Fansubbing by the Numbers: A Spring 2016 Shitpost

80 thoughts on “Fansubbing by the Numbers: A Spring 2016 Shitpost”

1. >dropping shows you rate an 8
   >continue watching shows you rate 6
   Meme arrows

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   • When everyone’s a meme arrow, nobody is….. has a girlfriend

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2. >unlicensed copy of Excel
   LibreOffice nigger

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   • This ain’t middle school, son. That bitch shit don’t cut it.

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     • The only bitch shit around here is non-free software

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3. Fansubs should start focusing more on BD/OVA releases and shows that don’t get subs/are picked up by netflix.

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   • I agree, look at Kuromukuro this season, all the hype died down because the first 3 episodes weren’t instantly available with subs. And then GG came out of nowhere but the damage was already done, no one cares about Kuromukuro this season.

     Another victim of this is the new Magi series, almost no one is watching it.

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   • Or add streaming options to Nyaa. Torrents are a hassle.

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     • There are torrent-based streaming solutions. No idea if they’re any good, since I am not a shit-for-brains streamfag.

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4. Trust me, undrop Crane Game, at least until the end of episode two. It will kill something deep inside you that has somehow managed to survive years of watching anime.

   It’s only 7 minutes total if you skip the OPs.

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   • I’m… intrigued.

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     • I will never trust anyone again.

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       • Does that mean it succeeded?

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         • In wasting my time, yes. Thanks. Jerk. :(

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           • Oh shit. Sorry. ‘Twas not intentional .-.

             I thought the sheer arbitrariness of the ending was worth the 7 minutes, if only to see just how bad it was.

             Kinda fun to see the creators just goofing off and doing whatever the hell they want with it, to me anyways. I guess it just surprised me that they went that far.

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5. why do you like Tonka-kun so much
   it’s probably the most boring show this season, and that’s out of the 20+ other boring series

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   • Cuz other than the walking trash bin that is Shiraishi, the characters are cute and their interactions are enjoyable. It’s a good show to watch socially, and effortless to pick up at any point of the day. (The faptastic reaction faces don’t hurt either.)

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     • YOU TAKE THAT BACK

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6. This pic couldn’t be more biased.
   And, well, numbers are kinda biased, too.

   You may not know, but nyaa doesn’t show real downloads.
   In fact, they are overstated as heck (like x5 or even x10).

   In short, people don’t use torrents anymore. They simply watch stuff via illegal streaming sites. Horrible probably doesn’t even have 8% of community on their site.

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   • Are they fake? I could believe that, but I’d need something better than hearsay. Obviously the numbers aren’t *accurate* in the sense that each registered download is a completed episode viewing by a real person, but neither are KissAnime’s. Metrics are hard to perfect.

     As far as HorribleSubs, I’m not really sure where the 8% comes from, but I would find it incredibly hard to believe they’re inflating anything on their site. And what would they inflate? The comments? Cuz I’m watching the chat box right now and it seems pretty natural.

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     • It’s a load of shit.

       Nyaa’s torrent download count is successful downloads of the .torrent file. Nothing more, nothing less.

       We have no reason to pad it, especially not to the values that fansubs currently have. Wouldn’t we just choose to inflate it to the sky to fool ourselves that our counts are still amazing?

       So yes, it doesn’t equate to actual viewings, same way that KissAnime’s counter(s) also only track people coming to the page, not people actually watching the video(s).

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       • Thanks, Fyurie. That’s what I figured, considering the “sketchiest” shit I heard of back when I was keeping track was just groups trying to artificially inflate their own numbers by grabbing their own releases multiple times.

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       • It doesn’t help that other torrent sites just scrape nyaa and add a number of other trackers.

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     • 8% came from my ass but it’s true that people don’t bother with HorribleSubs. I’m positive that 2/3 of community is totally clueless about source. They just google search everything, and that’s why they still don’t understand why DBS has broken subs (illegal streaming sites just take first available release and call it a day).

       Ah, and HorribleSubs… I don’t think they actually have so many followers since their chat is full of same trolls who shitpost 24/7.

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7. The fansubbing scene now is actually close to a golden stage. Anybody who wants to can download a low-quality version close to immediately after release – in the form of horriblesubs or the like. Those who want quality steps such as typesetting or karaoke can wait. Further, there are very few shows with multiple groups on it, so most groups are spending their resources on simply subbing instead of trolling.

   Unfortunately, this also means that if a group stalls, it’s horrible or bust. For instance, FFF really is dying horribly, but since they’re the only group on shows, there’s no other choice but horriblesubs.

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   • HS matters for people who watch show as it airs. I was hella disappointed when I couldn’t find any decent BD release of Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki.

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     • More than just that. There are no real decent releases of that show at all.

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8. “Who cares about downloads?”
   “Fansub for fun.”
   “Subbing for myself.”
   “I need money to run my fansub, so please donate blablabla…”
   Sure…

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   • i don’t watch shows that aren’t fansubbed
     so yeah, i actually do it for myself

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     • I would rather watch raw if I can Japanese.
       Translating shows for yourself is kind of…
       lmao
       I don’t need to explain it.

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       • I’m not a TL

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9. Sakamuto-kun actually had a few episodes lousily fansubbed on masterani.me.
   Don’t ask me why I know that.

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10. Then I’m the last fool who searches best subs for shows I really like.
    I really freak out when some groups start dragging their feet in the middle of the season. Cthuko, if you’re reading this then stop and go finish OPM.

    @DS
    You’re still watching Endridge? Ironically??? I couldn’t finish ep1.

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    • > Then I’m the last fool who searches best subs for shows I really like.

      Definitely not the last. This is exactly the reason why I at some point ended up on this site. I have dozens of supposedly decent shows on my backlog, and even if there are multiple acceptable choices I still want to go with the best one available.

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11. Most of the people don’t know how to torrent, ya know?

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    • Yeah, they watch shit on those cancerous, illegal streams. I would rather drop anime than turn off my adblock, lol. For example, KissAnime generates shitload of aggressive ads. Actually, it’s pain to watch anything online unless you do have CR account.

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12. The sad thing is, if fansubbers stopped nothing of value would be lost and I would probably get more out of my life.

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13. 1. People have always watched streams over downloading torrents. It’s been like this for over a decade in the fansubbing scene. This isn’t just limited to anime, either. The same thing happens with US shows. Using this metric to say fansubbing and torrenting is dead is beyond retarded because people have by and large ALWAYS streamed over torrenting shows. In fact anime downloads are extremely high compared to other things. Sites like KAT make their download numbers public, and only the extremely popular shows like Game of Thrones get DL numbers into the hundreds of thousands. HS averaging 50k for a number of shows is actually very impressive, especially given the popularity of anime.

    2. In a post a few months ago (maybe over a year at this point?) you literally said one of the reasons fansubbing died is because there is no centralised entity for them. The idea was that there are too many groups and too many places to acquire subbed anime from and people preferred the convenience of HorribleSubs since it was a one stop shop for everything. Now in this post you are bashing fansubbers for all congregating to the biggest anime torrenting website? I don’t understand at all.

    3. Multiple shows this season rely on fansubs since there are no professional alternatives. Until the day prosubs have every single show covered and there exists no fansub groups to improve upon their subs, fansubbing isn’t dead.

    4. People flocking to the fastest and most consistent subs is nothing new. It existed even in in fansubbing’s prime. Speedsub groups always got far more downloads than higher quality groups. gg was only so popular because they subbed shows extremely fast and very consistently. They were basically the HS of the time, where the vast majority of people would download their subs and then complain about how bad they were (“made up translations”, “trolling”). It’s no surprise people watch HS over higher quality fansubs, since this trend has always existed.

    Honestly, it’s just sad how you desperately bash on fansubbing and claim that you “called” its demise. It’s like you’re trying desperately to stay relevant in the scene (which you claim is dead, making it even more pathetic). “H-Hey fansub scene, remember me? I was the guy that reviewed your subs and built a very minor following doing so!”, “Hey /a/, I was totally the guy that said fansubbing would die! That was all me! R-Remember me, w-with the blog?”

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    • Dear aggrieved dipshit,

      1. Patently false. The fuck were you doing in 2006, cuz the streams you’re talking about were shit quality and couldn’t even be reliably viewed by most people because the internet sucked too much. On top of that, there was no central repository for animu streams, so if you wanted to watch a show, good odds were you’d have to turn to torrents. Otherwise, who the fuck would bother with the hassle?

      2. There are lots of problems with fansubbing that the scene failed to address. How many posts do you want me to make that go over how badly they fucked up where most people these days don’t even know what the fuck a fansub is? What, you think the move to nyaa only was a good thing? Yeah, sure has worked out for ’em so far.

      3. Macross Delta and Mukuro? Yeah, look how well that’s gone for those shows. And most of the people watching them don’t even know it was fansubbed or what a “gg” is.

      4. Maybe you missed when HorribleSubs first hit the scene, but most people waited for fansubs over them. That audience was not lost accidentally.

      Speedsubs tended to get more downloads, sure, but it wasn’t surprising for higher quality groups to surpass their numbers. Most groups did it for the DL e-peen back then, so if it wasn’t worthwhile, nobody would’ve gone tryhard.

      5. Don’t particularly understand how you came to the conclusion that I care about what the fansub scene thinks, since every fansubber I talk to acknowledges the scene is dead and no longer even identifies with it (ignoring the few who joined within the past year or two who can’t tell the difference). Playing to an audience of corpses is a waste of time and not really my style.

      As for /a/, I stopped visiting in 2010, so I can’t say I know what you’re referring to. And isn’t reddit where all the kids are these days anyway?

      Anyway, you’ve wasted enough of my time. Please fix your stupidity with bleach.

      Yours truly,

      D_S-sama-kun

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      • >What, you think the move to nyaa only was a good thing?

        Yeah, people want to have everything in one place. Downloading movies is a hassle.

        >Maybe you missed when HorribleSubs first hit the scene, but most people waited for fansubs over them. That audience was not lost accidentally.

        Rips were bad quality. 480p? No way in hell.
        It’s not like community cares about colors and dramas.

        >Otherwise, who the fuck would bother with the hassle?

        Illegal streaming is still bad. Actually, it’s getting worse and worse — shitload of ads, lags, bad video quality. Also, upload speed is somewhat slow.
        Do you know why people bother with the hassle? Google search. You will hit random streaming site, not nyaa or baka bt.

        >And most of the people watching them don’t even know it was fansubbed or what a “gg” is.

        Sadly, same goes for Crunchyroll.

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        • >
          And the numbers disagree. Fansubbing is in an even worse state than before. If you think the move was good, I’d encourage you to find evidence supporting your point — if you need help, I’d recommend looking in magical christmasland.

          >>
          Thanks for providing support to my argument that HorribleSubs wasn’t always dominant? Not really sure what you’re going for here, but okay.

          >>>
          None of my non-otaku friends care about torrents at all. I even offered to grab the shows for them and they still prefer Crunchyroll. You think if Google ranked nyaa higher that everyone would flock to torrents? Please. Torrents are a timesink.

          >>>>
          Haven’t seen evidence of this. Where you getting your information from here?

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          • >
            Nope, it’s unrelated. Sure, we have fewer downloads here, but for different reasons. And it could be even worse without nyaa. People are lazy these days, so having everything in one place is a big plus.

            >>
            Np. I just don’t know why you are trying to blame fansubbers so badly. People prefer HS because streaming sites improved their quality. Furthermore, community wants to support this industry. At least part of it. You get nothing from downloading fansubs, but you do support producer with your premium account.

            >>>
            Experience. :(
            Also, it’s easy to prove this. Just go on MAL, and check comments in Ajin thread (ep 1-2). Folks were totally clueless:
            “Why it isn’t subbed?”, “Why I can’t find it on site XYZ?”, “Why subs suck so badly?”, etc.

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14. Whether those numbers are true or not in the pics, streaming has always been the most watched and always will be (Kinda sad considering it’s inferior to downloading).

    Either way, fansubbing is dying and no one can deny this. Whoever says otherwise is delusional. Less and less shows get picked up nowadays and download numbers are pretty low compared to what they were before many groups died off (This goes back to the screenshots and so on). Not to mention all the shit that doesn’t get pick up nowadays that doesn’t have anyone doing it but the cancerous subbers that think their TLs are actually good. Smh.

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    • >(This goes back to the screenshots and so on).

      SS is biased. Dark_Sage included only stalled Commie’s shows. It was intentional, I know, but still… He’s getting old.
      On the other hand, DDY has about 10k downloads, and Re:Zero is stalled as well (they don’t stall as long as Commie, tho).

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      • I didn’t “intentionally” include anything. That was a simple search on “Commie” done Sunday afternoon, the results of which I found rather humorous. If those are Commie’s stalled shows, then I’d have to assume all their shows are stalled, which makes your argument about as pointless as Commie is.

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        • >then I’d have to assume all their shows are stalled

          Yes, they stall basically everything atm, and you know it.
          https://c.milkteafuzz.com/#/shows/airing

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          • So then what was the point of your comment?

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            • So then what was the point of your topic?
              I believe, it’s called “Fansubbing by the Numbers”. Not “Stalled Commie shows by the numbers”.

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              • And Commie alleges to be a fansub group. Mystery solved.

                If you have a better image that sums up the content and tone of the post, I encourage you to apply for an internship.

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      • 10k is hardly jack shit for an episode 1 :S…

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        • http://www.nyaa.se/?page=view&tid=813172
          8.5k with 4-5 days delay is kind of good, I guess.

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    • Generally, the masses want what is fast, accessible, and have a minimum level of quality. For instance, if you think about Code Geass R2, Chihiro released a very fast (5 hours after launch) and accessible (XviD provided, along with DDL at animetake) sub. However, the quality was horrendous – worse only to Macross F. Even with that, it got 10,000 downloads within 12 hours. Yet, when gg released later in the day with acceptable quality, they got 40k.
      That’s why streaming will always be king, as everyone with flash can access it, as opposed to having to install something like CCCP.

      There is an exception though – which is familiar groups. Sometimes, when a group is well known, they will get higher download counts simply for being that group. For instance, Dattebayo used to release Naruto and Bleach to about 300,000 downloads a week. They released an old show that was already subbed (I think it was Dennou Coil? Can’t remember), and it got 100,000 per episode – even though the original release had only gotten about 10k per episode. While some can be contributed to RSS auto-downloads, a lot can only be contributed to the fact that some people download based off of group name.

      RSS auto-downloads is the last thing I want to address. HS numbers are kind of inflated because of all the people who auto-download anything with the tag of “HorribleSubs”. For instance, their Netoge episode 1 has 80,000 downloads. Before the dawn of CR, that was what something like Gundam would get for downloads. Most downloads I had seen for a show that wasn’t Gundam, DB, or gg, was about 40,000. To double that on an ecchi show just doesn’t seem real.

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      • Netoge’s 80k is actually believable. It’s different… Well, it was different, but it just turned into a generic pile of crap now. Episode 1 actually had me interested to keep on watching, and that was the general consensus from forums I read on, such as MAL.

        RSS downloads can be filtered, but of course there’s those that just type ‘HorribleSubs’. I know I RSS feed all my shit with filters.

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        • Although there were plenty of other different and popular shows in the past before HS. For instance, Bakemonogatari was extremely popular when it aired – becoming the /a/ show of the season, having a big group (gg) on it, and being very different than anything else airing. That was about 40k.
          In fact, thinking back, the most popular shows of each season that weren’t a specific fanbase (Gundam/Naruto), they all got around 40k. Geass R2, Toradora, K-On, Bakemonogatari, DtB2, DRRR, K-On!!, etc.

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      • >To double that on an ecchi show just doesn’t seem real.

        Nope, it’s easy. We’re talking about MMO here.

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15. I’m old-school. I still watch a lot of fansubs. Then again I watch as much old anime as I do airing shows, and many of those old ones are fansubbed. Some are ONLY available as fansubs. I still DL with IRC too, for that extra layer of dust.

    So obviously I’m not a typical part of the audience, but fansubbing being put in a hospice doesn’t really bother me. I actually quite like CR subs. Funi are… mostly tolerable, and at worst are still better than some chucklefuck fansub groups I could mention.

    As Kristen pointed out there’s still a place for BD rips, for the fans who want to store stuff for rewatching rather than just stream-and-forget.

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    • >As Kristen pointed out there’s still a place for BD rips, for the fans who want to store stuff for rewatching rather than just stream-and-forget.

      Some people watch only BD rips. And it’s not like you have to watch everything as it airs, no matter what. I’ve just finished TLR Darkness (s1, yeah).

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16. Can anime fansubbers finally move on to live action movies like 8thsin did? There are still tons of movies around with no sub love at all (and those aren’t just the bad ones).

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17. So based on those numbers, Dark_Sage, the only show whose numbers haven’t dropped off considerably is Re: zero, which happens to also be the only show I am watching this season. I could maybe be persuaded to start Kuma Miko, but I can’t be bothered right now. I much prefer older series to the dreck released these days.

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18. Btw, HS downloads kinda surprised me. Looks like most people DL Twin Star Exorcists when CR video is completely fucked up. They 1080p literally looks worse than most 480p rips.

    On the other hand, [Glue] release is decent. Well… this group still doesn’t have trusted, so people don’t bother with it. But it’s only reasonable choice since CR video is unwatchable.

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    • >this group still doesn’t have trusted, so people don’t bother with it

      I don’t understand why people think nyaa ratings mean anything. Trollsubs with green, decent straight rips with red… even the ramblings of anime fandom’s barrel-scrapings in the comments section are a more reliable measure of quality. If I’m checking through nyaa torrents, I’ll see if there are any complaints in the comments, try to gauge whether they’re too retarded to take seriously or not, and make a choice myself.

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      • Yes, but a lot of people use their filters. You basically see only green and blue then.

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        • I don’t think many people use filters on nyaa anymore. They were useful when the policy was essentially “blue is best, green we know are real subs, white you use at your own risk, red means it’s a compatability re-encode”. But since then it’s changed so that some reds are better than greens (and debatably blues), and some groups that you can trust to be real are put as whites.

          Now, you may want to argue that the rules there have never changed and it’s always been done that way, or try and justify past actions of the nyaa moderators, and that’s fine. But what has happened is a change in public perception in that the filters are pretty much useless at this point outside of pretty colors.

          I just wish they would change the orangy hue of re-makes to a real red so it would match the CGi site better.

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19. We’re talking about the relevance of a fan distributor of a group of content that has a stigma around it even in its country of origin, where the community was built on sacrificing convenience for quality because that was the only differentiator considering it was all terribly inconvenient anyway.

    I’m pretty sure that very few people care about that difference in quality anyway. If you notice a scene bleed with subtitles or typesetting and care, it’s probably because you’ve been conditioned to do so in order to get the best subs. As the minimum differentiating factor between fansubs and not, chapters are nice.

    My questions for you are, why would you want fansubs to continue being relevant anyway? They lost relevance for reasons that weren’t their drop in quality – that’s the best way it could have gone. Also, what quality compromise would’ve needed to happen in order for them to continue being relevant?

    (Final note: I’m pretty sure that nyaa is built more for programs to parse it than people. That’s probably a strength to the devoted audience, but alien and backwards otherwise.)

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    • I sort of addressed that in #4 — it’s complicated. I miss the community that gave me some legitimately strong friendships, I miss the sheer absurdity of being able to build a niche solely out of fansub criticism, and I miss the pride the community used to have. At the same time, fuck fansubbers, the worthless cunts.

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      • It’s the dream. Fansubbing is a community that provided something genuinely worthwhile to each other while expanding the base of those enjoying the same thing they did. Most every other group of people who like something is at best a comfortable circlejerk that manages not to ruin the things you enjoy.

        You didn’t answer my second question, but I don’t really expect that you believe you could’ve led the community to much more continued relevance. If all the groups continued working at the quantity and quality they used to, you’d actually have material to review (and for loyal readers to read) though.

        Your season previews are still rather nice. It’s one of the only previews that actually involve opinion rather than empty promotion of everything out of fear that someone might get offended. Even when your opinion is wrong, your commentary is useful.

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        • What season previews? I came looking for an Aikatsu Stars preview and found nuthin!

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          • Aikatsu Stars opens by covering the traditional entering school and meeting the other main character sections over the introductory episodes. The main rival characters for the first phase are also introduced and delineated by their resemblance to different animals such as tortoise and spider. They’re nothing we haven’t seen in the franchise before, but they serve the purpose well enough.

            Animation quality is fine, but it doesn’t offer the quality of sakuga we’ve seen in the past, which is a shame. CG is integrated… decently, I guess. It’s what you’ve come to expect. Nice upbeat OP and ED, and nice of them to release them on the same album.

            The school setting is very well handled. It breathes character, and the magic aspect as a whole really characterises this entry and makes it stand out.

            The main characters are another duo, the first we’ve really seen since Hibiki and Kanade. At the same time, the show covers them actually meeting and getting to know each other, which recalls the very start of the franchise. While there’s less growing into each other and adjusting personally and more “Mirai is just so anxious to be friends and Riko is a tsundere”, this approach also works and it’s shortsighted to criticise for not measuring up to one of the best things the series has ever accomplished, being the growth of Nagisa and Honoka’s friendship in the early-to-mid arcs.

            Mofurun is ridiculously adorable, but not in an annoying way like, say, Hummy. Not as character-filled as other mascots, like Tarte, but pretty good.

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            • I didn’t know Aikatsu merged with Mahou Pretty Cure. :p

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20. Why did you ban me?

    Edit: guess you just didn’t accept my last post, lol.

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21. You know, for someone complaining about how you can’t do your job, you are conveniently ignoring the fansubbed shows this season by not reviewing them.

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    • It’s not a job cuz I don’t get paid, but I will accept BJs for reviews.

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      • I seriously was considering this for a good 5 minutes despite how completely impossible it is geographically speaking, good job.

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        • If you’re in Thailand I could make a trip of it.

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          • I get what you’re hinting at, but alas, I live in a first-world country.

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      • Which means you’ll do 10 different show reviews next season since you did 2 the season before and 6 this season, right? :^).

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    • Didn’t you hear, son? Fansubbing is dead.

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22. >hero-samas named Dark_Sage

    D_S, ero-sama sounds better.

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23. hentai fansubing is almost dead as well, subdesu-h and erobeat croaked

    hentaihaven is like a dying horse, and hentai aren’t getting translated like in the past

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