1. Introduction
[1.1] Fansubs—fans who subtitle TV shows, DVDs, anime, and other visual texts, as a labor of love, for other members of their community—are mostly associated with anime, but fansubs translate all kinds of texts, be they the latest episode of Lost for release in China or a Japanese-language anime series subtitled in English. Although the legality of this activity is questionable, the work of fansubbers serves to promote a media source that many viewers would not otherwise have had access to. Early fansubbed anime in particular permitted this art form to get a toehold in the American market [1]. Their transformative work makes the text explicable and available. Without fansubbing, it’s virtually impossible to access the text. The language barrier means that some mediation is required to permit understanding.
[1.2] Although I was peripherally aware of the fansub phenomenon, I’m not a big fan of anime, and so I thought little about it—until I discovered Ollian. Ollian (also known as Chrolli), or the Oliver/Christian homosexual relationship on German soap opera Verbotene Liebe (VL; Forbidden Love, 1995– ), is made explicable for me and all the other fans by a kind fansubber who creates Ollian clips and uploads them to YouTube. The fansubber cuts together a day’s worth of soap opera plot, focusing only on Christian and Oliver and excising all else. The condensed plots, which are usually about 7 to 9 minutes long and which are sorted by air date, are available two ways: in the original German, and subtitled in English [2]. I have found the subtitled versions absolutely riveting and have spent many happy hours clicking through the carefully ordered, dated clips to advance the narrative.
