Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure Episode 7 released!

In this episode, Lucia has to deal with Kaito completely forgetting about her, and the eminent birth of Seira, who is to be the next Mermaid Princess of the Indian Ocean.

However, will Lucia be able to teach Seira the "beauty of loving someone" when she has a broken heart herself?

Happy Kappi Episode 24 released!

In this episode, Kappi is suddenly unable to do magic.  On top of that, he has been summoned back to Kappimeshia.  Will Suguri be able to get her favorite accessory to him before he is sucked into the portal?

Pollyanna Episode 44 released!

After what happened in episode 43, everyone deals with what happened in a different fashion.  However, Polly is having the most difficulty in dealing with what happened.

Mrs. Carew and Jamie are also on their way to Beldingsville to lend a hand.

This should be the last of the really difficult episodes; the rest of the episodes all the way to the end should be smooth sailing

Little Women II - Jo's Boys Episode 12 released!

Mr. Bhaer, when he heard the story and saw Dan, shook his head, but only said quietly,

"The experiment may cost us something, but we will try it."

If Dan felt any gratitude for his protection, he did not show it, and took without thanks all that was give him. He was ignorant, but very quick to learn when he chose; had sharp eyes to watch what went on about him; a saucy tongue, rough manners, and a temper that was fierce and sullen by turns. He played with all his might, and played well at almost all the games. He was silent and gruff before grown people, and only now and then was thoroughly sociable among the lads. Few of them really liked him, but few could help admiring his courage and strength, for nothing daunted him, and he knocked tall Franz flat on one occasion with an ease that caused all the others to keep at a respectful distance from his fists. Mr. Bhaer watched him silently, and did his best to tame the "Wild Boy," as they called him, but in private the worthy man shook his head, and said soberly, "I hope the experiment will turn out well, but I am a little afraid it may cost too much."

- Little Men, Chapter 6

In this episode, Dan begins his time at Plumfield with some rather anti-social actions that quickly alienate various people.  Not very many people see how he really is, and Nat and Mrs. Jo are among the very few who do...

Pollyanna Episode 43 released!

This episode is the continuation of episode 42.  There is some foreshadowing on what will happen in the last few episodes that will be coming up.

We apologize for the delay in releasing this episode; this is right in the middle of the really difficult part of this arc.

Happy Kappi Episode 23 released!

In this episode, Suguri and Kappi get into a dispute over something that adults would consider trivial.

You can obtain this episode from your standard anime torrent indexing sites.

Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure Hi10P encodes

We will also be encoding Hi10P versions of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure as well.

We've released Hi10P encodes for episodes 1-6, which we released earlier.  Episode 7 should be released as soon as I get the script from Wasurenai's QC team.

EDIT: I've had to take the action of prohibiting comments on this post, which I use very rarely.  Please do not use obscenities in your comments.

Slow trickle of Hi10P releases coming up!

We will be slowly getting Hi10P releases for Pollyanna and Little Women II - Jo's Boys for those episodes that don't have them yet.  Be on the lookout for them!

We'll probably also do Happy Kappi as well.

A Little Princess Sara and Super Doll Licca-chan we can probably do as well, but it will take a lot more effort because I no longer have the master encoding raws.

Pollyanna Episode 42 released!

If you recall from episode 41, the telephone was ringing at the end.  Little did everyone know that telephone call will lead to more than they would ever expect.

You can obtain this episode from your standard anime torrent indexing sites.

Little Women II - Jo's Boys Episode 11 released!

Nat joyfully ran off, and soon returned followed by a most unprepossessing boy, who slouched in and stood looking about him, with a half bold, half sullen look, which made Mrs. Bhaer say to herself, after one glance,

"A bad specimen, I am afraid."

"This is Dan," said Nat, presenting him as if sure of his welcome.

"Nat tells me you would like to come and stay with us," began Mrs. Jo, in a friendly tone.

"Yes," was the gruff reply.

"Have you no friends to take care of you?"

"No."

"Say, 'No, ma'am,'" whispered Nat.

"Shan't neither," muttered Dan.

"How old are you?"

"About fourteen."

"You look older. What can you do?"

"'Most anything."

"If you stay here we shall want you to do as the others do, work and study as well as play. Are you willing to agree to that?"

"Don't mind trying."

- Little Men, Chapter 6

In this episode, we are introduced to Dan, Nat's friend.  However, he does not make a good first impression.

You can obtain this episode from your standard anime torrent indexing sites.

Little Women II - Jo's Boys Episode 7v2 released!

A version 2 of episode 7 of Little Women II - Jo's Boys was released today.

This addresses a serious editing error involving the recitation of the multiplication table in the beginning of the episode, plus a couple of minor wording fixes.

We do have episode 11 almost ready to go; that will be released sometime tonight.

Pollyanna Episode 41 released!

"Thomas, don't, please!" she begged.

"Why, Polly, what's the matter? Aren't you glad that—that the medicine worked?"

Mrs. Chilton dropped despairingly back in her chair.

"There you go again, Thomas," she sighed. "Of COURSE I'm glad that this misguided woman has forsaken the error of her ways and found that she can be of use to some one. And of course I'm glad that Pollyanna did it. But I am not glad to have that child continually spoken of as if she were a—a bottle of medicine, or a 'cure.' Don't you see?"

"Nonsense! After all, where's the harm? I've called Pollyanna a tonic ever since I knew her."

"Harm! Thomas Chilton, that child is growing older every day. Do you want to spoil her? Thus far she has been utterly unconscious of her extraordinary power. And therein lies the secret of her success. The minute she CONSCIOUSLY sets herself to reform somebody, you know as well as I do that she will be simply impossible. Consequently, Heaven forbid that she ever gets it into her head that she's anything like a cure-all for poor, sick, suffering humanity."

"Nonsense! I wouldn't worry," laughed the doctor.

"But I do worry, Thomas."

- Pollyanna Grows Up, Chapter 15

In this episode, everyone is celebrating Pollyanna's return with a party.  However, from the episode title, something happens in the end that will foreshadow what will happen next.

Starting from the next episode forward until all the way to the end, the anime makes a significant deviation from the novel.  The deviation is a bit difficult to spot if you haven't read the novel, though.  I personally prefer the novel's ending, but you may like this one better depending on your preferences.

Download counts, popularity, and success

Over the last year, I have gotten to know quite a few fansubbers.  When they talk to me, one of the topics usually discussed is the number of BitTorrent downloads this group gets per release.  One of the things they talk about is that on the whole, this group gets considerably less downloads per episode than just about every other active fansubbing group.

Before I give my response to this, I would like to explain a few things.  In this age where fansubbed anime is now distributed by multiple methods other than BitTorrent, BitTorrent downloads are lower than they were several years ago.  However, as a metric for the success of a release, the number of BitTorrent downloads remains one of the very few valid indicators available to a fansubbing group, as most DDL sites will not release download numbers for a file.  It is generally accepted by the modern fansubbing community that the more downloads of a file, the more successful the release is.

So, to illustrate this point, I will present several exhibits.  Here is exhibit 1:

Here, I have a screenshot of how the torrent listing page on NyaaTorrent looks like a few days after we released Pollyanna episode 36 and Little Women II episode 9 a couple of weeks ago.  Let me point out a few things:

•  Notice that we're racking up about 400-500 downloads for all three versions that we release for each episode.  Now compare that to the files that HorribleSubs releases, which number in the several thousands. 
• Also, notice the two releases of Fairy Tail.  You can notice that the slower group gets less downloads.  Even then, typically a series that is a Shonen Jump series will usually have more viewers due to the larger fanbase.
• The ARR release there is actually an anomaly from what they normally get.  ARR's download counts are usually higher than our download counts.

Now, I will present exhibit 2:

In this one, we have the listings around when Pollyanna episode 35 is released.  Let me point out a few things:

• EveTaku's release of Kami-sama no Memochou episode 8 obviously had a lot of downloaders.
• Compared to the Fairy Tail episode 94 download counts from exhibit 1, you can see HorribleSubs' release blow that one out of the water.
• If we typically have download counts higher than those of a modern series, it's usually due to the fact that the group was slower in releasing the series.

Let me now continue with exhibit 3.

In this case, we are comparing the one modern series we're doing, Happy Kappi, versus everything else that was released at this time.  Again, note the lower download counts compared to everything else.

So, according to these exhibits and the "number of BitTorrent downloads" metric, this group would have been considered a failure by most modern fansubbers.  Furthermore, this is one of the bigger reasons why most modern fansubbing groups won't touch the series we work on, as the metrics bear out the potential failure of each release. 

However, this entire analysis suffers from a very significant flaw.

The flaw is that this comparison is not an apples to apples comparison.  Fundamentally, Licca Fansubs is a completely different type of fansubbing group than your typical modern fansubbing group.  The way we conduct our operations is completely different, and the rules which we abide by are also different.  In essence, we measure our success through other means and metrics.  People can argue that we are just deluding ourselves and living in our own little world, and in a sense they are correct.  We do live in our little world, and that is perfectly fine with us.

In essence, this is one of the best examples of how the Pollyanna principle should be applied.  In our world, we feel that we've been really successful.  We've gotten three large series done, two of which are World Masterpiece Theater series.  We got a couple of lovely OVAs done as well.  We've got plenty of momentum to do a few more series after we finish our current projects.  With luck, we'll be around for quite a while, with everyone's support.

Happy Kappi Episode 22 released!

This episode of Happy Kappi is about as close as you'll probably get to something that resembles the Twilight Zone in strangeness.  In this episode, Suguri, Kappi, and Whippi end up getting trapped in a magical sphere of memories.

You can obtain this episode from your standard anime torrent indexing sites.

This is a reminder that Licca Fansubs is recruiting translators, timers, and editors.  Please contact us if you wish to contribute your skills.

Pollyanna Episode 40 released!

This time Beldingsville did not literally welcome Pollyanna home with brass bands and bunting—perhaps because the hour of her expected arrival was known to but few of the townspeople. But there certainly was no lack of joyful greetings on the part of everybody from the moment she stepped from the railway train with her Aunt Polly and Dr. Chilton. Nor did Pollyanna lose any time in starting on a round of fly-away minute calls on all her old friends. Indeed, for the next few days, according to Nancy, "There wasn't no putting of your finger on her anywheres, for by the time you'd got your finger down she wa'n't there."

And always, everywhere she went, Pollyanna met the question: "Well, how did you like Boston?" Perhaps to no one did she answer this more fully than she did to Mr. Pendleton. As was usually the case when this question was put to her, she began her reply with a troubled frown.

"Oh, I liked it—I just loved it—some of it."

"But not all of it?" smiled Mr. Pendleton.

"No. There's parts of it—Oh, I was glad to be there," she explained hastily. "I had a perfectly lovely time, and lots of things were so queer and different, you know—like eating dinner at night instead of noons, when you ought to eat it. But everybody was so good to me, and I saw such a lot of wonderful things—Bunker Hill, and the Public Garden, and the Seeing Boston autos, and miles of pictures and statues and store-windows and streets that didn't have any end. And folks. I never saw such a lot of folks."

- Pollyanna Grows Up, Chapter 14

This episode covers both Pollyanna's last day in Boston and what happens when she returns to Beldingsville.

You can obtain this episode from your standard anime torrent indexing sites.

This is a reminder that Licca Fansubs is recruiting translators, timers, and editors.  Please contact us if you wish to contribute your skills.

Pollyanna Episode 39 released!

This release is dedicated to everyone who lost their lives on 9/11, ten years ago.  It is a tragedy for everyone, regardless of race, gender, creed, or nationality.

In this episode of Pollyanna, Aunt Polly makes a surprise visit, and Mrs. Carew holds her farewell party.  When the children from Murphy's Alley show up, everyone but Mrs. Carew and Sadie liked them, and even Sadie changes her mind really soon once she talks to Jamie...

Happy Kappi Episode 21 released!

Most likely everyone is familiar with the phrase "too many cooks spoil the soup".  In this episode, you can correct this to "too many capybaras and magic spoil the cake".

You can obtain this episode from your standard anime torrent indexing sites.

Pollyanna Episode 38 released!

Mrs. Carew was very angry. To have brought herself to the point where she was willing to take this lame boy into her home, and then to have the lad calmly refuse to come, was unbearable. Mrs. Carew was not in the habit of having her invitations ignored, or her wishes scorned. Furthermore, now that she could not have the boy, she was conscious of an almost frantic terror lest he were, after all, the real Jamie. She knew then that her true reason for wanting him had been—not because she cared for him, not even because she wished to help him and make him happy—but because she hoped, by taking him, that she would ease her own mind, and forever silence that awful eternal questioning on her part: "What if he WERE her own Jamie?"

It certainly had not helped matters any that the boy had divined her state of mind, and had given as the reason for his refusal that she "did not care." To be sure, Mrs. Carew now very proudly told herself that she did not indeed "care," that he was NOT her sister's boy, and that she would "forget all about it."

But she did not forget all about it. However insistently she might disclaim responsibility and relationship, just as insistently responsibility and relationship thrust themselves upon her in the shape of panicky doubts; and however resolutely she turned her thoughts to other matters, just so resolutely visions of a wistful-eyed boy in a poverty-stricken room loomed always before her.

Then, too, there was Pollyanna. Clearly Pollyanna was not herself at all. In a most unPollyanna-like spirit she moped about the house, finding apparently no interest anywhere.

- Pollyanna Grows Up, Chapter 12

In this episode, we see what happens after what happened in the end of episode 37.

You can obtain this episode from your standard anime torrent indexing sites.

This episode marks the 3/4th point in the series.  We're currently in a difficult stretch of the series, but we're about to hit the homestretch and everything will go well.

The last 1/4th of the series ties everything together in a way that you may not expect (that is if you haven't read the novels).  They do change up how this next part compared to what happens in the novel, but in general, the same things happen (albeit under slightly different conditions).  I personally like the novel's ending better than the anime ending, but that's probably a matter of personal perference.

Also, this release is our first release that uses h.264's High 10-bit color profile, a.k.a. Hi10P.  This is a test release, and we may continue or discontinue it depending on the response to it.