Ask John: Will Fansubbing Continue?

Question:
I have a mixed feeling about fansub. I remember you declared you would not deny the existence of fansub because the growing popularity of anime had been attributed to it. But some of my Japanese friends claim fansub is illegal and they are angry with the pirate activities by anime fans overseas Japan, however eagerly they love Japanese culture.

BTW ICv2 reported that the higher license fees were getting, the less profitable some minor became anime DVDs because the fans watched them with fansub and would not buy them. It is well-known that Media Factory officially announced it would ban the fansub of its own shows. Recently, however, I hear a firm attempts to distribute legalized fansubs.

So I’d like to certify your view of the future of fansub, apart from the issue of whether fansub is evil or not. Fansub will survive or not?

Answer:
The future of fansubbing has been debated within the American fan community almost as much as the ethics of fansubbing, although not with the same vitriol. Setting aside the ethical status of fan translations, I think that there’s a general agreement within America’s fan community that fansubbing played a significant role in the popularization of anime in America. Without fansubbing, anime probably wouldn’t have become remotely as successful and recognized in America as it is now. But if the purpose of fansubs is to promote awareness of anime and encourage the growth of a legitimate anime industry, arguably fansubs have served their purpose and are no longer necessary. The fact that fansubbing continues to exist and flourish means either that fansubbing continues to provide a valuable service, or a significant number of English speaking fans encourage and support video piracy for selfish ends. I believe that fansubbing will continue to exist in America and elsewhere as long as anime itself continues to exist, because fansubbing is a natural result of cultural and commercial differences between Japan and other countries. While doubtlessly greed and selfishness play some role in the continued existance of fansubs, I believe that fansubs primarly continue to exist, and will exist in the future, because they still provide a service that benefits the anime community.

In order to discuss fansubbing, I must first define my use of the term. The majority of the English speaking fan community seems to define contemporary digital fansubs as unauthorized, non-profit fan translations of anime which are not created or released concurrently nor in comeptition with legal, authorized translations. I specifically define anime in that way to include fan translations of current episodes of shows such as Detective Conan and One Piece, which are licensed in America but are not remotely concurrently released. I don’t believe that a fan translation of One Piece episode 240 competes with a commercially translated release of episode 4. On the contrary, evidence suggests that fansubs create and encourage interest in the official commercial releases of particular anime.

Based on my unique position as both a devoted anime fan and a professional anime retailer, I’m personally able to directly compare the popularity of fansubs and licensed, commerical American anime DVDs. I can say with absolute certainty that fansubs do promote commercial releases. Recent American anime debuts such as Naruto and Full Metal Alchemist have been massively successful, I believe, as a direct result of pre-release fansubs generating anticipation for the American official releases. Industry observers such as ICv2 have reported that second tier anime titles in America have seen decreased market support and theorized that these decreased sales are due to the proliferation of free fansub alternatives. I don’t agree with this speculation. Shows that have not been extensively fansubbed, such as Wandaba Style, Earth Defense Family, Miami Guns, Android Kikaider, Seraphim Call, Cybuster, Time Bokan, and Daphne in the Brilliant Blue have ranged from underperforming to being outright flops. In a general overview of American commercial anime distribution, titles that are heavily fansubbed tend to become best selling commercial releases, and shows that have minimal distribution in the fansub community don’t sell well on commercial DVD.

Evidence seems to reveal that it’s not fansubs that are undermining the support for anime in America. Fansubs create interest in particular anime series, which turns into consumer demand. I have no doubts that fansubs do compromise sales of legitimate commercial releases, but I think the more impactful reason for decreased sales is market oversaturation. Declines in American anime sales are caused when there are too many anime titles available and not enough consumer familarity with all of them. The over-saturation of the American anime market has forced consumers to become more selective. American consumers have become careful to purchase what they’re familiar with or what they’ve heard of, and ignore obscure titles, regardless of relative quality. In that respect, fansubs continue to play an active and influential role in advertising individual anime series.

Japanese consumers have the ability to sample and preview countless anime series at no cost. By rough estimate, well over 50 different anime series air on broadcast Japanese television each week. By comparison, a relative handful of anime series are available on American broadcast or basic cable television. According to an Anime News Network poll of over 3,000 fans, the prevailing opinion among English speaking fans is that extended samples of anime longer than trailers should be available for free. While not necessarily representative of all English speaking anime fandom, I do think it’s worth pointing out that the least supported opinion on Anime News Network’s anonymous poll is that all anime should be available at no charge. Fansubs provide an opportunity for non-Japanese fans to sample anime that is not accessible through any other means. (Importing Japanese DVDs is not a viable alternative because the majority of Japanese anime DVDs have no English translation, and Japanese anime DVDs are not compatible with conventional American DVD players.)

Anime fans outside Japan want access to anime- especially the latest shows and episodes that Japanese fans are watching. Unfortunately, due to commercial, and possibly philosophical reasons, Japan’s own anime industry doesn’t encourage simultaneous free access to the majority of anime via television broadcast or internet availability. And regrettably the American market isn’t big or influential enough to insist that more anime air on American television. So anime fans resort to underground means to access the anime they’re interest in seeing. Until the distribution and access to anime in America more closely resembles the immediacy and degree of accessibility of anime in Japan, I expect fansubs to continue to fill in the gaps.

I don’t, however, expect fansubs to become more prominent than they currently are. I especially don’t foresee fansubs ever becoming an authorized, commercial product becuase I don’t believe that Japan’s anime distribution industry will ever agree to the idea. At the present time, commercial downloads of anime in Japan are very limited, and Japanese licensors are generally hesitant to allow American distributors to offer entire anime episodes online. The digital distribution of anime diminishes the regional exclucivity of anime that Japan’s industry depends on to generate profits. Regardless of security measures implemented, putting any material online immediately exponentially increases the odds of it becoming available worldwide. Japan’s anime industry generates a lot of profit from regional distribution licenses. Licensing distribution rights to the United States, Germany, and France creates three new revenue streams for the Japanese distributor. So I doubt Japanese licensors will allow distribution that can compromise that potential. It’s also unlikely that a professional American home video distributor will be willing to invest a lot in licensing and producing a commercial DVD version of a show that’s already available in a cheaper, commercial version. I’m sure that DVD versions will still be produced, but American licensors may not be interested in paying high licensing fees for titles already officially distributed in America, and Japanese distributors are generally insistent on expensive licensing fees.

Finally, I suspect that Japan’s anime industry will oppose the commercial distribution of “fansubs” because doing so compromises quality control. In the present anime industry, when Japanese licensors demand approval over virtually every step of American anime localization, down to even dictating the way character names are spelled in official English translations, it seems like too great of a departure for Japanese licensors to suddenly give amateur translators free reign. If Japanese licensors insist upon commercial downloads of carefully scrutinized professional translations, well, services like that already exist. Companies such as Sputnik7.com and TotalVid.com already offer legal, professional quality commercial anime downloads. Professionally scrutinized and approved translations are not “fansubs”; they’re professional, commercial translations.

I strongly believe that the authorized commercial sale of amateur fan translations will never happen because such a move is not an evolution in anime distribution: it’s a compromise of the established American and Japanese anime distribution industry’s ability to produce and sell professionally translated and produced home video. I also can’t envision reasonably priced anime downloads being able to remotely approach the profits that Japanese distributors earn from international DVD and TV broadcast licensing rights and royalties. Especially now that Japanese home video distributors are used to earning hefty profits from overseas anime distribution, I feel certain that those same home video distributors won’t agree to online anime distribution at a minimal cost and marginal profits.

In summation, despite their ethical status, fansubs continue to serve the anime fan community, which in turn benefits the professional anime industry. Fansubs aren’t an alternative to commercial releases, although some people use them for that purpose. Fansubs are a physical form of word of mouth advertising. Although fansubs are technically a form of video piracy, they continue to educate the international fan community; motivate recognition of Japanese animation; and boost demand for legitimate, commercial releases. At the present time, fansubbing is an attempt by non-Japanese fans and consumers to merge the international availability of anime with contemporary Japanese availability. So I think that fansubbing will continue to exist as long as there’s a significant disparity between the availability and accessibility of anime in Japan and other countries where anime fans live.