Question about fansubs/official subs (what sucks and what doesn't)

I haven't watched Anime in a long time (\~15 years) (I'm still reading translated mangas though) and trying to get back into it. I grew up watching only fansubbed content, and remember that there were huge differences in translation quality.

I still remember plenty of discussion about the fansubs of different groups, they're translation philosophies, etc.

But today I can't find any information about that sort of thing. Many releases have official subtitles from netflix etc., which seem to be rather bad translations by my standards (too "westernized", too inaccurate, no translator notes)

Are there any websites/groups where the quality/difference of fansubs is discussed and where I might even find those subs? Or are people just using netflix/crunchyroll-subtitles nowadays?

Voir le contenu lié

Commentaires

N7CombatWombat2026-01-23 15:44

There are a few fansub groups still working on content that doesn't get picked up outside Japan, but up until recently the "official" subs had gotten good enough for most people, so instead of fansub groups you get groups that just rip the entire episode, subs included, from a streaming service. Fansub groups might make a comeback though, streaming services starting to shift towards AI and other machine translation methods recently has soured a lot of people.

Madaniel_FL2026-01-23 16:21

>streaming services starting to shift towards AI and other machine translation methods recently has soured a lot of people.

That part is funny cause anime pirates were asking for AI subs.

N7CombatWombat2026-01-23 17:13

Not exactly, some anime fans that lean American right wing (and similar) were (and still are) asking for AI subs. Not every anime fan who pirates, or every anime fan period.

lunadiparmigiano2026-01-23 15:48

Personally, since Netflix and Crunchyroll started getting bigger and bigger with anime, I noticed that quality of subs becaming basically on par with fansubs. I suspect that they hired some fansubber because of how they seemed to actually know about anime culture and Japanese culture in general, whereas old translators pretty much erased anthing Japanese they found.

But I have to say that lately quality is declining. As another user said, they are shifting towards machine translations, which are sometimes good but are still making a lot of mistakes (and are even worse than older translators).

Xanill2026-01-23 16:14

nothing to suspect, because they did hire fansubbers in the past (around 10-15 years ago)

No_Cockroach24672026-01-23 15:49

>Many releases have official subtitles from netflix etc., which seem to be rather bad translations by my standards (too "westernized", too inaccurate, no translator notes)

Just read it in the original Japanese, then.

1000-MAT2026-01-23 18:12

Fansubs are dead, piracy killed them.

N7CombatWombat2026-01-23 22:59

The rise of streaming services in general and global anime streaming in particular is what drastically reduced the number of fansub groups because multiple members of those groups were hired to do subtitles professionally, and the quality of those official subs got good enough for most people to not want to seek out fansubs. Hell, fansub groups are the creators of anime piracy, from old school VHS bootlegging to early internet newsgroups. There just simply wouldn't be anime piracy without dedicated fans volunteering their time and expertise back in the day.

CommentStrict89642026-01-23 18:33

I can't really agree with your statement.

You claim fansubs are better but there is a reason why keikaku means plan.

And that only scratches the surface of badly done fansubs.

N7CombatWombat2026-01-23 23:03

You had to do your research on fansub groups back then to find the good ones for sure, but, due to the time commitment involved in the complete process of fansubbing anything. I'd say that there were more good fansub groups than bad in the early days.