Viz Defeats Anime Pirates by Giving Their Treasure Away

This got announced a few days ago, but I wasn’t got to let it pass unnoticed?anime licensor Viz Media will be streaming free episodes of Naruto (specifically, Naruto Shippuden) one week after it first airs in Japan. Since several million kids around the world watch illegal fansubs of Naruto Shippuden each week?I’m dead serious, several million?this is pretty huge news.

Why? Well, finally a US anime company is actively trying to stop a massive chunk of piracy, other than just bits and pieces (admittedly, most companies just tell fansubbers to stop subbed what they’ve licensed?which is all that Viz is doing?but Naruto makes up such an impressive percentage of illegal anime downloads that it’s still a major chunk). More importantly, a US company is finally going to make it not worthwhile for someone to pirate anime. Sure, maybe some industrious pirates can fansub their own episode a few days before Viz’s, but why bother? And what illegal download-loving fan can’t wait a couple of days for a legitimate version? Very, very few, I imagine.

Now Viz will stream these Naruto Shippuden episodes beginning January 15th, on Naruto.com, Hulu and Joost. The real question is if this will make enough of a profit for Viz to justify all the work in translating one episode in one week?although getting any kind of ad revenue for the episodes will be much better than the $0 they were getting for the fansubs.

Also, because I can’t often talk about anime without chunneling my years of experience in the industry into a dire rant: although most US fans have been wanting this exact thing (the Japanese episodes, quickly and officially), Viz is the only company that has the power to do this. They’re owned by Shueisha and Shogakukan, who have turned Viz effectively into their US arm. Now, while Bandai is owned by Bandai Japan, they still have to bid on all their titles, which takes weeks or months, while Viz just gets all the Shueisha titles Japan thinks it should have (think how long it took Bandai to announce Haruhi after it aired). Geneon and ADV are in varying states of death, while Funimation is not owned by anyone in Japan, and would have to partner up with Japanese anime studios to be able to release an anime online one week after it aired in Japan.

While that’s possible, it’s not very plausible. Most Japanese studios look at the American anime industry as bonus money, especially since they take a flat fee up front (which helps when the anime tanks in the US). They have little impetus to get the US its materials on time, so there’s virtually no way they’d provide the necessary materials to Funi to make a subtitled episode within a week, and unless it’s that quick, the fans will keep on fansubbin’. Maybe Gonzo would be willing to give it a shot, but Gonzo also has the resources to subtitle their own shows, and get all the ad revenue?there’s no need for Funi at all. So…yeah.

End of rant. How grateful are you guys I post so little anime news?