Slashdot Mirror
American Anime Localization Company Tries Torrents
zalas writes "AnimeOnDVD reports that David Williams of ADV Films is testing out using BitTorrent as a distribution method. Currently, he has a promotional video of Madlax, one of their titles, up for download via a torrent and has "much larger plans in mind." He is looking for feedback regarding this and can be left on the AnimeOnDVD Forums. ADV Films licenses Japanese animation from Japanese studios for distribution in North America and the UK."
Madlax is actually pretty good; very Noir-ish, but slightly more lighthearted (but not much).
-- My Sig is a P228.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime .php?id=3714
not id=1429
ADV Films is one of the few (only?) anime localization companies that aggressively hunts and shuts down torrents of their releases on bittorrent sites.
Also this is not the first time an anime has made its english-language debut on the free web. Dead Leaves, the omnibus feature The Animatrix, and Armitage: Dual Matrix all come to mind. While ADV may be the first to use bittorrent as the official distribution method for this type of thing, I don't see why that should magically earn them a headline on Slashdot's frontpage, unless it was important that everyone wastes their time to check out the laughably bad first episode of Madlax.
But Capitalizing Every Word In That Headline Really Seemed To Stand Out More Than Usual.
I'm not sure why they do that, but capitalizing almost all the words in the title is more of a slashdot editor thing than a submitter thing. I guess I can sort of understand why they'd want to capitalize titles like that, but it seems like overkill on a page like slashdot. In the past I've tried submitting stories without the overcapitalization, only to find the capitalization altered by the editors when the story is actually posted.
In spite of not having the script, many fansub groups do a superior job of translating as compared with "professional" translation.
One of the major benefits of fansubs is the cultural and translation notes that are becoming more common with digisubbing (assuming a competent sub group).
Part of the problem with DVD distribution is that the technology doesn't really support these notes. ADV has pushed the the DVD spec as far as it can with its "AD-Vid notes" (found on the "Excel Saga" DVDs). I preferred the capsule option that came on the "Akira" DVD, because you could pause for a sec to read a translation of the grafitti or ignore the capsule icon and keep watching the movie.
You know, it's kind of like saying "I hate books." Well, which sort of book do you hate? It's so general.
The company has laid off over 75% of their staff in the last year. A friend of mine was part of the last round of layoffs.
The company is desperate to try anything to stay in business.
I'll tell you this.
This past weekend was AnimeFriends (www.animefriends.com.br) in Brazil, the country's largest yearly anime 'congress'. As usual, you have a huge amount of people doing cosplay. This year, a MAJOR part of the cosplaying people was inspired on Naruto.. I'd say, I don't know, around 1/3rd of the cosplayers were based on the series. Not counting the huge number of people with Naruto headbands that can be bought online on a local brazilian ecommerce site, I saw a lot of Narutos, all flavors of Sasukes, several different Rock Lees (even the "young" one), all Kakashis had their own "Gentleman series" booklet (I've forgot the name, sorry), there was a pic someone took that had three Kibas, women impersonating Oroshimaru... and so on and so forth.
But the thing is, Naruto isn't even broadcasted on TV here. It isn't even broadcasted outside of japan for that matter. It's all because of the torrent distribution and the people that buys it on dvd/vcd from other local shops (few, I think). Because the official, bureaucratic series version takes years to reach those countries (apparently we'll get Naruto on the end of this year, when we'll also get the local version of cartoon network's Adult Swim - yay!), people take matters in their own hands and end up getting used to it. Torrent is part of the anime culture now.
I also saw a lot of people from real obscure animes I barely know the name.
Torrent... I don't know *how* anime companies can profit from it.. I personally doubt they can. But that the format has some huge potential for distribution is undeniable.. even here, where broadband isn't so widespread, people are used to going online every thursday to get their weekly Naruto fix via torrent.
actually having just been in japan...
almost exclusively, they watch english products with subtitles. They're literate... meaning they know how to read and would rather hear original audio.
That's how headlines (are supposed to) work. Have you picked up a newspaper or magazine in the last...well...ever? Many web news outlets have gone down the sloppy journalism road, but Google News is showing plenty that still get it right.
They're using the official BitTorrent tracker (version 4.0.2), which to my knowledge doesn't even log information like that.
And besides, if they were actually targetting people who download fansubs, they wouldn't be linking to a promo from a website frequented by people who regularly purchase anime on DVD. It would make far more sense to put out a "fansub" of their own and not reveal that they were the ones that were behind it - but legalities wouldn't allow any company to do such a thing.
Really, some logical thinking was in order before you wrote this.
4Kids actually has begun to release Yu-Gi-Oh uncut as well, after much complaints from the fans who hate how much of the story was butchered. Unfortunately, these are incredibly hard to find...
Making one seriously doubt whether it's worth to complain over butchered series when you can't get the uncuts even if they're available.
"Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you."
How is it not violating copyrights? The united states respects the copyrights of many countries.
Have you never heard of the Berne Convention back in 1886? Now it is handled by the WTO.
When a anime gets licensed it means they are allowed to repoduce a copyrighted work with the permission of the original copyright holder. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to.
So fansubs are illegal. Unless you are part of a country who is not a part of the WTO.
See: Licensing and See: Berne Convention