Anime Exec Responds To Fansubber Complaints
from the talking-to-your-fans,-what-a-concept dept
You may recall that we recently had a post about executives in the anime industry blaming fansubs for ruining the business (even as we'd also heard others report that it was the interest from fansubs that had created the US market in the first place. The post was based on an editorial piece written by someone within the fansubber community, basically saying that the blame was misplaced and the real problem was that the anime industry wasn't giving fans what they wanted. This is a familiar refrain, of course, heard from fans and customers across the entertainment industry. However, normally, the big copyright firms respond either by ignoring the complaints of fans, or brushing them all off as "pirates." Apparently, that's not true with everyone in the anime industry. Petréa Mitchell writes in to point out that the president of one US anime distributor, Bandai Visual USA, has responded to the complaints on his own blog. He basically says that the company recognizes the complaints and has been thinking about solutions (including simultaneous release of titles in both the US and Japan, rather than waiting a while for the US release). He also notes that they're trying to decrease their prices, but Mitchell notes that Bandai's prices seem quite high, even compared to it competitors. Still, considering that most industry execs seem to completely ignore fan complaints, it's nice to see one (even if in a much smaller industry) take notice and respond.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Good to hear someone is looking into solutions
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Quality is also an issue
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Flip Flop
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Flip Flop
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anime Quality
my 2c
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Some fansubbers clearly do better jobs than others, but the quality of the writing isn't terribly important. You have the actors voice giving you emotion, all you need is the meaning, which all fansubers do better some licensed distributors. With fansubs you get no editing for things Americans wouldn't understand or might find offensive (like taking the cigarettes away from Sanji and Smoker in One Piece).
I mean, the subbing/dubbing for Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon was terrible, what do you expect from anime companies?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
My opinion
Most of the time, the voices don't fit the character, and many times hurt my ears.
In my understanding, the authors work together with the animation people to choose voice actors and other stuff for the original Japanese version, so the voices are chosen to fit the author's vision of the character, rather than chosen by someone who has probably only seen/read/listened to a small portion of the series for the English version. I may be wrong on this, but this is my understanding on the way things work, and please correct me if I'm wrong.
There are a few times where the voices fit(Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu(The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) comes to mind, although there are occasions where Haruhi's English voice doesn't fit...), but in my experience these are few and far apart.
And there's also the fact that, if the translating crew doesn't remove it, there is extra lip movement after the English actor is done with the line, so you end up annoying phrases that are repeated over and over again...(Dubbed Naruto, anyone? Yes, I know he has extra stuff in the Japanese version, too, but that's not noticeable to me.)
As to the price issue, this is because of the fact that I don't have enough money to spend $20-$50+ on a few episodes, and then wait a month or two to buy the next DVD in the series for another $20-$50+. If you multiply this by a few series, it starts to add up extremely quickly. When you're a kid with no job, you tend to look for the cheapest way to do things.
In my experience with fansubs and licensed DVDs, the translations on good fansubs end up better, because the people who do fansubs are also fans of the series and want to see the translation stay as true to the original as possible.
Because of these things, I prefer fansubs for their quality, in audio, video(as compared to the original), and translation clarity.
Keep in mind, this is all my opinion and is in no way the definitive answer.
-Izzy
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: My opinion
I'll be adding one thing though: In my personal experience, every time an anime has been localized and dubbed, there's always been something lost from the original. Plus I've seen a good deal of anime that simply won't make it to the west because of western censors.
After I got into the habit of watching anime in its original japanese and untouched by wester censors, I found there was some good stuff out there that I'd never see.
I generally hate almost all dubs with rare but notable exceptions (Azumanga Daio). The only way for me to purchase the anime in the form I want would be to import it from Japan if by some miracle the DVD has english subtitles which they usually don't.
I can safely say that most of the fansubbed anime I have archived still hasn't had a western release and most of them probably won't anytime soon.
My two cents.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: My opinion
I don't dislike any of them, but when you have a character who's 7 or 8 years old, speaking with a voice that belongs on an adult, or older-teen, it just ruins the effect.
Really, that's my only complaint, as most of the rest, I can overlook, including the price issue. I simply have to pick and choose which Anime I purchase.
EtG
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Of course, some might argue that it would cut into DVD sales down the road, but I don't buy it. Tons of people buy North American TV series on DVD now, and if the prices for these Anime dvd's weren't stupid they would sell a lot more of them as well.
Hollywood writers are on strike right now because everyone is making money off of DVD sales of TV series except them, so it's obviously doing better than everyone expected.
Also, some people prefer Dubbed anime, so they could release subbed anime on the Bandai Anime Network and take their time doing dubs and cleaning up the subs for the DVD release. An Anime DVD release with good subs AND dubs? that would be amazing.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
If they aired subbed anime anywhere on American TV, with good quality subs and fairly quickly after the Japanese airing... Cable, satellite, anywhere... I would pay for it. I don't know how, but I would pay for it, and I would gladly pay for the DVDs of the show if I wanted to go back and watch it again without waiting for reruns.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Man the Keyboard
Just a thought - it's not like their audience isn't already on the internet.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
fansub vs dub
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Poor Parasites
I have no sympathy for distribution companies. So they're stupid enough to buy "rights" to distribute content that was given away (or nearly so) in Japan. Why should I have to suffer for their poor business model?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Fansubbed vs Dubbed
Second IMHO there are at least two MAJOR obstructions to the penetration of legal anime into the US market: Primus is the availability for TV viewing to determine if it is something a viewer would wish to follow up on. Secondus is definately pricing - an example is something I was pricing for an xmas gift - the 1st 20 half hour episodes of Bleach - NOT even a full season by most television standards - The store prices found were in the $60 to $80 range. A typical US TV series of hour long episodes runs a third to half that price and has 20% more episodes.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Digital Distribution - Patent woes the blame?
I was late then, and very long, but it boils down to the exact same things said here, and I also point out the biggest obstacle on this. Digital content naturally wants to trend towards a very low cost per unit due to the extreme ease of distribution. Barriers to that are greed from many parties. However the biggest nightmare are the Lawyers and Lobbyists.
Yes, our nemesis, out of control Patents. Communications standards, the very languages we use to exchange information content, must be developed somehow. Yes, people deserve to eat, but once that has been figured out, and the fixed research cost paid for, the cost of duplicating the idea is practically nothing with modern technology.
Patents might best be rectified by sourcing their cost of development, and applying a short (maybe 5 year?) time frame on monetary recovery, along with a cap of some multiplier or simple formula over the development cost. Within that 5 years/capped value, any additional 'licenses' would pay back to prior licensees and the innovators based on a pro-rated division of time relative to the remainder of the patent. (That is, whoever literally buys in to using the patent first would get the most back each time the increasingly standard method is used.)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
fan subbing fuels the market
[ link to this | view in chronology ]