On Greg Ayres and evil of fansubs

Time to jump the bandwagon. It’s take two on the long painful subject of “Fansubs are evil”. I originally was going to focus on Scott’s article on Greg Ayres’ panel, but it got torn apart By Hinano and various other people, so there really is no need for me to nitpick on it. So I will focus on roughly two points:

First of all: Sorry Greg, here in Canada it is actually NOT ILLEGAL to download digital media (movies/music/etc.) for personal use. So downloading fansubs is not = stealing, as it is not illegal. Or it is stealing, but stealing is legal, so there is no problem.  So your “it’s illegal” argument does not fly here. And that leaves us with long-ass complaint about how fans are no longer buying the DVDs, but rather prefer to download fansubs and or dvd rips off the internet. Well, what have you done to motivate us to purchase these DVDs, or actually what have you done to motivate us to purchase R1 DVDs?

Now, he does mention that’s it’s ok to import anime if it has not been licensed. But what about importing what has been licensed simply because the R1 edition has shitty packaging, shitty quality, and (quiet often) shitty translation? But oh, apparently it’s treason to import licensed anime, or more *gasp* prefer to import legit J-Rock cds (or anime OSTs) over buying anime DVDs. Mind you, you can download them as well, but for some reason fans prefer to import them.. where is the catch?

Let’s look at the process. When an anime is being made, its expected revenue does not come solely from DVD sales. Rather it is distributed among advertisement while the show airs (the larger part), merchandise sales, drama cd, character cds, soundtracks sales, DVDs, and everything else. In such case these DVDs only account from maybe 30% of the expected revenue. PLUS! And this one is important, DVDs are merchandise! And they do cost roughly the same as a decent figurine, about $70 per dist with two to four episodes. But they also look like merchandise.  For your money you get a very nicely packaged disc, usually with mini artbook, model or keychain, maybe couple of stickers and what’s not. And quiet often the looks and the content of the series is being changed as it comes out on DVD. It’s is cleaned up, redrawn, and often new scenes are added. Now, let’s take a look at the R1 DVD of the same show. eeer.. all I can see is a shitty plastic case with one DVD that’s does not even has a nice print on it; and if I’m lucky a one page insert saying “buy our shit”. Oh, and it’s about two years late. HOW exactly does that motivate us to spend our money on this?

As to the argument about supporting the anime industry: last time I checked the anime industry was located significantly further east and has very little to do with cheap greedy bastards south of the border. So pardon me, but I have no clue how “buy anime R1 dvds” equals to “support anime industry”. And why suddenly the entire industry’s revenues became dependant solely on the DVD sales? Where that stack of Gundam Seed Destiny character CDs that I own fit in the picture? Oh, and that shelf of figurines behind me - THATS the reason why IkkiTousen got a third season ^,___,~

So when you look at it, Winny, Share and Perfect Dark exist for some time now. Sure Japanese industry has their hissy fits over it now and then, but it’s a momentary thing, as it is not hurting the industry that much, because the industry relies on _MERCHENDISE_ sales, PART of which are DVDs.  While the actual content (anime, eroge, whatever) will eventually evolve into a more portable medium, such as downloads, one-time play usb sticks or something,  the merchandise side won’t go anywhere.  Moreover, what seem to be happening recently with Tower of Daruga and Blassreiter, we will see more and more anime coming out originally with English subtitles. (and the Blu-ray edition of Blassreiter (which will exist!) better have them!) In such case - good luck North American “anime industry”, because you will have to come up with one hell of a way to make me spend my blood money here!

And to precede the argument of “Well, Greg is talking about the anime industry in general, and not just the North American” part: he’s not. Because Japanese anime industry gives very little shit about us on this side of the ocean. What is happening to anime industry in Japan, is it’s becoming more and more niche-lized (is that a word?) as it guarantees the income.  Which is why we have Queen’s Blade anime, SekiRei anime, more IkkiTousen, anime adaptation of various eroge and so on. Simple evolution to cater to those small parts of the population who are guaranteed to like it, rather than making one big piece to cover multiple niches. Sure such anime will still exist, but there won’t be many. And I don’t mind, as I myself is a representative of a niche. And we do get catered to, just not in North America XD.

There, I rest my case, which can actually me summarized in one line: no, I won’t buy anime DVDs unless you motivate me; and ethical motivation does not work here: money talks, bullshit walks! Motivate me!