Fansubbing: The Two Sides of Fan Subtitles

Today, in the 21st century, we can witness and say that there is competition everywhere, well, we are going to talk about fansub's. Analyzing the morphology of this word, we will see that it is an acronym for fan and subtitle, which come from English, which means 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 emerged among the communities otaku to specify groups that subtitle from Japanese to their native language. In our case, Portuguese. Generalizing and thus being able to be defined.

The work of a fansub

Fansubs subtitle anime from a foreign language to your native language as mentioned above. How is done? Well, today fansubs can translate Japanese/Portuguese, English/Portuguese, Spanish/Portuguese and Portuguese from Portugal to Portuguese from Brazil, but this is not in general, it will depend on who and the translator, as he may have knowledge about any language other than the native. And many, no matter what the language, value quality.

Fansub

How is the translation process?

The episode airs in Japan, and then someone will record it and post it on tracker's, como o nyaa.se. After that, the translator will download and subtitle to your native language. Using programs like Aegisub to subtitle. Then, and after the translation is ready, the translation will be posted on the fansub website. The translation chain is very varied, the most common being those listed below:

  1. japanese to english
  2. english to spanish
  3. spanish to portuguese

Who launches faster:

There are two types of translation, those known as speedsub and qualitysub. As the name says, the speedsub values the speed of the subtitles, while the qualitysub, which take longer, value the quality and final result.

Speedsub

The speedsub subtitles faster, that is, it comes out first. Well, now you must be thinking that speedsub can only translate from Japanese to Portuguese, but the answer is no. Well, this definition is up to the group that simply translates quickly into their native language, and this can be done from any foreign language, as in these groups there are no reviewers.

Some speedsub:

  • punch sub
  • Animakai
  • Visionfansub
  • Subproject
  • phoenix fasub

Fansub

Untranslatable

These are the ones that do everything in the smallest details, in the process of translation, revision and they also assign all the work of the karaoke production, because doing the timing Karaoke is a lot of work and takes a lot of time, because all the episodes, despite being the same opening and ending, have minimal changes in their timing.

Members are careful to create nice fonts and readable sizes. Because those who watched anime have the ability to recognize the fansub only by the subtitles, that, of course, if you have already seen any of their projects. These translate directly from Japanese, and also from other languages.

Some qualitysub:

  • Bruthais fansub (the only one that subtitled almost all of the Pokémon)
  • OMDA
  • MDAN
  • ANSK
  • Dollars
  • Kyoteru fansub
  • Subproject

Opposite side of fansub

There is still much more… those that 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 the vastest among this hierarchy, so to speak. These, in turn, do not give due credit to fansub's and team members.

Fansub

The article is still halfway through, but we recommend also reading:

reencode sites

Their job is to simply download the fansub episode, with a size that varies between HD 300MB and full HD 500MB, then compile 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 anime, 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 bad internet, who can't download or watch anime in HD and Full HD.

Some reencode sites:

Anbient (this is one of the rare exceptions, because they give due credit to fansub's, and, also, their website has no advertisements and, in addition, the quality of the episodes is incredible for a 100MB anime, being equal/similar to an episode in HD).

  • Sakura anime
  • anime vision
  • Anime xx
  • Hyuga download
  • Anime house (one of the oldest, existed since 2002 and closed in 2015)
  • Among many others...;

Fansub

Streamer

Some fansub's simply lose interest in doing translations on behalf of the streamer, as they often provide the episode without giving credits, and the streamers imply that they did all the work themselves. Streamers get a large audience for their convenience in being online, helping, again, those with lower internet.

Some streaming sites:

  • Animetube
  • Animesproject
  • animeyokai
  • Among many others...;

Fansub's work - team

Like any structure, an organization and division of tasks is necessary. In a fansub this is split and composed with:

  • administrator - Team leader;
  • raw-hunter – Search the video files as fast as possible;
  • a translator - Translates subtitles from English or Japanese to Portuguese;
  • timer – Responsible for putting the subtitles at the right time;
  • styler – Choose the fonts, colors and sizes of the subtitle text;
  • typersetter - In charge of the logo, credits and others;
  • karaoke maker - Responsible for the opening, ending and songs in the anime;
  • editor – Responsible for analyzing and choosing the best possible way and form of translation;
  • reviewer – Responsible for looking for typos and Portuguese;
  • encoder - Responsible for joining the subtitles with the video;
  • quality checker – Responsible for watching and reviewing every episode;
  • Upload - Member responsible for uploading the video;
  • Web Designer - Responsible for taking care of the website;

Conclusion

The work of a fansub is big and hard, 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 fansub's, lots of research and online discussions.

Despite being piracy, it's a good for the anime market, because many of us wouldn't know anime and maybe we wouldn't even have contact with Japanese culture. However, there are also legal options such as crunchyroll, an official anime streamer, helping her you will also be helping the anime industry and supporting the work of mangakas and various authors.

It was a light approach to the topic, in future articles, I will bring more related things.

Sources:

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