroing, I like fansubbing, but not the distroing aspect), but I prefer that people get the fansubs from me to get the latest script (sometimes I go back and rework it, writing a fansub script is like writing a good novel, all the lines have to be perfect), the highest quality (Every now and then I'll figure out a way to improve the quality a bit)

F03) My thoughts on VCDs (same thing applies to SVCDs)

First thing, when you receive a VCD, copy it. VCDs don't have the redundancy that data format CDs do (That's why you can fit 800 mb on a normally 700 mb CD), so they break easily!!! Take it from me, I use my VCDs all the time, so they get worn out constantly, I have to make new ones about every half year or so.

I worry that people are under the illusion that since VCD/SVCD are digital, they will be higher in quality than the analogue source. Remember that if the source is not digital, the quality will only be as high as that. I can use filters to make stuff look better, but for the most part it's damage control...

I personally don't think VCDs are that great. Since my capture card is limited to MPG1, the quality will never really match even regular video quality. The main problem is that the backgrounds get pixelly, but the filters that I use usually cleans most of that stuff up. Just remember that you're not going to get the same quality as the original video (but then again, how many fansubs are going to be DVD quality anyway?)

I like videos myself. No need to worry about compatibility, quality is consistant (unless a CD breaks :-/ )

F04) (S)VCD aren't even comparable to DVDs

I hate it when people think VCD are like DVDs, they're sooo different. VCDs are set to 1150 kbits/s, SVCD are variable but not much better since we're still limited to 800 mb per disc. Contrast this to 2000-3000 kbits/s bitrate in a 5.4 gb disc. It's a huge difference. Yes, I want a dvd burner...

F05) How's your translation ability?

It's a hard question to answer, because there are many aspects to a language. It also requires a lot of introspection which I don't have (while the translation is just like the voice in my head, that doesn't necessarily mean that you'll understand it right?)

If you just look at the credentials, then yeah, my Japanese is diverse. I took 2 years of classes in college, have 1.5 years of translation experience, watch anime on a weekly basis, read a kanji dictionary when I have time...

But y'know, the more and more that I get into correcting other people's translations, the more I realize that the important thing is not the Japanese but the English. Counter intuitive? Think about it, machines can't translate language because it requires too much context, there are too many meanings within a statement that aren't necessarily in the statement itself.

So at best, language provides for a fuzzy idea, a meaning. It's like art, there are many interpretations for it (and just like art, there are levels of accuracy within the interpretation). Now think of a translator as your art teacher. Is it a good art teacher that brings you into the world of the art, or is it some incomprehensible lecturer who rambles while being in their own world?

Bah, now I'm rambling on philosophy. The answer is, yes, I think I'm a decent enough translator to instill meaning into my subs. I know I make mistakes, but they're few and usually insignificant in comparison (say I make a hundred mistakes, that's 2% of a 2000 line script... oh wait, was I supposed to mention that...?)

Anyway, if you notice any mistakes, definitely let me know so that I can fix the script. Also, since I wrote the script, sometimes stuff that sounds perfectly normal in my head just doesn't work in print. Any corrections/suggestions are always welcome (just don't be overly critical in you criticisms, creating a script is a lot of work)

F06) Why are some videos more expensive than others?

As mentioned above some videos are more rare and cost more to get than others. The Senshuuraku typically costs 200+ dollars, sometimes 300 if sold on the international market. Fumina tapes in particular are highly sought after (factors of her stage being so short, her status as an idol, and the introduction to omake eizou to preorder videos during her stage probably boost the value of her tapes)

F08) Kaiteiban/Revision? What's the difference?

Usually not terribly much. Overall story and main characters will usually stay the same, but situations, endings, jokes will usually change a bit in the revision. Just because it's a revision doesn't necessarily mean it'll be better. Notice how great the camera shots are in the original SMSS and Stars musicals in comparison to the revision.

F09) Hunter X Hunter Musical?

It's great, I love that musical. So much heart and character. It's done by the main 5 voice actors, but they're so good on stage (for the most part), that you feel like you're watching a real life Hisoka, Gon, Killua, and Leeorio (ironically, Kurapica's actress doesn't have much stage preseence). See my new HxH musical page for detals on getting the fansub

F10) Sound/ Video quality?

It's the best that it can be considering my tools.

All my fansubs are done off the original videos/LDs/DVDs except where noted.

It's a moot point anyway. You buy my fansubs for the translation (which I have a monopoly in since no one else is translating this stuff).

If you truly want the highest visual/sound experience, you should buy the originals and support the creators.

F11) What does an order typically include?

Almost all my fansubs include bonus clips (usually clips from other Stages). Always good to get a flavor of everything. Sometimes I include rare stuff like Sakurakko's L'Amour, Miyuki's Kinki home commercial, or Marina's Hippare Night appearance. People usually enjoy these tiny diversions

The videos are the kind you buy from a regular store. You get a color label on the tape itself. The cover is just the original packaging dustcover.

CDs don't get a label unless you pay for them.

~~F12) Why are there pauses in your videos?~~

Since I record them off SVCD, the pause is either the video changing tracks (sometimes I have to break the videos into smaller videos if I don't have enough space on my HD) or me changing discs (since it takes at least 2 SVCDs to hold a normal length musical). There's not much that I can do about it (hopefully with DVD format, with the whole musical on one disc, there won't be these pauses anymore)

F13) Why does it cost money for your fansubs? Fansubs should be free

Fansubbing is work, it's a lot of work, especially for just one person. The measly few bucks per fansub that I sell go into acquiring better equipment, more raw video, etc.

Anyway, it's not like I haven't pondered about the morals of this. Look at my situation: I want people to buy the originals to support the musicals. But, I won't just give away my scripts that I worked so hard on. Plus, if I sell my fansubs, I can afford to get better source tapes and better equipment. And so that I don't hurt Bandai sales as much, I won't be subbing all the musicals. I know, it's convulated and full of holes, but I think people enjoy my work so I'll continue doing it

F14) Why isn't everything subbed?

It's a purposeful decision that I make on my part usually. If the words are already in English, is a name, something repeated, or something really obvious in meaning I'll usually drop it so that there is less clutter on the screen. I do this this not only to preserve the video, but also to avoid providing unnecessary distractions from the action going on in the video. If I don't know something, I'll either ask someone, make an estimated guess, or just put a "??" filler.

F15) Why won't you sub the original Stars, Eien Densetsu musicals?

From the very beginning I've never intended for my subs to replace the original video/dvds. I just think if I sub all these musicals, no one will get the originals, and the creators will suffer a profit loss. Instead I do the revisions, in this way fans can watch it in raw Japanese and still relatively have a good idea of what's going on.

Seramyu related questions

S01) FFS? Senshuuraku? FFS Hozonban? Eien Densetsu? I'm confused!

I suppose this is a common question. The 3 musicals that contain the Eien Densetsu story are:

1997 Summer Eien Densetsu
1998 Winter Eien Densetsu Kaiteiban Final First Stage (FFS)
1998 Winter Eien Densetsu Kaiteiban FFS Senshuuraku

These 3 are full musicals (the FFS and senshuuraku are almost exactly the same). Respectively they are the first Eien Densetsu, the revision, and the last day performance for the revision musical (also Anza's last Sera Myu performance).

Eien Omake Video was a special tape sold that had Fan Kan and other stuff on it. Unlike the current omake footage, this was sold separately and is more like a Koshiki Guide video or a Fan kansha video. (Omake means bonus, it's usually used to refer to the bonus footage at the end of full musicals that are preordered in the theater, which usually has senshuuraku footage of that musical.)

FFS Hozonban was a commemorative video made for the First Stage's end. It has footage from the last Fan Kan and footage from the Senshuuraku, hosted by Yuuta and Ryuji.

S02) I bought the Ai No Sanctuary DVD, but it doesn't come with the 10th anniversary festival talk and live show

The public dvd release (and the preorder dvd, which are exactly the same except for the label) only contain part 1, the musical Ai No Sanctuary. The second half (the talk and live show with the former cast) is only included in the preorder VIDEO, which can only be bought at the theater.

S03) Does the Chou Wakusei Vulcan video come with the musical revue show?

Yup :-) These spring musicals are confusing aren't they?

Order Questions

O01) What information should I include?

Always include the following with every e-mail and payment:

-Order (Format: VHS, VCD, VCDLabels, SVCD, SVCDLabels)
-Payment method: Paypal takes a fee out of payments sent to my account
-Address
-E-mail address with money order/cash payments only if you want me to e-mail you when I receive payment.
-Something in the Subject line of your e-mails. 100's of spam letters every week can lead to e-mails being lost easily. Anything in the subject line is fine, although something with "Sera Myu" would be preferable.

O02) How often do you send out orders?

That's a tough question. Usually it takes a week or 2, but that's assuming the order isn't especially large nor that I'm behind. I'm in college, so if I'm busy, it can take as much as 3 weeks to a month. That's the way it is. Note that I have a page that will have your order status after you've paid. (However, since I am busy, I don't update that page every day)

O03) How often do you keep in contact?

I usually take a week to answer letters, school and life in general keeps me from responding immediately (although I check my e-mail almost daily). I usually send an e-mail confirmation when I send out packages and receive cash payments (since they're not trackable), but that's pretty much it. Since paypal is instant, you can just check your own account to see whether the transaction has gone through or not. If you make an e-check, just like a regular check, it'll take a couple business days to clear

Also, just because I read my e-mails doesn't mean that I'll have time to answer them. Very often I'll go through them, answer the e-mails that are easiest, and then save the rest of them for a day when I'm able to update my orders list. So if you see me answering an e-mail on one of the mailing lists or something before your e-mail, that's probably why. (It may take me more than a week to answer e-mails sometimes)

O04) Combining tapes?

If an order is about an hour, it can usually be combined with another order to save costs on tape and shipping... I still charge a small fee for the labor and time spent translating, encoding,recording, and shipping.

O05) Take trades?

Normally the answer is no, since I have more anime than can be watched in a lifetime... I also always buy only original tapes, so I'm not really interested in copies of anything. Sorry. If you have a gut feeling that you have something that I might trade for, feel free to propose it. I take trades, it's just people usually don't have anything I want. ^_^

O06) Replacements?

If something I send is broken, I'll send a replacement for free, AFTER confirming that it is broken. Usually I'll walk people through a series of test (I assume that we're talking VCD and not video problems). I mainly ask people to check to see if it can play in Windows Media Player (which can usually play any video file worth playing...) and to check the surface of the Cd to make sure it's not covered in dust or anything.

Sometimes stuff does get botched in the CD copying or maybe I missed the center ring and knicked the data side... stuff happens right?

However, if it's merely a compatibility error (stupid VCD/SVCD), then the buyer will have to pay the difference and I'll send a video or VCD or something. This is done because if nothing is wrong with the product, how am I to know that it is really unwatchable? (Someone could just watch it, say it's incompatible, send it back and get a refund) That's why this new rule was added.

O07) You don't return your E-mails!

I'm slow at responding sometimes. This is usually because of midterms, projects, essays, or whatever real life thing is distracting me at the moment. I apologize in advance ^_^ but I do make the effort to answer all my e-mails. Just be patient and give me some time. (If I don't answer within 5 days however, it's a good idea to send again, change the subject, or use a different e-mail account, you never know with cyberspace)

Recently someone couldn't receive e-mails from my hotmail account... Of course this is rare, but eventually I noticed this and used my yahoo account... (Which begins the same as my hotmail account, but checked less often)

Addition, lately it seems I answer all my orders related e-mails on the weekend (usually past midnight which is when I'm awake)

O08) Money orders?

If you're sending a money order in America, it'd probably be cheapest to go with a domestic money order if that option is available. Honestly, I don't know, but it makes me scratch my head sometimes when I receive international money orders from fellow Americans.

O09) International buyers?

International buyers usually have the following options.

Payments: All payments must be in US Dollars. Either cash (hide it REALLY well), paypal.com, or international money orders are acceptable

Shipping:
There are two options:
Boat - Cheap, but can take up to 1-2 months to ship (or a couple weeks if you're a Canadian
Airplane - Expensive, but usually ships in a week

Misc

M01) Can I help you with your fansubbing?

I dunno... I really could use an editor to make sure my script is perfect and well timed, but it's hard to find someone who'll actually put in the hours to do this. Speaking of which, I'd like to thank Bara shoujo, since she really helped me clear a lot of tough translating spots.

Donations? Well, I'm not going to ask for them, but if you want to, then I'm not going to turn you down ;-) Especially since I want to save for a new vid card and dvd burner... which is always tough since every season brings another Sera Myu thing with merchandise to buy.

M02) Why aren't all the videos available at Cd Japan/Animail?

The answer is complex. Let's split stuff up:

Commercial videos: The normal musicals and the first Ongakushuu (Music collection). Sometimes CD Japan will say they're out of print, but I think you can still special order them. They're always sold in the theaters, so clearly they won't go out of print...

Videos sold or ordered in theater: All the rare videos come in this category. Koshiki Guide Videos (Official Guide Videos) and Fan Kansha Event Videos (Fan Appreciation Event Videos) are sold in theater. These are usually interesting since they show background stuff, adlibbing, and singing songs. However, they usually go immediately out of print once the production for that particular video is over (So the Dracul Guide Video would have stopped selling after Last Dracul's musical ended) The Eien Omake video, 500th Commemoration video, and 2nd Ongakushuu go under this category.

The preorder videos are usually the same as the commercial release musicals, however they usually contain a bit of extra footage (omake eizou) to thank those who preordered. Usually this footage includes clips from the senshuuraku (last day) performance which usually has adlibbing and so forth. In the case of Final First Stage, they recorded the whole thing and released it as a video.

Finally, there are the lost musicals (Musicals never put on tape). They include:
94 Gaiden Kaiteiban
94 Spring Festival
95 SMS Kaiteiban (Introduction to Pluto)
95 SMS Kaiteiban Kaiteiban (Introduction to Rei Saito)
9? SMSS Spring Festival
9? Stars Kaiteiban Fan Kansha Event

It's interesting to note that I once saw a home video version of the SMSS Spring Festival on yahoo Japan auctions... but only once and never again... It's less than an hour long...

M03) I understand that you've gone to Japan and seen a musical live, what's it like?

A Hunter X Hunter musical actor said that watching a musical live makes it 10 times more enjoyable. Yes! The lights, the fog, the shiny costumes, the sound, it's such a great experience!! Only the DVD has come even close to capturing the sharp details of everything, but since it's just a recording, you'll never get the freedom from bad shots, bad angles, and cut stuff... :-/ If you can see it live, I'd make a goal to do it.

M04) Official Sera Myu*

Official Stuff: The only official Sera Myu is the Bandai distributed videos and DVDs. The official videos have a white shell with Bandai engraved in them as well as color photo inserts. You can find the covers for these at animail (See bottom for official links).

Original Subs: So far as I know, I'm the only subber for Sera Myu (If there are others, let me know so that I can plug them.) It's kind of exciting to note that some people are interested in translating my scripts into foreign languages, sounds cool.

My first sub was a joint project with Setsunakou to release the Stars Kaiteiban**, we used her script and my crappy video card's output... my subbing has improved since then...

M05) How do I get Sera Myu tickets?

It seems like a lot of people who visit are typing "how do I get sera myu tickets" into google. Well, unless you know someone in Japan really well, it's probably not possible to get tickets in advance. But not to worry, I hear that if you go into the theaters in the morning, you should still be able to buy tickets (Unless there's a special event that day or something)

It's probably easiest to get tickets during the summer performance (since winter and spring musicals have less shows). Even if they run of out seats, they have overflow seats (fold-up chairs set in the aisle). Still, you might want to line up a backup day to come back in case they don't have tickets that day.

Anyway, it's common knowledge that the Tokyo performance is at the Sunshine Theater, in the Sunshine City compound in Ikebukuro. The theater is on the fourth floor of the cultural building in Sunshine City

Finally, you might try asking on the seramyu or solarmiracle mailing lists, hopefully one of the kind souls in Japan will help you. You might want to try to offer to do something in return, a little reward never hurts anyone ^_^;;

Links

Fansubs:
Cruel Angel Productions (Me) - Subbing Anime turned Musicals

Buy stuff:
CD Japan http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/
Neowing http://www.neowing.co.jp/[Japanese version of CD Japan]
Animail http://www.mmsystems.com/animail/cart/product/
Aloha Anime http://www.alohaanime.com/

A lone Sera Myu fan? Join our support groups and meet fellow fans like yourself:
Sera Myu http://groups.yahoo.com/group/seramyu/
Sera Myu ML http://groups.yahoo.com/group/seramyuml/
Solar Miracle http://groups.yahoo.com/group/solarmiracle/

Too much info:

Video catalog #'s: (There's a more complete chart on my page)

BES-989 1993 Summer Gaiden Dark Kingdom Fukkatsu hen
BES-1131 1994 Summer SMS Usagi, Ai No Senshi He No Mochi
BES-1309 1995 Summer SMSS Yume Senshi, Ai, Eien Ni...
YYV-045 1996 Spring SMSS Kaiteiban (revision)
              Yume Senshi, Ai, Eien Ni... Saturn Fukkatsu hen
YYV-027 1996 Ongaku Shuu (Music Collection)
YYV-062 1996 Summer Stars
YYV-075 1997 Winter Stars Kaiteiban (revised)
YYV-114 1997 Summer Eien Densetsu (Eternal Legend)
YYV-135 1998 Winter Eien Densetsu Kaiteiban Final First Stage
YYV-156 1998 Summer Shin Densetsu (New Legend) 136 mins
YYV-181 1999 Spring Kaguya Shima Densetsu (Legend of Kaguya Island)132
YYV-188 1999 Summer Kaguya Shima Densetsu Kaiteiban 149 mins
YYV-203 2000 Winter Last Dracul Jyoryoku (Last Dracul Overture)
              Transform! Road to the Super Soldier!
YYV-221 2000 Summer Transylvania No Mori (Forest of Transylvania)
              New appearance! The Soldiers that protect Chibi Moon
YYV-246 2001 Winter Transylvania No Mori Kaiteiban
              The strongest enemy/The enigma of Dark Cain
YYV-272 2001 Spring Final Chapter Last Dracul/
              The Sealing of Super Planet Death Vulcan
YYV-300 2001 Summer Tanjou! Ankoku No Princess, Black Lady
              (Birth! Princess of Darkness, Black Lady)
YYV-307 2002 Winter Tanjou! Ankoku No Princess, Black Lady Kaiteiban
              (Birth! Princess of Darkness, Black Lady Revision)
BCBK-1233 2002 Spring Ai No Sanctuary, Tenth Anniversary Festival (DVD)
YYV-316   2002 Summer Mugen Gakuen, Mistress Labyrinth VHS
BCBK-1390 2002 Summer Mugen Gakuen, Mistress Labyrinth DVD
???-??? 2003 Winter Mugen Gakuen Kaiteiban ???

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