There has been a lot of talk and controversy over the recent killings that happened in Akihabara. Seven were killed and 11 were injured. I’m not going to go into all the details as there are many other sites that have already done so. These killings have a lot of people worried as evidenced by the many blog posts here, here, here, and here. At first everyone thought it was just a random killing and it would not be connected to anime or otaku in any way. Patrick Macias had a totally different view from the beginning on how this would play out.

This guy just killed Akihabara the way Charles Manson killed the sixties. And we’re all under arrest now…

Patrick thinks this was the worst time for something like this to happen: there was already alot of tension over recent events in Akihabara as it is. But he also said he didn’t think the media would “peg this as a return of the Murdering Otaku archetype.” They recently found out, though, that the killer in fact liked anime, and his only possessions were some doujin manga they found in his apartment. Now many are scared that the killer will be pegged as a crazy otaku murderer and the media will start blaming anime and manga as the reason for the crime. Some even are claiming that this could be the end of anime, manga, and the otaku culture as we know it in Japan and the US and even suggest that it will lead to an eventual collapse of the industries on both sides of the globe.

My thoughts and prayers go out to those that were hurt by this horrible act of violence.

Do you think this is it for otaku culture? Or are people overreacting?

I just saw this so called documentary on fansubs. I was expecting this to be something on the history of fansubs but instead it’s just an excuse to complain about how horrible modern fansubs are as opposed to fansubs back then. The host “Otaking”, apparently a professional translator, takes us through why he thinks modern fansubs are horrible by trying to point out how the translations are horrible and far from anything of professional quality. He does this by taking clips from various fansubs and trys to point out mistakes and things that fansubbers do that distract your eyes, such as drop down translation notes. Some of the points he makes about translation are also highly debatable but is right on with some of the things he says about them.

He makes some good points overall, but I don’t think we need a 30 min. video trying to tell us what most of us already know.

What do you think about subtitles in fansubs compared to professional ones?

[Via Japanator]

Has someone in Japan finally woke up, or is this just more talk with no action? Masakazu Kubo, the executive producer of the Tokyo Anime Center, has submitted a proposal to the Japanese government’s Media Content Business and Japanese Brands Task Force mentioning how fansubbers should be dealt with.

Story From ANN

About 10 fans (whose translation abilities are high compared to professionals!) (*3) are said to put animated videos with foreign-language subtitles on YouTube, BitTorrent, and other file-sharing sites. If our country is to formally deal with YouTube and other services, it will be necessary to have some sort of approach to dealing with these individuals. Personally, I hope to resolve this by officially making use of their abilities.

This idea has been thrown around for awhile now and it seemed like a far off fantasy for Japanese and American companies to step in and actually work with fansubbers and use their skills. I don’t know how many fansubbers would be willing to work with the companies though, as most fansubbers are stuck up idiots who would see working with the companies as “selling out”. Do you think this is the answer to the fansub dilemma or is this just more talk from Japan that won’t go anywhere?

Because you are going to be without new episodes for awhile, I will try to update with blog posts when possible. I just came across this story about ADV removing titles from their website. These are some pretty big titles like Gurren Lagann, Kanon, Sergeant Frog, and many more. ADV has not said anything about this yet and the titles are still missing from the site. I would  love to say that ADV is facing it’s last days but from this story I’m not so sure. I want to see ADV go under to be honest. They are my least favorite american company and I can’t stand them and Mr. Greenfield. ADV has made so many contradicting statements I stopped trusting them a long time ago and look upon them as an enemy if anything. Do you think ADV is going to go under or is it just ADV cutting back on costs?

Also please join the fan site or Haruhi will cry.