The current anime scene drama has gotten too interesting for me to avoid posting about, so here goes. It's been a while since we got to some good old-fashioned fandom drama, yeah?
Anime's been a pretty drama-heavy field lately: the industry is in big financial trouble and a lot of it's had to do with the fact that fans overwhelmingly get their anime for free online instead of paying for the often very expensive official DVDs of the material. Anime is hugely popular, but selling anime is also completely unprofitable. I've put in a word or two about this before, but the situation has developed, so here are some more.
Crunchyroll is a popular website that functions as a Youtube for anime and Asian media that appeals to anime fans. This leads us to one major difference from Youtube: anything that can possibly be posted on to Crunchyroll is copyrighted content. Youtube has a lot of popular user-created content on it and has worked out a lot of deals with rights-holders, so while the material pops up, you can't really say the site is all about hosting copyrighted material. That is, on the other hand, the exact purpose of Crunchyroll. Well, alright. All the unlicensed anime that I download on torrent sites is copyrighted material just the same, and I'm not one bit against that, now am I?
The big difference is that Crunchyroll makes money. They took donations, they ran ads, and they even had the stones to charge for high-quality versions of the videos that they didn't pay anybody a dime for. Fansubbers weren't asked permission for the use of their translations, and licenses were only respected when the content owners requested takedowns. Crunchyroll operated and continues to operate as a parasite, and it's been a very profitable enterprise for them. As such they're pretty much reviled by-- save their users-- everybody: fans, fansubbers and industry alike.
So boy howdy, was there a lot of excitement when Crunchyroll got 4 million dollars in venture capital! In an ailing industry, this is, to put it delicately, a real Tiger Uppercut to the balls. Even industry heads had to pop up and say "wait, what?" But that's not all! Popular animation studio Gonzo-- the one that just cannot make a good show-- is in talks with these dudes! So now it's not even just a Tiger Uppercut anymore, it's a Tiger Flame, as seen in Kouryu. Balls having now been smashed in and subsequently burnt to a fine ash, many disillusioned fans just sort of stood there dumbfounded, weeping quietly to themselves. What a life, what an industry, what a life! You shouldn't bother watching Gonzo shows anyway, guys!
Crunchyroll Inc., having already made assloads of money as an illegal parasite, is trying to reposition itself as a legal medium for legal anime (and illegal anime that nobody sends them cease-and-desists over). Licensed anime series are starting to disappear-- to the raging, misspelled, 13-year-old outrage of many of CR's users, who just can't find any other way to watch Naruto, I'm sure-- and the ads and donations have left. Not that they're really needed anymore. Four million dollars!
Now Anime News Network-- a site that's very linked to the ailing official anime industry-- has been running a couple of interesting pieces on this business, including a fansubber interview that affirms my views that fansubbers are simultaneously wonderful and total retards, and as of now, an interview with a Crunchyroll staffer. There isn't really much to see: the guy's a smart crook who knows it, and as such he spends the interview dodging questions and making sure he doesn't incriminate himself. It's about the same as if they'd decided to interview CR's lawyers. All you really need to know is the unavoidable fact that with Crunchyroll as a full-time job for all of its staffers, they obviously receive paychecks. This all-too-obvious fact practically has to be pried out of the man with a crowbar, and it is incriminating. It is all you need to know: these guys have made full-time jobs profiting from other people's work. The site is a for-profit and blatantly illegal business masquerading as a fansite.
Now here's why I find this situation so bloody frustrating: I was just asking where the hell the money was in anime, and apparently, a good bit of it's with these fuckin' guys! That's no good! If you've got money that you want to spend on anime, it still shouldn't go to these dudes: they've done absolutely nothing to earn that money from you. Put it into to the industry, at least! I don't even care if you buy a goddamn hugpillow: at least you're showing some love.
As fans, we do need to be conscientious about stuff like this, because it involves us whether we want it to or not. It will affect you, sooner or later, and you're kidding yourself if you think it won't. I'm not going to offer you the false and tired "if you don't buy it it'll go extinct" argument, because we all know anime is not going to disappear from the face of the earth any time in the foreseeable future. Could the US industry crumble? Yeah. Would anime disappear? Of course not. But it would suffer. I will say this, though: the worse the business does, worldwide, the more we're going to see quality slip. Quality, invention and originality are always going to lose out to the cheap, the hackneyed, and the safe, and this goes double when you don't have any money to experiment with. People ask where that new, great, breakout show is-- where's the new Bebop?-- and I'd say that if this industry had a little more room to move, we might be seeing it.
I wonder if they'll ever finish the Hellsing OVAs.
I read the interview and then sent them a takedown request for Otokojuku. I wonder if they'll actually do it. Or if I'll ever find anyone who can translate it without going crazy.
Posted by: astrange | March 25, 2008 at 11:50 PM
My, that spirit! That's Otokojuku!
Posted by: Sub | March 25, 2008 at 11:53 PM
Otokojuku's infamous Spiked and Oiled Pit of Translation Hell has driven me to the brink of madness, sorry.
Posted by: kransom | March 26, 2008 at 01:20 PM
Nice views on this subject!
Oh boy, this debate has gotten interesting lately.
It think Crunchy Roll tells us alot about this new generation of anime watchers - I mean, who can honestly stand watching streaming anime in a browser? That's just not the way it was meant to be watched.
And have you seen the 4th Hellsing OVA yet? I was honestly really disappointed with it compared to the first 3...maybe the next one will look even better and actually be a decent length :\
Posted by: kristoffer | March 26, 2008 at 01:54 PM
>>I don't even care if you buy a goddamn hugpillow: at least you're showing some love.
Well good to know I've done my part... 10+ times
and I even buy the odd DVD. Just a lot of my favourite shows are too fringe to be picked up anyway :/
Posted by: wildarmsheero | March 27, 2008 at 02:49 PM
i always watch anime online, but not from crucnchyroll though
id prefer dvds but they are so expensive, the ones i like best are £100 these anime companies need to reduce prices or theyll get nothing
Posted by: gerry | October 02, 2009 at 09:54 AM