Fansub Syndrome
Since the demise of Geneon
Sound familiar?
This has been going on for years now and everyone at some point has wandered into this debate like a deer in front of the headlights. Am I the only one that’s sick to the back teeth of it now? Every forum/blog/society and quite possibly on the Space station MIR there is an ongoing “debate”, and I use that in the loosest way possible, about who’s right and who’s wrong and then a flurry of armchair experts solutions to the problems which really don’t help nor make sense.
There are four groups of people who take part in these conversations. These are (in their Latin names derived from the Big Bad Book of Awesomeness)
Buyitus Downloadicus – The fan that both downloads fansubs and buys DVD’s. Generally purchases the fansubs they like but don’t buy everything they lay their eyes on. Usually carry the “Everybody’s doing it, so it’s fine” attitude. Good intentions at heart, but still part of the problem.
Nobuyitus Alldownloadicus – The fan that downloads every single file they can get their grubby little mitts on. Usually laugh at the “suckerz” who pay for a physical product when they get it for “Free”. Deny that fansubing can cause any affects on the industry as a whole and really don’t care anyway.
Primius Buyitus – The fan that buys only licensed shows, usually sneer at the Nobuyitus crowd and are the poster boys and girls of the anime industry. In a dream world this is what every fan will be like. Usually hamper on about how many DVD’s they own and how many years they have been buying them.
And then there’s me, The Couldn’t give a shit…ius – After years of listening to the same debate go on for word after word, page after page but making no headway at all. This fan simply ignores anything labeled or titled with the words “Fansubs, Wrong, DVD’s, Your fault”
Now I know there’s a bittersweet irony in me writing a post complaining about the complaining of fansubs. But really this has been going on for almost two decades now yet there is still no end in sight. Fansubs will be around whether people like it or not. The only way to stop this would be to make the penalties for downloading and producing them really and substantial. But if Napster, Peer to Peer downloading and the RIAA have taught us anything. It’s that there is no end in sight.
The only thing that will carry on is the bickering over who’s morally right and wrong. Yes, piracy is wrong. And yes, everyone should go buy the DVD’s. But by nature we as human beings are just bloody greedy. Why pay for something when you can get it for free?
I do have an opinion on the whole fansubbing matter but I just really can’t be bothered with it anymore. You can go to any forum in any language across the world that’s dedicated to anime and you’ll find a trace of this virus. Even though the languages are different the points are always the same.
This Debate will go on as long as anime is still produced and I still have my thoughts on it, but I’m just closing the door on it all. That is until someone can come up with a new way to look at things, or a different angle to come from. But that creativity in debate is somewhat lacking.
At the end of that I’ll just say this. In 5 years time fansubbing will still be around and as big as it is now, I’ll put money on that.