about this whole ODEX thing

[spiderpig]

I've been an otaku for around 10 years now, albeit a more passive one in terms of net presence and voicing out opinions and things but at 2:30am, I just need to get a few things off my chest. I'm too apathetic to do a full blown opinion article - besides, countless anime blogs have covered it - so why milk the cow dry?

So anyway, here's what I think:

• ODEX produces subpar products. (Hell, even Bluemax's Naruto subs are better. And that's saying how bad ODEX is.)
• ODEX has to realize that low quality products, won't retain any buying power. What more, lowering the price does not erase the fact that they are producing inferior products. Hell, how could you treat Last Exile, Cowboy Bebop, and even Kiddy Grade like this?
• ODEX is really shooting themselves in the foot by taking this approach of suing fans first, asking questions later. Seriously, why are you alienating the fans?
• Okay, I've got to put this out now: Singaporean fans are generally rather irrational and brash. I'm not excluding myself from this stereotype but you've got to admit, our anime fans are gutsy and enthusiastic and all but perhaps too rambunctious about this whole thing. I mean seriously, boycotting? There really won't be much of an effect since I presume, most "anime fans" (I use the term loosely) wouldn't have bought ODEX products in the first place, except perhaps a volume or two, since they're leeching everything off the 'net. I for one, have succumbed to the low low price of $10 and bought 2 volumes of ODEX stuff last year - which I curiously haven't touched even until now.

I have this lofty and idealistic notion that 'true' anime fans would, while downloading their weekly fix (because seriously, even the Japan produced DVDs don't come out 'til much later), would usually buy the original DVD or some form of that. Or they'd support their fandom by purchasing legitimate merchandise. None of that CC and AC unofficial stuff. Well it's just a dream that we'd all be like that.

• I've got to agree with TJ Han that anime fans here "are immature, childish, juvenile and spoilt, in this age of free downloads." (quoted from www.riuva.com )

I'm proud to be an otaku. I introduce myself as an otaku, but I usually emphasize that I don't just watch anime. There is some sort of negative connotation here that kind of degrades the whole essence of being part of the Akiba-kei. (In short, I'm just a Japanophile, a nihon-otaku. I appreciate Japan's culture, lifestyle, history etcetcetc, particularly anime and manga. I can't help it, I grew up with it. How can I be ashamed of my childhood?)

That being said, as a fandom, we need to grow up. Taking pot shots at ODEX and people like Stephen Sing will only, as quite a number of bloggers have reiterated, generate a negative public image of us. That we are absolutely delusional crazy, selfish, unabidding and all that bad publicity that we really don't need.

T.B.C