Fansubs: The Progression

Depending on how long you have been a part of the fandom, you have noticed the progression of the amount and quality of fansubs that have popped up over the years. Some have called this the greatest time to be a Tokusatsu fan. And I agree with this sentiment. More than ever, we have a wide variety of both fansubs and RAW shows out there, ranging from Sentai to Kamen Rider to Ultraman and even to less popular shows.

Now, I wasn't around for the "rough times" of the Toku fandom, where getting any episode, no matter if it was in sequence or not, either on vhs, bootleg HK dvd, or a low res video file was a blessing. But, from what I hear, we got it extremely easy now. After being in the fandom for a certain amount of time, you tend to pick up on tales of the wild wild west of the internet back in the mid to late 90s and sometimes stories from before the internet. I know, its hard to believe, huh?

But, even in the relatively short amount of time since I joined the fandom, around mid 2006, I have seen great change in the availability and the quality of Subbed content. There was basically only one big group that people turned to for Fansubs, TV Nihon. When I started watching, they already had a few fully subbed shows under their belt and were working on the current Sentai and Kamen Rider series along with a couple of non-Toei shows such as GARO and Ryukendo. There were a couple of other groups around that did a few other shows, but you would be lucky if they got one under their belt (I know this because I was a member of one of those groups. Anyone remember Elite Justice Fansubs? haha). But even then, if you wanted to watch a show that was older than 3-4 years old or wasn't Kamen Rider or Super Sentai, you had to rely on either Hong Kong subs (which were bootleg DVDs sold around Asia that were said to be translated from Japanese to Mandarin/Cantonese and then to English and it showed) or RAW files ripped from either DVDs, VHS, or rerun broadcasts. It definitely was a bit easier to get your hands on what you want, but we still lacked a good amount of decent quality subs.

Over the years, many groups have come and gone, trying their best to contribute to the fandom with subs that were clear and easy to read. But as some know, it takes much more than just the desire to get a show done to actually accomplish it. There are many factors, such as the amount of work and activities members of a given group have in their "offline" lives or just a matter of motivation to continue even when your download numbers aren't as high as you'd hope. A lot of elements factor into the release of just one episode, much less the completion of a 50 episode show. So it is no small feat to tackle when it comes to fansubbing.

There is also the issues of quality of both the translations of the show, the typesetting used, and the resolution of the video file that are constantly questioned by the fans. I know that I, myself, have gotten into heated yet thoughtful, discussions with folks like HJU members Kingranger and KouAidou about what we think should be considered a "full translation". And that discussion usually leads into or ties to the issue of typesetting and whether moving text and effects for karaoke and attack names enhance the subs or hinder them. The issue of resolution isnt really a big one as of yet, and has only arisen in the last couple of years through the ability to rip HD trasmissions or however that magic sorcery works.

And as people know, discussions sometimes do pay off. Now, more than ever, we have options as to what kind of subs we would like to invest our time and hard drive space to. For the current Kamen Rider and Sentai shows, Kamen Rider OOO and Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, we have at least 2 groups (TVN and OverTime subs) shelling out quality subs on a weekly basis. In HD and SD, no less. Both groups use different philosophies as far as subbing styles, so fans have a clearer choice. And along with that, we have a slew of other groups that seem to be releasing episodes of both older shows and more obscure shows. For example, after more than 10 years, we FINALLY have a full translation of Kamen Rider Kuuga, the show declared "cursed" by the fandom. And it was done by a small team called Midnight Crew Subs, apparently composed of a couple of insomniacs with a purpose. We also have Gao Soul Fansubs who have finished subbing Gaoranger and are well on their way to sub Sun Vulcan. I could name many groups that are doing great work. GUIS (Grown-Ups in Spandex) are almost done with Liveman along with working on Gokaiger and a couple of other projects. Hi no Tori have finished Kamen Rider Amazon and have quite a few shows on their plate. We also have groups like HON, OZ, KITsubs, etc who are all doing great work.

But of course, the fandom as a whole is still relatively young. And with that, comes the fact that there is still a lot to learn as far as systems on how to do things. Naming them all would elongate this article much longer than it already is. So I will only mention one which is probably the one that bugs me the most. This is just my opinion on things and I will mention group names just to get the point across. But that doesn't mean I think they are doing a horrible job necessarily. Just that they may have things to work on, as do all groups.

The main issue I see with fansub groups is that they spread themselves thin as far as workload goes. For example, TV Nihon is known for taking on projects outside of current airing shows that usually end up on the back-burner or sort of put on hold altogether. I know that right now, a lot of people are dying to see more Megaranger and Dairanger, along with the DVD releases of Kamen Rider Faiz. These are only the major ones that I hear about. Another group that seems to be on that path is Hi no Tori Fansubs. They started off real strong with Kamen Rider Amazon, since it was their only project at the time. But now it seems like after taking on Gingaman as their main project, they have tacked on more and more shows. They have up to 9 shows actively being worked on.

Now, I don't know how many members these groups have in total, or how many are working on each project. But the way I see it, fansub groups in general, not just TVN and HnT, would benefit a lot by focusing on one or two shows and seeing those to completion before picking up other shows. I know when I was at EJF, one thing that slowed us down aside from personal activities was trying to do one too many shows than what we were capable of handling with the amount of staff member we had at our disposal. There needs to be an end to the so called "race" to grabbing as many shows as possible under a given group's umbrella. It is a lot less efficient that way.

But, like I said before, this is not a slam at any group. I still believe we are in the best time as far as the Tokusatsu fandom is concerned. Information is readily available at a moment's notice. Fansubs are being released in a wide variety of styles and techniques. RAWs are being provided by the butt-load. And we all are able to enjoy what we love whenever we want. It's great being a Tokusatsu fan.