Old DBZ Fansubbers

[Hellspawn28]

Before we had sites like Crunchyroll that can stream anime or fansubbers like TV-Nihon, does anyone here remember any of the old DBZ fansubbers like Anime Labs, Ctenosaur and Project X. I guess most people under the age of 20 will not know them since they were too young when these subbers would sub DBZ during the 90's and early 2000's. I guess I was one lucky kid that watch DBZ uncut in Japanese on tape whiles watching DBZ on Toonami. I remember the first time I saw DBZ in Japanese was when my friend of mine during the 5th grade in 2001 had a copy of Goku vs. Nappa in Japanese with Anime Labs fansubs. He wanted to show me that DBZ was hardcore in Japanese. I was stupid enough to believe it and I try to track down the rest of DBZ in Japanese. When I found out that Anime Labs was full of shit, I found subs from Ctenosaur and I was able to watch the rest of DBZ in Japanese.

I remember Ctenosaur subs being pretty faithful to the Japanese version and did not add nonsense like Anime Labs did. My friend had an older brother who had a collection of Anime and Toku fansubs on tape. Back then, we did not had the same Internet then we do now. I remember he show me tapes of the original Yu-Gi-Oh, Digimon Adventure 02: Diaboromon Strikes Back, Gaoranger (The Sentai show that Power Rangers Wild Force was based on off) and the original Godzilla 1954 film (We never watch it due to our VHS having issues at the time). Once my Mom got a new PC in 2003, I started to download the rest of DBZ movies on the web then trying to buy bootleg tapes.

[superrayman3]

Before we had sites like Crunchyroll that can stream anime or fansubbers like TV-Nihon, does anyone here remember any of the old DBZ fansubbers like Anime Labs, Ctenosaur and Project X. I guess most people under the age of 20 will not know them since they were too young when these subbers would sub DBZ during the 90's and early 2000's. I guess I was one lucky kid that watch DBZ uncut in Japanese on tape whiles watching DBZ on Toonami. I remember the first time I saw DBZ in Japanese was when my friend of mine during the 5th grade in 2001 had a copy of Goku vs. Nappa in Japanese with Anime Labs fansubs. He wanted to show me that DBZ was hardcore in Japanese. I was stupid enough to believe it and I try to track down the rest of DBZ in Japanese. When I found out that Anime Labs was full of shit, I found subs from Ctenosaur and I was able to watch the rest of DBZ in Japanese.

I remember Ctenosaur subs being pretty faithful to the Japanese version and did not add nonsense like Anime Labs did. My friend had an older brother who had a collection of Anime and Toku fansubs on tape. Back then, we did not had the same Internet then we do now. I remember he show me tapes of the original Yu-Gi-Oh, Digimon Adventure 02: Diaboromon Strikes Back, Gaoranger (The Sentai show that Power Rangers Wild Force was based on off) and the original Godzilla 1954 film (We never watch it due to our VHS having issues at the time). Once my Mom got a new PC in 2003, I started to download the rest of DBZ movies on the web then trying to buy bootleg tapes.

I didn't know about anime fansubs till about 2008 since I had no internet until then and I didn't get to experience DBZ fansubs on VHS until last year thanks to a certain user on these forums (you know who you are ) and a few other fansub names that are worth mentioning are S.Baldric, Usagi North, Ronin Video, and Kodocha Anime and Neko Creations (the last 2 did the GT special), in fact I actually made general fansub notes for everything I got at that time so I'd keep track of what I had and who did what if anybody would be interested in seeing those let me know.

[theoriginalbilis]

I remember my DBZ fansubs being a gobbledygook mashup of random episodes and story arcs from the Cell/Buu arcs and GT. But I did get the movies fansubbed 4-13 in order though. Good thing I abandoned the tapes in 2002, and moved on to buying the uncut DVDs to fill in gaps.

And they pretty much all subtitled by different groups, so there was little consistency in dialogue and names. But on the plus side, I was able to catch uncut DBZ material well before the Toonami crowd did.

[Hellspawn28]

I think Anime Labs went by different names. I remember the file of Fusion Reborn that I downloaded had them under a different name from what I can remember.

[eledoremassis02]

For the sake, and entertainment, I started converting E. Monsoon subs into soft subs for my Dragon Boxes. Got 12&13 done. No easy task.

Didin't realize a lot of gramatical errors either untill now lol

I'd like to do all the movies and what ever I can with Z if I had access to them They can be pretty fun, especially since I relied on these subs back in the day lol

[Daimo-Rukiri]

I remember Toku and Anime Labs but that was pretty much it for dragon ball.

[DragonBoxZTheMovies]

Fucking Hank. Man, that guy was an asshole.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrhE4cRFJ7A

[Kunzait_83]

Ctenosaur was certainly both my preferred and most owned DBZ fansubber by a wide, wide margin. I also had a lot of S.Baldric and a few Pearl and Ramza tapes too. Pearl recordings were generally your best bet at getting hold of any Freeza arc episodes for quite awhile around '94/'95-ish, despite the awful Chinese translations (which frankly I'd long grown more than accustomed to as a Hong Kong movie addict back then). And of course I had more than my fair share of raws.

Anime Labs comprised the smallest minority of my collection without a doubt. If I had more than a couple of episodes or a movie done by them, I'd be shocked. Maybe its my personal experience coloring my views on this, but I always felt that Anime Labs' significance on DBZ fansubbing in the 90's has grown over time to be vastly overstated. In large part I think its because of a combination of the shock/comedic value of their "translations" as well as somewhat later period fans (latter-end 90's and early-most 2000's) latching onto them far more than most fans that I remember from the earlier chunk of the 90's. While they'd subbed quite a bit of material - enough to make completely avoiding their output entirely fairly difficult, especially if you were a serious collector - hardly anyone I knew or knew of relied on them a particularly great deal or even paid them too much mind in general, apart from warning others away from them for obvious reasons.

[eledoremassis02]

E. Monsoon (S.Baldric) was pretty could. They could go off a little bit but nowhere near anime labs! I love their subs for Fusion Reborn! Paikuhan cursing really stuck with me..those scenes felt empty with the official subs lol.

I also kinda liked their sub blocking. Sometimes it's easier to read even if it takes up a lot of the screen.

[doomydoomydoom]

HA oh God...although I wasn't into DBZ during that time period and I was too young to collect fansubs, those guys fascinate me to no end. It's the whole underground aspect. (And the obscurity of NGN, Pearl, and I guess International Channel, which IIRC was only available through Comcast? I didn't even HAVE cable back then...) Unfortunately since they're all loooooooooong obsolete (although apparently nowadays Ctenosaur subs TV dramas, jidaigeki shows, films, etc.) and because only certain people have a very select number of tapes anymore, there's not much info on them and tapes are impossible to find, which disappoints me...although given the delicacy of the whole thing, with a lot of tapes being several generations removed, degrading further with age etc...

Also looks like a lot of mysteries about those guys (especially Anime Labs) abound, and remain unsolved.

Kudos to everyone who's shared history and screengrabs and the like though. =) Hopefully one day I'll come across genuine tapes (I own all the Blue Bricks, 6 Dragon Boxes and 1 Orange Brick, so...historical value and chuckles only over here =P).

[Blade]

This made me smile as by a pretty crazy coincidence the first Anime-Labs VHS fansub I ever managed to get hold of was Movie 12. It certainly brings back memories - although seeing AL subs on Dragonbox stills is a little bit weird, as in my memories the footage quality was somewhat rather lacking!

[Big Green]

I've only heard about the Anime Labs subs, and seen images/videos.

I WANT ONE OF THOSE TAPES SO BADLY, THE SUBTITLES ARE SO GREAT. NEAR BIG GREEN DUB GREAT. WHEEEERE can you find those? Did they label their tapes at all? Like, is there any way at all, in this age to find one?

[Ajay]

I've only heard about the Anime Labs subs, and seen images/videos.

I WANT ONE OF THOSE TAPES SO BADLY, THE SUBTITLES ARE SO GREAT. NEAR BIG GREEN DUB GREAT. WHEEEERE can you find those? Did they label their tapes at all? Like, is there any way at all, in this age to find one?

Someone was selling theirs on here a little while ago. I offered to buy them but never got a response. Not sure whether he decided against the idea or someone swooped in before me! (Unlikely as I messaged literally seconds after it went up)

[ricecake]

there's not much info on them

Here's a start:
http://animepast.net/Time_Capsule/Fansu ... sub_Tapes/

[sangofe]

E. Monsoon (S.Baldric) was pretty could. They could go off a little bit but nowhere near anime labs! I love their subs for Fusion Reborn! Paikuhan cursing really stuck with me..those scenes felt empty with the official subs lol.

I also kinda liked their sub blocking. Sometimes it's easier to read even if it takes up a lot of the screen.

W-W-W-W-WHAT?!
You like 3 liners, and even 4 liners?! It's a golden rule for subbers to maximum have 2 liners.

[Xell]

These will always fascinate me.

The grain and bad quality from multiple video tape copies. The 'mature' subtitles. And a show which was censored on TV overseas, but here it was in uncut form in its original language.

The first fansub I saw was Vegetto vs. Buu. Anime Labs of course. Good times..

[dario03]

Anime labs must of been where some of my old fansubs came from. I still remember Vegeta completely cussing out Hildergarn in movie 13. Its actually on youtube too, can we post links to fansub clips? Does bring back memories of me and my friends watching our what I assume were 27th generation copies of the movies and some episodes. Was kind of funny since we got them all from the same guy and some looked ok and some were so bad the video would skip and was hard to read the subs, one even had a couple of seconds of some kids soccer game that had been taped over

And I'm not sure if the OP meant he just didn't have internet like now or if DB wasn't online much at that time. But just in case I do want to say that poor DBZ subs were readily available online back in 2000/2001. I still remember when my friend got a new computer in late 2000. He got cable internet and quickly downloaded every DB(Z/GT) episode and movie. And even though the quality was terrible it still took up almost all of his (at the time) high end 40GB hard drive.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Actually, Kanzenshuu did a podcast episode on old DBZ fansubs (episode 259, found on this page). Very fun and informative stuff. The most interesting tidbit I learned from this was that, apparently at one point, there was a legitimate (as in not a fansub) English-subtitled TV airing of the Japanese version of DBZ many years ago, but that it only aired in Hawaii.

[superrayman3]

Actually, Kanzenshuu did a podcast episode on old DBZ fansubs (episode 259, found on this page). Very fun and informative stuff. The most interesting tidbit I learned from this was that, apparently at one point, there was a legitimate (as in not a fansub) English-subtitled TV airing of the Japanese version of DBZ many years ago, but that it only aired in Hawaii.

That would be the NGN broadcast of DB and early DBZ as NGN (or Nippon Golden Network) was an official network based in Hawaii that specialized in broadcasting Japanese media subtitled (they also subtitled Dr. Slump).

[TheBlackPaladin]

Actually, Kanzenshuu did a podcast episode on old DBZ fansubs (episode 259, found on this page). Very fun and informative stuff. The most interesting tidbit I learned from this was that, apparently at one point, there was a legitimate (as in not a fansub) English-subtitled TV airing of the Japanese version of DBZ many years ago, but that it only aired in Hawaii.

That would be the NGN broadcast of DB and early DBZ as NGN (or Nippon Golden Network) was an official network based in Hawaii that specialized in broadcasting Japanese media subtitled (they also subtitled Dr. Slump).

Yeah, very interesting...do we know if there subtitles were any good, or how accurate they were?