Temp Mishicorp.net's site

Memoirs of Mishicorp and its leader

In late 2007, the leader of Mishicorp, modoki approached me for help. I would have thought it was another translation request and was ready to deny it immediately as with other groups that have approached me. Translation is not a fun job and it can get tedious, tiring and furthermore, if the series is something a translator doesn't find interesting to watch, it just turns a translator off. Coupled with the issues of how much I can download per month, I have to be careful with what I am downloading. (yes some countries have something lame called bandwidth cap - don't ask me to upgrade to unlimited as it's just too expensive) Furthermore, not many translators are not too keen in working with small groups with low or awful reputation as they do not want their efforts to be wasted. (doesn't that apply to everyone?)

modoki however was different and persistent from the others I know from the other leaders. No matter how many times I refused, he was persistent that I must help him. It was one of his goals, boldly stating that he wanted his group to be better than DB, which prompted me to wonder what exactly he wanted. I couldn't refuse and was invited in mishicorp's staff channel.

It was clear on first sight that the staff order is in a total mess - low morale, poor coordination, bad management and there was a joint going on at the same time. I couldn't have come in a better time. As soon as I realized this issue and relayed the trouble to modoki, he wasn't aware of what it meant and kept a blind eye to it. Needless to say, it was a matter of time that miscommunication between the two groups immediately led to a huge dispute. More than half of Mishicorp's staff left, leaving the group to be barely hanging behind the scenes.

The polishing of a corroded group

Unable to help modoki, I left the scene, telling him that I will be ready to come back when there is the right staff to work with and things settled down. modoki did a remarkable job in recruiting new people to pick up what Mishicorp started out to do, except perhaps a bit too overambitious. He invited me over again, acknowledging that unable to understand what I meant earlier caused a downfall in his group.

By the time I got back, staff morale in Mishicorp have gone from poor to bad. While modoki was busy trying to cover as many projects as possible, I immediately saw this as a concern as it was too taxing for the current staff number and skills. Morale continued to plummet further as misunderstanding of what the group's goals are erupted on a day to day basis, virtually tickling the production rate down to near zero.

The death of the bunny and Mishicorp

In early August, modoki got into a nasty car accident. While he came out alive from the accident, news got out that he required surgery. Unfortunately, news was a lot worse than what was hoped: modoki was showing signs of being crippled. modoki, like a true leader would be, showing his concerns of his group, came in the channel with his crippled fingers that desperately needed rest. All staff were traumatized from his news and morale went temporarily high - projects started to resume like they never were, releasing a few episodes at once. Alas, morale existed just for a brief amount of time - with modoki's condition not getting any better, in fact worse as he strained to type his message across the channel, I instructed modoki not to come back until he gets better. The fate of Mishicorp seemed to have ended there and could have.

Bare revival of Mishicorp

When it is known that modoki is not able to lead for an extended period of time, there was a time where staff voted whether they wanted to remain or quit. None quit, with the hopes that modoki will come back some day. You have to acknowledge that moment alone is impressive. With no leader in place, the group was totally disorientated. I volunteered to be the leader temporarily until modoki returns.

It's known that established fansubbing cultures (or any work related culture) are extremely difficult to change and hence you need to slowly change what exists. There is no exception in Mishicorp staff channel either. Things were brutally slow and initially there were FOUR projects going. With one translator in charge of having to do all four series, I tell you, that's suicidal. Two projects were immediately axed and Mishicorp remained focused on the remaining two, namely Vampire Knight and xxxHolic Kei. Things remained slow as there was a lack of coordination and motivation.

With much pushing around the channel with island_girl, things were slowly starting to roll out. The year 2008 must be cursed as the global market took a hit - Mishicorp's host and domain were immediately disconnected when modoki was not able to make the payment. Newly worked scripts that were uploaded to the server were obviously deleted. Ouch. Failure was imminent until triviper of PoWaH-subs came to look for joint on the second season of Vampire Knight.

Joint with PoWaH-subs

A joint always has it's positive and negative benefits. A joint when staff of both groups are able to comprise, share their knowledge and skills, put their differences away and work together towards a common goal will likely end up to have a superior product against other competitors. On the other hand when groups cannot come together and agree on a common goal, this will likely cause disputes, resulting to a dissolution in a matter of time.

The biggest risk which I faced was this, the reason Mishicorp fell to its lowest was due to a major disagreement on a joint. What if the opposite side of the group disagreed with my proposal during the middle of the project? Will it repeat the dispute drama again? No groups are able to handle the same drama twice and come out safely out of it.  It was a gamble to test how well Mishicorp will survive out of this drama.

An ideal joint is that both groups are to do 50:50 of the subtitling job. At a more extreme side, it should not fall any lower than 40:60 as some staff of the group that does more job might start to yell out unfairness. triviper was purely looking for a translator and suggested that I was to join his group. Sure that would have been easy for him but considering that I have not much interest in translating, and I still have the obligation to look after Mishicorp, it was not really an option. Gathering what I could from Mishicorp's staff, it was a sorry plight: island_girl that used to translate the previous series of Vampire Knight, as well as being faithful to modoki immediately signed up, Haruki voluntereed when asked, Xarda with his distro, Emess joined the channel (sorry if I forgot the rest of the details), and that was it. Corrosion is kicking Mishicorp really hard. I asked for a 35:65 ratio (could be as low as 30:70 initially), which is absurd in most circumstances.

Bargaining is a lot tougher than what you think - in order to get the best deals, you can't afford to let others know what weakness you have. I was forced to be a position to back my translation skills from what I have from DB as well as a small set of flexible staff from Mishicorp, this would make a team of at least a team of two translators, one excellent timer and one distro. Having a team of two translators, a timer that times it almost immediately when asked to and a distributor that handles a lot of load is a rare find in such combination these days. Deal is set and the joint was set forward.

Initially the joint didn't work out too well as expected. Schedules were all over the place and it was difficult to manage. Fans were disappointed. It could well have been the repeat of what Mishicorp have experienced - one step closer to a complete shut down. Determined to change things around at all cost, using management skills and experience from DB proved to be extremely useful and it is expected that episodes will be released on a timely manner although you shouldn't be expecting <24 hours subs.

Status of Mishicorp

Mishicorp plans to finish releasing all the episodes of the earlier series, Vampire Knight, as well as xxxHolic Kei. Mishicorp will continue to proceed with the joint with PoWaH-subs to complete Vampire Knight Guilty. Our staff from Mishicorp hope that you really enjoyed our subs and had an enjoyable time.

About modoki

Fans of Mishicorp that wish to learn about modoki's fate - unfortunately he's still going to the hospital from time to time. If you wish to express your consolations or thank him for the time he leaded Mishicorp and it's great subs, please drop me an email at gxseries (AT) dattebayo (DOOOT) com and I'll forward your message to him. Mishicorp staff still wishes for his speedy recovery and hopes that he will come back and lead. 

Useful links

Mishicorp's official tracker: http://a.scarywater.net/mishicorp/

PoWaH-subs offical site: http://powahsubs.wordpress.com/

15th November 2008