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Editorial by Chris July 8, 2000 As defined in Webster's dictionary, the fan: "a person enthusiastic about a specified sport, pastime, or performer; devotee." The lunatic: "Of or for insane persons; utterly foolish." In the real world, it is quite easy to distinguish between the definitions of these words. However, in the murky world of anime, the line between those two words seems to have blurred, and in some cases vanished completely. What I'm talking about is obsessive anime fans. You probably know one, or might even be one yourself. For those of you who don't know, the hardcore obsessive anime fan is a person who absolutely hates dubbed anime of all forms; insists on buying fansubs regardless of the quality; and is overly picky about the translation of a series. There's nothing wrong with being a fan of a series and wanting to see it handled correctly when released in the United States. However, in some cases fans just go too far. Case in point: the Friends of CLAMP Coalition (FACC). The FACC is not happy with the manga translations of CLAMP work produced by Mixx Entertainment (aka Tokyo Pop). Mixx domestically releases CLAMP titles such as Magic Knight Rayearth and Card Captor Sakura. In fact, most anime fans are not pleased with Mixx's translations, describing them as cheap and inaccurate. There are even fans that would rather have the original Japanese manga instead of the translated manga. Recently, Mixx Entertainment announced it had acquired the rights to the CLAMP series Clover from Japanese manga publisher Kodansha. Several anime fans were outraged and immediately formed the aforementioned FACC, which intends to prevent Mixx from publishing Clover in the United States. The FACC has started a petition, and they plan to write to Kodansha and ask them to revoke Mixx's publishing rights to Clover. In case the sheer lunacy of this hasn't registered yet, anime fans are actually banding together to prevent a title from being released in the United States. What state is anime fandom in that people have resorted to such madness? What ever happened to petitioning to have a series released here, like in the old days? There is a simple solution: if you don't like Mixx translations, don't buy them. Writing a letter to Kodansha is the wrong thing to do. They won't take it seriously, because it's all about business. Kodansha has a good relationship with Mixx, and they're not going to miss out on licensing just to appease a few angry fans. If
the members of FACC really want to accomplish something, they
should approach Mixx directly. How would the staff of Mixx feel
about such a backhanded tactic? I bet they wouldn't like it.
In addition, since they hold all the cards and own the rights
to the series, they're not the people to anger. To throw in
my two cents, Mixx translations aren't terrible. The setting
of the text may not look as good as what Viz does, but that's
a minor quibble. If the FACC wants to pursue someone, it should
be Kids WB. Kids WB and Nelvana have totally hacked the Card
Captor Sakura television series, while Mixx has stayed true
to the spirit of the original manga. Tell me, which is worse?
As a final thought, I implore anime fans to do one simple thing:
get off your high horses and come to your senses. Anime is entertainment,
and is meant to be enjoyed; do not enforce your own tastes on
everyone else by trying to block a series from being released. |