New battle against anime piracy, ODEX story continues

The battle against the illegal downloading of TV anime has taken a new turn.

A new animated series, Tears To Tiara, is to become the first in the world to be broadcast simultaneously in Japan and across the rest of Asia, including Singapore.

Local anime distributor Odex says the same-time broadcast is to help combat the problem of illegal downloads.

Tears To Tiara, which depicts the epic struggle against a powerful empire set in a fantasy mediaeval world, will premiere on April 6 on Animax (StarHub Channel 84) in its original Japanese soundtrack with English and Chinese subtitles.

The series is based on a popular role-playing game available on personal computer and Sony PlayStation 3 platforms, and therefore is something many anime pirates would be keen to get first dibs on.

Odex managing director Peter Go says of the simulcast: 'This is a breakthrough because this is the first time that the Japanese side has allowed this.'

He notes that episodes of anime such as Naruto and Bleach are uploaded onto the legal website www.crunchyroll.com an hour after broadcast 'but the resolution is lower and hence easier to transmit'.

Pirates download the shows as they do not want to fork out big bucks for the genuine DVDs of the shows, which can cost $100 or more for a season and are often available only several months after being broadcast.

ODEX Story and Source

Again, what ODEX don't grasp is their mode of business is outdated in hi tech Singapore and if they want to make proper profit from current generation of anime fans instead of suing them is using 3rd Wave concepts. Streaming and simulcast is something they should invest in instead of preparing lawyer letters to sue individual fans which in the end angered the community to the extent that most of them refuse to consider ODEX products anymore. Dramatic and headline grabbing at first but counterproductive in the end.

Not helping is their inferior quality in video and subbing with excessive pricing that turn off most potential buyers off. Most people if given an affordable monthly fee with simulcast (quality subtitles too) will pay for it, instead of going into a troublesome effort downloading the digital copies off the Net. This is why Crunchyroll has my high regard and I do believe strongly that they will weather the recession and emerge stronger than ever.

ODEX is gasping rather pathetically, IMHO.

The History of ODEX effort to combat downloaders in Singapore