What really annoys me about Fansubs. Is that the people who do it don't realize that they actually might just kill the very industry they love. By providing free ways of getting series that are airing in Japan, and then never buying a DVD version of the show (if there is one) causes Japanese anime companies to lose money. Cause they count more & more on the Japanese market than the American one. Which is why there are so many "Moe" animes coming out. Cause the Japanese anime fans are into that sort of stuff.
I had a rather interesting conversation with a worker at a local Gamestop about the series Bleach (I was looking at the DS game for it)
Here is the story: Here is an interesting story about anime. I went to the local Gamestop to trade in some DS games for something new. Cause I beat Dragon Quest Rocket Slime (fun little game), and did not enjoy the other 3 games I traded (Spyro The Eternal Night DS, Fire Emblem GBA, and Transformers PS2). Anyways, I asked if the Bleach game for the DS was any good. The employees of the store said it was. They also mentioned that they are HUGE Bleach fans. Of course they asked me if I watch the show. I said yes, but only to whatever episode they showed on Cartoon Network.
This of course led to them trying to promote some "streaming" video site that had the episodes of the show. They said it was "legal" (yeah right), and only in Japanese w. Subs. I mentioned that I am totally against any sort of illegal watching of anime online, which this probably was. I also mentioned to a young lady, that they basically are stealling the livelyhood away from US anime companies, dub voice actors, and even local buisness (since ADV's & FUNimation's HQs are in Texas). I also mentioned that the DVDs had the Japanese langauge tracks (with subs), for about $20 each. She said that "she did not know" that they were stealling people's earnings. She mentioned that the store next door (Super HEB) had only vol. 1 of Bleach. I mentioned that you could probably find more of them at Best Buy, Amazon, or lots of other places.
I ended up buying the Bleach game for the DS, and it is a pretty fun fighting game. Of course like most fighting games, you can easilly beat it in a day. Of course if you want all the unlockable stuff, then it could take a bit longer.
This seems to be a lot of people's mentality for downloading. "If I can get it free, why pay for it?"
Cause NOTHING is free, it is costing people money to make. produce, animate, and even dub these shows. Licences for shows used to be $70,000 an EPISODE, now they are about half that much, and they still are not making the money back. Which might be the reason they keep re-issueing shows over & over again on more & more "Ultimate Stupor Duper Really Cool Edition" DVDs. (For example Evangelion).
I realize that certain shows (especailly live-action shows) will never come out on DVD in the USA. But if you enjoyed a series, and it gets licenced PLEASE run out & get the DVD version.
I am serious, Anime might not be around in a few years. Take Geneon USA as a hint of things to come in the future.
I know people want things ultra fast now, so there is another way: read this article
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/editorial/2007-11-25
Do you think that would work?? Or maybe have some sort of ads for fansub sites, or maybe some other way?
Sorry for the rather long post, but it needed to be said.