Fan subs are for people who do not have any opportunity or chances to watch the Anime in the version they would prefer. In some cases, when licenced, the International companies ruin the entire series to make it suitable for Western or American culture which for a true fans is a mess, of course.

I think I am sort of on the fence about this subject. I will say if it wasn't for fansubs, I would not have been able to try Code Geass. Now I buy the Limited Edition DVDs the second they come out. Code Geass does not come on Canadian television (which is sad), and it was a friend who recomended I give the series a try.


I should point out that hardly any anime is on television where I live. So I either view it online to try it out for free or I don't see it at all unless I buy a DVD sight unseen which I will never do. Considering the cost of an anime DVD, I have to try out a series first. Either through legal streams (I am not a fan of Crunchyroll though), or watching fansubs.
There are several DVDs I am going to put on my Christmas and birthday gift list and these series I would have never been able to evaluate if it was not for fansubs. When they cry (Higurashi), Gurren Lagann and Ouran high school host club, I never would put on my "must buy" list if it was not for fansubs.

I think it depends on what he viewer is looking for. Before a person ever goes to a fansub, have they ever bought an anime DVD in the past? Do they plan to in the future? Are they ever going to watch the episode again? I think that is what companies need to figure out to see what market legal add supported streaming is for.

I know for myself, I am looking to by anime DVDs. Fansubs just exposes me to anime that I could possibly buy. For some they are just looking for fansubs as a momentary form of entertainment and do not plan to buy DVDs at all.

So basically I think it is the mindset of the the person consuming the fansub. Some people if they are determined not to buy the DVDs, a company would not be really be losing a DVD sale in that case. Although the type who don't intend to buy DVDs ever would be good candidates to target ad supported streams. That way a company (and manga-ka), can make money off of that type of viewer.

So I guess at this point fansubs help me put money into the hands of the makers of anime. Since anime is not on television where I live anymore and I feel there is not enough series that are legally streamed that I am interested in.

It depends on the fansubber. There is some fanubber who ruined their fansub by putting unnecessary words/comments...

I think fansubs are great. Why? because I feel that they are part of what makes anime great! aside from the company that makes the anime I think fansubers are the lifeblood on the anime community, they provide us with a means to see something new BEFORE the english dubbing companies get their mittens all over them and fuck them up. Also I dont know about anyone else but i still support the naime even though Im a heavy dloader of fansubbed animes. what I do is this: I dload an anime...if i like it i continue to dload and watch it, I then store it on a portable drive and tell my mates who then watch it from me. When it comes here on dvd I buy it and deleat my dloaded copies from my hard-drive...I strongly urge any downloader to do the same if you are serious about helping anime stay alive ^^ peace

Definitely help!

Without fansubs, only the people in japan will see the latest animes, and buy the related merchandise. A fansub sometimes includes advertising, so they're good for industry too

I think they help the industry, because without fansubs and then subsequent fan communities, companies wouldn't have as good of an idea of what series to license based off of fan reaction.

Maybe not but they help us xd
an yeah im agree with this :On the official release side I don't have much to say other than that these are the releases that pay the Japanese creators for their work. Ultimately, this is the only way most anime creators can earn money from American audiences and I don't think there's anyone here that doesn't want anime studios to be able to earn a living.

But do the fansubs help the anime studios? Certainly there is a great deal of exposure and fanbase created by fansub releases that far excedes that of the current professional releases (I'm sure everyone here has felt burned for paying $30 for a DVD with 2 TV shows on it) but at the same time, how does that ultimately translate into sales? Do fansubs help or hurt anime?

It's a sticky issue, but overall, and in the way they are done it does hurt the industry. However if fansubbers were to say, only sub the first couple of episodes and force the watcher into a cliffhanger situation, then it, would surely help rather than hinder, however that's not the case. Fansubs are the continutation of a habit from the 1980s when the only way to obtain anime was underground VHS and laserdisc trading of translated Japanese titles, but that is no longer the case.

Secondly they are technically illegal under international copyright law, but just like music piracy, there are just too many participants to actively enforce it. In fact, last year Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a formal request to the United States to "help stop the unauthorized reproduction and distribution of Japanese animation online". However what the studios are doing to alleviate the "need" for fansubbing to those fans who want to see animes when they come out in Japan is to start running concurrent releases. Funimation and ADV have started to do this for a couple of their series. In the case of a certain series they were actually able to air the episode at the same exact time as it was being aired in Japan.

On the issue of having fansubs be more "accurate" that's definitely a "sometimes" issue. Sure some of the time the fansub may be more accurate, but most the time you are dealing with fluent Japanese speakers that are putting food on their table by accurately translating. Another note is that sometimes the "change" in the series is actually requested by the Japanese creators themselves. Of course there is also that one company that does some anime due to it's mission being to make cartoon that are suitable "for kids", you know which one I'm talking about, which does tend to go a little overboard with changing things, but for the most part the American studios try their hardest at accurately recreating a series to be understandable by a non-Japanese speaker.

Another one of the reasons people watch fansubs is due to the ease of access. I mean you just plop down at your keyboard and search for that series you're in the mood for right. No money down, no need to get cleaned up and drive somewhere, just you and your computer. One of the ways the American industry is also working at to alleviate this problem is to utilize streaming sites in a legal way. This is usually ad supported in one way or another, either being a banner on the site somewhere, or a commercial interruption, it lets you do it just like watching fansubs, while still allowing for money to find it's way back to the proper people. Netflix even allows for the renting and occasionally the streaming of certain anime series. Hulu has a number of anime titles available for streaming. Also the company website for Funimation, Anime Network (ADV), as well as a few others have streaming of certain series. In the case of manga, VIZ has manga reader applications for their manga as well.

Another argument I hear ocassionally is that manga artists are rich and famous and don't need any more money to pad their egos. However this argument couldn't be further from the truth. In fact any single person that holds a job in America is actually paid more than a Japanese mangaka or an animator. In fact if you convert the average pay rate, which is usually in the form of a monthly stipend for their work, and take into account the amount of hours spent on that work in that month, they are paid barely more than half of what the minimum wage was 2 years ago (back when it was $5.15)

In summation, fansubs are a net loss to the industry, and that is why the industry is so active in preventing them, and in getting Japanese series into the American market as quickly as possible.

Please fell free to private message me if you'd like to ask more in depth question, I'd love to answer them. I run a panel at many conventions about the effects that fansubs have on the industry and methods to watch your animes legally without breaking the budget, as well as methods on spotting bootlegs before it's too late.

Link to the news topic mentioned earlier: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-10-23/japan-asks-america-to-stop-illegal-net-releases-of-anime

To me, there's little difference between fan-subbed and industry-subbed anime. Don't get me wrong, when given the choice to sub or dub, I'm subbed all the way. But, if I get the gist of the original question right, it's the difference between a fan sub and the industry sub. It's my wish to see an anime the way it's meant to be seen. If Funimation and ADV can give me that, then I'll give them my dollars. If they can't, I'll stick to the fansubs.

This discussion leads to nothing because everyone has a different point of view and opinion. As long as there is fansubbing there will always be people who take advantage of it and watch their (upcoming) favorite Anime programmes for free for on a regular basis. And maybe if those few of us have saved some cash or can directly afford it, they're gonna f*&^%^in' buy it and finished...

There is nothing wrong with fansubbing in my opinion... physical theft or online privacy breaching is by far worse...

I think they help, not all anime get licensed so if they weren't subbed, a lot of people wouldn't even know about them, buy merchandise or enjoy it in general.
Also, a lot of people who watch fansubs go on to buy the anime if it's licensed.

It helps anime in general. People who enjoy the series generally end up supporting in some way or another.

Well, it helps because it allows everyone to watch the anime in better quality. Fansubs usually have better subs than the professionally released anime dvds which often have spelling mistakes or errors in their subbing.

I think fansubs help animes. See, the people who knows how to use internet are the ones who download fansubs. The ones that aren't so internet savvy, they watch it on TV. Either way, the anime gains much popularity through the internet via discussions from viewers. And ta-da, popular discussion makes more anime related stuff, toys, more episodes releases, etc. And in the end, it helps the japanese maker. It may take a while, but they really do help. And really, how else are the anime going to gain much popularity if its not available free to the public?

Well this maybe a bias cause I my self is a fansubber but In my opinion the only reason why anime are so popular now in the US. Is because of fansub if it's wasn't for them anime would only be known in japan and most anime fans watched fansub first before buying the dvd box set. well in my opinion it's more of a help.