What is the first anime to be fansubbed on the internet?

[Oppius]

As far as I know some people said that Vandread(2000) was the first anime to be fansubbed on the internet but was that true?

If it wrong then is there any older title(s) subbed earlier?

[Sindalf]

Im more wondering whats the first anime to be fansubbed preinternet releases. Back to the days of VHS fansubs.

[getfresh]

Oppius: no, it was not. I think it was Love Hina (releases began in 1999 by Anime-Fansubs), but I forget for sure. Anyways, Elite-Fansubs (the group that subbed Vandread S1) was not the first digisub group, so it is definitely not Vandread S1.



Sindalf: I don't remember the anime anymore, but the first fansub group ever was the MIT animation club, or whatever they call it. So whatever they subbed first is it. I think this was the early 1980's.

[blewin]

serious? Love Hina? that's pretty "recent". I thought it'd be some classic anime....

[getfresh]

Originally Posted by blewin

serious? Love Hina? that's pretty "recent". I thought it'd be some classic anime....

na, digisubbing only became possible around that time period. Before hand the fansubs ppl were dling online were captures from the VHS fansubs. The first digisubs were .rm format, but digisubbing didn't really catch on until DivX3.11 and SBC encoding. The DivX 3.11 codec allowed for better encodes, wasn't restricted to a certain player, way less of a resource whore, and most of all, divx was free while .rm was not, you always ended up paying somehow lol >.>.

[Zalis]

Originally Posted by getfresh

Oppius: no, it was not. I think it was Love Hina (releases began in 1999 by Anime-Fansubs), but I forget for sure. Anyways, Elite-Fansubs (the group that subbed Vandread S1) was not the first digisub group, so it is definitely not Vandread S1.

Wow, they must've been pretty talented if they released Love Hina before it started airing in the spring of 2000 I kid, I kid. It seems like Ceres, Celestial Legend, also from the Spring 2000 season, was fansubbed as well.

All I know is what AniDB tells me, and it tells me that Crest of the Stars (Winter 1999 season), Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventures (Spring 1999), and Infinite Ryvius (Fall 1999) were subbed by AnimeHaven, HighQualityAnime, and Anime-Kissaten, respectively. But I wouldn't know if those were subbed approximately when they aired. or a year or two later. There is AnimeFactory's Pilot Candidate (Winter 2000), but release dates in the eps show they were released in August of that year.

If nothing else, Love Hina was possibly the first show to make companies stand up and take notice of digital fansubbing.

[Access]

Originally Posted by Zalis

All I know is what AniDB tells me, and it tells me that Crest of the Stars (Winter 1999 season), Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventures (Spring 1999), and Infinite Ryvius (Fall 1999) were subbed by AnimeHaven, HighQualityAnime, and Anime-Kissaten, respectively. But I wouldn't know if those were subbed approximately when they aired. or a year or two later. There is AnimeFactory's Pilot Candidate (Winter 2000), but release dates in the eps show they were released in August of that year.

Love Hina was certainly among the first to be 'oversubbed'. Honestly the first I have a solid memory of is Candidate for Goddess and then Vandread. Everything else was before I started paying much attention. I vaguely do remember seeing Crest of the Stars, and there are others who claim to be even earlier than those groups, but no real evidence to back it up.

Prior to that, it was all video capture of VHS/SVHS fansubs.

And Zalis it wasn't unheard of to have a leecher (back then) request just that, that your group release an episode or even an entire series right away when the show had not even aired in Japan. Perhaps they figured it was like in the US where TV series episodes are produced 3-6 months in advance and un-aired episodes sometimes shown at conventions / events / etc. before being shown on TV. Or movies, ie. wolverine where the movie gets leaked to the 'net before it is even shown in the Theatres.

[jfs]

I remember watching Hand Maid May (summer 2000) fansubs that were clearly of poor technical quality, can't remember exactly what group though.

[radioIzzy]

Wow, sorry for not putting anything helpful;
But I'd just like express my surprise that fansubbing isn't even that old.

[Access]

Originally Posted by radioIzzy

Wow, sorry for not putting anything helpful;
But I'd just like express my surprise that fansubbing isn't even that old.

Well general VHS/SVHS master (generally from LD) subbing goes back long before that, Arctic Animation, Tomodachi, Technogirls, Kodocha, etc. By the mid-to-late 90's things were basically in full swing, pretty much anyone with a little cash could order tapes from a distro and there pleanty of clubs that showed them.

[klare]

interesting, pls post the answer in the 1st post if u ever find it

[ikaroh]

I remember seeing episodes of Rurouni Kenshin in .rm format floating around the internet in the late-90s. Dunno if they were subbed or not.

[getfresh]

Originally Posted by ikaroh

I remember seeing episodes of Rurouni Kenshin in .rm format floating around the internet in the late-90s. Dunno if they were subbed or not.

those were captures from the VHS fansubs. I have the VHS versions so I know what you are talking about.

Originally Posted by jfs

I remember watching Hand Maid May (summer 2000) fansubs that were clearly of poor technical quality, can't remember exactly what group though.

It was done by anime-fansubs. They also did Furi-Kuri,

-------------
Heres some 100% solid information. I'm getting my info from the wayback machine as well as digging though old CDR's since ppl actually seem to be interested. I will post links when they are available, but I am also going to copy the info directly here because who knows how long these pages will stay up on the wayback machine. E-F's site was up there until last year that I know of and now it is basicly 100% gone. So I'm not just needlessly copying this crap ;p

.:GROUPS AND RELEASES:.

AnimeFactory

(Their first fansub was in early 2000 since that is when the animes aired for the oldest shows they have listed.
Unfortunately AF would remove the release dates for their subs when they stopped due to licensing.)

Megami Kouhosei (thanks zalis)
00 - 08-14-00

Boys Be...
01 - chapter:SPRING - "CHERRY BLOSSOMS" 09-18-00 90.552.320 bytes / 159532DC

Gate Keepers
01 - "Start The Earth Defense!" 09-18-00 136.753.152 bytes / C2ABC46E


No Dates Available Yet(all these animes aired in 2000 though)
* Escaflowne (movie)
* Love Hina <- this was a joint between AF and A-F(anime-fansubs)



What I found very cool that I had forgotten was the approach AF took in their "About Us" or group FAQ located on the home page of their site. If you read it with an open mind and not like some fansub-holywar fighter, you will notice that their opinion or ideal is very middle of the road. They wish to be unlicensed, yet they also know that they are fansubbing for fans who just want the anime fast, easy to get, and free.

What is Animefactory?
We're a digital fansub group, a virtual anime club. We dedicate our time and skill to provide english translation of unlicensed anime, and they are not intended to be distributed (public showing included) for profit in any way. The acceptable distribution method is SASE.

We think of our work as a placeholder for those impatient fans who want to enjoy and appreciate unlicensed anime series while waiting to get their own dvd/vhs copy. Hopefully we also help promote the popularity of such series we personally like to be licensed and brought over for US distribution faster. Moreover we use digital distribution so we don't need to worry about conventional media cost and the complicated logistic behind it. On top of that, we only use freeware applications during all phases of our projects. Wanna help? Join us.

This is a encoding thread on AF's site from 2001. The cool thing about the thread if you'll notice how many diff groups got involved in the thread. That was a lot of groups for back then at least lol.

http://web.archive.org/web/200104241...ral+Discussion


Anime-Fansubs
(Link animefactory they do not have dates listed to for their earliest shows due to them being licensed.)

- Ah! My Goddess Movie (Licensed by Pioneer)
- Furi-Kuri (Licensed by Synch-Point)
- Full Metal Panic (Licensed by ADVfilms)
- GateKeepers 21 OAV (Licensed by Pioneer)
- Hand Maid May (Licensed by Pioneer)
- Inu Yasha (Licensed by VIZ)
- Card Captor Sakura 2nd Movie - The Sealed Card
- Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer (Licensed by ADVfilms)
- Koutetsu Tenshi Kurumi 2 Shiki (Licensed by ADVfilms)
- Legend of the New Snow White Pretear
- Love Hina TV (Licensed by Bandai)
- Love Hina Christmas Special (Licensed by Bandai)
- Love Hina Spring Special (Licensed by Bandai)
- Love Hina Again
- Read or Die (Licensed by Manga Entertainment)
- Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars): The Movie (Licensed by Pioneer)
- Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars) TV (Licensed by ADVfilms)
- Sakura Taisen 2nd OAV (Licensed by ADVfilms)
- Seikai no Senki (Battleflag of the Stars) (Licensed by Bandai)
- Seikai no Senki II (Battleflag of the Stars II)
- Super GALS! Kotobuki Ran (Licensed by ADVfilms)
- Tales of Eternia (Licensed by Media Blasters)
- Yume De Aetara "If I See You In My Dreams" TV (Licensed by Media Blasters)
- Yume De Aetara OAV (Licensed by Media Blasters)
- Your Under Arrest Season 2

http://web.archive.org/web/200209240...e-fansubs.net/


The oldest available official release date for anything is from this news post made on their site.

Sakura Taisen TV Episode 7 Released -03.31.01 by Sacrifice-

We are currently distributing it in our IRC channal. I would suggest checking there first if you want it. We will add the link to the download page later on. Enjoy!

**I will keep updating this post whenever I come across something or am just bored enough to look it up

[Zalis]

Originally Posted by getfresh

No Dates Available (all these animes aired in 2000 though)
* Megami Kouhosei

According to the in-episode date, episode 00 of that show was released on August 14th, 2000.

[Tofusensei]

***Paging Dr. Access. Dr. Access to the floor, thank you.***

[Access]

Originally Posted by Tofusensei

***Paging Dr. Access. Dr. Access to the floor, thank you.***

http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=20229
This thread is rather long and involved, but it mentions a lot of the earlier releases in passing.
Honestly I cannot remember a whole lot about the early-early releases since not a lot of them really interested me. At some point Fivestar released "Baby Love", believe a 'revised' release was made on or before March 24, 2001. That was the first thing I actually watched all the way through. Honestly you started seeing the more interesting stuff around then, animeco was releasing Momoiro Sisters, around the same time, and then Kero Kero Chime later that year.

But by then, Elite-fansubs and a lot of other "first-generation" groups had been around roughly 6 months prior to that, or in some cases longer. Early in October 2001, devilray posted on the website that elite-fansubs was coming up on it's one-year aniversary. The timeline that getfresh posted seems about right, animefactory did predate a lot of the other first-generation groups and candidate for goddess was among their early releases, if not their first.

I do remember that encode quality wasn't too good back then. It wasn't until mid-2001 when Nandub was released that you could make half-decent divX311alpha encodes by todays standards. Before that, you either used another standard like MPEG-1 (which generally resulted in oversized files) or you were pretty much stuck with the built-in codec for divx311alpha. There were hacks out there, but they were a lot of work, and any improvement was minor at best. The other codecs you see popping up from that time, .rm, .vivo, etc., none of the digisub groups (or anyone in their right mind) even touched those. Even originally-encoded divx311alpha was so far above those.

[getfresh]

I felt we had done this before... oh well. My memory sucks anyways >.>. Maybe we should just add all the absolutely 100% confirmed information to fansubbers.org from now on instead of being lazy and redoing the same discussions over and over... Or not and we'll have something to talk about still lol...

What I remember most at first more than nandub were things like camel mpeg join, vdub 1.4, and some other which are slipping the mind atm. But I remember that the majority of apps in circulation were VCD types. You'd always come across some asf or rm ones too, but a lot of the source was VCD in those days from what I remember.

[Tofusensei]

Just curious, has anyone asked Avery Lee? He might have some insight on it.

[Zalis]

As far as AnimeFactory releases go, I would suspect that Love Hina came before Pilot Candidate. In looking at the subbing styles and practices, the Love Hina subs are much more "primitive" than the PC ones. That is, no different styles for different situations (PC had different fonts and placement for radio messages, normal dialogue, narrations, songs, etc.), no "released on date xx/xx/xxxx" lines, no OP/ED on some eps, no song translations whatsoever, and no fansubber messages beyond "500Kbps DivX version" / "animefactory@efnet.irc.net" and the like. That would place those releases sometime in April-July 2000.

I have to admit, I have an odd fascination with old fansubs. Call it an artificial nostalgia for an era I never experienced, as I didn't start downloading fansubs until mid-2005. I wish I could get my hands on more ancient DivX3 releases. It's not about "ooh, I wanna stick it to the man and pirate the shows."

Spoiler:

If I wanted to do that, I could just get the R1 DVD-rips and call it a day.

It's more about the historical value, and seeing the shows in the same way that people saw them when they were new.

[getfresh]

Originally Posted by Zalis

As far as AnimeFactory releases go, I would suspect that Love Hina came before Pilot Candidate.

You are right. The reason I have yet to list it before is because I do not have a date. I think it is best we only say things for certain when we have solid proof. That way we can work our way backwards bit by bit and not be subject to "he said, she said" situations. The fact the love hina was .rm though and Pilot Candidate is .avi pretty much says it is older though.