Forum - View topicGainax controversial stance on the industry and fansubs.
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7ThIsGod
Posts: 80 |
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In the recent German Connichi, Gainax president Hiroyuki Yamaga declared that he really can't blame fansubbing or the internet, because Japanese animation wouldn't be as successful as it is now without those. Additionally he compared fansubs to watching the stuff for free on TV, he said that most people who like the series will buy the DVDs. "We'll produce works worth buying so we're not worrying about running out of business because of pirates." Inferred in his confident words it was that only those insecure about their own worth or with mediocre shows should be complaining about it.
http://community.livejournal.com/gurren_lagann/341612.html |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8468 Location: Penguinopolis |
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I'm sure a lot of people who refuse to support the industry will take this as a green light from the industry to never buy the product, but keep in mind that last part about people who like the show will buy the DVDs. |
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Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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Either there are a damn lot of people who don't like any of the anime they see via fansubs or something is missing from the equation.
Although he might be right. When I read fansub watchers comments they often tend to be like this: "well, I hated the last 50 shows I watched fansubed but then I watched Generic Shonen ADVENTURE and loved it! I've just bought the bootleg boxset!" So perhaps he's just missing the issue that there are so many bootleg DVDs to buy. I don't know, it just seems like a rather rose-colored view to me. |
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v1cious
 Posts: 6210 Location: Houston, TX |
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Gainax rose out of the Otaku culture, so it's not a surprise that they take this stance. say whatever you want about them, but they have always respected their base. apparently the model's working, otherwise they wouldn't be selling boatloads of merchandise.
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Ggultra2764
 Subscriber Posts: 3913 Location: New York state. |
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It's a well known fact that American anime licensors watch the fansub community to see what unlicensed titles are getting the most amount of discussion and determine what ones will get the most people to buy them if licensed. You need to know what anime titles are a hit for fans and which ones are the duds or not so popular. Without fansubs, the distributors would have no easy way of knowing what fans want to see come to the states and licensing random titles would make things rather messy with anime's popularity if things are hit and miss. So, I have to agree with the statement made by Gainax's president.
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DerekTheRed
 Posts: 3544 Location: ::Points to hand:: |
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The missing factor is age. Too much of the fandom (in American anyway) is too young and immature to handle fansubs. Hell, in just under a decade I've gone from "YARGH! WHERE BE ME FREE TV?!?!" to a much more moderate stance. Now, at 22, I've guilted myself into buying everything that I've downloaded that is worth a second watch. I agree that fansubs are a useful to consumers, they just recently saved me the money I would have spent on Texhnolyze, which I've decided is not for me. But on the whole I've bought about half of what I've downloaded. (My remaining sins are Trigun, FLCL, GITS, GITS: SAC, and TTGL, but that'll come off as soon as they release the dubbed DVDs) |
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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I would never guilt myself like that, because I just find that a lot of shows aren't worth a second watch. Gainax specifically makes shows, however, that are. So the statement completely fits.
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DerekTheRed
Posts: 3544 Location: ::Points to hand:: |
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cool3865
 Posts: 770 Location: Austin, TX |
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im going to side with the president, without fansubs alot of people wouldnt have known about some anime series. it was happening back in the VHS days (just not as big cause the internet was so small). but i remember watching them and liking them, when they came out to america i went out and bought them.
its a shame though that the anime kids are literally kids, they don't care about supporting the companies. all they care about is that they are the first i their group to watch the newest anime and then cosplay it thinking that they are better than everyone else. |
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gasteropod
 Posts: 16 Location: England |
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I hate it when the official product is inferior quality to a fansub. Take Stand Alone Complex series 1 for instance, the Manga UK release has loads of problems with it, from out of synch subtitles to very poor encoding, so I had to import the pricey Australian release instead. I know other people would have simply downloaded it for free, though, so distributors should start releasing quality products which are worth spending money on.
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walw6pK4Alo
Posts: 9322 |
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My thing is that fansubs let me know what shows are crap ahead of time, before licensing comes into play. |
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BellosTheMighty
 Posts: 767 |
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It may depend on which side of the Pacific you're on. This is just what I've heard, but I understand that in Japan these things are status symbols. Having the full set of DVDs, all the tie-ins, the most cheap and expensive crap merchandise, is what makes you the biggest and best fanboy. In other words, the show is free with your TV. The status, you have to pay for. In america, however, it's exactly the opposite- the greatest fan is the one who spurns the legitimate sales and rags on the producers the most. Part of the problem is that fansubs, back in the 80's and 90's, gave you two important edges in the quest for status: one, dubs were typically targeted towards kids in those days so you could get, for example, the "authentic" version of DBZ with the original episodes-long padding. And the cursing. AnimeLabs really brought home the fact that characters in DBZ have filthy mouths. ( ~_^ ) Two- and this is a major problem even today, especially for Viz- you could see the entire series, rather than waiting for the dub to catch up. That may seem trivial, but when you're hanging out on the boards and all your friends are talking about the storyline, it really kills the sense of community when you have to sit over in a corner and pretend not to hear the spoilers. You can counteract this by deciding not to give a flying fart about spoilers- I mean, with most series you can probably rattle off the entire plot after seeing three episodes and the OP, or something- but that doesn't seem to be a popular move for some reason. Personally, I think both the American AND Japanese versions are complete idiocy, because they're built on the premise that being more devoted to a TV show somehow makes you better than everyone else. Like Strong Bad famously said: "I suppose you think you're cooler than everyone else here. Well guess what? YOU'RE ALSO HERE!" Anyway, the long and the short of it is that Mr. Yagama's views do make sense in the context of the Japanese market, it's just that the American- and presumably international- markets are stupid in a completely different way. |
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penguintruth
Posts: 8468 Location: Penguinopolis |
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The problem is that a portion of the fandom incorrectly views that as the rule, rather than the exception. Most of the time, the official product is far, far superior to the fansubs. |
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Kimiko_0
 Posts: 1796 Location: Leiden, NL, EU |
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Uhm.. dumb question.. Why don't the anime companies (creators, distrubutors, whatever) just hire the fansubbers? I mean, they're doing the work for free now, so getting paid even a little would be quite welcome I imagine. And the companies would profit too because they get quality translations in mere weeks instead of ages.
Is that really so? Some of the fansubs I've watched included not only clarifications of cultural details, but translations of even minor background text, fitted into the animation itself. I find it hard to imagine a for-profit company putting that kind of love into their work unless they could get an exorbitant price for the result. [EDIT: Use the Edit button instead of double posting. It helps cut back on post traffic. -TK] |
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walw6pK4Alo
Posts: 9322 |
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Well, except now that's completely going the opposite way again. Tons of shows are airing in 720p, which will still always look cleaner than sharper than any 480i DVD. I suppose that'll change with Blu-Ray, but that's a hell of a long way off, and completely not worth it right now unless you're buying anime movies or short OVAs. Also, even for regular 480i fansubs, h.264 allows for a very clean encode, unlike xvids, so no more artifacts. |
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