About Legalization

[Vitor]

I was talking to my friend about legalization and I couldn't help but bring up fansubbing

Toei was of course included in this discussion

As much as I like the idea of fansubbing, I feel bad that as an overseas fan that I can do nothing to contribute to Toei's continued success

And let's be honest here, there may come a day when Toei will pull the plug on fansubs all together

I mean they already got onto Tv Nihon for several of their torrents

I don't want to be considered a flat out pirate, but the closest thing that I can do to contributing is purchasing a bootleg DVD with English subtitles

Is there any way at all that we can coax Toei into acknowledging that there is a reputable market in the US for Toku?

 

[Kamen Rider Scorch]

Aside from a petition I can't really think of anything.

 

[KouAidou]

Is there any way at all that we can coax Toei into acknowledging that there is a reputable market in the US for Toku?

The main problem is, there isn't one. It's still really, really, really niche over here.

So I'd say the best thing you can do is try to fix that. Don't be an obnoxious evangelical fan, but be polite and helpful to people who are curious about it, and make toku available to people who express interest in seeing it. Encourage fansubs whose translations are friendly to people outside the fandom.

Once the market is there, Toei will follow automatically. But not before then.

 

[Pixelphile]

The main problem is, there isn't one. It's still really, really, really niche over here.

So I'd say the best thing you can do is try to fix that. Don't be an obnoxious evangelical fan, but be polite and helpful to people who are curious about it, and make toku available to people who express interest in seeing it. Encourage fansubs whose translations are friendly to people outside the fandom.

Once the market is there, Toei will follow automatically. But not before then.

Out of curiosity, what constitutes an "obnoxious evangelical [toku] fan"?

 

[Oedipus 3000]

Are you talking about the entire "toku coming to the states as DVD" argument?

No, it's not gonna happen. Power Rangers made sure that all the work ultraman, Johnny socko and his flying Robo and all the rest did was shot, stabbed, drowned and buried. If it wasn't for it I might say yes since it would be regarded roughly the same way as godzilla or ultraman would have been (somewhat cheesy with rough special effects but enjoyable.) but Saban made sure that it would never become anything but Power Rangers.

Hey, I don't wanna be the buzzkill here and I know there are a ton of PR fans on this board but honestly, you show any person these shows, they'll say "japanese Power Rangers" and they'd rather fight a grizzly bear empty-handed then watch one episode of it and be "uncool" for it.

The only chance of it might be that Saban decides to release the Sentai Equivalents of power rangers, but this is Saban and they made Big Bad Beetleborgs so the chances of it happening are 500,000 to 1.

 

[KouAidou]

Out of curiosity, what constitutes an "obnoxious evangelical [toku] fan"?

I would classify it as anyone who disregards the feelings of the people they're speaking to in the name of trying to force their interest onto them.

Just to note, I'm not saying this is something that anyone is; I'm saying it's a thing that we all can turn into from time to time when it comes to things we like. But when we look at it objectively, those attitudes usually aren't helpful to the fandom or good for anyone.

So I just wanted to be clear that while I do think the fandom needs to grow before we could get stateside releases of toku, I'm absolutely not suggesting that people go around, like, berating anime fans until they "convert" or anything like that. That kind of thing is just creepy.

 

[Scissors]

Not to sound like an ass here, but in all honesty…. we know that among all the western toku-fans, only a handful of them would actually buy the DVD's if they were sold on the western market.

If there were no such thing as fansubs, then I could believe in a potential market.
But as it is now, I have a feeling that most people would just stick to the fansubs and not buy the DVD releases.

How many people have actually bought THE FIRST after it was licensed? I still see people requesting the TV-Nihon sub.

 

[sgtkira]

As much as I like the idea of fansubbing, I feel bad that as an overseas fan that I can do nothing to contribute to Toei's continued success

I don't want to be considered a flat out pirate, but the closest thing that I can do to contributing is purchasing a bootleg DVD with English subtitles

But why can't you just buy it RAW :/ I mean I agree that you won't understand, but you can still SUPPORT them :redface2: Same with buying toys or things of that nature.

 

[Mr. Yellow]

I support Toei and Bandai by purchasing merchandise. No sense for me to purchase DVD sets of shows that I likely wouldn't understand. I would definitely buy season sets of most Sentai and Kamen Rider, etc if there were official subbed releases. The same thing goes with Power Ranger boxsets. If there were licenses for Sentai in America, TV-Nihon would no longer sub it, as they don't sub licensed things so it would create kind of a gap in the fandom. It would be back to watching raws and waiting for the DVD's to come out with subs. It would also make it difficult to buy merchandise right when it comes out in the market.

You would think tokusatsu would thrive here, with Godzilla, Ultraman, Power Rangers etc all being quite popular. Not to mention all the obessesion with Japan. But, like someone said anyone I've tried to show just can't get past the fact of "Power Rangers." It's all Power Rangers to them, and they can't seem to look past it.

I think with Saban's reacquisition of Power Rangers, it certainly gives us more hope of releases for Sentai. Disney made sure to lock up the rights, but I feel like Saban might be more loose with it. And it could be a future product for places like Shout Factory or Media Blasters to create, if only on a limited basis.

 

[arnoldmcguire335]

I think with Saban's reacquisition of Power Rangers, it certainly gives us more hope of releases for Sentai. Disney made sure to lock up the rights, but I feel like Saban might be more loose with it. And it could be a future product for places like Shout Factory or Media Blasters to create, if only on a limited basis.

Or Saban can allow either Bandai Entertainment or FUNimation to release these on DVD (read:co-releasing).