Anime fans wrecking their world

[glitters]

So everyone, let's be serious for a moment. I'm not here to point fingers but I do know of a few people [here] who desperately need to see this post that my friend wrote on her LiveJournal.

None of you know who she is, for the record. She has no clue who any of you are.

But everything she writes about is sadly right. I remember being ten years old and having Sailor Moon to watch on tv and the odd other anime but even my generation was lucky to have that. Going into libraries you wouldn't even find the selection of manga/anime that you do now.

In fact, it wasn't until my final year of highschool that my school jumped on the bandwagon and put up specifically its own "comic/manga" section in the library. It was small at first, but since I've been out of school it's more than tripled the size.


The cold hard fact of it all is that you kids nowadays wouldn't have anything close to what you'd have for selections of anime/manga today if it wasn't for us [weirdos in our 20's-30's].

And we would have had even less than you if the people before us didn't fight for it.


And now that we all have what we want people are far too spoiled or make up excuses to not pay for it. It's like seeing the movie ads and going, "Wow, that looks good. I'm going to watch it online opening day."

And then wow, you complain afterward because they're not making movies anymore. Or rather nowadays they're starting to make moves in ONLY 3D so people can't pirate it [or at least have difficulties doing so], and THAT pisses people off because ticket prices go up on top of that.




Personally in this post I don't want to hear a single comment of "Yeah, well in my family we don't have this much money" because ya know what? All of us have financial issues. Anyone who has the gall to try to argue this post with "I have no money" is going to be shot down with not only my own list of financial problems, but legit remarks about how they should either a.) get a job or b.) budget better. 'Cause that's what it comes down to, kiddies, in EVERYONE'S situation.

The world isn't perfect nor will it ever be, that's a cold fact.
Just like how the anime industry is destroying itself and it can't be saved because there's too many people just stealing everything. Just thought I'd share the news with you all.

[Gensayce Zidjiai]

It saddens me to even know that this is happening. I'm a keen fan of Anime myself and nothing is more satisfying than to actually purchase it and be able to take it with you wherever you go. And you also brought up how it is much like the problems we're having with films at the momeny, as a person who takes Film Studies as well as Drama and Theatre Studies I plan to go into the world of film by any means nessecary, and I cannot help but fathom how agitated I'd be knowing that my work was being effectivley stolen.

[glitters]

Exactly D: And people band together to tell people "Stealing art is wrong!" when they see clear duplicates of someone's VISUAL artwork.

But dude, this is the exact same thing. Not just visual, everything about it. Film, theatre, literature--any and all art forms

[Andy Jammer]

We do a two way street. We don't have cable, so we watch Bleach online. But we buy the DVD's to the seasons whenever we can.

[Miri, EarthGuard]

The sad thing is, this issue is complicated. Just from reading this post, and not your friend's (which I will read at a later date), I can tell you that I would love to say, "Yes, you're absolutely right and I agree with you one hundred percent". But the problem is, I can't, because the issue is complicated.

I love supporting the anime industry. I would love to buy manga and DVDs and all those other fun things. But there are sad realities, and money is only one of them.

The first is availability of quality subs and translations. I like watching anime in the English version, but I also like subtitled versions, so I can compare the two, and nothing annoys me more than a poorly-done translation, whether dub or sub alike. Yet a lot of "official" subs are, well, crap. There are lots, even a majority, that aren't, but there are also many that are and seem to believe that because Americans don't know Japanese, they can pull the wool over our eyes and "translate" much closer to the dub than is sstrictly correct, for example using dub terms instead of straight translations - "Soul Reaper" vs. "Death God" or "Monster" vs. "Mazoku" for example.

Manga is just as bad. I ran across the OFFICIAL TRANSLATION of a manga that was so bad that the grammar was reminiscent of a five-year-old's writings.

SO while, yes, I love to support the anime/manga industry, and have poured more than my fair share of my savings into it, I will continue to watch fansubs and read what scanlations I can... especially when the dubs/translations are of inferior quality (Slayers or Case Closed, for example) to the subs, or simply unavailable by regular means (such as Mike's situation with Bleach, or the old Digimon seasons).

I'd love to say that these issues are simple, and have only black and white sides.

But I can't.

[Andy Jammer]

Well, there is no black and white here. It's all gray, you can support your industry but also read scanalations. I don't care much of translation differences, except for your example above, but then again...I'm very open to anything.

No really I am, I have like, three friends who argue about how bad English translations are vs Japanese and I am usually like "um, okay, I kinda like them both really "

[Miri, EarthGuard]

As do I! I just have issues with specific ones.

[Andy Jammer]

I think we all do, like the infamous Sailor Moon. I don't need to watch it cause I have four friends tell me the horror stories of the english anime.

[Miri, EarthGuard]

Heheh~

Yeah.

[glitters]

Miri?

Please go read the post before replying to this any further =/ you'll see a lot of your concerns are actually already covered in my friend's post.

Not to mention that most DVD's you buy nowadays contain both English AND Japanese versions. Just saying.

[Kouji - Hikari no Shiro Okami]

I am willing to accept that. And I will read it at a later date.

But no matter how many concerns you cover, this is not a black and whtie issue. That was my point - I'm only givign examples.

[alexanderthegreat]

I never said this was a black and white issue. I was saying I'd have liked that you read the post first (as that was why I posted it at the beginning of my post, I'm sorry I didn't leave a message saying so) so I didn't get assumed, biased comments.
I'm stating a simple fact that if people don't use their money, all those precious scanalations you read are going to eventually disappear someday. For good.

Even video games nowadays aren't entirely perfect. I'm not against someone reading/watching something before purchasing something, but at least do that. I'd rather read a good enough manga online and still buy the crappy translated one than just read the "good one" and leave it at that.


I'm also stating that the kids are spoiled today. You wouldn't have scanalations to read, crappy or quality ones. You wouldn't have the great subbed shows, or even the DVDs (REDUCED PRICING, might I add) with English/Japanese versions on them. Not everything is going to be perfect, as it never was to begin with.

The fact is simple: If we didn't fight for it, you wouldn't have ANY of that, Miri. At all. In fact, the variety you would have to pick from would have been much crappier than what you consider crap today.


That's was what I was saying. That's was what my friend is saying.

[Andy Jammer]

Video games, yah, the new Arc Rise Fantasia is kind of an example. Excellent gameplay and story...but the dubbing is an issue. English voices are kind of off during some of the cutscenes.

The reason why more effort is put into dubbing it because of a high demand I think, anime and manga got big in popularity so once that happened it was time for companies to kinda stop half assing themselves and work harder on translations.

Spoiled...channeling Annabelle are we?

[Aya Dauzi Invargas]

Uhhhh. Alright. I guess I'll throw my nickel in.

Personally, I cant judge what other people do. It doesnt make me as mad. I buy all of my manga and anime, for collector's and viewing's sake. If you don't, well, you're not me. I know at least that I'm supporting the industry, and that's all I'm limited to. Sorta a passive view I guess, but you know.

Really, it's just that if you, yourself, can support it, do it. Otherwise,..it is what it is, I guess.

[alexanderthegreat]

lol Mike I believe you've hit the nail right on the head there!

As for channelling Annabelle, ha! I play her =p She IS me, if you can get past that horrifying image.