[SPONSORED TRANSLATION! (i.e. you can translate for money) If you're translator/editor/raw-provider contact us IMMEDIATELY! If you're donor, just donate. ♥Thank you.♥](http://adf.ly/141259/www.arr-soarin.blogspot.com/2011/01/mahou-shoujo-lalabel-1980.html) | [\#[email protected]](irc://irc.rizon.net/arr) [Q: Is fan sponsorship of fansubs a traditional thing? A: No tradition, unless you count just the past 18 months or so. Sponsorship is totally new. TechnoGirls was the first to fansub solely on a openly solicited sponsorship basis. It seems to be a big thing now. I guess that's good. I know some groups are soliciting for sponsors and not doing too well with it. But there's not too much choice if you don't have the resources otherwise... Q: I think it was about a year from the time TG solicited sponsorship till the time they finally delivered Wedding Peach. I had serious doubts that it would be made. A: Honestly, we struggled to get it done that whole time. I was dismayed myself at how powerless I was to make it happen faster. We went through 4 flaking-out translators before we got decent scripts. We started laying down tape before episode 3 was even translated, just to hurry it up. I made no promises about exactly when any volume would be done, because it was simply impossible to predict. As it turned out, Romeo went fastest, Peach went slowest. This was mostly due to the irregular, colloquial "bad" mod quasi-westernized Japanese spoken in Peach. It drives translators mad. I quickly learned to not permit sponsors beyond the next volume to be produced unless I was sure of the translation. Every episode with sponsorship will be subbed, or the money will be refunded. And anytime, on demand, the money will be refunded upon request of the original sponsor, if the translation isn't done yet. In terms of sponsored episodes, I think that Technogirls has DELIVERED more than any other fansubber. Maybe even more than all others combined. I consider sponsorship to be a type of commission, and take it very seriously. With regard to the Internet, though, none of us are so naive as to not know that sending donations to strangers can be risky. There are new "fansubbers" out there who've done nothing but pick an anime, make a web page, and ask for "donations" without showing that they are capable of anything at all. We didn't start getting any significant support until Romeo 1 was out and circulating, to prove we could make a fansub. I agree that it's foolish to send money to someone who's never made a fansub or distributed tapes before.](http://www.technogirls.org/barbara/anime/editor.htm)