[Taiyz]

Originally Posted by birdman

Why buy dvd's when you can get it for free ;p.

To support the creators and get a better quality translation; that's what most anime fans claim to want, right?

Originally Posted by Griever

source or it did not happen.
-high quality is now for free.
-they remove licensed animes(well, sometimes if the company wants it)
I can not see any problem with uploading animes, which are not licensed in the usa or whatever.

I don't have an issue with non-licensed anime, though they're still illegal to have. I don't think it's right to go through a topic about fansubbing and downloading without bringing this up at least once.

Just because crunchyroll stopped charging doesn't mean that they've suddenly changed their ways; if you steal something then stop stealing it, that doesn't change the fact that you've performed a criminal act in the past.

I wouldn't really be surprised if the 4.5 mill that they got from last year's subscription fees surpasses what legitimate anime companies make year-by-year. I don't think the the anime industry can AFFORD to sue them. =/

Plus, licensed anime still remains on the site; they're doing a terrible job of removing it. In some cases they leave the files up but add the text "Should be removed" on the page, leaving it up to uploaders to do so.

Originally Posted by Howling

Alot of the stuff on my hdd is unlicensed.. And most things that get licensed I do get round to buying eventually. despite the amazingly poor quality of the subtitles on the dvds.

That's good to hear! But I don't understand your complaint.

Sure the subtitle font is boring, but it needs to be a universal format for all DVD players to run; digital subtitles seen in fansubs require loads of extra software or codecs to create, render and view that are a huge licensing issue in the first place. Not only would that mean excess costs for a distributer in an already-suffering industry but the format needs to be playable on any sort of DVD player, hence why a general standard is kept. If you alienate part of the user base, stocks drop; that's how it works. =/

This opinion is kind of fueled by the professional reviews I read however; journalists on sites like AnimeOnDVD.com or AnimeNewsNetwork.com literally complain about the subtitles in FANSUBS saying that they're excess fluff. Really? I sort of agree, but it doesn't really hurt the quality; the issue is the skill of the translators.

If you're complaining about translation quality, that's another rant altogether so I'm not gonna bother too much. I will say however, that if you think fansubs are in any way better than official subtitles, this point couldn't be any more wrong unless you're fluent in the language and can prove this point, in which I'm not gonna be happy to hear. D=

Even then, if it's just one series or a bad company, it's an isolated issue, especially compared to the amount of speed subbers and groups like Nyoro~n that can get away with automated translators and rewriting with embellished English. Gundam 00 — Nyoro~n Translation Errors - Ramblings of DarkMirage

Originally Posted by Howling

Get some facts before you throw insults my way

You didn't give me any previous inclination to assume you bought DVDs so it's a reasonable accusation in a community ripe with piracy. =/

I'm sorry, then.

Originally Posted by Howling

You used to be a sound poster, but lately you've been very overly critical about everything - what's up man?

I think I've only been over-critical about 3 key things; Dead Fantasy, piracy, and Naruto/general shounen.

The former isn't really an isolated issue that's just me being unruly; the other forum I frequent, the official forum for Namco's Tales of series of RPGs, doesn't appreciate Dead Fantasy either and has even pulled the sprite flash card. It's even more surprising since this is a place for Korean RPGs, and the other place is one for Japanese RPGs, which Final Fantasy easily coincides with...But like I've said before, I just felt like being very outspoken in my distaste due to the terrible fighting videos I've seen before on Newgrounds. Midgarsormir even said that the creator would rather do something more meaningful, so it's not like my complaint is unjustified.

For the latter? I've gone to other anime-based communities before and it's the same issue as above. Shows like Naruto are essentially bottom-feeders in most communities; sure it might be a bit elitist, but I will indefinitely prefer a production like Ghost Hound compared to a multi-seasonal show rife with fight scenes, animated by Koreans on the cheap.
Case and point: Mistakes Of Youth-- VIP Quality

I'm also not gonna bring up the age demographic that Naruto is actually aimed at, because that's just mean. =P

Originally Posted by Frein

To be honest, the anime industry will forever be in trouble as long as they try to sell their stuff on DVDs along with dubs.

The anime industry would do just fine without fansubbing. FUNimation, Bandai and Viz constantly sell LOTS of stuff. FUNimation's got popular stuff like Trinity Blood and Tsubasa Chronicles, where-as Bandai's got Gundam SEED, Haruhi and Lucky Star; Haruhi sold like CRAZY because of the limited edition bundles and advertising, despite the cost; Viz has the Naruto, Bleach and Death Note bases covered.

It's a good system, though some productions are definitely too niche to sell, but anime companies are often fan-oriented in many cases and will continue to get a great cast together for something as unknown as Tokyo Majin.

Originally Posted by Frein

DVDs:
- Cost a ton of money, partially because they insist on making expensive dubs and trying to feed their niché products to mass audiences. Apparently Bandai just licensed Lucky Star in America. I bet they'll dub it, it'll be a massacre.

Watch it sell like crazy; I don't doubt it will. Why would you think that the dub will be terrible? They're going to be adding in liner notes, which most fansubbers left out of Lucky Star and they're digging into the extremely renowned Bang Zoom! Entertainment talent pool.

Originally Posted by Frein

- Take forever to come out after the initial airing in Japan.

For people who watch stuff on TV or on DVD, dubbed, this is no issue; they aren't gonna go out of their way to pirate. Only the people who die hard for fansubs in the first place won't buy DVDs, and they're the root of the problem anyway.

It is common however for most people to want shows to come out faster, but I would say that the cases where people go ahead and start pirating ahead of time out of impatience are very isolated. If you don't do it already, then chances are you aren't gonna start.

Originally Posted by Frein

The anime industry really needs to rethink its business formula. They need to make something like the iTunes service. Stuff needs to come up there within days of the initial airing and it needs to be dirt cheap, possibly with a monthly fee rather than pay per download.

Anime is already coming out on iTunes; Ghost in the Shell just landed. Xbox Live's Marketplace has had anime episodes for reasonable prices, and lots of popular series' like Trinity Blood or Akira, at that.
FUNimation's official site is now holding series' for download either by episode, or as a batch for a reduced price and ADV's been doing the same for a while. They're all pretty much .99-2.99 per episode.

The problem is that nobody really knows these features, cares to learn about them, or actually goes and uses the features; they claim they can get the exact same product for free anyway. No matter how many times this solution is suggested, it's consistently ignored by consumers.

And also, DVDs are 20 bucks for 4-5 episodes; I think that's totally reasonable considering that they can't be paid to air the stuff on TV, nor do they get free advertising. The television market isn't welcoming for the Anime Industry either, which has affected prices.

It's also worth noting that I live in Canada, so I pay roughly 2-5 dollars more for a volume of manga, 10 dollars more on the average DVD, 20+ more on the average box set, and twice as much tax on each purchase than Americans, and yet I still do it. That's not even including 20+ dollars of Duty per shipment when I have to order something from America.

It's all a matter of how willing you are to dedicate yourself to your hobbies I suppose; I'd say it's entirely worth it for anime. =/