Corporate Weaboo Lies: Fansubbing and Anime
This post is more a follow-up to this post: The death of what, now?
Quick Summary: Localization companies (ADV, Funimation, etc.) are complaining about fansubbing ruining their business. That's essentially a lie. People everywhere aren't buying DVDs and other details about the fanbase hint at lower sales.
Essentially, it's come to my attention that Funimation is not evil, all the anime localization companies are just stupid. They are whining that they're foreign cash cow dried up with the expansion of the internet and instead of embracing the fanbase and cutting costs they would rather bitch and moan about the times.
Technically, downloading fansubs is illegal due to copyright laws. Last time I checked, no one gives a damn. Simply put, animation companies in Japan earn next to nothing from airing anime. They make money off the licensing deals. That's right: anime video games, figurines, movie deals, etc. The basic premise is sell the anime to a TV station for just enough in revenue so your lights don't cut off and then pray that there are enough nerds out there who want scantly clad plastic dolls of your anime's female lead.
How does fansubbing fit it? More people are now watching your show -- more people will buy your stupid dolls. Clearly, I'm not one of those people...until you start talking about the anime video games, wallscrolls, or other things not ridiculously pervy.
Honestly, I'm not going to pay $20 for 3 episodes that I could've watched a year (sometimes even two years) ago for free. Especially when part of the cost is unnecessary shoddy voice acting and unwanted frills (half-assed character profiles and other crap they smack on to the DVD).
Fansubs are giving us what we want. Clean fonts, stylized karoke for intros, with all the spiffs of chapter skips just like DVD navigation (in MKVs anyway). They're doing this for free and often within 24 hours of airing in Japan.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention in HIGH DEFINITION. DVDs paltry 480p doesn't hold a candle to the 720p (sometimes 1080p) Over-The-Air (OTA) rips often found in Japan. Just like TV over in the states is often in HD, anime airs in HD in Japan.
Essentially, I'm paying a lot more money for a lower quality product. I heard good things about the Gurren Lagaan localization. Start bringing anime over here in HD, faster, and for less and I guarantee you'll see those sales climb again.
There really is no need for these expansive dubbing projects. We have our own after-school cartoons -- it's called Avatar, complete with well-done English voices.
EDIT: Apparently, the previous image had the server blocking image stealing. So I grabbed it from someone else. Yes, I am too lazy to download the images and re-upload them to flickr/photobucket/etc. when I make posts at 1AM or while I'm at work.