Anime fans have always wanted the quickest access to the latest shows. However, since the shows are created in Japan that process is a little more difficult than simply turning on the TV. Yet some fans take it upon themselves to translate and distribute these anime series to others in a process that has come to be known as fansubbing.
Anime in the 90s
In the early 1990s anime production grew in Japan, but despite the sudden proliferation of titles there were very few shows released in the American market. Most anime fans did not have regular access to these shows, so some fans decided to take it upon themselves to share their favorite anime with fellow fans. Groups would come together to translate favorite shows, attach their own subtitles and distribute these shows to other fans. This came to be called fan subtitling, or fansubbing.
The Purpose of Fansubbing Anime
There were two purposes for this. First was the previously mentioned intent of a fan to share something that he enjoyed with others who probably did not have access to it. The other purpose was to create a demand. By distributing these shows to other anime fans, these people were creating a fan base. With the fan base came a greater demand for the original material.
VHS fansubs tended to be of a much lower quality than licensed VHS tapes of the anime series. Because of this, what the fans really wanted was the ability to buy their favorite anime on a higher quality tape. The more fans that were created through a fansub, the more potential consumers there were for both the American and Japanese consumers to consider.
Digital Fansubs
The problem with the original VHS fansubs lay in how expensive they were to produce. This documentary posted on YouTube lists all the materials needed for a fansubber to put his own subtitles on a show: a laser disc player along with laser discs of the anime, video tape recorders, a computer and a program like Sub Station Alpha which the translator would use to put the subtitles on the screen. But as technology evolved, the process of subtitling anime became much simpler. All that is required now is a computer, an easy to use subtitling program and digital copies of the raw Japanese version of the anime, which many residents of Japan upload onto the internet themselves.
With the rise of digital fansubs, fans no longer had to purchase or trade for expensive VHS tapes in order to view fansubtitled anime. They simply needed to use a program such as BitTorrent or IRC to download the shows directly onto their computers. This also lead to a rise in the number of people who were creating fansubs, and incidentally an increase in the number of fansubs available to anime fans. However, this also came about when the legal distribution of anime in America on a rise, leading to what continues to be an ongoing debate of the necessity of anime fansubs in the present day.
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