Anime North 2009: Fansub and Scanlation panel

Kind of surprised that this was very well attended. The room was maybe half the size that of the Haibane Renmei panel, but most of the seats were filled.

For the panelists, one scanlator and two subbers. One was a panelist for Haibane Renmei, and the other gave a talk about finding work in Japan just prior. There was some name-dropping, but I only caught two: one guy in the audience was/is a QC for Lililicious, and one of the panelists was part of a group that was involved in the merger that resulted in Triad subs.

One other scan/translator was in the audience, and he was also present later that day for the second Nobuyuki Hiyama panel.

I got the sense this was a panel for scan and sub people to talk shop. Not blatantly, mind you, but no one was in unfamiliar territory.

The original point of the panel, to answer whether fansubs/scanlations today serve any (honourable) purpose, was quickly answered:

Duh.

The age of "throw everything at the license wall and see what sticks" is over, and no company will ever admit this, but these grey-area things do factor into the licensing of titles. [See Nozomi Entertainment.]

Statistics time! In 2002, roughly 100 anime series were produced. That number rose to about 300 in 2006. That period was known as the [second?] Golden Age of Anime. In 2008, the number declined to 190 series. Companies got burned, there is some consolidation on both sides of the Pacific, so expect a lot less titles to be picked up.

[Unfortunately there wasn't much discussion about scanlations, so I'll cover it first.]

It seems that scanlation groups can fall apart suddenly and in spectacular fashion. It's why the scanlator in the audience is more or less a one-man team. The one time he agreed to do a joint project, half the team got frustrated with the lack of progress and quit to start their own group. They then tried to drag him along and a lot of drama ensued.

There's a trade-off between dividing up the work, trusting people to actually get it done, and the ensuing consistency of the finished scanlation. Someone shared an anecdote about how one [active?] group had as many people as there were pages in a chapter, and each person scanlated that one page. Their releases are apparently not very readable.

On the topic of a place for scanlations, one person preferred scanlated versions of certain Viz titles, accusing Viz of censorship for their policy of replacing any objectionable dialogue with arbitrary text. Lililicious QC-er dismissed the claim as translator dependent.

Regardless of whether such a policy exists, the reality is that scanlations don't lose huge amounts of money if people boycott their releases over something offensive.

This inevitably lead to the Kodomo no Jikan manga and people piled on the PR disaster bandwagon: a similar titled had been published but Seven Seas drew too much attention to this one; the "Nymphet" name didn't help things; lack of due dilligence and discovery; read the thing before deciding to pick it up, etc.

[You'd think that people would learn after what happened with Fox Kids and Escaflowne.]

A lot of the fansub stuff covered was standard fare: scanlators and fansubbers have lives, fan sense of entitlement and lack of patience, a shift to bragging rights for speed and video quality. What ever happened to wanting to do a good job?

Trivia: before speed-subbing using Chinese subs became all the rage, people were teeing off on Korean subs. Also, a sure sign of second-hand translation work is when an English term does not end up in the sub because the Chinese sub doesn't have any English in it.

Out of all this [somewhat depressing] "those were the good old days" talk came some insight into the process. One of the panelists started out as an editor because he couldn't stand one group's subs, so he just volunteered for the position and got it, becoming the group QC to boot. He performs two-pass edits, followed by a final pass during QC.

On the topic of literal vs localized, the panelists feel that the drive toward "authenticity" is misguided. If you were in a position to declare a translation accurate or not, then you should just watch raw. Any monkey can make a literal-sounding script just by making the English less readable.

For the rest of us, the best balance of literal and local is achieved using two translators: one who is strong in English and the other who has a better grasp of Japanese culture, preferably a native speaker. A translation with decent English is produced and then corrected for culture-specific items.

[TL followed by TLC (translation check) is pretty common. The thing is, the success of any arrangement hinges on the skill of both translators, and finding a translator is challenging as it is.]

Speed subbing is generally frowned upon, but if it's going to be done well, then redundancy [or time zone abuse] is key. One of the more prominent speed groups, at one point, had at least two backup teams for each stage of the process. Eclipse was held up as a good example of speed subbing done well.

There were no more than three in the room that enjoyed OP/ED karaoke, but one mounted a pretty passionate defense of the practice. [The vocal minority truly is all that matters.]

We also covered the growing disrespect of subbers for licensed work. One example that came up was the situation where a series is close to completion, and then it's licensed and everyone is ordered to put away there toys. Some groups bend the old rules and maintain a policy of, "if it's not for sale then it's fair game" and others simply don't care and release under one-time monikers. This was used to put forth the argument that entitlement has spread to fansubbers.

As for making money on anime going forward, people highlighted the success of Aria and Maria-sama ga Miteru — MariMite in particular — "sub-niche" titles offered by a company that treated the existing fanbase pretty well. The Lililicious QC-er noted that when the license was announced, they told as many people as they could to purchase the release.

On the way out, I grabbed one of the panelist's business cards. Someone quipped that he now knew where he lived, but not for long; he found work in Japan. I guess that would explain why he was giving that finding work panel.

Post-panel remarks

A licensee that jumps in right before a title ends its broadcast run can rightly be accused of one of two things: being an insensitive clod and pulling the rug from under everyone, or gross incompetence. Neither generates any goodwill. For people who like to see things to completion, this is really disruptive, like a gaping pothole on the highway. Who doesn't want potholes filled?

It's not about entitlement, it's about finishing what was started. People left hanging are unhappy campers, especially when they're hanging off the edge of a cliff. And your parents always told you to finish your plate, didn't they? People have resolution practically baked into their childhood.

Both sides want closure, in their own way.