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Hey, Answerman! - Futile Devices

That's not to say there aren't any CG animation studios in Japan. There are lots, actually. Most of which don't do TV series or films, which is why they aren't necessarily talked about or well-known.

I wouldn't mind a rescue/dvd release of-

-Dragon Warrior- the Dragon Quest anime from the 90's.... no idea how much was dubbed, but it'd be nice to see.

i hear this all the time; it gets parroted like it's gospel truth or something.

this is, with all due respect, a completely unjustified, unsubstantiated assumption. where's the data? where's the proof that anyone who downloads fansubs or simulcast rips will never, NEVER pay for something, or even watch it legally?

people said this about mp3s, that we were raising a whole new generation of consumers who would find it baffling to pay for music. now we have iTunes and Napster subscriptions, Pandora radio, et cetera. music piracy still exists and it's still a problem, sure, but those services exist and they are profitable.

on the flipside, where's the data that supports the idea that piracy is okay because "most of the people who download stuff probably wouldn't buy it anyway"? i'm not saying that's probably not the case, i'm just saying that it is IMPOSSIBLE TO PROVE.

the sooner we throw out these arguments that have no factual distinction, the closer we can get to actually sorting through this sordid mess that is piracy.

LordByronius wrote:

i hear this all the time; it gets parroted like it's gospel truth or something. this is, with all due respect, a completely unjustified, unsubstantiated assumption. where's the data? where's the proof that anyone who downloads fansubs or simulcast rips will never, NEVER pay for something, or even watch it legally? people said this about mp3s, that we were raising a whole new generation of consumers who would find it baffling to pay for music. now we have iTunes and Napster subscriptions, Pandora radio, et cetera. music piracy still exists and it's still a problem, sure, but those services exist and they are profitable. on the flipside, where's the data that supports the idea that piracy is okay because "most of the people who download stuff probably wouldn't buy it anyway"? i'm not saying that's probably not the case, i'm just saying that it is IMPOSSIBLE TO PROVE. the sooner we throw out these arguments that have no factual distinction, the closer we can get to actually sorting through this sordid mess that is piracy.

I have to strongly disagree. I don't think that there are no converts left to be won. I simply take a serious look at the One Piece situation, and this is what I see. I see a deal that, quite frankly, doesn't get better than this outside of even better video quality. Most episodes of this series that are available on DVD get put online. They are showing new episodes within an hour of the Japanese broadcast! This is free to any American with an internet connection.

And yet people steal it. You're asking me where the data is, to prove the unprovable? You should be asking what more could possibly be done by FUNimation and Toei to entice these people to give actual support to an anime, let alone an anime that is well-loved and has given a whole lot of people countless hours of entertainment.

It's usually at this point that someone would point out U.S. exclusivity. But furthermore, in response to another one of your points I would submit that Crunchyroll is basically analogous to Napster in this situation. You know what they offer, it was described thoroughly in the column. They simulcast a lot of anime, episodes are free a week after broadcast and the simulcast is available for a free. They usually manage 720p, HD video for new programming. They often either manage worldwide streaming outside Japan or streaming to a whole lot of countries.

And yet there are people who rip their video and put it on a torrent for others to download, and there are others perfectly willing to download it. Since the column cites "tons of legal options, many of which are either free or cost a pittance", I presume you won't refut that and and claim that this is because Crunchyroll isn't offering a sufficient service. If so, well, we are left only with the assertion I've made. Crunchyroll stealers alone should be enough to convince you that I did not make a "completely unjustified" claim.

With every passing season, to me we get just a bit closer to the future that Justin Sevakis once advocated for in 2007; we have been since Crunchyroll went legit in 2009. Dozens upon dozens of anime are available digitally for free now and simulcasting is growing. You've acknowledged this. There is a lot of progress left to make, but it's sure not 2007 anymore. It is long past time to stop defaulting to pointing the finger at the industry. Sometimes the industry doesn't do enough, sometimes it really screws up. But it's also doing a lot right. When a lot of people are deliberately subverting it even in the latter scenario, that should be a wake up call.

As for this week's question, I think fansubbers sometimes do a great job with picking good fonts and font colors for a show, not just the yellow same font you see on the professional releases. Sometimes it makes it easier to read for me. And doesn't stand against the color palette as much as the yellow does (case in point, Toward the Terra, fansubbers used a blue font, Bandai did the yellow, I bought Bandai's release though because it's a great show, but I wish they'd used the font and font color the fansubbers did).

It's not just the yellow. Funimation's release of Baccano! used white all the time... including over the white text of the next episode's title in the previews so you literally could not read the subtitles. Nor did they ever differentiate who was speaking which subtitles when two people were speaking at once... well, it's not like fansubbers subtitle things perfectly by any means, but clearly the technology is out there to do a far greater variety of highly-legible subtitling fonts and colors than in the past. I think a Crunchyroll staffer even brought this up at a table discussion with Funimation, that many companies use technology years behind what is available.

Yeah, fonts. IIRC, because subtitles were just an after-thought back when the industry powerbrokers were compromising on the specs, the DVD spec is limited to 4 "colors": transparent background, black border, anti-aliasing, and last but not least, font color. So there can't be too many "colors."

It was things like itunes and music subscription services that brought on the forward advancement, and although the anime industry has new streaming services in place there is still more that they could do with a little imagination. It almost feels as though they've given up, thrown their hands up in frustration and while watching the industry shrink to nothing decided they might as well try and make a few bucks on the side by sewing a few kids for downloading one piece, but seriously is this the future? Is this the end all be all save all for anime? I don't think so, but what's scary is that I think a lot of fans do.

License rescues I'd like to see are mainly all the series VIZ has relegated to limbo, like Monster and Hikaru no Go.

We have Crunchyroll, simulcasting, iTunes, Blu Rays, tons of legal options, many of which are either free or cost a pittance, that people here in the US can use instead of torrenting a video file that requires a bunch of lousy video codecs.

shoddyworksucks wrote:

Funimation runs the risk of rubbing paying customers the wrong way if they end up trying to eat these people alive.

Would the paying customer really be all that upset? I mean if they are paying for the product why would going after pirates rub them the wrong way? If anything it should make the actual consumer feel good. Hypothetically, if I'm(the paying customer) playing by the rules what reason do I have to hold a grudge against Funi for protecting their and my interests?

Man, I'm shocked that Paranoia Agent didn't come up in the answers too.

Yeah, I had written to Answerman that I'd like to see Paranoia Agent and Lain rescued.