[Shin Densetsu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Star Sabre James

Very interesting read.

For me, the only time I get fansubbed anime is when it hasn't been released here, or won't be released here. Macross 7, Macross Zero, and Macross Frontier, are perfect examples of this. If it has been released here, I'll buy the DVD/Blu-Ray.

Also I remember the days when Project A-Ko came out. That's back when I was in college (dating myself here). The dubbing was HORRIBLE! The horrible dubbing of that, and other shows made me a subtitle person only. If it's dubbed, I won't watch it.

With Macross you have no choice, it's either buy the discs from Japan, which aren't subtitled, or watch a fansub. Are most people going to buy something which doesn't even have a translation into a language they understand? No and it's unreasonable for companies to expect them to. If they had subtitles I would import them.

The article mentions that the creators are struggling to make ends meet in Japan. This is true, but it is not due to online piracy. The anime and manga industries there are run by companies who will only give a series a chance IF it has potential to make a lot of profit, most of which does not come back to reinburse the creators, it goes to the parent corporation of the studios iirc. Iirc the average manga creator only makes the ¥ equivalent of $13,000 annually and that's if their successful. Even so they have to divy that up with their assistants.

So you have dedicated creators who want to make good series but are held back by corporate greenlight. You have folks who are passionate but may not make much financial gains back from their work. Online piracy is not the root cause. Most folks already know the best quality thus far is on blu ray discs. If you're a collector you're probably going to buy the disc. A lot of people stream or download as a "try before you buy" kind of thing. If they like it, they buy the physical disc(s).

Fansubbing gauges demand. Most of these companies won't acknowledge that this is true because it then makes them look hypocritical when they blame fansubbing for being detrimental to the anime industry. Yet how are they to gauge the potential popularity of the various series that might be popular in the US when brought over? The US and Japanese markets are very different. The popularity of fansubbed anime/manga can be a determining factor for potential success in the US. Without guaging demand via the popularity of fansubbed media, now it's a gamble.

The US companies are very behind too. Turn A Gundam? AWESOME, but what Bandai planned for a US release THIS year? Gundam rose in popularity here with Gundam Wing in 2000. For a few years, Gundam was a hot property then died down a lot during Seed. Turn A Gundam wrapped up before Gundam Wing was even brought stateside...

So Bandai completely missed the ball with Turn A and Gundam in general. The fansubbers had them beat on Turn A for over a DECADE, and yet how did Bandai know there was demand for Turn A in the states? Most likely due to fansubbers and the reception of the series when it was fansubbed.

Japan's creators struggle to make ends meet not due to fansubbing but due to the way the anime/manga/game industries in Japan are run. They aren't paid much to begin with and only have projects greenlighted if there is potential seen for substantial profit. Fansubbed anime has a wide reach, companies can use the popularity of it to guage demand, but if they're slow to act, what's the use?