self-sufficient(?)

[Mastashake]

With the level of quality that fansubs (anime) and fanscans (manga) have made over the past couple years, I came up with this topic of discussion. Do you think that the fanbase outside of Japan, could become self-sufficient (not requiring companies like Viz/ADV/Bandai) it the need arose?

[AbsoluteDestiny]

fansubs were started to supply anime when thre was no commercial releases. In a way, that was being self-sufficient although there was always the hope of commerical releases to widen the fanbase and make fansubs unnecessary.

Fansubs presently are something of a double-edged sword, very different from when they were first produced.