Forum - View topicFansubs?
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doce
Posts: 3 Location: Austin, TX |
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Until recently, a few friends supplied me with fansubs of all sorts of (mostly) unlicensed anime. Usually on VHS, but occasionally via computer (MPEG, DiVX, QuickTime, etc). This is how I managed to get introduced (yuroshiku!) to anime like Love Hina, Oh My Goddess, Ayashi no Ceres, FLCL, Excel Saga, and a handful of others.
I'm assuming that fansubs are most of what keeps everyone apprised of up-and-coming titles that are still fresh in Japan but thus far are unlicensed in the US. Is this a fair assumption? If so, what formats do you get fansubs and from where? The few places that I've found on the internet that do fansubs seem to be non-existant these days... |
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Ramza
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 36 Location: Michigan |
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Most fansubbers do work on the newest of shows from Japan although some still work on older series that will most likely never get released and a few more current series that seem to have slipped through the cracks. However, most newer shows worth watching usually do end up getting licenced so the use of fansubbers is beginning to deminish.
For VHS, there are many distros out there and if you look around for awhile you'll discover tons. http://www.animemetropolis.com/kodocha/main.html is a good start and one of my favorite places to order though I don't get fansubs that often anymore. Fansubs in video formats on the computer are often refered to as "digisubs". There aren't really any webpages that host them, you have to sort of get in with the right people. I believe newsgroups link to places that have them often and I know many people usually have them on the different file sharing programs. There are also people from Hong Kong that sell unlicenced DVDs of shows that contain English subtitles although they are completely illegal. |
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doce
Posts: 3 Location: Austin, TX |
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Ya, I learned about this the hard way. Legality aside, the one I picked up (AMG) really sucked; Disk 1 was OK, but the subtitling on Disk 2 seems to have been done by Babelfish and in several places the timing of the subtitles are just flat out whack. 
Legal or not, the quality sucked enough that I'll not make that mistake twice. Now...... the packaging was awesome...  I bought the licensed DVD from AnimEigo, but keep the disks in the bootleg packaging.
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LordByronius
ANN Columnist
 Posts: 861 Location: Philippe for America! He is five. |
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Nice little write-up, there, Ramza.
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Ramza
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 36 Location: Michigan |
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Thanks LordByronius.
Yeah, those sets can be pretty bad. I actually picked up a few myself a while ago. The Yu Yu Hakusho set truely was like watching 112 episodes of a Zero Wing (All Your Base...) series. But now at least I've seen it all. On the other hand, Flame of Recca and DNA^2 were actually pretty good. |
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Ataru
 Posts: 2306 Location: Missouri (Strikeman) |
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I'm mostly against fansubing/dubbing, mostly because of my first fansub was so bad, I hate it after that. But, given that series like Inu Yasha and the Nadisco Movie has token it's sweet time getting release here in the States, I had swollow back my bitterness and buy them while I was in Korea (It was pretty cheap (25,000 Won (About $18 ) for Nadisco Movie and 100,000 Won (about $85) for a 6 Disc set of IY.) It was fairly good for the cheap price, but I rather get lisenced verison becasue it usally has a lot more then Chinese or English Sub.
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cookie
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 2460 Location: Do not contact me for support. |
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Back in 1996-1998, I used to deal a lot with fansubs. Fansubs were cheap, offered anime that wasn't available in the US, and (at the time) most of those titles *WERE* unlikely to be picked up. I remember getting fansubs of MKR from Aquarian Productions (see it, thanks to archive.org!), subbed by Sylverwind, a few months before MB announced the title. It came as a pretty big shock to most people I knew (self included), at the time, because it seemed so very, very unlikely that it would be picked up. Not to mention, it had been heavily fansubbed (some sites reporting over 1000 tapes of it being distributed the year before) and Sylverwind's scripts were lauded as high quality productions. Since then (particularly since 2000) anime's really exploded. ADV says they're putting out ... what, 6 or 7 dvds a month until 2006? Okay, so it might require waiting a year to get the entire series on DVD, after its broadcast in Japan, but at the same time, that's what it'd take for fansubbers to do the same thing (on VHS) only 4 years ago, and back then companies weren't as fast as they are now. Even 4 years ago, it'd still take about a month to make a quality fansub (acquire the source, send a copy to a translator to translate, receive script a few weeks later, produce subtitles, and distribute) ... but now, with the advantages high bandwidth give on the net, you no longer need those turnaround times.. Is it really even necessary anymore? It's "nice" to translate stuff that won't ever be picked up in America... ... but who ever believed that I My Me Strawberry Eggs (with Pioneer Entertainment's label IN the credits) wouldn't be picked up? In the early 90s, it was particularly spotty, with titles being picked up haphazardly. In 1998, the only major genres of anime that weren't picked up were bishoujo, shoujo, bishonen, and sports anime... and now, in 2002, even these "obscure" genres are starting to get proper representation in America. I don't like fansubbers now, particularly digisubbers, because it is (for the most part) piracy of videos that will be commercially available in the US. If subbers want to do 'educational' work on titles, why not pick up any of the 1980s anime titles that never got picked up here, and sub them? It just seems like a cheap, "ethical" form of piracy to me, anymore.. which is disappointing, because I knew a bunch of the guys back then (and, well, still do) and they seem to be in agreement that these new 'digisubs' amount to nothing more than piracy, while their work PROMOTED the anime industry to what it is today. Technogirls had a nice disclaimer and explanation of the way fansubs were supposed to work on their site: Technogirls (via archive.org) ... (Case in point: It seems Tomodachi Anime's subs of Fushigi Yuugi was a direct influence in Pioneer's decision to pick up the title. Tomodachi quit the fansub industry/business/whatever once it was acquired, because they felt they had done what they had come to do. Read Tomodachi Anime's Goodbye for yet another view of the "old" guard of fansubbers, and why they've left the scene. |
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anime_cd
Posts: 14 Location: Tokyo |
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Being a recovering member of FADA (Fansubber Anonymous Distro Anonymous) I've been clean for 2 years. I have not touched a Subzero script. Not to say I have not been tempted. ^_^ I would have to agree with you, back then nothing would have been picked up.
It is a natural evolution of the profession/hobbie. First it was people just putting ads in the back of sci-fi magazine. Then the college kids with internet started posting scripts on the web (remember KOR script v. 1.01). Then they started with the internet came proliferation of genlockes and scripting software. Then came those exclusive distro / fansub relationships. All for the master copy of SVHS or Hi-8. Around this time came develop the crazy on consencous of the ethics of fansubs. Oh the cost of cleaning VCR heads, as a justification of profit. Oh the conflict of accepting Paypal as payment. As a reformed fansub and distro, I will admit that there was profit to made. Admittance is the first step to recovery. Then came file sharing. It was a natural evolution of the market with advancement in technology. No matter how hard fans wanted to keep these gems within the club/convention/hard core fan community. Proliferation of information was unstoppable at that point. We gave the masses the information on how to do it. We cultivated the culture of watching illegal production within our boarders. We showed richer people how to profit from it legally. We were the ultimate cause of our demise.
As a reformed subber. Part of the culture was to get it out first and the best. That's why there were so many versions of a script. The first was the fastest, the latter were the best. You cannot double think the "crimes" we did. There was no ethical justification for what we did. We broke laws and twisted morality to made profit and support our hobby (addiction). You cannot say that because we had a Consensus of how to conduct illegal activity, we are right or justified. But because the new generation of subbers/distro may not subscribe to this Consensus they are wrong or bootlegging. There is no moral high ground in this field. What you can say is that with increase profitability in the Americas for anime. One can now be justified in obtain exclusive video distribution rights, and they can enforce these rights as they see fit. |
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ken
 Posts: 9 |
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I think you can blame the sluggishness and gouging from some of these Anime companies. Viz is a prime example. They take their freakin' sweet time to come out with their stuff so people begin to lose interest or say "screw them". They still haven't finished with Ranma and MAison Ikkoku. Some of these Anime companies also rip you off.....remember the days when they would put one 22 minute episode on a tape and charge $35? It's all about volume. Hollywood used to charge $100 a tape and nobody bought them, now they charge $9-20 and everybody buys them.
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skullone
Posts: 104 Location: Greece |
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Or even better, the fansubbers writing fansubs for those anime that were BADLY subbed or dubbed and either putting them on public domain or submitting them to the companies that made the original anime.
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ken
Posts: 9 |
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What's also sad is that a lot of these companies, like Viz, don't see that there is a big market for subbed animes and that it's all about volume. When these companies gouge or release stuff at a snail's pace, they send people to those who sell the Hong Kong DVD version. Many of us are willing to pay extra for quality as long as it's available and reasonable. I could have bought the Hong Kong DVD versions of Macross, but I waited and spent the extra for the Animeigo one and it was well worth it. I ain't so optimistic about Hokuto no Ken (Series and Movies), Macross the Movie, and Seikai no Monso among others.
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skullone
Posts: 104 Location: Greece |
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Specifically regarding Macross The Movie (DYRL), I've made a rather good fansub script, based on the "Perfect Edition" and using Animeigo's translations for the songs (except for "Ai, Oboete Imasu Ka?", "Tenshi No Enogu" and a few others, where I made some corrections). Of course, I give credit where it should be given. Anyone know where I should post it?
Oh, I must say that there is a problem: it's NOT timed. |
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cookie
Former ANN Editor in Chief
Posts: 2460 Location: Do not contact me for support. |
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I'd suggest here: http://www.animescripts.org/ There's also one here, but it hasn't been updated recently: http://www.fansubs.net/vault.html Not sure where other fansub script repositories are at... |
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10420 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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Well, they can't put it into the public domain since it doesn't belong to them. Technicly the instant they distribute it or give it away they have broken the law. I understand and agree with the sentiment but... |
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Jlbkwrm
Old Regular
Posts: 94 |
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I like www.scriptclub.org |
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