Fansubs, bootlegs, licensed DVDs, streaming video, and more

A recent post on The Misadventures of Super_Librarian got me thinking about this issue again, although it never seems to be far from my mind when I consider writing posts about fansubbed anime. Although I knew I liked anime before then, I first started to really watch a lot of it, and buy a lot of it, when I was an undergrad. The problem, however, was that I didn't have a lot of money. Also, it kind of sucks to pay a lot of money for something, sight unseen, only to discover that it's awful. So, what to do? Well, not knowing any better, I bought anime off of Ebay, stuff that was advertised as "imported." Right. Now I know that "imported" generally can be better translated as "bootlegged." Some bootlegs are obvious, but others are so nicely put together that it's not always easy to realize what they are unless you know what to look for.

Once I realized that a lot of the stuff I was buying was bootlegged, I tried to switch to buying used anime off of Amazon Marketplace. This worked well for the most part, except for that time I was sent a bootleg copy of a series, instead of the used copy I was expecting. Heck, even when you buy something used from an entertainment store, it's not always possible to avoid bootlegged stuff. This happened to me when I bought a copy of Those Who Hunt Elves - if I'd been paying attention, it would have been obvious that what I was buying was bootlegged, but I hadn't realized it was necessary to pay attention in a situation like that. I kind of figured that an entertainment store would refuse to buy bootlegged DVDs from people. Apparently not.

Now that I have a job and a real budget with money allocated for luxuries, now that anime prices have, in general, gone down, and now that there are places to legally view streaming anime, things have changed for me again. I used to watch a ton of anime online, and I still do, although I at least try to limit myself to the legal stuff or to fansubs of stuff that hasn't been licensed yet. I buy most of my anime new from RightStuf.com (paying attention to their bargain bin and their many sales) or used from Amazon Marketplace (trying to buy only from sellers who actually say that what they're selling are used licensed DVDs). I occasionally buy anime from WalMart - you can find some really good deals, but be sure to pay attention to the packaging (case in point, a WalMart exclusive Moribito DVD package that looked like it was the entire series but was actually only 10 episodes or so, only one or two episodes per DVD). I also buy from the local entertainment store. Again, if I pay attention to sales and buy used (making sure it's not bootlegged), I can really get a lot of bang for my buck.

Sometimes it seems like the anime distribution companies believe that, if people see fansubbed anime online, they're not going to want to buy it later. That makes about as much sense to me as someone saying that, because someone has seen a show on TV, they won't want to buy the DVD. Sure, there are some people for whom this will be true, but there are still plenty of people who want to own their favorite TV shows on DVD. If it hadn't been for the show airing on TV (or, now, the Internet) those people might never have fallen in love with it and so might never have bought it on DVD.

So, thinking about that, I've taken a look at my own anime DVD collection. I haven't yet managed to replace everything bootleg with legal, licensed DVDs (and may never do so, as some of it sucks too badly for me to want to throw even more of my money at it), but I've replaced some of it. I've also bought some stuff I first saw in fansubbed form. Sometimes the story is even more complicated than that. Examples:

• Loveless: I first saw this in fansubbed form, just before it came out in the US. I snatched up the DVDs as soon as I could and was more than a little unhappy about the terrible quality of the subtitles on the licensed DVDs. The fansubbed version I originally watched was better. I buy the manga.
  
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Here's one that's kind of complicated. I first saw the Fullmetal Alchemist anime (the original TV series) on Adult Swim. I heard about the movie and saw a fansubbed version online. Twice. Even though the quality was terrible and probably filmed using someone's cell phone. When the movie came out on DVD in the US, I bought the limited edition. Recently, I bought the entire original anime series on DVD, despite having seen all the episodes at least three times on Adult Swim. I plan to buy the OVAs now that they've come out in the US, despite having seen fansubs of them all already. I watch Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood online on FUNimation's YouTube channel and will probably buy that once it's released on DVD in the US, even though I don't think it's as good as the original series. I get the manga from the library.
• Naruto: Another complicated one. I originally borrowed bootlegged DVDs of this series from a friend - this was before the anime series had come out in the US, although I think the manga was already being published here. I liked the series so much that I bought my own bootlegged copy of it. When it aired on the Cartoon Network, I watched it. I currently own two licensed Naruto boxed sets, although, considering the sheer number of boxed sets (my local entertainment store has 14, although I'm sure there are more), I'm not sure I'll ever own them all. At $15-30 a pop, I just don't think that's going to happen. I get the manga from the library.
• Fruits Basket: My first exposure to this series was via manga from the library. I fell in love with it and bought the anime, not realizing that what I was buying was bootlegged. Years later, after having viewed the entire series many times, I purchased the licensed boxed set. I've also been buying the manga - I think all I'm missing are volumes 1 through 3.
• Kyo Kara Maoh!: I first watched fansubs of this online, but this series was way too expensive for me to ever consider buying the licensed DVDs. I think the boxed set containing episodes 1-39 cost $150. The company that released that boxed set has, I believe, since gone under (probably because they charged so much that no one could afford to buy their stuff...), and I now own that boxed set, having found it on sale for a third of the original price. Unfortunately, this series is longer than 39 episodes, and I don't know if FUNimation plans to release the rest of it and then bundle it all in boxed sets. If I want to see it all, I have to either watch all the rest of it in fansubbed form or buy what I can as single DVDs and then watch the remainder in fansubbed form. I'm not happy with either option.

The list could go on and on. Almost all of the anime I own has, in some way, something to do with various free and/or illegal options for watching anime, whether I watched library copies before buying, or originally bought something bootlegged, or watched fansubs online. I can't be the only anime fan whose collection, even if entirely composed of licensed DVDs, has such a complex overall history.