faq
Q: Where is that angel from your background image from?
A: Sorry about that but I’m not sure as I have not created
this one myself. I know as much as that it’s most probably not taken from
a TV anime show, but rather from some anime game cg; in fact I already
found a game with very similar characters, but couldn't find that very
specific one yet. If anyone knows where this angel is from, please mail
it to me as I get this question a lot.
Q: What does „Animeph“ mean and why did you choose it
for your domain name?
A: It is simply a mix of “anime” and “mephisto2k”, which
is the name I always use on the internet. I do not want any long domain
name, which is hard to type and remember like “www.my.@nime_page-featuring-reviews-lists-guides-and-stuff.com”.
Q: I also am the webmaster of an anime- or Japan-related
homepage. I would like to exchange links with you. How can I do that?
A: Simply write to mephisto2k@animeph.com or fill out
the form and ask for a link exchange. Write
the URL of your domain and where/how my link will be put. After I reviewed
you site and considered it to be interesting and useful, a button-link
to your site will be put here.
My buttons can be found here.
Interview:
The following is an interview about fansubbing. Dominic von Riedemann
the Animated Film writer for the culture website Suite101.com (http://animatedfilms.suite101.com/)
asked me to answer a few question for his new article:
Q: When did you start your site? Why? What's the history
of the site?
How do you make any money, if at all?
A: I have just started my site 2 month ago, but I was
already planning to make an anime site long time ago. I hesitated because
I was unsure if it is worth the effort. I though making a site would be
very difficult and having a site does not mean getting many visitors. I
changed my mind when a friend offered his help in case I have questions
and told me of ways for Search Engine Optimizing. With that I finally started
working on making an anime site and I realized it isn’t that hard at all.
I am 18 years old and live in Germany. I am still a student, so I don’t
have any regular income besides my pocket money and the few cents I earn
with my site each day.
Q: You've said that you won't touch licensed fansubs.
Why not? If you
don't want to go near licensed fansubs, why do you link to sites that
have licensed material on them? Are there sites you won't go near?
A: To be honest I only stated: I do not wish to encourage
anyone to download licensed anime and manga. I generally try to distance
myself from fansubs of licensed anime, but I distinguish between unlicensed
anime, anime licensed in the USA or for English release and anime licensed
for German and English release. I link to sites that also list licensed
anime in my download guide for the sake of completeness because those sites
are still great. Sites and groups I absolutely don’t tolerate are those
who release rips of official English anime DVDs. While there are always
arguments for fansubs, English DVD rips are always piracy, nothing more
and nothing less.
Q: If fansubbing is illegal under international copyright
law, why do
you still disseminate them? What are the benefits of fansubbing? Problems?
A: The situation with anime is different from other copyrighted
material. Anime are Japanese cartoons or animation intended for Japanese
viewers. Without fansubbing many anime series wouldn’t have found an audience
outside of Japan simply because they are not able to understand their language.
Even official English distributors, who license, translate and sell anime,
often choose their shows by the success they had in the fansub-community.
Fansubs create market demand in many ways and help to promote certain anime
shows. Still they only reach a relatively small percentage of potential
anime consumers and many of them even still buy the anime after watching
the fansub. I can’t tell exact numbers and percentages since there are
no official studies, but I consider the gain from fansubs higher than the
loss that comes with it. But fansub supporters even argue that fansubs
are superior to official commercial releases. Fansubs are the closest that
English fans can get to the original form of anime. There is no bothersome
editing and censorship; and in addition to that, the original music and
voices are kept. Many translators even keep easy Japanese phrases, while
this is practised by commercial translators as well. However, in economic
terms this tendency of viewers preferring fansubs over commercial dubs
not only because of the costs might get problematic for companies, but
on the other hand those tendencies are only held by hardcore fans, which
would and/or wouldn’t still buy those commercial dubs in any case. Still,
even after all the arguments, theories and common sense, the biggest problem
with fansubs is the fact that anime are copyrighted after all and therefore
fansubs are violation of those copyrights. This is why the situation of
fansubbing is so problematic.
Q: Were you involved with fansubbing before the advent
of digisubbing?
How has the state of the fansubbing nation changed since then?
A: Personally I was not involved with fansubbing before
the advent of digisubbing, but I read about how difficult, expensive and
time-consuming it used to be when fansub-groups still made fansub VHS cassettes
separately and send them to fans who requested them. The easy and free
distribution of fansubs on the internet via bittorrent and IRC is what
made fansubs popular and it greatly supported and promoted anime and the
anime industry in general.
Q: What do you think of MFI and Bandai's attempts to crack
down on
fansubbing? What do you agree with? What do you disagree with? Why?
Have you received any pressure from these companies?
A: Companies that own copyright for certain products
have every right to go against those who violate those copyrights, but
I think they should leave this to the companies who acquire the rights
for official English translation and distribution; and I don’t think it’s
reasonable to assume that fansubs are the cause that certain anime are
not being picked by English distributors. MFI certainly have not made any
friends in the community with those moves and fansub supporters argue that
their sales went down as a result of their actions.
Q: In 2003, ADV's David Williams said that many companies
are working
out U.S. licensing deals before the anime is completed, making fansubs
inconsequential. Have you found this to be the case?
A: I have seen anime being licensed before they even
aired and during the time they were airing, while others get licensed long
after the show has aired completely. There are pros and cons in both ways.
After a show is licensed, some fansub-groups might stop fansubbing this
show immediately; others might stop after being requested to do so by the
company; others might not stop at all; and others might pick up licensed
shows that have been dropped. In most cases licensing won’t stop anime
shows from completely getting fansubbed. But early licenses might create
market demand from those who are not willing or afraid to watch licensed
anime. On the other hand acquiring the license after a show has finished
airing might be smart because companies are able to choose from shows that
were popular among Japanese and fansub viewers.
Q: Pretend for a moment that you are a senior executive
in Bandai, MFI
or any other anime-producing company. How would *you* deal with the
issue of fansubbing?
A: If I would be a senior executive of a Japanese or
English anime company, I would choose different means to deal with the
issue of fansubbing. I would carefully analyze the positive and negative
effects that fansubbing has on my company. I would think of the best ways
to keep the positive ones and reduce the negative ones. Maybe I would even
try to closely work together with the fansub community, like allow them
to sub my show to a certain extend, but make certain aspects of my show
exclusively available and fully translated only on my DVDs, which would
create market demand. Of course DVDs already feature bonus material, but
I would take means for certain small and maybe big aspects of the original
show to become bonus. An example would be only allowing fansubs with a
rather low sound and video quality, not allowing the opening and ending
to be subbed, or force them to add my advertisement to their fansubs and
my links to their homepage. I would allow and maybe even encourage fansubs,
but go hard against groups who sub without caring about my rules.
Q: Is there anything you'd like to talk about that I haven't
asked?
A: I think the biggest problem of anime in Japan and
all over the world is the fact that still many people think of anime as
kids cartoons. Their opinions are influenced by Disney and famous anime
family shows like Pokemon that air all over the world. Because of common
disbelief many people fail to see the great diversity and potential that
lays within Japanese animation and fiction. If the anime industry and media
would succeed in reducing the common “anime is uncool and for kids” mentality,
the international anime market would grow incredibly fast.
|
