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American Anime Localization Company Tries Torrents

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the hypercustom dept.

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."

3 of 280 comments (clear)

  1. Corrected link to Madlax by tzuriel · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime .php?id=3714
    not id=1429

  2. Re:Am I alone? by vga_init · · Score: 4, Informative
    Well, depends on what you like in a medium. Anime can take on MANY, MANY different forms. Maybe you've been exposed to bad, low quality anime, or maybe the subject matter wasn't up your alley. I think a good chance stands that the things you dislike about it are not representative of the whole medium.

    You know, it's kind of like saying "I hate books." Well, which sort of book do you hate? It's so general.

  3. Torrent FTW by springMute · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.