Otakuism

A new discussion on fansubs and the industry? Time to open up the ol’ blog.

Justin Sevakis posted an open letter today to anime fans and industry insiders alike about fansubs and piracy, focusing on the very dire future for the anime industry. According to him the industry is in a terrible economic situation and needs to change soon before everything collapses in on itself. While a little bit too much doom and gloom sounding for my tastes, I have no reason to disbelieve what he’s saying. When everybody starts yelling at once that the house is on fire, you’re kind of forced to believe them.

The editorial does a good job of side-stepping the fansub “us vs. them” debate and instead focus on how the Japanese companies are mostly at fault for letting things get to this point and their unwillingness to change. To me there is already enough blame to go around, so I’ll just skip that and instead focus on what can be done to help the industry. The consensus is clear between everyone, fans and businessmen alike, on what has to be done: simultaneous releases in both countries for an affordable rate.

If anything, the anime industry is in an unique place to fix itself. There is no other medium with as technologically savvy of a fanbase. The technology and distribution systems are already there and proven. To me, an ideal situation would be a monthly subscription service that would let one watch as much anime as possible, all subtitled releases released at most a week from the original air date. Individual DVD releases would be done away with completely, no reason to need to watch the first couple of episodes on DVD when you’ve seen them online, and replaced by complete boxsets with individual sub and dub releases.
While I am by no means an industry insider, I see no problem with such a system.

Obviously fansubbing would still exist, but would at least be less prevalent with the existence of a viable alternative. The technology and manpower is there, the only thing that is lacking is the will to action. As Justin Sevakis accurately said, the big Japan media companies are afraid of change, deathly afraid, afraid of the loss of control. In this way they are no different from any other big media company of today, whether it be movies or music. But this is the age of the internet and things have to change. Anime is the perfect testing ground for a digital distribution system. Better to change now than lose everything in the future. However, I cannot say I’m very confident such a change will occur anytime soon. The solution has been known for years and only the will to action is lacking. As Jeff Lawson has said in his brilliant commentary on the situation, “perhaps gnashing our teeth is the only thing we can do.”