Image courtesy of @pinlinz
Piracy and Anime Artists
Piracy:
Piracy is copying software or digital content without permission of the content creator (Webroot). “Piracy is a crime. Unfortunately, lots of youth and adults think sharing software, games, music, ebooks, pictures, etc. is just a convenient tool to help reduce costs. In fact, digital piracy is often portrayed as a victimless crime, but that portrayal is false” (Webroot).
Most people are unaware of the societal costs that come with piracy. Piracy has cost the U.S. economy an estimated $29.2 to $71 billion each year, and pirated video materials receive over 230 billion views per year (Spajic, 2023).
"Piracy negatively affects every single person working in these industries and their supply chains. There is less money to invest in new software, developing music artists, and movies. There is less work for developers, testers, sound engineers, videographers, actors, scriptwriters, musicians, assistants, set designers, security guards, stores, salespeople, website developers and every other type of person who goes into creating, packaging, advertising, distributing, supporting, promoting or reviewing these products and services" (Webroot).
Related businesses can suffer as well, resulting in economic harm due to the ripple effects. Yet, to some consumers, piracy is viewed as a victimless crime because no obvious party can be identified as the victim. People view file sharing sites as a means of convenience and a way to cut costs.
In the anime industry, substantial revenue comes from studios licensing their anime to subscriber-based websites such as Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Netflix. However, in 2022 alone, the anime industry has lost around two trillion yen due to piracy according to the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) (Madillo, 2023). Studios begin to suffer profit losses when anime is ripped and uploaded to streaming and torrenting websites before it’s officially licensed.
Piracy is so rampant in the anime industry because of the many methods available to access anime without paying for subscriber-based streaming services. These methods include torrenting through websites like Nyaa and Tokyo Toshoka along with streaming services like KissAnime and GogoAnime (Averagebeing, 2023). One difficulty in stopping the proliferation of these websites is that moderators create “mirrors,” where multiple websites maintain the same content. Recently, the anime industry has tried to reduce losses by debuting films in theaters across the world, operating on the simple premise that consumers must pay for their tickets to view the film versus monthly subscriptions to external parties (Mateo, 2023). These films are still subject to piracy, but certain anime filmmakers have reached such high levels of popularity that fans will view their films in theaters. Makoto Shinkai’s recent film, Suzume, has earned a cumulative total of roughly 109 million USD since March 26th of this year (Mateo, 2023).
Against all expectations, some argue that these illegal methods of viewing anime are sometimes beneficial to the anime industry by functioning indirectly as marketing tools in countries where censorship might be strict (for example, China) (Lopez, 2022). An anime like Attack on Titan is banned in China due to its gruesome and gory nature (Andrews, 2023). Fans would have to choose between buying a new subscription or downloading it illegally (Dockery, 2023). Anime fans in these countries might visit Japan for anime-related tourism, or they might import merchandise.
This presents a complicated situation for anime companies developing a strategy to combat piracy, as they could risk fan backlash. “In a less official way, the influence of anime was spreading throughout the world without the need for expensive marketing campaigns or thousands of paid distributors being involved” (Lopez, 2022). Despite costing the industry substantial losses due to piracy, it helped to spread the culture which could lead to an increase in merchandise sales. “As a result, it might be why the industry took so long trying to crack down on piracy” (Lopez, 2022). From some anime viewers’ perspective, they rationalize and/or do not believe that it is wrong to illegally consume anime because of how they also support the industry through legal channels, effectively balancing the wrongs they’ve committed through piracy.
Fan Culture:
Anime fan culture generates revenue for the industry through near-obsessive collecting of anime merchandise, such as physical manga (comics and graphic novels), DVDs/BluRays, anime figurines, or miscellaneous ephemera. Even if they don’t make many BluRay sales, they tend to make up for it through streaming licenses and rights (Sarantos, 2023). As their collection grows, fans will often share it on social media to encourage fellow diehard fans, also known as otaku, in building their own collections. The ironic reality is that otaku will only buy these DVDs and manga after they have already seen the shows through illegal means. In their minds, they would prefer to avoid wasting their money on content they might dislike, only supporting the industry when the content they purchase affirms their tastes and identity. People just buy what their favorites are and treat products as collectibles rather than consumables due to accessibility of streaming services (Dockery, 2023).
Furthermore, otaku can build hype for anime series by sharing fanart, either downloaded or created by themselves, on social media, which in turn leads to more viewers and potential sequels of the anime. Spy x Family is an example of a show receiving a sequel due to the massive amount of attention it received, exemplified by artists creating and sharing their fanart, subsequently appearing as merchandise at anime conventions. In short, otaku fan culture functions as a decentralized and free kind of marketing for the anime industry whereby the incentive for otaku is greater sense of community.
Anime Artists
Ian Olympia (@wickedalucard) is a professional anime artist based in the Philippines. Wanting to live a life without regrets, he wanted to move beyond art just being a “hobby.” In 2005, he began to work for various companies, including Montoon, FunPlus, and Digital Entertainment. Most assignments Ian receives are to draw based on pre-existing characters - the companies provide character sheets, models, 3D characters, etc. The commissions he receives are also usually based on existing characters. In terms of his personal projects, he has created works like the doodle a day series or the Inktober Mafia Witches series from 2016 - 2019, and webcomics like Curiosity and Echofreak.
We asked Ian how he protects his works, and how protected he feels as an artist:
Ian described his experience creating art for companies:
Finally, Ian shared his thoughts on AI Art:
Pinlin (a professional pseudonym) is a professional anime artist based in the Netherlands. Her journey as an anime artist started when she was young, when she had a fascination with watching anime like Pokemon. Sailor Moon, and Cardcaptor Sakura. She later studied topics like game design and animation. Her largest project is her Dark Nights visual novel.
Pinlin’s visual novel can be downloaded on her website. For those interested in the process for creating the visual novel, her Twitter account is a great repository for every step of the way. She is the director, script writer, artist, designer, and programmer for the game. The DLC for the game was a crowdfunding campaign since the demand for new routes was overwhelming. Pinlin also created a webcomic, “Monochrome meets Color(H)”.
Pinlin has worked for a number of companies, and is currently working (Spring 2023) with Watchtower Gaming. Watchtower Gaming is an indie company that makes board games, and Pinlin is working on character design and promotional illustrations. Watchtower then uses her works to create tangible merchandise.
We asked Pinlin about her journey, and the projects that she has worked on through her career. She described the ownership of the works she produces, what she does to protect them, and how, unfortunately, people have infringed on her copyrights. Finally, she shared her feelings about AI art:
Glycan (a professional pseudonym) is a professional anime artist based in Taiwan. Glycan is a freelance illustrator, but does take on commissions from games and VTuber companies who usually buy out the rights to the works. We asked Glycan what they do to protect their work:
“I will emboss the watermark directly on my work, although I have used it less often before because I thought it would ruin the image, but I may increase the frequency of watermarking in the future. I think this is a problem that most creators encounter. Although some businesses will take down their products after a warning, this situation cannot be completely stopped yet.”
When we asked Glycan how they decide which characters to draw, Glycan indicated that if a company indicates that “it does not accept secondary creations (such as Disney Animation), I will not create works that are related to their characters.”
Images courtesy of @glycan_0119
Views on AI:
Anime artists or even artists in general struggle with protecting their intellectual property already. The first step for any artist is for them to familiarize themselves with the copyright law of their region. But recent developments in AI have created new methods of art creation, and copyright infringement. The process is algorithmic using mathematical models, as it requires the artist to write detailed code with a desired outcome in mind (Elgammal). In the process, it analyzes thousands of images to learn before generating new images based off of the aesthetics. Although it may be able to create appealing images, it still exists inside of its own creative space devoid of social context (Elgammal). Pinlin feels that AI generated art has saturated the market significantly. She is all for creative freedom, but is against the current treatment of AI art. Ian believes that it is just straight infringement despite what those kinds of creators may have to say about their work. They both don’t believe that artists who use AI to create art should be considered artists. Glycan said “the art they produce hardly makes me feel the value.” Glycan feels that the works of the top artists are not perfect pictures or stories, but the subtle visual communication through colors and brush strokes.
If AI artists cannot produce their own expressions, there will still be a very big gap between them and the top artists in the industry. The fact of the matter is that producers of AI art usually profit off of it, and the art is usually generated based on a data set of numerous artists. There is a lack of transparency when it comes to content of the data sets that it utilizes during the generation process. It would be ideal for measures to be put in place to detect AI art besides discerning it with the naked eye. Our three artists seemed to agree that AI artists are not artists due to the lack of years of training and overall effort that comes with perfecting their craft and the emotional value that comes with it.
References
Andrews, H. (2023, April 24). 15 anime that are actually banned in China (& why). CBR. Retrieved from https://www.cbr.com/anime-banned-in-china-why/#my-hero-academia.
Anime piracy site Zoro.to ranks among the top 10 streaming sites globally. Averagebeing. (2023, April 29). Retrieved from https://averagebeing.com/anime-piracy-site-zoro-to-ranks-among-the-top-10-streaming-sites-globally/.
Dockery, D. (2023, April 16). Anime Home Video is thriving, even in the streaming era. Polygon. https://www.polygon.com/23681111/anime-home-video-blu-ray-dvd-thriving-dragon-ball-evangelion.
Elgammal, A. (n.d.). Ai is blurring the definition of artist | American scientist. American Scientist. https://www.americanscientist.org/article/ai-is-blurring-the-definition-of-artist
López, A. T. (2022, December 5). How piracy is hurting the anime industry. Game Rant. https://gamerant.com/anime-industry-piracy/.
Madillo, A. R. (2023, April 27). Anime & manga industry lost around 2 trillion yen due to piracy in 2022. Animehunch. Retrieved from https://animehunch.com/anime-manga-industry-lost-around-2-trillion-yen-due-to-piracy-in-2022/
Mateo, A. (2023, April 17). Suzume anime film earns US$5 million at U.S. box office in opening weekend. Anime News Network. Retrieved from https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2023-04-17/suzume-anime-film-earns-usd5-million-at-u.s-box-office-in-opening-weekend/.197183.
Piracy is theft - the cost of digital. Webroot. (n.d.). Retrieved May 6, 2023, from https://www.webroot.com/us/en/resources/tips-articles/the-societal-costs-of-digital-piracy.
Sarantos, C. (2020, August 27). How you can support the anime industry. CBR. https://www.cbr.com/how-you-can-support-anime-industry/#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20most%20common,a%20wide%20range%20of%20items .
SkyQuest Technology. (2022, September 20). Global anime market to generate revenue of $47.14 billion by 2028 | over 29% anime market revenue came from selling merchandise | skyquest technology. Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved from https://finance.yahoo.com/news/global-anime-market-generate-revenue-150900749.html#:~:text=Merchandise%20can%20help%20to%20connect,keep%20the%20fan%20community%20together.&text=Why%20People%20are%20Passionate%20about%20buying%20anime%20merchandise%3F
Spajic, D. J. (2023, April 7). Piracy is back: Piracy statistics for 2023. Dataprot. https://dataprot.net/statistics/piracy-statistics/#:~:text=70%2C000%20jobs%20a%20year%20are,24%25%20of%20the%20global%20bandwidth.