Well, this is sure to go well.
Today Crunchyroll CEO Kun Gao did a Reddit Ask Me Anything where, of course, anime fans (and not anime fans) asked questions about his favorite anime, how they license shows, and other stuff we probably already knew about. The problem was as I looked at the thread, only three questions he answered actually interested me, and there were a few others (involving video quality, subtitle quality, etc, that I’m certain a decent majority of anime fans don’t really care about. That’s either a good or bad thing) that could have been answered, but of course wasn’t.
So hey, grand marketing opportunity and stuff! Anyways, out of the 32 or 33 questions he answered out of hundreds, let’s get to the two that interested me mostly.
My Take: CR has had issues with buffering, video player freezing, being unable to see where the video buffers, etc (though it was suggested in the thread that if you turn off Adblock, it might help. Who knows). I have a similar issue with that sometimes. Would getting a new video player (which I guess would be an upgrade) be able to handle all the streaming anime they get every season? Who knows. But the contractual obligations part is kind of a concern. This implies that we’re gonna be stuck with the current video player for a while, and while security is a concern, the content already gets ripped off anyways, so…yeah. My only thing is that it’ll be a massive undertaking in changing the video for every anime they already have. I’m also just guessing at this rate, so don’t take this part all that seriously.
My Take: EVERYBODY…AND LET ME SAY EVERYBODY (ok, probably not everybody but you get my point) would probably love it if CR would allow people to be able to download their titles in some capacity since that’s been one (of many) reason people download anime series. Wakanim (french anime company) allows it. So why not CR? This answer, to me at least, implies allowing people to download anime would be even more of a hassle than we can imagine for a publisher that tries to simulcast everything every season. Ok, so it’s probably not that dramatic, and obviously I can be wrong, but since JP publishers are usually hard to please…it’s something to worry about.
My Take: This is basically CR admitting they have plenty of issues with their subs, and they’re gonna eventually fix it within limits. No, really, that’s the only thing I can take from this. They can only do so much with their video player since it involves legalities and stuff, and we have it on record that they will roll out an improved web video player. When that happens, who knows. We’ll see.
…So really, that’s about all I got out of the AMA Reddit. Was there more stuff to get out of it? Holy crap so many people from other countries watch anime! People actually think CR hates America! Basically, all the crazy stuff you’d expect out of a Reddit thread, including one who was not pleased it took over the front page.
The only real thing that I got out of the thread is a horrible lack of communication. There was probably some trolling at the end, but there generally seems to be people who have no idea how to be updated on anything regarding anime, from updates to news, etc, which is why there were many questions involving anime CR already has and because it is an AMA, you’ll get people asking if anime is for weirdos.
That’s probably all I got out of the thread. I bet others got something differently out of it though. Like so:
@Kami_nomi it took a special kind of insanity to birth Crunchyroll. I mean this in a positive way.
— Val (@Masaka_Arienai) July 18, 2014
The following two tabs change content below.@Kami_nomi The one thing I got was they were much more open about hiring fansubbers than I expected (but not as open as I'd like I guess)
— JENNIFREE! (@zetsubouzhainu) July 18, 2014
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Justin
Justin is the founder of Organization Anti-Social Geniuses. Anime & manga fan that likes to blog about anime and manga, is addicted to sports, and weak to crossovers. You can follow Justin on Twitter @Kami_nomi.Latest posts by Justin (see all)
- Crunchyroll CEO Kun Gao Did An AMA on Reddit, Here’s The Wrap-Up - July 18, 2014
- Sailor Moon Season 1 Part 1 Can Be Digitally Downloaded - July 17, 2014
- Justin’s Appearance On Just Nerds At We Are Geeking Out - July 16, 2014
- Justin’s Bizarre Anime Backlog Adventure, Week 13 - July 11, 2014
- Notes of Great Teacher Onizuka 2014 Episode 1 - July 10, 2014