Planet Tokyo has an article (“Talking Anime Business Blues”) discussing fansub vs standard channels for pushing out anime in America, and why very little Anime actually hits US markets.

So the question is why is it? And is fansubs killing the market? I think to the latter one the answer is “Good Fansub groups are improving the market.”  Where defining ‘good’ as those who stop producing works after a US License has been announced. However, I think the problem with Japanese Anime in America is more a difference culture. Most Americans hear “cartoon” or “animation” and they think kids and Disney. Which isn’t always the case. Take DearS and Girls Bravo, they are both shows I wouldn’t show to a young kid. Girls Bravo Season 2 is even worse with the sex jokes. They move from “background” jokes to foreground (Wish they would’ve stayed in the background, I can’t stand to watch Season 2).

The fact Anime a lot of anime is tied closely culture and language makes them harder to translate. A lot of jokes need to be explained to non-japanese people or rewritten to be funny. The latter works sometimes, but other times it just ends up coming out sounding stupid.

Take a simple rhyming game in japanese. The first kid starts off saying ”hitoma” and the next says “mada” then the next says “daimyou” and so on.  They are using the hiragana symbols to decide the first character of the next word. This may seem random to use, but knowing that makes it more enjoyable. A good fansub group clues us into such things.

And lets face it.. The japanese themes get tiring after a while. There tends to be very little that separates some series (DearS vs Chobbits). I rarely find a good solid gem in the collection of rocks.

Which I guess brings me to the series I’m enjoying (I by no means claim they are ‘unique’, but they have unique twists): Bleach, Tsukuyomi ~ Moon Phase ~, Mahoraba ~Heartful Days~, Loveless, Beck, Air(TV Series) and Aishiteruze Baby. This is by no means a complete list, but over half of them I would buy if they came to America in a box set. If they were Dubbed or not.

So my point is I guess that maybe a decision needs to be made to take series that a studio feels wouldn’t be a large seller and just do subtitling, and only do voice overs for popular series.