One may ask, “Is this not a contradiction in terms? I mean, if there are so few people that actually get fansubs, how can it promote the anime effectively?
The answer is fairly straightforward. The market segment most likely to get fansubs… that is, the otaku, or those people that are -really- heavily into anime… is also the segment that communicates most often with the companies responsible for bringing that anime out commercially in the US. It’s not enough by itself (probably… where’s Kodomo no Omocha if it was?), but if five thousand otaku are raving about it, it’s probably worth at least looking into. I call this the “Fushigi Yuugi” effect. While it’s impossible to -prove- that this series would have never come out in the US without the extensive fansubbing efforts of Karen Duffy, I don’t know anybody that believes otherwise. 7.
