Controversy Over Manga Scanlations & Anime Fansubs

Both watching anime and reading manga have become very popular pastimes in the United States and Japan, and it seems as though good marketing by anime companies is not the only reason for their rise in popularity. Another major contributor seems to lie within the hands of fans as well.

Many fans have dedicated their own time and money to help share manga scanlations and anime fansubs with other fanatics. The major problem that arises from this issue, however, is that many U.S. companies own the rights to the titles many fans decided to scanlated or fansub. This is where the controversial issue of copyright infringement comes about. However, many fansubbers and scanlators either buy, borrow, supply, or download their own raw materials in which they later translate for other fans. Are fansubbers and scanlators truly wrong in their actions? Hopefully, a better understanding of the scanlating and fansubbing process can help you make your decision.

You may be wondering what exactly are manga scanlations and anime fansubs. Well for starters, lets try to clear up the subject of manga scanlations. Many scanlations resemble English comic books except with an Asian flair. Manga scanlations are basically a combination of raw manga scans, usually in the language of Japanese, Korean, or Chinese, and a translation in another language other than the original raw scans. English, French, Spanish, and Italian are a few languages in which many scanlators translate their raws to. Once translated into the desired language, the text translation is then combined with the raw scans to form a scanlation. The total scanlation process can be tedious, and usually, several individuals are recruited on a project to help lessen the overall workload. Depending on the scanlation group, a single chapter can take from a couple of days to up to month to scanlate. Many individuals who do scanlate must translate, clean, typeset, and edit in order to make manga chapters presentable to fans. Another major factor that determines chapter releases is the actual quality of the raw manga scans. For example, low quality chapters usually take only a day or two to release because the raw scans do not normally have individuals who clean the scans. Medium quality and high quality scans, however, can take up to several days because cleaners contribute hours of their own time to redraw, clean, and retouch each page of a particular chapter before it is released. Computer programs are also used for scanlating to help better the quality of a chapters, release chapters quicker, and lessen any strain on cleaners. The fansubbing process, on the other hand, does not usually involve so much touch up work.

Similar to manga scanlations, anime fansubs use raw anime episodes and then subtitle the episodes in another language other than the original raws. Usually, episodes are subtitled in English, French, or Spanish to accomidate fans. The length of the entire fansubbing process varies per group, but most episodes are finished before the next episode is aired in Japan. Just like scanlations, the quality of a particular episode is largely dependent on the quality of the raws and the fansubbing group. Translating, typsetting, word syncing, and editing are elements usually incorporated in the fansubbing process.

Another interesting fact is that the majority of fansubbers, just like manga scanlators, do not make a profit off of their work. When individuals do profit from scanlating or fansubbing, most other fansubbers and scanlators look down upon such acts. After all, the majority of fansubbers and scanlators release episodes and chapters to share with fans, not to make money. Also, many fansubbers and scanlators stop releasing episodes and chapters once a series is licensed internationally. Even though fansubbing and scanlating is considered against the law, some companies do support fansubs and scanlations to a certain extent. The most reasonable explanation for such acceptance is probably mainly due to companies wanting see what titles will be potentially profitable by examing a title's popularity amoung fans who download fansubs and scanlations. This allows companies to buy titles that could become quite profitable. However, other companies believe the free availability of fansubs and scanlations via the internet threatens their company's profits. But without anime fansubs and manga scanlations, many people would never know about less known titles.

Even though many legal issues surround manga scanlations and anime fansubs, I do believe that determined fans will continue to create what they love. Considering the time, effort, and money they put into such projects, fans do greatly influence the popularity of anime and manga in the United States. And who knows, maybe fansubs and scanlations do positively influence the anime industry.