As far as I am reading anime blogs, I have never seen anybody talking about an affiliation or liking for a fansub group (just hate postings *hrr hrr*). And I know that you guys aren’t all just watching DVDs you’ve bought. Do you care about which group’s version to watch? Or has it occured that you’ve watched a series simply because this group subbed it?
As for me, here’s a little list of all of the groups that immediately come to mind for me. From my absolute favourites to the ones that are highly noticeable. I also didn’t mention good groups that are horribly inactive now.
Live-eviL
These guys will probably shine eternally~ I am a sucker for certain old series and they are providing highest quality subs! Death Note, Trapp, Galaxy Express, Queen Millennia, Kino no Tabi, Rose of Versailles, Hikaru no Go, Wolf’s Rain, Last Exile, Planetes…! Do I have to say more?
Anime-Kraze
They are just so old and have done so many series that I don’t really know where to start. I just know that each time I see Anime-Kraze I know that the result is going to be satisfying even when it’s an old release.
Solar
Among the H&C fans, Solar was always more popular than C1, and I simply didn’t know why - until the day I compared for myself. The difference is even far more visible when you put Solar’s and Lunar’s versions of Ouran side by side. Aaah, I wish they would finish off Ouran quickly - I especially want to see episode 24 once more.
The Triad
I believe this group has a huge fanbase. As soon as Dragosmore announces a version, all his followers will run after that. Or that’s my impression because I like Dragosmore’s translations too. I especially like his elitist attitude about the work you have to put into translating *hehe*
Besides that, Triad has done Naru Taru. Besides all of those other great series they’ve did, this enough is worth to be mentioned. (The group they did a joint with, AnimeOne, is too inactive for me to say something about them, though.)
Yoroshiku
This is a rather new group, but their absolutely gorgeous Ergo Proxy PDF files immediately caught my attention. They also are the only group which released a proper version of REC - ah, how good it feels to see a new quality group!
ANBU
They worked on Honey & Clover, Planetes, Saikano Mushishi… yes, they are rather inactive now, but their releases are great. They also manage to maintain small filesizes and high quality at the same time. Yay.
Anime-Forever
I am grateful for Paradise Kiss, really. Even though it is so low in my hitlist. And I cannot be grateful enough for Sweet Valerian *___* It helps that they used to do really great projects (Cosette, Samurai Champloo, Mushishi) and their HD version of Kemonozume is the gorgeousness. I’m looking forward to their next joint with Yoroshiku for Freedom.
Froth-Bite
I heard Sylf, the translator, is japanese. Now their good reputation doesn’t surprise me anymore - and by the way, the translations seem to be good on the english part too. I don’t like their encoding sometimes (small filesizes are very great, but not with a noticeable lack of detail), but overall, good translation and a great choice of series are the most important when it comes to rating a fansub group imho.
a.f.k.
After they’ve done the gorgeous Haruhi subs, I believe everybody knows about them and their gorgeous subbing speed AND quality. Back then, they had a joint with Hikari no Kiseki on Princess Tutu - and those episodes were really great.
Hikari no Kiseki
Is this a one-man-group or something? Anyways, I prefer HnK’s version of Aria over CrystalNova’s because I think the blurriness and the more aquarellic colours captures the mood of Aria much better. They also worked on Princess Tutu which is an immense plus. The rest is just, well, kiddie-shôjo mostly.
Arienai
I hate them for their slow speed, but the fact that they are subbing two of my favourite shoujo series (Gakuen Alice and Hataraki Man) nearly makes up for it. Need Hataraki Man 4~!
(And no, chinese subs are a no-go because I watch them together with Milkmaster *cough*)
aarinfantasy
I’ve known of this group’s existence and seeing Meine Liebe and Angel’s Feather, I believe they are a bunch of FYG women (j/k) These are the guys/gals who are doing Patalliro! More plea~se!
Shinsen-subs
I know lots of people don’t really like them because of their, hm, “competitive character” - and in fact, I don’t either, but I think they are doing a good job on most of their series. They actually seem to be in contact with their audience and being a big group, they often fill gaps left by other groups.
Ayu
I don’t know what my problem with Ayu is: I don’t watch any single series by them, because either I dropped it (Jigoku Shoujo, Iriya no Sora) or I switched to other versions (Itsudatte my Santa); in fact, their series match my tastes pretty well. Zero no Tsukaima, Cosette, Madlax, Marimite, Rec, Rozen Maiden, Shinigami no Ballad - I have watched so many of their projects, just other subs *haha* All in all, I do think they are one of the better groups though.
Now I posted about exactly 13 groups. Ah, the misfortune!
Comments 7
Live-Evil, Solar, The Triad, a.f.k., Shinsen from your list. Also adding to that gg, Eclipse and Your-Mom. I think Your-Mom especially gets more flak than they deserve. I like them for their speed and their reliability; whenever they pick up a series I know I will be able to see the end of it in a timely fashion and that’s worth alot more than completely perfect translations to me(their translations look fine to me though, I have no problems following them ever).
Eclipse and gg have done a very good job with Kanon and Code Geass respectively so far. Speedy releases of two of my favourite shows.
*presses the lovely Abschicken button*
Posted 17 Dec 2006 at 03:25 CE(S)T ¶Your mom has the speed but not the good translations. They need a better editor.
Posted 17 Dec 2006 at 03:48 CE(S)T ¶I like gg, Triad, Shinsen, Eclipse etc. I don’t have specific preferences anyway. But Shinsen brings us so much that nobody else does.
Posted 17 Dec 2006 at 05:40 CE(S)T ¶For what it’s worth, I like Your-Mom and respect their subbing; their Tsuyokiss subs were at the very least decent: they just get more flak than they really deserve (which is little to none).
I’d agree with Matte. I love gg starting with Ayakashi - and I’ve never looked back. I’m now downloading their releases with Code Geass and Red Garden, and I’m really satisfied.
I love Lunar’s timeliness; they’re pretty consistent with their quality, but it seems right now, they’re slacking off - I guess because of exams. I love Ayu, Anime-Kraze (Kousetsu Hyaku Monogatari was AWESOME because of them), Anime-Forever (AWESOME SAMURAI CHAMPLOO, with all those notes that don’t disrupt at the beginning of the episode AS WELL as notes on their website - that was doing the extra mile).
Of course, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Solar - I am an H&C fanboy, and being that I downloaded both the C1 and the Solar release. The difference is just that obvious when you watch the Solar version; the dialogue transition flows much better than C1’s version, and H&C II was just a gift from heaven. Triad’s not among my best sub groups, but I love them all the same because of AKAGI.
And that’s it.
‘abschicken?’
Posted 17 Dec 2006 at 05:50 CE(S)T ¶Apart from a lot of groups already mentioned, I like Static-Subs because they often sub shows I like and maintain a very high quality.
(wish they’d pick up Gakuen Alice though, I’ll be married by the time Naisho finishes it 
).
Same pretty much goes for Oyasumi and Kyuuketsuki.
Also props for Doremi for picking up a lot of shows I really like that no one else cares about
Also a big plus for Anime-Empire who created the infinite high-level near-perfection sub of Yakitate!! Japan, don’t know if they’re still actually subbing anything atm though.
I also like Triad, Eclipse, Shinsen and Lunar which were mentioned earlier.
Posted 17 Dec 2006 at 06:11 CE(S)T ¶It’s tough to judge translation quality (and it’s a subjective measure, anyway) without being fluent in Japanese so I have to rely a lot on native speakers. But Solar’s primary translator taught me a little about what to look for in terms of quality in fansubs. For instance, one thing I noticed once I actually sat down and compared Solar to C1 (H&C) or Lunar (Ouran) was the immensely higher quality of typesetting (a lot of groups don’t bother with much of this).
a.f.k seems to be solid in pretty much every regard. And they release on a really consistent schedule, which is a big plus.
I’ll take any release over no release, so I do appreciate groups like Shinsen and Lunar that are just really prolific, but it is still nice to have some more focused on quality.
Unless I’m totally HADO GEI for a show, I don’t care about speed *too* much. Like I watch a.f.k’s Kanon releases even though they’re not the first ones out. But I wasn’t willing to wait for Solar to finish translating Ouran, so I watched the Lunar subs for most of it (I saw like 2/3 of it on Solar’s when I watched it again though).
Posted 17 Dec 2006 at 09:05 CE(S)T ¶Anybody but Your-Mom…
I was actually traumatized by the way they translated the place names in Black Lagoon. They turned Zamboanga into Three Precious Turns LOL. Mentioned Phuket when it was really never talked about in the dialogue. Etc etc. Maybe that’s the curse of knowing a little Japanese, low-quality subs just don’t let me enjoy anime anymore.
On the other hand, if I were to pick my favorite subbers, it would be Solar (for H&C), Lunar, Doremi and Shinsen.
Now anybody who will do Marimite OVA will be heaped with praises–except for YM.
Posted 17 Dec 2006 at 12:17 CE(S)T ¶Post a Comment