Fansubbers take the lead in the promotion of Asia Pacific film and television programs around the world, under interesting circumstances.
I may be living in America, but I'm on "Asia" time.
Like millions of others around the world, I was hooked on the Jdorama (Japanese drama for short) Hana Yori Dango Returns. Last season, the anime/manga adapted television show was one of the most watched television programs in Japan, garnering nearly 21% of viewership nationally. Not included in these ratings are the hundreds of thousands of non-Japanese-speaking viewers worldwide who have access to these released episodes nearly a day within the original release -- with English subtitles.
Before the development of the internet and digital media, the only access I had to undistributed and subtitled anime was through fansubbing. Fansubbing (short for fan-subtitling) involves fans around the world taking foreign films or TV programs and translating it into another language for a whole new audience. Twenty years ago, the process of fansubbing was introduced in response to the anime invasion from Japan. American companies were not distributing anime during this time period, so the only way American fans could get their hands on anime was through fansubbing groups. In the beginning, fansubbing was difficult to maintain because it was expensive, required of a lot time and all episodes were recorded to VHS tapes.
Now, it has become easier with digitial fansubbing because groups are now able to edit the raw episodes cut directly from the original Japanese television programs and distribute the files electronically to their group website. Dattebayo Fansubs, a group notoriously known for banning site visitors in order to accommodate frequent requests for quicker uploading, now releases current episodes of popular anime Naruto and Bleach less than 24 hours after their original release in Japan. Recently, the 151th episode of Naruto was downloaded 314,000 times from their site alone.
The introduction of YouTube, Crunchy Roll and other video streaming sites have made it easy for fans to view episodes directly from the internet, avoiding the hassle of having to download episodes from a website that fansubbers host their files on. After downloading fansubbed episodes, viewers are also now more likely to upload to these sites for other fans to see as well.
Fansubbing has contributed not only to the growth of the anime industry, but of television and cinema in the Asian Pacific Rim as well. Television programs and film from this region are distributed quicker than they have ever been before. It is now common to find English-subtitled DVD sets of popular Korean, Hong Kong and Japanese dramas and films being sold on websites or in stores. Today, Anime and Asian-Pacific media oriented conventions like Anime Expo and Pacific Media Expo attract many attendees and continue to grow as the years go on. Conventions often draw famous producers from overseas for promotion. Last year, famous Japanese manga artists CLAMP made a rare appearance at Anime Expo, as well as making breaking announcements concerning future works.
On the other hand, the impact of fansubbing on foreign shows and flicks has its own ethical issues as well. Once a film or program has been picked up, the original material is placed on the cutting block and distributors have the right to edit and cut as they see fit for release. Not only does this anger fans, but the original producers as well. Famed animator Hayao Miyazaki had once sent a samurai sword to Miramax to supplement Studio Ghibli's "no-cuts" policy after the intital release of Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind, where the title was changed to Warriors of the Wind and featured an embarrassing and horrendous English dub track. Even after distribution, many fans refuse to watch Asian television programs and films unless they are in the original language with supporting subtitles.
Some older shows are still not distributed or have not been completed. To this day, all seasons of the highly popular anime Sailor Moon have not been completely distributed in the United States. Only fansubbers have completely translated every single episode.
Material that has been fansubbed can be seen as "pirated." However, fansubs are released based on the fact that they are not for sale or rent. None of the material is for commercial profit. Once a show or film has been licensed, then all fansubbing must be ceased. However, in the past, exceptions have been made if a program has been fansubbed for a long period of time or if the distributed material did not have a satisfactory release. In recent cases, the companies in Japan have been known to remove uploaded episodes of current shows from YouTube, but this is not based on any violation of agreements between fansubbers and the original production companies. So far, there has not been any recent action to create official guidelines.
When it comes down to it, time waits for no one. I cannot wait around forever waiting for American companies to distribute the films and shows I want to see from abroad. With the aid of fansubbers, I can watch Studio Ghibli's Gedo Senki (Tales of Earthsea) a lot sooner than the not-quite-official 2009 North American release. Thank goodness.