It helps the anime. Like if the anime is good with fansubs then it will great with dub later release in the US.

There have been recent studies showing that the type of people who bootleg music are the same type of people who generally will be spending more money on music. A person who is passionate about anime or whatever is like a big cake. (use pie if you want, I don't like pie) They are willing to spend lots of time, money on the thing they love. Some of that cake might be going to fansubbing but it's still a big cake. There should be a focus on making a bigger cake for rather than trying to take the entire cake.

1 download ≠ 1 lost sale

Personally, I think it does. There are some things in fansubs that you can't find in the original translations.

Besides, if a series is fansubbed and proven to be a good series cause of the dialogue, people will eventually want the official thing to come out of their country and buy it. xP

I'm indifferent about fansubs. I have read some terrible fansubs that destroy the anime, but some others, in which i have wrote myself, I feel help bring others to the anime. So I guess it depends on what is discussed in the sub.

I prefer fansubs...some of them can be a bit inaccurate like for example when an anime character says "Arigatou" lol the fansub wrote "Your welcome" which was wrong and for those that know it should know that it means "Thank you". All you need to do is know which fansub groups do the best subs, a way to know what good subs are is to actually know a few japanese yourself not only that but also the texts they use

If it's hard to read like to bright or lame fonts then stay clear from those groups..

alot better than dubs...anyway..

Pretty helpful most of the time.

It really depends on the quality of the subs. But in general it helps for those who can't stand english dubbing haha.

I'd have to go with they help. Sure, they are going to see diminished sales of anime from people downloading instead of buying the dvd's, but they'll get increased sales due to increased reach. There are many shows that I would have never seen or heard of had it not been for fansubs. Not only that but professional subs tend to be less than great. However I do make an effort to purchase any series that I have downloaded, watched, and enjoyed, to help support then, and so I can say "yeah, I have that." Not to mention, many series will never hit stores in the US, or have an english dub, which means no professional sub. Look at Ninku, awesome series, never hit the states. As with many others. However, from series that I liked, I will search out others that the company produced and watch them, and they may hit the states, which increases the likelihood of me buying the dvds.

The anime as a show, helps a bunch.

But as you pointed out, it keeps people from actually buying the DVD, so it hurts the producers. But... you can support in other ways like... buying merchandise and such.

I think I should point out that there are two types of fansubbing groups

The first type is the one that will take the risk to invest time and work on a new and unknown anime without any popularity or following, simply because they want to bring some attention to a show they believe is going to be good according to their taste. If the show gets a good name and it's licensed, they feel their work is done and they don't translate it and distribute it anymore.

Haruhi suzumiya is an example of a show that was aided by the popularity it was given due to such a fansubbing group, as it was considered to be too "japanese" to survive the western market without some help. Deathnote likewise, the group that started working on it dropped it about half way through as the shows value was recognised and its distribution rights were bought by an american company.

The second type is the one that will simply take over where the first stopped, counting to feed on the existing popularity of a show and disrespecting the licensing. They baselessly use the "we try to promote" excuse.

A typical example is Naruto that was immensely popular over the internet after its initial first and second season, that has since been worked on by countless fansubbing groups simply because it was.. Naruto! In the case of Deathnote, some may remember that the group that took over after the original group stopped (due to license), had as a banner on their website reading "yes we sub Deathnote".

Groups that rip and distribute anime that have been released on dvd outside Japan are simply thieves.

I personally think fansubs aren't a problem at all. I prefer fansubs over the subs found in DVDs etc. mainly because they are somewhat more entertaining to read and often more accurate as well.

I find fansubs to be a lot better because they are making it because they love the anime they are fansubbing it for, not just to make money like companies that use subtitles in DVDs. As long as they get the money they don't really care about how accurate it is.

I would have a really hard time watching anime without subs, and since internet is born it is very hard to wait for the release of the DVDs.
Anime is an addictive thing and there are so many released that a fan can only buy a few DVDs a year, while keeping in mind to buy the rest next year.
So overall I think fansub teams are doing a great job in providing us with our crack :)

I find fansubs pretty helpful. Its one way to learn a language right?? You learn while you are watching something entertaining. Nothing wrong about that.

Of course to some anime creators it can be annoying. But if its broadening the audience even more than to just Japan, then surly it is a good thing. Its extra advertising really.

Animestash.info is mostly fan subs. I havn't had any problem with it. Besides the anime episodes with fan subs are usually on that free site. I'll pick fan subs over eng dub any day.

There are a lot of myths about fansubs.

No, they don't help the industry simply because an industry has to make money to survive. It's not an opinion, it's a fact. If studios can't make a profit they really will go out of business.

So don't just watch fansubs, buy lots of licensed anime (even if you don't like the localized version), too!