[SPLIT] Crunchyroll

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Re: What anime are you watching right now? Summer 2016 to now

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Postby Bagheera » Thu Jan 19, 2017 1:43 am

This is a news item, but it seems more appropriate to place it here:

Crunchyroll just laid off 59 people.

It seems a CTO with a fairly hefty conflict of interest axed the in-house staff in favor of outsourcing. What that means going forward, I have no idea.
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I hate myself. But maybe I can learn to love myself. Maybe it's okay for me to be here! That's right! I'm me, nothing more, nothing less! I'm me. I want to be me! I want to be here! And it's okay for me to be here! -- Shinji Ikari, Neon Genesis Evangelion
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Re: What anime are you watching right now? Summer 2016 to now

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Postby Squigsquasher » Thu Jan 19, 2017 6:19 am

Meh, nothing of value was lost. Between the appalling selection of anime available in the UK from them, the irritating pre-video ads and the fact that they used to outright steal fansubs and claim they were their own work...fuck Crunchyroll.
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Re: What anime are you watching right now? Summer 2016 to now

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Postby Bagheera » Thu Jan 19, 2017 8:08 am

View Original PostSquigsquasher wrote:Meh, nothing of value was lost. Between the appalling selection of anime available in the UK from them, the irritating pre-video ads and the fact that they used to outright steal fansubs and claim they were their own work...fuck Crunchyroll.


Apart from 59 actual jobs, this is an example of gutting a company of genuinely talented people who care about their work and replacing them with outsourcing as the CTO bleeds the company dry like a damn vampire. And that is something of value for people in the U.S. who want to acquire their anime legally, since Crunchyroll controls the bulk of the livestream market in the U.S. And what do you think will happen to the quality of those livestreams when people who actually give a shit are replaced by people who don't?
For my post-3I fic, go here.
The law doesn't protect people. People protect the law. -- Akane Tsunemori, Psycho-Pass
People's deaths are to be mourned. The ability to save people should be celebrated. Life itself should be exalted. -- Volken Macmani, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra
I hate myself. But maybe I can learn to love myself. Maybe it's okay for me to be here! That's right! I'm me, nothing more, nothing less! I'm me. I want to be me! I want to be here! And it's okay for me to be here! -- Shinji Ikari, Neon Genesis Evangelion
Yes, I know. You thought it would be something about Asuka. You're such idiots.

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Re: What anime are you watching right now? Summer 2016 to now

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Postby Squigsquasher » Thu Jan 19, 2017 8:32 am

View Original PostBagheera wrote:Apart from 59 actual jobs, this is an example of gutting a company of genuinely talented people who care about their work and replacing them with outsourcing as the CTO bleeds the company dry like a damn vampire. And that is something of value for people in the U.S. who want to acquire their anime legally, since Crunchyroll controls the bulk of the livestream market in the U.S. And what do you think will happen to the quality of those livestreams when people who actually give a shit are replaced by people who don't?

>Using livestreams

People will learn to use torrents. People who refuse to will lose out. Eventually someone will fill the gap that Crunchyroll left behind, and hopefully they'll actually allow people outside the US to watch stuff worth a damn.

The fact is that most methods of watching anime "legally" are a waste of time. Lots of anime aren't even available to buy/watch legally (see: Zeta Gundam, most of Macross) or are only available through the shitty lens of localization, complete with censorship (Paranoia Agent, for example, is only available in the UK with bits lopped off to appease the Ministry of Truth BBFC) or pointless "funny" changes (Prison School, anyone?). Even supposedly "proper" releases aimed at collectors often suck (see: Sailor Moon, where the boxset had worse video quality than a fucking fansub) Not to mention streaming requires a constant internet connection, whilst a digital copy (or the rare non-shit physical copy) doesn't.

Case in point, I'm in the process of watching Gundam. When I get to ZZ, if I were to watch everything legally I wouldn't be able to watch it because it hasn't been officially licensed outside of Japan. I have no choice but to pirate.

I mean, if anime gets an official release that miraculously doesn't suck, I'll buy it to support a job well done. But all the while fansubbers/rippers produce better product than the "official" merchants, with no censorship/changes and proper quality, I'll support the fansubbers. When the alternative is supporting hacks like Funimation...fuck that shit.

If you really care about supporting the industry you'd be better off torrenting the anime and then buying the BDs from Japan, and skipping the cancerous leech that is the modern localization industry.
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Re: What anime are you watching right now? Summer 2016 to now

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Postby Bagheera » Thu Jan 19, 2017 9:53 am

View Original PostSquigsquasher wrote:People will learn to use torrents.


Well, no, not necessarily, because an awful lot of people out there aren't comfortable with using less-than-legal means to get their entertainment. Since Crunchyroll and Funi partnered up they managed to release most of the new content from Japan each season, and that meant people could watch their anime and actually support it without shelling out ridiculous prices for BDs bought overseas. They might still be able to do that if those lost jobs are replaced with competent people, but there's no guarantee that will prove to be true -- and that means this is shitty news for an awful lot of people.

(and of course, the nice thing about Crunchy/Funi gaining so much momentum is that they continued to add to their archives as well as releasing new material, which meant that people could access older titles without having to torrent them. If this breaks that momentum that will mean yet more delays and lower (legal) availability of older titles in the west as a result.)
For my post-3I fic, go here.
The law doesn't protect people. People protect the law. -- Akane Tsunemori, Psycho-Pass
People's deaths are to be mourned. The ability to save people should be celebrated. Life itself should be exalted. -- Volken Macmani, Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra
I hate myself. But maybe I can learn to love myself. Maybe it's okay for me to be here! That's right! I'm me, nothing more, nothing less! I'm me. I want to be me! I want to be here! And it's okay for me to be here! -- Shinji Ikari, Neon Genesis Evangelion
Yes, I know. You thought it would be something about Asuka. You're such idiots.

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Re: What anime are you watching right now? Summer 2016 to now

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Postby esselfortium » Thu Jan 19, 2017 10:28 am

Crunchyroll and Funimation are great, and have made it easy and convenient to watch and discover tons of great shows while supporting their creators. There's no good reason why I, or anyone else who's capable of doing so, shouldn't be willing to pay a completely reasonable amount to support a good service and the continued creation of media I enjoy.

Anime has never been this easily accessible before. I remember what it was like in the early 2000s: getting anime legally meant waiting months and months to buy overpriced DVDs to check out a show you heard was good (it usually was not actually good), and fansubs had inconsistent release schedules and were far from the romanticized ideal of quality that nostalgia has raised them to. As a kid, I couldn't have imagined that the level of service I now get from Crunchyroll was even possible. It's awesome to be able to watch nearly any new show on the day it airs and immediately talk about it with other fans.

I have no qualms with folks torrenting a show if its distribution situation is a disaster, but when a show is available legally and affordably, it's laughable to put yourself on a high horse over actual paying customers. The vast majority of "fansub" releases nowadays are direct rips from official sources like Crunchyroll, anyway, so all you're doing most of the time is taking the same service you're whining about, without supporting anyone who made it possible.

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Re: [SPLIT] Crunchyroll

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Postby esselfortium » Thu Jan 19, 2017 1:21 pm

It still sucks, especially that engineers were kept in the dark about it, which is really, really shitty of the parent company and still leaves me worried about the future of CR's other employees... but this followup post sheds some more light on the situation and dispels at least some of the feelings of impending doom: https://www.reddit.com/r/Crunchyroll/co ... s/dcmr10i/

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Re: [SPLIT] Crunchyroll

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Postby Dr. Nick » Thu Jan 19, 2017 8:07 pm

Squigs, I'm no stranger to the Torrent since I live outside of the major streaming regions and I like my obscure and unlicensed shit, but your view lacks nuance. I'm not going to defend releases compromised by actual censorship, and I'm thankful that you informed me about the Paranoia Agent situation, but at the same time, surely you do realize that fansubbers are basically gone, and those rippers you extolled merely repackage and distribute that same official content that you railed against? As such, saying "fansubbers/rippers produce better product than the "official" merchants" literally makes no sense because these days the product is usually the same.

The thing about the rise of official simucasts and "day one" translations is that the quality is a lot more uniform today than it was during the heyday of fansubbing. In some cases, a painstakingly crafted labor-of-love fansub is without a doubt the ultimate edition to have. But it's also worth noting that the near-death of fansubbing has also eradicated the most awful, fuckwitted examples of the practice. Using Gundam as an example to prop up your views is particularly disingenous since until the official releases came along, some of the lesser-known entries of the franchise like Turn-A and X spent decades in the ghetto of garbage fansubs. For example, the Hero-Legends releases were likely just slightly scrubbed Chinese bootlegs. You're also wrong about Gundam's legal availability in the west, but I'll let you do the further googling yourself.

My point is, it should be possible to find a sensible middle road between being a blowhard pirate ideologue and a consumerist whore; this is a thought reflected in the original, old-school fansub ethics.

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Re: [SPLIT] Crunchyroll

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Postby Squigsquasher » Fri Jan 20, 2017 5:25 am

View Original PostDr. Nick wrote:Squigs, I'm no stranger to the Torrent since I live outside of the major streaming regions and I like my obscure and unlicensed shit, but your view lacks nuance. I'm not going to defend releases compromised by actual censorship, and I'm thankful that you informed me about the Paranoia Agent situation, but at the same time, surely you do realize that fansubbers are basically gone, and those rippers you extolled merely repackage and distribute that same official content that you railed against? As such, saying "fansubbers/rippers produce better product than the "official" merchants" literally makes no sense because these days the product is usually the same.

The thing about the rise of official simucasts and "day one" translations is that the quality is a lot more uniform today than it was during the heyday of fansubbing. In some cases, a painstakingly crafted labor-of-love fansub is without a doubt the ultimate edition to have. But it's also worth noting that the near-death of fansubbing has also eradicated the most awful, fuckwitted examples of the practice. Using Gundam as an example to prop up your views is particularly disingenous since until the official releases came along, some of the lesser-known entries of the franchise like Turn-A and X spent decades in the ghetto of garbage fansubs. For example, the Hero-Legends releases were likely just slightly scrubbed Chinese bootlegs. You're also wrong about Gundam's legal availability in the west, but I'll let you do the further googling yourself.

My point is, it should be possible to find a sensible middle road between being a blowhard pirate ideologue and a consumerist whore; this is a thought reflected in the original, old-school fansub ethics.

That's fair enough, I suppose. I guess my view is somewhat clouded by bitterness of living in the UK and thus getting bugger all in terms of decent anime releases, at least compared to the US.

FWIW I do regularly buy anime DVDs/BDs, largely from my local comic shop (now that our HMV is gone). I do like having a proper box filled with anime goodness after all, and assuming the Evangelion BD boxset comes out over here and is uncensored I'll buy the fuck out of it. That said, if it has as much as a nanosecond chopped off to appease the BBFC, I won't give them a single penny.

I suppose my dislike for Crunchyroll mainly comes from the fact that, aside from the appalling UK library they have, they did (from what I hear) used to steal actual fansubs and claim them as their own, which is beyond shitty. As for Funimation, their monopoly on the anime market (correct me if I'm wrong here, of course) in the West annoys me- having the same few actors voice every single dub (even as someone who doesn't generally watch dubs) is lame, and I dislike monopolies in general...especially when they're held by idiots compromising the quality of a localization for the sake of a retarded gag that will age horribly, and then brag about it on Twatter.

I dunno. I'll happily support good official releases, it just seems like they're few and far between.
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Re: [SPLIT] Crunchyroll

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Postby Joy Evangelion » Sat Jan 21, 2017 5:05 pm

View Original PostSquigsquasher wrote: As for Funimation, their monopoly on the anime market (correct me if I'm wrong here, of course) in the West annoys me-


From personal experience, it seems Funimation is about on equal ground in terms of releases alongside Sentai(which is just basically ADV) and Aniplex, with Funimation having the most reasonably priced anime, Aniplex being the priciest, and Sentai being right there in the middle.

I like Funimation a lot because recently they've bought the rights to a few pretty huge series and have re-released them, i.e. Escaflowne, Code Geass, and Haruhi Suzumiya, the latter of which people were charging a good amount of money for. To me, a big part of being an otaku is being materialistic(I learned this from Insufficient Direction, haha) so having the blu ray or dvd of my favorite series is essential, even if they're available to stream or if I could just download them for free ninety nine. This is also why I have never thrown out a box that an Eva figure has came in, but that's a story for a different day...But I'm not saying all otakus **need** to be this way.

As for Crunchyroll... I love Crunchyroll, and I always will. I'm about to watch something on it right now.
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Re: [SPLIT] Crunchyroll

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Postby Dr. Nick » Sun Jan 22, 2017 1:25 pm

View Original PostSquigsquasher wrote:That's fair enough, I suppose. I guess my view is somewhat clouded by bitterness of living in the UK and thus getting bugger all in terms of decent anime releases, at least compared to the US.


Understandable, but luckily the UK market seems to be catching up a little with All the Anime being very modern and customer-oriented with its releases. For example, read up their FAQ for their upcoming new Gurren Lagann release and how they painstakingly detail 30 seconds worth of source video issues. That's the level of transparency you want from a release company these days.

FWIW I do regularly buy anime DVDs/BDs, largely from my local comic shop (now that our HMV is gone).


At least you have the luxury of physical shopping location, potentially crazy markups notwithstanding. I live in Finland, so it's online shopping and creative semi-smuggling due to customs fees all day every day.

I suppose my dislike for Crunchyroll mainly comes from the fact that, aside from the appalling UK library they have, they did (from what I hear) used to steal actual fansubs and claim them as their own, which is beyond shitty.


Yeah, they started out as a dyed-in-the-wool pirate site, but it's my understanding that they've been on the up and up after going legit. Granted, I don't follow the file-sharing scene very closely, but at least Torrentfreak's news archive is not yielding any sleazy stories about the company.

The whole Funimation being a monopoly thing sounds like some sort off odd meme to me. Sure, the company is a big player, and it owns the money-printing Dragonball Z license, which kinda makes it the McDonalds of western anime licensing when compared to boutique operations like Discotek and AnimEigo's current Kickstarted projects. But considering there are other big names like Sentai and Viz (which has both Naruto and Bleach), there's certainly no monopoly to be found here.

Some official releases are botched, there's no two ways about it. I've heard about Funi's cheesy translations, and their Code Geass Ultimate Edition was a multi-layered embarrasment. Viz fucked up Sailor Moon spectacularly. Smaller companies can do stupid things as well, especially when they're struggling financially; look up Media Blasters and their DVD-R debacle. But as industry commentators have pointed out, things have still improved over the years. For instance, good luck trying to find a modern anime release ruined by honest-to-god dubtitling. We can credit these improvements to the fact that today's licensing companies are presumably largely staffed by people why grew up as anime fans themselves. The divide between the commercial and the fandom side of things has shrunk, and despite the hiccups, it's showing. This also applies to the translation staff; Crunchy straight-up hired a whole lot of fansubbers, and these days Fakku is doing the same with the porn manga people. The industry is maturing, and it should be the customers' duty to try to steer it to the right direction. So do your homework, buy the good releases worthy of support and raise a stink about the bad ones.[/shill]

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Re: [SPLIT] Crunchyroll

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Postby Ray » Sun Mar 12, 2017 12:35 am

Crunchyroll is in hot water again.

They were forced reduce the bitrate of their streaming service to save money so that they could continue to exist. Needless to say it's not going over well with their longtime users.

http://comics.trendolizer.com/2017/03/c ... anime.html

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Re: [SPLIT] Crunchyroll

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Postby hui43210 » Sun Mar 12, 2017 6:52 pm

View Original PostRay wrote:Crunchyroll is in hot water again.

They were forced reduce the bitrate of their streaming service to save money so that they could continue to exist. Needless to say it's not going over well with their longtime users.

http://comics.trendolizer.com/2017/03/c ... anime.html


Not really the best choice of words, they just hit 1000000 subs,starting a con themselves, there's no sign that they're going to disappear or in financial trouble.... Which actually makes this worse as there is no reason to lower quality beyond profit maximizing. I suspect the outsourcing to Moldova is to blame for this, I'm waiting to see if this is temporary as they switch over to the HTML5 player. If this is intentional and the higher ups ignore the backlash, then their hubris will surly backfire on them.
I mean, predictability is the central attraction and the narrative hook that we've all come to expect from the Evangelion franchise. How come Anno can't realize this? Twice? - FreakyFilmFan4ever

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Re: [SPLIT] Crunchyroll

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Postby Ray » Thu Mar 16, 2017 2:10 am

Crunchyroll issued an apology and explaination.


Crunchyroll is always working towards serving the highest possible video quality to our users. To keep up with our growing audience and the many ways people are consuming anime, we've been working on a new infrastructure to better support the viewing experience.

Last weekend, new episodes were released through the new infrastructure to test the system's ability to serve video to large portions of the Crunchyroll audience. The encodes that some users experienced were not up to the standards of our previous system, nor up to the standards we demand from ourselves. While we had previously identified issues with the encodes, solutions for a broad rollout require us to first move completely to the new infrastructure. Going forward, you will see that we have updated the video experience for simulcasts and new episodes within the new infrastructure. This means you will experience an improved encode for future releases on the new infrastructure, which will no longer use the lower quality encodes after any amount of time. For anyone who wants further technical detail on our encodes, our engineers will be releasing a blog post shortly. As the transition to this new infrastructure is complete, we will re-encode all of our catalog with this higher quality.

Please know that it will never be Crunchyroll's intention to lessen the viewing experience. In cases like this we're grateful users reached out to us and provided feedback about the issue. We appreciate the patience with our efforts and will continue working to bring an improved viewing experience across Crunchyroll

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Re: [SPLIT] Crunchyroll

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Postby hui43210 » Thu Mar 16, 2017 2:02 pm

https://medium.com/ellation-tech/improv ... .xer31kzeq

More explanation of what's happening and what they're trying to do. Interesting overall, but a mistake to not mention they were doing this beforehand thus preventing the PR disaster that occurred.
I mean, predictability is the central attraction and the narrative hook that we've all come to expect from the Evangelion franchise. How come Anno can't realize this? Twice? - FreakyFilmFan4ever


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