In part 1 I covered the classic point of view. Things like translation, editing, timing, quality checking or encoding are regarded to as important. But let’s look at the situation from a different point of view. Let’s “Think outside the box.” Is it really just the “classic” things that make a group good in your opinion?
Speed
Many people actually rate groups higher on AniDB when they release anime shortly after the episode aired (with “reasonably” good translation, timing, and all that stuff). People are more forgiving about inconsistencies or errors they spot in such releases “because they’re fast”.
So if you’re fast, you’re allowed to have some errors in your release and (nearly) nobody will blame you. On the other hand, if you’re slow, people just expect high quality subs. The rating of that group will go below the one of the speedsub, even if the quality would be the same. Shouldn’t the groups have the same rating then? Apparently speed matters. (Rating. There are rating systems like the one on AniDB of course, or it could also be just your personal rating of a specific group. The above statement is confirmed by Kalessin’s comment.)
Consistency
This is actually regarded to as really important by many, many people. Consistency simply means that you stay consistent with editing, timing, etc. throughout the whole episode, the whole season, or even all anime the group has ever worked on.
Let me show you a few examples. Consistency means…
…you watch out that particular people in the anime always use the same particular phrases when they say the same phrase in Japanese.
…the styling is the same across all episodes.
…to always use the same timing style, even if different timers work on the project.
People can be more forgiving about strange translations if they’re just consistent. For example, some group translates Nee-san, Onee-san and Onee-sama all as just “Sis” (Nobue-oneechan –> Sis Nobue) — while this may not be perceived as the proper way to translate them, if the group always sticks to “Sis” many people will not care since it’s at least consistent.
Reputation / Market Dominance / Prominence
Overrated. Many groups have a high rating on sites like AniDB, people commonly acknowledge them as quality groups, but in reality they’re not really that good. Especially people who have been involved in fansubbing know that plenty groups which fit that profile do exist. The point is, they do not produce quality (nearly) as high as people say they do, but they have a large fanbase thanks to e.g. releasing fast with seemingly good quality while it’s not really quality (simplification of the translation etc.), and so the group will get praised for doing average releases.
The same goes for “quality groups” (when they take too much time). For example, a group was a quality group some years ago, but now most of the core staff disappeared and the rest of the staff desperately tries to keep the group alive, even though if that means that the releases would be “just” average or subpar.
Underrated. Reputation can mean something else too. If your group is known for fast releases you’ll be called a speedsubber and many people will avoid you because they have that common attitude that speedsubs equal bad sub quality. Even if your releases are close to or already considered quality subs, there’s a high chance it won’t get acknowledged (any time soon at least).
Quite a lot of people don’t even compare groups and just go with the one that has the best “reputation” or rating on AniDB.
A more up-to-date example would be a.f.k. subbing Haruhi S2. Approximately half the people who were watching Haruhi when it was airing waited for a.f.k. to release their sub because they did S1 and they were reliable. This also leads me to the next term:
Reliability
Doesn’t matter if the group is the best or the fastest. Many groups just drop anime out of the blue, promise to pick up anime and then release the first episode 2 months later just to tell everyone that they lost interest in working on it and are going to drop it… So reliability can indeed be something very important. When you know that a group promises to not drop any anime and finish it no matter what, like Yabai, that’s a big plus for some people (like Hamlon).
But mainly people understand under the term “reliability” groups that release at the same time every week in the usual quality.
Selection
When a group does a single genre of anime, they earn an image of doing only that genre. Others, who select a variety of anime from different sources, such as shoujo, mecha, or even sport, can develop and expand the group’s fanbase. Is it only the responsibility of those on staff to choose the series? And what about the series that fall through the cracks? Should we cooperate more as fansubbers? How important is it to offer a variety of different anime?
Softsubs VS Hardsubs (Hardsubs meaning that karaoke and TS is hardsubbed, dialogue being softsubbed, though!)
“They’re no good cause they hardsub their TS and karaoke.”
“Even though they’re better, they hardsub, so I’m gonna choose this other group which does full softsubs.”
These and other arguments are often mentioned. Doing softsubs has become a new trend. Quite a few groups switched from hardsubs to softsubs, new groups often do only softsubs right from the start. Surely one positive thing to mention is that you can skip some parts in the subbing workflow which ultimately results in the group releasing the anime faster.
Viewers often state they prefer softsubs because they can e.g.
– change the subs if there’s something they don’t like
– manually fix editing errors or timing errors
There’s are some big buts too, though.
– softsubbed typesetting is very limited compared to After Effects (e.g. smoothly moving signs and zooming, 3d effects, special effects)
– softsubs can be very CPU-intense, dragging down the overall performance and making the video unplayable in the worst case
I’m not intending to start a flamewar Softsub VS Hardsubs here. It’s just another factor many people regard to as very important. Softsubs? Hardsubs? Or a mix? What’s the best solution to make as many people as possible happy?
I guess just as you can hype movies or more recently even computer games, the same can apply to anime — and fansubbing groups. Though sometimes the hype turns out to be true, too. My question to you is quite simple,
What do YOU think is most important in a fansub from the abstract point of view? What’s maybe equally important or the 2nd most important thing?
Loading ...