1337? Sounds like 4chan's afoot. I don't get how messing with Funi solved anything. This won't discourage anyone from torrenting and such. Now if you stopped airing episodes completely, that would get attention. Kinda saddens me to know that these types of "free" releases could even be what get shows like Air Gear (not that this happened to them as far as I know) from getting longer releases in which to adapt their stories to anime.

I don't understand personally. If you want people to stop pirating and streaming anime, why tell FUNimation to stop airing it until all the other sites airing stop. that won't do anything because if people want to see that show, they will have to look for fansubs, streaming, pirating, or whatever

No idea. They clearly didn't think it through, since Fractale (is that how it's spelled?) is simulcasting again.

Also, I really don't see how throwing out a fairly hopeless lawsuit against a small group of One Piece leechers is going to do anything, but I suppose it might at least scare a few in those ranks out of the idea.

I read about that whole One Piece thing, and I think it's a joke that someone's playing. Really! A show about pirates and 1,337, when I first saw that I was thinking "Wait... doesn't that number mean leet?" And I was right. I think this is a prank that went too far... I couldn't be wrong, but still...

I thought the exact same thing with the number. l33t? Seriously?

Why would someone need to pirate One Piece? You can watch like every episode on hulu.

Because Hulu isn't available in every country due to licencing issues.

To say it's a bit asinine would be an understatement. I get that a lot of countries are going through some sort of economic crisis, but last time I checked, the anime industry wasn't on the verge of collapsing. I know its morally wrong to watch fansubs and torrent them, but it's not so egregious that stupidity has to be invoked to counter it. It's like you said, by taking down the episodes you're basically forcing people to look for the illegal copies. If that's not bad enough, it seems clear that the FPC(?) had no intention of the ordeal being successful. The only way it'd make sense for them to only take it down for Americans is if they thought Funi had the power to reach out and crush french fansubbing too.

"Sounds like 4chan's afoot"

And if that's 4chan's foot, you're gonna smell that thing a mile away...

I'm happy Fractale is back up -- it's a good show so far, although it appears to be leading up to a lot more. And the pirate thing? I'm guessing they decided to go after some people with pressure from Japan. They just decided that they may as well give people a good laugh.

And I might be the only one, but there's something about US kids bootlegging a readily available TV show in the US. It's up there with leeches who just reupload videos like "David After Dentist" to YouTube loaded with captions and bluescreen text.

The best way to talk about the Fractale/Funimation issue is this Yotsuba comic translated by Japanator:

http://www.japanator.com/ yotsuba-internets- 18360.phtml

The folks at Japanator are really great at describing things through Yotsuba.

Why did Ishihara pop into my head just now? >_>

Happy Birthday Marz!

I heard about the simulcasting before this and my first thought was 'Are you people stupid? How does taking away the legal option help?' I actually stopped watching fansubs because Funimation streams most of the animes I want to watch. I agree about the lawsuits, Funimation must be doing it to look good. Hopefully they won't have to do it again. The legal system shouldn't be used that way.

See, I saw the lawsuit over One Piece as FUNimation basically saying "Uh, guys, we have a legal and free simulcast, what the fuck are you doing?"

Piracy in general is something that companies haven't figured out how to handle yet. I know game companies are offering more extras with pre-orders sales. This seems like a good approach because you catch more flies with honey then vinegar. Increasing restrictions will only hurt the legal users and encourage more piracy.

Like the whole Ubisoft DRM controversy, right? I don't see what other entertainment industries (animation, movies, etc.) can really do, though. Special features, I suppose, but One Piece DVDs haven't had any of that. Still, for a lot the ability to watch it in their native language is incentive enough.

What's with all the subliminal images in this one?

I noticed all the subliminal images as well. I wish they slowed them down so I could see what they were but then it would take away the subliminal and they would just be images.

I suddenly feel trolled XD but in a funny conspiracy way!

I honestly have a lot of respect for FUNimation; especially now, as they must have the patients of saints over there to have done something as pointless as all that.

Then again I guess it wasn't entirely pointless, as it made the Japanese company happy and we to see anime legit-ly so it's all good xD

(In otherwords, I have nothing new to add, but I look forward to seeing other people's comments ; w ; )

Agreed, Funimation does alot and works REALLY HARD!
They're one of the companies that actually CARE about the fans of anime.
They care about source material. They respect the original content.

They put alot of heart into their work, and it seems people someway or another, will never catch those poor guys a break.

We can't stop pirating...the same way we can never permanently stop other illegal downloading on the net. Or other stuff that gets on the net. Once something gets on the net, it spreads like a wildfire, and it's nigh impossible to beat it down.

Thanks for the editorial MarzGurl.

Funimation DOES have a hand in producing content. It sometimes provides funding.

Wait, hold on, you're complaining because in an anime news editorial, she's talking about one of the biggest anime distributors in the country?
0.0
That's a whole new level of what the fuckery.

Another hipster moron who thinks anime is a naturally occurring phenomenon and that any company that wants to make money on it is greedy and evil. Sherman, what do you care? Your mom and dad pay your credit card bills anyways.

if anime companies want to stop pirates they need to make the product available on the market in stores we generally shop at and with content the pirates don't have assess to as intensive to buy it.

If your not making a DVD of a cretin show at all on any market and some one pirates it is it a loss for your company if you don't get the sales from thing your not selling?

and wouldn't the list of what people pirate be a guide to you the company of what titles are so high in demand that people will do any thing to get there hands on them?


people are willing to buy a lot of things including and not limited to The Star Wars Holiday Special, the universal studies Earth Day Celebration, Captain Planet, Hey Arnold, the Aldin and Huclies crossover, the Addams family TV movie, Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard,Arthur and the War of Two Worlds, Garbage pale kids, Mac and me, the Addam west batman TV series, After Mash, Doraemon, the 1st 4 seasons of digimon, flint the time detective, the good mega man cartoon series, Monster rancher, Esper Mami, the Fantastic Four movie that was never actually finished, super book, the flying house, Fun Fun Pharmacy, the good tv shows that aired on the G4 network before the munger, Kadocha season 2,
Ghibli ga Ippai Special: Short Short,the orginal japanse version of power rangers, the lost episodes of pokemon,kappa no coo,petopeto san,clones of Bruce Lee, The Goku Sen Live action, Iria II, Journey west, the haloween tree, Walter Melon, captain power, powerpuff girls Z, Magical Circle Guru Guru,Fairy Musketeers Little Red Riding Hood, etc weather its a bad movie that people for some reason want or a movie they heard was good people want to get there hands on things and unlike gamers they don't want to import it. People want to get there videos from youtube and the download sites. There are a large number of things that have an audience but are not on the market. the only way to see them is to hope some one has a copy of a VHS copy on a DVD copy.

All an anime compay has to do is see that people downloading pirated coppies = you have an audience you can sell too = put the movie on DVD and sell it at wallmart.

even if the movies were sold from Japan by catalog with English subs and no region locking this would be acceptable. and it begs the question if Jewario can Play this why can't more anime fans Watch this? people can import games and all they need is to folow simple instructions, I see no reason why we can't unregon lock our DVD players and watch movies from other contries. infact why must region locking exist?


in other notes if your out to pirate some thing that you CAN get your hands on like Naruto or inuyasha or case closed or if your buying a coppy of a DVD of a movie that is still intheaters and was clearly filmed by a hand held camera from behind a family who keeps getting up and passing infront of the cam...

The phrase, there is no such thing as bad publicity, comes to mind. Mainly because I had never heard of this show before and probably wouldn't have if it wasn't for this odd turn of events. I agree that there probably more to the story here, that or the Fractal comity is just plain stupid and I doubt that.

As for the onepice thing I think it's purely a publicity stunt and I hope it'll work in funimation's favor.

It probably should be mentioned that the 1337 IP addresses are apparently all based in the United States, and that this is probably a response to those Americans who forsake the Simulcast entirely and go for the pirated version.

Now I don't think they can prove that these people didn't previously watch the simulcast first, so who knows how this'll turn out. IMO, I don't think people who have a legal (not to mention free) access to a simulcast even need to resort to fansub sites.

1337? leet? Really? And this is supposed to be a serious story? Sorry, but I smell a rat.

And am I the only one waiting for my next favourite Giant robot show?

Thirdly, What was with all the subliminal messages, Marzy-chan? Might we take a look at what you were slipping into our subconsciouses?

Anyway, Thanks for the news, I am now up to date!

oh didn't know!??!?!
it's all true
1337 people will be sucessfully sued
man never walked on the moon
and sephiroth is a playable character in ff7

You pretty much hit the nail on the head MG as far as I'm concerned. The exact number and particular show as well as time of lawsuit are all signs indicating this stunt was nothing more than an attempt to please their license holders. Of course it's not their fault that people rip their property, but when the boss is pointing the finger at you and regardless if he's right or not, you either stand up on principal and lose your job or appease the man. FUNi is a very smart company to make signs like this to point to loyal patrons that basically says, "Our hands are tied guys, this is the only way we can keep bringing you the shows you love for free." And for that, I thank you FUNi.

Also, what the hell is the point of ripping a show that you can legally watch FOR FREE? Answer? You're a dick. And that's all she wrote.

well. i can't physically afford to buy anime so i watch it online, but i do not download it. so...are these sites like animefreak.tv illegal? and if they are then mby they should be targeted instead of some torrent users - i think online viewers are a lot more than downloaders.

That was just stupid. Stopping casting just becouse there is illegal fan subs out there is not good reason to do so. But then again what other choice did FUNi have than try to please lisence holders.

I would like to ask, is the Funimation simulcasts available in countries outside of America?

i think so, my sister watches them and we're in canada

Another reason why Funimation is better then 4Kids. I can watch Soul Eater, but not YGO GX 'cause I'm in Canada. -.-'

Oh, my gosh. Taking down the legal simulcast will most definitely result in people simply going to watch their show through illegal means. Because, you know, that's the only way. Besides, there's way more illegal streamings out there than just Funimation's hulu.

As for what sounds 'fishy', my guess is that a large amount of money was involved. I just hope that the Japanese companies realize that the most well known and trusted company out there *is* Funimation, and they are the only means by which we fans can hope to ever legally watch a favorite show.

1337 people tryed to obtain the One Piece and were stoped by Fun Beard.

Wow. I hadn't heard about any of this until now. Thanks for the heads-up Marzgurl.

Also, glad to see I'm not the only one who caught Funimation's little inside joke to America.

For those of you who don't get the reference, Leet is a "code" language where normal letters are swapped out for similar numbers/symbols.

The relevant letters in this case are:
1 = L
3 = e
7 = t

so 1337 = leet. Combine that with the "suing people for pirating a pirate show" bit, and it's obvious that Funimation's definitely not taking the lawsuit thing seriously.

I can't say I blame FUNinmation for this. It was either the stunt or risk lossing the faith of the Japanese studios.

I just watched the second episode on internet.

Am I good or am I good?

By the way it sucks. It is very stupid, like it is aimed for 10 - 11 years old audience.

Love you Kaylyn, you know, really do.

I mean it's a good way to market yourself to the people who don't quite understand how things work over here, you see IMO pirating a televised TV series is fine IMO, I'm not specifically paying for it in the first place. Also the 1337 pirates of One Piece is fishy as all hell