fansubs are what people watch before a show comes out in the united states. basically it just means someone in japan copies the show off the tv with their tivo or something and then sticks on the net. groups of people pick this up and with usually 2 days they release the show to the world with english or german or whatever langues as its subtitles. its technically not legal but it is looked past by most producers until it is licensed to a united states producer such as bandai. full metal alchemist got licensed before it was finnished so that is why most of us have only seen about half of it. and at the moment none of the episodes are out but 4 of them will be released on dvd feb. 8th.
