BOSTON, MA — Brian Gant has been watching anime for years now, and finally decided to invest into his hobby by buying a JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Nendoroid for a grand total of 25 dollars. Following the purchase, Gant’s Twitter and other social media accounts now feature proud proclamations of doing his part in supporting the Japanese anime industry.
“Now that these 25 dollars go straight to Japan to help my favorite series, I’m not ashamed to admit anymore I mostly download or stream my anime from pirate sites,” Gant explained shortly after on his Twitter account. Apparently, to him this is an active decision with a strong ideological backing: Gant doesn’t consider paying companies for legal streaming rights, as the selection of anime offered is often very limited and sometimes the sites even have commercials. As you can also easily download the same anime for free, Gant believes there’s really no reason to pay for the companies in charge of the western market.
When faced with inquiries asking if Gant had bought his favorite series on DVD or Blu-ray to directly support the makers, the man already had an answer.
“Have you checked the Blu-ray prices? They’re sometimes, like, hundreds of dollars. Not to mention if I buy straight out of Japan the products won’t have English subtitles and there’s additional cost in shipping too.”
Gant promises to consider buying the box-sets if the creators develop the common sense to seek him out and offer him the sets readily available for a cheap price and optimized locally for enjoyment.
Even if out of purely ideological reasons Gant refuses to pay the western companies importing the anime, Gant swears he still takes his hobby seriously. He even bought two volumes of Spice & Wolf second-hand from a convention, which means he deserves to have his voice heard as much as the people in Japan.
“I even wrote my name in the petition for season 3 of S&W,” Gant mentions. “The petition has been pretty popular, so I’m really surprised the studios in Japan haven’t yet noticed that there are many people in the west that are looking forward to pirating a new season. The way Japan sometimes treats us hardcore otaku is truly shameful.”