#but given the circumstances subbers have every right and SHOULD play it safe

[firebirdsdaughter]

Okay.

No one cares about my two cents but I feel like saying a thing.

Do I think this is absolutely the end of the Western toku fandom? No, honestly. If the Mouse can’t stop leaking and piracy, Toei can’t stop all of it. It will definitely start having to come from small circles/shady places, but they are not gonna be able to stop all of it. I think it might slow stuff down make it harder to access, but if people stick w/ it, it won’t disappear (also subs will get worse bar certain services).

Tbh, I’m not entirely convinced there’s a genuine threat either, at most might be a scare tactic, however I strongly support the fansubbing groups’ decisions to not risk it. In cases like this it is way better to be safe than sorry. While it’s disappointing to lose access, it’s in no way worth them risking getting sued or anything like that, esp since they’ve done it on their own time for free for so long.

But I do also have to admit that I think there’s a portion of the Western fandom (esp the American one, I think, as an American, but I could be wrong) that brought this on themselves/the rest of us. It’s not so much an issue in smaller circles, where I try to stay, but I’ve felt for a long time that the ‘mainstream’ ‘general’ toku fandom in the West is… Very, for lack of a better word, toxic. There’s a certain sense of entitlement and arrogance? So many people who seem to totally lose the fact that we are not the target audience. That’s not to say one can’t criticise (I’ll be the first to say that I have things I disagree w/ in shows), but I’ve in many places seen people say things that utterly baffle me, and esp in the Western fandom there’s this attitude that some toku, KR in particular ‘isn’t actually for kids anymore, more adults watch it.’ I see people making wildly inappropriate comments about actors (whoever started that rumour about poor Noa, the challenge to fight you still stands). Stuff like that. The sort of elitist attitude I felt from the whole Amazonz thing.

But the fact is, it is a kids’ show, and we, Westerners, are not the target demographic. Sure, we do represent a portion of sales, but we’re not where bank is. Toei doesn’t care if you won’t buy a Sentai toy bc the girl isn’t yellow, or whether you hate all the characters. We’re not the target viewers. For all I whine up the wazoo and joke about fighting Takahashi, I have no illusions that he cares what I think or that I have any power/can do anything about what was done. I can critique and say I disagree, but ultimately Toei doesn’t care what I think (although I’ve given them some solid cash bc of Horobi and Fuwa… ;^^). I think there’s some large misconception that the Western fandom is more important than it actually is. I’m not saying we’re not part of the equation and we don’t give them money and it wouldn’t behoove sales for us to have access to the shows, but that I don’t think we’re such a substantial cut that ‘losing’ us or having Western consumption slow down will be a large blow to them—at the very least, from their perspective, we wouldn’t be.

Also… There’s this attitude of invincibility? Japan’s not some distant, exotic, magical land of mystery. Toei has a public social media presence. There’s absolutely multiple people at the company who speak and read English, at least, fluently, probably even other languages. You put stuff in places where they will see it, they will see it. I may not be a huge fan of Shirakura’s producing style and I don’t know what he’s like as a person, but I do have to say I respect the grace w/ which he handled getting (twice?) confronted by piracy/leaks by simply saying ‘you/we’re not supposed to know about that.’ And I know those aren’t the only instances (I remember when Nachi was announced as part of the cast, someone was asking him about Thouser, who we were, to quote Shirakura P. ‘not supposed to know about’ at the time).

Basically… It’s the same thing as people harassing fansubbers for not being ‘fast enough’—we were never entitled to these shows, esp not for free. Yes, us getting to see them did provide Toei w/ revenue, but we are not the target audience, this was never an official release of the show or anything else. It was something that some people who were interested in the shows/genre did out of the kindness of their hearts to share it w/ us on the down low. We were not owed anything, we do not deserve any super special treatment. We invested our time, by our choice. It’s sad to see the access go, but again, we were never entitled to it, it was just something people did to share something they cared about, and their well being is more important than getting the shows free.

Of course, I do understand being upset. I’m very disappointed. Maybe support movements to get the shows legally easily accessible in the West? I heard stuff about there being people advocating for that. Alternatively, and not like anyone who would do this is following me or near my blog, maybe don’t brazenly show leaks and mention benevolent piracy to people in the company? For one thing, you’re putting the leak and/or fansubbers in the crosshairs when they’re just trying to do something nice, and you’re being tactless and rude in general. I wouldn’t be surprised if Toei was on the side of turning a blind eye towards the sharing bc of the sales, until it started getting shoved in their faces. What started as a fun, well meaning way of giving access to something enjoyable that other people might not be able to get to was twisted into some sort of… Weird, entitled, toxic, arrogant, demanding mess by people who… I dunno. Forgot the circumstances? Were so full of themselves they didn’t care? Didn’t understand the situation?

Either way… Congrats, guys, you ruined it for everyone. Thanks.