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Japan Reacts: One Piece Leak

Some freshly-translated comments from 2ch on the One Piece leak.

One of the most interesting (and devastating) aspects of the One Piece leak and subsequent news is that the episode, #403, became available early not just for western viewers, but also for Japanese viewers-- not that an early leak of an anime episode or movie hasn't occurred before, but never quite like this.

A thread appeared on 2ch sometime yesterday talking about the event. Here are some of the Japanese fans' reactions:

  • “It's a publicity stunt.”
  • “It was an inside job.”
  • “Isn't it awesome when you can dig up the URL before it's supposed to go live?”
  • “The goal of simulcasts is to stop this, but it's hopeless.”
  • “Isn't this becoming a big deal in Japan too?”
  • “The industry I want to see lets people receive works. I guess Toei's just making a big deal to make a point. This is the best chance to make illegal uploaders and fansubbers look like bad people.”
  • “On the other hand, Kurokami is...what's going on there?”
  • “It was people on the inside who leaked it, wasn't it? That is to say, One Piece isn't popular in America.”
  • “It's weird that the anime's original story is boring.”
  • “By the way, are they not releasing next wee'ks episode?”
  • “The culprit says: 'just as planned.'”
  • “I'll just say this: One Piece's ways of doing things are interesting.”
  • “In America, only ninja, samurai, and tentacles sell well.”

Hmm, interesting viewpoints all, and surprisingly unlike most of the commentary here. Though I'm pretty confident that this isn't a publicity stunt, it's interesting to see readers interpreting Toei's reaction as such, if not the leak itself. There were also several commenters who ignored the leak issue and discussed the anime original story that episode #403 began.

What do you guys think? I'm particularly interested in your response to the one about how the industry should "let people receive (its) works."
Sigueon May 31, 2009 at 7 p.m.
403 was filler? If we're lucky it'll take them until they get back to the manga content for them to get the streams back up.
Chicken008on May 31, 2009 at 7:04 p.m.
It was filler? It didn't look that way from last weeks preview..
omoon May 31, 2009 at 7:15 p.m.
and surprisingly unlike most of the commentary here

If "here" being animevice, yeah. But it's mostly echoing what I hear overall actually.
Cogitoon May 31, 2009 at 7:26 p.m.
I'm more surprise about the tentacles, ninja and smurai comemnt, I want more 2ch opinions on american otaku, make that a feature!

Really, how often do you hear their opinion on us.
giaon May 31, 2009 at 7:34 p.m.
@omo: Really? I haven't heard anyone calling it out as a publicity stunt, but maybe I'm just missing it?
Kiriskaon May 31, 2009 at 7:34 p.m.
Ditto Cogito about 2ch opinions on Western otaku. :O

The "just as planned" comment made me lol though.
GodLen staff on May 31, 2009 at 7:45 p.m.
@Chicken008: 403 isn't filler
Kuroon May 31, 2009 at 9:41 p.m.
NINJAS TENTACLES AND SAMURAI
newtypecjon May 31, 2009 at 9:47 p.m.
I don't really see "publicity stunt" in this at all considering I saw the simulcast event advertised in banners on other non-anime forums on the Internet and now FUNimation doesn't have it. So they spent that money for....nothing? Not a stunt. On the other hand, I think Toei's gone and overreacted by making them pull it completely. It's just punishing the people that would've shown up to FUNimation.com to watch it officially and legally, and takes what wind might've been left in the promotion of the event out of those sails (see what I did there?). ;) When Wolverine leaked, FOX didn't close up shop and decide not to release it.

And it seems FMA's gone down with the ship too. (Oh man, the puns.)

Anyone know if these official sub versions released simultaneously or just days after the JPN broadcast is having any actual impact on fansubbers or the availability of pirated versions? It might also be interesting to see what some of the more popular titles are in terms of view-count via these official streaming outlets, get a bead on what material fans are responding to. And if there's any difference between what anime people gravitate toward depending on what portal they're watching from. IMO I'm loving that most publishers have finally embraced streaming the material ad-supported/free. Now I think Japan's gotta get back on making an anime series that America will wanna watch in Cowboy Bebop/Ghost in the Shell/FMA/Dragon Ball numbers. Instead of more panty-laden otaku fantasy jobbies.
giaon May 31, 2009 at 11:05 p.m.
@newtypecj: I'm still maintaining hope that these measures are temporary, and that once FUNimation is able to show Toei and Aniplex that they're upping security to ensure this won't happen again, that the deals will be restored. Emphasis on hope. @_@

But I have a hard time thinking that Japan is going to be that quick to give up on us, even if they're pretty slow on being willing to try new stuff for us (and/or in general).

*keeps crossing fingers, eyes, and toes*
HSaabedraon May 31, 2009 at 11:15 p.m.
newtypecj said:
I don't really see "publicity stunt" in this at all considering I saw the simulcast event advertised in banners on ... [more]
 The idea behind the simulcast was sound, but the poor execution killed whatever faith Japanese producers may have had in the simulcast idea as a whole.

I agree that Toei is overreacting by pulling everything down related to One Piece, especially since the problem was confined to Funimation's backend, but by canceling the simulcast and doing the aforementioned, Funimation and Toei have done themselves no favors towards the fanbase, expecially given their past histories when it comes to production and licensing respectively.

I really believe Funimation's laissez-faire attitude when it came to their streams is what caused the debacle more than any torrent ever could.  There's no way they'll admit guilt, but its plain for all to see.
omoon June 1, 2009 at 1:59 p.m.
@gia: I can see why 2ch folks would say it's a publicity stunt, and of course nobody here would say that per se. More like, a similar response from an oversea person would be "making a mountain out of a molehill." And then you add the usual the usual conspiracy conjectures that I don't even pay any mind.
omoon June 1, 2009 at 2:01 p.m.
HSaabedra said:
newtypecj said: I don't really see "publicity stunt" in this at all considering I saw the simulcast event advertised in ... [more]
A newly created, from-the-ground-up internet video streaming site is having technical problems?! ZOMG that's just like every single other one that ever existed?!  ;-)
HSaabedraon June 1, 2009 at 2:13 p.m.
Funny :), but last I checked, neither Hulu nor Crunchyroll had this specific problem happen to them, so you can't pin this on Funimation being new at building a portal. As another related example, Sprint and MobiTV used to stream raw RTSP streams through cellphone media players before people figured out how to pull the address to get free access on desktops.  They wised up REAL QUICK when they saw desktop user agents pulling mobile content and started using encrypted server delivery and protected software clients as a way to protect content.

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