To those of you that don't believe in supporting the American anime industry...

[shadow Hiei]

I haven't seen anybody here come out and say it, but a lot of you seem to share attitudes with the people that believe that the American anime industry are corprate [jerks] that are trying to con you out your money and that downloading licensed anime is the way to go. And I'm going to tell you why its not...

When you buy a bootleg or download a fansub, no money from your wallet is flowing into the anime industry, Japanese or American. That might not mean much by itself, but when you have thousands of anime "fans" choosing the cheaper option, it makes an impact. If less money starts flowing into the anime industry as a result of people discovering free sources, that means that future anime will be lower quality due to budget cuts (which means that the animation and fight scenes are going to be crap and that you'll be seeing a lot of still frames and the like) and that there will be less of it.

When you buy a legally licensed anime DVD from a legal source, the original creators get a cut of the profits. By buying these legal DVDs, you're helping to support the anime industry in Japan and America. That means higher budgets for anime-related projects on both fronts.

On the Japanese front, you have better animation, less still frames, and higher quality fight scenes. Animators and directors will be getting paid more, so they'll be more motivated to do their job well. They'll be getting better equipment too, so that'll help raise the quality of the animation even higher.

On the American front, we have higher quality DVDs with better picture and sound and more extras, and more importantly, we have better dubs. Compare the dubs of now to the dubs of seven years ago. (Don't even look at 4kids, they're a terrible example, they're in the minority, and we dub fans hate them too.) Most of VAs put a lot of effort into their roles these days because their paychecks are somewhat higher and they know that they have an audience, and script writers will often switch the dialog around to make things more interesting and make things flow better in English on top of getting the main points across. For every Crest of the Stars coming out of American dubbing studios these days, there's five Berserks. And things will only continue to get better as the American anime industry gets richer.

In short, if you truly love anime, you'll want to see the anime industry prosper. And the best way to support the anime industry isn't to just sit there and be satisfied with that free medium quality fansub that you have sitting on your computer, its to go out and buy the DVDs to your favorite shows.

[kurosaki]

So, in short, what should we do....???

[BlU3]

So, in short, what should we do....???

Support them - Buy the original.

..n I do buy the original.

[lorie]

you cant buy anime from where i live. if u can it always come late or is mostly dubbed. i dont like dubs. plus i dont have much money that i can spen on anything i want. i havent come to that stage where i can earn money. so i just download anime from the computer.
but i will go japan one day and buy the anime from there in top quality(hopefully)!!!

[shadow Hiei]

Almost every anime DVD comes with the option to switch between dubs and Japanese with subtitles.

And how many dubs have you watched? A lot of dub haters seem to have watched some 4kids dubs and a few from 5+ years ago and decided to judge all dubs off of that. If they watched without listening for any difference from the Japanese version to call a flaw (which is another thing that most dub haters seem to do... "ZOMG TAT MINER CARACTERS LAF ISNT IDENTACAL TO TEH JAPANESE VA'S! THIS DUB SUX!"), they might find that the acting is often on par if not a little better than original cast's.

Go and watch Berserk's, Ghost in the Shell SAC's, FMA's, Elfen Lied's, Gunsling Girl's, and Full Metal Panic's dubs and tell me that almost all dubs suck. Berserk's dub blows the original Japanese track out of the water no contest, and the others are pretty damn good too.

(And yes, it does bother me when people say that 9/10ths of the dubs on the market are [poorly done] because that's [crap].)

[Gjallarhorn]

I can understand where you are coming from. I am a downloader, and have been downloading for 4 years, but if there is a series that I watch via fansubs, then when it is released in America, I do make a point of buying it. I suppose that is doing my share to keep the anime industry alive. But, you should also consider that the subtitles on the official DVDs are not that great. I do watch them, and I know that they leave out some minor sentences, and translate some words oddly. Take, for example, in the first few Inuyasha DVDs, the word "oni", meaning "demon", was translated as "ogre". They said Inuyasha was a "half dog ogre". The fact is that fansubs, for the most part, do tend to be better than the subtitles on the official DVDs. I can also agree that not all dubs are bad. Consider Cowboy Bebop, Full Metal Alchemist(what was really written to be in english, consider all of the western terms and names), Ghost in the Shell, Furi Kuri, Samurai Champloo, and so on. All of which I watched in via fansubs back when they were airing.

[shadow Hiei]

I thought that oni were a specific type of demon, the ones with the small horns growing out of their heads. And the "demons" in Inuyasha aren't technically demons either, they're yokai, which from what I understand are basically apparitions spawned from various objects and elements. Calling them demons is a bad translation too, seeing as how demons are fallen angels turned hellspawn. (I will agree that Ogre is worse than Oni though)

[lorie]

ok shadow hiei wat u were saying it was to me right?? well since i didnt rely say everything i just based mi opinion on buying an anime. its true i dont like dubs but i DID compare them. dont say i didnt since i never brought that up YOU did. i hav compared and from wat i saw i didnt like it. also the anime dubs that WERE good are the ones i dont watch anymore so was there even a point in watching them?

[shadow Hiei]

Which didn't you like? (just so that I can see if you're just picky or if you saw a couple of bad ones)

[Regex]

I can understand where you are coming from. I am a downloader, and have been downloading for 4 years, but if there is a series that I watch via fansubs, then when it is released in America, I do make a point of buying it. I suppose that is doing my share to keep the anime industry alive. But, you should also consider that the subtitles on the official DVDs are not that great. I do watch them, and I know that they leave out some minor sentences, and translate some words oddly. Take, for example, in the first few Inuyasha DVDs, the word "oni", meaning "demon", was translated as "ogre". They said Inuyasha was a "half dog ogre". The fact is that fansubs, for the most part, do tend to be better than the subtitles on the official DVDs. I can also agree that not all dubs are bad. Consider Cowboy Bebop, Full Metal Alchemist(what was really written to be in english, consider all of the western terms and names), Ghost in the Shell, Furi Kuri, Samurai Champloo, and so on. All of which I watched in via fansubs back when they were airing.

That's total crap, in fact. There are some fansubbing groups that tend to be pretty good. But SO MANY fansubs I've seen are awful translations. I was also able to see both fansubs and the official subtitles for Samurai Champloo, and they were about equal to each other. The Trigun subtitles were the same situation.

For the record, without knowing what else to call the demons in Inu Yasha, I'd not think to call them "Demons." The word "Oni" can mean monster, ogre, demon, etc. Ogre wasn't a bad translation for it, considering what you saw at first. Remember, Japanese isn't Latin-based at all, so you won't have an exact translation, since the words don't come from any of the same roots at all.

[lorie]

oooooooo scary!
mostly its rurouni kenshin. i dont rely want to explain since i dont fel like i need to. if u hav alredy compared then u might understand. it just doesnt fit. all i could see were signs of voices that didnt belong to how long the mouth opened and moved for. u know wat i mean? thats not much of a good reason but there were plenty of others. and as i said there are good dubs of course. beyblade for example. and some others i cant remember .
there are also some others that i particualrly didnt like but i REALLY cant remember them. sorry.
oh and btw there is nothing wrong with being picky.

[akiko_kalla]

There are subbed versions where the mouth animations and voices don't match...

[Bibi of the Blue Sea]

i like to watch the dubbed versions of anime before i watch the subtitled ones. but when i cant like for naruto (before it was aired in US), i just watch the subbed kinds. i dont really like animes (i prefer the mangas more) but i like to watch the subtitled anime several times as i tend to stare down at the bottom reading. but the good thing about subtiltes is you learn some japanese in the process. but not all eng dubbed animes are bad. FMA was good and so is cowboy bebop. i also like to watch spanish dubs. its nice to hear the many voices of a character.

[Opinionated]

I'll admit, first time I read the title I thought you were talking about American companies producing comics and shows with an anime/manga art style.

But yes, buying is the best thing to do. People worked their butts off to give you these wonderful animations and stories. Just getting them for free is just not right. They deserve to be compensated!

And on the Inuyasha translation: Yokai is, in my opinion, closer to monster than demon. Which, considering what demons are, makes more sense. "Half Dog Monster" doesn't sound too bad.

[Bibi of the Blue Sea]

But yes, buying is the best thing to do. People worked their butts off to give you these wonderful animations and stories. Just getting them for free is just not right. They deserve to be compensated!

is that what this thread was about? if so then yes...i buy my animes, downloading takes too much time and i dont want my pc overloaded. i depend on it for my lab reports and essays. i cant have it crashing on me...

[Darth Tyranus]

I don't see anything wrong with downloading unlicensed shows, I try to get the japanese DVDs myself for those shows. But I hate downloading in general wheather it be anime, movies, music or anything else. Support the artists you cheap s.o.bs, their seems to be a huge disconect between downloaders and reality. They don't seem to mind stealing and for that I always get the overwhleming urge to take a chair and bean them in the face. Since the governemt doesn't seem to be effective maybe just smashing people in the face with chairs would work better?

[red storm]

DVD's give so much extra's; documentaries, trailers, character profiles, multiple language and not to mention the oportunity to watch the anime from your big TV-screen as oposed to a tiny computer screen. I see no reason not to buy them.

I download, sure I'll admit, but that's mostly due to the anime market in Holland being crap.