Anything-Goes Fansub F.A.Q.


Last revised: 04-19-04

I have decided to make this page here due to possible questions and/or comments that may or may not come across to me. If there are any questions or comments that is not here, e-mail me and if it looks like that it would benefit everyone, I will put it here on this board.

As for people that are new into fansubs or for people that are just starting out Japanese Animation (Anime), consider this to be a "Fansubs for Dummies" guide to you. For more general details on fansubs and fansubbing, head onto Chris Gray's guide on fansubs. This here is an abridged version. Most of these questions here will relate to my web page.


General questions: The purpose of fansubs are to expand the different genres (types) of anime to people. Currently, there are many different anime companies dealing with anime. Although they exist, there are only a limited amount of anime titles that are domestically released by them. For others that are interested in other forms of anime, they must either buy imported tapes and DVD's of the anime. Since imported anime are usually spoken in Japanese without any subtitles whatsoever, and unless you can understand it, this is going to be a problem. This is where fansubs come in. A fansub is a work of anime that has been translated into a language that is representative to their native country (I.E. English for the U.S.). Fansubs are usually translated by fans of anime, as opposed to anime companies. Fansubs exist to help promote the awareness of other forms of anime as well as to provide an alternative to learning Japanese (although learning Japanese wouldn't be bad either). Although there are some groups of people that do fansubs for profit, most fansub groups do it for their own personal satisfaction and maybe for the many who obtain their titles as well. This is how come that nearly all fansub tapes will have a "Not For Sale or Rental" somewhere on their tapes (although I haven't come across one that haven't yet). Also, whenever an anime title have been licensed by a company, oftentimes, distributors will no longer offer fansubs of that title (a.k.a. "fansub code") to people. Technically, fansubs are illegal. Copyright laws here in the U.S. prohibit anyone to make duplicates of anything without the consent of the owner. Section (17.1.107) states that:

"...the fair use of a copyrighted work, (...) for
purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting,
teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use),
scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of
copyright."

Many people claim that subtitling and distribution falls under the exception for "Fair Use"--that subtitling is used for educational purposes.

For the complete text of the US code relating to copyright law, it is available at: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/


Specific Questions SASE stands for Self Addressed Stamped Envelope. Oftentimes, this occurs when you wish to send your own tapes to the distributor(distro) so that he/she can get fansubs from them. Some distros will allow this form of request. The drawback is this though: you have to mail off your tapes (lots of postage), have to wait for the distro to receive them and record them, and then pay for the postage for the distro to return your tapes back to you (even more postage).
People have different methods of determining the prices of how much their tapes cost. Some distributors set a flat rate per tape (usually between 5 to 7 dollars per tape). This includes the price of the blank tape, the shipping and handling, and other whatnots for them to send the tape to you. On others, they have each item specified so that you can see how the prices are determined. This is the breakdown of my prices:

Tapes: Gold ($3.00) / Hi-Fi ($4.00) == $9.00/$12.00 (3 tapes)
Shipping for fansubbed tapes: $4.50 == $4.50
Bubble Mailer (9 1/2" X 13 1/2") == @ $1.50

Total price: Gold $15.00 / Hi-Fi $18.00

Note: Bubble mailers used for requests will be brand new and unsealed. This way you can use it for something else. (Save a bubble mailer, reuse a bubble mailer). What I use to seal your packages are Priority Mail envelopes that post offices offer for free upon request.

Cash is exactly what it sounds like--cold hard cash. Money. Greenback. Moolah. The stuff that you can use to buy other things with. The stuff that is accepted almost anywhere. And, no kids, Pokèmon and Yu-gi-oh cards are not considered cash.

A money order, on the other hand, is almost like cash. The advantage of a money order is that you have a receipt to go with it. If your package/letter ever gets lost in the mail, you will have a way to prove that you have paid so and so for something. For more information on Money orders, talk with your neighborhood postal worker (mailman). They will be able to give you more information on this.

In my opinion, I would rather have a money order sent to me than cash. If a letter was sent by cash and was lost in the mail, you're just plumb (is that really a word?) out of luck. It's gone--disappeared, and there's no way that you can prove tht you sent it. But if you really want to, I won't stop you from doing so.

There have been some that have wondered how I do my tape setup. This is how I do mines. Whenever someone sets up a request or trade with me, I wait until the funds or the traded tape arrives first. When it does, I will check to see if everything is correct. What I check for are whether the tapes are brand new or not. If they are not, I also have some used tapes that would just love to be adopted by someone else. Then, I check for the type of tape used. Send a cheap tape-- recieve a cheap tape in return. Last, I then check on the condition of the tape. (I do tend to be quite thorough) If they are okay, I will then make the copies that they have requested. If it is a trade and there are any problems, I will e-mail if there are any problems with the tape or the program on the tape. When done, the tapes will be sent to you. If your tapes are done on Saturday or Sunday though, your package won't be mailed until Monday (sorry, our Post Office don't open on those days, I like to personally deliver your packages, make sure that everything goes right). I do not copy tapes in advance because sometimes people tend to change their minds about their request, thus wasting a brand new tape.

For now, especially for new people who request from my page, I am limiting my page to 3 tapes. At first, when I created this page, I at first set it for unlimited requests. Since there aren't very many distributors out there (okay, an extremely tiny amount) that does that at all, I changed it to a limit of 3 tapes. Reason being that:
  1. Requesting an unlimited amount of tapes sounds like that this person is trying to rip him/her off (Heck, distributors can rip you off even when they limit their tapes to 3).
  2. Less chances of goof ups happening when only requesting 3 tapes.
  3. None to very little backlogged tapes from occurring. Remember, there are others as well who besides you who would like their anime just as much as you.
Maybe after a few requests or trades with you, I'll increase or remove the limit for you. I've actually have traded over 20 tapes with people that I trust.
This is a general accepted practice for distributors. I am one of those, as well, that require this as well. Reason(s) being, oftentimes, a person(you) may decide to change their titles when they mail off your package. Also, there are those rare occasions where the computer crashes, losing all data on who wants what. It has happened to me before. Also, sometimes, a distro wants a hard copy(the letter) of what a fansub requester (that's you) wants so that they do not have to log onto their computer to see what s/he wanted. Others do it because they're just picky. Lastly, there are those few that just like receiving letters from people (That would be me). Hmm, let me think about this. Okay, I thought about it. "READ MY LIPS. NO NEW......." Oops. Scratch that. Okay, this is my answer: NOOOOO!! I don't do international distribution for many reasons: Postage is different in each and every country--I do not have the time to convert this. Also, each country have different formats on their VCR. From what I have heard, there are 3 (maybe more) formats, making viewing of tapes from 1 country difficult to view in another country. Most of all, international trades cost much more to send off--at least 3 to 5 times the rate if you were to send that same package in the country where you live at.
To request anime from me, you can e-mail me for what you want. Just tell me what tapes you want and depending on trades or requests, I will then further tell you what you need to do to get the tapes (I.E. tell you what tapes I want, give you an address to mail the tapes/funds to, etc.).

A note for people who request or trade tapes:

Sending your money or tapes to a distributor is ultimately a leap of faith on your part. There is no definite way to tell if you can trust any particular trader or distributor. It helps if you have seen the party you are dealing with in one of the fansub MLs or on the IRC channel #fansubs. That way you can get an idea as to who they are and what they are all about. Or you can use these same resources to ask other people about various distributors and their experiences with them.
Various traders have given suggestions to things to look for in trade partners, and these can also be applied to distributors. Some of these include: Answers email promptly, trade with people who appear to have put some time into making their list, ask questions if you aren't sure about something. If you notice something funny, don't trade or order. Most traders and distributors give some sort of indication of the quality of their copy, and if you feel it is inaccurate, bear in mind that the ratings are subjective and that these simply aren't commercial tapes.

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