recently, there has been a problem with the popular fansubbing group called AnimeJunkies and Urban Vision. AnimeJunkies were fansubbing and releasing an anime show called Ninja Scroll. Urban Vision claimed that they now licensed it and the show is coming to America. so they told AnimeJunkies to stop the distribution. However, they did not immediately stop the distribution(they are now stopped though). They are now accused of being unethical and illegal of fansubbing. Now here is da question for all you anime fans.

What is your opinion on this situation?

My opinion is dat fansubbing groups are great and they dont receive any benefits from their hardworks. They dont get paid and they provide anime fans with great service for no costs. i'd say without them, anime shows wouldnt be as popular.

-- Anonymous, June 09, 2003

Answers

I agree with you 100%

A lot of the good quality animes, would not exist today if it weren't for the fansubbing groups. They make a huge impact on the US anime scene. Thus, all the politics behind fansubbing you mentioned is bullcrap.. The licensed animes and mangas are way way way too late entering US anyway.. takes them forever to get it over here. So yes, anime shows wouldn't be as popular with out the fansubbing groups. I give props to animejunkies' hardwork. You know they're anime hardcores when they put all that hard work into what they're doing without getting paid.

Keep up the good work Animejunkies, I'm still waiting for I's OVA episode 3!

-- Anonymous, June 09, 2003

In my opinion, fansubbing groups aren't doing anything wrong and I support them 100%. They do not make any money from the product they produce/distribute, and quite frankly the large companies that license anime owe a huge debt to fansubbing groups for creating audiences for anime in the US.

Unfortunately, you have to look at it from Urban Vision's point of view too. They have paid lots of money to license this anime and the fact that Anime Junkies is distributing it for free could cut down on the amount they stand to earn.

So you come to a quandry. You have Anime Junkies that is distributing the anime souly because they want anime to be available for everyone, and you have Urban vision that is only out to pad their pockets. I think I'm on Anime Junkies side, personally. ^_^

-- Anonymous, June 09, 2003

I must say you're quite open-minded Kirara - analyzing both sides. In the end - the liberal that I am - I must say "Share the anime!" (as opposed to "wealth". hippies... get it? ehhhh nevermind lol)

-- Anonymous, June 09, 2003

i agree with everyone here. fansubbers work very hard to update the most popular anime shows today. people should hab respect for fansubbers such as AnimeJunkies cuz that's all they can get. if it weren't for them, most of us couldnt enjoy anime shows such as d.n. angel, naruto,wolf's rain,e's otherwise and other popular shows. Thank you fansubbers!

-- Anonymous, June 10, 2003

Although it's true that fansubbing groups don't get paid or anything, what they did was wrong. Urban Vision asked them politely to stop distributing it because they had liscenced it, and AnimeJunkies sent back a very nasty response.

So hey, if they want to get sued, then more power to them. But everyone else knows to stop distribution once it's been liscenced in the US; Why should AnimeJunkies be an exception?

-- Anonymous, June 10, 2003

I agree with Kirara. However, AJ's reply, if that was actually from one of their representatives, was more then a little rude. The response from their webmaster seemed to have been respectful Urban vision.

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2003

Well here I am, after reading 28 pages of the fansub debate on ANN. Conclusion: Fansubbing licensed is anime is illegal despite all the good arguments. Duh. We can't dispute that fact.

But get real. The world isn't perfect. Humans aren't perfect. It and we never will be. If there's good, there must be bad. If there's the rich, there must be the poor. If there's love, there must be hate. "Good people are made for bad times, and bad times are made for good people". For you goody people, think about that quote. If there was no backdrop to good, there is nothing to distinguish good from bad. There is just stuff that we wouldn't understand as good or bad. Meaningless.

BUT I am not using this to justify doing bad. There isn't any real argument that can justify stealing what's not rightfully yours. Again, there will always be good people to fight it. So we leave it at that. The typical good versus evil scenario. But as Miyazaki continually shows in his anime, one never triumphs over the other. It's a neverending war that we have to learn to live through.

So shut up and move on. UV has the upper hand - the "law". They threaten AJ. AJ backs off. All's done. If they continue distributing Ninja Scroll under a different alias or whatever, LIVE WITH IT. You can't stop it. The internet is too vast. There are too many people to stop. Fight all you want. Nothing will work. Unless something like George Orwell's "1984" or Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" come into play, and all we'll have time for is concern for our lives or doing what we're made to do... Excellent books by the way.

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2003

Maybe it's been said before, but I can see why AJ had distributed the fansubs that they already had created before the licensing.

I'm not involved in any fansubbing groups, but I can imagine the time spent from all who are (involved.) It seems as if it would be a huge investment time and effort.

So if what I've read from varying sources is correct; in that AJ had alread completed FS's of 1-5 before the licensing, yet distributed them for some time after the eventual licensing, it sounds sort of like calling "Home Rules" to me. Home Rules basically meaning that most partys involved hold the core values at heart but there is some vaccilation at the boundaries.

I guess, it comes down to this... hardliners of the liscencing code would say that AJ should've cut their losses and never distributed their already completed works after the liscensing. While others would say that it was already completed before the licensing and that if they stop creating new ones its water under the bridge.

The existence of fansubs does not make me spend more or less money on anime.

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2003

Fan Subbing, since its very inception, has been a grey legal matter. The FACT of the matter is this. Once an anime is to be distroed by a manufaturer in a country, FAN SUBBING for that country should STOP. Immediately. Animejunkies was rude, snide, and high handed in the email they sent to UV, no matter if they made the series popular by fansubbing it, they have no legal, or moral right, to tell off a company that is going to do a quality job to get the title to the masses. They are a disgrace for doing so. They are in legal error. Period. Fan subbing is a simple stopgap until a company will pick the series up in your country. It had been done in the US, and AJ should have stopped. No doubt, however, some 16 year old script kiddie sent the response email to UV, and his or her ideas did not reflect AJ as a whole, it was still wrong, and very snide. Remember people, we are doing fansubbing because we ENJOY it. People who try to distro anime that had been licensed are in the wrong, and have no RIGHT to claims about making a series popular.

-- Anonymous, June 16, 2003

I am a fan of Anime Junkies & all fansubbing groups for the work they put in to bring the newest titles to america within days after it has aired. I understand UV's point & thats cool. I also understand AJ's point. They stopped so the matter is over, end of discussion. On the other hand, that email that was sent to UV was VERY rude, disrespectful, & gave a good group another scar on their name. I am a regular at AJ's IRC channel & most of the people that work on the fansubs chat in there also. They all are pretty cool people, there is one exception though. Their leader, Killshok, is an unecessarily rude, disrespectful prick & I can imagine nobody other than him to have written that email to UV. AJ is cool dispite what other groups or people say about them. But you killshok...you can eat a fat dick!

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2003