'It makes singing about sex almost seem crude.' by Kara
Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at 7:29 AM

Reworking my plan for AMA karaoke isn't fun. It'll be fun when I get there and I'm on stage and it's rolling, I'm sure. But right now, it isn't fun.

I seem to be wanting to take on some pretty annoying subjects in my rants on here lately. Then again, years ago, Kevin Lillard said I had my finger on the pulse of fandom or some shit, which I'm not sure about, but at least someone out there thinks I know what I'm talking about.

People are talking about this one constantly, though ... so I don't know if I can consider it unpopular, except in the way that talking about tetchy subjects is 'unpopular.' Then again ...

Oh, well, hell. It's about the legality of fansubs.

Oh, man. Geez. What? I dunno. I remember when I first discovered fansubs. It's when Central Park Media was dragging their feet about finishing off Revolutionary Girl Utena (they took several years to get past the first story arc, which was 13 episodes out of 39) and an anime club officer found magical VHSs of subtitled versions that fans had made. Remember fansubs on VHS? Anyone? I'm not even gonna ask if anyone remembers when you just had to watch 'em raw and the quality was crap.

I think, when fansubs were tougher to get -- right around the time Napster and Kazaa and Limewire and all that started coming into play (my sophomore and junior year of college) -- fansubs and other such trades stayed under the radar. Not only was it difficult to trace, but also I think there was a certain amount of respect for people who were dedicated enough to take the time not only to translate, but to copy tapes and ship them out.

I watched a lot of things like that -- Boys Over Flowers, Wedding Peach, Utena, and a lot of my first Lupin III exposure. Stuff that's all now licensed. Then around my junior year, my roommate ... whom I addicted through (of all things) the Sailormoon Super Famicom RPG -- introduced me to file-sharing and downloading fansubs. Thus, I got to watch FLCL and Mahoromatic pretty damn early. And I found more Lupin, and a few other obscure things like Brother Dear Brother and Neighborhood Story (neither of which I got to finish watching, nor have I seen subbed anywhere, so if anyone has copies ...). This was freaking amazing. The quality was pretty rubbish, but dear God, subtitled anime on demand? O brave new world that has such geekdom in't!

Then I took my medical withdrawal. I couldn't get to my anime club ... save for one or two outings, I was pretty well homebound. And I discovered the wonders of BitTorrent. Oh, the things I could yoink! And did I ever feel clever!

Now, though, it's kind of the status quo. It's The Way People See Things anymore. And it's considered a sin if you can't get an episode of a new series subbed within five days of it airing. You'll have six or seven groups fighting over who gets it first, and thus whose gets downloaded and loved. People made 'speed subs' of Naruto and Negima (to name two) just so they could be on the ball.

And now studios have a problem with it. And part of me can't blame them. But that's only a small part.

I mean, I'm thinking ... when I was in high school, if someone couldn't catch an episode of something one night, what did I do? Taped it and got it to them so they could watch it. Was this 'okay' where fansubs aren't because it was a tape? Because it had commercials for it? Or ... hm ... because back then you couldn't go to Best Buy and just pick up a whole season of the show and watch the episodes you missed at your leisure?

I'm thinking the last, obviously. Now there's competition. Now there's money involved. Now the studios are dropping money on importing these shows (where Japanese studios are wise and know that the white devils are desperate for certain series, so they can jack the price and laugh all the way to the ginkou, and more power to 'em). Now there's a chance that the fans don't need the companies, and when you couple jealousy with money, it ain't pretty.

Now, these studios paid the money. They're putting effort into it (depending on which studio we're talking about, granted). So they have, quite literally, paid their dues. So ... I kinda have to side with them.

Yeah.

But only a bit.

I've never heard it said since, but I once heard a producer from rather a large company, which shall remain nameless, admit that they depend on fansubs. Why? Because it shows them what shows to pick up. Any group worth their s. has a tracker, where you can see how much uploading and downloading has been going on. It's like free marketing data. There's also exposure in the first place. The kiddies are seeing more shows, they're becoming fans in advance, and tada, insta-advertising. (The Haruhi crew missed this entirely and probably blew a substantial wad that didn't need blowing.)

Incidentally, said producer also admitted that many translators watch the fansubs first to make their work easier, but you didn't hear that from me.

Of course, with any business venture, there is a risk. What about the people who don't follow the Code of the Torrenters -- who keep distributing after a show's available commercially? Unfortunately, you can't control them, and also unfortunately, these are the ones the studios see. The most a studio can really do is issue a Cease and Desist.

The thing is, though, I really do feel sorry for the studios on occasion, because licensing has developed something of a stigma. If a show gets licensed, it isn't free anymore. If it gets licensed, you have to get up from behind your computer and drive to Suncoast and pay money for it. You're now being bound by professionals' busy schedules, rather than the schedules of six fanboys with SubStation and a handful of raws. But, if the studio is any good, you're also getting extras, better video quality, one would think better translation quality (but not always), and a pretty case so you're not sitting there with twenty spindles tagged with mini Post-Its or a CD case that approximates half your own mass.

And, not that people care, you're benefiting the companies and encouraging them to keep it up. In theory.

No, I don't get angry when stuff gets licensed ... I might get annoyed if it gets picked up by a rubbish studio, but I can't understand how it's being 'taken' from me. At the same time, US studios could do with a bit of deflating, and just admit that in the long run, they're getting a great deal of good from the fansubbing community.

And you know, you'd all help that along if you'd stop fscking downloading Death Note.

If you have been, it's looking bad.