Today, in the 21st century, we can witness and say that there is competition everywhere, well, we will talk about fansub’s. Analyzing the morphology of this word, we will see that it is an acronym of fan (fan) and subtitle (subtitle) which are derived from English, meaning subtitled by fans, that is, non-profit.
Fansub is the designation for a group of people who translate something from a different language to their native language, not specifically from Japanese to Portuguese. However, this term arose among otaku communities to specify groups that subtitle from Japanese to their native language. In our case, Portuguese. Generalizing, it can thus be defined.
Table of Contents
The work of a fansub
Fansubs subtitle animes from a foreign language to their native language as mentioned earlier. How is it done? Well, today fansubs can translate Japanese/Portuguese, English/Portuguese, Spanish/Portuguese, and Portuguese from Portugal to Brazilian Portuguese, but this is not general, it will depend on who and the translator, as they may have knowledge of another language besides their native one. And many, regardless of the language, value quality.
What is the translation process like?
The episode is aired in Japan, and then someone will record it and post it on trackers, like nyaa.se. After that, the translator will download and subtitle it to their native language. Using programs like Aegisub to subtitle. Then, after the translation is ready, it will be posted on the fansub’s website. The translation chain is quite varied, with the most common being listed below:
- Japanese to English
- English to Spanish
- Spanish to Portuguese
Who releases faster:
There are two types of translation, known as speedsub and qualitysub. As the name suggests, speedsub values the speed of releasing subtitles, while qualitysub, which takes longer, values quality and final result.
Speedsub
Speedsubs subtitle faster, that is, they come out first. Well, you might be thinking that speedsubs can only translate from Japanese to Portuguese, but the answer is no. This definition applies to the group that simply translates quickly to their native language, and this can be done from any foreign language, as there are no reviewers in these groups.
Some speedsubs:
- Punchsub
- Animakai
- Visionfansub
- Subproject
- Fênix fasub
Qualitysub
These are the ones that do everything in the smallest details, in the translation process, review, and they also handle all the work of karaoke production, as doing the timing of karaoke is a big task and takes a lot of time, as all episodes, despite having the same opening and ending, have minimal changes in the timing of these.
The members take care to create pleasant fonts and readable sizes. Because those who watch animes have the ability to recognize the fansub just by the subtitle, that is, of course, if they have seen any of their projects. These translate directly from Japanese, and also from other languages.
Some qualitysubs:
- Bruthais fansub (the only one that subtitled almost all of Pokémon)
- OMDA
- MDAN
- ANSK
- Dollars
- Kyoteru fansub
- Subproject
The opposite side of fansubs
There is still much more… those we will mention have almost no work in the production of the episode, they simply distribute the episode on reencode sites and streamers, these are more widespread in this hierarchy, so we can say. These, in turn, do not give due credit to the fansub’s and team members.
Reencode sites
Their job is simply to download the episode from the fansub, with a size ranging from HD 300MB to fullHD 500MB, then compile it to a smaller size, around 70 to 80 MB, and upload it to a server, making it available for download. Reencode sites have a vast amount of animes, however, with lower quality than fansub’s. These, at least, usually give credit to the groups that do the translations, despite being a salvation for people with poor internet, who cannot download or watch animes in HD and Full HD.
Some reencode sites:
Anbient (this is one of the rare exceptions, as they give due credit to fansub’s, and also, their site has no ads and, in addition, the quality of the episodes is incredible for a 100MB anime, being equal/similar to an HD episode).
- Sakura animes
- Animes vision
- Animes cx
- Hyuuga download
- Anime house (one of the oldest, existed since 2002 and closed in 2015)
- Among many others..;
Streamer
Some fansub’s simply lose interest in doing translations because of the streamer, as many times they provide the episode without giving credit, and the streamers imply that they did all the work alone. Streamers manage to attract a large audience due to their convenience of being online, helping, again, those with inferior internet.
Some streaming sites:
- Animetube
- Animesproject
- animeyokai
- Among many others..;
The work of the Fansub – team
Like any structure, organization and division of tasks are necessary. In a fansub, this is divided and composed of:
- administrator – Team leader;
- raw-hunter – Searches for video files as quickly as possible;
- translator – Translates the subtitle from English or Japanese to Portuguese;
- timer – Responsible for timing the subtitles correctly;
- styler – Chooses the fonts, colors, and sizes of the subtitle text;
- typersetter – In charge of the logo, credits, and others;
- karaokemaker – Responsible for the opening, ending, and songs in the anime;
- editor – Responsible for analyzing and choosing the best way and form of translation possible;
- reviewer – Responsible for looking for typing and Portuguese errors;
- encoder – Responsible for merging the subtitles with the video;
- quality checker – Responsible for watching and reviewing the entire episode;
- Upload – Member responsible for uploading the video;
- Web Designer – Responsible for managing the website;
Conclusion
The work of a fansub is large and arduous, and unfortunately, there are those who take over the work of others, but not everyone is like that! Everything said here comes from years of relationship with these anime sites and with fansub’s, many research, and online discussions.
Although it is piracy, it is a benefit to the anime market, as many of us would not know about animes and might not even have contact with Japanese culture. However, there are also legalized options like Crunchyroll, an official anime streamer, helping it you will also be helping the anime industry and supporting the work of mangakas and various authors.
This was a light approach to the topic, in future articles, I will bring more related things.
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