See post title. Jaka hit up Sam/Quarkboy earlier today to chat about [stuff] and it turned into a 2hr long q+a session that we decided to post. (Disclaimer: Jaka is 16 years old and doesn’t know how to speak English. His opinions and uhm word choice don’t reflect those of the whole staff.)

In this chatlog, Sam blogs about himself and we learn that a Japanese industry person wants to send people to beat up the members of HorribleSubs.

Jaka: The biggest thing we debated was that why would a physics phd go translate Japanese anime for a living? Is it because of your interests — or because there aren’t many job openings or something else.
Sam: Good question. Pardon the wordy answer… I wasn’t just a normal physics phd. I got my phd in string theory. You know, the super ultra complicated theory of everything that people are so excited about.
Jaka: I’ve heard of it.
Sam: But the theory that I had found so fascinating as a high school and college student turned out to lose a lot of its luster up close over the years I was a grad student.
Jaka: I see.
Sam: There are actually specific theoretical reasons that were uncovered while I was getting my phd that made me lose faith in the String Theory’s usefulness.
Jaka: So basically, it can be referred to as “bad timing”.
Sam: But the politics of the tenured professors and grants and things make it a self sustaining ecosystem. I was also getting sick and tired of doing something that almost no one in the world could understand that had no relation to reality and more and more seemed like a completely abstract waste of time with no practical application. And unlike “art” no one even appreciated it except other String Theorists.
Jaka: You could say pretty much the same thing about subtitling though.
Sam: Oh, but you’re wrong.
Jaka: As in majority of the viewers don’t give a shit.
Sam: Everyone who enjoys the show without commenting is appreciating your work.
Jaka: Well, that really depends on how you view it.
Sam: If I’ve enabled them to enjoy the anime, then I’ve succeeded.
Jaka: I guess you could think of it that way.
Sam: But to continue, while I was a grad student I started fansubbing anime to reinforce the Japanese I was taking courses in. And I would get emails from people in France sending me pictures of their children in Pretty Cure outfits.
Jaka: You studied at Tokyo U iirc?
Sam: No, not Tokyo. Tokyo U was my post doc.
Jaka: Oh, whoops.
Sam: Phd was gotten at University of Santa Barbara. Er, of California at Santa Barbara.
Jaka: Wait, if you’re a physics grad student, why would you need or take Japanese courses?
Jaka: Out of interest, or was it required?
Sam: For fun. Hobby.
Jaka: Okay.
Sam: I started watching anime in college, eventually got fed up with fansubbers being too slow, so I taught myself Japanese and started my own group. Scary, huh?
Jaka: I’ve been through something similar, but yeah i guess it is kind of scary.
Sam: Few people have the dedication for 4 years or so of hard work just because Dragosmore is a lazy ass and it had a side purpose of keeping me sane during intense physics research.
Jaka: Anyway, personal question. Do you feel cheated out of your education?
Sam: Oh no.
Jaka: More specifically, the time and effort and money(?) you spent in grad school.
Sam: I always enjoyed learning. It was the independent research I didn’t like. Science grad school is funded by TA fellowships and grants. In my undergrad I actually got degrees in comp sci and math as well, so I don’t feel like I wasted those at all.
Jaka: Hmm, I see.
Sam: The Computer Science degree from Carnegie Mellon has served me well. I go emailing darkshikari about technical h.264 spec bugs all the time. :)
Jaka: Oh, you’re from CMU?
Sam: CMU was my undergrad.
Jaka: I applied there too. Oh well, anyway. So for you, giving up all that time and effort @ grad school for some “knowledge” that you might not even use in life was well worth it to you?
Sam: College is not about pursuit of knowledge. It’s about learning how to learn.
Jaka: Yeah – I’m talking about grad specifically.
Sam: Grad school maybe is about pursuit of knowledge. Er wait… swap that.
Jaka: Oh.
Sam: Most people change jobs like 10 times in their lives now.
Jaka: I see.
Sam: I have no regrets. Heck, if it weren’t for the phd I wouldn’t have been able to come to Japan. P.S. That is not a recommended method of emigration.
Jaka: Anyway, back to the interview.

Quarkboy blogging about his education stops here

Jaka: We also have noticed from the question about those ripping groups, you sound like you have a grudge against them. Is there really that much hate for groups such as Commie/HorribleSubs/etc?
Sam: Uh, well their stated purpose is to “piss off Crunchyroll”. I can’t jab back? Trust me, CR knows about them and if they ever get bought out by a company with a legal department, the hammer will fall.
Jaka: Lol. Is CR still a growing company?
Sam: In what way?
Jaka: As in, powerful growth as of now. Expansion in market/staff/revenue.
Sam: That’s pretty secret data that I’m sure an outside contractor like me would not be privy to.
Jaka: Speculation?
Sam: Theoretically anyway.
Jaka: Or is that also “secret”.
Sam: I know too much to comment. I’ll say this though, CR isn’t going anywhere for the near future. So they aren’t like, on the verge of bankruptcy.
Jaka: Okay, just wondering. The executive branch @ CR takes managing CR as a fulltime job, right?
Sam: Oh sure. Although CR is more than just the anime portal. There’s the drama part, and then there’s the Facebook games so it’s not like their time is fully spent on the anime section.
Jaka: I see. How big is the drama market for CR?
Sam: They just launched a drama membership, actually.
Jaka: And the licensing market for those? Are they as picky as the anime companies? Or is it easier to get licensing? Are they newer ones or older ones?
Sam: Well, they’ve licensed a crap load of Korean and Chinese drama and almost no Japanese drama.
Jaka: Oh, I thought it was mainly Japanese. Guess I thought wrong.
Sam: The dramas are anywhere from 10-1 years old. They have a close relationship with MBC (Korea) and a Chinese TV station.
Jaka: So titles that are relatively easy to acquire? Okay.
Sam: And what’s more, those stations already have English subs, so they just throw them up on the site at like zero cost. MBC gets a split of the revenue + extra DVD sales. (since their Korean DVDs have the Eng subs on them)
Jaka: Ah, I see. This brings up another question…
Sam: As for the popularity, it’s growing on CR, but it’s not going to replace anime anytime soon. To answer your earlier question, drama in Japan is nigh impossible to license.
Jaka: Oh.
(Same): The actors unions have crazy clauses in contracts.
Jaka: Lol.
Jaka: I forgot if this were mentioned on your interview – what’s CR business model like… as in, they split the revenues with the mother companies, right?
Sam: CR’s business model is a hybrid subscription/ad-based revenue share. Let’s take the subscriber part first. All that money goes into a pot. The total number of minutes spent watching each show by subscribers is calculated. So “Naruto 312 has a total of 123456 subscriber minutes in Q2″ or whatever and the pot of money is split up to the various different Japanese companies in proportion. Then CR takes it’s cut (which varies with each contract, obviously) and the Japanese get the rest. The ad-based model is more usual: Total ad revenue is reported to CR by the ad-serving company for each video… It’s added up and split up based on the ad-based revenue split (which is often different than the subscriber one).
Jaka: I see.
Sam: The good news with this is that people who subscribe and like, JUST watch Naruto can be happy knowing that all their money ends up going to the people that make Naruto.

Jaka: Another question. How exactly do people like you or MXM in general get employed – do you have to pay a commission to CR or is that included in something else or whatever.
Sam: I showed up in person at Crunchyroll’s Japanese office with experience and a resume that read like I was lying my ass off (but wasn’t). None of us are employed by CR… We’re hired by contract, per show. And lately the competition has been heating up.
Jaka: There are other companies with the same goal? Offering low cost translations and such.
Sam: Well, the terrible economy has made everyone search for work. Whatever is cheapest wins. There has been some backlash but prices are still really really low. Here in Japan I go “over” the market by getting hired straight by the Japanese licensors which will pay me more because the market here is still very pricey (so I charge them 50% local market rate, but that’s still 2 times the current rate in the US).
Jaka: So back in the US. Um correct me if i’m wrong… Wait how do i phrase this. So CR only cares about how much it takes to hire translators?
Sam: They only care if it looks like they’re losing views because of it.
Jaka: Ahaha that sounds just like fansubbing. Do you personally think CR will lose viewers for crappy translation?
Sam: Over the long run, definitely. There’s an insidious negative effect that slowly erodes credibility. “Cutie-boy” will not soon be forgotten.
Jaka: Is CR itself aware of that? Or is short-run what matters the most for them atm?
Sam: I have spoken with them at long lengths on the matter and have done what I could. It’s a very different mindset. CR is a silicon valley venture startup.
Jaka: Yeah, that’s right.
Sam: It’s about short term growth and gains. That’s why I’m working the Japanese themselves, the people with the content. The way to fix all these problems is to convince them that English translations should be budgeted in the actual production budgets of the shows themselves.
Jaka: Back to the general view… Hm, what do you think about the anime market “dying” as some call it? In Japan, that is.
Sam: It’s a cycle like any other. But this time things will look different on the other end and no one knows exactly what.
Jaka: Do you have confidence that it will climb back up in the future?
Sam: Sure, because anime is deeply ingrained here no matter what people think. The old fashioned animation studios might be gone, but new talent with new tools will appear. And comiket and that side of creativity is still going strong despite the bad economy. The main thing that might not come back are the big old fashioned Japanese company dinosaurs. But the art will still be there, maybe hidden for a bit.
Jaka: Hm. What do you think about these shitty adaptations for the majority of each season? Mind me, this question is a bit biased.
Sam: In lean times that’s what happens, but it’s already starting to whip back. Sora no Oto is part of a new block dedicated to original anime and it looks like it’s going to be good. Next season there’s another show planned in the same slot that’ll be even better (shh!). noitaminA has been a financial success, and it has aired interesting things. The greatest success story in children’s anime is Pretty Cure, a completely original (or completely derivative, heh) show. The problem with lackluster adaptations is actually going to hit the manga side of things more. They’re looking to come up with a better way of advertising their stuff than the weekly magazines no one is buying anymore. You’ll see a lot more anime movies being made, too. The One Piece movie just made a crapload of money.
Jaka: Well I know the market is definitely there, overseas and whatnot. It’s just that the studios have been dishing out things that are not so very appetizing.
Sam: Because budgets have been cut considerably. That’s the main reason.
Jaka: Oh.
Sam: What happens is that first, budgets for projects get cut. Then later on, the number of shows themselves is cut, and then when things have downsized the budgets get raised again.
Jaka: I see. Back to noitaminA, do you think CR will ever get licenses for that slot?
Sam: CR could get Nodame 3, but it turns out animax owns worldwide rights to season 1 and won’t sell them cheap so Nodame is in licensing hell. Never gonna happen.
Jaka: Any future shows?
Sam: Always possible. The people who do noitaminA basically don’t want to sell their stuff unless it’s for a “worthwhile” price and so far the western market hasn’t reached that level for most of the noitaminA stuff.
Jaka: Yeah. Afaik, CR is made up of mainly casual anime viewers and the stuff that’s aired on noitaminA is way beyond the scope of “casual”. See: Trapeze.
Sam: Sure, but they’ll try and get anything that could grow their userbase.
Jaka: I see.
Sam: Here’s a tidbit for you: Baka to Test wasn’t simuled because of Vampire Bund.
Jaka: How come?
Sam: Someone expressed interest in the vampire show (shocking! I know) and MediaFactory thinks it could force them to bundle Baka with it so they don’t want to give it up to CR for cheap.

Jaka: Speaking of licensing, um, how come CR never licenses any “big shows”? As in ones made by prominent studios. Like SHAFT/Kyoani/Madhouse(?)/Bones(?).
Sam: The main reason is that most international sales departments still have a philosophy that all rights should be sold as bundles. CR isn’t interested (and can’t afford) DVD and blu-ray rights. But for big shows where there’s a good chance Funi or someone else will buy it for DVD, they don’t let CR have just the streaming rights.
Jaka: So does the animation studio have a big say in what gets licensed and what doesn’t?
Sam: Only if they are part of the production committee. But the sales people aren’t dumb. They know when a show is “big” enough to get bought for DVD and it’s usually done by the good studios. Also, that’s not true about SHAFT. CR had Natsu no Arashi.
Jaka: Oh yeah i forgot about that, whoops.
Sam: Kyoani is obviously special.
Jaka: What about MBS?
Sam: MBS doesn’t do international licensing I don’t think.
Jaka: So, just wondering, DTB S2 was a huge hit last season. Did CR try to acquire it?
Sam: Sure they did, and they were quoted a price that included DVD rights and told, “Well this is what funi will pay us for it. Can you do better?” And the answer is of course, no.
Jaka: So this comes all the way back to the bundle-talk.
Sam: Oh sure, Crunchyroll could make them a lot more money _from streaming_ than funi could, but splitting up the license is not in the cards.
Jaka: I see.
Jaka: Okay, what will happen if something results into Funi vs CR?
Sam: That happens all the time.
Jaka: But judging from what you said that will not happen because funi always have first say?
Sam: Usually.
Jaka: So has CR ever won against Funi in licensing?
Sam: Like, outbid them?
Jaka: Yeah, for rights of a title.
Sam: I don’t know, actually. But I doubt it. They can’t make nearly as much revenue as Funi can still. Per show, anyway.
Jaka: What is CR’s stance on funi? “Hate them with a passion”?
Sam: Depends on who in the company you talk to. I think the general feeling is “What did we ever do to you to make you hate us so? *sob* *sob* (giggle)”. They’d like nothing more than to stream all of Funi’s titles with ads for their DVDs and be Funi’s streaming portal, all kumbaya and working together-ness and stuff. But that’d be like the lion working together with the hyena, at least in Funi’s view.
Jaka: Are there any chances of cooperation or is that out of the window?
Sam: I know that Gen and very high people at CR have gone out for drinks a lot after trade shows and things, so there’s some communication, but… I’d say the chances of real cooperation are low.
Jaka: Yeah I’d say so too, but just wondering from an insider’s point of view.
Sam: They’re competitors on overlapping playing fields.
Jaka: Yeah.

Jaka: Someone from the group is wondering about your stances on the recent leaks of stuff, like OP/Katanagatari.
Sam: Like Katanagatari? Purposeful.
Jaka: And One Piece with Funi.
Sam: One Piece? That’s doing me a great favor.
Jaka: Could you expand on that?
Sam: Toei is scared of security now, so they actually might want to hire me to come into their studio itself to translate so the materials never leave the building. Ha! The Katanagatari leak was totally on purpose because the show was getting bad buzz. Nothing was leaked that was actually important, just the op and ed and scripts for a show that’s based off finished novels.
Jaka: Ah.
Sam: Funny story about the One Piece leak.
Jaka: Do tell.
Sam: CR actually did a LOT of damage control after that. All the clients at CR got really jittery worried that the same thing would happen to them. You see, to Japan “the internet” is this amorphous scary thing. They don’t really know the difference between Funi or CR or youtube.
Jaka: I see.
Sam: So the head of CR in Japan actually went around giving a power point presentation about CR’s super ultra security systems to calm nerves, which included a pretty careful breakdown of what happened to Funi and why it wouldn’t happen with CR. It was seen as a bit “out of line” though and it didn’t really help CR much. Not very Japanese to jump on other company’s giant errors.
Jaka: What do the Japanese think of the rips?
Sam: You mean like Horriblesubs?
Jaka: Yeah.
Sam: I know an industry guy in Japan who wants me to give him the names and addresses of the members of the group so he can pay for local thugs to “break their knees”. The rips and illegal sites they want stopped, immediately.
Jaka: LOL, wow.
Sam: Fansubs of things they aren’t streaming legally they don’t care.
Jaka: They’re willing to go that far?
Sam: He wouldn’t hesistate to arrest anyone he had hard info on assuming he had a legal leg to stand on (which generally he doesn’t).
Jaka: How long did it take the execs to hear about the rips.
Sam: I think most of them are aware of the ripping sites. Their existence is a good argument to press for a fully ad-based model. Free from day one for everyone + worldwide rights. You blame (rightly so) the existence of the sites on region locking and the subscriber lock out window. So basically you say “hey, see those? You want to get rid of them? Get us global rights and day 1 free streaming”.
Jaka: So the 7 day members only thing is a Japanese requirement?
Sam: Well, yeah basically, but to be honest it was the right move. The ad revenue is not enough yet. Without the subscription based model the site would’ve gone bankrupt a while ago.
Jaka: I would imagine such a site would take up a large amount of bandwith and therefore money.
Sam: The money is in the licensing costs, not the bandwith.
Jaka: Oh.
Sam: And translation costs, too. And the biggest one for CR is just overhead from salaries and office rental. Having a Japanese branch is expensive. Bandwith is dirt cheap lately.
Jaka: I guess.
Jaka: What are your insights of that Bandai Kurokami thing?
Sam: I know a lot about that. What specifically?
Jaka: Please do tell us about it. How did it come about? How did it end up on CR? Whose dumb idea was it to air it on iaTV only? Was it like, Bandai picked a sacrifical goat show to experiment with or something?
Sam: Bandai Ent. wanted to be helpful and set up the Kurokami streams which was seen mainly as advertising for the upcoming disc releases, except of course Bandai in Japan delayed and delayed. Then there were politics. The failure in Japan to sell hardly anything and horrible reception caused Bandai to stall. Then the horrible decision to go dub only on the blu-ray (reverse importation fears that make no sense).
Jaka: Lol.
Sam: Kurokami was an experiment, sure, but it was a horribly executed one. I can only hope that the people in charge are fired, but it’s Bandai so I doubt it.
Jaka: Hm, ok let’s move back to lifestyle as a translator. How many hours do you work a week?
Sam: I haven’t counted recently.
Jaka: I’d think less than 40. Or more?
Sam: Yeah, I’d say so, but lately I’ve had some really busy weeks.
Jaka: Ah, what do you do when you’re “free”? From all that subbing crap.
Sam: Me? Uh, hang out with friends? Play video games? Normal you know, people stuff. Oh, and troll anime forums.
Jaka: Lol. How many people are currently working in MXM?
Sam: That’s an ill-defined question as I presume it’s constantly changing. Furthermore, NOBODY knows that info except for the president of MX.
Jaka: Oh.
Sam: Feel free to ask him in the upcoming set of questions freya is collecting. I’m sure he won’t tell you. :)
Jaka: -v-; Does MXM hire or is it through those networking things?
Sam: You mean does he put help wanted ads?
Jaka: Or like… yeah basically.
Sam: I think you know the answer to that.
Jaka: So, no? Tbh, the only thing I know about MXM is like ex-fansubbers grouping up.
Sam: How many responses are you going to get to: “Need Anime Translator, 100 eps+ exp., knowledge of AegisSub a pls. No fatties.”
Jaka: Like none.
Sam: It’s not a job that just anyone could do. Ken has a lot of connections so he knows where the talent is. I’ll say this about me: I heard through the grapevine before he started things officially and actually met him in person here in Tokyo after contacting him online.
Jaka: Trying to gather up some more questions. Give me a sec.

Jaka: Okay, from `House: Have you and Ken thought about going one step further and and starting a license company rather than being freelance bitches?
Sam: I just had a long chat with him about just that thought. I know like, most people in charge of licensing here in Japan now, and I was thinking I could license some older shows myself and sub them in my free time then maybe sell the completed package to Nozomi or a smaller company to distribute. Something like Sugar Sugar Rune. But in the end, is it worth it? It’d probably just end up a waste of my own time. Anyway, it IS something I’ve been considering, but only as a small time or with a series or two I personally like.
Jaka: I see. A half serious question: Doesn’t it reflect badly on loljapan when an “amateur” can encode from a .ts and the result is better than the “official” goods they get given and publish on the site?
Sam: They don’t know, and when I explained it to them and showed it to them… Yes, they were very upset. This happened at two different occasions. It visibly upset the person one time.
Jaka: Go ahead.
Sam: No, that’s all I’ll say.
Jaka: Oh, nvm then.
Sam: But generally encoding is something that almost everyone is ignorant of here, except the editing studios which act like black boxes. CR has done a lot of good in educating people on that, and so have I.
Jaka: I think one of the biggest complaints about being anti-streaming is that the video is terrible. Funimation hardsubbing subs in particular comes to mind. Is Japan/Funi going to make any effort to improve?
Sam: Only if it is shown to improve the profits. I just spent a while explaining the difference between hardsubbing and soft subbing to Bandai Channel. There’s a lot of education to be done. I wasn’t really aware of too many people complaining about Funi’s hard subbing… isn’t the video stream itself so low quality that it hardly makes a difference? Actually I’m region blocked so I haven’t seen it lately, heh.
Jaka: I suppose it’s from a fansubber’s point of view and no one cares in general. People were just curious after all. So why are some deals with tv stations and some with production companies?
Sam: That’s because sometimes the international streaming rights are controlled by production companies and sometimes the international streaming rights are controlled by tv stations. Depends on the formation of the production committee and who invested in the show to begin with.
Jaka: I see.
Sam: To make matters even more complicated, sometimes it’s different companies that control the Asian rights than the Europeans ones. In fact, it’s most of the time. Some TV stations like TV Tokyo have whole divisions like Medianet designed to deal with international licensing. Fuji TV too. But TV Asahi or Tokyo MX do not. You want to license anime, be prepared to study the landscape. It’s complicated. Actually that would be awesome, “gg licenses upcoming K-on season 2″.

Jaka: Is CR ever going to move into the physical media market or are they too concerned with 1.) profits and 2.) “physical media is dead physical media is dying” etc?
Sam: Some people at CR want to try that, most do not. The idea of doing something in combination with merchandizing, like say putting episodes on a character goods USB stick, is out there. Print on demand DVDs has been thought about but is ultimately impossible thanks to stupid mpeg committee rules and encryption nonsense.
Jaka: I see.
Sam: CR acting as a DVD authoring house and middleman with a company like Nozomi or something has also been thought about, but generally DVD rights cost more than what it’d be worth it for CR to try.
Jaka: So in other words, not anytime soon.
Sam: They have no internal structure for it. No warehousing, no direct sales… It’d cost a lot of money just to get your feet wet and that’s not profitable.
Jaka: Are the numbers for licensing cost and stuff secret? Stream vs dvd.
Sam: Well, I can speak in general terms. Most licensing contracts of any sort have 2 components. A “minimum guarantee” which is the minimum amount of money the Japanese will get, usually paid in advance or in installments and then a revenue share percentage which is split up for anything over the MG that the show makes. Anyway listen to the ANN podcast with the ex-Geneon guy. He gives all kinds of numbers for MGs for back in the heydey of licensing.
Jaka: How many times more?
Sam: In today’s world MGs for streaming only are from 0-$1500 an episode for anything mid to low level. According go the Geneon guy, he was giving numbers like $10,000 an episode. Or more because they were even investing in the show. How much Funi pays for DVD licenses these days is a great question I’d like to know some numbers for myself.
Jaka: I see. Some staff members are interested about the visual novel stuff. Market etc.
Sam: Uh…
Jaka: We’re wondering if you know anything about it.
Sam: No.
Jaka: Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Sam: All I know is that the one legit company that does the visual novels in English pays less than “college kid in parent’s basement” rates for the translations because those things are text heavy nightmares.
Jaka: Yeah.
Sam: Honestly I think fansubbers should do everyone a favor and just switch to translating visual novels for 2 years. There’s plenty of work out there! :)
Jaka: Working on that! Anyway, I guess that’s all the questions we have for today. Thanks.
Sam: Yeah. Keep up the good work subbing 1 episode of everything each season.
Jaka: Yeah, we will.
Sam: The more the leechers hate the fansubbers the less they’ll hate CR. Maybe.
Jaka: Don’t worry, we have that under our control.

As usual, off topic comments will be deleted

1. ANN watches fansubs, news at 11
2. Looking for: Someone buying the VOTOMS OVAs
3. Responses from Sam