Anime...What's the big deal?

[morgandee]

I don't know, but it's in a flash film at Newgrounds called "DBZ in a Nutshell"

 

[Jaynin]

Ahh yes... DBZ in a Nutshell... what a classic. ^ ^

 

[quesecotil1]

Thought I'd pop up to answer the question posted in this thread as I like anime, well... actually anime is probably my main hobby.

Why do I like anime? My enjoyment of anime comes from a deep rooted love of animation even to such years as my middle teens, I discovered anime when I was around 12 years old and have been hooked on it ever since. It's even managed to secure the country of Japan a place of interest in my mind. My original love was wrought from Pokémon and Dragonball Z, some older anime fans hate the 'Pokémon era' fans as they came about to encroach on a hobby which was very specific and overall very centralized. Anime was difficult to get a hold of back then, or so I hear.

I love the action, I love the romance, I love the drama, I love the sci fi, I love the comedy, I love the hentai and so on and so forth.

As you can undoubtedly notice there are an awful lot of genres in there. The reason for this is because the Japanese think of anime as a medium and not a genre as the rest of the world seem to. Asking the question: "What's so good about anime?" to an actual anime fan and you will often get the response: "Well... what's so good about TV and film?"

Anime to the Japanese is actually all forms of animation. American cartoons would be anime to them, or so I understand it. However anime is, to the Western world, specifically animation which comes from Japan.

Not every anime will meet your tastes, especially the shite they usually show on TV. If you want to see real anime you're either going to have to get into buying it or fansubs. Fansubs are a pretty grey area in Japan, technically it's illegal but it's outside of government law. It's up to the owner of the media to prosecute and take action and for the most part they don't bother because fansubs are a seemingly great way of getting their shows picked up by American distributors. Why... Mezzo DSA only had to be aired for about 7-8 shows before ADV picked it up, though I credit that to Mezzo Forte, a hentai made by the same people set in one of those 'alternate realities' It's actually a fairly famous hentai.

 

[nessonite1]

Fansubs are a pretty grey area in Japan, technically it's illegal but it's outside of government law.

You'll have to explain that to me. Well...you don't HAVE to but it'd be nice. 😀 What is a fansub? I'm going to guess it's a show that's been translated and subtitled by a fan and then sent here (or uploaded to the internet). I think you're right though...it may be illegal but I'm sure it gets things infront of an American audience and opens the door for future sales and broadcast..making it good for them in the long run.

 

[Jaynin]

Well, I'm not sure exactly what the Japanese view on copyright law is exactly, but it is far less anal than the American view. For the most part, from what I understand, people re-using their works in original art and manga (called 'doujinshi') is seen as a compliment, rather than the artist trying to steal a copyrighted character or whatnot. The same lax legal attitude towards fansubs comes into play. Unlicensed anime is pretty much fair game; it's when it gets picked up by American firms that you have to watch out, because then they own the distribution rights in North America. But there are far more fansubbed animes out there that are basically free if you know where to look for them than anime owned specifically by a single company.

 

[His Divine Shadow]

Companies have started cracking down on Fansub distributions of late. One of them, Media Blasters if I recall correctly, recently told one of the larger fansub distribution sites to cease distributing their material. Up until now, most companies have, while not approving of the practice, mainly turned a blind eye to it.

 

[quesecotil1]

HDS is right, though Media Blasters is the only one I've heard about. It caused Animesuki to take down all of their torrents and caused the people hosting the files to move trackers.

Jay pretty much hit on what the whole 'outside of government law' bit meant. The copy write laws in Japan state that it's up to the creators what happens if copy write infringement is discovered. Because they're not as retarded as most anal businessmen though, they usually let these things go un-punished.

The anime scene has gained well over £300 from me simply because I bought actual real copies of my fansubs. I support my anime scene!

 

[Jaynin]

That's my opinion on things anyway. Besides, I can't stand subtitles, so I usually have to get things for real if they exist.