Which Group is the best in terms of Quality?

[Carnage]

Which group do you think does the best quality with their episodes despite the time it takes? For me, its KAA.

[mage]

KAA. (lengthening to 10 characters.)

[darkmetal505]

well KAA waits for DVD releases so obviously their quality will be better. For regular releases, i dont know. Each anime usually has one best releaser. Anime One, Anime Kraze, Anime Forever, Lunar, etc.

[complich8]

the scope of this question is a bit too broad.

"Which group is the best for quality" omits the fact that some series are just ... well ... crap. If you take a sketchily-drawn series from the early 90's (like, Daa Daa Daa) and you try to sub it in a modern context, like aone is doing, of course it's not going to look as good as modern, computer-assisted, non-sketchy stuff.

Even within a group, quality can vary widely. Some larger groups have specific teams of people that usually work together that produce particularly good or particularly mediocre results.

Generally, the bigger, older fansub groups can be counted on to do more consistent work than newer ones. And DVD rippers don't count as fansub groups, they're just encoders :-p.

[Lucifus]

I'd have to go with KAA, Anime One, and well, not sure about the last one but Eclipse. =S

[dragonrage]

animeforever for archiving purposes and anime one also KF not bad either.DB is you thinking about both speed and quality.

[suckitdry]

datteabayo is good right? they always have most downloads and everything with torrents! that means they're good, right?

they also superfast episode release!

[Lucifus]

DB is necessarily good, but decent and very fast.

[darkmetal505]

Ive heard that Toriyama's World is supposedly one of the best. However, they are as slow as hell.

[Lucifus]

I never taught they were slow, but then again I only watched one anime that they were subbing. But ya, they are really good in my book.

[Munsu]

At this moment, Anime-Kraze has to be the best group out there. This mainly stems from thinking they're providing the best translations of any group I've seen lately.

DB, good? Are you kidding me?

Lunar? They suck ass too.

Eclipse, they are doing fine with Shana (translated by static-subs), but their translation hasn't been as good with Fate/stay night.

I still think AonE is a pretty good group, always solid releases.

Mahou, I've liked a lot, but I thought their early efforts on Fantastic Children and Tsukiyomi have been leagues better than their current releases.

Froth-Bite is another of my favorites, though they do a lot of shitty series.

Some new group called Scramble! I like, they have some oldie staff members that I thought to be retired.

And I think I'll leave it there, to make it short, Anime-Kraze is the best right now.

[complich8]

I haven't watched many a-kraze releases lately ... but I'll agree, they've always been very solid and consistent. In the past, their biggest weakness has been styling, in my opinion... but that's totally subjective. What I think is a tacky, horrible font or karaoke job or color scheme, other people might think is the pinnacle of beauty and elegance. That said, they don't even do what I'd call tacky, horrible jobs there ... just maybe not the best possible. But then, not every group can have a styler like Eise, right?

I used to have an artificially inflated opinion of AonE, because I worked with them for like 3 years. But, they're sort of hit-or-miss. Some of their crew is really talented, and others are sort of mediocre -- consistency, especially early in a series, is one of their biggest weaknesses.

I have a lot of respect for Triad, Live-eviL and a.f.k. -- all three of them produce very high quality releases with simply incredible consistency. Having done the work I've done, I know that it's very VERY difficult to get that sort of consistency, and it reflects extremely well on all of their staff, and on the dedication of the groups.

[Munsu]

I was being polite with AonE, I thought that their quality level has been an "up and down" marathon, with the current AonE being a bit on the down of it, but still much better from what I see most of these groups putting out.

For Anime-Kraze, I agree with you on the styling issue, but I mostly base my opinions on the way I perceive the translation acuracy and the editing that goes with it.

Triad I like, and Naisho and other groups that Dragonsmore translates for... Same goes with the groups that make up Triad, like Anime-Fansubs.

Live-Evil I have to disagree with you there. Only reason I like them is because they do all these old series, but some of those releases aren't even translation scripts from them, and that being so, you can notice some editing discrepancies if you pay attention. Their typesetting sucks badly, and so are their attempts at doing karaoke.

a.f.k. I don't know much about, since I haven't seen Full Moon wo Sagashite nor Aquarian Age yet, and their other releases I watched from other groups. But seeing their Karin, I'm not very impressed, but that's mainly because I don't like much how they edit, but that's probably because of how I like things, not that they are doing anything wrong. Thei early staff is probably better than the current one, but I have nothing to base this on.


Edit on Live-eviL:

They surely are a group that the community considers for quality. But that's mainly due for what they represent. They do a lot of old neglected series that no one dares to touch, and people are so happy that someone is releasing them that they are not critical of their release quality. But if you sit down and analyze some of their Yawara releases, you might notice some missing translations lines here and there, among other things.

[kesten]

what exactly is wrong with Lunar? i saw their Suzuka and it was pretty good.
and when i download new bleach episodes, i always wait for Lunar to sub them (probably because i had every other epizode subed by Lunar also) :)

[Munsu]

Questionable translations, shitty editing, shitty timing style among other things...

That should be enough.

Waiting for them to sub Bleach is fine, since DB is even shittier.

[6Zabuza9]

which fansub would have the best translations?

[complich8]

Lunar's Suzuka was ok, but not particularly spectacular. Just that they were the only ones really .. you know ... doing it. So it's not like there was anything to compare with. I'm not saying they did a bad job or anything, just that they aren't particularly outstanding either.

Compare their bleach with DB's and anime-keep's (or conclave's). Their video quality is usually not great, their op styling is generally terrible, their translation and editing are both pretty mediocre. The only thing they really had going for them was speed, and DB housed them on that the moment they fell off a consistent weekly release schedule.

On a similar note, if you watch other series that Lunar finished that other people maybe didn't (or didn't as fast, or whatever), you'll notice the same sort of quality trend. They do generally decent work, but it's just not spectacular.

Lunar doesn't belong in a conversation about "best groups for quality" (and if you think they do, then I daresay you don't belong in such a conversation either -- you don't have the necessary background to objectively judge the quality of a release or a group as a whole). As a group, they're mediocre. Not that there's anything wrong with that, they make very watchable releases, and usually do a better job making timely releases than most.

All that said, "best" is really subjective too. I think that, for example, Live-eviL's quality in my mind gets bonus points for doing stuff that nobody else has even thought of doing... even if they aren't categorically the best, they're peerless when it comes to what they actually do. My comments about a.f.k. are more based on their consistency than an objective quality -- I haven't found anything about their work to really strongly object to, which puts them at a better place than most groups.

It's all a matter of what you consider most important though. Many people don't have a firm understanding of the nuances of language, and don't notice when someone mismatches tenses, or botches agreement, or just screws up the flow of a scene.

I think it's a reflection on the theory of marginal utility. By consuming something (in this case, a mediocre release of an anime episode) now, you get a fairly big dose of satisfaction out of it. By waiting an unknown amount of time longer, you might get a slightly better dose of satisfaction from a better quality release, but it probably won't be that much different of an experience, and probably won't get you that much more satisfaction. And since you don't know when, or even if that dose of happiness is coming, you'd rather take the sure thing.

It's like, if you are given the choice between getting a sure-thing $100, or a coin-flip where you get nothing on heads and $200 on tails. The $200 probably isn't twice as satisfying as the $100, so you'll probably take the sure thing. There's a pretty interesting chapter on this in Barry Schwartz's book The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less -- which comes with my highest recommendation.

In that light, I think the only time you would choose the "best" release over the first is if you found the first release to be of such poor quality that it was a negative experience rather than a positive one for you.

[Munsu]

In that light, I think the only time you would choose the "best" release over the first is if you found the first release to be of such poor quality that it was a negative experience rather than a positive one for you.

And this is why I usually wait. When watching something I tend to focus on the negative points of the group that released it, that it's rarely enjoyable. So, I wait for the group that I think is putting the best release out. If I'm not watching the best, I tend to think that what I'm watching has no truth in it, so why bother?

I got countless shit to watch, read, and do anyways, so the wait is not that bad.

[kesten]

In that light, I think the only time you would choose the "best" release over the first is if you found the first release to be of such poor quality that it was a negative experience rather than a positive one for you.

hehe, i have to agree with this above :)

Lunar may not be the "best" as you say but they do a decent work and they are constant. that's why i think they are good. agree with me or not, but consistency is very important to me. one a group subs one show great and other poor, i won't say they are good, but mediocre. however, if they constantly do decent job, i'll say they are good. see my point?

[Munsu]

A couple of groups worth mentioning that I forgot about.

Rice-box, before Onigiri broke away from them, they were awesome with Stellvia of the Universe, Witch Hunter Robin, and Shadow Skill. Onigiri became good on their own, well they had great translators, they did a great job with AonE on This Ugly and Beautiful World and finishing up Shadow Skill.

Central-Anime, they do alot of old neglected anime, some that have become my favorites (Touch and Legend of Galactic Heroes). They pay for translation services, but their editing is top notch. They don't always sub the previews, which kinda bothers me. They always use some pale blue and yellow fonts, but they fit the anime with a readable font. They always translated the OP and ED, but they don't karaoke it, just like most groups that work on old series. What I most like about the group, is that the owner is always interactive with the fans, and giving them updates on when they should expect series to be released.

Ayu, I liked when they did Kurau Phantom Memory as Sora, and when they did Rozen Maiden Season 1 (haven't seen their season 2). They had good editing with solid translations. Their OP and ED karaoke's were awesome, plus they did the karaoke for the most awesome insert song in Kurau Phantom Memory, and forever I'll be greatful to them (they worked under the name Sora). This days, I don't think their main translator is still translating, so I don't know if they are still putting out the same quality.

Koi, though they only worked on Air, their work was awesome. Great karaoke, encoding, typesetting, translations, timing, you name it. They made me fall in love with the Flora font, now I use it for everywhere. It was curious because for some reason they didn't include credits on their releases, and few people know who they are. I talk alot with the guy who lent them their name, Koidemona, though he always tells me he didn't work in the group. From what I hear they are a bunch of assholes, but whatever, they did awesome releases on Air. I wish they did another series.

[Splash!]

K-F does a great job when it comes to subbing. Mind you the only series i have seen them sub is probably One Peice but they do a much better job then any i have seen so far, especially the quality of their translation. Every sentence that each character says makes perfect sense, which is more than what i can say for some fansubs. Even Lunar doesnt make all that much sense at times, especially in bleach

POST EDITED after being corrected by Bud [Down]

[Munsu]

Sorry to tell you, but A-K doesn't do One Piece... K-F you mean, and I didn't mention them though I should've.

[Ryllharu]

I've always been happiest with The-Triad's work. They are not particularly timely in their releases, but their translations are very good, the editing makes them very readable and easily comprehended, and their video and sound quality has always been very good. They do a variety of series that everyone else seems to ignore, and generally, I've never had a problem with their releases. Their AIR was not as good as Koi, but came closer than any other version. Their choices in series I can't always agree with, but that's part of the reason for their success. Their work on Mahoro (1&2) and Azumanga Diaoh was peerless. They also sub Makoto Shikai's works, which makes them stand above many of the other groups out there on terms of subbing excellent anime.

[SCR512]

Ayu, I liked when they did Kurau Phantom Memory as Sora, and when they did Rozen Maiden Season 1 (haven't seen their season 2). They had good editing with solid translations. Their OP and ED karaoke's were awesome, plus they did the karaoke for the most awesome insert song in Kurau Phantom Memory, and forever I'll be greatful to them (they worked under the name Sora). This days, I don't think their main translator is still translating, so I don't know if they are still putting out the same quality.


Heh... Kurau that was a great show to sub.

Jonny-mt translated that along with most of season 1 for Rozen and all of Season 2. I would say that he is the main translator along with the now departed fujiko.

[Munsu]

Ah I see, yeah I was reffering to Jonny-mt... For some reason I got the impression that he might have taken a break from fansubbing, it's good to hear that he's still at it.

Seems like more fansubbers are visiting this forum lately, by the way, what do you do for Ayu? I know you are there, but I pretty much never read the credits.

Anyways, go put Sora back in action, we all love to see great licensed anime getting done.

[Throes]

Kaizoku-Fansubs definitely. Especially since they've been using the x264 codec. With the quality of their translations and video, they could easily be as good as, if not better than professionals.

[SCR512]

Ah I see, yeah I was reffering to Jonny-mt... For some reason I got the impression that he might have taken a break from fansubbing, it's good to hear that he's still at it.

Seems like more fansubbers are visiting this forum lately, by the way, what do you do for Ayu? I know you are there, but I pretty much never read the credits.

Anyways, go put Sora back in action, we all love to see great licensed anime getting done.

In Ayu I am typeset/sfx/karaoke. I used to encode so some of Ayu's older releases were encoded by me

In Sora I was typeset/sfx/karaoke/encode and at times QC =p

I also typeset/sfx/karaoke for all of Eclipse's releases and also did the karaoke/typeset for ZX's Starship Operators.

Umm... I've also worked for:
Lunar/karaoke
Live-Evil/typeset/sfx
Kaleido Star Translation Project Karaoke/typeset/encode
Static Subs karaoke/typeset
Naisho/typeset
Anime-Source/typeset/karaoke (Remember Maria-sama ga Miteru? =p)
and likely more... I just can't remember...

[KocaKoala]

In my opinion, Anime One is the best fansub I've found, they keep the video bright and good quality while using colorful unique fonts that are still readable. They also don't do direct translations, they make it sound like coherent english.

Anime-Kraze is another great fansub group. I've watched there subbing of Samurai Champloo and it was excellent, all coherent and easy to read as well as not downing the quality of the episodes.

Now as for KAA, in my opinion is pretty bad. I watched there quick sub of Ai Yori Aoshi, the opening and ending themes would sometimes be subbed in English or Japanese, never both, sometimes they only sub 3 lines form the whole song. Also when there are conversations on the phone, they only subbed for the person you could currently see, which I don't understand since the Japanese is still easy to hear.

[Munsu]

Yeah, KAA is not a fansub group, but a DVD-Ripping group, so those complaints you have are not valid in any form concerning them. Go complain to the licensors of the series.

[Kraco]

Yeah. There's no doubt as a DVD-ripping group KAA must be one of the better ones. However, although this is a wrong thread, KocaKoala did have one point: It doesn't always pay off to stare solely at the picture and audio quality, because like in the case of Ai Yori Aoshi, the subs by the licensor were terrible. It's good to have DVD quality picture and audio, but that's not everything that counts.

[yallo]

Anime-Kraze --- wins hands down for quality
Koi --- awesome job done for Air
Bakakozou --- quite a young group, I suspect, but their FMP TSR was very nicely done

[Munsu]

I think I'm the only one that thought that Bakakozou's FMP was crap.

[Zhan]

I thought Bakakozou's Blood+ was pretty good, though not the best. Is Y still with the group?

[samsonlonghair]

I think Wolf Pack Productions always does a great job, but they're so slow because of how understaffed they are.

[otakuboy]

Kick Ass Anime best imo
they arent really a fansub group i dont think but they have great quality anime .
they use the subs from the dvds they buy

[complich8]

yeah, dvd ripping != fansubbing. You lose, thanks for playing :)

[Board of Command]

I'm going to say Eclipse. They've only subbed Shakugan no Shana and F/SN so far but they have been superb. I hope they take on more projects in the near future.

[ChaosK]

I liked A-Keeps fansubs and I like AnimeOtaku for their PoT.

[Boomstick]

I've always liked Datteabayo for their speed and good quality torrents(good but not great).

[badass]

A lot of older groups are good (most of the groups on etg and efnet, AnimeCo, Central Anime, etc.). In terms of accuracy and consistency, I'd say Central Anime is the best.

[Karasuhebi]

Isn't Eclipse made up of veteran fansubbers from other groups? I think I heard that somewhere. I think it was in the CCCP wiki, but I'm too lazy to go check. :-P

Anyways...I think voting for "the best" group in anything is not really useful at all, in most cases. Let me explain. Maybe you watched a certain anime by a certain group and you loved it. They did a superb job. Then you find another anime you want to watch and some other group and the group you watched the first anime from are subbing it. Of course you download it from the group you know, since you know they had a good quality release in the last anime you saw. This sounds all fine and dandy but...what if the people doing this particular anime aren't the same people that did the last anime you watched by the other group. You gotta keep in mind what the word group means. It's a conglomeration of people. Most big fansub groups have different sub-groups in them so they can sub anime at a more efficent rate. So you are not always guaranteed the same quality you saw of a group in an anime you saw that another anime by them.

IMO, groups should be rated at a per-anime basis.

P.S: Sorry if the generalization I used was confusing, I didn't want to point out any particular anime or group.

-Karasuhebi