Remembering a random convo about anime fan subs in a college library

This was maybe eight years ago, I was sitting in the university library working on a paper. The guy at the next table saw I had a Neon Genesis Evangelion sticker on my laptop and just started talking. He said he used to trade VHS tapes with people online to get episodes of shows that weren't out here yet, and he described the weird, hand-typed subtitles that would sometimes scroll too fast or have jokes in them. He told me, 'The best part was the little translator notes in the top corner, explaining a pun or some cultural thing. You felt like you were in on a secret.' That whole scene is just gone now with everything being on streaming services day one. It was a different way to connect with a show, flaws and all. Does anyone else miss that kind of messy, personal touch, or is it just me being old?

2 comments

2 Comments

barbararamirez1mo ago

12 VHS tapes of Evangelion with subs that said "Shinji, get in the robot pls.

parker_foster531mo ago

Actually those bootleg subs were probably MORE accurate than the official release. The original script basically had Shinji whining about everything while Misato was screaming "get in the robot" in like every other scene. The VHS tapes just captured the REAL emotional core of the show without all that translation fluff. People act like fan subs are always terrible but Evangelion is basically a series of people begging a depressed kid to do literally anything.