Do fansubs help or hurt anime?

~OmegaVulkan

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:11:38 -0500

Although anime is starting to take a better turn in America, it's not quite there yet. Some shows, once Americanized, are no longer suitable for the original targeted audience. Sometimes a lot of content is cut, character names changed, meanings lost, etc. The American anime industry is working towards trying to fix this but even then people still aren't satisfied, flaming English dubs and the like claiming English casts are impossible to listen to and that the voice acting is absolutely terrible, regardless of how good it actually is. Haters gotta hate and fanboys will always be around. Fansubs and scanlations are still the quickest way to get translated, unmolested anime content.

We should still support our local anime industry and purchase shows we like once released in our respective regions. No matter how far the anime industry advances fansubs will still be around.

PS. America needs more Blu-Ray anime.

~FLiPMaStAZ

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:10:45 -0500

There's always pros and cons to fansubs

Fansubs does help spread anime to a wider range of audiences (i.e. people who do not speak or do not understand Japanese) and makes it more easily accessible to people, thus, making anime more popular. However, fansubs usually stops people from actually buying the anime dvds, etc. Fansubs can help popularize an anime and that in term causes more people to get interested in that particular anime and then a decent percentage of those people buy the dvds.

~edison12345

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:41:35 -0500

Fansubs both hurt and help anime.
it can help becuase, non-japan people can watch the anime quickly and early and sometime when other country liscense the anime, they might edit it and cut parts of dues to too much violent or they just don't like it.

it hurt anime because it affect the anime industry, people are less likely to buy anime if they seen it.

~darkhriss

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:07:23 -0500

I don't really care how much money the studios are making, as long as they don't care about releasing anime in more countries. I can't find any anime dvds in mine, so what choice do I have? Even if I like it or not, fansubs are the only solution.

Now to answer your question, if we think about all countries, not just America or other few countries where anime dvds are released, I think fansubs actually helps the producers. That anime is getting more popular, and it can't be a bad thing. For example, we can at least find manga here, so if I like a an anime, I would like to buy the manga. ( even if I don't, because it's too expensive, but that's another story. Anyways, I have a lot of friends that buy tons of manga, just because they liked the anime, and that's because they had fansubs, right? )

~xkianloongx

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:30:15 -0500

No fansub = popularity down, $$ burned, less happy people
fansub = popularity up, save $$, more happy people\
that what i think

~anonicakes

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:42:54 -0500

I think Fansubs definitely help anime.

Fansubs generate hype for anime before the series are released, and are in most cases a great form of free advertising. It's also an easy way for companies to track what series are popular or not before licensing them, by recognizing trends.

Even if they don't sell quite as many DVD's in some cases, people who watches the series via sub can recommend them to friends who do buy DVD's - and are also more inclined to buy merchandise.

~Miyosan

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:52:40 -0500

Fansubs help spread anime. Also, like it's been said already here, the subs are better and they give certain cultural information. Also, they don't leave out the "-san"s and "-sama"s etc >w> and the OP and END sometimes have karaoke versions as well.

So far, the only anime i watched on DVD here with good subs(borrowed from friend) is Claymore. The subs were decent, but halfway through, it looked like they direct translated from the chinese subs (it had english, chinese and malay subs options)=A+" And in Ponyo, the subs were so bad i could hardly understand a single thing hence i couldnt connect with the show at all!! And i read good reviews bout it too...gosh...what a let down >3>.

My verdict: Fansubs help! All hail em!!TTATT*tears of joy~*

~arzul27

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:55:27 -0400

The fansubs never hurt anime..Instead, anime really need fansubs to step further and further..

~ROLililala1618

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:51:01 -0400

I totally love fansubs. They help promote "unpopular" animes to light. Some animes wouldn't be so well-known outside Japan if it hadnt been to fansubs. Like what several people had mentioned, fansubs also add some insights with the editor notes etc. Like in School Rumble, the fansubs tend too add some of the editor's opinions in the story, which just make the series more hilarious ^ ^

~PixieGrue

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:06:15 -0400

If it weren't for fansubs, I would not have been here. I'm situated in South Africa, and the only thing showing on tv is Dragonball Z! It is a great way of advertising and spreading anime.
Being a rookie, I cannot really comment on the quality of the subtitles - I just know even bad translations are better than the dubbed stuff that makes its appearance, eugh.
It is really, really hard to get hold of anime here, and if you do, it is totally overpriced. Ordering via internet is not recommended, due to the dubious reliability of our postal service. The pay-as-you-watch approach is not really an option either, as our bandwith struggle to keep up with such a load. However, anime watchers are known for their obsessions, thus, whenever something becomes available, or someone visits overseas, the orders stream in.
I am little-dog-tongue-lolling-out grateful for fansubs. It is my key to my new world, and I will support the industry by buying the original whenever I can.

~Spaki

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:40:41 -0400

I honestly would have never been introduced to certain anime titles if weren't for fansubs. Thanks them, my world was opened to a variety shows that I wouldn't have realized actually existed if it weren't for them.

In my opinion, it can ultimately help if the show itself is really good. Of course, if it's really bad, and I see that via fansub, then there's little to no chance of me wasting my money on such an atrocity. But on the other hand, if its great, I'll watch the series, perhaps buy the DVD (I have to really like it) and buy the merchandise. Sure, DVD sales are great, but you can't tell me fans aren't going to buy their favorite characters as a plush doll or a figurine or other variety of merchandise.

I also want to point out that it'll increase sales of their manga counterparts if it's readily available. I sure do enjoy reading it better than watching it sometimes.

~Hana18

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:22:31 -0400

Well, I think they are very useful to find new information about series, wallpapers, to watch videos because in my country Costa Rica to buy a dvd it's too expensive

~Masta-sama

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:57:35 -0400

Of course, it helps! Because they do not need to wait official subs!

~PurpleMaiden

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:25:29 -0400

Fansubs hurt real bad if they're not properly conducted! Official subs are less faulty and less hazardous to health 80% fansubs hurt!

~Angeruze

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:04:16 -0400

Nothing new to be said, but I really like this question.

Personally I love fansubs, wouldn't have watched more than half of my favorite animes without them.

From the standpoint of anime as a culture, fansub is great. It's faster and wider (thanks to internet) in distributing than the commercial model. People from all over the world watch different anime that probably would not be accessible to them (exceptions apply), and acquire culture in that way.

From the industry standpoint it helps in advertising and... hurts in everything else.
As internet makes distribution faster, and people post their own reviews, recommendations, etc. Anime gets known.
It also gets downloaded and the creators don't profit from it at all (talking about the selling of the animation itself, as people who dl fansubs many times buy anime related merch), distributors don't get their share and most of the sponsors don't get anything from it cause we don't live in Japan (McDonalds, SE, Sony and other sponsors excluded).

~Tsuzuki

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:43:30 -0400

Both. Some anime I would not have bought if I hadn't seen the fansubbed version and liked it enough to buy the actual series. But it works in reverse too. People, including myself, will just substitute fansubs for the actual legit DVDs and just watch that instead.