Creators of English subtitles for Japanese animated programs (anime) often encounter challenges when translating cultural references that may be unfamiliar to Anglophone audiences. In Venuti’s (1995) translation framework, subtitlers may adopt a “domesticating” strategy, using analogous Anglophone cultural references to maximize relatability, or a “foreignizing” strategy, preserving original cultural references to maximize authenticity. This study examines the program Gin Tama, contrasting official English subtitles with fan-made subtitles (fansubs), meaning unofficial subtitles created and disseminated by fan communities. We explore how these different strategies may be accounted for by the affordances and audiences of these two subtitle varieties.

(1) shows a representative example of typical official versus fansubs translation choices:

As (1) demonstrates, official subtitles are found to prefer a domesticating strategy, in which only lexicalized English words are used to maintain target-language naturalness and domestic relatability. In contrast, fansubs prefer the foreignizing strategy, in which Japanese terms may be borrowed to preserve cultural meaning.

We observe that the fansubs’ use of the foreignizing strategy is facilitated by the affordances of the fansubs format, which utilizes footnotes to explain cultural references or Japanese terms that may be unfamiliar to viewers. Official subtitles, however, are traditionally restricted to the subtitle text itself, and therefore cannot add contextual layers of translation. Moreover, audiences of fansubs are typically interested in Japanese language and culture; many consume anime for enrichment, hence valuing exposure to novel terms and cultural concepts via subtitles.

Finally, we find that official subtitles are shifting longitudinally towards a more foreignizing strategy, adopting limited use of footnotes and allowing for this shift. This change reflects the increasing audience power in anime production and the content producers’ recognition of the prioritization among international viewers of cultural enrichment and authenticity over comprehensibility.