Fumbling the license.

If there's one thing that really shits me these days, it's religious fanatacism. But I'm not going to talk about that. In any case, there are MANY things that really shit me these days and the one I want to talk about right now is incompetent licensing.

You may (or may not) have heard that anime and manga companies are cracking down on fansubs and scanlations of series. OneManga, one of the biggest online manga archives, has just announced that they're closing up shop (metaphorically speaking of course, they never charged money) before they get sued and a lot of scanlation groups are throwing in the towel, regardless of whether or not they've already received a Cease and Desist from the companies.

I can't really blame them. They can sense the way the wind is blowing and are smart enough to realize that they honestly don't have a legal leg to stand on. What they're doing IS, after all, taking a product that is intended to be sold to an audience and which isn't theirs and distributing it for free to as many people as feel like helping themselves to it. And much as you might argue that they do a lot to raise awareness among readers or viewers about new manga and anime, if you attempt to claim that they don't financially impact on the creators and distributors then you're a goddamn idiot. I for one have read every single scanlated chapter of Naruto but scoff at the idea of actually PAYING for it- not because I'm a cheap-ass pirate (I buy a LOT of stuff I've already read scanned/watched fansubbed, most recently the DVD release of AIR) but because Naruto really isn't worth paying money for these days (don't get me started, but it jumped the shark ages ago). I probably owe Viz upwards of $800 for that series alone. I don't want to get into an argument on the relative vices and virtues of fansubbing/scanning, partly because it's hard to debate without anyone to debate with, but the point I'm trying to make is that legally, giving in is the smart thing to do, which is why so many of them are doing it. You can go underground if you want, but you sure as hell can't fight.

But that's not my point this time. What shits me off is that companies like Tokyopop and Viz and the like are closing down the scanlators and fansubbers while being generally incapable of replacing them with a viable alternative. Sure some of them are experimenting with online manga or anime streaming, but it's just not as efficient or expansive. Worst of all is when the companies acquire a license, choke off any illegal distribution, and then utterly fuck it up. For me personally, this is more of an issue with novels than manga or anime, although it covers all areas.

My prime example: Shakugan no Shana, which was licensed by Viz a few years back. I was reading it off the Japanese novel translation site Baka-Tsuki when Viz licensed it, so Baka-Tsuki, being the responsible and legal-minded fans that they are, immediately pulled down their translations. Viz released the first 2 volumes, then dropped the series. Completely. They released the first volume in April 2007, the second in October 2007 and haven't released another volume since. That seems pretty fucking conclusively dropped to me. Maybe the first two volumes sold particularly badly so they decided they couldn't justify continuing to release it. I can understand that, Viz is a business, not a charity. The thing is though, they still hold the license even if they don't intend to do shit-all with it. As a result, Baka-Tsuki still have no intention of reuploading their translations and as far as I'm aware no-one else it translating the novels either, even though the series is now up to twenty-three volumes and still going. With the third season of the anime taking forever to be released (and it'll take years longer before I can see it if I don't get it fansubbed- the second season hasn't even started to be released in America yet!) I've kind of been left hanging regarding where the hell the story is going.

Then there's Full Metal Panic, one of my favourite stories. I read the fan-translated volumes from Owaru Day By Day (the 2-part story 'The Second Raid' was based on) to Tsuzuku On My Own (the volume where, if you'll pardon the vernacular, shit got real). And then Tokyopop licensed it. Ouch. They release it at a rate of approximately 1 volume per year, if that- I think they've stopped altogether by now, although given the trouble they're in that's not surprising. I have the first 3 volumes they released and now I'm grinding my teeth with frustration about not knowing what happens next (they really SHOULD make another anime, but I think the property has gone dead).

Then there's all the lesser-known stuff that simply gets ignored by the companies but not by the scanlators (this is definitely a manga thing as pretty much every anime gets licensed these days). Manga like Sahara Mizu's My Girl (a story about a young single father raising the daughter he never knew he had), Kei Toume's Hatsukanezumi no Jikan/Hour of the Mice (a story about a group of teens at a mysterious school for the gifted struggling to come to terms with the fact that they're part of a giant social experiment) and Mysterious Girlfriend X (a story about a boy who gets possibly the weirdest girlfriend ever) just don't get picked up. Hell, even a series as well-known as friggin' Elfen Lied remains solely the preserve of the scanlators! Given how high-profile the anime was a few years back (and how much more in-depth the manga is than the anime) this is almost beyond belief.

Finally, there's the next worst thing- really lousy release schedules. Yen Press, who are doing a decent if not outstanding job in the market, licensed and released the first volume of a series called Bunny Drop recently. I picked it up because it looked like an interesting entry in a particular subgenre I like (inexperienced single daddy-figure raising a tooth-rottingly cute young girl, see also Aishiteruze Baby and the aforementioned My Girl) but when I had a look at their website for the release date of the next volume I was outright revolted. One every six months?! That's only 2 volumes a year and this series is already 7 volumes long and still running. That's 3 1/2 years just to get up to date with where it is now. This is NOT compelling me to buy the official release, this is just enough of a tease to tell me, loud and clear, "GO FIND THE SCANLATIONS!" Think about it.

Now I don't work in the manga or anime industries so there's probably a LOT I don't know or understand. And I do understand that a lot of these series' just aren't practical to bring across. These are COMPANIES after all and they need to consider what will turn them a profit. But I have to ask them: if you take away our scans and our fansubs, what are you going to do for us to compensate up for what you are depriving us of? Talented scanlation and fansub groups can get a translated version of a chapter of manga or an episode of anime online less than a day after they come out in Japan. If I want to wait until that chapter or episode is available in an official format I can be looking at anything up to 3 or 4 years. Online streaming is a step in the right direction, but it's not enough, not when you consider how much we're losing.

So anyway, a final word: please, fellas- if you take a license, either release the damn thing in its entirity, or let it go. Hanging onto the license indefinitely for no reason is just a dick move.