Japan Says “Quit That Shit!”
The Japanese government has issued a formal request to the U.S. government to assist in clamping down on downloads of media owned by Japanese companies (e.g. anime), according to anime!anime!.
In the request they note that asking us to stop hasn’t yielded much by way of results, and that an international lawsuit would probably be cost-prohibitive.
Now, anime companies in the U.S. have generally tolerated fansubs of unlicensed materials unless requested otherwise (i.e. Romeo x Juliet) as a semi-necessary evil. I’d always more or less figured that Japanese companies felt more or less the same– though Gonzo’s stunt with RxJ seems to imply otherwise, since there is still no word of a U.S. release for the series.
I mention this because I’m kind of inclined to see this move as yet another attempt by the Japanese government to take control of anime and manga as it becomes sort of the country’s “official” cultural export. So, did the government go over the heads of the Japanese production companies? Or are they in on it? Hmm…
WERE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WAHAHAH NOW WHAT WE GONNA DUEZ *dances all mad*
THATS SO NOT KAWAII DESU NE
The Japanese have never thought it was OK. It’s us downloaders delusion. They’ve always hated it.
@tj han: Wow, since when is “I’d figured they tolerated it as a necessary evil” the same thing as saying “they thought it was OK?” Did someone rewrite the dictionary while I was napping? ;)
Of course my impression may be off– it’s based entirely on observation, i.e. the lack of any strong movement against downloads from the Japanese combined with the reactions of JP company reps at conventions. But after all, that’s why I said “I’d figured” instead of declaring it as a fact.
After all, I’M not a psychic, so I’m not aware of the uniform opinion that all Japanese have. Lucky for me, it seems you do :)
No matter how I look at it, I just can’t see how fansubbing is bad for the anime market in America.
1. Most Americans don’t understand Japanese (I’m one of them, and I’m quite jealous of those who can).
2. Most Americans become nauseous when they watch dubbed anime on television.
Given these two facts it’s hard to see most legitimate anime ever turning a profit in the US without some other way to let us see the market.
Personally I’ve only purchased, or had friends purchase manga or other anime due to a previous encounter with a scanlation or sub.
I bet you’re spot on Gia, saying that this must be the government acting up without a real idea of why such a market exists. This reeks of political tedium and I’ll happily go on knowing this statement will affect our community in no way whatsoever.
Well, there are a lot of reasons why fansubbing is bad for Japanese companies in the American market or otherwise. Remember, the goal isn’t to have the maximum number of people watching– the goal is to make money.
First off, Japanese companies don’t make money off of fansubs; they make money off of legitimate sales. While the overall number of people watching (X) series would go down a lot if fansubs weren’t available, the number of people willing to buy it would probably go up at least a bit.
Second, Japanese companies like to have control over their intellectual properties. When they license (X) series to (Y) company, they do so because they like the way that (Y) company does things, and they virtually always have some amount of oversight in terms of (Y) company’s final product.
Third, fansubs aren’t only available to people in the U.S. Downloaders in Japan can also snag the subs or raws that are uploaded and therefore avoid having to pay for the DVDs to watch the series.
Also, I wouldn’t be so quick to jump on the “most anime fans hate dubs” train– there are a vast number of dub fans out there; they tend to be less “hardcore,” though, so you see them somewhat less online. I used to think the way you do, but when I started writing for anime mags and websites I realized that there are actually a LOT of dub fans, and/or people who are at least content to watch dubs.
The anime industry in the U.S. has a rather curious dichotomy. In the end, the fans that companies are courting are the absolute most mainstream ones, who almost exclusively find series because it airs on TV. These are where the big sales numbers come from.
But on the other hand, the real taste-makers are the hardcore fans, we who watch the subs years before they could make it onto TV. We are also largely the ones who will buy merchandise and attend conventions and the like.
It’s all pretty tricky, isn’t it?
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Unfortunatly, downloads I believe are the future. Whether or not they harm industries are hard to tell, however anime fan subs have been around for quite awhile, but the internet just made them way more exchanged. I don’t think anyone can stop downloads…… unless they’re China.
P.S. don’t forget about Media Factory’s c&d
If I were a betting person, I’d wager that the Japanese Government did this at the behest of the Anime industry, or at least with their silent approval. That way if there is an outcry, the industry has deniability. If there is no outcry, they’ll run with it as long as they can, let the government do the dirty work.
With the time lag between the Japanese releases and their North American counterparts becoming shorter and shorter (at least for the popular titles) what they used to view as an annoyance has now become, in their minds, a threat. Japanese companies are nothing if not determined. This was step 3 out of about 15.
Tricky indeed!
@Auglaize: Absolutely and entirely plausible.
So in essence, with the more “casual” fans watching dubs on television after licensing, and the “hardcore” fans watching new, up to date fansubbed material, the system seems to be working well. Not perfect of course, but streamlined.
I can’t see how a government issued statement will improve anything for either side. Should action be taken against fansubbers, scanslations, will that improve how we receive Japanese media in any way?
Short of an itunes-like service mixed with a translating feature, there’s no good ideas going through to provide us with new shows at a price (I think I saw a manga feature like this recently).
So is the only way an “all or nothing” approach? Guess that’s the government’s view.
Do you think this will have any noticeable affects Gia?
@Roryo: I wouldn’t say that the system is working all that well, considering the serious cuts, layoffs, and other problems that anime-only companies have been suffering lately.
You’ll notice that the major anime companies that HAVEN’T had a big problem in the last few months are VIZ, which has a huuuuge manga side keeping it healty; Media Blasters, which has porn and yaoi keeping it running; and Bandai Entertainment and Bandai Visual USA, which both have some access to Bandai Japan’s pockets.
As for all or nothing, I have an idea that I’m going to outline in an open letter in the near future, I think.
And noticeable effects…well, that’s hard to say. It seems to me that the government has its hands pretty full with the RIAA and MPAA, but that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible for them to devote some energy to Jpop culture piracy, especially if Japan– who probably takes it a lot more seriously than the US does –puts a lot of pressure on the US about it.
[...] notes that the Japanese government has asked the U.S. authorities to crack down on fansubbers. [...]
[...] roccol wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe Japanese government has issued a formal request to the US government to assist in clamping down on downloads of media owned by Japanese companies (eg anime), according to anime!anime!. In the request they note that asking us to stop … [...]
While it is completely in their rights to do this, I wonder how it will affect sales of series that don’t translate to trailers well. What I mean by this is most slice of life anime and/or some shoujo anime. Dialogue heavy stuff. I can see all the other genres rolling along just fine, but the niche titles may suffer.
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