anime industry

The Reasons Why You Should (Probably) Not Pirate Anime

February 13, 2020 by chikorita157 Leave a Comment

Since 2017, I started the shift towards streaming mostly because it’s convenient and it’s probably the cheapest way to support the industry. From the monthly subscription fees, royalties are paid from the shows you watch, which eventually goes back to the studios and the industry.

Given the problem that studios are facing with low pay and poor working conditions, if more switched to legal alternatives, it would help the industry. After all, revenue generated overseas will become more important given the change in demographics in Japan.

While streaming is not the ideal solution mostly because of region restrictions, it’s not a problem if you live in North America. Of course, exclusivity of titles and fragmentation is another issue. Certain titles will only be available on Crunchyroll, HIDIVE, Amazon, Netflix or Funimation. In other words, this will require subscribing to multiple services.

If you take these drawbacks from the picture, it’s a better way to watch anime as it’s convenient. One doesn’t have to mess around with Bittorrent, worry about what video players to use, and having enough disk space. You just watch whatever you want.

However, people who live in regions where legal options are readily available and can afford it still choose to pirate. People have to realize that not only this is selfish and immoral given the poor state of the animation industry, you are also putting your information security at risk. Not to mention, piracy or rather the correct term, copyright infringement is illegal. I will explain why you should probably stop pirating anime and consider legal options if available.

(Note: Pardon the lack of images, they are coming in a few days)
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When A Fairy Tale Becomes a Nightmare – Analyzing the Production Failures of Märchen Mädchen

March 29, 2018 by chikorita157 4 Comments

Back in 2015, I analyzed production issues in regards to Anime. It seems that every year, production issue are becoming more apparent. It’s saddening that a lack of production values can hold a show back regardless of how good or interesting the story and characters are. To me, no adaptation deserves the poor treatment that this show received. This adaptation is Märchen Mädchen.
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All Work and No Pay – Part II – Animator’s Pay and Working Conditions Keeps Getting Worse

February 21, 2018 by chikorita157 5 Comments

Back in 2015, I covered and analyzed the poor wages and working conditions animators face. It’s a known fact that animators are paid very little, they work long hours, and receive little free time. Since then, I wonder how things progressed since then. Have they improved?
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The Sad State of Legal Anime Streaming or Why Anime Strike is Cancer – Update: It’s Dead

July 24, 2017 by chikorita157 5 Comments

In recent years, there is a big shift towards legal streaming. As mentioned in an earlier editorial, streaming sites like Crunchyroll makes anime more accessible. While there are drawbacks such as region restrictions and lack of offline viewing, it keeps most people from pirating anime. Legal streaming overall allows anime to become more mainstream than it did in the past. Of course, this spawned more competition such as Funimation, Daisuki and others.

However, in 2017, the state of streaming deteriorated. It’s obvious that Amazon and Netflix now wants the piece of the streaming pie. Earlier this year Amazon launched Anime Strike. Meanwhile, Netflix becomes a serious contender by taking more high-profile titles such as Little Witch Academia and Fate/Apocrypha. While competition is good as it prevents companies from being too lazy, it has a lot of drawbacks. As seen with the huge backlash towards Anime Strike, it can have negative impacts to the fandom as a whole. Moreover, it can derail the trend towards legal streaming and drive people back to piracy.
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Avex Export Ban and Why It’s Bad for the Anime Industry

February 16, 2017 by chikorita157 Leave a Comment

Just a few days ago, something blew up in the fandom. Apparently, Avex Pictures have banned exports of Blu-rays, DVDs and CDs to countries outside of Japan. While this does not affect the music division, it does bring negative implications for people who imports Anime Blu-rays, DVDs and CDs. I will share my thoughts about the Avex export ban along with background information behind it.
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Does Downloading Anime Makes You Less of an Anime Fan?

April 7, 2016 by chikorita157 3 Comments

In the past, I have touched upon thoughts about piracy and how they are taking a wrong approach. Although legal alternatives have made some strides, it has shortcomings besides other issues like region locking and that the subs have quality issues in the viewer’s eyes.

With that in mind, while fans tend to look down other fans because of their tastes of Anime, there is another issue that is also apparent, people chastising people because they prefer to download anime opposed to streaming it legally or buying Blu-rays. While I will share why this practice is counterproductive, there are various reasons why people choose to continue to download instead of watching it on a legal streaming site.
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Thoughts about Japanese Anime Releases: Why they are Expensive?

October 9, 2015 by chikorita157 4 Comments

A few years back, I have shared my thoughts about collecting anime Merchandise. While I stopped buying anime DVDs several years back since I wanted to focus more on importing Japanese games and anime CDs from Japan, I decided to buy Idolmaster Cinderella Girls in Blu-Ray, which makes me wonder about Japanese anime releases and how they differ from licensed releases.

While I covered it somewhat in previous editorials, I never gone into much detail considering that I did not own a single Japanese release. Now I do, so it is time to talk about some differences and why they are expensive.
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Life Lessons – Relating with Shizuka’s Difficulties – Should you Chase a Passion?

July 9, 2015 by chikorita157 4 Comments

Since its airing, Shirobako gave a good glimpse of the Anime Industry on how it works and the issues surrounding it with some that are interesting to discuss about. Now, I am going to take a look at the last aspect, should you chase your passion or pursue a career that pays well?

Sure, the other four girls (Aoi, Ema, Misa and Midori) had an easier time getting their foot in their door, but there is one girl who had an extremely difficult time and her name is Sakaki Shizuka. The difficulties she faced comes at no surprise considering that the voice acting industry is very competitive and there are only so many roles to go around at a given time. Was it worth it at the end to pursue such a career? Could she have done things differently?
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Shirobako – Final Review

April 23, 2015 by chikorita157 Leave a Comment

After PA Works finish producing a failure known as Glasslip, they have to come up with something that no studio has done before to make up for it. With that, they decided to make a show about anime production called Shirobako （白箱, lit white box), which focus on five girls trying to make it in an industry that is hard to get into.