Even in the case with variety shows, its kinda like a crappy youtube video where the text is just there to highlight some random quirky thing a host said
Like, I just dont get it. I have perfect hearing, but I still keep subs on even in English because I dont want to have my volume up in the chance that there’s a scene where the characters are whispering…shortly followed by a loud ass action scene.
I tried Pirating BD releases but these groups just include their fansubs, which are obviously only in english
Tver has subs on some shows, but only for newer releases. Otherwise definitely rare.
on japanese netflix almost every drama and anime has perfectly matching subs
I suspect it has to do with the language. There are many words/terms in Japanese which are homophones, so having the kanji helps to avoid potential confusions.
I’ve looked into it in the past and apparently it is because Japanese subtitles require extra licensing costs for the international services. Since a small niche of people (us language learners and probably some other people) would use these subtitles it’s probably not deemed economical.
Of course Netflix can offer a lot of shows with Japanese subtitles since they own/publish them and thus don’t have to pay the extra licensing costs.
On Amazon, normal (Amazon prime video sucks ass). On Netflix? I don’t think I’ve ever seen any show without Japanese subtitles.
90% of Amazon Prime videos I watched don’t have subtitles unless it’s foreign movies in which they will have a subtitled version. If you watch the currently airing anime on prime video they will not have subtitles. On Netflix they will.
EDIT: I stand corrected, they must have added them as a new thing since I last tried.
English is going to have more subtitles than anything because the U.S. was one of the first countries with a law like the ADA requiring them for many purposes
There is definitely a big difference, for example Hulu, literally every show on Hulu has English subs available, the Japanese version of Hulu having nearly none. And since DVD releases started including subtitles, anything released on disc has to have them here.
I don’t know what kind of Japanese TV you watched but Japan subtitles literally almost everything on their national TV. Either through hardcoded subs or via the default 字幕 option on your TV remote control. I literally spent the last month watching normal national TV (news, game shows, documentaries, etc) on NHK with the TV on mute at my in-law’s place because of our newborn needing quiet to sleep. Everything I saw was subtitled. Everything.
I think there is a misunderstanding of subs in general, TV uses closed captioning, not subtitles. Though they serve the same function, CC is injected live in most cases so someone can just type out the captions if they aren’t previously available, which is why CC has a delay in the first place.
Netflix usually already has JP subs available in my experience, and Language Reactor uses machine translation from the English subs if JP ones arent available. Not worth the price imo
Ehh, I highly doubt that language learners are ever the target audience of subtitles for huge streaming services
You do realize that native speakers also read subtitles right? They are an accessibility feature. If anything, I find that JP national TV is excellent when it comes to subtitles, NHK subtitles everything (you can turn it on in the TV) and most TV shows have hardcoded subtitles for most of their segments. Japan is a very “subtitle friendly” country aside from those streaming platforms that OP is talking about (in that sense it’s pretty bad). Saying “because Japanese is a very hard language” is pure nonsense.
It’s called impact captioning (or known as teleop) and has been a staple of Japan since the 90s till now. Korea also adopted impact captions into their variety shows
Technically, YouTube videos are mimicking the TV editing style that had existed for decades…
When I had Amazon prime they normally had a foreign show with Japanese subs or that same show dubbed into Japanese with no subs…
Japan dosent make sense, just accept that
Also be carefull with that pira te thing
Look into dynamic range and compression.