1st Fansub Review! : Ayu Anime

Ayu anime produces the best quality fansubs I have ever seen in my entire life. However the downside is that they are slow… (WHERE IS MY REC 6 WTHHHHH!!!!!)

This review is a tribute to them ^^ I’ll donate to them soon enough when I get my army pay. If you compare what commercial subbers can do compared to these fansub groups, the commercial subbers can juz go jump down the building. Most of the time they use a static font, and they dont outline the font so it becomes invisible in some scenes. Juz buy any anime dvd, or even watch some on tv and u’ll get wad i mean.

For those who do not know, YES FANS INSERT THOSE SUBS INTO YOUR ANIME! And its no easy task baby. There are a few components to the fansubbing process:

Obtaining a RAW: A RAW is the original anime ripped from Jap TV and placed on Jap sites that of course has NO english subtitles whatsoever. The fansub group has to hunt for a suitable raw to turn into a fansub.

Translating – Well duh you need ppl good at both Eng and Jap to do a fansub otherwise nothing else follows.

Typesetting – This is the process of inserting the subs into the anime itself. The typesetter has to decide what font to use.

Timing – This controls WHEN the subs appear when the characters in the anime speak. This is a very tedious and unglamourous job…

Karaoke - Used commonly in anime startings and endings only. Just think about the subtitles you get in karaoke videos and you get wad i mean. Basically a more advanced form of timing.

Encoding - This is the process of putting everything together, and determines the picture and sound quality of the fansub.

Ok to show you guys how pro the Ayu team really is, lets have a look at the opening theme of Rec. I don’t mean that their previous projects are not good, its juz that Rec OP done by Ayu REALLY caught my attention, if you analyse it properly.

First lets have a look at the introduction screen:

It isnt clear in the shot, but the radio frequency indicators inside the big REC are moving up and down. Ayu has managed to imitate it EXACTLY using an animated GIF to typeset “Ayu Presents” instead of using some lousy font. No other fansubber has done something to this extent before. Making an animated gif is very time-consuming, I’ve tried before (and failed!).

As for Karaoke for this OP, the subtitles ontop drop off to the left in a diagonal slant. The Japanese subtitles above the bottom subtitles drift upwards to the left. The effect is nice, and definitely difficult to typeset. This will be clearer in the shots to follow.

But what I really wanna comment about is the TIMING. Holyshit, I don’t know how the hell they time their OP, NO OTHER fansubber has impressed me this much.

Lets have a look at this line in the OP “konomama futari de aruiteukouyo”

Ok as you can see the subtitles are in an average pinkish shade this time. This is done to complement the background.

What’s this? As the Nekoki commercial comes onto screen, the Ayu timer synchronises with the typesetter and PERFECTLY changes the colour of all the subtitles to complement the background colour change. That caught my attention mildly but have a look at the shots to follow…

In case you did not notice, those were SPLIT-SECOND CHANGES in background colour. I think the Ayu timer and typesetter probably have too much time on their hands. They have to decide on which shade of colour to complement the background before actually typesetting the subtitles. Although it isnt obvious here, the timing is PERFECT!

So the colour change we have for a mere 6 or 7 seconds of anime OP is:
pink > dark green > light blue > light pink > grey

If u really wanna see how good the subbing is you should download an episode of REC to checkit out. Fortunately, REC is a very nice anime as well

See what a good anime does to you? It drives u insane, and makes you do weird things XD

Ayu’s encoding is superb as well. The sound quality is superior to all other subbers for Rec, and they always use a widescreen format for very nice picture quality.

Ayu subs are almost always superior to other fansubbers, because they do a very very thorough and slow job. I would encourage those who have nothing to watch to juz dl Ayu subs, coz most of them are nice anime. Except Jinki:Extend. Don’t touch that.

Well last post for a week or more as I’m going off to China today. Sayonara!!!