It seems that illegal anime downloads are starting to cause serious financial troubles for the publishers involved. While the gaming industry has managed to (sort of) find different ways of temporarily avoiding piracy, be it through services such as Steam, be it through several protection methods such as the much trashed Securom, Japanese animation can’t seem to get a hold of it, distribution-wise.

We’ve seen signs of this even in Japan, where manga and anime are virtually worshiped as gods (and for a good reason), we’ve also seen it happen in the States. Major publishers would either cancel or put on hold several series, many of them with high expectancy rates, due to the fact that, well, although they were licensed, some retards decided to leak the fansubbs all over the Internet. I won’t question their moral integrity, because that would require me to question my own (and God forbid), but on the long term, such actions may end up screwing the anime business in a very wrong way. Because, at one point, it won’t be worth it anymore.

Following the oh-so-vigorously trend of the other countries involved, Tokyopop Germany decided to put on hold all their future anime DVD releases. All of them. The action took course after the company managed to finish launching all other series previously announced, but still, ze Germans are now left with nothing but patience and hope for yet another distribution method. When Tokyopop will figure out just how to do it, of course. It is worth mentioning that, among the planned titles, lies Rozen Maiden: Traumaend, which, as we all know, has caused lots of madness throughout the virtual communities existing webwide. Tokyopop is hoping to solve this issue soon.

In other news, ADV Germany has also put its DVD releases on hold, probably due to the same piracy problems, including titles like Utawarerumono (go go Aruru in a bag), Venus Versus Virus, Moonlight Mile or Perfect Girl. It’s a shame, really, because many people are actually looking forward to buying such products. Me included.

ANN scoop.