Why don't I distribute fansubs to Japan?
The answer is that the producers of anime in Japan depend on the money they receive from anime they sell in Japan (and the rest of the far east) for their livelihood. If I were to suddenly unleash a Video CD version of my titles into the Japanese Internet for FREE download then what would that do to the Japanese market? If it didn't dry up entirely it would certainly suffer. If sales of these tapes, LD's, DVD's, and Video CD's were to stop then they would be forced to quit making anime. Now, personally I like anime and want to see them make more so I am loath do anything that would interfere. Therefore I do not distribute any title in regions where there is a reasonable chance that the title might be expected to be purchased (or rented).
So why then do I distribute illegal copies in America and other countries. Because outside of Japan (and in particular outside of the far east where I distribute) there isn't a lot of market for untranslated Japanese Anime (yet). I am hoping that by making these relatively low quality copies (translated into english) available that people in these regions will find out about anime and maybe decided to encourage their local compaines to buy the distribution rights. They can do this by renting anime, and by buying it directly from the licencing company. In the US more and more companies are doing this and I think it is partly the result of fansubs like these.
If this doesn't make sense, just send me email at derik@pobox.com and I would be happy to discuss it in great detail.
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