Shameful Otaku Secret!

The world changes

Well, it didn’t happen. I had all my posts scheduled but one. The final one. Rather than making excuses, here it is, a few days late and a couple dollars short, since now I’m sick from my holidays and doped up on cold medicine and possibly unable to form sentences.

This year, regardless of your knowledge or opinion on the matter of fansubbing and its legality, you doubtless noticed that a few companies, all in different areas of the distribution chain, created online solutions to something they saw as a problem. Funimation has added legit streaming of a freshly-licensed, currently-airing show, Shikabane Hime, and [duh, Bandai] is airing a simlutaneous series (Black God) on American cable TV. TV Tokyo partnered with Crunchyroll to bring the mega-series Bleach, Naruto, and Shugo Chara! to North America in realtime with an HD stream. And Sony broadcast Xam’d all over the world through the Playstation Network.

But it all started with Blassreiter and Tower of Druaga by Gonzo. That sometimes-maligned, currently in-the-red animation studio with a penchant for “adult”-oriented violence series and overuse of CG suddenly launched itself — and the rest of us — into a brave new world where borders break down, regions transform from “Japan” and “North America” into “the world,” and a licensing company isn’t even needed anymore.

Of course, once the idea was hit on, the licensing companies (namely Funi) jumped on the stream wagon, but the TV Tokyo/Crunchy deal proves that we may still be able to break down the barriers. Fundamental problems, such as DRM, resolution, and availability outside of North America have yet to be ironed out, but when I think of how amazing Gonzo’s springtime announcment was, I get some faith.

You call it filler, I call it… blog tapas.

Nothing worth a full blog post here. So here’s a few random thoughts:

1. Nabari No Mo

Fansub group Rumi has been issued a takedown notice by Funimation, who has “obtained an agreement authorizing FUNimation to act on behalf of d-rights to prevent infringement on specific titles.” So no more than 6 episodes from the end of a series, I’m forced to stop watching it, “though these series have not been licensed to a local distributor in North America.” That means I may never see the end (you know, where the inevitable gay sex will be).

I have a couple questions here (perhaps someone like a jpmeyer or an Omo can answer them):

1. Firstly, is it not the distribution of raws that is the illegal part? So wouldn’t releasing a script (like an .ass) be a reasonable “circumvention?” Obviously, that’s up to the subbers, if they want to play it clean, they might not even want to enable people who obtain the raws, but if you obtain the raws you’ve already done the dodgy part… or am I wrong?
2. Second, how does the DMCA, and US federal copyright law, apply to a property that isn’t licensed in the US?
3. Does this imply that there will be a license for the series, and the other ones in the package (Bamboo Blade, Monochrome Factor, etc)?
4. Could someone pull a pirate bay and locate (their tracker) outside the jurisdiction of Funi and the DMCA? I’m not saying it’s a great idea, just curious.

Anyway, I can’t say I’m really that rootin’ tootin’ about the series, but now that I’ve come this far, it’s at least a rental. Provided it actually becomes licensed.

2. I am an extremist, and I enjoy seeing pretty girls being dismembered.

According to Author anyway.

Well… let’s not get carried away. I mean… are there robots involved? This affects my answer. I suppose I did caption that image “Fuck yes,” but really that picture was just enabling some fine-ass Kabitzin punnery.

And if what you meant was, “I would rather see some sweet spattering gore as long as it’s in a good anime than watch a bunch of underage nekomimi cavort around in their underpants for 24 minutes a week while pretending to be airplanes,” then yes. I am an extremist.

Anyway, I do understand the creators are in the place where they are through no fault of their own, but my 2 bucks doesn’t care where the blame goes. It cares when the new Blassreiter comes out.

3. I can’t find my Netflix.

This is irrelevant to most of anything, but people have been talking a lot about Netflix lately for some retarded reason. Here are some Netflix fun facts:

1. I have been on the service for 8 years.
2. I watched a lot of anime on Netflix.
3. The delay stories are true. You have to know just how fast to return your movies for maximum value. Not too fast, not too slow.
4. “Watch Instantly” is kind of a drag because the DRM requires Internet Explorer (and thus, Windows), there is a really small selection, and anime always shows the dub.
5. There is no big fucking whoop or revelation about Netflix, and if you’re watching anime using it, you are about the 8 millionth person to do so.
6. I have never once made a spreadsheet of my rentals.

Problem is, I moved recently, and all my boxes have finally been unpacked, and some miscellaneous disc-shaped things from one corner of one room are missing: The bonus music CD from the Home Movies season 1 box set, my RahXephon box, and two movies from Netflix. Possibly some candy. Kind of sucks.

4. That reminds me.

Primer is a really good movie. You should try it. Not sure you can get it from Netflix though. I hear some guy is hoarding it at his house. Weird.

That was easy

Well, we waded through six posts where I barely talked about anime at all, wasn’t that boring? Then I pretended to know about economics, and so did some other people. I pissed off Scott again, this time really badly, and as I mentioned, we probably all looked like those old honkies sitting around drinking cheap beer on a Sunday and fixing the world’s problems after a round of golf. Except without the ethnic slurs and pink polo shirts. Good times were had by most.

Here’s what we’ve learned.

• The sky is not falling.
• Problems with “middleman” companies reflect globalization and internet-related growing pains, not just the easily-available fansubs and pirate copies that the internet provides. Japan will probably be OK, but companies like ADV are going to get worse before they get better.
• We should vote with our dollars, and even if new initiatives aren’t perfect, we should try to support them. Meaning, watch Blassreiter, like now.
• As a sort of inverse corollary, we shouldn’t feel obligated to support companies based entirely on good will. This is a capitalism, not a charity.
• Otaku will likely not stop buying DVDs altogether, because shiny objects and bright colors fascinate us.
• Anime bloggers can’t agree on whether teenagers have money, even if marketers seem to.
• Ad-supported content is good in theory, but there are plenty of potential kinks to work out first. Mostly, that it might not pay off. Let’s get on that.
• Many of my usual commenters couldn’t care less about this stuff, but some people who never comment showed up to provide some fantastic insight.

If it were in my power to instantly travel all around the country, I’d sit down and buy you all a beer right now (yes, you too, Scott). As it is, you’ll have to enjoy this less substantial beer with the queen of fanservice for the moment.

And here’s the post roundup:

1. Me: Eleventeen easy steps.
2. Kabitzin: Stop scapegoating fansubs and get with the solutions.
3. Baka-Raptor: The market will correct itself.
4. TheBigN: Respond to your customers.
5. CCY: Try a new ad-supported model.
6. OGT: Count on otaku to buy fetishize the physical.

Anything we didn’t quite cover? I fully expect the world to be completely righted by the time my next post goes live, at which time I’ll return to my regularly scheduled programming, which should wreck the world again since I’ll just be blogging about fansubbed anime.

EDIT: Thanks to omo as well for all the intelligent participation in the comments, here’s his take on things.