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Hey, Answerman! [2007-01-19]

As for the You-Tube/downloading thing, I will say that I may never see the rest of Galaxy Angel in R1 DVD format because of it. I know there is a market for the stuff, but if it gets to the point where certain series aren't getting released because they sold poorly yet were downloaded extensively, then there is something wrong with the theory that fansubs can help with domestic sales of licensed titles. I just want the rest of my Galaxy Angel, is that too much to ask?

So basically, while I think the best fansub groups generally are better than the R1 companies, said companies are much better than the worst fansubbers.

BritannicaMoore:

I'm THIS close to importing Monster from Singapore... but I'm still hoping that someone announces it this year *cough*Geneon, since Fighting Spirit is done*cough*

But yeah... there's always a way... it just involves money and persistence.

"

But hey, just look at the One Piece fansubs, they are excellently done and better than any r1 company who could or would release a faithful version will do, it's the sad truth. These people who ask no money put more time and quality checking into it than alot of r1 dvd companies. WTF is right!

The clearest example of this to me is Princess Tutu. So many people CLAIM to love this show, and yet I have never SEEN so many people ask for DVD rips or YouTube links or other ways to avoid buying a show they say they love so much.

Sorry for the double post, but I doubt even without the fansubs/YouTube, it would've been popular anyway. Galaxy Angel doesn't a title that would sell well in the states (moe shows usually do bad on the whole over here). I mean shows like Furuba, Naruto, or any popular show still enjoy successes despite of the fansubs/scanlations.

I haven't seen Tutu but the stores in my area don't have anything besides Volume 5. I'm sure you're ready to say- Order online! That just isn't possible for me. No credit card and parents who think ordering online will get me lost money to the point they are parinoid.

I can't speak for everyone but I keep hearing about this and i'm trying to wait for a thinpak...but the idea of seeing a bit of it now is tempting.

penguintruth wrote:

I agree mostly with the second ranter, "Emi", about YouTube. It is disheartening as an anime fan to have spent your own money to buy an anime you appreciate and see that others simply have no pride of ownership or are too cheap to part with a little money to purchase the legal product available on the market. Now, while I have watched anime on YouTube here and there, it's usually clips or things that have no chance whatsoever of being licensed by American licensors, so it's not even an option to spend money on it - but any program I saw previously that's been licensed by a company is usually one that I will spend my money on, what little I have. At the same time, let's not say that if people in America don't buy anime, Japan won't have the money to produce it. It gives too much credit to the foreign market. Japanese animation companies aren't out to market their programs to a worldwide audience - that profit is just a few extra yen in the pocket. However, I would argue that not paying for the product when it is both available to buy AND the only legal means of obtaining it, is akin to spitting in the faces of the hard-working people who made the features. You may not be ripping them off per se, but you are disrespecting them in the name of your "love" for anime, and that's wrong. To be frank, buying anime DVDs should be like buying any other kind of DVDs - every once in a while, you might have purchased something terrible and wasted your money, but that's no reason to break the law and disrespect the industry. It's a poor excuse. What's more, there are people who even mock and deride people for "buying what they can get for free", which angers me greatly. I didn't spend hundreds of dollars on anime in my life just because I enjoy using up my income - it's because it's the way to gain desired items of comfort in a way that supports their continuing production and distrubution.

Although I agree with you on supporting the industry, I can't disagree with you more thinking buying American entertainment DVD duds = anime DVD duds. First of all, it's not required of you to buy American movies and TV DVDs really. The ones who usually buy them, especially the TV ones, are people who usually seen the movie or series. Although with the rising costs of the theather experience, it's cheaper and more convinent to wait less than 6 months for the DVD for $15 bucks. I rarely buy a DVD of an American movie of anything since I have satellite and it only takes a year to get from the theather to TV unless it has replay value.

But with anime, it's more an investment. You can easily spend over $150 dollars on a series (6 DVDs, $25 each [and I'm being generous about the price]). That's 10x the amount. I'm sorry but I rather buy series that I know I will love and watch more than once than blindly buy it without seeing it at least near entirely first.

Thanks to fansubs, I'm convinced to buy the thinpaks/boxsets of Gankutsuou, Honey and Clover, Kannazuki no Miko and Princess Tutu. Sometimes, watching a couple of episodes convince me to buy the manga of the series since it's a lot cheaper and generally better overrall anyway.

And about people not buying your favorite series because they seen it before for free, don't you factor that they might not like it as much as you do? Yeah, I know some people who think it's silly to buy anime/manga then you can get it for free, but that's in the minority. Usually, it didn't impress them enough to buy it.

Personally, I don't think YouTube is hurting the industry that much since we can't really gauge it anyhow. However, people aren't buying the singles anymore, they rather wait for boxsets or thinpaks and get them heavily discounted. That is a big problem for the industry right there. Besides, I'm kinda glad they scaled back from the oversaturation that nearly killed the industry and focus on getting titles for quality than quantity.

DKL wrote:

BritannicaMoore: I'm THIS close to importing Monster from Singapore... but I'm still hoping that someone announces it this year *cough*Geneon, since Fighting Spirit is done*cough* But yeah... there's always a way... it just involves money and persistence.

how would you understand it without subs? if you watched the show you may have idea whats going on but it won't be defintie. and I don't know how you could watch something you couldn't understand.

Sorry, I'm in firmly in the camp that says subtitles exist so I can follow the dialog. Period.

Something to differentiate seperate speakers when they talk at the same time, whether it be different colors or just a hyphen in front of each line.

Newsflash: DVDs -- introduced in the late 1990s, standards set and maintained since then. Digital fansubs: judging from early AnswerMan columns, became prominent around 2000 and evolved with new codecs, programs, and techniques to the present day. You can't hold that against DVDs.

There are parts of gimmicky subtitles that I like. Specifically:

-karaoke subs that include the transliteration, romanization, *and* translation of the song on three different lines. I want to know what they're going to sing as well as what it means.

-sign subtitles by the sign itself, especially when they're done as to make it look like part of the background. Case in point: in the OP of Sensei no Ojikan, there's a part where Mika jumps out of bed and the kanji flash up for "I'm Late!" One of the fansubs I have has that translation flash next to it, in exactly the same color, for exactly the same length of time. It makes it look clean and integrated.

-Something to differentiate seperate speakers when they talk at the same time, whether it be different colors or just a hyphen in front of each line.

-Also, it's worth noting here again that whatever one thinks of the physical quality of fansub subtitles vs. DVD subtitles, the fansub also is more likely to retain Japanese elements, and swearing, than the DVD.