Spoken language (Score: 3, Informative) by bryan@pipedot.org on 2014-09-10 22:17 (#2S8V) I'm a big fan of watching media in its original native language. Japanese animation should always be watched with the original Japanese audio. Subtitles are nearly always available, and preferable to dubbing, if you don't understand the native language.Anime fan-subbing is perhaps the world's largest subtitling community. With high quality releases of popular titles mere days after airing, the fan-subbed versions often far surpass the quality of the eventual commercial release.But what about the legality of fan-subs? Well... the content industry shot itself in the foot on that front. When digital video came out (LaserDisk, DVD, Bluray, etc) the industry divided the world into different "regions." U.S. and Canada are region 1, Japan and Europe are region 2, and Australia and South America are stuck in region 4. The idea being, they can charge different prices for the same content to different areas of the world. Charging higher prices to wealthier countries is, of course, illegal under free trade agreements - but something being illegal never stopped the content industry! However, this also brings up a small window of time, where a work is released in region 2, but not available for purchase in region 1. During this window, animation companies normally turn a blind eye to fan-subbing groups - as long as they promise to cease distribution once the official commercial license is finalized. Re: Spoken language (Score: 3, Interesting) by hyper@pipedot.org on 2014-09-10 23:10 (#2S8X) Much is said about piracy killing the video industry yet had it not been for the underground rippers subbers and dubbers I would not have gotten a start in anime.In the 90s I was a huge Ranma fan. The only videos were crappy but huge 100mb badly subbed episodes. It would be 10 years until I put down cash to buy it. 10 years. Even then it was a PITA which I got around by having a dvd drive region set for it and otherJapanese discs. I have often wondered how many people just give up. By the time I saw the Macross box set I had moved on in life with no interest in reliving weekday morning cartoons. That said, I could go for some Samurai Pizza Cats ... will check youtube :-)Good to see a classic anime back on, and here's hoping that we see more soon. Re: Spoken language (Score: 1) by bryan@pipedot.org on 2014-09-10 23:31 (#2S8Z) I own a few region 2 anime discs that wouldn't play in my standalone region 1 player or my computer drive. I eventually broke down and bought an expensive "region free" DVD player that the manufacturer had to specially modify - just so that I could watch my discs.The whole region locking thing really is a pain.
Re: Spoken language (Score: 3, Interesting) by hyper@pipedot.org on 2014-09-10 23:10 (#2S8X) Much is said about piracy killing the video industry yet had it not been for the underground rippers subbers and dubbers I would not have gotten a start in anime.In the 90s I was a huge Ranma fan. The only videos were crappy but huge 100mb badly subbed episodes. It would be 10 years until I put down cash to buy it. 10 years. Even then it was a PITA which I got around by having a dvd drive region set for it and otherJapanese discs. I have often wondered how many people just give up. By the time I saw the Macross box set I had moved on in life with no interest in reliving weekday morning cartoons. That said, I could go for some Samurai Pizza Cats ... will check youtube :-)Good to see a classic anime back on, and here's hoping that we see more soon. Re: Spoken language (Score: 1) by bryan@pipedot.org on 2014-09-10 23:31 (#2S8Z) I own a few region 2 anime discs that wouldn't play in my standalone region 1 player or my computer drive. I eventually broke down and bought an expensive "region free" DVD player that the manufacturer had to specially modify - just so that I could watch my discs.The whole region locking thing really is a pain.
Re: Spoken language (Score: 1) by bryan@pipedot.org on 2014-09-10 23:31 (#2S8Z) I own a few region 2 anime discs that wouldn't play in my standalone region 1 player or my computer drive. I eventually broke down and bought an expensive "region free" DVD player that the manufacturer had to specially modify - just so that I could watch my discs.The whole region locking thing really is a pain.