First off, in case you don’t know me, this is GrapplerJMo of the GrapplerJMo Anime Review Show (which includes J-Dramas, movies, games, and coming soon, manga). Anyway, I would like to say thank you to Douglas and Otakucrave for allowing me to have this column/blog to express myself to my fellow distinguished colleagues, as well as anime fans/otakus or whatever you want to call them.
For my first post, I want to get into a controversial subject of fansubs/scanlations, which was a Magus Panel I participated in along with Douglas, Magus himself, and some others a few weeks ago. The reason why I make this blog is because of a recent letter sent to Wizard’s Anime Insider in which a person sent a letter stating that anime that is non-licensed are legal to fansub, and AI’s reply was that fansubs under ALL circumstances are still illegal. Even though I have always conflicted whether or not to take their live action casting calls seriously and thought their top 50 anime was crap, I couldn’t help but agree with their reply. I myself am aware that fansubs and scanlations are illegal regardless of licensing issues, but this is part of my point.
Yes, usual fansubber ethic is to only distribute non-licensed anime for THE PURPOSE OF GETTING IT LICENSED, and once the deed is done, that fansub copy no longer needs to circulate (but thanks to the magic of the internet, that is not always the case). I would also like to acknowledge that I do buy my anime if I like it. I have bought all of Hajime no Ippo (which was retitled Fighting Spirit), Sailor Moon, Golion, Wedding Peach, Voltron, Gundam Wing, Akira, and many others. I do have a pretty big anime collection I am proud of, but I believe my collection would be one hundred times bigger if some of the animes I did were OFFICIALLY LICENSED. So my main problem is that yes, fansubs is hurting the industry but my main point (finally) is that I feel that in my case, I can’t support the anime industry if it’s not supporting me, and in semi-reply to that letter in anime insider, I just sent this e-mail to address my personal feelings on the issue.
Hopefully, this will be in an upcoming issue of Anime Insider.
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To whom it may concern,
I read the last issue’s letter on the legality of fansubs (and I would like to include scanlations in this letter). However, the purpose of this mail is to ask if there are alternative solutions around getting non-licensed anime and manga legally in English that have yet or may NEVER reach outside of Japan. Even though I admit fansubs and scanlations are against the law, as far as I know, I have no other resources to watching anime or reading manga that have yet to come to the US, or many never come at all, so people like me result to fansubs and scanlations for my exposure. So this creates a huge moral dillema.
When and how do I get to watch Macross 7, Devilman, Sailor Stars, Akazukin
Cha Cha, Angel’s Egg, Nodame Cantabile, Wangan Midnight, Transformers Victory, Kinnikuman (the first series), Gundam X, Turn A Gundam, and an accurate dub or subtitled copy of Windaria without “stealing” so I can actually pay for an English translation by ADV, VIZ, FUNimation or someone? For manga, when and how do I legitimately purchase an English copy of the 80+ volume manga of Hajime no Ippo/Fighting Spirit, Kochikome, Azumi, Ichi the Killer, Bari Bari Densetsu, Wangan Midnight, Ganbare Genki, Ring ni Kakero, or the classic Ashita no Joe, or the first two story arcs of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure just walking distance from my Barnes and Noble?
I feel that the licensing of these titles are long over due, and it’s a high possibility they may never be available to Americans as I said before. What’s your solution for these scenarios to prevent people from resulting to piracy? What’s one letter from me pleading a license company going to do? Has petition online ever solved or jump started anything for the anime industry? To sum it up, how do you support the industry when you feel they aren’t supporting you by not supplying you the titles you truly wish to purchase, and mostly release titles you don’t care about or wish to purchase?
I felt if they somehow made these title readily available in English to begin with on an official level, then maybe it would probably limit fansubs and scanlations more effientley. I’ll also admit it doesn’t guarantee successful sales like the uncut releases of Yu-Gi-Oh which bombed despite the high demand, nor does it make them the money that piracy is robbing from them. I am a proud anime fan, and I do my best to contribute to the creators, but I feel that at the same time, the creators need to contribute to their international audience(s) who enjoy their work rather than the Japanese.
I feel Jyoji Morikawa has a right to know that there are people outside of Asia who enjoy Hajime no Ippo, I feel that Shoji Kawamori knows he has supporters for the other Macross titles, and the great Yoshiyuki Tomino also knows there are those who consider Turn A Gundam the best, and that they are willing to dish out their wallets and support them. And because some of their tremendous masterpieces aren’t officially available yet, or may never be licensed, they cannot receive the support they deserve and the fanbase that is already established, and resorts to only getting pirated copies. But I do understand though the fanbase is very dedicated, they are still very small and that their support alone may not do the trick, nor does it justify getting it licensed unfortunately (and I don’t want to get into an argument of justifying piracy regardless of licensing status). It is situations like these where I wish anime was as big as the Hollywood and video game industries so we wouldn’t have to face these parodoxes.
Thank you for taking the time for reading my concerns and for sharing them with your loyal readers.
Sincerely yours,
An angry, confused, and disgruntled anime and manga fan who feels he can’t support an industry if they’re not supporting him
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