How to get all my money
American anime distribution companies and fansubbers have been at odds with each other for many years, but the struggle has intensified since the U.S.'s economic downturn. Disposable income is scarce, and companies are struggling to persuade anime fans to purchase shows that they can oftentimes get for free on the internet.
Until now, most companies have resorted to cease & desist letters ordering subbers to stop releasing a series once it has been licensed. Because of the nature of the internet, however, this rarely actually works. Subbers can still translate an episode and release it anonymously on a peer-to-peer network like Bittorrent. Anime companies therefore had to rely on the appeal of an English language audio track, spiffy box art and some extra goodies to get fans to purchase DVDs. However, these draws are less appealing when money is tight.
Enter FUNimation's revolutionary new tactic regarding the airing of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. FUNimation will not only be streaming episodes on their website for free, they will have professional subs of each episode available less than a week after the episode airs in Japan. They are effectively beating fansubbers to the punch, and this approach is a huge step in the right direction for the anime industry. Considering many sub groups take 5 days or more to release an episode themselves, why wait for the fansub when you can get it free and legal from the official license holder? Granted, you don't get to keep it, but that's where FUNimation can expand its strategy to actually make money and truly cut fansubbers off at the pass:
- Release sub-only series in no-frills, economically-priced thinpak boxsets, similar to what TRSI did with SuperGALS! season 2 when it was no longer feasible to dub it. Obviously, folks who are downloading fansubs don't mind watching a series in Japanese, and they enjoy watching a series as cheaply as possible, as soon as possible. If FUNimation can sub an episode in 5 days, they could release an entire thinpak (sub-only) a few weeks after a series ends, taking advantage of the market before enthusiasm wanes and fans find a new favorite show.
- Make streaming subs available for download at a price. Users could choose to download them for their iPhone/PSP or just to keep on their computer. It is important that the price per episode and the price for the boxset be comparable, so that neither option is a rip-off compared to the other.
- Stop producing regular-sized DVDs entirely. Either release a thinpak all at once, or release the first thin DVD with the box and sell each subsequent DVD in thin format. Full-width DVD cases are economically impractical and a tremendous waste of money and space for most anime fans.
Comments
There's nothing "revolutionary" about Funi's streaming. BOST and Crunchyroll have done it before with the first season of Druaga. Crunchy is still at it, notably with Shippuuden and Arashi.
I don't really like the number 3 one anyway about number 1 most prefer fansubbing because they typeset the kanji in the anime and also they do romanji, kanji, eng for the opening and ending aslo they explain whats going on with the anime like with the translation note. I just think if the FUNimation and other anime distribution companies just need to translate what the anime character are saying...they don't have to make it simple to make us understand...they can just make a notebook with translation note. Can't they just ask fansubbers for the script? I'm sure there are some fansubbers that are intrested in giving the script.
Using fansub scripts is practiced outside the anglosphere, for example the official R5 release of Tokikake uses roxfan's script. But in the context of a simulcast, you don't want to rely on someone who's not in your employ (and in a good standing at that -- what if they just quit? what if they leak the script?)
mam04 - Plenty of dubbing companies provide translation notes. Maybe not always on-screen, but my Azumanga Daioh DVDs each came with a booklet of translation notes for that volume's episodes. Besides, if that's something that fans like about fansubs, then it's something dubbers should adopt, not a reason for fans to watch fansubs *instead of* dubs.
Author - I'm talking about the companies actually responsible for the American DVD releases: FUNi, ADV, Bandai, etc.
Rachel: The article is running over the same arguments that have been made for the past three years, and they've all been addressed or are being addressed.
Another issue is the idea that companies are not offering paid streaming options when all but two of the Region 1 distributors are offering content directly on iTunes for download, Hulu, YouTube, and other major video portals for free along with the aforementioned CrunchyRoll.
Next time before you write an article, make sure you do all of your research beforehand as this article is retreading old arguments without adding anything new.
Nothing makes me more doubtful of aspiring anime bloggers than those who don't bother with research and it shows in the lack of useful/actual information in an article, especially one regarding the distribution industry itself.
@Author
Well the company can offer the people working in fan sub some money for the script but then its better if the distributor adapt to the way fansubbers sub the anime.
@Rachel
well that's a good news but its only goning to be only done in few of the shows. What about shows like Xxxholic? That one has lots of things to do with ghots, mahjong...I heard that they haven't explained those things.
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Also I dont like the way they said they are gonna sell the dvd's in thinpak. >_<
This is an old argument that is getting older and older.
Funi recently went after several of the larger groups who were subbing both FMA and Phantom slapped them with C&D's and in several cases had their websites killed. Has this stopped the groups from subing them? Nope they've just taken everything off the website and moved to irc. Total down time, a few minutes.
While people cite the typeseting of karaeoke an stuff as being a a reason for fansubs, the truth is the vast majority of people dont care about the op/ed. THey may watch it once or twice, but mostly they move strieght to the main show skipping them.
The main bone of contention with fans is the script rewriting that ALL the companies do to some degree. Some or better than others true, but they all rewrite the scripts to what they (the companies) think will appeal to a broader base. For example, Kurokami was reduced from a seinen series to a shonen series so as it would appeal to more. The end result was alienating fans of the original manga.
There's a fine line between tidying the script up, and doing a rewrite. Until the publishers learn that, they'll never win the fans over. No matter how fancy they make the dvds.
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