VTuber's overseas popularity is supported by the former 'fansub community'



When Japanese anime wasn't as officially deployed abroad as it is today, most foreign anime fans watched Japanese anime in illegally uploaded pirated versions. However, all the lines spoken by the characters in such pirated versions are Japanese voices, so foreigners cannot understand them. Therefore, an unofficial subtitle called 'Fansub ', which was translated by volunteers who can understand Japanese, was added to the pirated version.

Gamer Braves writer Amiral Adran explains that the overseas fan community of Virtual YouTuber (VTuber), which is active mainly in Japan, is supported by the community that produces this fansub.

How Vtuber Fansubs Made Their Own International Communication --GamerBraves
https://www.gamerbraves.com/how-vtuber-fansubs-made-their-own-international-communication/

Adran states that there are two types of animation translation: 'translate as is' and 'localization'. 'Translating as it is' means translating obediently based on grammar. And 'localization' is to translate a specific culture in one country into another.

Fansub, which was attached to the pirated version of Japanese animation, went down due to the enhancement of services that officially distribute Japanese animation with correct subtitles and dubbed voices by voice actors. However, as the demand for 'I want to see the distribution of VTuber in Japan' was born among overseas fans, the culture of the fansub community became the foundation, and videos with volunteer translations of VTuber distribution cutouts such as YouTube etc. Many have been uploaded to the video sharing site of.



However, Adran points out that 'the subtitles attached to the VTuber crop are a little different from the previous fansubs.'

For example, in the case of fansub in anime, when a word unique to Japan appears, it may be translated as it is, but it is rarely localized, and the annotation of that word is displayed instead. There were many. This annotation provided support for 'new fans who have never seen anime and are unfamiliar with Japanese culture.'



For example, if the Japanese word 'plan' appears as a keyword, it will be displayed in Roman letters as 'keikaku' instead of being translated as 'plan' from the beginning, and will be written separately as 'Note: Keikaku means plan'. Since this annotation was sometimes inserted even after the animation was temporarily suspended, it was difficult to understand the mixture of Japanese and English in the fansub in the animation, and it seems that the tempo of the animation itself was also bad. ..

However, in the fansub of the VTuber movie, the point that Japanese is displayed in Roman letters does not change, but it seems that there are many cases where the phrase is not explained at all. For example, in the world of VTuber, the word 'seiso ', which is used differently than usual, appears in fansub as it is, but there are few cases where its meaning is explained.

The fact that there are no Japanese slang created by VTuber or annotations of words that cannot be translated into foreign languages means that the meaning cannot be understood from the context without watching a large number of movies, so it will be difficult for overseas fans to enter the market. Still, there are many overseas fans who can understand the meaning from the context, and Mr. Adran said, 'Recently, among overseas VTuber fans,' grass 'used in the Japanese community has replaced ' lol 'used in the English-speaking world. It's starting to be used. '

In addition, the fansub community is openly active on bulletin board sites such as Reddit and SNS such as Twitter, and it is said that there is a place to tell if you have any questions. For example, in the case of the VTuber group Hololive, ' r / Hololive ' seems to be the main place for information exchange for overseas fans.



'After all, I don't want to argue that localization is bad, but it's definitely worth the added value of creating a new cross-cultural experience without forcing Japanese localization. No. I think the wording shared between Japanese and English viewers gives new viewers the choice to embrace different cultures. '

Also, the experience of watching VTuber is not just about watching interesting videos, but even if you do not interact directly with VTuber himself, you can create new experiences by interacting with fans living in the same nest. Adran said.

'Before the global boom of today, Japanese animation was a niche abroad and lived on the back of enthusiastic fans who translated to accept new entrants. Given how much content VTuber publishes in a week, I think it's great that the spirit of the former fansub-community continues here as well, 'Adlan said.

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