AnimeSuki interview: Fansubs and the industry
By Kirielson on Friday 19th September 2008
This week we spoke to GHDPro, the creator of one of the most
popular sites for anime downloads, AnimeSuki. We asked him his views on the state of
the anime industry, and the impact fansubs may be having on it.
MangaBullet: For those who are unaware, what is AnimeSuki?
AnimeSuki's GHDPro: AnimeSuki is a BitTorrent index site for all
unlicensed (in North America) anime which has been fansubbed in
English. I originally found out about BitTorrent in Fall of 2002 for
something unrelated to anime downloading, but I did realise its
potential for fansub distribution. I initially planned to start my own
tracker, but didn't get around to it, so in October 2002 it was
wirebrain.de (now known as scarywater.net) which hosted one of the
first anime torrents. After some more anime torrents were put on
various sites, I started to collect the links in a thread on one of my
other sites, The Emulator Zone. After that thread grew too large, I
put the list on a domain name I already owned since 2001; AnimeSuki.com.
MB: Your site is considered by many to be one of the most popular sites for anime torrents. Why is that?
AS: Well I think you can consider AnimeSuki one of the oldest
sites to go to for anime torrents. It also has a convinient series
index for series and groups.
MB: You're located in The Netherlands. How is the anime scene over there?
AS: Well, in the Netherlands pretty much anything on TV is
subtitled unless its intended for young kids. So whether it's a sitcom,
detective series, an interview on the news, or an asian movie, they're
all subbed. So most anime DVDs you can buy here are only subbed,
without a Dutch dub. Of course, most anime shown on TV is intended for
kids, and is thus dubbed in Dutch, or in some cases dubbed in English
with Dutch subtitles. As the Netherlands is a relatively small country
(16 million people) and Europe is a bit of a divided market
(language-wise), there aren't as many series you can buy here, although
the situation is improving. For this reason I have to buy most of my
anime DVDs from the US and read US-oriented anime sites for news and
information. I have been to a Dutch anime convention a few times
though, and I'm also subscribed to the Dutch anime magazine "Aniway."
MB: As I'm sure you know, the western anime industry has been
going through a slump. What are your thoughts on the current state of
the industry, and could fansubs be to blame?
AS: I think that you may consider the current situation of the
anime industry to be like the Internet bubble of a few years back.
Anime was becoming a hot item around 2003 - 2004, and a lot of
companies were licensing franchises left and right without taking into
account that anime still is a niche market of sorts and not every
series will break even, let alone make a profit. To make it not sound
like it's all the anime industry's own fault, I think piracy, and that
includes fansubbing, maybe partially to blame for lower sales. While I
buy a reasonble amount of anime DVDs, I notice myself that I'm less
inclined to buy a "B" quality series if I already saw all the episodes
as fansubs. On the other hand, having seen the fansubs makes me even
more likely to buy those series I really, really liked. But I realise
that as a fansub watcher and anime DVD buyer, I'm in a minority. I'm
afraid there are tons of people that have the "why pay when you can get
it for free" mentality.
MB: You've come under fire several times by Funimation over the
past years because of holding torrents for series that will get
licensed.
AS: Well Funimation apparently doesn't understand that we
(AnimeSuki) will remove a series promptly if they officially announce
it as licensed. I suppose one reason Funimation does this is because
when they send us the C&D (Cease and desist warning) without the
contracts signed yet, they just want to stop the fansubbing as soon as
possible. I should note that other than receiving a few C&Ds (to
which we promptly complied) we haven't really got into much trouble
with Funimation.
MB: Why do you think people should be able to view "unlicensed" anime even though many companies would consider it pirating?
AS: Well the original reason for fansubbing is to generate
publicity for a series so that it may be licensed. I'm not sure whether
that excuse holds up today, though. Another reason is that many people
feel they are entitled to view anime even when they're not in Japan, as
long as it doesn't infringe on the rights of local companies who
license anime. I think that reason, or at least a variation of it, is
true for many people who explicitly make the distinction between
licensed and unlicensed anime.
MB: What brings you to that decision?
AS: Well there is an obvious need: the desire to view the latest
anime available in Japan as soon as possible. I think many people
justify downloading fansubs of unlicensed anime by the fact that they
wouldn't have been able to view it otherwise and that if they only
stick to unlicensed anime they are not infringing on the rights of
local (North American/European) companies. I think there is a sort of
moral/ethical boundary for licensed anime that some people do not want
to cross. To add to that, I think it's also why quite a few people
think downloading unlicensed anime is "safe"; they seem to think
unlicensed anime makes it less/not illegal.
MB: What do you think companies (in Europe and in the North America) can do to render fansubs virtually useless?
AS: I think in a way Gonzo is already on to this. They're making
it possible for people to view a legally subtitled version within a
very short period of the Japanese release on TV, for free, on sites
such as YouTube. The only problem I think that plan has is that I'm not
sure how they're going to make such a scheme profitable, even if they
also sell "download to own" copies through BOST and Crunchyroll. There
are still fansubs of the series Gonzo releases.
One thing I don't think will work very well is if European and North
American companies will start bombarding any site and any downloader
with C&Ds. They will shut down some sites this way and will
discourage a few people from downloading, but a significant portion of
people will just find other ways to download what they want. After all,
before 2001 there was no BitTorrent, but (digital) fansubs definitely
did exist...
MB: Finally, I see you have a mascot! What is her name and background?
AS: Her name is Kairin, and to be honest the idea of a mascot
for AnimeSuki wasn't mine but the idea of staff member NightWish. We
held a competition to design a mascot for AnimeSuki in 2004/2005 (I
don't remember correctly). His idea was to create a personification of
AnimeSuki, much like the "OS-tans."
MB: GHDPro, thank you for your time!
AS: No problem.
Please
log in or
register to leave a comment.
Oct '08
Oct '08
Sep '08
Sep '08
Sep '08
Sep '08
Sep '08
Sep '08
Sep '08
MangaBullet
The excuse that fansubs is strictly for promotion is just bogus. I've seen one or two on Youtube unfortunately ( before I learned how screwed up the economy and anime was getting) and I saw the entire episode. A promotion of that anime would have been maybe 10 or 5 mins of that anime fansubbed, and also, credit paid to that company, as well as a link to that company's site, where the viewer can purchase it if they do in fact enjoy it. I didn't see anything like that. And the anime "Promotion" was 30 full mins.
the excuse that anime is expensive and i cann't pay for it is out the window already. I found a comic shop where I can get used anime DVD's for 5 bucks each. I buoght two episodes of Rhaxephon a few weekends ago, There are lots of alternatives to getting your anime fix.
And if you pump money into the anime industry, then they will then in turn WANT to bring all those cool animes in Japan that aren't here yet. But since people are gettting them for free worldwide, where is the incentive to do that? They have just as much incentive right now to liscence anime's for the rest of the world, as much of the Otaku's want to buy an anime after they see it. NONE.