I talked to Odex
A couple of days ago, I spent the afternoon with a good friend
visiting Odex, because I heard they were having a focus group
discussion, and nothing turns me on more than a focus group
discussion. By the way, if you do not know what Odex is, Odex Pte
Ltd is a company that fights animation piracy and gets genuine
titles from Japan, as well as fend off frenzied attacks from
robotic hunter-seeker dogs built by massively-downloading military
scientists.
Odex had expected about 4-5 bodies to turn up, but the actual
number came up to about 10-15, which shows that my country is very
passionate about keeping their entertainment free. It also turns
out that Odex was looking to engage the representatives of the
various clubs for their perspective, to find out exactly what they
want from Odex. Two local universities and several polytechnics
were represented, but there was no one from the junior colleges
(must have been too busy studying or having sex in the classrooms).
It seems that many faceless members of the online community have a
negative perception of Odex, because downloading is free.
The Odex people, I am pleased to say, are very agreeable for people
of my homeland, and I was pleased about that. I do not see any need
to post about the specifics of the little discussion (that ran up
to about 3 hours), or talk about why Odex is good or bad, but here
is a brief breakdown of what was talked about:
Odex will cut their prices again. Middlemens 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.
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.
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, its 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.
Odex wants community involvement. Odex says that its 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
boards 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.
So these are the facts; at least, the facts from my perspective. So
what is my own opinion of this new development?
It would be nice to write that I am too embarassed to write that I
dont care, but Im not ashamed at all. I take my typical
motherland attitude of giving a shit. Not that Im aggressively
refusing to feel involved or anything, but Ive simply stopped
watching animation for quite a while. These little 2-dimensional
Japanese shows have degraded into rehashed formulas recycling the
same ideas over and over again. It has gone to the point where I
look at the screenshots and go, Fuck, not another maid.
On the other hand, manga and novels, and games introduce the
element of reading. Reading is good. George Bush, President of the
United States of God Bless America, knows that reading is good. Not
only do these have more interesting and creative plots and
concepts, they keep my Japanese conditioned. And novels and games
always have nicer illustrations. Games have voices! And event CGs!
And scene playbacks! So as you can see, the role that animation
used to fulfil is quickly replaced by other more viable solutions.
To me, the loss of the animation industry is no issue because
people who make doujin will make doujin. The doujin group is not
only more creative and varied, it is also less dependent on
animation for its survival.
In any case, its not wise to crack down on downloading.
Downloading is not the problem. The problem is that there is no
viable avenue for fans to spend their money on. We need ways for
fans to pour their money back into the industry that involve more
than just buying animation. Let them buy figurines! Let them eat
Naruto ramen! We can snuggle up to Yume bolster cases at
night!
But well, it is nice that a distributor is finally engaging the
community after so many years of netbitching. It just makes me
wonder why nobody has done this earlier.
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I have read all 280+ comments from darkmirage blog.
So feel free to ask questions on this.
I think i am prepared. Heh.
