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United States24637 Posts
This blog has several purposes:
- Discuss what Quality Control (QC) is when fansubbing anime.
- Share my experience with QC.
- Offer a way to get involved as a QC if you want to.
QC only applies to fan-subbed anime. In case you don't know...
+ Show Spoiler [subbed anime vs dubbed anime] +Anime has Japanese audio by default. For viewers who don't know Japanese, you either watch the anime dubbed with english (or your language) voice acting, or you watch the anime with english subtitles (or your language). There are often arguments about which are better: subs or dubs. Most hardcore anime fans prefer subs for may reasons that I won't go into.
According to Scab, a long-time fansubber at Saizen Fansubs, here is the definition of QC:
Quality Control (QC)
As a quality checker you need to be able to spot errors and mistakes made by other staff members. The people in QC are the ones who decide if an episode is good enough to release or not and need to be qualified to make that judgement. Some level of knowledge of the other fansubbing tasks is recommended, but written proficiency in English is the only prerequisite.
I've been watching anime since the mid 90s, but I didn't get involved in fansubbing at all until a few years ago when it became very convenient (think of how the internet has adapted to allow collaboration and sharing over the last 5-10 years). I didn't realize all the work that went into creating fansubs.
+ Show Spoiler [The other jobs besides QC, according t…] +
Translator
Translates from Japanese to English. A certain level of proficiency in both languages is expected with emphasis on Japanese.
Editor
Edits scripts to fix spelling errors, improve grammar and rephrase where the translators have had a hard time turning their intended translation into English. Being a native English speaker and having some sort of editing experience is recommended.
Timer
Times the translation. Familiarity with scene-timing, lead-in/out times and a subtitling program of your choice is expected. Alternatively, a willingness to learn these things with some guidance from our current timers.
Typesetter
Typesets onscreen signs. Expected to be able to handle all kinds of signs both still and moving. AFX is the preferred format, but SSA/ASS is fine as well. Specialized typesetters such as karaokers and title screen artists are also welcome.
Raw Provider
Provides the raw (untranslated TV capture or DVD) for the other staff members to work with. Expected to be familiar with WinNY and Share or be able to provide DVD's or isos.
Encoder
Encodes the final video file. Expected to be able to work from DVD's or isos as well as TV captures. Familiarity with IVTC, AviSynth, a variety of AviSynth filters and their uses as well as the MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) format is required.
Distro
Seeds our torrents or provides IRC bots. Expected to be able to do one of these things and have access to a fast connection.
Some of that information might be coming slightly out of date, but the principles are definitely the same.
I started out as a QC recruit. I figured I had the basic knowledge of English (which can be more useful than you think since many fansub groups have mostly people from countries besides USA/Canada/etc who speak english all the time on the internet but lack that native edge). They gave me a 'test' at Saizen Fansubs to see if I was good enough. By the way, I chose Saizen because they were subbing some anime I wanted to see at the time (Eyeshield 21, Prince of Tennis OVA, Major, a few others).
I watched a video file of an episode of subbed anime, and made a list in notepad of all the mistakes I found. There were a few spelling mistakes (such as ei instead of ie), grammar/tense mistakes (sometimes I don't even know the rules of english word for word, but I can still tell when it's written awkwardly), and word-matching issues (player says 'hut hut' and the subs say 'hut hut hut' etc). They graded my test and told me I got just about every english language related mistake, and almost no mistakes of any other type (lol). They said that was ok and they let me in.
Since then, I've learned how to catch timing mistakes, typesetting mistakes, etc. But the key to being a good QC is to be comfortable with the English language, and be able to watch an episode once or twice and catch any errors.
After I was QC for a while I became an editor. This required the same skills as a QC except there was a lot more responsibility. Maybe one day I'll write about what editing anime is really all about. All I can say is, editing tends to be the most under-appreciated task in any field!
If you want to be a QC, then you should try to join a fansubbing group that does anime you like, like I did.
Currently, Saizen is working on the following:
Ashita no Joe
Hajime no Ippo New Challenger
Major Season 4
Minami-ke
Slam Dunk
and a few other projects that are either planned or single episodes (or I just don't know about right now). They are currently trying to put together more Prince of Tennis OVA also. If these interest you, click here or check out #saizen on rizon. (edit: hm forums are slow for me right now... not sure why but usually doesn't happen)
As a final note I'll give my opinion of what the different types of fansubbing groups are. Two ways to measure a fansubbing group are how quickly they release episodes after the episode comes out, and how high quality the release is (there is actually a lot more to this than most anime fans realize). Usually the faster the group, the lower the quality, and vice versa. Some groups have been known to be pretty fast and still have pretty good quality (i.e. Dattebayo). Anyway, the group I worked with was Saizen which tends to be all quality and almost no speed. Take your pick.
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I was thinking about doing something like this for a while but I think i'm not really qualified for it as my English is not that good and I don't speak any Japanese at all. I Know allot about subbing and timings and stuff tho.
Hajime no Ippo and Minami-Ke FOR THE WIN will definitely give Saizen Fansubs a try =)
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United States24637 Posts
On March 29 2009 18:18 Ziph wrote:
I was thinking about doing something like this for a while but I think i'm not really qualified for it as my English is not that good and I don't speak any Japanese at all. I Know allot about subbing and timings and stuff tho.
Hajime no Ippo and Minami-Ke FOR THE WIN will definitely give Saizen Fansubs a try =)
Ah, then yeah definitely look into timing if you haven't already.
I knew no japanese aside from a couple of words I picked up from watching... 'soh kah' = I see... lol
Then I worked in fansubbing and now I can watch a raw anime and actually pick some meaning out of it :D My sister was a japenese minor and when we watch raw together she picks out all the academic meaning and I pick out all the conversational meaning and when we put it together we can almost understand it.
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Great blog, quality control, depending on the series, can be more important than the translating itself, especially if the QCer has exceptional writing skills. Quarity control is pretty damn important in Manga too, which is why Musashi Quality is my favorite scanlation group at the moment. With manga you have to do clean-up as well, which can be a huge hassle. I'll check out Saizen's releases as they come <3
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Lol dattlebayo good quality at best... VfW is used for their encoding omg that shit should have died years and years ago unnecessary and their pointless keeping to hardsubs (i find plain black and white subs horrible to look at i usually find the overall color pallet used for the anime and choose a very prevlient color in the background that isn't so much in the foreground 2 colors of blue works very well in gundam shows also brown etc, i just find it easier on the eyes) have always pissed me off.
I'm still waiting for a good godsend to the fansubbing community a new format that can be used as softsubs like SSA but can do the things like positing a graphical things like karaoke which kept AFX alive.
Fansubs love they work hard either way, even if they work from a R2 (a R1 ripper is just a dvd ripper sorry  )dvd to help devlier the best quality to us fans.
How else would i get to see something as nice as Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo without hardworking dvd ripping community and fansubbers working toghter.
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United States24637 Posts
IzzyCraft yeah I understand your feelings about db... a few years ago what I said was probably more true.
Scooter your views of QC implies you haven't been surrounded by very good editors :3
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Fansubbers in general are under-appreciated, lol.
I'd be interested in helping out. I enjoy writing, and can do so quite eloquently...I bullshit my way to As on nearly all papers I have to write for university... -_____-;;
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United States24637 Posts
I was on board with the article until I got to "Fansubbing is a job for niggers." Then it sorta went downhill.
Reading that is analogous to reading the autobiography of someone who spends all his time in clan x17 on east.
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a bit offtopic but do u got an account at myanimelist.net or anidb micronesia ? just curious
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United States24637 Posts
On March 29 2009 20:18 kAra wrote:
a bit offtopic but do u got an account at myanimelist.net or anidb micronesia ? just curious
Personally, no.
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Pokemon sounds pretty English to me(English version) and I think it has completely different actors and stuff too
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United States24637 Posts
On March 29 2009 21:05 Racenilatr wrote:
Pokemon sounds pretty English to me(English version) and I think it has completely different actors and stuff too
What?
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DB's translation quality has slipped from a few years ago, though at the moment they do serve as a nice indicator for a group that balances speed and quality well.
QC is a really good way to tell how the fansub group is though, I remember back when I used to need subs and watched anxiously as an episode that I am waiting to see goes through like 6 QCs...well at least the final quality is good, it really works out to be similar to how much time they are willing to spend though.
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United States24637 Posts
On March 29 2009 21:14 Ecael wrote:
QC is a really good way to tell how the fansub group is though, I remember back when I used to need subs and watched anxiously as an episode that I am waiting to see goes through like 6 QCs...well at least the final quality is good, it really works out to be similar to how much time they are willing to spend though.
Oh you bring up something I should have mentioned.
What is a typical QC process? Most of the stuff I've worked on has had sqc (soft qc because the subs are still not hard-encoded onto the video, although it makes less sense to call it that since most stuff we release nowadays is soft anyway) where 3-4 people submit reports, and then rc1 (release candidate 1), 2, etc, until the file is ready. Typically there would be 2-3 rounds of rc quality checking with 2-3 people per check. So yeah there's a lot of time put into qc.
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I always wondered where fansub groups get their raws from - Japanese p2p? Also, how big are the more established groups like DB? Judging by the number of various jobs you posted, it seems you need at least 6-7 guys, probably more since I doubt that all of them can be online at the same time.
I am also interested in just how much Japanese you have to know in order to do proper translations, not all groups can have native speakers or members studying the language at uni.
Reading the blog of the coal guy, I would have never imagined that there was so much competition between subgroups - maybe some years ago, when there were for example like four or five groups subbing Naruto - but nowadays there should be enough different animes that cant be covered by a small number of groups. At least that was my thought until now.
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Hmm, in terms of how much studying of Japanese you need to be able to understand well enough for translation, I am on my third year in Uni and I haven't been having any problems with raws (sans for some of the more abstract ones) for years. Though I also just read a lot on my own and all, it pretty much comes down to how much time you spend just listening to the language. I don't do any fansub work though, so there is that.
A lot of the raw groups just use Share/PD for their raws, but DB, if memory serves, has their own raw recorders. As for amount of people, there are one-man groups, but those really are just horrible speedsubs, the better fansub groups tends to have at least 6+ guys, oftentimes more for editors and all.
About competition between subgroups, you need to remember there are shows that just attract more attention. Code Geass had at least 4+ groups doing it, and someo f the hype stuff had freaking tons. Don't have a good example off the bat, but I remember last season there was this one show that had initially over 6 groups subbing it, just on a casual inspection.
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United States47024 Posts
Downloading, and seeding now. 
Great blog micronesia, didn't know all that much about fansubbing till now.
And those of you who haven't watched Minami-Ke should.
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Sounds like something I may look into actually. I always try to watch atleast 3 ongoing series a week and then just random series by series in the extra sparetime when I've already watched my shows. I've now seen a decent amount of anime (too many to try and list finally) and I want to keep on going.
I would love to get episodes earlier than other people and be a QCer ha.
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United States24637 Posts
On March 30 2009 01:25 MiniRoman wrote:
I would love to get episodes earlier than other people and be a QCer ha. Being on qc for a popular anime can have that advantage hehe...
But I find the more you like an anime the more passes you have to make to qc it properly since you focus on the story rather than the subs XD
If it's an anime I have any interest in I watch it once without worrying about the subs, and then again slowly noting errors.
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Have you watched Xam'd Lost Memories? Killed that series while procrasting my papers and loved it. It's pretty new though and came out originally for PSN so I don't think it has a lot of exposure. On that note Bones and Madhouse are pimp with the shit they put out.
I gotta find something new to watch now.
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O.o Micronesia you're on Saizen? Props to your PoT releases... high quality encodes, those were.
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United States24637 Posts
On March 30 2009 04:03 xxsaznpride wrote:
O.o Micronesia you're on Saizen? Props to your PoT releases... high quality encodes, those were.
Well I wasn't the encoder so I can't take credit for that XD but I hope you enjoyed the editing 8)
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lol well I meant it overall... Though yes, the encoding was also in itself amazing.
Though I can' seem to recall any recent projects from you guys...
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I get my anime from animenuke. =3
Anyways, that's pretty cool creating subs for anime. ^^
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1584 Posts
I learned how to do timings for some korean series but god damnit timing is awfully boring, mad props to the guys who can actually stand doing it :f
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What would I do without good fansubs???
I rely on them like food and water hahaha
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On March 30 2009 01:35 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On March 30 2009 01:25 MiniRoman wrote:
I would love to get episodes earlier than other people and be a QCer ha. Being on qc for a popular anime can have that advantage hehe... But I find the more you like an anime the more passes you have to make to qc it properly since you focus on the story rather than the subs XD If it's an anime I have any interest in I watch it once without worrying about the subs, and then again slowly noting errors.
Yeah I know how that feels, whenever I check the subs for errors (for learning purposes and references in terms of archiving) I usually have to do it on like the second or third watch, can't pay enough attention otherwise :p
On March 30 2009 08:12 ieatkids5 wrote:
What would I do without good fansubs???
I rely on them like food and water hahaha
It isn't "that" hard a language to learn, always an option, think about all the time you save from not needing to wait for subs!
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United States24637 Posts
On March 30 2009 09:58 Ecael wrote:Show nested quote +On March 30 2009 01:35 micronesia wrote:On March 30 2009 08:12 ieatkids5 wrote:
What would I do without good fansubs???
I rely on them like food and water hahaha It isn't "that" hard a language to learn, always an option, think about all the time you save from not needing to wait for subs!
Learning Japanese in particular is pretty difficult. I wouldn't do it just to watch anime a little earlier XD
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Yeah, I'm considering taking some japanese classes at univ (im a senior in high school now), as well as chinese (im fluent in speaking cantonese, but cant write or speak mandarin very well). Of course, i wouldn't be taking japanese just for anime....or maybe im in denial about it lol
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Isn't it better if the quality checker is proficient in both japanese and english? Or did I miss something?
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It is better. But not necessary. QC generally does grammar/spelling/punctuation/timing, not the meaning. But if they did know Japanese too, they could make sure the meaning is correct in addition to the other stuff.
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Depends on what type of QC they are doing but usually English over Japanese is better... The translator does the translating not the QC the main thing the QC is doing is trying to agree with the chosen words, things about grammar and syntax so it doesn't sound or look weird. Other things a QC person would check for quality of the encoding errors etc.
It would be better if they have a deep understanding of the language of both in English and Japanese but it's perfered if English is their first language.
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United States24637 Posts
On March 30 2009 14:21 Shauni wrote:
Isn't it better if the quality checker is proficient in both japanese and english? Or did I miss something?
I agree with what others have said in response to this question.
To add to it, there is only one japanese speaking person required for a sub. However, the editor often has questions about translations that the translator may not be able to answer (the translated scripts editors get are sometimes terrible... like they make absolutely not sense in english)... so it helps to have at least one other speaker of Japanese to clear up issues and check that everything looks right.
Ideally every member of the team would be fluent in both languages... but good luck with that haha.
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