Whilst fansubs have been out and around for quite a while, its distribution has also been controlled for a while now. It won’t be much longer till fansubs are gone and perhaps the decline in the anime population. This is disturbing… disturbing indeed. If you think fansubs will exist forever, then you’re wrong! The P-Meister knows of a wonderful method to market anime.
Anime, a hobby, a sport
Whilst many of us can argue that we do spend money on anime goods, there are always people who don’t fork out anything whilst enjoying anime at home on their HD monitor as if watching TV. This has become easy because of fansubbing. However, with uber sixth sense, the P-Meister can foresee a great disaster to the anime community.
Anime is like fishing, a sport. To be serious in it, you have to spend. Now, a good fishing rod costs 200 bucks but a good fansub cost nothing. If macdonald were to give out free burgers one day, we’ll know it’ll be packed. Its the same thing for anime. Now that its free, the demand is high.
Anime distribution, crime
Many of us download anime for free(including me). Rarely do we consider that it is the hard work of others. Others doesn’t refer to the fansubbers, but the animators and the publishing company. Whilst fans can argue that fansubs can advertise anime, it doesn’t make much money. 4/5 of the anime fans I know in real life watch loads of anime episodes online without paying a single penny/cent/rupee/z/gold coin.
As they do not rewatch anime, it is not wise to buy anime. Even if better methods of distributing anime such as by Gonzo, that allows you to download each episode for a dollar, they won’t pay. In fact, people are more likely to pay megaupload than legal sites. Why? Because its damn cheap to download 100 episodes from megaupload instead of buying 100 episodes legally. If you’re a hardcore anime fan, then you may disagree with me, but do take note, 90% of anime fans are not otakus.
Imagine how many frames have to be put together in that 20 minutes and you’re only paying 1$ for it. Many fans would then argue with the statement ‘ITS AVAILABLE ON TV FOR FREE!!!’. *Sigh*, this war can go on forever. Imagine paying for 1 episode of naruto and only realising that it sucked. Horrid!!
1$ is still reasonable however but expect a 90% drop in the number of fans.
How does this affect the otakus
When companies find that they are losing the fan base and not receiving enough profit for 1$ per episode, guess what happens. The next most logical thing to do is to raise the price. Yes!! Raise the price so that those suckers who are willing to pay will be forced to pay more. These suckers are none other than otakus. Sad but true. In the worst case scenario, anime blogs will decrease due to the lack of viewers who leech anime for free. As demand decrease, so will production. Otakus are like drug addicts and will pay DVD prices for anime.
From a moral view, it is wrong of the leechers in the first place who never ever spent on anime. Is that necessarily true? To be honest, i don’t like to spend on anime. I spend only 10% than what I SHOULD have spent thanks to fansubs. Yes, I’m hurting the industry but ‘ITS FREE ON TV!!’
A new method called ‘BUT ITS FREE ON TV!!’Obviously, a new method for marketing will be needed, one that can feed both industry and freeloaders. HOW!!!! The P-Meister knows the exact answer. That is… TV! Yes TV!!! With the internet, nothing is impossible. Internet TV can show anime at the exact times it is shown in Japan, not to forget allow it to be streamed so it can be rewinded for slow readers. This way, the free loaders will carry on to watch free anime without complaining about slow releases.
Chunk in adverts to make it 30 minutes per episode, the same way good ol’ TV does it!! HOHOHO! Also make it un-forwardable until it is watched. This way, the viewers will be forced to go through the adverts at least once. Advertising is made even easier as the the industry will now know who the target audiences are. Dang! I should seriously patent this idea.
Allow a paypal option to remove adverts of course and there you go, money! Spread the word baby! Save the world from Sesame Street and Barney that degrade your brains!
How would you know it works!?
TV works, so will this. Personally, I do not want the anime culture to stop growing hence I emphasize on free anime available. Say goodbye to Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network!! Sadly, it will stunt the growth of other programmes but anime culture will keep growing with this method. In the name of anime, someone, please adopt my idea!
Conclusion
Boku wa CHEAPSKATE FREELOADER!! I buy anime merchandises but its hardly compared the the number of episodes I watched free.
7 Comments
June 17, 2008 at 8:24 pm
I thought this was going be an Odex rant post xD
June 17, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Too bad it’s not as simple as you put it.
June 17, 2008 at 11:31 pm
If only the world worked like that…T_T
But its a good idea. A little more research, a few tweaks here and there, and its good to go! Roll in the money!…Or actually, you won’t, but the animation companies might.
Still, DVDs FTW!
June 17, 2008 at 11:43 pm
[ID Sojourner]
We should just drop this silly hobby and pick up something like canoeing. Or better- MAKING PAPER SWANS.
June 17, 2008 at 11:54 pm
“It won’t be much longer till fansubs are gone and perhaps the decline in the anime population.”
Aren’t we optimistic
Your idea is good, but implementation is not so easy.
Look at Druaga. They are releasing official videos just hours after the airing in Japan with English subtitles. There is a pay option that allows you to see it at the same time as airing in Japan also. Why they are doing it? Because popularity is related to profit.
Buying a DvD is the best option in my opinion.
June 18, 2008 at 1:20 am
I go the DVD route using fansubs as previews. Granted though…most anime I end up liking a lot may not see the day of a license… ”’orz
I was excited for the Nanoha license…but now it’s on an uncertain hiatus. -_-
June 18, 2008 at 3:49 pm
If the anime community were to decline, i wonder how many blogs there would be left.