Although the official translation and release of both subtitled and dubbed anime is becoming more common, particularly in the US, there are still many great series that have never been released outside of Japan. These anime typically make their way to the rest of the world as fansubs, that is raw Japanese anime subtitled by fans in english and other languages for no profit. In the past these have been distributed by copied vhs tape at some expense to either the distributor or the user, usually both. Fortunately the internet has come to the rescue, with a number of sites providing us with anime encoded in compressed video formats, making it feasible for the first time to download fansubs online. This is both cheaper for the user as usually all they need is an internet connection to access the episodes. It's also easier on the distributor as only a single digital copy needs to be made available online. While there are still problems in finding servers that can cope with the traffic this is still a big improvement on shipping nth generation copied vhs tapes around. And as the internet evolves even this is becoming less of an issue.

As well as being a way of allowing us to experience shows that we would never otherwise see, fansubs are also considered to be a way of drumming up support for the commerical release of a particular anime. In fact there are many great series around the place at the moment that have not yet be licensed outside Japan, but hopefully someday will be. These include Vampire Princess Miyu, Kodomo No Omocha, Marmalade Boy, To Heart, Akazukin Chacha, Flame of Recca and many more. These anime span almost all genres and can be found at the sites listed in the Links section of AFI.

AFI also aims to provide downloads of some of the interesting fansubs that are currently available.

- Saitou
AFI Co-maintainer