opusculus

...Something that the current manga pirating issues brought to mind, that I'm really not sure how I feel about.

In a certain sense, companies that import anime and manga legitimately are parasitic on fansubbers and fan translators, because they're profiting on a market that was in large parts created by fansubbers and fan translators being willing to do the work they're trying to profit on, for free. I don't think anime and manga would have ever become half as popular as it is today if not for the fact that translating and bringing over stuff in another language for free falls into somewhat of a loophole where it's probably technically illegal, but no one gives a shit about prosecuting because no one's making a profit anyway. Except let that run long enough, and suddenly there's a profitable market that can be (theoretically, at least) sued into being properly compliant customers.

( Rambling at length on the morals of piracy and giving money to anime and manga companies. )

Because the way to start a new journal is totally to essay at ridiculous length, right guys?

I actually got around to watching Black Lagoon the other day. It's really a pretty fun and awesome action series if you don't mind it getting a tad overheavy on the nihilism on occasion, and it made me want to ramble on strong female characters and why Simon R Green's skeeves me out while I like Black Lagoon's when in some ways the dynamic is very similar.

Simon R. Green, if you don't know him, is a noir sf/fantasy author who consistently writes very strong and very crazy women, who are generally kept saneish by a mild-mannered male partner. Black Lagoon is filled to the brim with very strong and very crazy women, generally kept saneish by a mild-mannered male partner. At a quick summary, they're very similar and it should be pretty obvious what I find problematic about it.

( Giant ramble about gender roles in Black Lagoon and Simon R Green's work goes here. Mild implied spoilers for Black Lagoon )