It’s a success that hasn’t occurred yet. I don’t know that I view that as a failure.
January 1, 2007
Originally, I wanted to post this first, seeing as it will impact a lot of people (at least 1/4 of Singapore), but due to the Defamation Act and some new-found wisdom, I was able to hold off the urge to recklessly post until I got my facts straight. If it’s rather long, I apologize.
But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition, for the love of money is the root of all evil. - 1 Timothy 6:9-10
Anyways, this is a rather grave way to start off the New Year. In Singapore, that is.
Accoring to kwok, there was this ‘focus group discussion’ held by ODEX Pte. Ltd where they talked about several things.
- Odex will cut their prices again. Middlemen’s cut and production-distribution costs ensure that prices must stay at a minimum, however.
- Odex will produce higher quality products which will look nicer than before.
Mere promises. Lower prices arew good and all, but I wanna see something tangible. i’m not too worried about price, but rather, quality. I’m not a fan of fansubbes myself, but if your products aren’t at least at the fansubbers’ standards, who would buy their stuff? Anyway, I’d like to see Azumanga Daioh remastered.
- Odex wants to start a membership service, targeted at students but may/will extend to anyone. It will provide some sort of exclusivity in some way that I cannot confirm, but, yeah.
Meh. Doesn’t concern me. I might join if they they asked me, though.
- Now this is interesting: The government wants to clamp down on animation downloads effective… this year. Happy New Year. The figures passed down stated that my beloved motherland has 230,000 animation downloaders. We are the top in the world by population percentage, at, uh, 5%? Canada only has 20,000 more households, and yet they have a lot more maple trees than us.
Odex underlined that this sounded like a serious effort on the part of the authorities, who are sick of catching little mama-shops selling pirated batteries. Japanese animation presents a fine opportunity to round up more bodies because there are few legalities to work with (Odex holds most of the licenses for titles in my motherland). They have spoken with the authorities, and I quote, the police have ‘techniques to handle certain things’.
On the other hand, I quote again, ‘it’s not going to look good if the students are caught’. It will not be nice if the local No. 1 tabloid has a 15-page exclusive on 16-year-olds jumping off 20-storey buildings in an attempt to shake off hardened plainclothes raiders. So Odex, in a nice way, is giving us a heads up and telling us to stay down.
Oh this is just rich. Teaming up with the government to effectively make all of us criminals in the eyes of the public. How sad ODEX obeys the will of the Devil instead of God. The problem here, ODEX, is that you don’t seem to fully grasp the situation. If you really want to do this, the social implications will be huge. If the nation really cares, that is. Not only that, this parallels the RIAA vs music downloaders situation. Do you really want to go down that path, ODEX? Especially since you said something contradictory later?
The Lord sayeth: The love of money is the root of all evil, and causeth destruction to all mankind. To any Christians who work at ODEX, do you want your company to be discredited because of your greed? Do you want your company to be reviled by the nation? Is this the path you want to take?
- Odex wants ‘community involvement’. Odex says that it’s made up of fans just like you and me, and naturally our interests are the same. But at the end of the day, they have to take in the ‘arm-twisting’ from the authorities (i like my Media Developed, Ah?), especially when it involves censorship and television broadcasts.In the past, any show that is rejected by the censorship board will be thrown back for editing before being put up again, until it finally clears. Now, the new rule states that there is to be no cutting whatsoever. This means if something does not meet the board’s fickle requirements, it is permanently banned. It also seems that the censorship board is made up of 40/50-year-olds who want to keep decency and hygiene a big part of our lifestyles, which explains why Girls Bravo Season 2 is banned in my hometown.
Still, Odex does not want my country to end up as a ‘barren’ wasteland for animation. They want it to be a nice place for everyone. But it is difficult to even do something new and useful when they are struggling to keep the line in check. I was regaled by tales of rogue competitors who use underhand means to get their sale volumes. Odex says they are willing to listen to the local community for advice and suggestions, so that at the end of the day, they can create products that our community can be proud of.
You call yourselves fans, but you mentioned above that you would want to crack down on people like us. Dost thou blaspheme? Or are you no better than hypocrites, trying to save your own skins? Governmental arm-twisting is to be expected, but does it mean you can hide behind a wall of officiousness to sin even further? I know for sure the Government would want social stability, for it makes for better long-term investments. Attacking your consumer and voter base isn’t what one would call wise.
You want ‘community involvement’? Do what the American companies do: Take the initiative and announce your licenses. Make better products. Include Extras. Listen to the people. Wait, you already did that last bit.
Oh, and here’s two bits of advice if you lot are still reading:
If you truly claim to be fans, back off with this stance. It only harms not just you, but everyone. After all, it’s your products and actions that are doing the talking, not your kind words and soothing reassurances.
And should you listen to your greed and pursue this course of action, take this advice: Close up shop and hand all your licenses to Blue Max. I’m sure they’ll do a better job of pleasing the fans than you.
Also, it seems that I should have to spank each and every one of our buttocks here.
The Bible sayeth: But we know the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient. (1 Timothy 1:8-9) We all know ODEX does low-quality stuff, defiling all that is sacred about anime, but does it give us the right to download anime with reckless abandon? Nay! Does it make us experts on all that is good and holy with anime? NAY! Should we do that (and I’m afraid for some of us, it is too late), we are no better than the people who lawlessly use the law for their unscruplous need. We all know better than to proclaim anime should be free. Shame on you, ALL OF YOU.
ODEX, if you want sagely advice, I give it to you free of charge:
- People do not download anime because of purposely wanting to get you out of business, but because the amount of time it takes to secure a license, translate and press the things makes it rather inconvenient for people to legally follow their passion. It also doesn’t help that you make sub-standard products.
- And the fact your CEO hates downloaders.
- And that you don’t announce your licenses at major events. Or rather, announce your licenses AT ALL.
- Your site’s not rather helpful, and you don’t update it often.
Should you really want to get involved with the community, you should start by making your homepage more informative. AND START TELLING US WHICH SHOWS HAVE BEEN LICENSED. If there’s a show we really like, and if you manage to get fansub-quality products, we would be happy to buy it, once we have cash. Charging students isn’t very profitable, and sending them to jail will make people doubt our education system.
If you can’t keep up, proffer some of the licenses to Blue Max. I’m sure they’ll be happy to help.
I’ll be glad to help, as soon as you send me samples of your newer work and stop acting like idiots.
What I’d love to see is co-operation between people and companies. It helps create a little cheer in this era of sadness. That’s all I ask for.
The tears I shed yesterday was not for me, but for everyone who will be harmed should ODEX take the path of destruction.
Entry Filed under: Bitching. .
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1.
lolikitsune | January 1, 2007 at 6:24 pm
warpathbee
2.
tj han | January 1, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Why are you quoting that Jesus book? It’s not socially accepted literature.
3.
jinyamato | January 1, 2007 at 8:08 pm
another entry that i totally agree…. they need to think about us not them and the MDA and censorship board
4.
drmchsr0 | January 1, 2007 at 8:25 pm
tj:han: I admit that ‘Jesus Book’ is not socially acceptable literature, but when it comes to a conflict where both sides are wrong, I listen to the one who speaks wisdom. Which is the ‘Jesus book’.
5.
Tsubaki | January 2, 2007 at 12:31 am
The holy word according to drm. Amen.
6.
Tyrenol | January 2, 2007 at 1:16 am
Especially since most of what we “anime fans” get from Japan is basically hand-me-downs anyway…
Those who hide behind the ever-powerful law are NOT anime fans. In no way are those people over in ODEX fans. True fans don’t tick other fans off. Especially when the words can be spread throughout the net. And especially when it translates and reaches the shores of the original Japanese creators.
7.
LianYL | January 2, 2007 at 2:23 am
We’ll never get to enjoy anime if we obey the law. Speed Grapher and Elfen Lied is banned in Singapore. Great news. For some reason I have Chuangyi manga for Speed Grapher. Double standards I guess.
8.
drmchsr0 | January 2, 2007 at 2:48 am
Lian: CY don’t sue people who read scanlated manga :V
9.
alafista | January 2, 2007 at 2:51 am
bah … they are not fans .. not at that kind of standard …
from what I know … they dun even know how to properly sub in the beginning …
10.
Led-Walrus | January 2, 2007 at 4:50 am
“Not socially accepted literature” my eye, many of our (well, the West anyway) traditions concerning dignity and human rights have their root in Scripture.
Go back to circle-jerking to mahou shoujo before you speak in ignorance again.
11.
LianYL | January 2, 2007 at 5:41 am
drm >> They should. Manga is so fucking cheaper compared to anime DVD/VCDs but some people still pirate it. CY mangas are fast BTW so no excuses about waiting time. Fucking cheapskates.
12.
drmchsr0 | January 2, 2007 at 5:42 am
Led-Walrus: Chill. I don’t think he meant any harm.
13.
anamesis | January 2, 2007 at 12:07 pm
those guys really need to read one of these blogs someday…then mabye we would actually get somewhere……or there will be a full blow war against blogs that have anything to do with free will.
14.
The_Ultimate_Forum_Troll | January 3, 2007 at 3:38 pm
To the owner of this blog and others, people download not becos of the points you listed, but becos its “FREE”. When things come freely, alot of things will be taken for granted.
1) ODEX has been ard even before some of you start watching anime or downloading anime, they exist even before IRC downloads, and they started off as fans who wanted to “share/spread” anime, what they started off almost 10 years ago are of even worse quality and cost atleast 4 times the price of what they are selling now. The FACT is downloading does hurt their business.
2) The CEOs of ODEX were my classmates in U almost 10 years ago, they are anime fans no doubt but the part abt greed is true as well.
3) I know very well who some of you are in actual and finding/catching downloaders is alot easier than you guys can imagine.
4) Path of destruction? Dark Ages? I came from an even darker ages where we were totally deprived, zero source except those that are telecast on TV and have to resort to other means to obtain info of anime. The point being, you guys dont even know how fortunate you are, with the advent of internet and almost everything at your figure tips. (I’ve been watching anime even before some of you guys were borned, this is not for boasting but just to indicate how old I am and the crap that the oldies have been through)
5) When the law/enforcement is implemeted, it will also meant the end of downloading for me, (the law has no friends), I will probably go to Youtube or Google Video to watch the low quality vids as previews. (I will probably start buying more licensed anime.) Thats how fansubbers started off, low quality vidz, but with increasing bandwidth and HDTV, fansubs and raws become higher in quality. One day, Youtube or Google Vid or somethign else might be offering increasing higher quality vid and there might go another round of clamping.
6) I agree with the blog owner totally regarding ODEX pdts, it sucks. Thus when enforcement begins. if I really like any of the anime to the extent that I want to own a legal copy, I will almost confirm plus chop buy R1 with dubs and R2 DVDs that come with special bonus stuff. Its kinda sad that the Americunts improve their subs and dubs so much over the years while ODEX pdts remains almost the same as 10 years ago.
7) Lastly, the moral of the story, if you have been through shit, rather than whining and bitching, you will try to find ways or alternatives.
15.
drmchsr0 | January 3, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Mr. Forum_Troll: Actually, that’s how I started out too. Watching anime broadcast on TV, not knowing such things existed. Heh, I remember AXN when it used to broadcast Japanese Animation.
Not all of us started with fansubs. I remember the good old days. Sitting in front of the TV, waitiing for Kenshin, then Fushigi Yuugi, then getting all fanboyish over Ayashi no Ceres, staying up late to watch Ah! My Goddess.
Yes, downloading does hurt, but we can use it as a positive force.
I’m not asking for much, just for some sensibility to everyoone involved. It doesn’t matter if it’s free or not. Fansubs and commercial DVDs can co-exist together.If it can happen in America, what’s not stopping from this to happen here as well?
The Dark Age I am talking about is far worse than anything you can imagine. Imagine a time when you get ostracized for visiting KKnM. You get beaten up for saying you love cartoons. Your friends shun you because you watch anime. No anime on TV. A giant firewall blockade blocking all anime-related sites. Hell, Youtube will be banned too, because it contains anime. Think the Great Firewall of China, only this time, it’s used to block off all info related to anime. And why? All because a few idiots did not think twice before opening their big fat mouths.
And yes, I know it’s real easy to catch downloaders. I mean, if you can accuse babies and dead people of downloading, I suppose it’s even easier to catch actual downloaders. IP tracking, logs, pingbacks, heck, I haven’t touched the tip of the tracking iceberg.
I’m trying to save a hobby here, dammit. Laws can be amended, stances relaxed. But only if people change their mindsets and attitudes. The Americans have realized it’s impossible to win against fansubs (yes, it’s free, I know, impossible to win against something free) and have, instead, tried to work around the problem. It can, and will happen here too. But only if people stop being fucking assholes about this situation.
Greed knows no bounds. Once they successfully charge downloaders, they’ll go after Youtube viewers. Then parallel importers and people who own R1s and R2s. Justice may be blind, but so is greed, and greed does more damage than justice.
All I ask for is a little common sense and thought for the people. And to give the industry another chance. All we have to do is ask. And for the company to start hiring competent people who actually care.That’s all it takes. It won’t be easy, because your harshest critics are ungrateful whelps who care more about themselves than for others, but if you believe your cause is just, and you do it with a bit of sensibility, it’ll all work out in the end.
16.
tj han | January 3, 2007 at 8:52 pm
The Jesus book sucks.
17.
Tyrenol | January 4, 2007 at 4:52 am
To “The_Ultimate_Forum_Troll:”
I’ll see your “Dark Ages” and talk about how the TV, when it first came out, was unaffordable at first. It was in black-and-white. And Hollywood wasn’t too quick in moving production from the big screen to the small screen.
Even after time when on; the “Japanese cartoons” that made it onto TV during the 70s and 80s were “Speed Racer,” “Battle of the Planets,” “GiGantor,” “Star Blazers,” “Cities of Gold,” and a few others.
One of the reasons why American companies lost to the Internet is that they found its main hub somewhere in the Middle East. That was the rumor. But the downloading “problem” wasn’t (and still isn’t) just American.
It would be sad if ODEX flexed its muscles on its local anime fanbase. And I don’t know if it means an actual fight. But I’m on the side of the fans and wish them luck.
Even if it’s one person… (I’m currently fighting against JapanAnime and their desire to not add an English dub onto their R1 releases.) The other side had been pretty vocal about what they’re going to do against people who actually take this seriously. Giving up is no option since it means that the future will be screwed for those who still use their brains.
18.
hitoshura | January 4, 2007 at 11:27 pm
nice article.
I always have something against sg laws and censorships.
Here’s the thing, i dunno if all sg ppl think they are THAT innocent with the sex video cases and all that, but just hiding some drawn anime ladies is pure hypocritical and fake, like a grown man saying he don’t like to see naked ladies.
What’s more, ODEX basically bans all other sources of ANIME suppliers mind you, in Sg, no less.i know of a few brands who produce anime of significantly higher quality, and they were doing anime like evangelion, chobits and stuff, WHICH the old geezers in censorship boards would have enjoyed their time with it first and send the report saying this anime is too hot/violent. Yet, what happen? i called and enquire. and they said: “sorry odex stop us from selling any more anime”
And weren’t the media boasting about the ratings of M18, R21 and stuff? where did they go? why wasn’t girls bravo 2 out? It could get a r21 for all i care, but that second season is vital to the storyline!
Now that they bare their fangs, i supposed its time we bare ours. We can stop downloading sure enough, but we wont buy from them neither, i would rather get my original unedited copy from ebay, yesasia, than have my anime edited to bits by hypocritical bastards who obviously have families at home (how did you get the baby? you duplicate yourself?).
the only question i have is what about non-licensed anime? those on-going in japan itself. Don’t tell me they got their license.
Odex is a BEAST people. remember that. a smiling BEAST. I would buy my anime as well, sir. but no, not if my anime is always about a year old. if licensing takes so dam long, don’t bother, just produce all the oldies will ya? the new ones are too tough for you to handle, and the internet is for sharing.
I have waited for almost a YEAR people for my friggin INUYASHA movie 4. Where is it?
19.
太子 | January 5, 2007 at 2:21 pm
imho, people download not because its free, but because its so god damn slow to wait for the actual thing to come out. we are not talking about days here. we are talking about months! saddam hussien’s hanging is viewable everywhere around the world within hours!
take manga as the closest example. CY’s books are really really fast. within days sometimes. people don’t mind waiting. even though there are free sites to download the comic, i still see a LOT of people buying up the comic books.
Take deathnote for example. comic books of deathnote are flying off the shelves. let’s see how long we need to wait before the DVDs are available. by then? its over. time to move on to a new story.
20.
drmchsr0 | January 5, 2007 at 3:11 pm
hitoshura: That sounds like a case for CASE (pun not intended).
太子: Also, people like having the actual manga in their hands. The feel-good factor at work.
21.
hitoshura | January 5, 2007 at 9:13 pm
after all the bad, i suddenly do remember the tiny good things about it though…
before odex packaging is in this silver box, certain highly rated anime were in the form of this big album like thingy.
namely vandread and love hina. I’m guessing they cut cost again. thus it became the silver box. but man, the previous packaging is what i call sweet. their vcd had very little errors at that time as well.
guessing their authority changed? sigh….
and i ask again, those will dl anime usually dl on-going anime don’t you? odex cant possibly have their license if its ongiong in japan, no? Or tell me they are just gonna hunt without discrimination?
22.
anonymous | January 5, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Dear CEO of ODEX (or whomever it may concern):
The way ODEX is handling this is bad. You don’t invite people to seek for your advice first - the company should have gathered information already on the Internet. Unless ODEX does not have an internet connection for their marketing & research analysis dept to Google for “ODEX sucks”. Also, why are licensed stuff targeted at 12-16 year old kids (Gundam Seed, Haruhi. GOD, I don’t want to watch Pokemon Year 10, Episode 525600 on Kids Central)? For 10 years ODEX has been surviving? Well, too bad. The business strategies used in the past are not working now. Look for a new business model in the Information Age. As they say, show us the goods, give us quality and low prices and you will win. But without physical evidence and a good & functional QA dept (does ODEX have a QA dept for their goods?) , how can you win the hearts of us?
23.
hitoshura | January 6, 2007 at 12:05 am
maybe if someone who is good at writing formal letters gather all the points here and send it up to odex itself, it might take effect….
24.
This is madness!!! | January 9, 2007 at 12:54 am
How can ODEX claim to be a “fan” by going after fans? This will only hurt then in the end. If they start suing fans, fans will hate them and boycott them by not buying their product. In the they didn’t solve anything.
If they don’t want fans to download fansubs, than provide alternative! Look at Apple’s iTunes. Provide affordable, high quality legal download!
25.
Anime Desho Desho? | Blog&hellip | January 11, 2007 at 2:13 am
[...] the Singapore Anibloggers out of Nano because we have been posting nothing but Odex or random stuff. DrmChsr0, DarkMirage, Tedfox have spoken about the Odex [...]
26.
Elmo | January 11, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Otakus unite!
27.
Rashik | March 10, 2007 at 1:01 pm
This website is very good. It is very useful for me. I like it very much. Thanks.