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Old 05-04-2008, 10:35 AM   #1
Talon87
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Speed Subbing Crisis

This is getting laughably ridiculous. [gg], famed for their speed sub releases of Code Geass last spring, were at it again this spring to outspeed and outsub Menclave and Shinsen Subs. When neither opponent showed up, [gg] found themselves squaring off against their friends over at Eclipse in what was a short-lived duopoly over the Code Geass fansubbing "market" (if you will).

Starting with Episode 3, a newcomer to the scene, Chihiro, outsped [gg] and made it clear that that was their intent with a flavor text tag on their torrents which stated "we win." They did this again with Episode 4, beating [gg] to the punch by several hours. [gg] still managed to get their sub out less than 12 hours after the episode had aired in Japan.

Now with Episode 5, we witness yet another newcomer to the market: WeWin. Naturally they named themselves this to spite (or at least tease) Chihiro fansubs and [gg] fansubs. Chihiro's release came out mere moments later, but the damage had already been done: Chihiro could no longer claim to being "the speediest Code Geass subber around."

What does this all mean? To understand, we have to go back a couple of weeks to when people were still knocked out of their socks by [gg]'s same-day turnaround. Recently many popular Japanese TV shows have been co-released alongside their closed captions. Fansubbers, who up until now have not had access to these closed captions, have found them immensely helpful in speeding up the translation portion of the procedure.

Furthermore, historically an "encoder" was required to re-encode Japanese raws with the fansub group's subtitles, but this has recently been bumped out in favor of softsubs and a "timer" who need only make sure the timing of the subs matches the audio track. Thus, episodes need no longer be re-encoded (a process which used to take up several hours at best and a day at worst); instead, they need only be placed into a digital container alongside softsubs.

Because of these two radical developments, subs are now capable of coming out on the same day as the episode's airing. But the story gets even more interesting ...

... because several groups (Eclipse among them) have laid claim to the fact that they can get their hands on the closed captions days before the episodes air on television. What this means is that the entire translation procedure can be completed before the episode even airs, leaving the team to simply obtain a hi-res raw, slap a container onto it with the softsubs alongside, and release it to the Internet. This usually happens in hours.

Why hours? Because currently most of the fansub groups get their raws from using programs like Winny, Share, etc. and the nature of these programs requires a bit of luck and a lot of patience. It is not the same as having a dedicated P2P connection between you and one nerd on a T3 line in Japan.

Which means the following: speed sub "wars" are going to continue until one of the following happens:
1- somebody can get the raw mere minutes after it airs, or
2- somebody can get the raw before it even airs (as is currently happening, allegedly, in some of the closed caption cases)

Eventually, the speed sub wars could suck as beyond the "event horizon," if you will, and we could be seeing subs on the Internet before the episode even officially airs in Japan! Crazy, I know, but I think we're probably going to see it in our lifetimes if the anime industry doesn't clamp down on the piracy soon.
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Old 05-04-2008, 12:49 PM   #2
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Re: Speed Subbing Crisis

I was buzzing over the TokyoTosho and saw this hilarious development in action - it's funny but also sad, since there are some shows this season going without subs yet Geass is getting so many subbers fumbling for a piece of the action. Though...this season stinks, so I can't blame them. :P
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Old 05-13-2009, 02:27 PM   #3
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It benefits the anime industry if people can no longer trust fansub groups. It benefits them because the industry can claim to provide superior subtitles in terms of translational accuracy, whether or not this is always true. Think of it as just another facet of brand-name consumerism: would you rather buy Pepsi-Cola or Sam's Club Cola? Would you rather by Fruit Loops or Fruity Wheelies? would you sooner trust the fansub group's TL or the translator who is paid to translate for a living by ADV?

And so one has to wonder if this logical trail in fact leads us to what may be the truth behind the existence of supposedly "troll" groups like Chihiro. Perhaps they're not trolls after all? Perhaps Chihiro, WeWin, and groups like theirs are sabotaging fansubbing deliberately. And why should they do that? Perhaps it's because they're being paid to do so: paid by the very agencies which own the legal rights to the programming.
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Old 05-13-2009, 02:38 PM   #4
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I can make troll subs and get paid for it?! Sign me up!
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Old 05-13-2009, 09:28 PM   #5
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I think anime is one case where fans might actually be more skilled that the people who call themselves professionals. It's hardly true in video games - for almost every case of "fan involvement" enhancing the quality of a game like with Baldur's Gate II, there are two other cases of fans ruining a game like with Warcraft III.

Chihiro isn't really a troll-sub, they're just so bad, you might as well be watching one. A real troll would be Shiki-subs, which was the only group who competed in the "who can piss farther" competition for Cross-Game speeds.
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