How to “fix” the “industry,” part 1
My version. Sort of like fixing a cat
Oh God, what am I doing now?
A lot has been made of the “industry” lately, even though most people don’t even know what they mean when they say the word. Does that mean the anime industry in Japan, a nebulous thing that’s constantly on the verge of not being able to sell enough Gundam figures to stay afloat? Or is it the R1 licensing industry, that most noble employer of California’s worst actors that is constantly begging us to prop it up with one side of its mouth while calling us criminals with the other? You know, like Metallica circa 2000.
Anime bloggers have a pretty strong opinion; after all, their primary hobby involves downloading fansubbed anime. Well, most anime bloggers. Some are in denial of their very bloggeritude, and prefer to insult other bloggers while pretending to be “real” journalists by writing infrequently and buddying up to the industry. Maybe that’s unfair, but tit for tat, I’ll trade one smack to the face for a million constant niggling insults. But noooo linky-link for obvious link bait. And, I digress…
Eleventeen easy steps
Idea one: Prosecute or litigate fans. I’m not sure for what crime exactly, but media companies love this kind of shit. It could recoup some money in settlements, but court fees always suck. This approach starts with “please support us,” as if that is in fact the consumers’ obligation, then grows more and more indignant until we end up in court. The RIAA tried this approach but found that milking cash out of grandmas and 12-year-olds ain’t all it’s cracked up to be, and the PR was… bad, I guess?
Idea two: Quick and dirty releases. Licensing anime is a gamble. The audience for anime in the west is not huge, outside of the Bleaches and Narutos. Yet companies like ADV pour tons of cash into dubbing, special features, fancy boxes etc. for each individual release, thus making time-to-market and price point really irritating for fans. Yes, licensing costs money in the first place, but can we please try the other end of the risk-reward spectrum? I love to cite Right Stuf’s soon-upcoming release of Aria’s first season, a niche show in subtitle-only release with minimal packaging. If they licensed with the speed of, say, Geass, a company could squish time drastically, and save money in paychecks written out to shitty “actors” whose voices I no longer listen to anyway, thanks to the magic of multi-channel DVDs. Which reminds me, I was in the basement during my move, and I saw some VHSes and realized I’ve never seen Nadesico in non-dub form. Sad. I bet Gai Daigoji sounds awesome in his native language.
Idea three: Legal downloads, done right. Obviously this is something that Japan hopes will work (Gonzo), and R1 is going for it too (we’ll see how that goes, DRM is bound to jack it up). Just like the music industry, they’re being slow in the tech department. Your aim is to beat the fansubbers? Time is on your side, that’s been proven — obviously a fansub can’t release faster than a simultaneous subtitled broadcast. But you need to fight using the same weapons. We want the same HD release over here that Japanese televisions are showing. You lack the bandwidth you say? Well, holy shit, guess what, so do the fansubbers. It’s called bittorrent, and it’s not just for piracy and fansubs.
Idea four: Good licenses. How do these people pick? Oh good, thanks Manga, I was really hoping to see that low-budget tits-n-guns OAV from 1992. I don’t know how constructive this point is, I’m pretty sure I just wanted to use the phrase “no one wants to watch your shitty anime.” Or make a Strike Witches reference.
But what do you think?
Though Japan’s anime industry is hurting right now, the USA is the central location for a lot of debate right now, thanks to a few things:
- The DMCA
- Americans think they are the entire world
- America apparently needs to prop Japan up
- American companies like ADV are hurting worse than Japan
- Greg Ayres
So I reached out to some animu bloggers in America — people you probably know — to get their takes on this issue that just doesn’t seem to want to go away. Check back all this week to see what they said!
Torrentplz
Also, that first picture is now sorta ironic.
I think “legal download done right” and “good license” and “quick and dirty” may not help as much. Look at what’s happening with Xam’d… Of course people will complain saying it’s too expensive or whatever, but that excuse applies to any attempt at extracting our money for goods and services.
I’m not saying Xam’d’s release is perfect, far from it. But along with Gonzo’s releases they’re as good as it gets, and you see people “pirate” them just the same. People need to encourage companies to do this stuff if they want more and want better/better price points.
It’s because he does, actually. Goofy yet GAR.
Are the next steps coming in future episodes? :3
Nothing screams ‘fixed’ like a few thousand DU rounds emptied into a fansubber’s residence.
Who cares about the fallout, it fixes the problem, and adds the much-needed ‘fear’ into the equation. After all, no one argues with the man with the smoking gun.
Kabitzin: Ironic because Shirley got some dessert a couple weeks ago?
omo: To me it looks like both Xam’d and the Bost shows are getting some degree of success with a product that doesn’t really meet most people’s demands. That’s why I say “done right.” If they’ve already seen a drop in fansubbing (don’t know how to measure that) with imperfect products, then continuing to improve those products should continue to reduce piracy. Piracy not being in quotes because this is legally released in worldwide markets, so unsanctioned fan releases pretty much become piracy.
BigN: Future episodes, yep. I have 3 pending counting yours, and hopefully more to come.
DrmChsr0: Well, this is the Internet, and someone has to fill the role of “Guy who Pretends to Believe that Murder and/or Saber-tooth Tigers is a Viable Solution to all Problems.”
(-_-)…
Aside from #1, the ideas you mention all make sense, but one point that I didn’t see is that the anime “fanbase” is far from monolithic.
The collectors who decorate their rooms with box sets and wall scrolls are thrilled by exquisitely complete DVD releases, even if they’re years after the fact, and so they might be pissed at any implementation of idea #2 – whereas the casual anime viewers who buy what their friends and/or hype tell them to buy would be thrilled.
Then there’s the “week-to-week” crowd – including bloggers such as you and I – who’d rather follow series more or less as they air and who’d thus prefer a focus on solution #3. To us, DVDs are extras, and buying them constitutes a badge of honor that shows have to earn.
Anyway. That was way too intelligent a post for me. I’m off to dumb myself down with some Sekirei.
The thing is, I think many anime fans still want DVDs to be released. I don’t think downloads will ever completely take over DVD. After all, it’s now bred into a fansub downloader’s psyche that downloads = free, so downloading something for money will seem like such a waste. If I’m going to pay money for a series, I want to have some physical evidence of what I’ve paid for, i.e. a DVD (and a nice box is a bonus).
If the Japanese industry could get worldwide releases of anime on DVD (like what Bandai are doing with their Blu-ray discs in the Autumn) I think it would go a long way in helping.
Korasoff and gerjomarty: Bandai’s worldwide Blu-Ray is a fantastic idea that I haven’t even mentioned, but it’s along the lines of digital releases because it’s simultaneous.
It’s funny that in the space of two comments we have two almost polar opposite opinions — physical evidence is important, vs. physical evidence is a nice but unessential bonus.
To me that says a multi-pronged approach might be the best way to go, because the multitude of options that technology has given us mean a multitude of different opinions on how anime should be consumed.
Scott: As I said, maybe that’s a bit unfair to go on the attack, but I’ve felt a bit hurt by some of your comments about other anime bloggers. Just like we have differing opinions on the fansub thing (live and let live ultimately…), we have different motivations to blog and I don’t think it’s fair to judge folks just because they don’t have professional writing aspirations. I find it much more enjoyable to be part of a community than to position myself as above it. Now, maybe that’s not your intention, but make no mistake, it comes off that way.
HD release is limited not because of bandwidth problem, it’s because if they release anime in HD with little or no restrictions, then the value of their overseas DVD license practically goes to zero as HD downloads will be cheaper and higher quality than those of DVD. DVD licensing is still the main bread and butter for the anime industry as it is the most profitable, while downloads is seeing a raise it’s not replacing DVD revenue anytime soon (or ever, just like in the music industry where CDs are still way more profitable than mp3 downloads) and before they can actually begin to see sizable returns on the other methods and mainstream adaptation of HD disk (blu-ray), they will not do unrestricted HD digital releases.
You can’t fix cats! They’re not broken!
And I’ve never heard the saying ‘fixing a cat’ before lols.
>>Oh God, what am I doing now?
You’re being a lovely papa like always.
>>Anime bloggers have a pretty strong opinion; after all, their primary hobby involves downloading fansubbed anime.
LIIIIIES!
>>Licensing anime is a gamble.
Didn’t your mum ever teach you not to gamble?
>>Americans think they are the entire world
Wrong. blissmo thinks she is the entire world.
Step 0: get Japan to pull their head out of the sand.
[...] To Defib A Dead Horse From Otou-san: So I reached out to some animu bloggers in America — people you probably know — to get their [...]
I see JP is as eloquent as ever.
>> That’s why I say “done right.”
My point is that’s the excuse people have to boycott/avoid these legit attempts at changing the system (for the better). In my mind, they are already doing the right thing. It’s not perfect, and sure, it is not ‘done right.’ But we will never get to ‘done right’ if people don’t vote with their money.
houkoholic: you’re right that downloads will never reach the profit margins of DVDs (like music), although DVDs themselves are not the high-margin products that things like figures or other merch are. But as we are seeing with music, digital allows for new models. By the old way, a studio or company can’t profit off the West without a middleman like ADV, but Gonzo is more or less taking its product directly to the Western consumer right now. Of course, that applies to DVD as well, with Bandai and their direct Blu-Rays. But digital makes it one step easier.
omo: of course you’re right, there. I don’t mean to give anyone an “out” for pirating these shows rather than watching the legit version (again, you download a fansub of Strike Witches and it is piracy), just saying that improving will silence the naysayers. And Xam’d is HD, but unfortunately without a PS3 I can’t watch it, so that’s a bit flawed too. Anyway, I’m voting with my dollars (I paid for both Tower and Blassreiter, Strike Witches I just can’t love…) because I think it’s at the very least a step in the right direction and we have the power to steer this ship by supporting those efforts.
blissmo: over here, when we say getting a dog or cat “fixed,” that means spaying or neutering…
Actually, with regards to point no. 4, I feel the companies should listen to their audience a little bit more. Open a feedback channel or something.
C.I., one of my upcoming posts is about just that — TheBigN of Drastic My Anime Blog thinks similarly.
OH NO SPOILERS!
otou-san
The thing with the Japanese taking it directly to the overseas market and cut out to middleman is that while it looks logical from our (the customers and armchair analyist’s POV), in reality most companies either don’t dare or couldn’t afford to take this road. We know why Gonzo did this because 1) their head honcho is know as quite the maverick in the industry and 2) they are getting desperate financially because Gonzo typically aims for the overseas market so they feel the pain much more than the other companies and studios. Bandai is just a huge company that can afford to do its stuff fully internally, and this is the same for Toei. However a lot of the other anime companies aren’t even on the same page, in particulary the DVD publishers are especially resistant to this change, companies such as Geneon (Japan), Pony Canyon, Avex Entertainment, TBS and King Records for example, these guys only deals in physical disks and do not really “create” any product so to speak (they invest money to turn manga and games into anime, that’s all), these people are most resistant to going digital, and unfortunately they actually make up the majority of the industry.
[...] the Internet and its largely ad-supported content do make it theoretically possible). Perhaps omo’s insistence that we vote with our wallets is the first step in saying what we need to [...]
[...] venerable Otou-san has been discussing the woes of the anime industry of the past few days, first defining the problem and putting forth some ideas, then asking famous bloggers for their take on the issue. (As I write this last bit he’s [...]
[...] Me: Eleventeen easy steps. [...]
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