It sure is. First fan sub I saw was a very poor quality sub of the original "gatchaman" not the corny battle of the planets/g-force, but the real gatchaman. Must have been about 80/81, by a fan sub group from college station texas, later known as corn-pone shorts productions. No kidding. Also saw fan subs of the original pre-robotech macross sent over from friends in the air force stationed in okinawa, fan subed using milatary recording equipment in their off time. Fan subs have been around since vhs became popular and easy to edit, starting in the late 70's. Lots of fan subs were produced by one man sub/editing outfits that had no name. US Manga corps started out as a fan sub group in the 80's, and manga and adv films got their start importing fan subs and unofficial translations. I still have a few of adv's "white box" releases of miyazaki films and other semi-bootleg productions. Of course they wont admit to it now, but if you do a little googling on the subject you might surprised what you find.