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Commercial Anime Fansubs – Just a Matter of Time?

Wannabe Fansubs Ad 02.jpgWannabe Fansubs Ad 03.jpgWannabe Fansubs Ad 04.jpg

Whilst watching the Wannabe Fansubs version of School Rumble Ni Gakki, I noticed an “ad” for the group. After the episode, a short video promoting the Wannabe Fansubs website and forums showed up. While this particular plug didn’t feel obtrusive at all to me, it did make me wonder about the possibility for fansub groups to stick other ads in their work.

Wannabe Fansubs Ad 02.jpgWannabe Fansubs Ad 03.jpgWannabe Fansubs Ad 04.jpg

Whilst watching the Wannabe Fansubs version of School Rumble Ni Gakki, I noticed an “ad” for the group. After the episode, a short video promoting the Wannabe Fansubs website and forums showed up. While this particular plug didn’t feel obtrusive at all to me, it did make me wonder about the possibility for fansub groups to stick other ads in their work.

Certainly the time and money it takes to release a fansub is not trivial. I believe most groups get by with generous donations from the anime-viewing community. But what if groups decided to stick ads in their releases? Would you keep watching? I don’t think I’d mind too much, especially if they were necessary for the group to remain operational.

I know it’s a touchy subject, and I’m certainly not suggesting anime fansubs actually start having ads. I think it’s an interesting topic ethics-wise, and marketing-wise. Here’s my thoughts:

Reasons that fansubs will eventually have ads:

  • Viewers really won’t mind (and can fast forward them anyway)
  • Subbers need the money to create subs (mostly to pay translators)

Reasons that fansubs will never have ads:

  • Viewers would really mind
  • Fansubs are illegal anyway; this would increase tensions between anime companies and fansub groups even more!
  • No legitimate company would advertise on an anime fansub

Like I said, this is totally a “what if” situation I’m proposing. I have a feeling that the backlash associated with a fansub group putting ads in their release would be monumental. I just wanted to know what other people thought of the idea. I’d also like to note that this is in no way an attack at Wannabe Fansubs. In fact, I really dig their work. Go to wannabefansubs.net and their forums!

9 replies on “Commercial Anime Fansubs – Just a Matter of Time?”

Reasons that fansubs will never have ads:
– Fansubs are illegal anyway; this would increase tensions between anime companies and fansub groups even more!

this alone would suffice to say there won’t be commercial ads

by unwritten rule state that fansub groups make release for free to promote the series and didn’t make profit from that
and company will let them release as long as it didn’t hurt company’s business (stop when licensed)

There’s definitely something wrong with the whole “by fans for fans” thing when the fansub groups need to pay people to make the subs (as opposed to needing to pay for things like bandwidth or XDCC bots).

“(mostly to pay translators)”

Solution: Get another translator. Can’t find one, oh well, no sub than. Its no longer a ‘fan’sub when the translator is expecting pay, there are jobs for that.

Seriously…I think it is a light hearted approach to unite all Sukuran fans so that we can enjoy ourselves and the show under 1 roof. I mean…seriously…listen to all those cheesy noises and quips in the background.
The WF forums are or were supremely lively during the Sukuran 1st Season days and we wish to continue it even now. It’s all to make your experience more worth while IMHO

WF does their animes differently and I am sure all of you guys notice that.
It has nothing to do with more fame or more popularity or more money. Sure getting some of them would be a nice bonus, who doesn’t want em?

WF has never to my knowledge asked for donations. In fact, they had to put through a lot of crap when Media Factory came along to join the party, late in 2004.

So…in retrospect, don’t just love it…live it !!!

“Commercial fansubs” would be a rather stupid idea, at least as far as I’m concerned. For one, it would definitely cross the line between “promoting” anime and actually profiting from it, regardless of what the group spends the money on (besides, I don’t think any company would be as stupid as to officially sponsor something that’s so blatantly illegal).

Two, the “selling point” of fansubs is that they’re free – that’s the reason they’re so popular, and also the reason they get away with many things (like often shoddy translation or picture/sound quality, etc.). People download and enjoy fansubs because they have nothing to lose by doing so, but start asking them to pay for it and they’ll start having expectations because hey, everyone wants to have quality for their money. (At least I do.) And really, if one decides to pay for subs then one might as well either buy the official release (which will have better picture/sound quality and there’s a bigger chance for good, accurate translation) or just buy a bootleg release.

For the record, I don’t see any problems with the “ads” you linked – as long as the banners are on the group’s home page they’re completely fine. As for the ad at the end of the episode, though… that I don’t like. Mostly because I really don’t like how some fansubber groups behave as if they were professional companies. I’d rather fansubbers behaved like the underground groups they are, and leave advertising and flashiness (especially the “XY Fansubs Presents” type phrases), etc. for the companies.

As far as ads go… well, if they’re advertising links to their website, I don’t mind that as much as when they go full-voice they did with the ads in School Rumble Season 2 here. At that point… well, it just shows they’re amateur hicks with a video encoder and pretentions at being bigger than they are. 😀

@jason: Hmmm, that’s an interesting link. That press release has been around since August 2005, though, and it seems they haven’t “licensed” any anime yet. I guess by commercial fansub I really mean anime with TV style commercials in them, as I think a few fansub groups already make money from donations.

@kuromitsu: From what I’ve read on different forums, I believe there are quite a few groups that need to pay their translators. And apparently, there are many fans who would donate to help pay for bandwidth, translators, etc. I wouldn’t, but that’s just me.

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