by Ryan Mathews

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February 2000

It's that time of the year once again, the "spring" convention season. I put "spring" in quotes since the con that launches the season, Katsucon, is held in the miserably cold and crappy month of February. For that matter, with the conventions proliferating the way they are, there soon won't be any con "seasons" at all; it'll be a year-round thing. Heck, there's talk of two conventions forming in my home state of Ohio. That's one place I never figured to see one anime con, let alone two.

But anyway, I will be at Katsucon again this year and, just as I've done for the past five years, I will be running the fan-fiction panel, so feel free to drop by and holler at me. Although I don't know of an Anime On-Line panel at this convention, I always seem to end up on it when there is one, so you might look for me there as well.

Next, some business. Thanks to all who have applied for the role of writing foreign-language guest columns. I still haven't made any decisions yet. Been too busy. (So busy I'm lucky to be completing this column.) I'm still accepting applications from anyone interested. Currently, by far and away the most interest has been in reviewing French-language sites.

To clarify one point brought up in some of the letters: it is my intention that the columns be written in the language of the sites being reviewed. My thought was that the audience for these sites is the people who can read that language. But I'm beginning to wonder if that's the best idea, or if I should just ask the guest columnist to review the foreign-language sites for the Turnpike's main English-reading audience. Feedback and suggestions would be appreciated.

Finally, some opinion.

On rec.arts.anime.misc, the favorite sport of anime company-bashing is once again in full swing. Anime fans have always complained about the companies that sell them anime, how this tape has a translation flaw and that one has a crappy dub, how this title has been delayed and that title isn't on DVD. Recently, though, the smoldering resentment fans feel toward having to pay for stuff seems to have boiled over into venomous hatred. Whereas the stereotypical view of the irate fan towards the distributors had only been that they were incompetent and uncaring, now companies are routinely accused of gouging their customers or worse.

Take, for example, the usual price differential between subtitled and dubbed tapes. This has been explained over and over again as being due to the economy of scale: the more tapes you sell, the less you have to charge for each one to recoup your overhead. Subs sell much less than dubs, so they cost more. However, that explanation is boring and requires a rudimentary understanding of economics, so the angry fans have invented a better one: subs cost more because the evil distributors know we'll pay it and are eager to squeeze us for every penny we have!

This nonsense has been repeated so many times, it's starting to be accepted as fact. Unfortunately, the argument is "supported" by a few examples where an anime had the sub and dub priced the same. However, that doesn't change the fact subs sell significantly less than dubs. That being the case, you can't fault a company for being financially conservative and pricing the subs higher. As for "gouging" the sub fans, the idea that any company would attempt to "gouge" such a miniscule market is ridiculous. How much could they possibly hope to get?

That's only one example. There are others. One poster actually theorized that ADV was deliberately sabotaging the quality of their VHS tapes in order to drive fans to the more profitable DVD format. I'm not kidding. Another poster with whom I've locked horns absolutely refuses to give any US anime company the benefit of the doubt, period. One of his favorite statements is that any US distributor who claims that the Japanese company requested a change in a show's title or its characters' names is lying. His compelling argument? MIXX Publishing was alleged to have lied about such name changes in the Rayearth manga, therefore any company who makes a similar claim can't be believed. I hope no girl ever lied and said she loved him. He'd die a lonely man.

According to this individual, all anime distributors care about one thing and one thing only: money. If it increases profits, the company will do it, if not, it won't. While it's true that any business exists to make a profit, to characterize all anime distributors in this manner is simplistic and unfair. What so many fans forget is that there are faces behind the names ADV, Viz, Pioneer, and AnimeVillage, and that those faces belong to people who love anime just as much as you or me. Go to a con and meet the people running these companies. They aren't overweight, balding, cigar-smoking millionaires. They're people who fit right in at the convention.

I'd like to close the rant segment of this column with a question: How important to you is price when choosing which anime to buy? Myself, I've never taken it into consideration all that much. In my experience, most tapes have been priced at such similar levels that only the quality of the anime itself influenced my decision. But others disagree, saying that they weigh the price as well the number of episodes per tape before making a purchasing decision. Have you ever changed your mind about buying a series you like, because it turned out to be too expensive? Have you ever stopped collecting a series, because the price was no longer competitive? (The latter is a theory put forth to explain lagging sales of Ranma 1/2. While this is certainly possible, my personal theory is that interest in the show is simply beginning to drop off.)

On with the show!