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What have fansubs done for you?


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Kouga13



Joined: 20 Mar 2004
Posts: 113
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 4:29 am Reply with quote
Major Edit:This ISN'T about the validity of fansubs!

Lets say that fansubs magically disappeared for this plane of existence what would happen? Would DVD sales boom; companies go bankrupt; conventions grow/shrink? Would a large chunk of the fandom suddenly disappear?

The point of all these questions are 'What kind of people actually watch fansubs?' So I'd like people who watch fansubs to post a little about themselves.

I personally watch a fair number of fansubs [watching around 5 ongoing series]. I've bought a fair number of dvds [around a dozen boxsets] gone to several conventions [bought various types of merchandise; mostly wall scrolls]. It's important to note that I've watched much more fansubs then I have bought dvds but at the same time I've bought the best I've seen and what my budget allows.

I was technically introduced to anime via Dragonball on TV in elementary school but my interest was caught in highschool via fansubs. Now was this all due to fansubs? I can't say for sure and I will refrain from going into 'what if' scenarios but I feel that I would not be apart of this community if it weren't for fansubs.

EDIT: spoiler[For clarification: Since fansubs are free it was exposed to me at an impressionable time effectively seeding me for the future when I acquired income. Devious.]

What about you?

Spelling it out: Post your personal experiences with fansubs and how they've influenced you first-hand; stop regurgitating the same old arguments; this isn't a debate, it's a discussion.


Last edited by Kouga13 on Sun Jan 04, 2009 5:45 am; edited 3 times in total
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Unit 03.5-ish



Joined: 07 Dec 2008
Posts: 1540
Location: This space for rent
PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 4:45 am Reply with quote
I feel I should warn you...



...this could get ugly, nasty, mud-slingy, bitchy, angsty, and generally unappealing fast, so before that happens, I'll throw in my two cents.

I generally dislike fansubs, and though I strongly disapprove, I remain as neutral as I can so as not to offend the people here who do watch them (which is a significant portion of the board members). If they were to somehow disappear (if something impossible happened like the Internet imploding or Skynet deciding fansubs were not vital to its -- oops), I think we'd see a lot of pissy fans because so many people demand freshly-airing anime in Japan two minutes ago. They'd either boycott anime purchases that, you know, GIVE BACK to the studios and creators, or in spite, re-seed and re-distribute the fansubs they do have.

Because a lot of freeloaders despise the US licensing companies, they'd probably do this in order to give them the middle finger, without realizing, of course, they're taking profits from the Japanese corporations. Things would get ugly, and as bad a state as things are in now, they'd decline FURTHER, I think. I don't know if the people who do still buy genuine DVDs would be enough to support things...

I know your question was addressed to fansub watchers, but I do feel that as someone who does not watch them on principle, I should still be allowed to voice my opinion, and I'm sorry if that isn't to your liking.
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 4:46 am Reply with quote
No one can say for sure, but I can pretty much assess from most of my friends that their DVD purchases have been based around what they've seen already via fansubs, and not based on reviews, hype, trailers, etc.

I think they're a necessary evil, but even if they did disappear, then the hardcore non-buy crowd would just download more DVDrips instead, so the piracy issue isn't going to change.

I think I'm an odd one, but because my buying pattern tends to be erratic. I blind buy things a lot simply because their price is low. I'm talking deep discount low prices, like probably barely giving any kind of profit, but still all completely legitimate, like Rightstuf's bargain bin. I only usually buy more expensive things when they're definitely shows I know I can watch multiple times. This might go along with the attitude of "I've already seen it, I don't want to buy it", but I think in the over-saturated world of anime, this is a harsh reality.

The reason I like fansubs is because they give you the ability to already know what the show is like before you go spending money on it. When you buy DVDs, you're not just buying a movie, which is one thing and done with, you're buying a much more expensive item. No one would just buy the OC or 24 boxsets or what have you just based on reviews or other such things, they buy them because they want to re-watch. It's also seems like the best way to raise awareness/hype for a show, good examples being stuff like Haruhi, Lucky Star, Wolf and Spice, and let's say, Shugo Chara. I doubt just saying shows like these are good and only putting up reviews online would make as much of an impact versus thousands of people spamming sites online with talk about it. Or when a show is wrongfully hyped, and it turns out to be a disappointment, I'm sure you can think of examples, but I'll just say there's been quite a few. -- Anyway, the point is that the Japanese, save for things released to DVD first, don't have to spend DVD prices to see television shows for the first time, while we're expected to. So they can be more cautious in their purchases because they already know full well what they're getting.
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Kouga13



Joined: 20 Mar 2004
Posts: 113
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 4:59 am Reply with quote
Unit 03.5-ish wrote:

Because a lot of freeloaders despise the US licensing companies, they'd probably do this in order to give them the middle finger, without realizing, of course, they're taking profits from the Japanese corporations.


First off thanks for your input.

Second off this ISN'T about the validity of fansubs it's more of a 'Hey guys I'm what you think of as the scum of the fandom but hey maybe am not so bad' so if we could curb this early that'd be great.
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Mushi-Man



Joined: 17 Nov 2008
Posts: 1537
Location: KCMO
PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 5:03 am Reply with quote
I agree with walw6pK4Alo (crazy name to copy down by the way), about fansubs being a "necessary evil". I think that Fansubs are helping the industry, in the long run. This system introduces new anime to viewers and gets them to often buy the DVDs. Although there are some who just watch fansubs with no intention of buying the dvd, i think that this is a smaller percent of the cases. We can't persecute fansubers with out stopping to think about their intentions. I think that if fansubs went away, it would have a long run negative impact on the industry. But that’s just what I think.
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Unit 03.5-ish



Joined: 07 Dec 2008
Posts: 1540
Location: This space for rent
PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 5:07 am Reply with quote
Kouga13 wrote:
Unit 03.5-ish wrote:

Because a lot of freeloaders despise the US licensing companies, they'd probably do this in order to give them the middle finger, without realizing, of course, they're taking profits from the Japanese corporations.


First off thanks for your input.

Second off this ISN'T about the validity of fansubs it's more of a 'Hey guys I'm what you think of as the scum of the fandom but hey maybe am not so bad' so if we could curb this early that'd be great.


I wasn't point at you specifically, apologies. I meant the freeloaders in general.
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Kouga13



Joined: 20 Mar 2004
Posts: 113
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 5:12 am Reply with quote
Unit 03.5-ish wrote:
Kouga13 wrote:
Unit 03.5-ish wrote:

Because a lot of freeloaders despise the US licensing companies, they'd probably do this in order to give them the middle finger, without realizing, of course, they're taking profits from the Japanese corporations.


First off thanks for your input.

Second off this ISN'T about the validity of fansubs it's more of a 'Hey guys I'm what you think of as the scum of the fandom but hey maybe am not so bad' so if we could curb this early that'd be great.


I wasn't point at you specifically, apologies. I meant the freeloaders in general.

No worries: Trying to keep this civil and to bring a different perspective on things.
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Some Guy



Joined: 31 Aug 2008
Posts: 135
PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 5:35 am Reply with quote
The OP seems to think what I had here was unimportant, but for anyone who gives a toss I basically drew a connection between fansubs and music piracy. The parallels are quite interesting, but the arent here anymore because they were deemed OT and thus I removed the post.

Last edited by Some Guy on Sun Jan 04, 2009 5:59 am; edited 3 times in total
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Kouga13



Joined: 20 Mar 2004
Posts: 113
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 5:41 am Reply with quote
Some Guy wrote:
stuff


This is NOT the topic of discussion if we could stop the hijacking of this thread that'd be peachy.
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Some Guy



Joined: 31 Aug 2008
Posts: 135
PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 5:52 am Reply with quote
Yeah, sorry, I guess I didn't get that when I read your OP. But the arguments I put forth are intrinsically tied to any discussions regarding fansubs, dvd rips or whatever espcially considering fansubs are basically future DVD rips, so they cant be ignored. I removed them to make you happy. I'll put it back if anyone cares.

IDK, I am a student, so I'd probably just go to my schools anime club and trade DVD's with them, which is basically the same thing as watching fansubs in terms of how it effects the studios and distributors. I really dont car about watching stuff right away, so the gotta have it now aspect of fansubs makes no difference. If it weent for them I probably wouldnt be as interest in anime.

I really dont see what you expect to gain out of this thread other then a bunch of posts like the above paragraph.


Last edited by Some Guy on Sun Jan 04, 2009 6:07 am; edited 3 times in total
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Mushi-Man



Joined: 17 Nov 2008
Posts: 1537
Location: KCMO
PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 5:55 am Reply with quote
Kouga13 wrote:
Some Guy wrote:
stuff


This is NOT the topic of discussion if we could stop the hijacking of this thread that'd be peachy.


Some Guy is just drawing parallels between the illegal music down load controversy and the Fansubs. This is actually quite on topic. And I have to say that Some Guy’s evaluation is quite extensive, bravo!
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Kouga13



Joined: 20 Mar 2004
Posts: 113
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 6:03 am Reply with quote
Kouga13 wrote:
Major Edit:This ISN'T about the validity of fansubs!
....
Spelling it out: Post your personal experiences with fansubs and how they've influenced you first-hand; stop regurgitating the same old arguments; this isn't a debate, it's a discussion.


Quote:
controversy and the Fansubs

And this thread is not about that. Be back in several hours hopefully it'll be on-topic by then; if not hopefully it'll be locked.
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DuelLadyS



Joined: 17 Mar 2006
Posts: 1705
Location: WA state
PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 8:28 am Reply with quote
If fansubs 'never existed', there would only be three notable differences for me:

1) I wouldn't have pre-ordered the Zetsubo Sensei manga.

2) I probably wouldn't have pre-ordered Hare+Guu.

3) My BF might not know about his favorite series, Hunter X Hunter.

That doesn't mean I wouldn't have found and bought Zetsubo Sensei and Hare+Guu on the shelf- actually, there's a good chance the chest hair wig would have been a tip-off that Hare+Guu was just the kind of crazy anime I like. In all likelyhood the BF would have made the author connection with Yu Yu Hakusho and gotten into Hunter X Hunter anyway. That's all I'm aware of, really.

It's far too hard to think of what effect fansubs have had in total on the industry- we can guess no one would have thought of selling this stuff to us if the earliest of early adopters weren't passing around 12th generation videos of things... but we're really not in a postion now to have a good 'view' of the effects of digital fansubs. Only hindsight is 20/20.

I just know that, somehow or other, in my 10 years of fandom I've managed to all but avoid fansubs althogether. If nothing else, I can safely say you can become a raging otaku without them. Laughing
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orochimaruSanin



Joined: 05 Dec 2008
Posts: 35
PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 8:50 am Reply with quote
If fansubs never existed, I wouldn't have got introduced to anime. That's kinda nasty, at least for me. Smile

Plus watching an anime as it is being aired is pretty nifty IMO.

-san


Last edited by orochimaruSanin on Sun Jan 04, 2009 9:53 am; edited 1 time in total
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Kimiko_0



Joined: 31 Aug 2008
Posts: 1796
Location: Leiden, NL, EU
PostPosted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 9:05 am Reply with quote
I only buy anime that I've already seen fansubbed. I like to know if something is worth my money before I spend it. This is the same thing I've been doing with music for ages: download and listen first, then if I like it I buy it. Of course, with music I have found a small number of artists I trust to buy CDs without having heard them first, but with anime that's not really possible.

If fansubs would magically disappear, I'd have to learn Japanese to watch anime. I've started on that, but am a long way from being able to understand anime unsubbed.
Alternatively, if downloading anime off the net would become impossible, it would seriously curb my enjoying and buying of anime. Trailers just aren't enough to judge an anime on, and I don't want to have to buy the first DVD of an anime only to discover that I don't want the rest of it.
Streaming/legal download sites are not an alternative for me either because I'm in Europe. The same goes for TV broadcasts of course.
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