How to go from "Nyan" to "Meow"?

July 29, 2010 6:23 AM

How can I track down the English subtitles for a Japanese TV show?

I've been in Japan for the past three months, and I just discovered an adorable TV show called Neko Taxi. DVDs are sold on their official website, but from what I can make out, they're only available in Japanese and have no subtitles. I know there is a wide world out there of fansubs, but that term is pretty much the only thing I know about the phenomenon.

Are there any Japanese TV fans (including anime) who know anything about how to find subtitles? I don't currently have any copies of the show, and I'll find it on my own, but any copy I get will do me no good without subtitles.

Arigato gozaimashita!

posted by etoile to media & arts (3 answers total)

J-Drama subtitles are usually available on websites like d-addicts.com, but in this case the video is available streaming with subtitles on Viikii.net. I think I'll watch it too!
posted by shii at 6:47 AM on July 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

You might be able to torrent it or d/l thru irc. When torrenting, use terms like "subbed", "sub", "ENG", "english" etc. By typing "neko taxi" subbed in google I was able to find the opening theme subbed.

It might be easier if you posted this question on japanese tv oriented forums. Typically, if is a series is subbed, one fansub group will do it. If you can find out which fansub group picked up Neko Taxi, you'll be able to visit their website/ irc channel and find out how to d/l it.

http://www.tokyotosho.info/index.php has a lot of shows available.
posted by joyeuxamelie at 7:59 AM on July 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Are there any Japanese TV fans (including anime) who know anything about how to find subtitles?

This is completely useless for your particular situation because it's not anime, but I use AniDB to find what fansub group released or is working on releasing subs for a particular anime. Once you know the fansub group you can try to get them from the group directly (a lot of them have blogs with DDL links these days) or you can narrow down your search on the relevant torrent sites or whatever.
posted by burnmp3s at 8:23 AM on July 29, 2010