Fan Subbers vs Anime Companies.

After noticing episode 20 of nabari no ou was taking an ungodly amount of time to come out. I decided to look into just why that is. That's when i came across this> http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-08-11/3-titles-fansubs-pulled-on-behalf-of-japan-d-rights Which literally made me go "well its good to see that whole product over profit thing isn't taking root. People may not be getting raped up the ass with a fucking cactus for their last penny if it were", and we can't have that. There's absolutely only one reason for them to to do this. M-O-N-E-Y.

Now I can see where their coming from with their saying "fansubbing hurts the Japanese companies". As the saying goes, if you can get the milk for free, why buy the milk production facility, .....I mean cow. But where their argument egins to to rust and chip away. Is that about 90% of the people watching a series online, aren't going to pay for it regardless of whether they can get it for free or not. Why? Partially because they don't have 50+ dollars to spend on 14 episodes of a 26+ episode series. But mostly because they have no way of finding out about them in the first place. Normally you hear about a series either online from fanboys/girls going on and on about. or. From your friends who are watching it, and won't stop pestering you about it until you check out how hot the brooding dark character is. So if that goes out the window, and the only way you can check them out is by throwing down half a paycheck just to find out if you like the series or not. Then the anime industry literally falls on its face. And what if you do spend all that money on a series and end up not liking it after the first few episodes? Well take solace in knowing you at least had the chance to see the series. While others will never have the chance to not like it, and start using the dvd's as drink coaster. Seriously, they keep going after fan subbers, saying that they're taking money from the industry, and hurting the business (otherwise known as the same bullshit reasons the music, movie, tv industries have been using for years to try and use as a scape goat. Rather than admit that the financial effect of illegal downloads is minimal, so long as what their selling isn't shit to begin with, and thus, doesn't sell well regardless.). But without those same fansubbers, everywhere outside of the great anime state of japan, have absolutely no exposure to anime. Other than the couple series American cartoon networks get their rocks off by butchering. But I'm hesitant to even call that "anime" once their finished with it (I'm looking at you 4kids tv).

This seems more like a way to lessen the fan base (and possible future fan base) of the series then anything else. Even if you're running on the "it takes money away blah blah blah" angle. At least if the subbers are subbing. That 90% who won't buy it anyway, can tell the other 10% about it, and thus, get the series more sales. Hell, you'd think they'd be happy with having 10% more sales. But in taking the "If I can't have it my way, I'm taking my ball and I'm going home" angle instead. If that whole 100% isn't blindly buying their product, just because they say so, then nuts to everyone. No one gets to play.

No matter how I look at this. It comes across as nothing more than a giant middle finger to the fans who were helping drive these series' popularity outside japan. As if to say "Whats that? You want to watch? Tough. If you really wanted to watch. You'd live in japan already".

~lycao out