Anime Piracy

Fan dubs...are they supporting or destroying the anime industry?

Justin Sevaki: Due to fandubs Anime is now worthless
Anime Genesis: Thats stupid. By saying this you make people think its okay to not pay for anime unlike most fans who watch the fandubs, like the anime, and go and buy it.

Me: I watch fan subs because I want to see the perticular anime...and usually that want is fueled by hype or mass fan attention its getting. Now I would never go and buy a movie I've never seen or a CD I've never heard. SO I would like to actually find a way to watch/preview that anime before I buy a $80+ boxset.

The idea that fan subs support the industry is debateable and both sides give convincing arguments. On one hand by bringing attention to the animes early by getting them to the states as soon as possible, "the hype is maintained" and the companys get DVDs (or Blueray now) out sooner and profits would go up.

Also in my early anime experience I was resonably against pirating anything...but then came limewire and fansubs and I was okay with watching a whole 26+ episode series, not paying for it, and moving on with my life. After all I didn't think it was too likely that I would bother watching a series more than once. But now I feel moraly oblagated now that I'm not smuthering my concience.

Plus humans are more likely then not to prefer having the physical manefestation of the anime...also I'm getting tired of crappy video quality (though downloads are usually better quality) and sitting in front of my computer...I'd much rather get the DVD, get in my bed, and get to watching me some anime! So either you get interested in the anime (thanks to fan dubs [or mainsteam anime/kid anime])and buy it when it comes out (early, thanks to fan dubs). Or watch the anime and not pay, robbing the industry and virtualy making the anime market "worth nothing".


Additional Blogger Opinion:"However I still disagree that it's Fansubs that have popularized anime. I've always felt it was the rise of fan favorite titles like DBZ and Pokemon with the younger kids that have caused such a big push for anime in the US. As people outgrew the "younger" anime they wanted something more adult causing anime distributers to to go crazy trying to accomadate them. It's just the natural evolution of fandom, as something becomes popular more competition takes place. I don't denie that Fansubs have made some titles more popular, but no more so than advertising hype, and reviews do." ~Emerje (blogger on anime news network boards).

To conclude I feel (as with most other things) that many factors are reponsible for anime growth, its move to America, and its profits for the big and small companys. I think that most people, if not some, were first introduced to anime as kids or were hooked on the early stuff (that we may or may not have even known at the time was anime). Then people went out and bought it and the industry flourished because the companys were forced to move there buns to satisfy initial demand of it. This is thanks to fan dubbing as it was broght to America earlier because of this and there for was given more publicity. Most of all I think its largly the want to jump on the bandwagon or the hype for anime. This of course is fueled by fandubs.

*Sigh* Just go buy the anime OKAY?? Stealing is bad. (I'm such a hypocrite :P)

By the way The Anime Blog has a recent post with some great statistics regarding anime sales...its definitly something to look at;

http://theanimeblog.com/2007/12/11/state-of-the-anime-industry-in-the-us-redux-and-geneon-epilogue/