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Answerman - Mmm, Crunchy!

No, you misread what I was saying. What I was saying was a slap against Taiwanese television implying that their quality is not up to a level appealing to people outside of its home audience who'd watch out of pride/having nothing else better to watch at the time.

What does being open-minded have to do with it? Almost every single post you make is all about K-this and K-that and why doesn't Japan do things the way Korea does. It has grown incredibly tiresome.

Taiwan did a live-action version of Hayate the Combat Butler. That's such a stupid funny idea on par with the American Dragonball movie that I'd watch it in a heartbeat.

Most of the negativity comes from people who think CR's going to double the subscription price and force even paid users to watch ads.

Crunchyroll's reach beyond North America and into non-English speaking markets will also likely get a boost. Less likely, though still possible, is dipping their toes into dubbed anime (although I'd be really shocked if they went to the cost of producing a dub themselves).

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(although I'd be really shocked if they went to the cost of producing a dub themselves).

Didn't they already do that with 5CM Per Second?

I thought most anime fans are open-minded to other Asian culture including when other Asian countries adapt anime into live-action. I mean ANN report on when Taiwan and South Korea adapt anime/manga into live-action. I mean that's my impression when dealing with anime fanbase, I met anime fans that liked dramas from Korea and Taiwan.

Japanese dramas are too hard to license

mdo7 wrote:

I thought most anime fans are open-minded to other Asian culture including when other Asian countries adapt anime into live-action. I mean ANN report on when Taiwan and South Korea adapt anime/manga into live-action. I mean that's my impression when dealing with anime fanbase, I met anime fans that liked dramas from Korea and Taiwan.

Hell naw, more than a few anime fans are hilariously racist towards any asian race that isn't Japanese.

I'm pretty sure I saw an anime fan on Stormfront, once, when trolling the forums.

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Japanese dramas are too hard to license

I realize this isn't the place for this, but I've always wondered why this is.

Can anyone explain why this is?

TV dramas starring any guys from Johnny's Entertainment will likely never be released in the US, unless someone is really, really stupid with their money. Johnny's (and their parent company Onjikyou) controls a lot of the rights of the dramas their talent star in, and they have a non-negotiable minimum license fee that is completely out of whack with what a live action foreign TV series would sell in the States.

They do not have such control over movies, however, so those can get licensed. That's why we got the GTO movie in the states, but not the drama, despite it being faaaar better.

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Now, if only they'd start picking up Japanese dramas...

Second this as well, but (as with Fantastipo mentioned above) with a lot of dramas you run into JE performers and I've heard that's a major roadblock to licensing*. So I've mostly given up hope.

*Something like: JE would want an unreasonable amount of money for the licenses and while the guys are stars in Japan they're pretty much unknowns here so US sales wouldn't support the licensing fees. Not to mention JE's style of tight media control would probably strangle any US company's attempt to market the shows. Even Japanese sites often have to omit/blur/otherwise-alter pictures of Johnnys in their official press releases for shows-- for example, see Kame in 1 2 3 4. I can't fathom why but there you have it. Just imagine trying to get permission to use their pics for promo materials here in the US.

agila61 wrote:

I'd heard somewhere that up until about three years ago, drama licensing was a nightmare because contracts did not include international rights, so "female supporting character number 2" could be the hold up on getting the rights. Now that the producers are more likely to be holding the rights, Crunchyroll might be able to expand their licensing of J-dramas.

I think part of the problem is that a lot of J-dramas (especially the ones for which the masses clamor) have someone from Johnnys Entertainment in them. I'm not complaining about that aspect (I actually like a lot of those actors) but supposedly JE is exceptionally difficult to work with. I've seen promo pics for dramas where the Johnnys actor's picture in the cast roster is represented by a silhouette or drawing (ex: Kame & Yamapi as pigs in the Nobuta chart) or altered/blurred digitally (ex: Ikuta Toma's face in the Voice promo). And that's not even outside the country. I can't imagine trying to promote a foreign TV show, with an unknown (to most Westerners) cast and not even being able to use the likenesses of the stars of the show.

mdo7 wrote:

It's not only CR, Viki and Dramafever has difficult time getting J-dramas on their sites, I can find few J-dramas on those sites. I'm seeing more Taiwanese dramas being picked up for non-Asian audiences then J-dramas. I never understood why Japan never joined the drama craze when K-dramas got popular outside of Asia.

I think some of the dearth of licensed J-dramas is a Johnny's Entertainment thing. The ones I did manage to find on DramaFever & Crunchyroll seem to have one thing in common: No JE idols in the cast. And let's face it, many if not most of the really popular J-dramas feature at least one or more of them. For whatever reason though, they just don't wanna play ball (or maybe their asking price for the ball is way too high).

mdo7 wrote:

Yeah most of the J-pop I find on Youtube that are official are about 1 to 2 minute, there are that are longer then that. About the Johnny's, I never understood why they don't play fair. I never understood that, I mean a lot of people that watch K-pop MV usually end up buying the MP3, or the CD. Hell I've seen Itunes having K-pop MVs on there for sales to download like 2NE1, SHINee, etc... Which Johnny Entertainment could learn something from SM and YG Entertainment.

I don't think it's a matter of "fairness", exactly-- if JE wants to include a stipulation in their artists' contracts* that restricts how the final product is distributed, and the production company (or whatever) accepts the terms, that's perfectly fair. And I have to assume even with those terms it's still more profitable to cast JE idols than not-- I mean, they haven't stopped making those dramas and JE hasn't gone bankrupt yet, so...

*(Or whatever it is that makes J-dramas so difficult to license over here. I should note my JE theory is just that, based on ongoing observations. But JE is sorta known for tightly controlling their performers' public image.)

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Japanese dramas are too hard to license

I realize this isn't the place for this, but I've always wondered why this is.

Can anyone explain why this is?

roujin wrote:

Quote: Japanese dramas are too hard to license I realize this isn't the place for this, but I've always wondered why this is. Can anyone explain why this is?

The general answer I see is mainly due to the fact that live-action actors have to be cleared for international "appearances", i.e. each major actor has to be allowed to be shown outside of Japan. Along with that, though, some of the companies that these actors belong to can be insanely strict with licensing, mainly via astronomical costs. Johnny's is the most well-known of them all. Movies don't have this restriction, though, which is why Media Blasters released GTO: The Movie & Discotek released Hana Yori Dango Final, even though neither of them could release their respective J-Dramas.

The only J-Dramas that have ever been brought over legally to North America that I've seen, not counting the older tokusatsu shows we did get, are Team Astro (which is only available via streaming at DramaFever & Viki [only one episode has been subbed over at Viki, though]) & Moyashimon (which is viewable over at FUNimation & DramaFever). Moyashimon was likely able for streaming only because it was a noitaminA show, which FUNi had a deal with at the time, but maybe Team Astro's streaming licenses is an indication that J-Dramas, even if only a small amount of them, might be viable licenses now.

The only J-Dramas that have ever been brought over legally to North America that I've seen, not counting the older tokusatsu shows we did get, are Team Astro (which is only available via streaming at DramaFever & Viki [only one episode has been subbed over at Viki, though]) & Moyashimon (which is viewable over at FUNimation & DramaFever). Moyashimon was likely able for streaming only because it was a noitaminA show, which FUNi had a deal with at the time, but maybe Team Astro's streaming licenses is an indication that J-Dramas, even if only a small amount of them, might be viable licenses now.

I couldn't talk about it before but I believe the Chernin Group will be good for Crunchyroll. The plan is to create a web service that replaces traditional Cable TV (and maybe even more). Crunchyroll would be just one of many channels that people can choose to subscribe to and it will continue to be focused on Anime primarily with it's own team dedicated to it. We already came up with that plan and have been working on the service before this came about but Chernin can help realize that goal with proper funding and connections. The service is Second.TV though it's still in the development phase so it's currently too buggy to suggest anyone use for any practical purposes.

However, for the foreseeable future, Crunchyroll will still exist as it's own site and set of apps so there won't be radical changes to Crunchyroll itself.