Saturday, March 22, 2008

Shippuuden got Licensed!

I originally planned to explain why I chose “Snake’s Den” as my blog title but a pressing issue has recently surfaced and it cannot be ignored.

Naruto Shippuuden got licensed!!

Being someone who is non American, this is horrible news for me!

Okay, so why all the anguish? Well, let me detail to you my side on the age old “Fansubs” argument in the Online Anime Fandom.

Fansubs are these Anime episodes streamed on the Internet raw and undubbed, but subtitled (mostly in English) by fans. Mainstream sources online have painted a very dark picture regarding this behavior of fans, arguing that this is a form of Piracy and that the Industry is loosing a fortune because of it.

A website that airs Fansubs is Crunchyroll, which I am currently subscribed to as I eagerly follow the romance of Naruto Shippuuden and other great titles. But Crunchyroll has firmly stated that it shall cease posting any titles that have been licensed in the USA. “Licensed” means being granted copyrights to sell the products as DVD in the USA either dubbed or subtitled.

So now that Naruto Shippuuden has been licensed in the USA, Crunchyroll has removed all 50 episodes of Naruto Shippuuden as well as the 220 episodes of the original Naruto series.

All gone. Nihilo. 無.

I now give my side on the “War of the Fansubs.”

I am, with the bitter will of Providence, a Filipino. To be a Filipino anime fan, and to be one in Mindanao, which is like light years from the Capital of Manila, is like being a farmer in the Sahara. The only serious stuff you can rely on, aside from the stuff on the internet, are the great titles like “Zorori” that are way better than that “Spirited Away” thing (!) Heck, I can bet that in Mindanao, 1 out of 104 anime fans even heard of Hayao Miyazaki! As someone in such an isolated region of the world, I can only so desperately hold on to the Fansubs as my source of anime literacy.

Who cares if a title got licensed in the USA!? For all I care, they’re just hoarding all of it, leaving the rest of the world drooling over them. They so proudly proclaim that they’re Pro Freedom and Pro Democracy when they reek of Chauvinism, thinking only about themselves and that they are the only country in the world. So what if it gets licensed there?

Now, I have come to think that the USA is a horrible country. They’re deluded Fundamentalists, Hypocritical “peace givers” who shed blood in Iraq, chauvinistic, obese, excessively opinionated and now they’re self centered Otaku Elitists!

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