I’m sure many of you have read a recent editorial posted on Bang Zoom!’s Anime TV web site. The relatively short article (which can be read here) consists of Bang Zoom! president Eric Sherman’s bleak prediction of the future of anime – that the continuation of illegal downloads will bring about the demise of the industry.
I don’t have the time or patience to read through the nearly 200 comments on the post, nor the many comments about it on other sites. So I’m just going to discuss my own thoughts about it here…
While the general idea of Sherman’s article does have some merit, I feel that his view has two major flaws, which I will discuss below.
Firstly, his comparison between illegal fansub downloads and shoplifting. This is not an accurate comparison because, with fansubs, what you’re taking is an altered copy of the original product, while shoplifting means you’re taking the actual product itself. Downloading a fansubbed episode does not necessarily result in loss of profit for the creators because the person taking it would not necessarily have spent money on it, whether the fansub existed or not. But with shoplifting, there definitely would be a loss in profit because they’re taking the actual product out of the store’s inventory and not a copy. I’m not saying this legitimizes fansubs, I’m only saying that the two are not very comparable. Can taking an altered copy of a product that you had no intention of spending money on whether the copy existed or not, be called “stealing”?
I’ll illustrate with an analogy. Let’s say I created ten paintings that I’m now trying to sell, with me representing the anime companies and the paintings representing the episodes and DVDs they’re trying to sell for profit. If Person A, representing the shoplifter, came along and stole three of the paintings, I would definitely suffer a loss in profit because I had spent money and labor on making ten and will now only be able to sell seven at the most. If Person B, representing the fansub group, came along and secretly made many copies of the paintings, and then distributed those copies to Persons C through Z for free, would I also suffer a loss in profit? I would still have my original ten paintings to sell. The answer lies in whether Persons C through Z would have spent money on the paintings if the free copies never existed. Going back to anime, in my 10+ years of experience in the fandom, the majority of fans would not spend money on most of the anime they watch even if free fansubs ceased to exist, either because they’re cheap, or for the less blamable reason, they simply can’t afford to put out money on anime when they’re not even sure if they’ll like it. Therefore, in most cases, downloading fansubs is unlike shoplifting and does not necessarily result in loss of profit. The only time it would is if the downloaders would have spent money on the original product if there were no free copies. But as most of us know, the ones who would are too few to invoke the catastrophic consequences that Sherman dictates.
I’ll go further with another example from my own experience as someone who relies on fansubs to watch 90% of anime. I watched all of Clannad via fansubs. If the fansubs never existed, would I have spent money to watch it legally? No. Therefore, how could there be a loss of profit for the creators by me viewing this anonymous copy? However, somewhere along the line, since I prefer to buy character goods over DVDs, I may spend money on official Clannad products, which I never would have if I hadn’t watched the fansubs. But for anime I watched the fansubs for that I really liked, such as Haruhi, Shakugan no Shana, and Mushishi, I did indeed end up buying the official DVDs, again something I never would have done if I had passed on watching the free fansubs. I can’t afford to spend money on anime DVDs very often. But even so, I’ve spent a decent amount of money on other anime products over the years, both in America and in Japan, which I never would have without watching them via fansubs. I can only conclude that me watching free copies does not result in any loss for the companies but only potential gain because I may eventually buy an official product for that anime.
And lastly, the other flaw in Sherman’s article is that he fails to make the distinction between the anime industry in Japan and in America. While the future of the American anime industry does look bleak, anime is still going strong in Japan, at least as far as DVD sales and the like. Japanese fans have much greater previewing access to anime, through TV and browsing through products at local stores, while Americans have little means of previewing the same variety of anime legally without having to spend money. It’s unfortunate, but I think this is one of the main reasons why American fans don’t have the inclination to buy anime – would you want to spend money on DVDs of a TV show or movie if you’d never seen it before on TV, in the theater, or promotion at local stores? Probably not.
Fans who have the money to spend on official anime collections will continue to buy anime, and cheap or financially struggling fans will continue to not buy anime, whether fansubs ceased or not. I truly love most of the anime I watch via fansubs and I regret that I can’t spend money on all of them. But I try to do my best in other ways by promoting them on my site or wherever, and buying official products if I can. Abstinence from fansubs will not put money in my pocket to buy the DVDs. If fansubs did cease, the most we would see is perhaps a little increase in profit for the official companies, but nothing to the extent of deciding whether the entire industry lives or dies. I think this is only a minor one of many factors (the bad economy?) involved.
If it weren’t for streaming anime, I would have never gotten into manga, and if I never got into manga, I would have never purchased 4 volumes of Negima.
Therefore, illegal streaming/downloading has actually yielded profits (in this case) for anime companies…or something….I also bought an InuYasha game once if that helps…
There is so much in the whole anime argument and the time would fail anyone to cover it all, but the one big point is the first one you made. A surprising number of people, myself included, start with a 0% chance to buy anything. Advertising and stuff of that nature don’t work on me. I have an overwhelming “meh” feeling toward commercials. Though they can be entertaining, I don’t buy product X because I saw it on TV. I buy it when I am convinced it is a good product or a good value.
Anime is definitely not a good value, by any stretch of the imagination, so its only merit is being a good product. The only way I can possibly know a series is good is if I’ve seen it myself. I have a Pani Poni Dash boxset sitting on my TV right now. I would have never bought it if I hadn’t seen some of it already. The entertainment value I derived motivated me to buy it.
What would happen if fansubs disappeared tomorrow? I’d find other things to do with my life, besides watch moving pictures and posting about them.
” while Americans have little means of previewing the same variety of anime legally without having to spend money. It’s unfortunate, but I think this is one of the main reasons why American fans don’t have the inclination to buy anime – would you want to spend money on DVDs of a TV show or movie if you’d never seen it before on TV, in the theater, or promotion at local stores? Probably not.”
Liked what you had to say here. If it weren’t for fansubs, fans wouldn’t even know 1/10 of the anime out there. All they would know is what is shown locally and what is in stores. I know I would not buy anything I didn’t know anything about.
To answer the titular question, no anime is not going to die. There will always be a market for Japanese animation regardless of the surroundings. Anime was seen as “the next big thing” in America and it succeeded for a while until two things happened: 1. The companies got rid of most of the older established franchises and didn’t know which new shows to license properly and 2. American fans realized that it was pointless to buy volume sets when a box set was coming soon afterward.
Are fansubs absolutely the cause of this problem of declining sales? I’d say they may have a tiny factor in them, but it’s not the main issue. Entertainment is shifting to a more digital form and companies are going to have to find ways to adapt to that format. Disc sales are eventually going to decline until they are seen as a “collector’s item” rather than the main form of revenue.
The second big issue I have with his statement is that people may not have that desire to buy the product due to the product itself. There’s fans out there that enjoy behind the scenes features and having them on the disc is important to them. I hand it to Kadokawa for putting so much extra material on their discs. It’s worth getting simply for the extra material (and that’s not even including the limited edition discs’ material and the other goods). Railgun even puts in a copy of 4 radio shows (each at 30 minutes long!), a technical booklet, and a special short story written by the original author with their releases. K-On!! is including a special animated feature, audio commentary, a poster, pick, sticker, film bookmark, and picture disc with each release (assembled goods may vary). Would you be able to get all of that with a box set? Probably not.
The other big issue with anime products is the dub/sub argument. I’m on the subtitles only category (I only watched the Haruhi dub about 2 months ago) but I recognize why people would like to watch a dub. The problem is that dubbing episodes is expensive and is now likely the biggest cost in producing a release, so it’s often the first to go.
One problem I’d say with your post is that a lot of the “fan” anime airs late at night in Japan and in different regions, so fans may not be able to watch it on TV, but they could in a store before getting it. Anime is a bad stereotype in America due to the popularity of shounen anime like Fullmetal Alchemist, Bleach or Naruto (even though I know you like all of those series) and that becomes what “anime” is rather than series like Lucky Star or Sayonarra Zetsubou Sensei to the mainstream public. It’s tough to shake off that first impression.
Anime will never die. The official American releases may die due to horrible management from both Japanese and American companies, but anime itself won’t die anytime soon.
“but nothing to the extent of deciding whether the entire industry lives or dies” I agree.
In fact, watching fansubs has made me want to buy the official products even more. As you said, Americans donot get to see all these animes on Tv or else where. Watching fansubs makes me want to buy so many more anime DVDs, manga and other products than I would of if I only had the local stories to buy from, partly because it has limited supply. Now, there is alot of products I buy or try to buy whenever I have extra money; where as before, I would of spent most of that money on other things. Truthfully, I’m not sure I would of ended up such a huge anime fan if it wasnot for fansubs because it’s my main means of learning about new anime.
@ Glo
Same here, I never would have bought many of the anime products I have were it not for watching the fansubs. I know the main profit for a series lies in DVD sales, but unfortunately many people just can’t afford to dish out $100+ per series when 30+ series come out every season.
@ Rakuen
Sounds like you’re a good example of the point I’m trying to make that abstinence from fansubs would not result in significant profits. With the advancement of Internet technology, fans nowadays are so used to getting fast, easy, and free access to anime, allowing them to watch many shows at once. This leads to a tendency to not place value on anything but a handful of stellar series, while others are dispensable, and the thought of buying each one would never cross their minds. So if fansubs were to disappear, I think many fans would be like you and find something else to do, or only spend money on the best series, which a lot of them do anyway even with fansubs. In this day and age, when the Internet provides so much information and visual entertainment for free, the desire to spend money on everything one enjoys is not what it used to be.
Since anime is my life, I would be devastated without fansubs, but I know many others wouldn’t care as much.
@ crazydave
I think it’s not so much that fewer anime get released in the West – most of the big hits do eventually, but fans simply don’t want to wait. Simulcasts are a step in the right direction, but they still only cover a small percentage of the total anime released each season. And a good number of fans would still want the actual file on their computer instead of streaming. There really isn’t any free and legal way for American fans to preview new anime at the same time as the Japanese fans do.
@ ultimatemegax
Your point about the box sets is very good. The Japanese individual DVDs have a ton of extras, as well as promotional products that you can get with the discs. Thus, there’s more incentive to buy them instead of the box set. U.S. DVDs rarely have these extras, plus the box set is almost always cheaper, so why would fans buy the more expensive individual DVDs?
I believe another commentator on the original article mentioned the same thing about how visual entertainment is changing – the anime industry, especially in the U.S., has been slow to adapt.
And yes, dubs are expensive and becoming rarer because of it. This could be a double-edged sword in that it saves money on dubbing, but it also loses the profit of dub fans.
Almost all of the fans I know, myself included, started off loving the shonen series like FMA and Naruto, and then eventually got into more niche series like Lucky Star and Higurashi. But I know there are some American fans who only like the mainstream Adult Swim-like shows and develop an aversion to anime that’s “too Japanese.” Even in Japan, like you said, a lot of the niche stuff comes on late at night. The average Japanese person thinks anime is just Doraemon, Sazae-san, One Piece, Pokemon, Ghibli movies, etc, and has no idea about stuff like Haruhi and Code Geass. The disjointed views about anime both in Japan and America isn’t much help in industry.
@ Piper
Like I said to Glo above, I too owe a lot to fansubs for turning me into a true fan and making me want to buy anime products when I can afford to.
Stealing from a store is like copying. The store will just order more…
I’m someone who use to buy DVDs (singles even) just by the cover and fount myself satisfied with the anime even without a preview…or even reading the back cover.
@ Jura
There is a difference in that ordering more will cost the store extra money that they wouldn’t have had to spend if the product wasn’t stolen. But if someone makes a copy, that’s not taking any of the original products away, so the store won’t have to order more. In the case of fansubs, the anime companies can’t even pinpoint how many copies have been made of their episodes nor who or when (assuming that they even know someone made a copy in the first place). So the two are really not very comparable.
That’s good for you, but the majority of people, especially in this bad economy, do not want to put out money for something just by looking at a picture of it and reading the biased back cover summary on the DVD.
@ Yumeka
Yeah I am one of those that can’t stand streaming. Too many bad experiences with my wireless internet dropping connection halfway through a stream and making me start over. Switched to wired since then but still left a bad taste in my mouth. Also like the quality difference and accessibility. don’t like waiting for stream to buffer.
Is he talking about anime in America?
but then that sucks anyways/
if someone important in anime industry in japan itself said something about it, then ill be worried,
right now no.
some good info. http://tiny.cc/ernz7
@ Fabrice
My second issue with the article is that he didn’t make it clear if he thought anime all over would die or just anime in America. He didn’t offer any evidence except for fansubs so I would assume he’s only talking about America.
As long as anime continues to flourish in Japan and the American anime fan community still exists, anime will somehow find its way over to the U.S., whether legally or illegally.
Thanks for the article. I don’t know if that project will make much of a difference but it’s still nice.
I have nothing against Bang Zoom, but I think their argument is even more attenuated than Viz’s that I discussed recently in my blog for the simple fact that most U.S. anime fans watch fansubs because they prefer the subbed version to the dubbed version. Myself, I’ve found only a limited number of dub versions that I like – the vast majority of anime series, I prefer to watch in subbed versions.
The argument that people become anime fans from watching fansubs first is valid, particularly when anime that you can legitimately watch on TV has been disappearing in recent years. Like you said recently in a comment on my blog, are U.S. fans expected to buy anime series sight unseen?
The fans’ comments to Eric Sherman’s post (thanks for the link to it, btw) were hilarious and pretty much dead-on. (Anime fans are smart, very articulate and don’t hold back any on this topic.) I wonder if he knew what reactions he would be getting when he posted that entry…
@Yumeka
Well, it’s not like I wouldn’t miss them at all. I do enjoy watching anime. It’s given me the closest friends I have ever, and probably will ever, have. But there’s so much out there to do that I wouldn’t feel massively empty afterwards. I’ve got a gaming habit which I’ve sorely neglected lately. There’s a lot of programming from the BBC I’ve been meaning to watch, but never gotten around to. I could work on improving my terrible art skills. Take up photography. Etc. To take your point a step further, it’s not just that a lot of anime viewers have gotten used to the “free & now” mentality. I think in the grand scheme of things, we’re supersaturated with entertainment.
@ Rakuen
Yes, in this day and age, with the advancement of technology and the lack of daily struggles for basic needs, there is just so much entertainment out there. It’s great that it gives people more ways of enjoying themselves – if one hobby ceases, they can just pick up another one. But on the other hand, it devalues each individual form of entertainment because each one is so easily replaceable. Another double-edged sword I suppose.
@ Jan
Very few fans, who are already so used to previewing visual entertainment for free on TV or the Internet, will spend money on something they’ve never seen before. I know there are some free and legal streams of anime on Crunchyroll and Hulu that fans can use to preview a series before they decide to buy it, but the problem is that the number of these streams is still not enough. Each season, there’s always a handful of shows that don’t get put on these legal streaming sites, but fans still want to see them. And what about the thousands of older series that have never been streamed or on TV? Streaming is a good start but it needs a lot of work.
I don’t think anime will die, but rather transform in a very easy to digest form, like MOE, and very orientated to fan service. We wont see anymore great titles and ”deep” anime because they are addressed to a minority that wont count anymore. Generic, fan serviced, MOE, low quality animation… wait, that is already happening. The anime as a genre is getting dumbed down under our own eyes.
@ Andrei
I’ve addressed the kind of concern you have on a past post actually. But to summarize, the reason anime seems so plagued with so-called moe series nowadays is because there’s simply more anime being made on a yearly basis now than ever before. With advancing technology, anime is easier to make, and with an increased quantity of series, decrease in quality is bound to be noticeable. But as someone who’s been keeping up with all the latest shows since around 2006, I still believe that there’s enough great titles being made each year to not be too alarmed.
@Yumeka: “while Americans have little means of previewing the same variety of anime legally without having to spend money.”
Really? There are actually a couple of sites that stream anime legally in North America, you know. Maybe you’ve heard of them…
http://www4.funimation.com/video/
http://www.crunchyroll.com/
http://www.hulu.com/anime
In fact, I would guess that we actually have MORE “free” anime available to us in America, since most of this streaming content is available on-demand and doesn’t “expire” as readily as a TV season. However, I don’t claim to know the details of the Japanese industry, so I can’t be sure of that hypothesis.
@Yumeka: “That’s good for you, but the majority of people, especially in this bad economy, do not want to put out money for something just by looking at a picture of it and reading the biased back cover summary on the DVD.”
But in this bad economy, anime companies should be glad to have their potential customers watching their series without putting out money (or time in the form of ads) for them? Sounds a little selfish if you ask me.
@Jan Suzukawa: “most U.S. anime fans watch fansubs because they prefer the subbed version to the dubbed version.”
Yeah, and it’s a shame that North American anime DVDs all come in dub-only form, right? Ohhhh, I forgot! It’s NOT 1990 anymore!
@ Vampt Vo
Of course I’ve heard of those sites (watched anime on all three of them before), I just meant that even with those, the amount of anime that airs on TV each season in Japan is still significantly more than what’s offered in the U.S. on those sites. Each season there’s always a handful that don’t get licensed but fans still want to see them (some airing right now that are only available fansubbed would be Angel Beats!, Katanagatari, and Rainbow). Also, anime fans are not a patient bunch, so unless new series are simulcast within a reasonable amount of time, fans will usually turn to the fansubs rather than wait. But you have a point that the streams have more staying power since they don’t expire like TV airings.
As for your second point about the DVDs, like what I said in my post, there’s no loss of profit if the “potential customer” would never put out money for the DVD whether they watched the series fansubbed already or not. At least if they watched it fansubbed they know whether they like it already and may buy the DVDs or other products (which is what I do when I can). I’m one among many fans who would have never bought products for a particular anime if I had not had access to the fansubs first. It’s not a matter of being selfish but rather being careful with the limited spending money I have and making sure I spend it on an anime product I know I’ll make good use of.
@Yumeka:
Crunchyroll prides themselves on simulcasting over 50% of the anime currently streaming in Japan. Combine that with FUNimation’s licenses (such as the noitaminA block) and you’ve got a hefty chunk of each season being brought over as it airs. And that’s not even getting into stuff that gets licensed and distributed *after* it finishes up on Japanese TV! Is there really a need for fansubs when so much of this stuff is coming over here legally?
Yes, I understand the desire to preview anime before you purchase it, but my point is that you are putting your desire for anime above the law, which doesn’t make any sense to me. Regardless of watching/distributing fansubs being considered “stealing,” it is certainly illegal. You are claiming that someone should be allowed to commit an illegal act so that they can make sure that they’re getting the most bang for their buck when they purchase a DVD.
@ Vampt Vo
That’s great that those sites are airing such a large amount of anime, but the one thing fansubs still have over them is the ability to save the actual video files on one’s computer, usually in a much better quality than the streams (like a 720p mkv file). It’s not that important to me personally but I know that some fans only go for the best quality.
Just because something is labeled as “illegal” doesn’t mean it’s logical, but in this case my “illegal” act isn’t even hurting anyone. My watching fansubs is not hurting the anime industry because I wouldn’t have the money to buy all the official DVDs even if there were no fansubs. Fansubs only have the potential for me to help the industry because I usually end up buying DVDs or other products for series that I like. Watching fansubs gives me pleasure and possible profit for the industry if I decide to buy products for that series. However, no fansubs would give me no pleasure and definitely no potential profit for the industry because I wouldn’t buy any products if I haven’t seen the series. Saying you shouldn’t do something just because it’s labeled as “illegal” ends the argument prematurely instead of examining the logically of it and whether it varies with different circumstances.
I think we just have to accept that we have different views on the subject and nothing one of us says will convince the other. This is just one of those topics that has extremely diverging opinions.
@Yumeka:
I think it’s easy to turtle up and “agree to disagree,” but it’s much harder and more worthwhile to continue a discussion like this, even if (or maybe because) we have different views. If all we ever do is talk to people who agree with us, we’re even more sure to stay entrenched in our viewpoints.
That said, I will concede that fansubs have great advantages over streaming video, such as the ones that you mentioned. Nevertheless, I wonder if getting rid of every single fansub of every series that has a legitimate release would actually rob many people of much enjoyment. I’m sure that the number of people who actually care about getting top-quality HD versions of new anime within hours of release is greatly over-represented, and most people would easily settle for legal streaming if fansubs weren’t around. So, if only a small minority cares about super-high video quality and the ability to watch niche shows, I don’t really see why we really need to keep producing and consuming fansubs (at least at the volume that the fandom currently does).
You’re absolutely correct about the subjectivity of legality, and it’s easily the most gray question in the whole fansub debate. However, if you’d like to contest the legality of fansubs, you had better be ready to move beyond simply saying that it’s gray. You’ve got to be ready to declare that you think fansubs *should* or *should not* be considered legal in a court of law.
Therein lies the problem for me. Claiming that the laws against piracy don’t make sense is to say that fansubs should be legal, which implies that distributing a piece of media without the express consent of its creator should be legal. Imagine if someone republished your blog post in Japanese without your permission, but right at the spot where it usually says your name, they instead plastered the nickname of the translator. That’s precisely what is happening here, and I don’t personally believe that it’s right.
@ Vampt Vo
Since the issue is so complex, I don’t have a firm belief of whether fansubs should be legal or not. I’m not saying that they should be legal, I’m just saying why I personally don’t see much harm coming from my enjoyment of them. If they all suddenly disappeared, I would not fly into a rage but would just have to make big changes to my anime viewing habits. The reason I continue to watch fansubs is not because I think they should be legal, but because, as I’ve described above, in my personal case I see more potential help to the industry than harm. It’s definitely not the case for everyone, like the many so-called fans who never spend a cent on anime, which is way I can’t say that they should be legal.
That comparison about the blog post isn’t quite accurate because, as long as the person credited me, I would have no problem with them posting it, which would mean that as long as a fansubber states that they didn’t create this work and it’s credited to whatever company, it’s fine to distribute a fansub, which you’ll agree it isn’t (unlike blog posts, it’s common knowledge in the fandom as to who created what anime even if the fansubbers don’t say it).
This is a very interesting topic. I read some of the comments, but I think I’ll read more in detail when I have a day off. Anyway, I personally don’t even watch fansubs. I just watch it raw, but if that were taken away I’d probably just go and buy more Japanese manga. I don’t think anime or most audio and visual media is worth buying unless I really like the show/artist. While I don’t think anime is worth buying, I think other merchandise is like figures, manga, posters and such. Why I believe as such doesn’t make much sense to me because anime does a lot more than a $60 sum figure.
I think what these companies need to do in America is provide trailers or like teaser episodes so a person can know if a series is worth buying. I remember growing up in the 90s as a noob anime fan, and I didn’t have any means to know if this show was worthwhile to buy, and this wasn’t with my own money but my parents. I was young then. Sure we had things like Animerica and such but you can only get so much out of a review/article.
But, like it was said, buying a single DVD at a time isn’t worth it when you know that the cheaper box set was just going to come out later. Didn’t, I think, ADV have a type of pack where they placed 26 episodes for 20 bucks or something? Now, I think that is worth buying.
It might be a bit late to make any impact here in this post. Nevertheless, as an individual anime fan who studies business and economics, I want to make a comment here based on my understanding…
To put it in a simple way, I’ll illustrate with some hypothetical (very general, not too accurate), yet easy to understand numbers:’
First of all, a total Profit should be around 17.5% of Total Revenue (that means 20% of Total Cost) to be considered “good enough” (otherwise, the Profit would be lower than the rate of money losing its value over time plus rising production costs for future projects).
By putting Total Revenue as 100%, then the normal situations can be seen as follow:
(Cartoon) TV-SHOW RELEASED in the US
* Production Costs: 60%
* Marketing Costs: 10%
* Total Costs: 60 + 10 = 70%
* National Profits: 20%
* International Profits: 10%
* Total Profits:30%
(Anime) TV-SHOW RELEASED in Japan
* Production Cost: 60%
* Marketing Cost: 10%
* Total Cost: 60 + 10 = 70%
* National Profits: 15%
* International Profits: 15%
* Total Profits:30%
However, with the rate of fan-sub Anime, we have the portion of national customers as follow:
* 10% of new customers (people who have watched fan-sub products and decided to buy legal products)
* 90% of lost customers (people who THINK they can find fan-sub products instead of purchasing)
and let’s face it, even though you and I might consider ourselves to be among the “good” 10%, there might actually be more people who only go online and download things instead of buying them as you and I can even imagine. After all, there are over 6 billions people in the world.
So the situation for (Anime) TV-SHOW RELEASED in Japan is now as follow:
(Anime) TV-SHOW RELEASED in Japan
* Production Cost: 60%
* Marketing Cost: 10%
* Total Cost: 60 + 10 = 70%
* National Profits: 15%
* International Profits: 15 * 10% = 1.5%
* Total Profits:16.5%
As I said above, the numbers are hypothetical, but that might be quite close to the calculation of the people in the Anime industry.
Normally publishing one movie or a series of video product means it should be distributed worldwide to maximize profits. The production cost of any show we have watched exceeds our normal understanding as consumers. But if revenue does not exceed cost, the product failed to be commercially profitable. And if the rate of profit failures rises, the industry is as good as dead.
And without additional revenue from distribution outside the country where the product is originally released, the total profit may not be very positive, or even break-even is not possible. Investors refuse to fund new anime projects. Sponsors are reluctant to donate to anime series. Executives become more depressed and mangakas become more discouraged.
To sum things up, AS AN INDIVIDUAL, each of us cannot understand the bigger impact that may affect the whole world. Just like how Haruhi cannot realize how ridiculous the idea of her being a GOD that can affect the whole reality simply because of her act to escape boredom.
In that perspective, We are the same as Haruhi. We are bored, so we make, watch and share fan-subs. To us, those actions are harmless. Yet, we cannot understand how much of an impact all those actions can put upon the whole Anime industry,
Correction:
“…However, with the rate of fan-sub Anime, we have the portion of INTER-
national customers as follow:…”