The end of fansubs?

[Zarxrax]

Oops, thats MFI, not MSI. I didn't mean to drag my motherboard manufacturer into this :p

[Solaria735]

I wholeheartedly agree with this. Having access to fansubs is what makes me interested in buying an anime, and as a college student, there's no way I can just plunk down $100+ for a title that sounds even remotely interesting. Although it's not *quite* the same concept, for me, fansubs are almost like watching a show on TV. If I like the show, I'll buy it, and since I have access to more anime, the chance that I'll buy something to support the companies increases. After all, the stuff shown on AS is really limited, and I usually prefer hearing the VAs in the original language (this goes for all foreign productions, not just anime).

[devilmaykickass]

I wholeheartedly agree with this. Having access to fansubs is what makes me interested in buying an anime, and as a college student, there's no way I can just plunk down $100+ for a title that sounds even remotely interesting. Although it's not *quite* the same concept, for me, fansubs are almost like watching a show on TV. If I like the show, I'll buy it, and since I have access to more anime, the chance that I'll buy something to support the companies increases. After all, the stuff shown on AS is really limited, and I usually prefer hearing the VAs in the original language (this goes for all foreign productions, not just anime).

Precisely.

I honestly think these same companies have come to realize the exsistance of AMVs and like them because they're a form of free advertising. I mean like every series released in the last 4 years has a clean open/close (well a good amount of them anyway)...I doubt that's just coincidence.

But yeah, I think fansubs should be used for sample/previewing purposes...however, there are too many people who could give a shit and just do it with no plans to ever spend any money on the DVDs.

[Kusoyaro]

People have been worrying about this for years. Every now and then there's a scare that gets everyone worked up. Several years ago, Prince's lawyer contacted Joe Croasdaile and asked him to remove a Prince AMV from his website, and people got scared. Then there was the big crackdown on Napster, and people got scared. And even through all of this, our little neck of the woods has remained more or less undisturbed. I personally don't think it's really anything to worry over.

[Alice [OLSP]]

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.

This is what I would have said, had I seen this thread earlier in the day. I have to agree, that most of my anime purchases were based on subs prior to release stateside. I say most, because I have Amazing Nurse Nanako as an exception. I made the mistake of listening to my friends on the internet, most of which are quote perverted - and they convinced me that it was a tame, though slightly risque and hilarious comedy.

Not so funny when you decide to make a family movie night of it.

Fansubs = helps the consumer = helps the original distributor.

[DTJB]

I don't think this situation is going to affect fan-subbing that much, even if something does happen because of it. The backbone of American anime fandom was pretty much laid down by the efforts of fans, long before companies like ADV and Streamline Pictures came around. Since then, most U.S. companies use fan-subs as a guide to see which shows would be successful in the U.S. market. I'll be one of the reasons Kodomo no Omocha got picked up was because of it's popularity in the fan-sub community.

One of the major benefits of fan-subs for otaku such as myself is that we get to watch anime that hasn't been (or may never get) licensed yet. If every fan-subber got shut down, our only other option is to become fluent in Japanese and watch everything raw. And not a lot of region 2 anime DVD's have English subtitles on them. Shows like D4 Princess, Rose of Versailles, Maria-sama ga Miteru and Sexy Commando: That's Incredible Masura-San still haven't been picked up yet, and there's no telling if they ever will.

Naruto is Jesus

Really? Then who's God? Who's Buddha?

[Corran]

All the more reason for me to start renting from an online video store such as Net Flix, Greencine, or Blockbuster.

[billy_wires]

Looks like Corran is the only one who isn't really freaking out about this. Sure, a series may cost hundreds of dollars, but why the hell would you buy the whole thing at once having never seen it? They sell the dvds singularly (occasionally VHS as well ), and, as Corran said, you can rent them for a small fee. It's not the end of the world, it's just a crackdown.

Even so, there are probably two reasons [MOD42: Website name removed.] is falling under attack:
1. They ([MOD42: Website name removed.]) are extremely popular (less likely). They catalog tons of sites that list even more series, and it becomes easy to get the fansubs. Also, because they broadcast what they do all over the site, search engines like google can pick up the site really quickly. The fanbase for anime is probably a whole lot bigger than any of us realize, and more than likely a lot less ethical.
2. The Japanese companies feel like they are losing money (more likely). These companies produce and release items that cost thousands of dollars to make, and expect to make thousands from licensing.

For exclusive distribution rights to the world outside Japan, ADV pays $1 million to $2.6 million for an anime series and $500,000 to $5 million for a feature film.

However, even though this site appears to be rather ethical and buys the series after viewing the fansubs (as do I: Hellsing, FLCL, Evangelion, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, and Full Metal Panic just to name a few), the fact of the matter is we make up a small minority of fans, and we make up a small minority of consumers. There are tons of people that keep the fansubs despite the request of the subbers themselves to drop it. There are tons of sites that list licensed series. The company probably feels it is losing money, or they probably wouldn't reach out to attack some free publicity.

That's just my two cents, I guess.

[Scintilla]

2. The Japanese companies feel like they are losing money (more likely). These companies produce and release items that cost thousands of dollars to make, and expect to make thousands from licensing.

For exclusive distribution rights to the world outside Japan, ADV pays $1 million to $2.6 million for an anime series and $500,000 to $5 million for a feature film.

I don't get that, though. As people have already pointed out, it's often the case that fansubs increase the demand for an R1 release of an anime... wouldn't that make the US companies more eager to get their hands on it, thereby (potentially) making the Japanese companies <i>more</i> money in licensing fees?
And they (the Japanese companies) aren't making money off direct sales to the non-Japanese-speaking audiences anyway... except <i>maybe</i> in the cases of Bandai and Pioneer (Geneon)...

[Corran]

Looks like Corran is the only one who isn't really freaking out about this.

I not freaking out but I won't lie that I'm concerned. I posted about this in my journal recently. Basically, slightly less than 50% of all the anime DVDs I own are series that I watched fansubbed at one point. The majority of anime I own was purchased from the reactions of others to the fansubs, so they also played an indirect role for me as well. I just wanted to remind people that there is an alternative in case the fansubbing situation gets worse since I didn't see anyone mention anything yet.