Yesterday, I learned that Shogakukan and Viz is pulling a rather stunning move: Simultaneous releases of Kyoukai no Rinne in Japan and North America. The English title is apparently just "RIN-NE" or "Rin-ne" or even "Rin-Ne". No explanation of the significance of the title has been made yet.

While the two companies have been good friends for a number of years, this is something I was not expecting. When Viz first announced that they were aiming for a volume 1 release in 2009 for Kyoukai no Rinne, I admittedly scoffed at the idea. I had deduced that Viz was only going to just make it by the end of November or December simply due to the nature of how it takes roughly 6 months for a tankoubon to get released after a magazine publication.

Needless to say, I and others were dead wrong. But what does this mean for scanlations?

(RANT INCOMING! Also, 1 edit added.)

mapHas the need for Rinne scanlations been completely obviated? For the moment, it's difficult to say. It really depends on the quality of the translation and quality of the artwork. I sincerely doubt that Viz will be pumping out tankoubon-quality translations, but then again, I might be wrong. Along the same vein, should Viz's translations be treated as infallible? No. While I know not a shred of Japanese, I believe that the manga must be given due diligence. The RAWs and magazines will be out there and I expect that people than can read Japanese will have their own thoughts and interpretations of the Japanese text. It should be our duty as fans to call out Viz on the quality of their translations and articulate our criticisms to the proper people. We treated the Inuyasha volumes with a similar scrutiny and we should not be apologetic if we have to do it again. However, I don't anticipate a need to do this for Rinne.

Having said all that and stirred the hornets nest somewhat, I'm reserving my judgment on how I shall proceed. I will not say one way or another as to whether Rinne is to be scanlated by myself or others. But it let it be known that I am rooting for Viz with their endeavor. I want them to put out a product of impeccable quality and polish. I also want them to keep it free. Make no mistake, their effort is worth supporting.

But even if Viz surpasses expectations, is it enough to discourage scanlators? Let me use the current state of fansubbing as an example. As you may already know, I've been an insider of the fansubbing community since 2002. I've seen things radically evolve over the years. In this new era of CrunchyRoll, Funimation, and Viz streaming their translations of anime with hours or days a Japanese broadcast, fansubbing as a practice has been directly challenged by license holders. There is nothing wrong with this and I am glad that the companies are being pro-active and dedicated to bring anime to the US and other countries as fast as possible.

Despite all this, fansubbing of licensed and simulcasted shows is persisting. Why?

Simple. Fansubbers do not consider these official, non-DVD releases to be products of comparable quality or convenience.

Fansubbers will argue that they provide a superior product in terms of readability, visual quality, speed, and price. I could give a myriad of examples regarding this, but I'll just skim the surface by saying that even if a show is being streamed, fansubbing continues and in some cases, even the streams are ripped and reuploaded elsewhere. Sometimes the official translations are used as a reference.

The persistence of fansubbing of licensed series isn't just limited to popular shows like Naruto Shippuden. New shows like Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Shangri-La, or Natsu no Arashi are also being stream-ripped or fansubbed using the HD broadcasts despite the presence of licenses.

But I digress. Is scanlating about to head down a similar road? Time will only tell.

Edit 1: This year at Otakon, there's going to be an Industry-Fansubbing panel. The aim of this panel is to create a discourse between fansubbers, licensors, and  content providers in order to improve the quality of legal streaming releases. Read more about it here!