The Process Forum - View Single Post - The Great Anime Fansubbing Scare of '07 (Or not)

Snowglare · 11-30-2007

My problems with anime:

1. Most of it is crap. This is not a criticism of the medium. Most of everything is crap. Games and most Western movies/cartoons have rental stores. Books, and to a lesser extent comics, have libraries. Try finding a free or inexpensive way to check out an anime series you know nothing about. If it's licensed, maybe. If not, you're SOL without fansubs. There's a smattering of anime available at my local libraries, less at any video store I've checked recently, and then the stuff that airs on CN, G4, IFC or another channel. The latter is dubbed into English, often using the same voice actors as every other dubbed anime, some of whom should only have the word "actor" used in reference to them in the loosest way. Not to mention all the editing, because wussy American audiences can't stand the sight of cartoon blood.

2. Bad endings. I've watched more than a few series the whole way through, liking, even loving them until suddenly, the writer gets stuck in a corner and pulls an ending out of his ass. If it were only bad... But no, it's so shitty it completely undermines the entire series, making me lose all interest in watching any episode ever again. Why I should buy five volumes of a series, only to find out with the sixth that I wasted all that time and money? If a movie sucks, you probably spent $20 or less, and you only blew two hours. American TV series can generally be had for $40 or less per season, and that's for stuff you've had a chance to watch legally if you pay for cable.

If there were some way to pay to get Japanese TV imported so that I could watch it for the same price natives pay, well, I wouldn't understand it. It would need to be subtitled, perhaps by a group of... let's call them "fans," in a timely manner. If anime distributors want to curb fansubbing, they might try offering some sort of cheap per-episode DL, so there's a legitimate alternative other than-

3. Licensed anime comes out at a snail's pace and is prohibitively expensive. $30 for a disc with four episodes on it is no bargain. Even with most series being 12-26 episodes, I'd generally have to spend $100+ to get the whole thing, or wait for every disc to come out, then wait a while longer for a cheaper series boxset to come out. Then wait until someone drops the price on that so it's actually reasonable. And that still leaves the problem of whether the damn thing's worth watching once, let alone multiple times.

If fansubbing were shut down (never happen), or I were given sufficient cause to worry about DLing subs, I would buy less anime. I bought none before, having no way of knowing what was good. Now I own some and plan to buy more, though I am of course incapable of buying anything that isn't licensed. Unless ODEX wants me to start purchasing bootleg DVD's. That would cut out the whole DLing business (yay, safety!) and I wouldn't be getting it for free (yay, profit!). Problem solved, eh?

11-30-2007	#3
Snowglare Process Master Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 886	My problems with anime: 1. Most of it is crap. This is not a criticism of the medium. Most of everything is crap. Games and most Western movies/cartoons have rental stores. Books, and to a lesser extent comics, have libraries. Try finding a free or inexpensive way to check out an anime series you know nothing about. If it's licensed, maybe. If not, you're SOL without fansubs. There's a smattering of anime available at my local libraries, less at any video store I've checked recently, and then the stuff that airs on CN, G4, IFC or another channel. The latter is dubbed into English, often using the same voice actors as every other dubbed anime, some of whom should only have the word "actor" used in reference to them in the loosest way. Not to mention all the editing, because wussy American audiences can't stand the sight of cartoon blood. 2. Bad endings. I've watched more than a few series the whole way through, liking, even loving them until suddenly, the writer gets stuck in a corner and pulls an ending out of his ass. If it were only bad... But no, it's so shitty it completely undermines the entire series, making me lose all interest in watching any episode ever again. Why I should buy five volumes of a series, only to find out with the sixth that I wasted all that time and money? If a movie sucks, you probably spent $20 or less, and you only blew two hours. American TV series can generally be had for $40 or less per season, and that's for stuff you've had a chance to watch legally if you pay for cable. If there were some way to pay to get Japanese TV imported so that I could watch it for the same price natives pay, well, I wouldn't understand it. It would need to be subtitled, perhaps by a group of... let's call them "fans," in a timely manner. If anime distributors want to curb fansubbing, they might try offering some sort of cheap per-episode DL, so there's a legitimate alternative other than- 3. Licensed anime comes out at a snail's pace and is prohibitively expensive. $30 for a disc with four episodes on it is no bargain. Even with most series being 12-26 episodes, I'd generally have to spend $100+ to get the whole thing, or wait for every disc to come out, then wait a while longer for a cheaper series boxset to come out. Then wait until someone drops the price on that so it's actually reasonable. And that still leaves the problem of whether the damn thing's worth watching once, let alone multiple times. If fansubbing were shut down (never happen), or I were given sufficient cause to worry about DLing subs, I would buy less anime. I bought none before, having no way of knowing what was good. Now I own some and plan to buy more, though I am of course incapable of buying anything that isn't licensed. Unless ODEX wants me to start purchasing bootleg DVD's. That would cut out the whole DLing business (yay, safety!) and I wouldn't be getting it for free (yay, profit!). Problem solved, eh?