The end of fansubs?

[valentine]

bum wrote:
With amv's its totally different. Its fan art, not copies of whole eppisodes.


Yea, but soon that may well be our only 'ethical defense'.

Otohiko, you have hit the nail on the head.

[bum]

How stupid can they be? Do they not realize how good of advertising they are getting for free in fansubs? Yeah, okay, some people download it for free and never buy it. But a lot more than that download, realize that it's awesome, then but the DVD's. For Media Factory to do this is incredibly short sighted and stupid. I predict that without fansubs being distributed, interest in and therefore sales of their work's will plummet in the US.

One can only wish that was true. The sad fact is, its probably very rare to find someone who watches fansubs and then buys the local dvd release because the anime was good.

[Alucard_FoN]

I don't think so. The vast majority of the anime fans I talk to buy shows that they liked when they watched the fansubs.

[Otohiko]

I don't buy all I watch on fansubs, and sometimes I can't even afford some things I really liked from subs, but it would be very safe to say that I would've missed out on some definite 'buys' without them. Of my top 5 favorite anime, I saw 3 on fansubs first...

And hell, I'm even thinking of importing one that's unlikely to get licensed soon

[bobbarker31]

It happens though. I saw all of Wolf's Rain subtitled before it ever appeared on Cartoon Network and video stores. I have bought every episode so far and plan to do so until I have all of them. Subbing does have a place and I hope the corporate suits do realize that it helps them more than hurts them. Anime has only in recent years emerged out of the cult status that it once occupied here in America. It would not take a lot to put it back into the cult status. The high prices of anime DVDs ($10 to $20 higher than regular DVDs) is already keeping the fan base from spreading farther.

Don't get me wrong, my money is my vote. I buy the legal title of what I may have seen subbed earlier. I don't just consider it the right thing to do, but what you need to do to have the studios you like develope the right titles.

[Anlushac11]

Fansubs are entirely the reason I bought Mahoromatic, Evengelion, Narue No Sekai, R.O.D, R.O.D.TV, and Galaxy Angels. Its also the only reason I will buy the entire Happy Lesson and Happy Lesson Advance series.

Fansubs are the only reason I have been able to watch Mamotte Shugogetten.

I am not comfortable buying any series that I have not seen a episode or two of.

What I see happening is fansubs will be outlawed and hunted down and we will have to pay $80-$100 to get a sampler DVD with parts of different series.

Its hard to judge a series from a 30-60 sec promo.

[bum]

Anime review sites are a good place to go. And newtype offers dvd's with the first eppisode of varios new release anime doesnt it? PC Powerplay (aussie pc game mag) comes with a full anime eppisode on the demo dvd every month.

[Coffee 54]

I'm an arguement for both sides in this case. Fansubs are the reason I bought my collection of DBZ movies. I saw them, liked them, picked up the high quality DVDs. On the other hand, the only reason I shelled out the cash for Creast of the Stars was the fact that I couldn't find a decent fansub sourse, though I probably would have still bought it afterwards.

[Scintilla]

I wish to add my voice to the bunch and say that fansubs are the reason I bought Azumanga Daioh, Kare Kano, and FLCL.

Even though I know it doesn't really have to do with the main issue here.

[someperson]

Watching Fansubs is what made me buy Last Exile.

Silly anime producers. But then there are always jerks who just download the fansubs and have no intention of actually buying the product.
Captain Obvious: Hence why anime producers dislike having their anime uploaded onto the interenet.