If you're an anime fan, you better know this.

[MysticGoten]

Back in the day of the mid-90's...people like me, who had gotten into anime...have had an interesting fifteen years. Now, a lot of anime fans today don't know about what I'm talking about. In fact, if you've become an anime fan from 2000 to know, you probably don't either.
I think everyone who's an anime fan should know this.
It's weird knowing that Naruto Shippuden, Dragon Ball Kai, and other shows all have digisubs available an hour after airing.
Or even live streaming.
I'm shocked.
Let me take you back.
And if you start this, finish it.
Note: This is mainly about the changes from the mid nineties to now. It's a bit biased, and is mainly about the enormous leap to getting illegal things. If you argue saying, "I get anime illegally because we're in a recession!" or, "I don't care who I'm hurting, I want anime, cheap." I'm not going to listen.
I'm not even going to reply to your message.

Spoiler:

Bootlegs.
Fansubs.
Those were the words. Back in...mid 1994...I became an anime fan--through going to my brothers' VERY small anime club. Now, this was about 4 people. Basically what they did was get these incredibly bad quality tapes and play them on a small television, with someone reading a synopsis of what was going on. It was raw, in Japanese, without any form of subtitles. I obviously fell in love with the nonstop action of Dragon Ball Z(Fifteen years, still goin'!) and basically, what I had to do, was go to this little flea market(which no longer exists. T_T) and go and find tapes that happened to be labeled Dragon Ball or Dragon Ball Z. I'd pick them up, go to the cashier, and buy them for five to ten dollars. Now:
These were obviously bootlegged. There were a little tape that contained three or four episodes(With four being like the month were you got four paychecks instead of two) and was sometimes unwatchable. However, the store clerks were nice and took my tape and replaced it. And funnily enough, it was incredibly hard to find them. I might see a tape with a picture of Gogeta(From Dragon Ball Z Movie 12) slapped on to a tape with some words on it written with a sharpie. "Kid Buu Saga". And if it so happens to be the right picture with the right tape, in color, well, that cost you an extra four cents, kid.
Now, don't forget, no one in their wildest mind thought that these animes would be licensed. So, no one thought this was bored. Because, well, it almost wasn't! No one had ever thought the question whether or not what they were doing was ethical. However, it was when things started to get released that people thought, "Hey, is this effecting anything?" Well, no, but, you know the saying. If every kid did it. Obviously, back then, there were fansubbers back then who didn't play by the rules. Back then, I thought the rule was, when a series gets licensed, the fansubbers are done. That they are happy to see a full quality domestic release and that they've done their job to promote the show. Fansubbers were helping promote the show. Companies like FUNimation look online today for the most downloaded shows and decide what to license. Other companies say, "This has been downloaded too much. We're not going to license this." Remember, this is still in the time of VHS' and Laser Discs. Soon, FUNimation and other companies went to fansubbers and said, "Stop posting our content." And then, there was actually a HUGE backlash against them.
Now, let's get on to conventions. You've got to remember, anime conventions were just large anime clubs.
The very first Otakon had three hundred people, including staff. That's the size of a video room, today. Now, this is before companies were licensing things, so there was still no idea that these things were going to be releases in America. We didn't think that the videos we showed were going to be breaching any contract or future contract. Most of the time you were passing out from how bad the room smelled and complaining about the raw quality, so you didn't even notice there were subtitles or not. There was no such things as dubbing. There were such things as fandubs, were fans got holds of a script and fanDUBBED shows, such as this. However, this was further back than 1999, and that's based of Ocean Group's dub, anyway. Today, you see all dub, usually. Sometimes, people would play a clip of a show at a convention and say, "We're sorry, this is raw, there are no subtitles, here's the basic scene..." Soon, for years, we would see all fansubs and a couple actual dubs. One thing you have to remember, if something is coming out dubbed, then they got permission to show it. There was a huge jump from, "We're small don't notice us" to asking for permission, and sometimes even special treatment.
Now, my father owned a video store. So, for a long time, I got dubbed tapes, it's airing on TV(Dragon Ball Z), but about half way into the Freeza Saga, they were being released subbed. This was a problem. Because you had to make a choice, should Dad release the VHS' at the store? Or the DVDs, which had subs, while the VHS' only had dubbed. (Dad obviously couldn't release both) Oh, and, this is a time where DVDs weren't very popular at this time, PLUS, most people renting it were kids who missed an episode on TV, so it was pretty clear to get the VHSs. I didn't hear any real feedback about the tapes, except the usual complaint about the low 3-4 episode count.
Now, in my time at the store, I've overheard many things in the store. And with the rise of Netlfix and digisubs, it got weird. Notice how many closed Hollywood DVD's are closed down as well as Blockbuster. The big things that a store has is it's convenient, if you're just walking down the street, you become attached to a store, mentally, it's better for you to get out, see other people go someplace, it's pleasing. The simple act of going to get it puts value on it. Time is money. People would talk to other people in the store, me, and my father, "Have you seen this?" Et cetera. However, over time, it got easier and easier to get things in other ways, whether it was legal or illegal. As that happened, there started to be less and less interest. So, as stores began losing money all around the country, I remember one conversation. So, in this relatively small store, I can hear anything. So about fifteen feet away, two guys are there. One picks up a tape and says, "This looks good!" and guess what the other said?
"Oh, don't bother, I can download you that for free online." My first thought was, "That's a little mean..." and my second thought was,
Damn! That's really -Goten Censored- rude~!
In the store, at full conversation volume. So soon, people stopped valuing it. They stopped valuing the store, and my father. It went from, "This looks great!" to, "Read a review of that. It was...okay." The more information we have, there's less magic. Same with video games!
Today, I may load up a bittorrent on my computer, and by the time I come back I have entire series' on my computer. There's no barrier anymore. The time delay was always getting smaller. For Dragon Ball, we could see it on TV, but was that the version you wanted? Then the DVDs, and the ripping groups coming in, it's a whole new world. Now, FUNimation and other countries can stream shows. Vizanime.com, for example.
Don't forget all that excuses for downloading.
For Dragon Ball, we got an only censored release. So the excuse was, "We want the uncut." Then we had uncut, and the excuse was, "It doesn't have the Japanese voices." "It doesn't have the original music...etc. I still can't see it the way I want to see it, the way the Japanese did." Soon, excuses became really terrible. "The episode per disc is too low!" "I can get a better value elsewhere." I went up to a guy who had a conversation like the one I said before, and I said, "What you're doing is justifying getting things as cheap as possible." Go back to Greek, Ethos, showing moral character. Look at the medieval times. Back then, everyone was a farmer, that's what we needed to do. Then someone became a blacksmith. So it was, "I'll give you shoes, metal, etc, you give me food." A modern society. Money.
But if someone starts getting those things without giving something up, you're leeching it. This is the extreme, not exactly what I think, but if you're leeching something, you're leading to something called an entitlement attitude. And entitlement attitude is where someone says, "Why should I work? The government's gunna give me money, I'll just go on welfare." Too a degree, if it's fandom, saying, here's my excuse, here's my excuse. Too me, this sounds like someone going to the unemployment office and saying, "I don't have a job because of this, of this, etc." You're developing that attitude. If every kid did it, everyone would go bankrupt. I'll give you an example of this. Unedited Dragon Ball. Another example. Cocaine. Am I saying anime is drugs? Perhaps. The point is I can't legally get cocaine and I want it, therefore, I am justified to get it. That's the EXTREME. The issue is that it's too easy to get it. Here. Let me jump in pornorgraphy.
About 20 years ago, you didn't have much of a problem with kids getting a hold of pornography. Because, if you went to a store, there was a guy there. Nowadays, you can go online and get it. It's a different culture. Kids can accidently find pornography. Before, if you wanted to bootleg stuff, you had to go into a pretty weird place, where you had to show your face. Back in the day for kids, getting pornography was a very dangerous and bad thing to do, today, you can just go on the internet. And there are people that don't even know that downloading anime for free is bad. Like, they literally don't know. Picture this in 10 years. Either companies are dying, or they swim against the tide. The only reason FUNimation is still alive is because of Dragon Ball, Naruto: Shippuden, Bleach, One Peice, and Death Note that they're still alive. It doesn't make sense to break into a store in order to encourage them to tighten their security.
Take this into video games, CDs, and manga scanslations.
There are still excuses. With the Viz Version of Dragon Ball, "I want an uncut release!"
Someone puts their time and money into something, it's not public.
It's not something created by a company to be distributed for free, available to everyone. It is a business. You don't have anymore right to seeing unedited anime as much as I have the right to see Playboy at age 12. That's the extreme argument.

And that's a wrap.

[Toma RNK]

Ive tried to post this rant before, it doesn't work, people aren't going to get it, not unless all they like about anime vanishes, then they will settle for american idol and not think about it.

Dedicated fans (long term) are a minority.

I agree with everything except the "Non-stop action in DBZ" part.....uhh they spent at least 5 episodes monologing.

[MysticGoten]

That's probably true.

Yes, unfortunately, long-term, dedicated fans, are a minority.
@Jinchiruuki Oh, I didn't mention, I was mostly watching the fight scenes because that were mostly the scenes they showed. But yes, exactly, quite a bit of DBZ is monologing.

[Shikamaru Nara]

This is so true, and I just hate how things have changed. I want Anime cheap and I wish people weren't so greedy, because that's what it boils down to. But the economy is tight, so who could blame them?

[Toma RNK]

Originally Posted by Shikamaru Nara

This is so true, and I just hate how things have changed. I want Anime cheap and I wish people weren't so greedy, because that's what it boils down to. But the economy is tight, so who could blame them?

If kanye west's last album can sell than many million copies, the recession isn't that bad.

If the video game industry can boom in the tight economy it only proves that there is not shortage of cash for entertainment.

[MysticGoten]

Originally Posted by Toma RNK

If kanye west's last album can sell than many million copies, the recession isn't that bad.

If the video game industry can boom in the tight economy it only proves that there is not shortage of cash for entertainment.

Exactly.

FUNimation and Viz Media have been putting out TONS of things in 2009-2010. FUNi with the Dragon Boxes, four video games, licensing Kai, and Viz releasing the dub of Shippuden.

[Shikamaru Nara]

Originally Posted by Toma RNK

If kanye west's last album can sell than many million copies, the recession isn't that bad.

If the video game industry can boom in the tight economy it only proves that there is not shortage of cash for entertainment.

Then again, Anime fans are minorities as well, so of course they have to keep the prices up, so they can produce what we want, right?

[KarinxInoFan]

I am absolutely sick and tired of the fansub debate and the like. But here is my view;

They were fine when anime wasn't widely available in the US, but now there is absolutely no reason for fansubs other than robbing the anime industry and the creators you claim to love. There's so much available now, stealing like that is just disgusting to me. The same goes for fanscans. If you claim to enjoy a series but never buy it, especially when it's available in your country or can be easily imported from another, you can hardly be considered a fan of the material at all.
If only more fansubbers and fanscanners would stop when a title they're working on gets licensed, something might be able to be done to stop this systematic decline. "BUT ITZ NOT FAST ENOUGH" Boo hoo, cry more you dirty little thief and go back to whatever hole you crawled out of. Release dates in the R1 market are very formulaic, and they have to be done a certain way to maximize profit. If you really loved a series you would buy it when it comes out instead of stealing it. Fans who don't aren't fans at all as far as I'm concerned.

[Maikeru D. Shinigami]

If I had the extra money to buy it, I would. There's far more important things to me than anime though.

[MysticGoten]

Too true, KarinX...
Yeah, it is annoying, Maikeru.

[Kassie]

Yep! I totally agree, anime "fans" these last years just watch any anime to criticize it, do not buy it at all, but still watch it. I also believe, think or whatever that anime creators kind of give up a little and just feed the anime need of people.

Well that's all I got for now.. but anyways I get your point though..

[MysticGoten]

Have any of you done the same?
Or been a fan this long, I guess?

[Ellie]

If I had the extra money to buy it, I would. There's far more important things to me than anime though.

yeah i agree with probably everything youve said mysticgoten and zetsu...because i dont really come from a very rich family were quite poor and there far more important things to get rather than anime but because i agree with mysticgoten i still like save up the money to get like the dvds when it comes out of something but the problem is like they dont realese the dvd to like ages and like on jetixs it always repeats the episodes but now it doesnt even show it anymore and its not on any channel in england ,that i know of,so i dont have anywhere to watch it thats why i watch it online and i actually didnt even know it was bad to watch it online lol but now i know so thanks

[Kuroda Taishi]

Originally Posted by Toma RNK

Ive tried to post this rant before, it doesn't work, people aren't going to get it, not unless all they like about anime vanishes, then they will settle for american idol and not think about it.

Dedicated fans (long term) are a minority.

Plus no one want to read that much, xD

[ThePurpleChidori]

Originally Posted by KarinxInoFan

I am absolutely sick and tired of the fansub debate and the like. But here is my view;

They were fine when anime wasn't widely available in the US, but now there is absolutely no reason for fansubs other than robbing the anime industry and the creators you claim to love. There's so much available now, stealing like that is just disgusting to me. The same goes for fanscans. If you claim to enjoy a series but never buy it, especially when it's available in your country or can be easily imported from another, you can hardly be considered a fan of the material at all.
If only more fansubbers and fanscanners would stop when a title they're working on gets licensed, something might be able to be done to stop this systematic decline. "BUT ITZ NOT FAST ENOUGH" Boo hoo, cry more you dirty little thief and go back to whatever hole you crawled out of. Release dates in the R1 market are very formulaic, and they have to be done a certain way to maximize profit. If you really loved a series you would buy it when it comes out instead of stealing it. Fans who don't aren't fans at all as far as I'm concerned.

Is reading it online but buying the official releases count?

I agree, I think people should at least support it by buying the things when they actually come out.

@Maikeru: I agree as well, I watch subs and dubs on Disney XD and sometimes I check out the episodes on a site (call me a thief) but I support it's official releases (Netflix, Disney XD, etc.) I just don't have the money to BUY it.

[KarinxInoFan]

Originally Posted by ThePurpleChidori

Is reading it online but buying the official releases count?

I agree, I think people should at least support it by buying the things when they actually come out.

While I don't support reading online (illegally) at all, it certainly lessens the blow a bit if you actually buy it when the material becomes available~