Japanese Anime Studio Embraces YouTube Pirates
 

Businessweek has a article about anime on youtube. I sincerely hope they will succeed..:)

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbi...085_543162.htm


Animation producer Kadokawa thinks it has more to gain than to lose by allowing its content to be shared for free on the Net

Last May, when Kadokawa Holdings released The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya on DVD in the U.S., fans of Japanese animation swarmed shops in Los Angeles and other cities. For months, Kadokawa, a Tokyo publisher and TV and movie distributor, had dropped hints about the anime's imminent overseas release on a Web site. But other than that, it did almost no advertising. It didn't have to. The company merely tapped into the huge following Haruhi Suzumiya already had on YouTube (GOOG) and other video-sharing Web sites.

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That's a nice article, though I take offense at being called a "Youtube Pirate". If anything fansubbers are "torrent pirates" or "XDCC bot pirates"... or maybe just "bot pirates" for short... (think about it, people...)

Seriously, the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced the existence of YouTube and similar sites has been the worst thing for anime ever since the doujin goods market begin to boom in Japan.

In this day and age, the digital content that a company distributes using DVDs is worth exactly the same amount of effort it takes to destroy said DVDs. Why pay for it when you can get it for free?

The old business and distribution models of "cash for goods" no longer applies to digital content, not with the Internet making the flow of information practically seamless. Good to see that Kadokawa is actively looking for a new model that will allow them to adapt. If I recall, Gonzo is trying hard too, but only time will tell if they can succeed.

I was left with the impression the article was talking about AMVs on YouTube, not fansubbed series and movies. The entire issue of where the material on YouTube comes from was not really addressed. The article makes it sound like fansubbing is a "direct-to-YouTube" activity. Of course BusinessWeek isn't really interested in anything that doesn't have a company attached to it. If fansubbing groups were traded on the stock exchanges, publications like BW would become a lot more interested. :)

Open-source software has generally also been ignored by the business-oriented media unless it has implications for companies like Microsoft or Novell.

I was also amused by these descriptions:
I suspect Miyuki, for one, would probably think this is not a very accurate description.

Oh, and the Hollywood producer David Alpert is probably this guy.

Where´s the quote, the direct statement? I mean, Kadokawa has served tons of takedown requests...it seems like Business Weekly might be reading a bit too much into this. I´m not quite sure you could really use the word ¨embraces.¨

This. The article is referring to (and directly names) Kadokawa's MAD initiative (and AMVs/fan parodies, etc by proxy), not true piracy such as fansubs.

Fools! They have absolutely no idea do they? Haha! T'is laughable to read such things as these pathetic assumptions and totally unreliable sourses. "Creates an imaginary world to cope..", what the hell is that about? Haruhi does nothing of the sort..or atleast not intentionally. Also she is not exactly 'bored'. "..schoolgirls who only care about manga and videogames."?? Are they in their right state of mind? They should atleast witness and look more into the actual series' before making wild guesses on their plots. Kagami only cares about manga? ....that's a new one to me. ^^;

It was more worse on that news report about Naruto.

I am actually surprised by how popular youtube is for anime. For example, Gintama, barely anyone makes any comments here but there are a lot over there.

I'd guess the audience at YouTube and the AS membership are pretty distinct groups. Obviously there's some overlap, but fansub watchers are more demanding of video quality and prefer to have their own copies of the episodes. I rarely watch anything on YouTube, and what I do watch there isn't anime.

Edit: Of course there's also the fact that YouTube has an enormously larger audience than AS, so you'd expect a lot more comments. I've never found YouTube comments particularly insightful, though, especially when they're compared to comments from our friends here at AnimeSuki.

while they would have reason to tolerate youtube pirates offering poor products, they would have no reason to tolerate torrent pirates or xdcc pirates who offer dvd quality content, even when the pirating network to which these terms refer is the same. plainly stated, using the term youtube pirates is not simply the choice of one among many possible descriptions, but designates a particular band of tolerable activity.

Jeez, don't be so specific....:D

As I said before, I don't buy anything without watching it first fansubbed. Even though YT isn't the best place to watch fansubs, the principle is the same.

Seconded, I bought the full FFU series a few years back and I still regret it to now. "It's Final Fantasy, it cant go wrong" resumes pretty much my train of thoughs back then. In any cases I never did that mistake again, watch THEN buy.

Does this apply to other fields as well? Example, do you download movies before buying them? Pirate video games before buying them? Just wondering.

Interesting comparison, but it's kinda different. We can at least go to the theaters to see it before buying it (since most movies are that way), but I don't see subbed anime on TV/theaters. But of course, that's me. When I do buy DVDs, I watch them subbed.

This issue isn't about real fans who watch a lot of stuff and then decide whether they want to buy something or not (the AS crowd), it's about mainstream consumers who used to find anime in brick and mortar stores. This consumer demographic has now began to develop the same anime consumption habits as we have. The R1 market has relied on two things in the not-so-distant past: 1.) nation-wide store chains that would carry anime 2.) consumer ignorance. YouTube has made (fansubbed) anime so easy to watch that even this mainstream crowd is doing it, and worst of all, it doesn't particularly care about the anime industry. After all, they're just casual fans that are (at most) in it for the community and fan culture.

Guess my YT account is a beneficiary of this initiative.

I hope that they can feel the love in my YT channel. :heh:

Youtube and Nico Nico Douga and other video streaming services does 'help' in a way. If youtube did not exsist, would Hare Hare Yuukai or Moteke Sailor Fuku be as popular as now? The internet memes can really help boost the popularity of a series. I'm sure no one would have shown the swedish band Caramell in many parts of the world, till CaramellDansen.

Like most things in life, there's the good and bad side. The bad side is that the casual watcher wouldn't bother spending money on it.