At least until Horriblesubs started routinely plundering Funimation and Crunchyroll, our hobby depended on a slender thread.

All the shows we watch(ed) were originally captured off broadcast by Japanese hobbyists who then posted their grabs onto Japanese torrents.

Next step in the pipeline was Americans who knew enough Japanese to be able to navigate the Japanese torrents, and repost them to English-language trackers. (Like LeopardRaws.)

And then various sub groups did translation and subbing. But ultimately it all began with those anonymous (I hope!) Japanese dudes who grabbed the stuff in the first place.

Or... bought BDs when they came out, took them home and ripped them, and then sold them back (at a discount) to the store. I gather a lot of that has happened.

Every once in a while we hear that the Japanese police have pounced on one such guy and he ends up in prison, but it keeps going without him.

But not always. Dog Days 3 is out now completely on BD, but only the first one ever showed up here even as a raw, let alone as a translation. That's disturbing.

Even more disturbing, to me, is that Nanoha Vivid never came out on BD at all. I wonder why?

(Perhaps it's also disturbing how comfortable I've become with being a pirate.)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 03:48 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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