I tried to watch the videos of the hour-and-a-half panel but my listening comprehension has become somewhat rusty so I decided instead to translate the panel’s description and a summary I found online. You can watch the panel or listen to the audio version here. (Those of you who are better versed at German, feel free to correct me in the comments.)

Description (translated from this):

Panel Discussion: Is the Anime Culture Faced With Ruin?
…because fewer and fewer fans want to pay for anime.

Many places on the Internet can one download anime for free or watch on a stream.
On video platforms like Youtube, websites of fansub groups and relevant plundered copy portals, all of what the anime heart demands is provided – for nothing, of course. More and more anime fans therefore take it as normal that anime costs nothing and are not ready to pay money for their hobby. However when nobody no longer pays for anime, there will soon be no more businesses to produce and distribute the new anime. No money – no new anime! That is not a distant vision of a decline but a development that is already in full swing worldwide.

Fault for this crisis in the anime business is naturally always placed on someone else: the publishers who want too high a price for DVDs and video-on-demand, the fansubs that ruin the market with their pioneering zeal, the notorious pirates who consider themselves Robin Hoods of the Internet age, and the anime fans who think it’s normal that everything is free on the Internet.

Recently, publishers, fansubbers, and fans are sitting in the same boat. To keep this boat from sinking, old rivalries must be given up and new cooperations must be forged. At Connichi 2009 representatives from all groups of the anime culture will sit on a public stage at one table for that purpose.
There’s never been anything like it!

The panelists included moderator Andreas Vogler from Animexx; two people from German distribution companies (Anime Virtual & Tokyopop); two people from fansub portals; three “fan activists/campaigners” (Fanaktivisten); Dr. Matthias Leonardy, CEO of GVU, a group that prosecutes copyright infringement; and Claude Moyse from Koneko magazine.

A summary of the panel, translated from this post on anisearch.de (parentheses kept in):

Is the Anime Culture Faced With Ruin?
…concedes a somewhat scorching title for the panel discussion that would be conducted on September 19 at Connichi 09. Representatives from the fan(sub) scene and from industry had been invited to discuss the overall situation of the (especially) German anime market.

The problems should have been openly addressed, to unite themselves around a common denominator. In the foreground stood however the communication between the scene and the industry.

Central themes of discussion were:
What are anime DVDs, what are fansubs and how did both originate?
What are the effects of fansubs, DVD rips and bootlegs on the German anime DVD market?
What are the approaches/method of resolution in order to not burst the anime bubble?

And the organization/arrangement was also correspondingly structured, in which the debaters first introduced each’s own area of operations. The most interesting showed to many the process of how an anime makes its way to Germany. By way of lengthy license negotiations, the sophisticated localizing, to the point of distribution. As currently in the region, many fans partly have very illusory ideas. Mostly as myths that passed around between forums.

The second part concerned itself with the effects of the illegal (to put it simply) stolen copies on the industry. That DVD-rips and bootlegs on the market, not only those in Germany, damage be allowed still the most evident. That but also fansubs – especially in English – partly more damages throughout the make use of publicity effect, be allowed for many still a shock. Intolerance helps however on the sides not straight by a possible approach.

The third and last part is a so-called brainstorming, with various ideas coming up from them, about the anime market getting back on the right track.

Obviously the discussion wound up being not really professional, which began with the moderator’s rather clumsy beginning and the clear gap in knowledge of (most) participants – primarily and regrettably from the fandom. Nevertheless I think that, with this recording, many prejudices, myths, and legends can be cleared up. Even though I personally consider so many proposals and objections very naive.

That such a panel happened at a German convention shows American anime companies aren’t the only ones in the West concerned about piracy. Even though it seems like not much was accomplished, it brought some awareness of the issue to the audience that attended and contributed to the overall effort of combating illegal downloading.

While looking through some photos last night, I came to think about Mayersche, a bookstore chain I visited a few times during an August 2007 study abroad in Germany (and also met an artist there). I also thought about Stern-Verlag but that’s not relevant to this story. I decided to visit Mayersche’s website and I saw the above image on their front page, to my surprise, advertising a “manga weeks” promotion.

It turns out there are three components to this promotion. First, there is a list of recommendations (“Manga-Buchtipps”). Second is a drawing contest with no set theme – they just ask participants to bring their ideas to paper (“bring Deine Idee zu Papier”) and send it in their original drawings by June 13th. Ten winners will receive book vouchers worth 100 Euros (1st place), 75 Euros (2nd), 50 Euros (3rd), or 15 Euros (4th-10th).

The third component is a manga workshop with Alexandra Völker that is taking place over the next few weeks at different locations, all of which appear to be in North Rhine-Westphalia. (Too bad for East and South Germans, I guess.) I haven’t heard of Völker but I did some research and her earning of 2nd place at Connichi 2004′s doujinshi competition with her entry, Tears in Heaven, opened the door to her career as a professional manga artist. She has since done Catwalk, Make a Date (a “Chibi-manga”) & Paris and has a new work called Dark Magic set to come out this September. All of those have been published by Egmont Manga and Anime (EMA), one of the main manga distributors in Germany along with Carlsen Comics and Tokyopop.

When I was in Germany last August, I bought the first volume of Honey and Clover and wrote about how Tokyopop GmbH was releasing titles noticably ahead of US licensors. Now that Viz’s English version has hit shelves, I bought one of those and looked for differences and similarities between the German and American adaptations. What follows is a comparison of many features between the two in attempt to determine which is the better visual adaptation.

Front Covers:

The image of Hagu with peaches remains the constant among the three versions of the cover but the German one has a significantly brighter. The US cover by comparison looks a bit more washed out than the original Japanese and bears the number framed by a crescent motif that appears on all of Viz’s Jump and Beat titles.

Back Covers:

Like the front cover, the back covers have the same “Takemoto in a speckled shirt” picture with the US version featuring the largest version. The descriptive text in that version becomes shorter and more punchy than the longer German iteration.

Sound Effects:
In terms of sound effects, the German version keeps most of the original Japanese characters and places subtitles next to them while Viz made up their own onomatopoetic words and lettered them in the same places. The redone effects make the panels easier to read and mimic the size of the replaced characters but it

Also, in the above scene where Morita leaps from the second floor window and displaces Takemoto from the scooter, the word “Geronimo” is a specific American-influenced translation IMO since it reminds me of Bugs Bunny diving off something. Contrast that with the German “Jaaaaaah!!” that better matches the original “tou!!” since both have one elongated syllable and sound more savage.

Chapter Titles:

Viz’s placement of the series’ phrase and logo on chapter pages is very faithful to the original whereas Tokyopop moved it to another part of the page while omitting the logo. The reasoning could be to provide a more intact shot of the art, such as Morita’s legs above, but that at times seems not to be true so I’m not sure.

Other Aspects:
The speech in Viz’s edition is in all caps like pretty much every other manga on the shelves whereas Tokyopop Deutschland used capital letters only when merited and in the process expresses a more mature, or at least subtler, dialogue between characters. It’s worth noting that this style seems be one exception to the rule as the stuff I’ve seen from Carlsen Comics (example) and Egmont Manga & Anime utilizes the common practice capital-letter comic style font.

Another aesthetic quality of the German version is the whiteness of its pages and how that translates into crisper drawings. The American version is slightly more pulpy in color on the level of other Viz titles. Also, the American version has its cultural notes (called a “study guide”) in the back while the German version has on-page notes. Finally, the German version has a pair of color drawings before the table of contents.

Verdict:
Each version has its advantages – the American version seems to more faithful in design and translation (e.g. Viz’s reference to a System 6 Mac is more accurate than a C64) while the German edition has on-page reference explanation notes and, to my eyes, crisper lines and cleaner pages. Importing one over buying your local version would be silly and fiscally unsound given shipping and the current value disparity between the dollar and the Euro so just pick up the one in your respective region. But if I had to choose a victor, I would pick the German one because now that I’ve seen non-all caps dialogue in thin type (I am such a font geek!), I really wish that this style would cross the Atlantic and perchance give some manga a more mature sensibility.

I didn’t make a post yesterday because I had a long day and fell asleep a lot earlier than normal so I’ll make for it up today as well as doing the regular-scheduled “8th day” post later today. What I had intended to talk about yesterday was an interview I did with German manga-ka Nina Stella Brandner in August inside a Mayersche in Cologne.

The main reason why I think this was noteworthy for me in the scope of the previous 12 months is that it was the first time I had really “interviewed” someone. The ones at Sac-Anime were incidental and pretty casual. I have to admit this one had a casual feel, too, since I was chilling with Nina’s Stella’s friends before I started and because I was also getting something signed. But I DID have a list of approximately ten questions prepared and that is why I felt it was my first real interview and an experience I can use when I conduct future interviews.

The sketch Nina drew for me. I asked for the characters riding the tour bus.

Unfortunately, when my Dell hard drive failed two weeks ago and the device I had recorded it on doesn’t work anymore so until I can get the documents recovered from that hard drive, the audio is temporarily lost. What I remember asking included what inspired her to write idol (the experience she and her friends had at a Foo Fighters concert), what are her favorite musical artists, who are her favorite art artists, and what she’d recommend first visitors to Dortmund should see (some pubs and the soccer stadium). I’ll try to upload the audio paired with a transcript if I manage to salvage it.

Also on the manga front, I bought the first volumes of Honey and Clover and Love Hina to accompany the Japanese copies I have. This brings me to the new poll question: Do you own multiple physical versions of any anime or manga? This is meant to exclude fansubs or scanlations. After the jump: final results from the month-long “classic in 10 years” poll that I should have ended a while ago.

Q: Which anime is most likely to be considered a “classic” in ten years?
Poll ran from July 18 to August 21, 2007. Percentages rounded to nearest hundredth.

01. Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya – 68 votes (29.44%)
02. Naruto – 33 votes (14.29%)
03. Death Note – 26 votes (11.26%)
04. Bleach – 19 votes (8.23%)
05. Honey and Clover – 15 votes (6.49%)
06. Ouran Host Club – 11 votes (4.76%)
07. Samurai Champloo – 10 votes (4.33%)
T08. Gankutsuou – 9 votes (3.90%)
T08. Mushishi – 9 votes (3.90%)
10. Monster – 8 votes (3.46%)
T11. Maria-sama ga Miteru – 6 votes (2.60%)
T11. Eureka Seven – 6 votes (2.60%)
13. Code Geass – 5 votes (2.17%)
14. School Rumble – 5 votes (2.17%)
15. Kamichu – 1 vote (0.43%)
Total Votes: 231

Interesting Tidbits:
* Two of School Rumble’s five votes came from French IP addresses.
* One of Samurai Champloo’s votes came from a Louisiana K-12 school.
* Haruhi got 16 votes – 23.5% of its total – in a 24-hour period from 11:53am PST August 7th to 11:39am PST August 8th.

Last Saturday, I went to a Bleach fan meeting in Nordpark in Düsseldorf where many people cosplayed and had fun talking, eating, and posing or taking pictures. I asked a couple people some general questions and I learned that dubbed German anime on TV sucks (the example given was Naruto), some Bleach fans read the English scanlations, and confirmation that there is very little, if any, German fansub action. I managed to make some friends and actually ate dinner at someone’s house. After the jump: a lot of pictures from the event, including some of the general Cosplay/Visu Treffen that was convening in a different part of the park (there was friendly interaction between the groups) as well as shots of the beautiful park itself.

When I picked up an issue of Daisuki a week ago, I came to like one series in particular. That was “Idol”, created by Dortmund resident Stella Brandner, which began serialization in May. Since then, I’ve bought the other three chapters through issues of the manga magazine and enjoyed what I’ve read thus far. The main plot is that 19-year-old Elle is a photographer and painter who is a fan of the rock band Sub Four, whose tour through Germany happens to make a stop in her home city of Dortmund. She goes to the concert with her best friend Sascha but is mistakenly pushed out by security and loses her sketchbook in the process. The lead singer of the band, 27-year-old Damien, picks up and goes over to her apartment to return it to her while offering her a job as the band’s tour photographer.

Elle and Sascha travel with the band to different cities around the country and Elle starts to hear from the other band members about Damien’s first band Size Matter and the girlfriend he had while he was in it. There is humor in Sascha competing for Damien’s attention and the clumsy interactions between Elle and Damien. The other band members (Eric, Sullivan, and Nate) are good characters as well and help Elle adjust to life on the road.The single volume of this manga will come out in February 2008 and I’m definitely looking forward to that release since it’s not likely to come out in America any time soon and I also don’t feel like importing the next however many issues of Daisuki just to see how it continues.

And now, to round things out, here are some pictures of the manga as a visual aid:

Anyway, I found out through a free Tokyopop pamphlet I picked up that they have already put out the first six volumes of Honey and Clover in Germany (webpage for vol. 1) and volume 7 is coming out in September. Each volume costs 6.50 Euro, which right now converts to just under nine US dollars so not much difference from US manga prices. Speaking of America, Viz Media announced last weekend at Comic-Con that the manga will replace Nana in Shojo Beat next March and that the first volume will also debut that month. Concidentally, just as the series starts its release in the US, the tenth and final volume will likely come out in Germany that same March.

I’m not going to be packing my laptop so I’ll have to use the computer labs at the university (free) or an Internet cafe (not free but gonna try it once!) to check my e-mail, upload pictures, and submit an occasional post. I still have to read a good amount of class material which I could probably make a dent in while I’m flying thousands of miles in the air.

I’m going to try to post at least once a day (except for the last week when I’ll be on a bus) to a specially dedicated blog I set up for this trip. The address is studyabroad.crumplednapkin.net (link is also in the sidebar under “My Other Sites”) and I hope I don’t forget to do it after the first couple days. I have to keep a hard-copy research journal that I have to turn in near the end so the entries I write in that notebook may overlap with what I write online and keep me on a schedule of sorts.