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Chicks On Anime - Fansubs (Pt 1)

But no one can say for sure exactly when US companies decided to import anime, or whether or not it was fansubs that originally brought anime to the States. For all we know, it could have been legit R1 releases of crappy old OVAs that introduced it to the States.


Also Robotech and Voltron

In fact, *because* I review R1 anime, I realize that the R1 industry is the lifeblood of my job. Because I review anime, I am more pro-industry now than I was before I started reviewing. When people don't buy legit releases, it affects the lives of people I know. Friends have gotten laid off because of the health of the industry. It's not just about you.

amono: But that doesn't excuse wanting it NOW NOW NOW (that is, the fact that we don't get it the very second the Japanese do). Patience is a wonderful thing.


Let me relate a personal issue to y'all.


I hope it's evident that I'm an Eva fan at this point. Look at my username for God's sake. So do you know how excited I was when I found out my all-time favorite animated show was getting remade as four all-new movies? Quite. Of course, someone ripped the movie and decided to fansub it, now lots and lots of people have seen it because they couldn't wait.

I had hope, however, that someone would license it because Eva is still viable for the US market. In fact, I bet ADV would have loved to have had it, but I am confident that FUNi will do a good job with it.


I won't mince words when I say I was tempted, just this once, to break my policy. But I decided to let my moral judgment get the better of me. I will wait until November. I will buy it then. I will not allow my guilty conscience to weigh over me, though, because I didn't do anything wrong.

SakechanBD wrote:

In fact, *because* I review R1 anime, I realize that the R1 industry is the lifeblood of my job. Because I review anime, I am more pro-industry now than I was before I started reviewing. When people don't buy legit releases, it affects the lives of people I know. Friends have gotten laid off because of the health of the industry. It's not just about you.

Everyone takes chances in life. You and your friends have taken a chance and jumped on the anime hype train. Anime seemed like it would get big in the U.S., instead it's down to only a couple of licensees, retailers with decent selection, a rental service or two, and one single professional anime news site. Consider yourself lucky. Fansubs haven't killed your precious R1 industry, it's the industry that overestimated the hype, governed anime properties and its fans poorly, and then proceeded to kill itself.

The fansub debate has been raging for almost as long as digital fansubbing has been around.

The purpose is to get anime or foreign media in general, of interest into the light of the mainstream.

The issue I see currently is that the mainstream promotional faction is not meeting the needs or wants of the hardcore community.

My dream, in a nut shell, is joint production and release via broadcast stations.

configspace wrote:

Every business entity in this chain from producer to consumer looks to make as much profit for themselves as possible. And every layer comes with more political and monetary overhead of having more people to pay just to manage that portion of the chain (i.e. contracts, negotiations). The amount of money that ends with the actual creators is small by comparison I think the current license bidding, lump sum payment model should also be done away with or redesigned somehow.

I would love to simply be able to make donations to studios with a little note specifying what show evoked the donation. After all, supporting the creators is pretty much the only reason I buy DVDs, 95% of the time it offers no other advantages over fansub I consider worthwhile.

It's just a discussion. I just wanted to see what other people thought about fansubbing. Maybe shed light on the history of it. You can't understand other people's perspective if you don't read their opinion. We may not all agree, but the idea is to understand and be understood.

So you're insulting her profession and saying it's based entirely on empty hype.

Unit 03.5-ish wrote:

So if I steal a loaf of bread from the store, eat it, then later go back and promise them I'll pay them back the full price of said loaf, that makes it all right, doesn't it?

Again, stealing versus copyright infringement. The only way these would be relevant is if someone stole the actual DVD.

Unit 03.5-ish wrote:

Yet both are still illegal. That is not up for debate. But copyrights exist to protect a person's (or group of people's) original concepts. Otherwise, everyone would use the same idea and try to make it out to be their own original concept, which simply is not true. Fansubbers steal copyrighted work WITHOUT PERMISSION of the companies. They are infringing upon trademarked material that is not theirs to do as they please with.

The thing is that the American anime industry doesn't make money to the proveyors of the original content. Profits are dramatically more to the Licensors then the licensee which is asinine.