Fanservice - It's not all about the jiggles.

Well, this is a pleasant surprise:

Sekirei The Complete Series, featuring voluptuous vixens, sold out at retail in its first week following its release on November 23. The title ranked #1 for new anime series releases for Nielsen VideoScan First Alert Week Ending Nov 28, 2010!

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Original article at Funimation Update Blog 

With the pitiful state that the anime industry is in, news like this is always welcome. One of Funimation's newest DVD releases, Sekirei, sold out at retail only a week after its release on November 23rd. This is great news, especially when it's a new title and not a remake of a series that already has a strong following, such as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. It just so happens that I was one of the few anime fans that were able to get their hands on this series before it sold out. I was, however, a bit skeptical as to whether or not the series would appeal to me.

Recently the anime industry has been marketing many of their licenses by focusing on how much nudity there is and how jiggly the breasts are. Now, while nudity and breast jiggle is all well and good, there is a point where it gets to be too much. I know several of my friends who didn't buy the series specifically because they didn't want to watch yet another anime that had its story completely squashed beneath the copious amounts of fanservice.

Luckily, despite Funimation's attempt to convince me otherwise, Sekirei was not all about the jiggles. While the series does contain a lot of fanservice, it does not detract from the plot. I'd go as far as to say that, at times, the fanservice even contributes to the plot. It's a lot like product placement, in that respect. When it pulls you out of the story, it's done wrong. When you don't notice it, or if it contributes to the story, then it is done right.

I'm glad Sekirei sold out, but I hope that the reason it sold out so fast was not because of the short skirt and large breasts on the box. I hope that it was because people who watched it told their friends that it was a great series. I want the industry to survive, but not if the series that get licensed are chosen because of the amount of T&A they contain. At that point, we might as forget about storyline and stick to licensing hentai.

Don't be a parasite....even if it is just for the breasts.

Media Blasters Dubs Previously Released Titles

When I logged onto my favorite anime news site today, I nearly jumped out of my seat in delight at one of the headlines. It is something I've been waiting for for a long time: Media Blasters Confirms Loveless, Kashimashi Dub Plans

The North American anime distributor Media Blasters confirmed on Thursday that it will release the Loveless and Kashimashi television anime series with both English subtitles and English dubbing in early 2011. Both titles were originally released with only Japanese dialogue and English subtitles.

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Original article at Anime News Network

By and large, the majority of anime fans are split between two groups: the sub fans, and the dub fans. I count myself among the latter. When anime companies, like Sentai Filmworks and Media Blasters started release mostly subbed DVDs, I was just a bit upset, since they tended to license shows I was looking forward to watching in English. However, aside from my personal preferences on watching anime, I was concerned that this move was going to hurt their sales.

Now, I'm not sure how much it costs to dub a single episode of anime, so I don't know how much money they are saving on production costs by not doing dubs, but the majority of US Anime fans that buy DVDs do so for the dubs. Although many sub fans do as well, because the DVDs contain the original Japanese audio as well as subtitles, sub fans are far more likely to illegally watch the series online. Dub fans generaly will not because they prefer the English audio, or at least the ability to watch the show without staring at the bottom of the screen the entire time.  It seems to me that your sales would decrease drastically if you only release subs without the option of a dub, which is unrevealing to the majority of people who buy the R1 release DVDs.

Recently many of the companies that were mostly releasing sub-only DVDs have started to re-dub their previously sub-only releases into English. Sentai has recently done this with Blue Drop, CANAAN, and Tears to Tiara, all of which were original released in a sub-only format. I'm really glad to see that Media Blasters has decided to start doing the same thing with their licenses.

I'm interested to know whether this is a result of their profits just being better, or because only releasing subs has been hurting them. Perhaps I'll get an interview with someone over there who can answer these questions...

As always, don't be a parasite.

Manga Anti-Piracy Coalition

Until recently, the anime industry never made much mention of piracy, for fear of alienating their fans. With the exception of Greg Ayres, the industry made a point of ignoring piracy and not talking about it, silently hoping that the problem would go away. Well it didn't go away, and now the at least the manga industry at has decided to do something about it.

On June 8th of 2010, Viz media made an announcement that a multi-national manga anti-piracy coalition was formed.

San Francisco, CA, June 8, 2010 – Today a coalition of Japanese and U.S. publishers announced a coordinated effort to combat a rampant and growing problem of internet piracy plaguing the manga industry. “Scanlation,” as this form of piracy has come to be known, refers to the unauthorized digital scanning and translation of manga material that is subsequently posted to the internet without the consent of copyright holders or their licensees. According to the coalition, the problem has reached a point where “scanlation aggregator” sites now host thousands of pirated titles, earning ad revenue and/or membership dues at creators’ expense while simultaneously undermining foreign licensing opportunities and unlawfully cannibalizing legitimate sales. Worse still, this pirated material is already making its way to smartphones and other wireless devices, like the iPhone and iPad, through apps that exist solely to link to and republish the content of scanlation sites.  

Participants in the coalition include the 36 members of Japan’s Digital Comic Association, Square Enix, VIZ Media, TOKYOPOP, Vertical, Inc., the Tuttle-Mori Agency and Yen Press. Working together, the membership of the coalition will actively seek legal remedies to this intellectual property theft against those sites that fail to voluntarily cease their illegal appropriation of this material.

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 Original article at Viz Media

 Although relatively new, just the creation of the coalition has had an effect on piracy. Shortly after it's creation, two of the largest manga scanlation sites announced that they were removing all of their content due to the the stance taken by the industry against scanlation. If the top two scanlation sites removed their content simply because the manga industry decided to form a coalition against piracy, one has to wonder what the effect would be if the rest of the anime industry were to stand up and express their displeasure.

Earlier this year, a coalition of American comic publishers, including Marvel and DC, recently had the largest internet distributor of American comics shut down, with support from the FBI. Perhaps the Manga scanlation sites' swift action in removing their content was sparked by worry that the Manga coalition would soon follow suit, and shut them down in a similar fashion.

While the formation of the coalition and the scanlation sites' responses is brightening the outlook for the future of the industry, there has not been much news from the coalition since it was announced in June. As of yet, they do not even have an official website and other than the initial article detailing the formation, there is very little information about it. Hopefully we will see some new developments with them soon.

As always, don't pirate your manga and anime, and don't be a parasite.

Bakuretsucon and Greg Ayres

I attended Bakuretsucon two weekends ago. It's a small anime convention in Vermont. Although they are a smaller convention (attendance this year was 529) when compared with conventions like Anime Boston (17,236) or Anime Expo (44,000+), Bakuretsucon is the convention I look forward to every year. They always have amazing industry guests, and the attendees are very respectful and nice, which sadly isn't always the case at many conventions. However, other than this, one of the things which Bakuretsucon prides itself on is that it's dealers room is free of any anime bootleg DVDs or merchandise.

Remember the interviews for KeepAnimeAlive.com that I hinted at in a previous post? When I went to Bakuretsucon, I was expecting to maybe get an interview with Greg Ayres, if I was lucky. However, once the other guests and the convention chair heard about what I was doing, suddenly there was no shortage of people to interview. In the end, I was able to interview Greg Ayres, Chris Ayres, Chris Cason, Scott Melzer and Jon Miller of NoNDE Fanfilms, and the Convention Chair Valerie Tatro. All of these interviews, and video of Greg Ayres' Bootlegging and The State of the Industry and You panels, will be available at KeepAnimeAlive.com when it launches next month.

Greg Ayres is, of course, the big name in the industry for speaking out about anime piracy, and I'd like to talk a little bit about him for the rest of the post. It was only after hearing him speak at Anime Boston in 2008 that I started my work against piracy. Immediately after hearing him speak out against piracy, I stopped watching fansubs and became more conscious about buying legal anime DVDs and merchandise. As is probably obvious at this point, Greg is someone I respect and admire very much.

One of the things he says when you hear him speak at his anti-piracy panels that really spoke to me, was that he runs these panels as a fan, and not as a voice-actor. Greg Ayres loves the anime industry. He left a very high-paying job in order to become a full time voice actor for anime, and not because the pay was better. As a voice actor, he makes "less than the lady that greets you at Walmart."

He was also the first person to really speak out against piracy in anime industry. He first started after seeing many of his friends who work in the industry, both in Japan and the US, have trouble finding work. When he started speaking out against piracy, everyone else in the industry tried to ignore the issue, afraid that if they spoke out, there would be a negative backlash from the fans. Indeed, when Yana Toboso recently voiced how upset she was with "fans" downloading her work illegally, she was essentially crucified and flamed by the so-called "fans" reading he work. Greg Ayres himself comes under fire a lot on online communities, but he choses not to care and pushes forward in his struggle against piracy.

Greg was once described by someone as the perfect person to speak out against anime piracy, because he was "the only person I know who could walk into a roomful of people and give them the finger." Now, while quite unprofessional, it does show the strength of his convictions. This is something that people higher up in the industry, like the executives of Viz or Funimation can't do because they have to maintain that professional attitude. Greg wants to see the anime industry survive, even if he has to estrange himself from the rest of the industry in order to do so.

Please look forward to the video of his panels at Bakuretsucon and his interview once KeepAnimeAlive launches. I'm not able to post them until I get confirmation from Greg that everything is in order with them. In lieu of them, here is a video showing one of his Fansub panels at Sogen Con 2007.

Remember, don't be a parasite.

Keep Anime Alive

I suppose that the time has come to talk a little more about KeepAnimeAlive.

Originally I was hoping to launch the site this previous weekend, but making the site completely cross-browser compatible is taking slightly longer than I had intended. I'm hoping to finish everything up and finally launch the site in the next day or two. In the meantime, I thought I'd take the time to explain the site in all its glory.

The idea for the site started many years ago, when I attended a panel at Anime Boston run by Greg Ayres, where I heard him speak about the damage piracy was causing the industry. Since then, it's been a dream of mine to do something to help the industry. Since then, I've kept a close watch on the anime industry, and watched with dismay as the US anime market has dwindled from it's $550 million high in 2003 to its current value of approximately $180 million. With the recent distress the anime industry has been in, I decided that I would be one of the fans to step up to the plate and actually do something. As a result, the idea for KeepAnimeAlive came about.

KeepAnimeAlive is an non-profit online center and community for news, interviews, and other resources regarding piracy involving the anime industry. The site seeks to inform anime fans of the damaging effect piracy has on the industry, provide information on where to legal online streaming sits, and provide a community for fans who want to help the industry. In addition, it will feature many entertaining, yet informative podcasts, as well as interviews with industry professionals.

KeepAnimeAlive is meant to be more than just a news site. It's a place where anime fans can gather and work to support the industry they love.

Having my idea firmly in mind, I began to plan out the project.

Having a background in web design and programming, I knew that I could handle the creation and maintenance of the website myself. Web hosting is insanely cheap currently, so I could easily pay the projects initial startup cost out of pocket. However, for the project to succeed and to grow into what I intend it to be, a lot more planning was needed, in order to fully flush out the scope of the project.

One of the most important assets KeepAnimeAlive has is the planed association with Sustain the Industry. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have been in talks with theRAofEdwardElric about incorporating Sustain the Industry directly into the site, providing a place for members to keep track of their monthly purchases and post their YouTube videos.

Another of the big assets to the site will be the interviews with industry professionals and experts. We currently have two interviews that we're waiting on confirmation for. I won't name any names in case the interview falls through, but one of them is a very big name in the anime industry.

Additionaly, KeepAnimeAlive will have various videos and podcasts that are related to the combat of piracy, as well as being entertaining. One such show is the Bootleg Bomber. Similar to the Chibi Project, Bootleg Bomber is a monthly podcast involving the violent and highly entertaining destruction of bootleg DVDs and merchandise.

We've also planned out many ways to draw visitors to the site. We hope that our interviews with some of the big name's in the anime industry, especially ones that speak out against piracy themselves, will draw visitors to the website. In addition, we are going to attempt to create several viral marketing videos for KeepAnimeAlive.

As the site grows and more elaborate videos and projects are planned, it will become much harder for myself and the others involved to pay for the sits budget out of pocket. It's our hope that, as KeepAnimeAlive grows, we will eventually be able to get sponsored by major players in the anime industry, like Funimation.

One thing we've had to take into a account while planning out the site is the vulnerability to hacking and internet attacks. This is always a problem on the internet, however the topic of piracy and anime is such a controversial one, that the sites very existence is assured to draw the attention of many people who wish to undermine the site. As such, we been planning out strategies to confront the threat, such as daily backing up the site's database.

So. That is KeepAnimeAlive. Look forward to its launch later this week!

As always, don't be a parasite.

Teamwork

Many times, when discussing the issue of piracy, I'm presented with the argument: "I'm just one person. It doesn't really matter one way or another if I download anime. I really don't make a difference." This truly is a hard argument to respond to, because it is partially true. The actions of a single person often don't make much of a difference.

In most cases, one person alone can't change much. That is why people gather others and work together. When people come together and work towards one goal, what was impossible for one person suddenly becomes possible. Fortunately, the desire to oppose and combat piracy has become a growing desire among many anime fans in recent months.

I mentioned the Sustain the Industry movement on YouTube in a previous post. Since my post, the movement on YouTube has grown in size, as more and more people band together to "sustain the industry." Robert's Anime Corner Store, an online retailer of anime and related products, has issued a challenge to fans, saying that whoever buys the most from their store and makes a Sustain the Industry video about it will be given a $25 gift certificate. I also previously mentioned that I am working with Sustain the Industry to launch the KeepAnimeAlive website later this month.

As I said, it takes teamwork to really accomplish something, and fans worldwide are realizing that. Recently, some German anime fans have started the Anime Copyright Alliance:

Fans in Germany have established an initiative called the Anime Copyright Allianz (Anime Copyright Alliance, ACA) whose stated goals are to promote respect for the copyrights of anime titles in Germany and to educate fans on relevant copyright law. The alliance's members include fan-run websites and clubs as well as the Viz Media Europe-owned Anime-Virtual/Kaze labels and the Japanese company Animax, which runs anime television channels in Germany and other European countries. Two fansub websites are also on the list of ACA members.

The group's official website focuses primarily on the removal of anime titles that have been licensed for release in Germany, and encourages users to report licensed series that have been uploaded for illicit download. However, the ACA says it will not pursue legal action against uploaders, but only report illegal uploads to the sites that host them, such as YouTube and RapidShare.

The German news site Gulli reported today that one of the group's members, AnimeFansubs.org, has been subject to denial-of-service attacks, and as of this writing only a cached copy of the website could be accessed. According to Gulli, other members' sites have not been heavily targeted.

Original article at Anime News Network

Fans are stepping up their game, working together to accomplish things that one fan could not alone. While they currently focus only on series that have been licensed in Germany, it is still a big step. They are one of the first fan run groups to actively fight against illegal uploads.

In everything from Evangelion, to Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger (the Japanese series that would later become Mighty Morphin Power Rangers), we are shown the importance of teamwork. If we are to make any progress in the fight against piracy, it is important for fans to work together. Sustain the Industry has had a huge impact in the anime fandom in the few months since it started. These teams of people that come together to work towards the common goal of helping the anime industry can do much more than just one individual working alone.

I urge any fan who is serious about supporting the anime industry to go out there and joint a team dedicated to supporting the anime industry, or even start your own. Whether it be in your local community, or your internet community, gather people together and work together to support the industry. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that you are just one person, and nothing you do will change anything. Sustain the Industry started when theRAofEdwardElric posted a simple video on YouTube asking fans to join her in her quest to sustain the industry, and now the movement is bigger than imagined it would ever become.

While it's true that a single rock thrown won't stop a landslide, it can also start one.

Be that rock, and don't be a parasite.

Feed the Starving Manga Artists

 Anime News Network recently posted an article about Yana Toboso, the creator of the successfull manga and anime Black Butler. Toboso recently posted on her blog, condemning illegal downloads of her creations.

Toboso reports that she has been getting more email messages and letters from fans like the following:

"I read them from ROMs I borrowed from a friend. LOL"

"I found and watched all of them on an overseas video site!"

"I became a fan with the second season, and then I watched the entire first season on an overseas video site. lol It was very amusing!"

Toboso said these actions are "unmistakably" illegal and added, "It is the same as shoplifting or leaving a restaurant without paying the bill." According to Toboso, if people watch anime illegally or download them without authorization, "we creators and voice actors will not eat; this is no joke, we will starve and die. This is not 'lol.'" She then said, "These actions, to paraphrase a certain Fullmetal character, goes against the Law of Equivalent Exchange! If you continue doing them, I really cannot make either anime or manga again. […] Unauthorized videos + downloads are wrong, absolutely!"

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Original article at Anime News Network 

An argument that many people who download anime and manga use (flawed though it is), is that while the North American industry might suffer from their lack of purchases, the Japanese industry remains completely unaffected. This is not true. The Japanese anime industry has nearly failed several times, and it's only still here today because it was bailed out by the United States and Canada. There are even several anime series, such as The Big O, which were only given a second season because the US Networks that had licensed it were providing the funding. Shinjichi Watanabe, director of popular anime like Excel Saga and The Wallflower, stated in an interview that he has been forced to give up smoking, because it came down to a choice between buying his cigarettes, or buying food for his newborn son.  As Toboso says, "we creators and voice actors will not eat; this is no joke, we will starve and die."

The Black Butler manga and anime were only recently licensed in North America, by Yen Press and Funimation Entertainment respectively. Many people who download anime believe that it's legal so long as the anime or manga in question has not been licensed yet. I myself was under that assumption, back when I also downloaded the latest fan subtitled anime from Japan. However, this is not the case.

On March 1, 1989, the United States became party to the Berne Convention, an international treaty where all parties agree to uphold and respect the copyrights of all member countries, including Japan. As a result, if it's illegal to download material copyrighted in the US, it is also illegal to download material copyrighted in Japan.

North American fans need to realize that if the North American anime industry collapses, odds are that Japan will soon follow. The industry is doing everything it can to combat piracy, but it's not enough. Fans need to step up and do their part, giving the industry what it needs in order to grow, instead of feeding off of it whilst giving nothing in return.

Don't be a parasite.

Sustain the Industry

Welcome to Anime Defense.

Anime Defense is about Piracy and the Anime industry. Piracy is one of the biggest problems facing the anime industry today. In the last few years, we've seen the demise of Geneon USA, Central Park Media, and ADV Films, the company which once held the dominant position in the US anime market. It's very hard for these companies to sell DVDs, which provides the majority of their income, when the entire show is already available online, for free. Funimation has had to change the entire way they approach distribution, in order to combat the adverse affects of piracy. Even manga distributors, like Viz, have enormous problems dealing with the illegal "scanlations" of their licensed material.

Fortunately, however, there has been some positive change put into motion by fans of the industry. One devoted fan has recently begun a video series on YouTube which she calls Sustain the Industry.

In recent months a movement has appeared via YouTube titled "Sustain the Industry," in which fans detail their monthly anime-related purchases in an attempt to encourage fans to purchase anime DVDs, manga volumes, and/or merchandise.

The movement appears to be traced back to user theRAofEdwardElric, who announced her own "Sustain the Industry" series on June 12 and launched its first episode on June 24....

Original article at Anime News Network

Many fans have begun posting videos of their monthly purchases of anime in response to theRAofEdwardElric's videos. Her original video can be viewed here (warning, contains language).

Recently, theRAofEdwardElric announced that YouTube had contacted her, offering her their IVP (Independent Video Partnership) program, which would allow her to make money from the ad's YouTube places on her page. She has declined the offer, stating that it was not the kind of partnership she wanted.

Her video has been mentioned all throughout the industry, and several important figures in the industry have begun to follower her Twitter feed.

I was very impressed by what she had accomplished, and so I contacted her regarding a website myself and a few others have begun work on. KeepAnimeAlive.com is a site where that will provide people with information about piracy and industry news. In addition, it will feature interviews with industry professionals, links to sites that legally stream anime for free, links to online retailers, and various other related information. Sustain the Industry seemed like a perfect match for the site, so I contacted theRAofEdwardElric, asking if we could make Sustain the Industry a part of Keep Anime Alive.

She was grateful to hear from me. She had been planning to create a similar website once Sustain the Industry had gotten big enough, but she lacked the skill to do so. She eagerly agreed to my request that her series become a part of the Keep Anime Alive website.

Sustain the Industry will be a featured part of Keep Anime Alive when the site launches next month. Members will be able to use the site to keep track of their monthly purchases, as well as link to their Sustain the Industry YouTube videos.

The anime industry itself is doing all it can to combat the threat of piracy, and now it's times for fans themselves to enter the stage and play their part in helping the industry. theRAofEdwardElric has more than proved that she is a true fan of anime and manga.

A few years back, I was at a convention, and one of the industry guests said something regarding what a fan is that I shall never forget.

"If you watch anime or read manga without supporting the original creators, you are not a fan. You are a parasite."