Crunchyroll vs. fansub groups for older shows - I finally get it now

I tried watching Rose of Versailles on Crunchyroll last month and the translation felt SO stiff and formal. Like everyone talked like they were reading a Victorian novel or something. Then a buddy sent me a fansub from like 2008 from a group called Limesubs or something similar. The difference was NIGHT and DAY. The fansub actually explained the French Revolution references and kept the characters sounding like real people instead of robots. I used to think official releases were always better but this flipped my whole view. Has anyone else noticed that some fansub groups just cared more about the show than whatever intern is typing up subtitles for streaming services?

2 comments

2 Comments

reed.eva22d ago

Yeah Limesubs were the gold standard for old historical shows, I still have their Legend of the Galactic Heroes release on my hard drive. The subs had context notes about actual napoleonic warfare tactics that made the battles way more interesting.

reed.eva22d ago

Oh wait, did they actually annotate which episodes had direct parallels to historical battles? I remember reading somewhere that the showrunner straight up said he based the whole series on Roman history filtered through 18th century warfare, so that tracks.