Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

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L.U.T.A.
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Re: Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

I'm still looking forward to seeing Battle Angel movie in 3D! Anime's crossing borders man and as soon as James Cameron and Tomino hook up they can finally make their love child "Gundam Evolution". Those monkey robots from matrix and avatar might grow up one day but most likely they won't have a v-fin which I'm fine with. Chris your definitely right there's no way people are going to fund distributing old crap but there isn't anything wrong with getting it from the quasi legal web.
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Re: Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

L.U.T.A. wrote:Chris your definitely right there's no way people are going to fund distributing old crap but there isn't anything wrong with getting it from the quasi legal web.
Look, we all do things that we're not going to talk about here, but don't say a thing is something that it's not. Fansubs are illegal in each and every instance, always. What matters is if anime companies choose to do anything about it. But there is no such thing as "quasi legal" when it comes to fansubs.
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Re: Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

Chris wrote:Look, we all do things that we're not going to talk about here, but don't say a thing is something that it's not. Fansubs are illegal in each and every instance, always. What matters is if anime companies choose to do anything about it. But there is no such thing as "quasi legal" when it comes to fansubs.
Laws change all the time. The companies are really just looking for a profit and if the law is in the way of advertisement, which fan subs can be called, then things will change. I'm not saying it will happen but companies tend to be more grass-roots nowadays.
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Re: Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

Uh, the fact that fansub distribution is unauthorized distribution of copyrighted property does not change whether or not the copyright holder takes action against the offender, and will not change unless there's some seriously radical shift in copyright and intellectual property laws--and that does not appear to be in the offing. If companies really viewed fansubs as free advertising, they wouldn't send out cease-and-desist letters. And either way, calling fansubs "free advertising" is a rather brutal way to torture the word "advertising" to mean what you want it to mean.

Fansubs are illegal. Maybe at some point in the future, they won't be, but right now they are illegal. End of story.
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Re: Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

Chris wrote:
jcncasval76 wrote:In that case, we'll be counting the time when HC runs out of materials after they are done recycling their available footages with Macross, Moespeda, Orgass, Southern Cross & Megazone, someone will buy them out from bankruptcy court.
You're still assuming that one thing happening will lead to a certain outcome. The Macross name is not well known in America compared to Robotech. Even if HG went up on the auction block, it's probably not worth it for any anime company to buy them just to get Macross. There is no market for Macross in America, despite what fans like to believe.
Chris, unlike your colleague Adam, I don't assume even that will happen since HG has opted to use the "nuclear option" on Macross/Robotech, and with the lack of market in America, I would give a guess that in a year or two, someone will leak Robotech to Japanese counterpart and FINALLY "pull a Toei" and end this rubbish. That is what I really want to see. The old saying of "live by the sword, die by th sword" sure applies to HG. It's their rise and their fall with Robotech. On a personal note, THANK GOD I've missed this Robotech nonsense since I've already watched Macross, Mospeda, and Orguss in Hong Kong (dubbed in Cantonese, of course) back in the 1980s.
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Re: Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

ShadowCell wrote:Uh, the fact that fansub distribution is unauthorized distribution of copyrighted property does not change whether or not the copyright holder takes action against the offender, and will not change unless there's some seriously radical shift in copyright and intellectual property laws--and that does not appear to be in the offing. If companies really viewed fansubs as free advertising, they wouldn't send out cease-and-desist letters. And either way, calling fansubs "free advertising" is a rather brutal way to torture the word "advertising" to mean what you want it to mean.

Fansubs are illegal. Maybe at some point in the future, they won't be, but right now they are illegal. End of story.
Torture? I'm just liberating the word from the black suits. Promotion of a product can come in any way, shape or form as long as it stirs an interest in a product. And though its not direct and official the dorks and nerds (like myself) have a great interest in gundam/macross and tell their other dorky friends and etc. Though really the product there promoting is dculture
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Re: Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

Yeah, uh, see, an advertisement for a new breakfast cereal cannot substitute for the breakfast cereal; an advertisement for a new car cannot substitute for the car; an advertisement for a new medicine cannot substitute for the medicine; but if you call a fansub of an episode of an anime series an "advertisement" for that series, it sure as hell can substitute for a DVD containing that episode. That's true even in cases where you actually get a sample; for example, a software demo comes with a string attached, because those demo versions almost always have reduced functionality--so you aren't actually getting the product itself, you're only getting a glimpse of it. And therein lies the difference. Advertising calls attention to the product but is not the product itself, and if you're distributing anime fansubs, you are distributing the product itself. Not calling attention to it, not offering a demo or a sample, you are distributing the product itself. Giving out a demo of Photoshop CS4 is advertising; giving out free, fully-functional copies of Photoshop CS4 without Adobe's consent is not.

Seriously, fansubs are illegal and, barring some highly unlikely and radical changes in copyright law, they will remain so for the foreseeable future. They are not advertising, and only by ignoring the actual meaning of the word can you claim that they are so. That you have not been caught for possessing and/or distributing them does not make what you did any less of a crime. It just means you haven't been caught. And while it's debatable exactly how much harm you're causing, it's rather strange to say that you're showing your support for the franchise by distributing the franchise owner's property at a price with which it cannot possibly compete. If you're really trying to promote that franchise, one must wonder why you would want to do any harm to it at all.

You can argue the ethics of fansub creation and distribution all you want (and that can be done somewhere else), but the law is settled.
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Re: Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

ShadowCell wrote:Yeah, uh, see, an advertisement for a new breakfast cereal cannot substitute for the breakfast cereal; an advertisement for a new car cannot substitute for the car; an advertisement for a new medicine cannot substitute for the medicine; but if you call a fansub of an episode of an anime series an "advertisement" for that series, it sure as hell can substitute for a DVD containing that episode. That's true even in cases where you actually get a sample; for example, a software demo comes with a string attached, because those demo versions almost always have reduced functionality--so you aren't actually getting the product itself, you're only getting a glimpse of it. And therein lies the difference. Advertising calls attention to the product but is not the product itself, and if you're distributing anime fansubs, you are distributing the product itself. Not calling attention to it, not offering a demo or a sample, you are distributing the product itself. Giving out a demo of Photoshop CS4 is advertising; giving out free, fully-functional copies of Photoshop CS4 without Adobe's consent is not.

Seriously, fansubs are illegal and, barring some highly unlikely and radical changes in copyright law, they will remain so for the foreseeable future. They are not advertising, and only by ignoring the actual meaning of the word can you claim that they are so. That you have not been caught for possessing and/or distributing them does not make what you did any less of a crime. It just means you haven't been caught. And while it's debatable exactly how much harm you're causing, it's rather strange to say that you're showing your support for the franchise by distributing the franchise owner's property at a price with which it cannot possibly compete. If you're really trying to promote that franchise, one must wonder why you would want to do any harm to it at all.

You can argue the ethics of fansub creation and distribution all you want (and that can be done somewhere else), but the law is settled.
Spoken like a true professional! Yes your are right about copywritten fansubs being illegal. But all I wish to do is see human-like representations conveying a story of my particular preference on a screen in my room. Why should anything stop that from making it any cheaper (ACTA). Really we're all just a bunch of robotech fanboys under harmony gold fat ***.
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Re: Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

L.U.T.A. wrote: But all I wish to do is see human-like representations conveying a story of my particular preference on a screen in my room. Why should anything stop that from making it any cheaper (ACTA).
Well, the fact that you're eating into their revenue--even if only by a tiny amount--is certainly an impediment to that. Even if that amount makes no difference to the company's bottom line, if your stated intention is to promote the franchise in question, why go causing any amount of harm to the company that owns the franchise?

I mean, you're not entitled to human-like representations conveying a story on your screen.

Which, incidentally, seems to be a popular attitude among anime fans, including those of the Gundam persuasion, I've noticed. Perhaps that has something to do with why so many fans seem unable to accept the notion that Gundam is not going to be popular here again.
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Re: Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

LUTA, just drop it. Your opinion runs counter to reality. Fansubs are illegal, end of story. It doesn't matter how you try to justify and classify them. They are illegal and always will be. Drop it, because this is going nowhere and not the point of this thread.
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Re: Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

I have to say, speaking entirely for myself, the "entitlement" attitude that seems to have permeated modern anime fandom is extremely annoying and myopic. Go ahead and make old fogey jokes (I'm only 27, dammit!), but I remember being an otaku in the era where you got your fansubs on VHS tapes and shared them with your friends until the ribbon started warping from overuse. The speedy, free online fansubs (coupled with the growth of ROMs and WAREZ) have made so many people think that it's a God-given right, and that DLing subs of an officially licensed series is a perfectly legitimate way of sticking it to "The Man". "The Man", of course, being horrible evil corporations who suck the soul out of poor defenseless anime by daring to localize it and trying to make a profit by selling it.

I'll openly admit to having downloaded fansubs. Hell, if not for fansubs I probably never would have gotten into Code Geass, and I certainly wouldn't have become a Kamen Rider fan. But I've got no illusions about what this is: circumventing the entire sponsorship system used to make television profitable and damaging the shows by not putting money into the pockets of the makers, possibly even preventing sequels or continuations due to lack of funding.

Are fansubs the easiest way to see shows that will probably never see a foreign release, such as Tokusatsu and "lesser" anime without mass market appeal? Of course, unless you live in Japan and speak the language. But that doesn't make them any nobler or more righteous than the people who sneak camcorders into theaters and upload grainy videos of Dark Knight to BitTorrent. You wanna be the one to go up to Christian Bale and tell him that you downloaded his movie rather than paying for a ticket or DVD? Yeah, didn't think so.

Short version: Downloading fansubs doesn't make you Robin Hood. It just makes you a thief.
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Re: Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

AmuroNT1 wrote:I have to say, speaking entirely for myself, the "entitlement" attitude that seems to have permeated modern anime fandom is extremely annoying and myopic. Go ahead and make old fogey jokes (I'm only 27, dammit!), but I remember being an otaku in the era where you got your fansubs on VHS tapes and shared them with your friends until the ribbon started warping from overuse. The speedy, free online fansubs (coupled with the growth of ROMs and WAREZ) have made so many people think that it's a God-given right, and that DLing subs of an officially licensed series is a perfectly legitimate way of sticking it to "The Man". "The Man", of course, being horrible evil corporations who suck the soul out of poor defenseless anime by daring to localize it and trying to make a profit by selling it.

I'll openly admit to having downloaded fansubs. Hell, if not for fansubs I probably never would have gotten into Code Geass, and I certainly wouldn't have become a Kamen Rider fan. But I've got no illusions about what this is: circumventing the entire sponsorship system used to make television profitable and damaging the shows by not putting money into the pockets of the makers, possibly even preventing sequels or continuations due to lack of funding.

Are fansubs the easiest way to see shows that will probably never see a foreign release, such as Tokusatsu and "lesser" anime without mass market appeal? Of course, unless you live in Japan and speak the language. But that doesn't make them any nobler or more righteous than the people who sneak camcorders into theaters and upload grainy videos of Dark Knight to BitTorrent. You wanna be the one to go up to Christian Bale and tell him that you downloaded his movie rather than paying for a ticket or DVD? Yeah, didn't think so.

Short version: Downloading fansubs doesn't make you Robin Hood. It just makes you a thief.
AmuroNT1, I totally concur with your assessment, and I have been both sides of the fence myself, for instance, I've bought the first 2 volumes of Gundam 00 while still getting fansubs for Kamen Rider Double & Shinkenger. In addition, I've also bought the Chinese sub version of several previous Kamen Rider series from Heisei Era before going to fansubs. The issue, however, is how companies like Toei stuck with the "Japanese model" and charging 2 episodes for $59.00USD. While there's no Bandai Visual to kick around anymore after being absorbed into Bandai Entertainment, Toei becomes the proverbial "punching bag" for overcharging for a product that gives you peanuts in contents. If Toei is smart enough, they should look at how we charge a box set for an entire season of any American drama, or better yet, look at how Gundam 00 is packaged on DVD, and then use that format to sell their products. Otherwise, they are part of a bigger problem why their revenue stream is sliding downhill.

I forgot to mention another issue that I must have mentioned earlier, American television production companies is also contributing to this problem in another degree. Many of us have watched the 17-year Power Rangers series on American television, and while I can give them credits of giving us the original fighting footages in the last few minutes of those shows, they have butchered the rest of the story like Robotech. Then, there's the stigmatism of Japanese anime and cartoon are categorized as one and the same, thus giving the perception of some people keep calling shows like Gundam 00 as cartoon and not Anime. In addition, American television has a tendency of trying to drag out one show's storyline and split them into multiple season, i. e., Cheers, Star Trek, and Law & Order. That type of model doesn't work these days with Anime as there are so many reenvisions of some shows while others are just stand-alone. Why do you all think anime companies having hard time earning any money from television and vidoe sales?
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Re: Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

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Re: Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

What is the point of this link even supposed to be? Do you understand that when a Moderator and Administrator tell you to drop a subject, you're supposed to drop it? Fansubs are a problematic issue we don't discuss here, and they're also off topic for this discussion. When I tell you to stop doing something, it means don't post any more on that subject. If I see anything more from you in this thread about fansubs, you get a warning. I hope that's clear.
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Re: Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

Glad I was able to participate for this segment, and received a shout from Soul Bro (you're cool, man!).

And it was great hearing from what you guys had to say.

With anime and manga, I'm very sure it has a certain degree of establishment in American culture, I wouldn't be surprised if Sci-fi fan watches Star Trek as well as Planetes, or a stud that has Playboy as well as JP Doujin. It will just be hard to reach a wide audience with just one anime/manga series, and I am pretty sure that licensing companies do have to tackle the cost of doing all the work, without any guarantee that the cost will be recuperated in the short-term.

That said, I do think its great when American companies are able to release a good-quality translated anime on DVD within a year after being aired in JP. With the issue of fansub vs license, I am very firm supporter with the Gentleman's Agreement on licensed anime - fans should be in a supporting role to encourage releases of good anime, not bad ones (such as MD Geist!), as well as better translation and bonus materials (hey I do listen to OST!). And I don't think its fair when you have to use a middlemen to get certain things that the original company could've sold directly to you (yeah yen to USD isn't easy as it sounds).

Back to Gundam and Macross:
I stand firm on true Gundam fans will always continue to support the franchise, but will need something new to attract newcomers. Those who loved Wing, but not the other series - they're not the fans that you should count on.

On my qoute, well it may sound silly, but think about it for a while. With the Disney release of the Little Mermaid, Pocahontas, and Mulan, there is some need to clarify the differences between Disney's and the original works. If you were to told an American kid that the Little Mermaid never marries the princes and she dies, the kid would say that you are lying! And the historical inaccuracies in both Pocahontas and Mulan is never brought up by anyone, unless you are speaking to a historian or scholar. I think every Robotech fans should at the very least acknowledge the original work, Macross.

With HG, I just don't know what to do with them, unless they want to continue a Zero-sum game, or try to work out an experimental deal with M: Frontier. There shouldn't any reason for them to continue to con people into buying more Robotech stuff, when there is a better stuff from the original line.

With the dancing stormtrooper, I do hope any of you can give kudos to Danny Choo, an overseas Chinese (from UK) living and working in JP.
http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/25018/Danny+Choo.html

The guys is much braver than any of us here, sharing his interests and hobby to everyone on the internet!
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Re: Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

A belated thought I've just had on making mecha anime popular again...

We need to get it popular with kids. Really, the 70s super robot shows that kicked off the mecha craze in Japan, along with Transformers, Voltron and Robotech in the US, were targeted towards the 7-12 age demographic. Maybe, as they grow older, they'll be ready for something like Gundam.

Unfortunately, there really isn't a modern kid-oriented mecha show that I can see being imported to the US and becoming a hit. The closest thing that comes to mind is GaoGaiGar, but even that's over a decade old now. So new kid-oriented mecha shows need to be made in Japan, as well.
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Re: Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

On the other hand it's not like SD Gundam Force would do well again considering how bad it was first time.

It's what happens when you take a slightly adult orientated show and kiddify it. :P
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Re: Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

AmuroNT1 wrote:I have to say, speaking entirely for myself, the "entitlement" attitude that seems to have permeated modern anime fandom is extremely annoying and myopic. Go ahead and make old fogey jokes (I'm only 27, dammit!), but I remember being an otaku in the era where you got your fansubs on VHS tapes and shared them with your friends until the ribbon started warping from overuse. The speedy, free online fansubs (coupled with the growth of ROMs and WAREZ) have made so many people think that it's a God-given right, and that DLing subs of an officially licensed series is a perfectly legitimate way of sticking it to "The Man". "The Man", of course, being horrible evil corporations who suck the soul out of poor defenseless anime by daring to localize it and trying to make a profit by selling it.

I'll openly admit to having downloaded fansubs. Hell, if not for fansubs I probably never would have gotten into Code Geass, and I certainly wouldn't have become a Kamen Rider fan. But I've got no illusions about what this is: circumventing the entire sponsorship system used to make television profitable and damaging the shows by not putting money into the pockets of the makers, possibly even preventing sequels or continuations due to lack of funding.

Are fansubs the easiest way to see shows that will probably never see a foreign release, such as Tokusatsu and "lesser" anime without mass market appeal? Of course, unless you live in Japan and speak the language. But that doesn't make them any nobler or more righteous than the people who sneak camcorders into theaters and upload grainy videos of Dark Knight to BitTorrent. You wanna be the one to go up to Christian Bale and tell him that you downloaded his movie rather than paying for a ticket or DVD? Yeah, didn't think so.

Short version: Downloading fansubs doesn't make you Robin Hood. It just makes you a thief.
ShadowCell wrote: Well, the fact that you're eating into their revenue--even if only by a tiny amount--is certainly an impediment to that. Even if that amount makes no difference to the company's bottom line, if your stated intention is to promote the franchise in question, why go causing any amount of harm to the company that owns the franchise?

I mean, you're not entitled to human-like representations conveying a story on your screen.

Which, incidentally, seems to be a popular attitude among anime fans, including those of the Gundam persuasion, I've noticed. Perhaps that has something to do with why so many fans seem unable to accept the notion that Gundam is not going to be popular here again.
I'm sorry about earlier let me make my position more clear. Fansubs are an attributing factor to why gundam is getting more popular in america. I don't know what I'd be into if I didn't have my friends lend me gundam 08th ms team on dvd and onwards when seed came out on subbed online. When subs came out I was able to watch these things whenever I wanted and then onward I was able to fully grasp the UC series. Even a few of my non-anime invested friends got interested in it through subs. Though I was first introduced to anime on tv, I taped and recorded it so I could see it later (which could be compared to subs).

ShadowCell you are right saying fansubs are advertisement is abuse of the word. But you have got to admit that the ease of watching shows allows for a greater audience. If you really love the gundam franchise you've got to let them learn from their environment than sympathize and buy dvds from the poor. (Fans are just gonna turn into Harmony Gold B****es).

And, Yes, It Is like Robin Hood Amuro NT1 there is no way the man's going to take advantage of people unless he's smart and that means you've got to adapt to tough love (and my standards are higher than a camcorder bit lower than blueray cause I don't have a player). The markets a rough world and having cult followings is not going to help you stay afloat. There's always a way to make money in this world especially if Avatar can be the highest grossing movie of all time.

Also Chris how do you know that the streamed gundam videos won't be subbed for gundam x or zz. Cause really i wouldn't mind if its subbed at all... in fact i would prefer it. On Hulu they have naruto shippuuden subbed so i would think that Sunrise would follow and do that as well.
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Re: Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

What part of "drop it" do you not understand? If you really feel the need to continue this discussion with me, you can do it via private message. But you were told to drop the discussion. Now do it.
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Re: Ep. 046 - Otaku Confidential

This is part of the topic. I merely connected it to the popularity of gundam in the us.
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