Otaku Creations

The Participatory Culture of Fansubbing

Abstract

In recent years, Japanese media has become increasingly popular in North America. Whereas anime fandom was once considered a small, outsider community, mainstream networks like Cartoon Network in the United States and YTV in Canada now prominently feature blocks of English-dubbed anime as part of their lineup. As anime is enjoying more mainstream appeal, the underground community of fansubbing has also grown as fans gain access to the same digital equipment as professional producers. This paper offers an introduction to the online community of fansubbers, groups of fans that work together to create English-language subtitled versions of Japanese television programs. Their goal of producing new media from Japanese texts exemplifies the rising participatory culture that consumers are advancing with modern technology. Research for the paper was gathered from informants in the fansubbing community, who were approached using ethnographic methods of participant-observer field research. Through logged chat conversations and direct interviews, the informants offer their perspective on the meaning of fansubbing and the community of anime fans on the Internet. They have also brought forward records of public conversations between fans and commercial producers of anime. While there are many questions still to be addressed, this paper seeks to explain how the process of fansubbing works and some of the motivating factors that bring participants to the table. Through an understanding of fansubbing, we can see one way in which fans are taking a part in the creation of their favorite fictional universes. It can be expected that fans and producers will continue to struggle over the legitimacy of control over these media franchises for a long time to come.