Comments on: Japan Plans Assault on Fansubbing

By: FAIL

FAIL — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:13:10 +0000

I agree there. While the large anime companies think they have a “illegal rival” to compete with in distribution, I see LOTS and LOTS of opportunities… First, anime gets distributed DIGITALLY through the FANSUBBERS (contract). They charge $1-2 per episode (seems fair, considering they don’t use DVD’s = less possible expense in distribution). The Subbers get a share of the profit, the companies get an advertisement “probabbly during the eyecatch/break” (no f-ing DRM, please). The anime itself gets distributed to many more people = more profit. And, everyone benefits. What I don’t get is why they (Japanese execs) haven’t thought of this earlier. And, from what I can see so far, FANSUBBING WILL NEVER DIE (for the forseeable future, anyways)

By: Tyrenol

Tyrenol — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 22:40:09 +0000

Last I heard, from places like ANN and ICv2; Japan’s anime industry makes anywhere between 22% to 66% in licensing fees for releases outside of Japan (and Asia).

And so far, everything is pretty much “hand-me-downs” with no nod towards the non-Japanese anime fandom outside the otaku fanbase. Sure we have works like Batman, Afro Samurai, and Ghost N Da Shell. But that’s about it.

I can understand “the shows must be left unedited.” Lest a company becomes hated like 4Kids. But the Japanese anime industry still has this stigma against “being different” and catering to people who hadn’t been spoken for. Everyone’s been stepping all over GONZO despite striking gold with Strike Witches.

I can still sense a lot of xenophobia, “anti-achiever disdain,” and flat-out refusal to “get from behind the walls.” And it’s been shown via Bandai Visual USA and their failed attempt to Japanize outer-Asia animu distribution. ($50 for single-audio-language 2-episode DVDs and Blu-Rays. Fabulous!)

So as long as the anime industry’s xenophobia exists; fansubs are not going away anytime soon.

By: Frostea

Frostea — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:01:49 +0000

Whether they like it or not, fansubbing and scanlating will not die off until 100% of the fans have access to their daily/weekly/monthly dosage of anime/manga/visual novels/light novels at a speed equivalent or better than the internet. All I can offer is, ‘QQ moar?’

By: green

green — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:30:29 +0000

Yeah…You have to wonder how they had the initiative to make a campaign like this. This couldn’t possibly hurt dvd sales as much as the anime/otaku industry is profiting. Especially when the market is steadily growing, and I can only imagine how much influence the western has where otaku culture can be called a hobby. The only reason fansubs or scanlations exist is because the material isn’t available as it is in Japan. Clearly this was made on a whim, with no knowledge of anything outside of the coziness of Japan.

By: Artefact

Artefact — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:33:51 +0000

I certainly agree that they are overlooking a potentially huge market opportunity, they still seem fixed in the old territorial paradigm of content delivery, when they could be allowing fans to produce localisations on top of their own streams, rather than using regional companies; the whole thing could then be distributed through the efforts of the anime loving community (eg. blogs and forums, etc).
I also feel the same way with respect to manga - I’d really rather read it digitally on a 27 inch monitor than squint at a tiny little book, but so far they can’t see past festooning any such effort with so much DRM that it cannot compete with unauthorised downloads.
But looking at what happened to the music industry, it may be that these kind of uncertain plans are too much for such unwieldy enterprises to take.

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:49:29 +0000

The whole situation is stupid. The solution is staring these idiots right in the face. You can’t beat them, so join them..

Get in touch with fansubbing groups and get them under contract. Offer them a very small slice of the profit pie if they place an advertisement in the middle of the video. Then stream it for free at a decent resolution. Offer it for a buck if they want high resolution. Heck, I’d pay that.

The only complicated part is how to handle distribution and advertising using Bit Torrent. Maybe the answer there is to only offer videos in a particular format like RealPlayer (yes I hate real player too but thats a format that can supporting advertising)

Right now, the Fan subbing community pretty much handles all advertising for new shows for free. So there goes your savings from a marketing prospective. Using bit torrent and streaming drastically cuts your distribution costs. Relying on Fan Subbing instead of licensing through US or other international distributors GREATLY increases your margins. All you need to do is sell advertising in multiple countries. Heck, they could also market figures and other toys more thoroughly.

There are so many ways to make coin off the fan subbing community it is stupidly simple. The problem is that these Japanese execs have their blinders on and can’t see outside their narrow view. There is a ton of money sitting on the table but they are focused on the pennies on the floor…

By: C.I.

C.I. — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:33:07 +0000

This feels so Napster.

By: Artefact

Artefact — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:07:20 +0000

Japanese anime companies do seem to appreciate the value of fan culture, it’s a more question of whether they choose to apply that overseas, and whether they appreciate the publicity effect… as you say, the American publishers are a fairly incompetent bunch.

By: Panther

Panther — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:03:19 +0000

Failage is evident. I doubt they can pull through with something consistent except against Chinese pirated stuff. For online stuff it is going to be difficult for them, but it may be because of the recent file sharing virus cases that were caught that may have finally shaken them.

By: kuromitsu

kuromitsu — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 07:30:55 +0000

“can we expect a tacit acknowledgement of the enormously positive influence fansubs and other unauthorised distribution has on anime’s popularity, and so only very limited action against it as has been the case in the past?” - Maybe when Hell freezes over… I think the limited actions in the past were due to the fact that the Japanese didn’t quite understand the whole phenomenon of fansubs, and had no tactics to follow. I really doubt they understand, let alone acknowledge that fansubs may have a positive influence, especially now that the industry is in a pinch in the US and everyone and their dog is blaming fansubs. (Clinging to outdated business models, both in Japan and in the US, is of course never the cause.)