Anime studios in the US have had issues for years with fansubbing groups distributing their licensed product for free via torrent files or IRC chat rooms. Some have stopped fansubbing projects with threatening cease and desist letters, and others simply cry out to the public to stop piracy. Despite what these studios have done, none of them have some up with a real solution to the problem at hand. The problem is not the alleged piracy; it's that fansubs meet the needs of the frothing anime fan. Viz Media has acknowledged this issue and will start with a real solution: offering subtitled anime online for free.
The Fansubbing Dilemma
Anime typically takes at least a year before it makes it to American shores, dubbed and edited for the American senses. Hardcore anime fans rarely like to wait this long, and they like dubs and edits to their precious anime even less. They want to see what Japan sees, when they see it; or at least in a week or so after the episode airs.
Fansubs -- anime translated and subtitled by fans for other fans to download for free -- have helped these fans feed their need. Fansubbing groups and American licensing studios, such as Funimation and ADV Films, have constantly butted heads over the fansubbed releases, especially since downloading these subs has become increasingly easy over the last five years. These studios pay a lot of money to license the show, translate it, cast and record voice actors, and package and market the product, so it's easy to understand why they haven't been thrilled with fansubbing groups distributing their product for free.
Viz Media Will Start to Stream Their Own Fansubs
On November 17, 2008, Viz Media stepped up to the fansubbing challenge. They announced that starting January 15, 2009, they will start streaming Naruto Shippuden with subtitles online a week after a new episode airs. The best part? It's absolutely free.
Viz could not have made a smarter decision. They acknowledged that anime fans -- potential buyers of their DVD releases, no less -- want their anime NOW. They don't want to wait months, possibly a year, to watch the hottest new show in Japan. On top of that, they chose one of the most popular anime shows, Naruto Shippuden, as their streaming guinea pig. Dattebayo, the fansubbing group with the quickest turnaround on Naruto shows, gets over 350,000 downloads of Naruto episodes a week. If Viz's new site receives half of these page views a week, their experiment is already a success. Also, by appealing to the hardcore anime fan's desire for both instant anime and anime without English dubs, they may pick up more buyers of their releases.
Dattebayo Will Cease Subbing Naruto
Shortly after Viz's press release, Dattebayo announced that they will stop fansubbing the series as of January 15, 2009. They were the only group who stuck around subbing the show when the filler episodes creeped in, and when Shippuden started, they were the only group who continued to sub it. Unless another group decides to pick up the series, new Naruto episodes will no longer be available for download.
For now, Viz has effectively stopped fansubs for one of their licensed shows. One can only assume that if this project is successful, they will offer the same for their other shows. And if that happens, will Funimation do the same?
Fansubbing World May Change, But Fansubs Aren't Going Anywhere Yet
This may or may not change anything for fansubbing groups. In Dattebayo's announcement, they said that they are ceasing Naruto subs because Viz has allowed them to sub the show all this time without any legal threats. Now that Viz is offering the anime online for free, just like they are, they do not feel comfortable directly affronting Viz with their own licensed product. This does not mean other groups will feel the same if a similar situation happens with them, but it still asks this question: how many people will continue to download the anime when it's streamed online?
However, this new potential phenomenon will only happen when an US studio licenses a show, and they often do not license a show until they see how popular it is. This could take months, and with some shows, the entire series could be over before a studio picks it up. So until that point, fansubbing groups will continue to do what they do best: offer free subtitled anime for the masses.
Viz will start streaming Naruto Shippuden on January 15, 2009 on Naruto.com.
Keri Honea - Keri Honea is all over the place. She's involved with video games, animation, strategy guides, and fantasy books, and not just on Suite ...
