by Jin
Hello everyone! Jin reporting today. As you
know, anime has slowly changed the face of the Earth. People all across
the globe watch anime from the United States, to Mexico, to England, to
Australia, and of course, Japan!
This year, 2012, is the year of so many things,
such as the London 2012 Summer Olympics! Now, probably a good number of you watch the olympics for
basketball, swimming, and other summer sports. Some of you watch it for the opening ceremonies too. At this
point, you're all probably wondering what anime and the olympics have in common at this point.
According to Crunchyroll.com, people have chosen
Hatsune Miku to be part of the 2012 summer olympics! Not only is she part of it, people are requesting her to
be the main ceremony singer for the opening ceremonies. (See the correlation now?)
Check out the polls that were released on
Monday.
http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2012/01/16-1/poll-ranks-hatsune-miku-2nd-most-requested-olympics-opening-ceremony-singer
Although she is not a formal anime character,
her cosplay outfits are all over anime conventions almost all across the country. Watch almost any video
considering anime conventions, and you'll see what I mean. It's still early in the year. Perhaps it will
happen. She's in the lead. Hopefully, with enough votes, it would slowly help diminish the separation of
anime and the terrible views anime receives from the rest of the crowd.
Original source: www.crunchyroll.com
by Jin
So as of late, we all know SOPA and PIPA didn't pull through. Many
people were outraged by its ideas of censorship and so much more. Although, I
don't like the idea of piracy taking over the internet, it's something most
people do on a daily basis. Even though neither bill was passed, one site was
shut down almost immediately.
Say goodbye to Megaupload.
Why? Well, most people upload videos of fansubs, dubs, and so much more on
Megaupload. So, it only makes sense that it was shut down by the FBI. Many were
devested that it was shut down. However, that is only the start. Other sites
are also thinking of closing their doors to our humble anime lovers alike. For
example, fileserve and filesonic have both closed their doors to uploading and
downloading on a public server. You can still upload and download; however, it
will only be your own files, and no one else's. (for full article, check out
this website: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/filesonic-has-disabled-file-sharing-in-wake-of-megaupload-takedown.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss) Other sites are at risk to these things. At
this rate, many people will not be able to freely look for their favorite
movie, anime, song, or anything else and download it to their computer. They will
have to purchase it through an online store, watch it on DVD/Blu-Ray, or have
to wait for it to appear in stores.
For anime lovers alike, including myself, we love to watch anime right after
it's shown in Japan or even watch it streamed from Japan. Most of us don't want
to wait for some company in America to license it and dub it, especially since
Bandai is now out of the picture.
So is there a solution to all this? Most companies (manily Funimation) are
starting to license your favorite animes quicker than before. You can also
formally learn Japanese in order to skip all the subs and just go directly to
the raw footage. (That WOULD look great in your résumé people!)
Another soluton for them is to do something what hulu and YouTube does and just
start a website dedicated to streaming anime 24/7. I know we have crunchyroll
and sometimes YouTube, but those are temporary solutions. Most people want
things for free, so they will find ways to get them almost automatically
without a price. What they should do is upload them with subs, but with ads. If
you pay for the service, then it'll be ad free. For example, Funimation has
done this for quite sometime (but I just discovered it). They sub it the same
day as it comes out from Japan. It's an $8 per month subcription if you want to
watch it in HD without ads.
There is a formal solution for the companies, too. Most of these companies are
losing their money towards fansub groups. Why? Because these companies don't do
it fast enough, they usually lose. Fansubs are out almost every week on a
schedule. It's usually within the day or two after the airing in Japan. So, why
not hire these people instead of calling the authorities when they are merely
doing it for free for so many others?
The last solution to this is the idea of doing a simultaneous cast. About 3
years back, I recall an anime that did this, Kurokami: The Animation. When it
was showing in Japan, they would also put up the dubs on YouTube almost right
away. It only took them a few hours, but for the most part, that was one of the
fastest dubs they did in such a short period of time.
So is this the answer the industry and the fans have been looking for?
