Manga / Anime thread of GREAT JUSTICE - Spring '10 Edition!

[Nakor]

Rue. I remember it because there happened to be a rue here at the time (type of really tiny tree)

[Frong]

Isn't it kind of odd that one half of a game would be really awesome and the other would be teh suck? Maybe Square was feeling bipolar at the time... or something.

[Nakor]

It's basically the same game twice. The two main characters each have their own route through the game. You play it through once as Mint, and once as Rue (in either order). I understand there was a bit more to be played after finishing both routes, but never actually bothered to get that far.

[Tanis]

Yeah, if you play through it once with both characters you get some special armour and moves. You need to play as both characters as each character is only able to collect certain items required to get the special armour.

[Nakor]

Quick change of topic back to anime. Apparently FUNimation (groan) has been contracted by the Japanese company to take action to defend their rights with regard to Slayers Revolution. Ergo, Static Subs and Eclipse have dropped the series.

http://forum.staticsubs.org/index.php?P ... pic=2012.0

It's entirely likely of course that FUNimation will get the licence . . . they are apparently working on wrangling up the original English voice cast to do it with.

[Frong]

Meh. St00pid companies, licensing shows before they've finished airing. Either license them before they start or wait until the damn things have finished already. Well, whatever, I'm sure somebody will sub the rest of it regardless. Someone always does. I'll just put up with the inferior subbing quality whenever I do eventually get around to watching the show.

[Tanis]

Gotta love SS' forums there.

Want to help Static-Subs? Donations help us pay for the website, and our archive bot. Please, Donate to Static-Subs.

Why? Donate to you so that you can drop a series at the first sign of a Cease and Desist order coming from a company that doesn't have the legal grounds with which to do so?

Remember, FUNimation doesn't have the license. They were merely asked by the company producing Slayers in Japan to do it. Only problem with that, is that the producing company doesn't have the legal grounds with which to tell SS-Eclipse to stop subbing, and FUNimation doesn't either, as they don't have the license for Revolution as it currently stands.

If they plan on licensing it in the future, that's their perogative. But until they have such a license, they are in no way legally capable of saying SFA about the series. Unless the Berne Convention covers legal responsibilities via third parties and when the US joined the Convention they stated that they would only apply the rules of the Convention to works that are registered (ie: licensed) in the US. So, until FUNimation actually picks up the series' they have nothing to say or do about it.

That being said, if they get the original english cast to do it, so long as they stop their wonderful trend of horribly butchering every series' they come across, I'll probably get it.

But until then, I want my subs damnit. No way do I want to wait for another couple YEARS before they release it. Already been waiting for almost a decade since Try.

[Frong]

I dunno, I don't recall Funimation butchering every show they touch these days. Yeah, they sorta started out that way, but they gradually improved over time. I think their dubs now are roughly on par with most other dubbing groups.

But yeah, that little issue of having to wait friggin' years after an anime has actually aired for the licensed version to be released is why I flip off domestic licensed releases and just watch the subs (or if necessary, the raws). OK, I understand that people should support the anime industry by buying the DVDs. The problem is that if you forcibly try to cut off fansubbers halfway through the show, you're both A) pissing off your potential sales base, and B) essentially telling those same fans "OK, you've seen half the show; now you can wait two years to see the rest of it and give us your money at the same time." Bullshite. Not buying it. If they'd wait until shows are finished and THEN license them, I'd have a lot more respect for them, but as it stands, they can kiss my arse.

[Nakor]

Remember, FUNimation doesn't have the license. They were merely asked by the company producing Slayers in Japan to do it. Only problem with that, is that the producing company doesn't have the legal grounds with which to tell SS-Eclipse to stop subbing, and FUNimation doesn't either, as they don't have the license for Revolution as it currently stands.

It is covered in the Berne Convention. The original Japanese producing company does have the right to have the copyright enforced. FUNimation wouldn't, except that the original company hired them to. That much is legal, it's basically just the Japanese hiring FUNi's lawyers for the job.

As for the US not fully agreeing to it, that changed rather some time ago:

The United States initially refused to become party to the Convention since it would have required major changes in its copyright law, particularly with regard to moral rights, removal of general requirement for registration of copyright works and elimination of mandatory copyright notice. This led to the Universal Copyright Convention in 1952 to accommodate the wishes of the United States. But on March 1, 1989, the U.S. "Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988" came into force and the United States became a party to the Berne Convention, making the Universal Copyright Convention obsolete.

The UCC of 1952 is the version I believe you're thinking of Tanis.

Anyway, FUNimation is better than some of the subbing companies out there, and it is true that after buying the rights to Slayers from ADV they had new DVDs out within a year. On the other hand, they didn't have to do any dub or translation work for that, so that long of a period may still not be a good sign. We can only hope.

Also you can't really blame this one on FUNi. It's more the Japanese company's fault. I mean, if FUNi hadn't accepted the offer, someone else would have got it (and FUNi probably wouldn't be getting the licence after).

[Frong]

Yeah, you're probably right. This isn't the first time a Japanese company has gone after fansubbers directly, either. It think was Media Factory who insisted that all their products no longer be subbed, even overseas in foreign languages. Riiiight, like English-language fansubs of their shows were hurting their revenue so damned much. Paranoid wankers.

[Tanis]

The UCC of 1952 is the version I believe you're thinking of Tanis.

Anyway, FUNimation is better than some of the subbing companies out there, and it is true that after buying the rights to Slayers from ADV they had new DVDs out within a year. On the other hand, they didn't have to do any dub or translation work for that, so that long of a period may still not be a good sign. We can only hope.

Also you can't really blame this one on FUNi. It's more the Japanese company's fault. I mean, if FUNi hadn't accepted the offer, someone else would have got it (and FUNi probably wouldn't be getting the licence after).

Hmm... I was pretty sure I had read somewhere that the US was still not recognizing nor enforcing the Berne Convention where the works in question were not licensed within the US itself.

Either way, yes, I can damn well blame FUNi for this. Whether or not it's FAIR for me to do so is irrelevant.

[Frong]

Well, it's SOMEBODY'S fault, so you just decided to shoot the messenger, huh?

[Tanis]

Yeah, pretty much. Though I don't really care who it is, just so long as I get to shoot SOMEONE for causing me now to WAIT two more freaking years to watch the rest of Revolution.

Course, it also means that I don't have to deal with Xellos' stupidly bad seiyuu.

[Nakor]

You're assuming it wasn't picked up by someone else.

[Frong]

Yeah, seriously. Somebody almost ALWAYS anonymously picks up series after they licensed, especially big ones like Slayers. No escape from Japanese Xellos for you. Not that I have any issue with the dude, mind you. That's one less problem for me.