void

[TripleRach]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't LaserDisc the format of choice to transfer to VHS for fansubbers back in the 90's? This was before my time, I was a wee lil' lad watching DBZ on Telemundo! Ha!

Yeah, a lot of VHS fansubbers used LDs for source footage when available. The Sailor Moon TV series had a complete LD release as it aired, so fansubbers mostly used that for source footage.

In those days, it was probably much easier to just buy retail releases than to find someone with useable TV recordings. But the opposite is true now in the digital subbing era.

[Ashura]

Interesting. They seem to had used the laser disc release instead of VHS.

As mentioned previously, when available they would use laserdisks as the source, and so most of the DBZ movie fansubs used LD if it came from a good fansub group.

This particular fansub was mastered from a laserdisk to an S-VHS master. Then, that S-VHS master is what the fansub group or distro would use to dub all other VHS tapes from, which helped to keep the quality high.

I actually SASE'd this one from a certain distro specifically because of the quality; they got their S-VHS directly from the fansub group, so I knew it would be as good as you could possibly get. (BTW, SASE is the old old fansub method where you would mail the distro a VHS tape and a self addressed stamped envelope -- thus SASE -- and they would send you back your own VHS.)

[Jawdrahb]

I can't appreciate and thank you enough for your efforts and the sharing of this information takarajima. As a individual who only got a glimpse into fansub tapes through digitised files of the movies (#7 onwards) and Super5.com's GT fansub through P2P file sharing clients, I was more than expectedly informed than those who posses nostalgic value through actually purchasing and viewing cassettes.

Honestly, these pages of content are historic staple of Dragon Ball's fandom. I'm aware it's directed at older anime fans although I feel the content will be greater appreciated by those who never had or saw fansubs of the original series, like myself.

On that note, I thought I'd contribute some screenshots myself.

Dragon Ball GT TV Special







Dragon Ball Z Movie #7 (Anime Densetsu no Kaitakusha weren't mentioned on the site, were they really prominent in Z fansubs?)

















Dragon Ball Z Movie #8 (A fansub that popularly circulated online with no credit before FUNimation's original release, I'm pretty sure this wasn't available on tapes, correct?)





Dragon Ball Z Movie #9 (No indication of original fansubber)





Dragon Ball Z Movie #10









Dragon Ball Z Movie #11







Dragon Ball Z Movie #12 (Included the narrated digest)















Dragon Ball Z Movie #13 (Anime Labs & ?)

[kei17]

Thanks for the info, guys! I didn't know they had mostly used laserdisc releases for fansubbing movies.

What's interesting about Super5 is that they used a home video release by Aiko Animation in Hong Kong. Considering that Aiko Animation dubbed all episodes of GT and Super5's videos have the Japanese audio, the release must have been bilingual. I have seen some Cantonese laserdisc releases of DBZ movies, so perhaps it can be a laserdisc release, too.

[sangofe]

I remember reading that super 5 synched the chinese vcds with the Japanese audio.

[takarajima]

.

[DBZ Mick]

What do you think? Japanese commercials are great, aren't they?

Yeah, there's just something about Japan that is so fascinating to me.

I'll have a look at more when I get home from work.

[Mosaic]

I had fansubs for movies 12 and 13 back in the day. Yes the infamous "F-Bomb" fansub. I remember buying them for about 12 bucks at some flea market in South Jersey.

[KiddoCabbusses]

A while back I encoded some of my old DBZ VHS sub tapes to DVD+R. They included mostly some Nippon Gold Ginyu/Freeza saga, Anime Labs Super Saiyan Goku eps, and a Pearl sub of Kuririn's infamous impalement - which appears to have an abrupt cut that implies censorship.

[takarajima]

.

[FindKenshi]

As far as I know, the people behind Anime Labs fansubs used to hangout on IRC channel #DBZ on EFNet back in the 90's. Da Black Goku, of course, being the enemy of man.

[sangofe]

As far as I know, the people behind Anime Labs fansubs used to hangout on IRC channel #DBZ on EFNet back in the 90's. Da Black Goku, of course, being the enemy of man.

DaBlackGoku was awesome, man.

[FindKenshi]

As far as I know, the people behind Anime Labs fansubs used to hangout on IRC channel #DBZ on EFNet back in the 90's. Da Black Goku, of course, being the enemy of man.

DaBlackGoku was awesome, man.

Right, but there was a huge war against him by Anime Labs, I dunno how you missed that in your "warring" section. As a kid downloading the the fansubs from the #DBZsubbed channels and various FTPs being hosted, that's all I remember seeing in every commercial break is

"DaBlackGoku is the enemy of man!"

"If you bought this tape from Da Black Goku.. YOU GOT RIPPED OFF!"

etc

[TheNamekGio]

Oh the memories! I used to buy them from my brothers best friend. I would play them in math class the late period in high school. People thought I was a god for simply having DB they never seen before. I miss those days!


And I can't forget about the absurdly amount of uneccessary cussing from Anime Labs!!

[FindKenshi]

Yeah, but back then, most of us believed those subtitles were correct.