Anime Lingo:

OAV, OVA: Original Animation Video or Original Video Animation. Both mean the same thing an animation show or serie that has been produced directly for video release. There are advantages to this as well as disadvantages. The budget is usually larger than a T.V. anime show with quality vastly improved. But, if no one likes the product, it won't sell and money is lost. Many of the better anime product out there are of this quality.

Fansub, Fan-sub, subs: Fan subtitling productions. Many excellent anime productions will never be available outside Japan. Fans all around the world, to spread these excellent shows and expose anime a bit more, will take the original Japanese shows, translate it themselves (or obtain a translation from another group) and sub-title it themselves. Sub-titling, for those who do not know, consists of placing text on the screen to translate what the on-screen actors are saying. Yes, those annoying words on the bottom of foreign films are called "sub-titles".

While this practice may seem illegal, fan-subbers and fans in general are a law-abiding bunch. We tend to replace our fan-subbed videos with commercial versions whenever they become available. After all, we want companies to produce more anime translations for the american and international market. Japanese companies seem to understand this. That is why fan-subs are never sold but traded or given away, it gives the orignal copyright owners one less reason to pursue fans who simply want to enjoy their hobby.

Dubs: Dubbed video productions. Dubs are the videos where the original actors' voices have been replaced with foreign actors' voices. Most dubs are commercial versions but there are some (very few) fan-dubs out there.