Fansubbing Anime: Insights Into the ‘Butterfly Effect’ of Globalisation on Audiovisual Translation

This article revolves around fansubbing, a subtitling-based mediation phenomenon whose emergence and consolidation in recent years has gone hand in hand with the globalisation of Japanese animated cinema. The paper begins with an overview of (i) the origins and rationale for the popularity of anime in Japan and beyond; (ii) the first attempts to localise anime into other languages; and (iii) the contribution of fansubbing to the expansion of anime fandom worldwide. The article then proceeds to delve into the organisation of the fansubbing process and outline its most distinctive practices. The final section appraises the potential for propagation of fansubbing practices within a fast-changing cultural landscape, drawing on the theoretical models that media sociology has developed to account for similar developments in the audiovisual marketplace.