Fansubbing

ABSTRACT
At the turn of the century, the explosion of over-the-top (OTT) services such as Amazon Prime, HBO Now, Hulu and Netflix, along with the never-ending production of a wide variety of serialized formats, have swiftly raised the demand for AV content localisation across the globe. In the gargantuan void produced by the fast pace of technological and cinematic changes, while Language Service Providers (LSPs) were exploring viable options offered by new technology, amateur subtitlers around the globe were already forging alternative, internet-based localisation workflows, clockwork, perfect mechanisms able to deliver hundreds of fansubs within unprecedented tight turnaround times. This chapter will provide an account of the state of the art of amateur practices around the globe to date.

Introducción El pasado mes de marzo la Asociación de Productoras de Animación Japonesas presentó el informe anual sobre el estado de la industria. De acuerdo a los datos revelados en dicho documento, en el año 2012 se exhibieron en las pantallas de televisión 222 programas de anime. Sin embargo, como sólo es posible exhibir en televisión aquellos contenidos de los que se haya adquirido licencia, solo un puñado de ellos llegan a emitirse alguna vez en Argentina. A modo de ejemplo, si analizamos la grilla de programación de los canales de la tv abierta, surge el dato de que la oferta se limita a 1 hora semanal de Doraemon i y las series de animación que se emiten al interior del programa ZTV en Telefé ii. Frente a esta limitación de acceso, los fans se han organizado para tornar accesibles todos estos contenidos que de otro modo se perderían. El presente trabajo se plantea analizar la práctica de la

Anime fandom has been a fairly constant subject in fan scholarship, although only recently have conversations about fan subbing begun to circulate. As useful as those conversations are, none have directly dealt either with the mechanisms of fan subbing, particularly the use of linear notes, as a practice or with how these subs intersect with the flows of subcultural capital. Fan subbing, both as a productive and a consumptive practice, plays a small but influential part in subcultural capital. Engagement with media is a compositional element of such capital in this community.

NOTE:  Videos can be viewed through the original publication on TWC

The purpose of this paper is to describe the so-called fansubs, a different type of subtitling carried out by amateur translators. The first part of this study covers both the people and phases involved in the fansubbing process from beginning to end. The second section focuses on the legality and ethics of fansubs. The third part pays attention to the actual translation of fansubs and their unique features, such as the use of translator’s notes or special karaoke effects. The paper concludes with a reflection on the work done by fansubbers and the possibilities opened by this mainly Internet phenomenon.

This article revolves around fansubbing, a subtitling-based mediation phenomenon whose emergence and consolidation in recent years has gone hand in hand with the globalisation of Japanese animated cinema. The paper begins with an overview of (i) the origins and rationale for the popularity of anime in Japan and beyond; (ii) the first attempts to localise anime into other languages; and (iii) the contribution of fansubbing to the expansion of anime fandom worldwide. The article then proceeds to delve into the organisation of the fansubbing process and outline its most distinctive practices. The final section appraises the potential for propagation of fansubbing practices within a fast-changing cultural landscape, drawing on the theoretical models that media sociology has developed to account for similar developments in the audiovisual marketplace.

This paper offers an account of the current state-of-affairs of Audiovideo translation, in particular amateur translations of subtitles of pirated films and TV programmes in four fan translation and subtitling communities in the grey zone, who are threading the thin line of legality-illegality due to loopholes in copyright in different jurisdictions. The author, who explored these communities as a volunteer translator and subtitler, describes and discusses the communities striving for quality in translation, conventionalization of best practices in subtitling by use of European and international standards as well as personal experience and usability. The paper discusses translators' mistakes, collaboration in these fan subtitling communities and members' contribution with software development, advice and support. It concludes with the latest developments in audiovisual content delivery in Ultra HD and the Open Translation movement.

From the lucrative blockbusters distributed by Hollywood powerful studios to the brief videos assembled and circulated by ordinary people, contemporary screen culture is populated by a growing variety of audiovisual texts travelling across different languages and cultures. Audiovisual Translation: Theories, Methods, Issues provides a unique focus on the translation of these increasingly influential texts, including their producers and consumers, that now pervade all aspects of our lives. Through a range of examples drawn from different genres, this book moves beyond the linguistic concerns traditionally privileged within audiovisual translation, introducing students and researchers to the artistic, economic, social and political dimensions of this activity.

The book first traces the development and evolution of audiovisual translation, exploring how the homogenizing mediation practices imposed by the industry during the mass media era are being challenged by interventionist forms of translation in the era of the digital culture.

The evolving conceptual network that underpin this area of study, the key translation models driving the theorization of this activity and the most productive methodological approaches to the study of audiovisual translation are then surveyed, critiqued and illustrated in a systematic, easy-to-follow manner. Multimodal theory and self-mediation studies receive particular attention as the most influential theoretical frameworks that will drive audiovisual translation research in years to come. Students and early career scholars are provided with comprehensive guidance to design and undertake audiovisual translation research projects.

Each chapter features chapter summaries, introductory videos, authentic examples, break out boxes, reading suggestions and follow‐up questions for further study. A companion website provides readers with access to additional resources on each of the topics covered in this book.

Audiovisual Translation is the definitive guide to the research models and methodological approaches that are enabling and will continue to drive advances in this fast-developing area of study.

• The book can serve as a textbook for use at MA level but also constitutes a ‘first port‐of‐call’ reference on aspects of theoretical inquiry.
• The book explores new audiovisual translation genres and practices in contemporary networked societies, covering topics and issues not previously discussed in the audiovisual translation literature.
• The book includes a whole chapter offering methodological direction to readers conducting their own research at MA at doctoral level.
• The follow-up questions for discussion in all chapters provide abundant ideas for extended postgraduate essays, various types of dissertation, and (post)doctoral level research projects.

People all over the world, especially young viewers, rely on non-professional subtitles to access audiovisual content. This research investigates the reception of professional and non-professional subtitles among university students with different levels of proficiency in English. Three versions of subtitles were included: the professional DVD subtitles distributed in Spain and two non-professional subtitle versions: one Spanish and the other Latin-American.
An initial survey, which obtained 332 responses, was used to screen the population and test their level of English. For the second stage, which consisted of an eye-tracking experiment and an interview, 52 participants (26 with a low level of English and 26 with a high level of English) had their eyes tracked while they were watching three clips from a popular TV show. Each clip was shown with a different type of professional or non-professional subtitling and participants answered a comprehension questionnaire after each of them.
The findings show that the type of subtitles does not affect the distribution of attention, but the professional subtitles were received with shorter mean fixation durations. The participants’ performance with the professional and the Latin-American non-professional versions were similar and gave better scores than with the Iberian non-professional version.
The eye-tracking measurements show that the level of proficiency in English affects subtitle-reading behavior. The participants with low proficiency had a more standardized behavior and exhibited a high degree of reliance on the subtitles. The highly proficient participants’ behavior has more variation, with some participants depending on the subtitles as much as the other group and other participants with almost no attention to the subtitles. The level of proficiency in the source language and the participants’ perceived effort to read the subtitles were identified to have an effect on their enjoyment of the audiovisual content.
The results from this study show that, from the audience’s perspective, non-professional subtitles can provide results similar to professional subtitles. Additionally, the study shows that the level of proficiency in the source language affects the subtitle-reading behavior and that viewers might have some degree of individual control over subtitle reading.

Non-professional Interpreting and Translation (NPIT) is a recent discipline. Books and volumes on this subject that combine all the different fields are extremely uncommon and authoritative reference material is scarce and mostly scattered through disparate specialized journals. There are many areas and aspects of NPIT in the media that to date have been under researched or utterly neglected. The aim of this volume is therefore to fill an important gap in the academic market and to provide an overview of diverse aspects of non-professional interpreting and translation in the media. The volume consists of a collection of essays by eminent international scholars and researchers from the field of Translation and Interpreting Studies. Contents Contents: Rachele Antonini/Chiara Bucaria: NPIT in the media: An overview of the field and main issues – Delia Chiaro: Mimesis, reality and

Although the profession of translating movies was already an established practice, the rise of non-professional or fan translations in the 90s called into question the role of theaudiovisual translator. In my case, starting from the same source text (the movie The Hateful Eight by Quentin Tarantino), my aim is to examine two target texts (Italian subtitles): the one produced by the official translator(s), in other words, the subtitles included in the official and commercial version of the picture, and the other by amateurs or enthusiasts (fansubs) included
in the downloaded version of the film.
The dissertation will deal with the role of the audiovisual translator (in this case subtitler) in our time, what are the common translation practices and strategies, how they have changed throughout time.
Due to the advent of Web 2.0, new phenomenons have emerged, such as fansubbing and crowdsourcing. These two practices are closely linked and they are a product of what is known as the democratization of knowledge. This has challenged almost any aspect of our life and has
shortened the distances between people. How may a non-academic approach highlight new features and techniques for such an established practice? Could professional subtitling and fansubbing influence each other and give birth to a new and more satisfying form of translation?
Which would be the points of contact between these two practices?Firstly, my research will offer a brief overview of the major academic contributions in audiovisual translation. Among them, I will include the works of Perego (2005), and Díaz Cintas and Muñoz (2006), especially the latter are well-known for being among the first scholars who published papers on fansubbing and online communities interested in subtitling cartoons, films, and TV series. On the other hand, Perego gives some historic notions on the practice of subtitling and the techniques adopted such as those elaborated by Gottlieb (1992) and Lomheim (1999).
After that, data analysis will take place. The chosen methodology is an error analysis of subtitles, based on the FAR model elaborated by Jan Pedersen (2017), and an analysis of the Italian forum that produced the fansubs under examination. The interview is essential to understand current dynamics in an online community, as people and their practices are influenced by the historical and social context to which they belong.

With over 6000 languages in the world today, media speak is far from universal, yet the complexities of translation are rarely acknowledged by the industry, or by audiences and scholars. Redressing this neglect, Speaking in Subtitles argues that the oddities and idiosyncrasies of translation are vital to screen media’s global storytelling. Examining a range of examples from crowdsourced subtitling to avant-garde dubbing to the growing field of ‘fansubbing’, Tessa Dwyer proposes that film, television and video are fundamentally ‘translational' media.

Topics include:
Censorship
Media piracy
Amateurism
Fansubbing (fan subtitling)
Crowdsourcing

Case Studies include: The Invisible Cinema, New York (1970-74) and Viki Global TV (www.viki.com)

This paper is an English translation of my master's thesis in Cultural Studies. I've  made the translation myself, so no matter how many times I proofread it, errors may still appear.

Manga and anime, which are Japanese comics and animation respectively, have become very popular in Belgium in a seemingly short amount of time. Mainstream storechains have started selling Japanese fan objects. Comic conventions attract more visitors each passing year, and local fan communities like cosplayclubs gain new members on a daily basis. Along with this apparent popularity, a full-fledged Belgian subculture has formed around these Japanese media, in which the concept of fandom plays a central role.

This master’s thesis tries to uncover how these media have gained this much popularity in such a short amount of time, and what has triggered this boom. The starting point of this text is Club Dorothée, which is a French children’s television emission that ran in the ‘80s and ‘90s. This is followed by an overview of the history of anime- and mangafandoms in Belgium. This overview discusses topics such as Dutch manga translations, illegal fanmade publications, and local television planning.

Once these questions have been answered, this thesis attempts to offer an analysis of the subculture that has formed around these media. This analysis is based on Henry Jenkins’ theories on fandom, as this subculture comprises several different fandoms, and on Dick Hebdige’s classic subculture theory (which Hebdige originally wrote on the Punk subculture, but which can be used as a base for general subculture research). One essential part of this analysis is the comparison between the two different generations of mangafans in Belgium, which I refer to as the Club Dorothée generation and the Pokémon generation.

At the end of this thesis, several cultural phenomena that are characteristic of the Belgian mangasubculture are described, such as cosplay, and convention culture. Due to time constraints, this research focusses on Flanders rather than Belgium as a whole. However, it must be noted that Wallonia also has a crucial role to play in these events.

Note that this paper represents the situation as it was in 2014-2015.

The advancement of technology in the last few decades has led to radical shifts in the way that audiences use and think about audio visual products. Audiences are no longer content to simply remain passive viewers on the side lines but have instead bloomed into an active audience who are equally invested in participating in the creation of meaning and content as they are with consuming it (Jenkins, 2006). One of the results of this produsage culture is fansubbing which is an umbrella term for any type of subtitling made by fans or amateurs without professional training (Díaz Cintas, & Muñoz Sánchez, 2006). This paper seeks to examine what professional subtitlers can learn from their amateur counterparts known as fansubbers. When examining any form of subtitling, researchers and practitioners tend to operate from the axiomatic position that professional subtitling offers the most ‘correct’ and least intrusive translation option.  It is this type of reasoning that has kept the professional subtitling industry stuck with the same run of the mill subtitles while fansubbers have started to explore alternative approaches that have yielded both aesthetic and functional subtitles that push the boundaries of what audiences are used to. When not judged from the stoic perspective of industry ‘best practice’, an examination of fansubbing holds the potential to provide professional subtitlers with an insight into how these type of creative subtitling practices can offer audiences a richer viewing experience and involve them as active participants in the meaning making process. Creative subtitling may be described as subtitling practices that tailor subtitles in terms of their style, layout and choice of translation approach to the film and audience at hand (McClarty, 2013). In essence, this type of subtitling practice acknowledges that each film and audience deserves a unique translation style and approach instead of a one size fits all solution.

This paper seeks to explore the socio-political tensions between freedom and constraints in the Chinese fansubbing networks. It approaches the development of fansubbing in China as a process of technology democratisation with the potential to liberate ordinary citizens from authoritarian and commercial imperatives , enabling them to contest official state domination. The paper draws on the strategies adopted by fansubbing groups to organise their working practices and interactive social activities with a view to engaging target audiences. Both facets complement each other and bring to the fore the 'gamified' system of fansub-bing networks. Gamification enables ordinary citizens to translate, distribute and consume foreign audiovisual products in a strategic move that pits collective activism against government dominance.

Non-professional subtitling has come a long way since its early days. This collaborative translation practice has evolved from what was known as fansubbing in the 1980s, when fans of Japanese anime in the US engaged directly with the content by translating and sharing the animation. The advent of Web 2.0 technology saw this translation activity expand into various types of audiovisual content and genres. Subtitles produced and shared by fans are found in a myriad of formats, such as films, TV series, features and interviews. From the early 2000s, a global audience craving English content (predominantly that produced in the US) mobilised among themselves to form organised fansubbing groups. As they realised the potential of subtitling tools and the ease of communication over the Internet, the viewers took control over the content and produced subtitles shortly after the sought-after content had become available online. Soon various fansubbing communities started mushrooming across the globe, involving various regions and languages. Fansubbing communities are varied and can evolve into organised structures with well-defined workflows that ensure production quality and efficiency. The effort observed in these self-organised collective translation activities echoes what Jenkins et al. termed " meaningful participation " (2013). To this day the fansubbing communities are no longer amorphous entities looming in the shadow. As chapters in this volume show, high-profile fansubbing groups garner public attention and media publicity. Whether positive or negative, the press exposure has certainly brought non-professional subtitling out into the open. Despite growing awareness and interest, the study of non-professional subtitling did not always sit well within Translation Studies. The first scholarly interest emerged from media studies, where fansubbing was seen as one of the manifestations of fandom (Napier 2001, Nornes 1999).

"William Gibson (Gibson 2001) calls otaku “passionate obsessive(s)”, Volker Grassmuck (Grassmuck 1990) describes them as “information fetishists”, Hiroki Azuma (Azuma 2009) came with the name “Japan’s Database Animals”, and Mimi Ito (Ito 2005) explains “Anime otaku are media connoisseurs, activist prosumers who seek out esoteric content from a far away land and organize their social lives around viewing, interpreting, and remixing these media works.” Here I will add: otaku are ultimate representatives of information consumption, resumption and re–creation.
This paper will try to introduce the otaku phenomenon – (specifically anime fandoms) which are evolving through the social media, simultaneously improving this media by creating new ways of expanding their imaginary worlds through the network environment and beyond.
I will begin with the introduction of the specifics of this social and cultural group, whose very existence is almost entirely media dependable, observing its role in the process of merging the traditional with the new media through the activities of funsubbing and scanalization.
Then we shall see, how the collision of these different types of media is causing the frontiers between the real and the imaginary world to fade. The network is growing through collaboration and sharing, the information is reconstructing, retelling, and resharing, new worlds are emerging: fanart, fanfiction, AMV. . . This will lead us into an overview of the most popular social network sites for the otaku population.
On the other hand, there is a back effect of the recreated otaku culture in the real world — the smart profiteers are creating new reality from fiction, selling them their dreams through materialized objects from their imaginary world.
And all in all, in the broader sense of the word, the basic element of all the incarnations of the social media are informational otaku — which more or less all of us are becoming."

Allied with ongoing research, audio-visual translation (AVT) has come to the core through a technological
break-through. The “assumed to be developed” status of AVT has made subtitling, one
of the types of AVT, a given in our time. In time, subtitling has also opened its doors for fansubbers
toiling and moiling in this process. Initially emerging as a leisure activity, fansubbing has become
concerned with the (re)presentation of cultural differences and thus fansubbers have started actively
engaging in the duality of domesticating and foreignizing strategies of translation, which has been
a central issue for translation scholars such as Lawrence Venuti. Keeping these points in mind, this
study attempts to present an overview of the situation of Turkish fansubbers most particularly underlining
the actors who take part in fansubbing (e.g., translators, editors, technicians, proofreaders and
so on). Additionally, following the (re)evaluation of large repertoire of subtitling translation strategies,
these strategies are discussed within the framework of Venutian scale -i.e., from the most foreignizing
strategies to the most domesticating strategies- by scrutinizing the notion of (in)visibility. Ultimately,
it has been set forth that, in Turkey, fansubbing partly differs from professional subtitling in
that while fansubbers may use translation strategies that would not be acceptable in a professionally
subtitled product, professional subtitlers are obliged to pursue the norms imposed by the industry
(e.g., employers and The Radio and Television Supreme Council in Turkey). That being the case, Turkish
fansubbers who are often judged harshly by their peers tend to produce more source-oriented or,
what Nornes (2004) calls, abusive translation. Herewith, this study seeks to shed light on the “Turkish
fansubbing environment” and, to that end, draws a comparison between professionally-produced and
fan-produced Turkish subtitles of the animated sitcom Family Guy. In conclusion, based on a case of
Family Guy, this study underlines the differences between the target texts that stem largely from the
diversifying needs and expectations of different profiles of the audiences, one preferring fansubs and
another, subtitling by professional institutions.
Keywords
Fansubbing, professional subtitling, domestication, foreignization, (in) visibility.

Sometimes considered marginal to Audiovisual Translation (AVT) 'proper', fan AVT is fast becoming a major area of interest as online technologies dramatically alter the audiovisual mediascape, affecting modes of access and availability, redirecting flows and challenging copyright and intellectual property discourse. Focusing on fan subtitling (fansubbing) yet also touching upon fandubbing and game hacking, this chapter considers fan AVT origins, discursive frameworks such as 'participatory culture', and the ethics of crowdsourcing. it develops a case study of the Viki Global TV platform and proposes that fandom is at the centre of current AVT developments.

The purpose of this research is to compare the professional subtitling with fansubbing. In addition, the attitudes of professional subtitlers and fansubbers themselves are compared. Fansubbing has its roots in Japanese anime translation but has since moved to other fields, professional subtitling, however, has developed together with the film medium. Fansubbing as such is closely connected to piracy and are themselves breach of copyright. The theoretical research includes the analysis of the theoretical materials to distinguish the main features of
each type of subtitling. Thus, they are viewed from their description, process, connection to piracy and copyright. The empirical part of the research includes the interviews with the subtitlers and the analysis of the subtitles themselves. The research shows that the majority of
the subtitles have little difference with regards to quality, with fansubs having slightly lower quality but in some cases producing the more successful translation of the original material.

Japanese popular culture is becoming increasingly popular outside of Japan. Comic books, or manga, and animated series and movies, anime, are the crux of the story. Belgium is no different. In the past ten to fifteen years, we have seen manga appear in mainstream bookshops. We’ve witnessed the rise of several new anime conventions like Made in Asia and Japan Expo Belgium, and we now have an ever-growing amount of communities, both offline and online, of Japanese pop culture fans.

One of the essential reasons why these media have become so popular, is to the internet. In this paper, I will focus on the phenomenon of fan translation, or more specifically: on scanlations and fansubs. Within this paper, I draw a lot of information from the works of Dr. Hye-Kyung Lee, a specialist in fandom research and East Asian cultural policies and industries.

Η παρούσα εργασία στόχο έχει να ρίξει μια πρώτη δέσμη φωτός στο φαινόμενο του ερασιτεχνικού υποτιτλισμού (fansubbing) στην Ελλάδα, παραθέτοντας σύντομο ιστορικό των σημαντικότερων έως το 2014 κοινοτήτων ερασιτεχνών υποτιτλιστών στη χώρα και επιχειρώντας μια πρώτη διαπίστωση των πρακτικών και των κανόνων που ακολουθούν.

This pioneering study on fan translation focuses on Italian fansubbing, a vibrant cultural and social phenomenon which is described from its inception in 2005 to today. It explores far-reaching issues related to fansubbing and crowdsourcing, highlighting in particular the benefits and drawbacks of Web 2.0.The profound transformations brought about by the democratization of the media are analysed in depth along with a wide range of other changes that have considerably affected the field of audiovisual translation, the status of professional translators, and the TV and cinema industry in general during the last decade. The book also describes the fansubbing machine at work, explaining the fansubbers' philosophy, their workflow and guidelines, as well as presenting a set of case studies based on the TV shows Lost and Californication.

The present paper is a proposal for an empirical study on eye-tracking in subtitling to determine the efficacy of fansubs and their perception and reception by the general audience, as well as the intended demographic. It begins with a short review of literature on audiovisual translation and subtitling, building on the importance of fansubs and how the existence of fansubs changes the meanings of translator and audience, and moves on to the methodology and hypothesis of proposed research, corpus, hypothetical elements and factors, and finally assumptions on the expected results.

Yaoi/BL Fandom Survey (only takes 10 mins to complete): https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey

The aim of this study is to compare Sinophone and Anglophone fan fiction consisting of female-oriented male-male romance: danmei and slash, respectively. To increase comparability, we analysed Harry Potter fan fiction in which the characters Harry and Draco are married. Male-male marriage was selected because our online Sinophone and Anglophone BL fandom surveys indicate this to be the most popular story element of the nine options we provided. We analysed five stories originally written in Chinese and five originally written in English which subsequently had been fan-translated into Chinese. Using Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) we found some robust patterns. In contrast to the Anglophone fiction, the Sinophone tended to: stress the importance of family approval for the marriage; incorporate a wedding ceremony; employ clearly gendered roles between partners; utilise extended, as opposed to nuclear, families; and showed the couple to produce children, particularly boys. Hence, the stories mirror the relative social conservatism and social liberalism of their cultures of origin. However, in reading and writing such danmei young Chinese women are still pushing at the boundaries of the traditional family.

The basic aim of this dissertation is the one of analyzing in deep the new and constantly changing fansubbing phenomenon within the vast and fascinating world of Audiovisual Translation (AVT). Furthermore, the lack of comprehensive and complete works on AVT (mainly in Italian) was the starting point: after a general overview, with a particular focus on the new and innovative professional challenges (subtitling for the deaf and hard-of-hearing people -SDH, audio description for the blind and the partially sighted people -AD, fansubbing, etc.), a brief analysis of TV series was considered mandatory. As a matter of fact, the fansubbing phenomenon was born as a consequence of love and passion of the viewers for this specific type of audiovisual product, which makes them playing a very important role. In this way, fans and the audience in general are able not only to produce the amateur subtitled versions of their favorite TV shows (in order to make them accessible to other fans), but they can also “set the rules”: hence, the concepts of “active audience” and “loyalty to the original” are essential and always highlighted from the very beginning of this thesis.
Consequently, the previous research was followed by a practical example of subtitling (specifically, the Italian subtitled pilot of the American sit-com “Selfie”) which is an hybrid proposal between the standard and professional subtitles and the “fansubs” and amateur ones. The norms and customs of both typologies were extensively analyzed so as to to create the hybrid version, which apparently seems to follow some of the professional standards, but combined with some peculiarities of the “fansubs”. Therefore, the third and last part is dedicated to the translation and film analyses, in order to be as multidisciplinary as possible (as the AVT generally is) and not merely focused on linguistic and translational issues. It is necessary, in fact, to be aware of the existence of some aspects of audiovisual translation that are different, inescapable and complementary and it is essential to start to analyze them in a systematic way and on different levels (Perego and Taylor 2012: 12)

Perfect Blue (1997) is an anime (Japanese animation) film directed by Kon Satoshi. The film revolves around a female idol (a pop star) named Mima who quits her career as an idol to become an actress, and how she gradually loses her mind. This article presents anime as an important pop culture phenomenon with a massive influence worldwide. This article examines the gender stereotypes promulgated by this phenomenon and proposes a different reading of the work of Kon by comparing how the gender roles are portrayed in the different versions: The Japanese original and its yakuwarigo or "scripted speech" (Kinsui and Yamakido 2015) and the US English subtitles and dubbing. Methodologically, the analysis relies on close observation of the use of the Japanese first and second person pronouns and sentence-final particles in the charac-ters' language, since "the use of these features is known to be highly gender-dependent" (Hiramoto 2013: 55). The study comes to important conclusions regarding gender portrayals in audiovisual translation. Resumen Perfect Blue (1997) es un film de anime (animación japonesa) dirigido por Kon Satoshi. Este film gira alrededor de una idol (una estrella pop) llamada Mima, quien decide terminar su carrera como idol para convertirse en una actriz y el subsiguiente declive mental que Mima sufre. Este artículo trata el anime como un fenómeno cultural pop con enorme influencia alrededor del mundo y analiza los estereotipos de género promulga-dos por ese fenómeno, además de proponer una lectura diferente de la obra de Kon. Se examina cómo los diferentes roles de género se exhiben en las diferentes versiones: en el original japonés y su yakuwarigo o «discurso guionado» (Kinsui y Yamakido 2015) y en las traducciones al inglés estadounidense. La metodología se basa en la observación Recibido /

Subtitling in Romania, a subbing stronghold surrounded by dubbing countries, is a phenomenon yet to be studied thoroughly by the autochthonous academia. Amateur subtitling or fansubbing, despite its prevalence among the younger generations, has been barely touched upon. What this paper aims to achieve is to shed a light on the manner in which these two audiovisual translation solutions have evolved in this geographic context with a view to highlighting professional and amateur subtitlers’ approach to translating bawdy puns featured in American sitcoms. By drawing parallels between a series of eight vertical and horizontal instances of wordplay based on homonymy, homophony, and paronymy found in several episodes of Sex and the City, this article seeks to test the hypothesis that amateur subtitlers, unburdened as they are by any form of audiovisual regulation, are more likely to produce daring renditions of ribald words and phrases than their official omologues. Through these analyses, this paper also aspires to pave the way for research into this relatively new area of study in the Romanian translation studies literature and to elicit interest in how the autochthonous subtitlers and fansubbers of movies and sitcoms tackle instances of language that bring about moral and translational challenges.

O objetivo do presente artigo é apresentar um panorama da distribuição e consumo dos conteúdos relativos aos dramas de TV sul-coreanos no Brasil, considerando como foco principal os fãs como principais agentes da expansão desse conteúdo pelo ecossistema digital, os chamados fansubbers. Essa análise partirá do estudo de caso do fansub brasileiro Kingdom Fansubs, utilizando como objeto suas postagens em seus respectivos perfis nas plataformas Twitter e Facebook. Assim, visamos compreender com mais clareza qual o teor das discussões entre fãs e de que forma se dão as dinâmicas de produção e circulação nas redes digitais e se possibilitam não apenas a circulação de diferentes conteúdos e culturas, mas, além disso, se criam círculos e redes de afinidades no ambiente conectivo com capacidade para influenciar e criar tendências. Introdução O conceito de redes sociais, muito antes da ideia que temos hoje, com as plataformas nas quais podemos nos conectar e interagir com outras pessoas no ambiente virtual, já existia. As próprias relações entre seres humanos no espaço físico, ligadas por diversos motivos como interesses em comum ou proximidade, já formavam e formam um círculo a nossa volta, a nossa rede social, as pessoas com quem nos relacionamos. Com a internet, entretanto, essa relação se expandiu com muito mais força, principalmente porque se tornou ainda mais fácil encontrar pessoas com gostos e interesses em comum, promovendo uma aproximação que muitas vezes não chega a ser física, mas tem um poder de influência tão forte quanto.

Anime, Japanese animation, is massive, with “60% of the animation in the world made in Japan” (Goto-Jones 2009, 3). Anime occasionally makes an innovative use of graphemes on screen, but this has not been studied so far. This study, then, describes and analyses how graphemes have been translated in anime, presenting a series of cases, but concentrating on three particular releases: Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill, and Tōkyō Godfathers, products that feature a frequent and innovative use of graphemes in its anime. These graphemes are categorised into two types: (1) the ones that are part of the original anime and (2) the graphemes added in fansubbed anime. Much anime is fansubbed (subtitled by fans), and these fans are not constrained by the industry’s rules, meaning that they have complete liberty in subtitling, allowing for really creative forms of subtitling. Even if this freedom can sometimes be taken to the extreme—with subtitles covering the entire screen—fansubs have shown creative subtitling solutions, specially in the case of graphemes that cover a great part of the screen. After describing and analysing these graphemes and how they have been subtitled, this article concludes that, even if fansubs can frequently be excessive, they are at the fore of creativity, and present better solutions than official subtitles in the translation of graphemes in anime.

This article explores the emerging phenomenon of amateur translation and tries to shed some light on the implications this process may have both for Translation Studies as an academic discipline and for the translation industry itself. The paper comments on the main activities included within the concept of fan translation and approaches the terminological issues concerning the categorization of “non-professional translation”. In addition, the article focuses on the existing differences between collaborative translation and crowdsourcing, and posits new hypotheses regarding the development of these initiatives and the possible erosion of the boundaries which separate them. The question of who-does-what in the industry of translation is a major issue to be addressed in order to gain a clear view of the global state of translation today.

Audiovisual translation (AVT) has increased rapidly in Turkey in the last two decades, due to the increasing demand for foreign productions. Both professional and amateur audiovisual translators are involved in the production of Turkish subtitles. The censorship policies in the country affect AV translation both as a process and a product. This study aims at outlining the general profile of AV translators, with a focus on fansubbers, and their views on censorship. Data were collected through an electronic survey completed by 107 translators, and correspondence through e-mail and telephone interviews with professional translators. The results suggest a high degree of censorship in Turkey for AV materials; translators for TV channels must abide by rules set forth by government institutions or employers. Subtitles by fansubbers available at online portals are closer to the original text, although with minor modifications due to personal preferences.

This paper sets out to explore how translation is increasingly being appropriated by politically engaged individuals without formal training to respond effectively to the socio-economic structures that sustain global capitalism. Drawing on a generative conceptualization of translation activism and insights from globalization studies and media sociology, the paper traces the genealogy of an activist community subtitling a televised interview with Spain’s former Prime Minister, José María Aznar López, originally broadcast by BBC News 24 against the background of the ongoing military conflict between Lebanon and Israel. The analysis suggests that these communities of ‘non-translators’ emerge through dynamic processes of contextualization, involving complex negotiations of narrative affinity among their members. It is argued that, in contrast to more traditional groupings of activist translators, these fluid networks of engaged mediators constitute ‘ad-hocracies’ that capitalize on the potential of networked communication to exploit their collective intelligence. The paper concludes by exploring the implications of the growing importance of such ad-hocracies for the future of activist translation and its theorization.

This article studies non-professional subtitling (NPS) within a holistic framework combining Chesterman's propositions of functional quality and expectancy norms. NPS communities emerged due to discomfort among users regarding translated audiovisual products. The assessment of the production and reception conditions of NPS through a review of studies reveals that quality is relevant on both sides. On the production side, non-professional subtitlers have defined procedures aiming at ensuring the quality of the subtitles. On the reception side, users have developed a conscious approach to select the subtitles they want to use. For users, access and speed in the release of the subtitles are key when choosing subtitles. Results indicate that NPS fulfills the users' expectations because the communities are geared towards producing subtitles that address the users' needs. This article calls for further exploration of NPS settings to expand the notions of quality and translation under the current conditions.

Recent developments in the audiovisual marketplace have led to an increasing compartmentalization of subtitling audiences and the emergence of amateur subtitling cultures that aim to cater for the idiosyncratic demands of their target audience niche. Fansubbing, i.e. the subtitling of Japanese animated films by fans, is one of the most influential and successful of such amateur cultures. This article examines the genealogy of this peculiar phenomenon, describes some of its most distinctive subtitling practices and explores the effects of its interventionist agenda. Drawing on the apparatus of multimodal theory and the insights provided by a small purpose-built corpus, this paper argues that fansubbing exploits traditional meaningmaking codes in a creative manner and, more importantly, criss-crosses the traditional boundaries between linguistic and visual semiotics in innovative
ways.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the so-called fansubs, a different type of subtitling carried out by amateur translators. The first part of this study covers both the people and phases involved in the fansubbing process from beginning to end. The second section focuses on the legality and ethics of fansubs. The third part pays attention to the actual translation of fansubs and their unique features, such as the use of translator’s notes or special karaoke effects. The paper concludes with a reflection on the work done by fansubbers and the possibilities opened by this mainly Internet phenomenon.