Okay, wow... um, where to begin? I think this is the quickest I've seen a topic fill up in less than a day.
I also hope I don't come off as assholish as I may sound when I respond to the following comments. Reader discretion is advised. :laugh:
It is unfortunate that you spent $1500 on sentai discs.
How is that unfortunate? I have a ton of Toku DVDs I have imported from Japan. The first two volumes of Flashman and Kamen Rider 71, all of Zyu, Dai, Kaku, Car, Ginga, GoGoV, Time, Gao, Aba, Magi, Gokai (on BD), Black, Ryuki, Blade, Sailor Moon, Garo's first season and the Beasts of White Knight, and B-Fighter Kabuto. Oh, and a ton of the movies. I don't regret buying a singe one of them because I got to show my support to the shows I love. And just so you know, except for some of the Sentai movies, all of those discs cost me at least $40 each.
I mean for collector's sake, its okay. But im sorry, I cant support the release of something that's going to be very niche in the very long run. Buying power rangers series on DVD/BD is one thing, because its popular towards kids and nostalgic towards older teens and adults, plus it has a demographic, but sentai is something that very few people in the US know about and will buy.
Uh what? This makes no sense to me at all. So because a show is popular with kids and nostalgic it is okay to buy it, but a show you like because you like it for it being the show you like does not? What does Sentai having a niche market have to do with YOUR personal enjoyment of it? Why not support something you enjoy?
BTW, if you think the Toku market is niche, go to an anime convention. I do Toku panels every year and my local con, which is usually only about 15,000 attendees and I get a packed room with every panel. Check out something bigger like Anime Expo and you will see TONS of cosplayers from Toku series. Yes, it doesn't have DBZ numbers, but to write it off as a niche market is foolish.
As for the anime part, certain anime such as DBZ (and maybe AOT) would sell well as its not really niche, but some other anime are niche so there's that. What im saying is that if the show is going to be an inevitable niche product in the US, I cannot support it, only because I just feel like its not going to go anywhere, and to be quite frank, I have higher priorites to spend my money on.
That makes no sense.
One more thing, if the entire subs will be deleted to anticipate the US releases of the sentai, then it'll take forever to get to the other sentais to be released. that is all
Shout! Factory released Zyu in Feb of 2015, Dai in Nov of 2015, and Kaku will be in May of 2015. They have done three series in barely 15 months. It took TV-Nihon 8 years to fully sub Dairanger and they were not even halfway through Zyu after 10 years. Sure, if you don't count the time they initially started and went with when they started the series up using the Japanese DVDs, then it was shorter, but still a huge amount of time compared to Shout! Factory.
It's not the fact of me being a cheap ass. I love sentai and all, but I have other priorities that I spend my money on such as food, games, and other hobbies that I enjoy, and its safe to say, that buying sentai on dvd/bd is a VERY low priority for me.
Then why are you complaining in the first place? God, I hate using this term, but you have given me no choice. You are not entitled to free fansubs. Fansubs are there for our enjoyment, but they are there to exist when there are not other alternatives. Look at Kamen Rider V3 and Kikaider. No one has bothered to sub them because the shows are legally available on DVD in Hawaii. I hate it because I can't easily obtain them, but they still exist so I just have to deal with it.
It did sell tons of copies and Im happy, but again, its still not well-known enough by US standards to go anywhere.
Again, what does that have to do with anything?
I Did not say that fangroup subs will be slow. Im not expecting them to be really quick with their subs. If they take their time, that's okay with me, they can take as long as they want. As long as they say they will be dedicated to sub the whole series, then i'm fine. But it isn't fair to only make shout factory subs of zyuranger, dairanger, and/or kakuranger to be the only subs of those series just for the sake of being fully supported. Give more than only 1 person or group a chance to do stuff is all i'm saying.
Yes, actually it does. Zyu, Dai, and Kaku are LEGALLY OWNED by Shout! Factory. You might as well say, "Well I prefer the fonts fansubbers use, so I am not going to support the official releases because their subs to not appeal to my personal tastes."
Fansubs are illegal when you get down to it, as much as I hate to admit it. Again, they are there to help us when there is no other alternative. However, the last thing fansubbers need is a blow back from companies for them still subbing things available legally. Hell, did you not see what just happened to this pompous group that was going to sell bootlegged Blu-Rays of Godzilla 1985, saying they have done a fan restoration of the movie? Toho gave them a C&D letter about 5 days later and when the guy in charge deleted his post and told them to "Go **** themselves," the website was gone two days later. All traces of them ever existing is gone outside of saved images of their posts.
Hell, just doing reviews of Japanese movies and TV shows on Youtube is an issue. I got my Dairanger review blocked from being viewed in Japan for a 15 second clip. Toho has claimed numerous reviews on me.
The fansub groups don't seem to be interested in competing with the official sources anyway. A while back there was a possibility of subbed toku simulcasting happening on American TV, and all the groups made posts saying how much they were looking forward to it and if it happened then they would immediately stop fansubbing the weeklies.
This also holds true. Why fansub something legally available when they can fansub something not available?
BTW, I thought of the same thing about Timeranger. :laugh: