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Anime in big trouble?
- Thread starter Ryo Chan
- Start date
This is something I have never understood; if you understand Japanese so well that you think the fansub is a better translation then why watch it subbed at all? I am not getting at you specifically, just the mindset. As far as I can tell most fansubs work off a "cheat-sheet" with a set of translations that always apply regardless of context (not all by any stretch but many). Official translations always try and interpret the translation in regards to the context. The basic difference is that the professional subs (to label them apart from fansubs) do not assume a knowledge on the part of the watcher with regards to the intricacies of Japanese and try to make the process more accessible to all watchers. By no means am I saying that all professional subs are perfect (many are not) and all fansubs are worthless but a great majority of both are just that.Hokum said:My main issue is when i buy a DVD and realise the fan sub was more accurate and in keeping with the show than the retarded DVD subs!
I used to believe fansubs had little to no major affect on the inudstry (at least the R1 industry), but realising how many people I know appear to be into anime and avoid buying it has somewhat changed my previous belief.
I'd be willing to bet there would be a noticeable change (regardless how small) in UK anime DVD sales if every anime "fan" who currently only watches fansubs suddenly started buying the stuff instead.
The major problem with our market though is the lack of advertising (something that's been brought up too many times to count) and good titles that are currently being displayed in the highstreet. I can understand why you don't get entire rows of anime in places like HMV, but displaying the crap stuff isn't going to help boost sales.
I'd be willing to bet there would be a noticeable change (regardless how small) in UK anime DVD sales if every anime "fan" who currently only watches fansubs suddenly started buying the stuff instead.
The major problem with our market though is the lack of advertising (something that's been brought up too many times to count) and good titles that are currently being displayed in the highstreet. I can understand why you don't get entire rows of anime in places like HMV, but displaying the crap stuff isn't going to help boost sales.
Gawyn said:This is something I have never understood; if you understand Japanese so well that you think the fansub is a better translation then why watch it subbed at all? I am not getting at you specifically, just the mindset. As far as I can tell most fansubs work off a "cheat-sheet" with a set of translations that always apply regardless of context (not all by any stretch but many). Official translations always try and interpret the translation in regards to the context. The basic difference is that the professional subs (to label them apart from fansubs) do not assume a knowledge on the part of the watcher with regards to the intricacies of Japanese and try to make the process more accessible to all watchers. By no means am I saying that all professional subs are perfect (many are not) and all fansubs are worthless but a great majority of both are just that.Hokum said:My main issue is when i buy a DVD and realise the fan sub was more accurate and in keeping with the show than the retarded DVD subs!
I don't quite understand the "cheat-sheet" thing, I've never heard of it. I've heard that in recent times fansubbers are getting access to 'closed-captions' that they can do translations from, so the quality is better than trying to hear what the characters are saying.
Of course, I don't really have any idea if this is a new thing or if it's been happening for years.
What I mean by a "cheat sheet" is that they often take one literal translation for a phrase/word and use that one particular translation in every instance of that regardless of whether the translation fits the context. As I said this happens (or appears to) in a great many fansubs and does not try to interpret the actual meaning, as many professional (corporate) subtitles do. Context is often very important when understanding what is actually being said in Japanese where a phrase in one context could have a very different implication in another.melonpan said:I don't quite understand the "cheat-sheet" thing, I've never heard of it. I've heard that in recent times fansubbers are getting access to 'closed-captions' that they can do translations from, so the quality is better than trying to hear what the characters are saying.
Of course, I don't really have any idea if this is a new thing or if it's been happening for years.