Forum - View topicEditorial: An Open Letter to the Industry
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TheVok
Posts: 613 Location: North York, Ontario, Canada |
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I think you meant to begin that sentence with 'Anime fans,' not 'Anime companies.' |
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Talon87
Posts: 89 |
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 ) If it's a murder mystery, I take the pause to think about the clues. If it's a comedy, I relive some of the jokes. If it's Jeopardy, then heck, I probably just daydream completely unrelated stuff.
But yeah, please don't go off on some "You're such a lamer, dude" rant with me when I was just trying to explain why it is logically defensible for people to lash out at (American) commercials the way they do. Zac seemed to think it was completely irrational, and I respectfully disagreed and wanted to say why. I sympathize with these folks. Our commercials do suck, and (as I said before), it is because they are not entertaining and people want to be entertained when they are committed to sitting in front of the TV. Super Bowl Sunday proves that commercials can be entertaining. Unfortunately, the industry is all about dumping millions of dollars into SFX instead of dumping a more conservative couple hundred thousand dollars into good script writing. And when did I bitch about the ANN ads? I think the only ads I've ever nagged about here (and I'm not even sure if I joined in on the public nagging or not) were those God-awful "The Fuccons" skins that ANN defaulted to for a bit. (Seems like it was just yesterday, but how many years has it been now?) Man. Those were creepy awful, and it was that day I learned how to choose my own skin here.  ANN provided a way for me to escape the horror, and so there was no major issue. Unfortunately, if the Fuccons (or other horrific products) pop up in a 15-second commercial in the middle of an episode of Naruto, most anime fans aren't going to take kindly to it. That's the big problem -- the industry can't simultaneously switch to using commercials to pay the bills *and* cater to customers' (greedy) demands for a way to escape said commercials. The people paying for those commercials (corporations) aren't that stupid; if they see that their ads are being easily navigated around, they're going to quit funding that anime.
If you weren't being accusative, sorry, but I took it that way pretty early on in your reply. :\ |
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R315r4z0r
 Posts: 717 |
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You bring up a valid point, however you also need to take into consideration what people actually want and compare and contrast it to what people can actually do. The reason people watch fansubs are because of the ease of use and the ability to acquire easily. Not to mention the fact that they are often distributed in high-quality. If I was the leader of a fansubbing group, and I was hosting your favorite Anime, however I released it in terribly pixilated quality, with a resolution of possibly smaller than 800 x 600, and the sound so bad you know it was obviously recorded via microphone, would you be AS interested (if at all) to download it? |
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bloopletech
Posts: 1 Location: Adelaide, South Australia, Australia |
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I believe there is a central problem to how Anime (and Manga) is distributed in America (and Australia). The problem is that when you watch an anime episode, you are probably only going to watch it once. It's like any other TV series; you get enjoyment from watching it, then you move on to the next episode or show. This throwaway attitude is present in Anime itself, i.e. reusing shots, not putting detail in unless it's nessacery.
In this context, purchasing an anime episode makes no sense whatsoever. If I buy an anime DVD, it would only be if that anime was a favourite - the majority of anime are enjoyable, but I don't want to pay big bucks so I can keep it around forever, when I'm only going to watch it once. The expectation that the Anime companies have - that if you want anime you will buy a DVD - is completely out of whack with what the consumer wants. Paying $30 (AUD) or more for a product I'm going to use once is not going to happen. I believe that this is a major reason that people watch fansubs - you can watch anime for free, rather than paying $7.50 an episode. If the anime companies charged, for example, $0.50 to watch an anime episode once, with no hassles and having to get torrent links, etc. then a lot of people would probably pay for them instead of watching fansubs. It saddens me to think that Anime could fade away merely because of the idiocy of production/distribution companies, and their unwillingness to change _at all_. If Japan had never changed from the ways of the past, would Japan be the economic powerhouse it is today? The world moves on, and it'll move on without the anime companies if they refuse to change. |
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R315r4z0r
Posts: 717 |
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I agree to an extent. It really depends on what your watching. There are many different series out there that have loads of re-watch value. Personally, I have watched the entire series of Fullmetal Alchemist more than 6 times. And Inuyasha a little over twice. But still, like I said, it really depends on what your watching. There are many different series that aren't worth watching again. However good or bad they where, they just wont give the ~spark~ they gave when watching it for the first time. A series off the top of my head, in my opinion, would be Kannazuki No Miko, or Chobits. I liked both, but they wouldn't be as good watching for a second time. |
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posterior_praiser
 Posts: 296 |
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Exactly. Anime is TV. People don't want to pay for individual TV shows that they can see for free except for the cable fee to watch as many or as few as they want in a month, and that's part of the difficulty in marketing TV shows on DVD. Especially when they're NOT shown on TV like most anime. American TV show DVDs sell well cause people have seen it, and decided that they want to own it, and the vast majority of poeple who watch TV shows here don't go out and buy the dvds. In fact, I'd say it would be silly to expect someone to buy the DVDs of every TV show they watch, yet this is what is expected of anime fans, who are by and large young people with little disposable income. |
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Fabe
 Posts: 219 |
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I've wondered the same thing,unless you're fluent in Japanese how do you know the fansubbers are getting it right? Now I'm fully ready to admit the dub dialog is'nt alway spot on, to prove that all you have to do is watch a anime dub with the subtitles on but I also realize thatsprobably due to trying to sync things up better so we don't get the old Speed Racer/Godzilla thing and also a matter of what might sound better English. But in the matter of Fansubs VS the licensed Subtitles how can one tell which is more accurate unless they know the language ? Also don't the studios doing the dubbing get a copy of the scripts from the original studio or am I mistaken on that? |
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Vortextk
 Posts: 892 Location: Orlando, Fl |
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It was directed at you mostly, but was not an attack, sorry. Looks like we're apologizing to eachother. I get that you may be sympathizing with people that hate them, but people also thank me like I'm Ghandi when I tell them a movie is subtitled at work and if they still wanted to rent it. Of course 90% of the replies go something like "Oh man, thanks. I don't want to read my freaking movie. You sure saved me on that one". I have to disagree that those people even need sympathizing with. Commercials really suck most of the time, but it gets you "free" stuff, so actively speaking out about them like its forced amputation just makes me  .(Not pointed at you  )
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hetdog
Posts: 1 |
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sure fansubing may be wrong and illegal, but come on fansuber translations are great! i baught anime on dvd for about 3-4 years on dvd before i started downloading fansubs and some of the subtitles i got with the dvd's where pathetic. i can remember watching nadesco in english (coz i was bored and wanted to lol at the stupid american voices they gave them) with the subtitles on. it was like i was watching 2 diferent shows that used the same animation since the spoken dialog and the subtitles that should of corresponded with that dialog where nowhere near the same. other dvd's i had just had subtitles that where that poor that i needed fansubs in order to understand what they where saying since the subtitles on the dvd looked as though they had been done by a raving derelict. also waiting up to 2 - 3 years for an anime to be licenced and put on tv /dvd is pathetic when i can get it days after its released in japan with subtitles far superior to that of the dvd release
so if getting fansubs is killing the indistry and makes me a thief for downloading then i guess im a thief then. but if they want my money maybee they should bother to provide decent subtitles, licence things earlyer and get a wider range of anime (since most of the anime i can buy in my area is either all mecha series or series like naruto, dragonball z etc. mostly kids stuff  )
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Vortextk
Posts: 892 Location: Orlando, Fl |
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I don't really know why you would be one to notice or care about bad subtitles. Please be a joke account/post, please. |
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eaglestorm
 Posts: 133 |
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Totally agree. When I buy DVDs, it's because I'm already familiar with the stories and know what to expect. Every single popular TV series that has managed to be successful with DVDs sales are because people already knew about them. Try marketing new shows on DVDs and see how successful you'd be. Just imagine if the only way you can watch American TV shows are by purchasing them. It's totally ludicrous. The industry has to expose the people to the new series either through previews, advertising, show it on the local TVs, etc. You can't just expect to release new series with little or no informations and expect them to be a hit. |
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Vortextk
Posts: 892 Location: Orlando, Fl |
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Some would throw Haruhi into your equation and watch the gears malfunction, however.(None of the staff have quoted exact figures, but compared to the downloads, the sales were poor/mediocre it seems) Yours is definitely a line of reasoning we share but it is obviously not the only factor here. |
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eaglestorm
Posts: 133 |
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It's ironic, isn't it? But you'll see that so often if you frequent fansub forums.
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eaglestorm
Posts: 133 |
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Of course, it isn't. Nothing is that simple. However, as I stated earlier, those who downloads subs may be potential customers but they are not real customers. Sure, you can expect some who will buy but the percentage will be very low. You target those who would buy DVDs, not those who wants free entertainments. How was the marketing done for the release of Haruhi? Put it out with no fanfare and expects the hordes of anime fans who had downloaded to beat a path to the stores? |
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posterior_praiser
Posts: 296 |
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Now I'm wondering if this person bought official DVDs and not bootlegs. I can attest to the fact the bootleg subtitles suck compared to fansubs. Often times they dont even translate the english words right. |
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