Ask John: What Impact does YouTube Have on Anime?

Question:
How do you think Youtube.com affects or will affect anime? It allows many people to watch entire anime series without paying a dime. It’s also more convenient than picking up a pirated disc. On one hand, it makes many different anime available to a lot of people, but it’s also provided free. Overall do you think that it’s good or bad for anime?

Answer:
Similar to fansubs and counterfeit DVDs, I’m sure that YouTube has had an impact on the anime industry, but I doubt that anyone knows exactly what or how significant the impact has been. For example, fansubs existed before the American anime industry, and they’ve continued to thrive at the same time the American anime industry has experienced exponential growth. I have no doubt that fansubs compromise profits that should rightfully go to the industry, but there’s also no certainty of exactly how much fansubs have contributed to the popularity and profitability of anime. Likewise, the easy and free accessibility of anime on YouTube is a double-edged sword, and its effects aren’t clear, and may never be.

Even though YouTube is an English language American website, an estimated third of the site’s visitors come from Japan. According to the Mainichi Daily News, by percentage, more of Japan’s web surfers visit YouTube than America’s internet connected citizens. Since at least the beginning of the year, the Japanese media has expounded on the proliferation of licensed Japanese media illegally distributed through YouTube. Television networks including NHK, TV Asahi, and Fuji TV regularly scour YouTube in search of unlicensed copies of their programs. YouTube is quick to remove copyrighted material, but the sheer number of video clips submitted to YouTube daily makes policing them all virtually impossible.

I believe that making anime accessible is beneficial for the hobby. Exposing viewers to anime creates new anime fans. Yet contributing nothing in return for virtually unlimited access to anime that artists painstakingly created isn’t fair to the artists, and doesn’t contribute to the healthy growth of the industry. YouTube is a wonderful resource for anime fans because it offers an opportunity to watch brief samples of obscure and vintage anime that’s not available to Americans any other way. For example, after a brief search, I was able to find short clips from Maho Tsukai Sally (1966), Otoko do Aho! Koshien (1970), Dokonjo Gaeru (1972), Ore wa Teppei (1977), Ie Naki Ko (1977), and Manga Hajimete Monogatari (1978); all shows that are virtually unknown in America. In that respect, YouTube is a valuable resource for American fans interested in expanding their knowledge of Japanese animation. But the availability of entire episodes, and even entire series on YouTube may compromise legitimate sales.

Distributors and television networks have to aggressively oppose resources like YouTube in order to establish a precedent of protecting their properties and financial interests. I have personal doubts about the potential negative impact anime distribution on YouTube may have. Since YouTube hosts its video clips in Flash FLV format, the quality is poor, and saving video clips for later playback is difficult and inconvenient. In effect, YouTube is ideal for promotion and providing consumers with samples, but, I think, for most consumers, it’s not a viable alternative to purchased high quality, portable, physical media like DVD discs. I’m not trying to condone or encourage the wholesale unlicensed distribution of anime through YouTube. I’m only arguing that I don’t believe that the availability of anime on YouTube significantly compromises sales of legitimate DVDs. I’ve seen no evidence that American anime fans consider YouTube an alternative to purchasing official DVDs. Rather, American fans seem to consider YouTube a supplementary method of sampling anime. I suspect that distributors and television networks request YouTube to remove licensed video as a matter of principle rather than as a reaction to decreasing sales attributed to online viewing.

YouTube has been adopted by the world’s anime fan community as yet another distribution method of sharing anime and exposing new viewers to anime. The effects and ethics of unauthorized distribution of anime have been debated for decades. Websites like YouTube haven’t changed fansubbing or underground anime distribution; they’ve only made fansubs more easily and widely available. That exposure may be good or bad depending on one’s perspective on fansubs.