As a fansubber myself, I have to say that if it wasn't for fansubbing, I wouldn't know about half of the good stuff that is out there, that may or may not ever come over here. I do wish that the animation companies over here would grasp the marketing concept you discussed and help nurture and grow great anime products.
[quote]As a fansubber myself, I have to say that if it wasn't for fansubbing, I wouldn't know about half of the good stuff that is out there, that may or may not ever come over here.[/quote]
And for that, my sincere thanks. I honestly believe that the market would crater a lot faster if all fansubbing were to dissappear today. Think about what would happen if the only way to determine what you wanted to see was determined by poorly designed American marketing websites, a badly dubbed trailer, and a few screenshots? Anime would die in a year.
However, my beef with fansubbers is... complex. There's this prima donna mentality among many fansubbers that seems to think that what they do qualifies as some great artistic contribution to the show.
Goal: Spread good anime to English speaking consumers in hopes that they will try before they buy.
Issues:
**Why are these things 200 megs and climbing?** It seems like there's a lot of videophile-itis going around. You know, the kind that insists on $300 cables and swear they hear ringing sounds in all their audio equipment... yet can't hum a tune or hold a camera steady themselves.
Episodes should be 100M max. Episodes would go to more people, be more portable, entice interested people to buy the DVDs (it's nearly DVD quality, why would any "sane" person buy?), and have less resale value on eBay. There is **no** good argument for DVD-quality files.
**What's with the screen trash during opening, ending, and eyecatch sequences?** 99.9% of people watching these episodes don't sing along to the lyrics. Why do most fansubbers insist on scribbling all over the opening animations or putting their own little logo next to the show's logo in an amateur attempt to make it look like part of the show? You know how I'd feel if I keyed those sequences or designed the opening title? I'd be hopping mad.
To all the artists out there: How would you feel if you made a color sketch of an original character design just to see it on the internet somewhere with "SCANNED BY JASON! UPPED BY JASON! JASON RULES! VISIT JASON ONLINE! WWW.JASONROX0RS.COM!" plastered on the front, complete with my personal coat of arms? Oh, you say you wouldn't like that?
**Fansubber drama is worse than cel collector drama.** Fansubbers, as a whole, have been known to destroy entire networks (IRC and otherwise) with their antics. Personally, I don't care **who** subs something. There is no "cool" brand to follow. A quiet fansubber is a good fansubber, especially if one goes by the rule stated above: distribute anime with a minimum of fuss. The fansubber should only be the messenger -- a roadie, not a rockstar.
In summary, just about everything many fansubbers do as common practice is entirely anti-fan, anti-anime, and pro-ego. Unfortunately, it will have to be a fansubber that puts his or her foot down and adopt better practices. Somday, a fansubber will decide that only spoken dialogue will be subbed \\and\\ any __absolutely__ required signage subbed in small type just inside the top safe edge \\and\\ the file limited to 50 megs \\and\\ self-congratlations (if any, anonymous is best) limited to a still screen of less than 3 seconds at the front of the show.
The people who did Uninhabited Planet Survive got pretty close to this ideal. I'm sure there have been others. Baylor, you would have my unending gratitude and the unspoken gratitude of countless others should you decide to champion these ideals or similar ones. As a fansubber, you can \\personally\\ help save anime from its own fans. The catch is that you have to do it very, very quietly and only a rare few would know of your contributions. I hope you don't take this as a personal bash because I think fansubbing as a general movement is a great thing.
Edited Mar 30 at 11:01 PM
