Quote:
Originally Posted by Toua
So now we have a bunch of upcoming titles that will not get licensed no matter what, so I honestly don't understand this idea that fansubbing is without any common goal, that it has fulfilled its purpose. It obviously hasn't because "fans", or should I say consumers, continue to just leech fansubs and don't indulge in buying official releases and mechandise.
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Perhaps what I said was wrong then. Perhaps, the original goal of fansubbing that seems to be bandied about whenever someone suggests there's an ethical side to the whole process -- perhaps that did succeed, that it achieved what it set out to do. And yet, at the same time, it's now shown to have had a horrible side-effect in which the scene has created "fanboys" who are impatient and who don't care about paying for their entertainment, which has actually ironically had an adverse effect on the original aim of fansubbing.
Maybe it's a case of "too much of a good thing"? As you say, the anime market in the States is saturated, but then I've also felt that about the fansubbing scene of recent. It seems that a large number of series get subbed (and oversubbed) for no particular reason other than nobody else is subbing them -- I know that I've watched a lot of chaff that I wouldn't normally have watched, and it's rare that I get the same feeling now about an anime series that I would have had in the past. But I'm straying from the topic now.
And I agree that DVD turnarounds for American releases are somewhat ridiculous (same with manga), and that a lot of business is lost through that, more than anything really. Thing is, it would be perfectly easy to solve if only American companies worked more closely with Japanese companies. At the moment, it feels like they're two separate entities that only converse when one is selling something to the other.
Though, maybe I'm just being idealistic and hoping that all the problems of the fansubbing world and the anime marketing world (whatever they may actually be) can actually be solved.