This rant was brought to you by license bashing on the Loveless comm

[tempestuously]

Ack, missed Kimmie Meissner's skating debut because someone screwed up my recording. I sob.

Also, the wise words of Greg Ayres regarding DVD releases, especially pertaining to the American Loveless DVD , should be noted by the fandom as soon as possible. However, his explanation cannot hide the fact that the Media Blasters' release was sloppy and inconsistent. It can still explain the use of the font, compared to the fancy font styles fans of fansubs have grown accustomed to and the bizarre lack of a dub track on the American DVD. These are the same complaints I would be making had I not attended Katsucon this year. As much as Ayres' conversation frustrated me, he taught me a lot about both the Japanese and the American anime industry. Point one, the Japanese are pissed about the illegal downloading even before a series is licensed in American and plan to form a way to deal with this. Point two, the Americans are struggling to lessen the gap between the Japanese and American DVD releases in hopes of decreasing the illegal downloading.

Point three, Ayres is right; there really is no legitimate excuse for scanlations if people have NO intention to pay for either the Japanese manga or the licensed manga. Sorry, no money is not a good excuse. Manga is cheap. Get off your asses and buy the Japanese if you're a tightwad. It really does seriously injure a mangaka, who lacks the heavy funding of an animation company. I don't care how popular the mangaka is. unless they're Clamp.please take all their money.and stop giving them more for copycat series Ahem, support your mangaka. This is one aspect of Internet sharing that I can safely say I feel no shame for because I have bought Japanese or licensed versions of everything I've read on the Internet, including the Naruto manga I continue to bash so heavily. But I do believe that any fan who has read scanlations with no intent of purchasing any hard copy of the series should be chatised severely. They are not a good fan. No, I'm not going to debate this because it's not up for discussion with me. You are hurting your mangaka; it's that simple.

Comments

[fluffymaru.livejournal.com]

DooD...they spelled Soubi both Soubi AND Sobi on the back cover...one of them twice, and the other three times. That's...painful.

And yeah, the huge block lettering in BRIGHT YELLOW kills the subtle coloring of the series. I'll buy them all, but I'll be watching the fansub.

Japanese companies can TRY and stop downloading, but I'll be shoked if they get anywhere with it.

And I agree with you- if you watch/read it, buy it. If I don't like a series, I stop watching it and consider the download I watched/read as the same as borrowing it from a friend or seeing a free Newtype promo. But I don't keep watching or reading it.

[slave2haldir.livejournal.com]

Amen to that. Downloading with no intention of buying is just a lousy thing to do. I downloaded many episodes of KKM, but I've been keeping up with buying the dvds when I get spare cash or gift cards. Same goes for manga. I primarily use fansubs and scanlations as previewing, and often keep them to compare with the American translations later on, but the point is that I DO BUY. I don't like it when people don't.

[yaoikitten.livejournal.com]

Why do you think that it is odd not to have an English dub on a DVD release? A lot of yaoi releases through Media Blasters don't have English Dubs (Sukisho, and all the hardcore stuff doesn't.) The only yaoi release I can think of that had a dub was FAKE, and that was because it was released back in the day when people wouldn't watch anime unless it was dubbed. (I am old, so I remember that! >.>)

Not having a dub, which majority of fans don't like anyways, means that the company does not have to pay actors. That lowers the price of the discs (These are only $20 instead of the usual $30) and means that the company can get the disc out much quicker after licensing.

[nayami.livejournal.com]

I was merely responding to the complaints made at the community, one of them was concerning the lack of a dub track. I personally found it unusual because all of the anime I've purchased, with the exception of the CCS DVDs, included a dub track. I do not purchase much yaoi anime from Media Blasters so I wasn't certain how they handle their releases either. There are members of the Loveless community who should probably hear you explanation as well.

[yaoikitten.livejournal.com]

I didn't think it was that big of an issue. I mean, no matter what you do for a release, fans are not going to be happy. I just wrote the person off as someone who doesn't understand the industry and moved on. ^.^ If it comes up, I will. I just hate to interrupt my postings of "How to..." and become Ms. Anime Knowledge to everyone. >.>

[siggy-warrit.livejournal.com]

I have yet to find scanlations of manga I read besides Bleach, and I have all the volumes of that in English (to what they have) as well. I'd love some Berserk Scanlations, seriously. OR maybe some Jojo's Bizarre Adventure...

But at least they're not as bad as the people who go to the store, read the manag, don't buy it, then leave. That takes WAY more balls and lack of couth.