Doesn’t these posts I written in the past sound familiar? Anime is dead? BULLSHIT! , Chris Beveridge, Asinine remarks and the Anime Mafia and RAEGing about the Anime Industry… doesn’t solve anything. I wouldn’t be so angry if the author of “Black Butler”, Yana Toboso didn’t blame the consumer… but she did.
She does make some valid points and we all know that the artists, production team, etc get hardly anything after the production is all done and over with. What I don’t agree with is shoving the blame to the fans and consumers since it will always turn out bad.
The problem these days is that the industry directs the blame on fansubs and scanlatons when DVDs costs 40 buck a pop for 7 episodes or 10-12 dollar a pop for one volume of manga. Do you expect a high school or college student to afford this? No… Even though there are streaming services for Anime, the sub/picture (if you aren’t subscribed) quality is still rather poor, doesn’t allow me to view on any portable device without an internet connection and its limited to select regions. Top that off, there is no viable legal manga site that allows people to read it legally. How are you going to solve the problem when there is no solution that will work for anyone? If not, you have no right to complain because ultimately, you are going to get the fans enraged and they won’t buy your products… simple as that…
Also, I’m not going to buy every anime out there just so I can watch it. The only situation I will buy the DVD is when I like the series and want to own it or when there is a licensed series I want to watch badly. Otherwise, I’m not going to make a blind purchase just because it’s immoral. I just don’t want to waste money on a series that I probably won’t like.
Lastly, the manga-kas should consider ditching the middleman and self publish! By self publishing, they can get more money they deserve and not have it taken by the middleman…
Overall, her misguided rant was stupid… I would also like to point out that sharing is not stealing. If I share a cookie with a friend, would I consider that stealing? Absolutely not.
Aww, oh well.
Thats life. :p
I think a bigger issue is that society as a whole is to blame. We emphasize instant gratification more than anything else.