Naruto, Evangelion Fansubs Shakedown

Two anime fansubs-related stories made the news today, involving the obnoxiously popular Naruto and Evangelion franchises. Although neither happening gave us any thrills or chills whatsoever, some of you out there might soon feel the consequences, so here they be.

First off, the Naruto fansubbing group Dattebayo saw fit to make a pompous announcement in the form of a "press release" (pirates issuing press releases, that's a good one!), as they decided to stop fansubbing Naruto starting from January 15, 2009. The date is no random choice: that's when Viz will begin streaming Naruto Shippuuden for free one week after it airs in Japan, and continuing with the fansubs "would be a direct affront to Viz, a company that, for the most part, has been pretty amazing to us as fans" - since "never once did they ask us to stop subbing Naruto or Bleach, something that is well within their rights and power to do", they point out.

From that point of view, FUNimation may look like the big bad wolf. They have a long-standing history of sending out cease and desist letters to fansubbers, even for titles they hadn't yet licensed (on behalf of Japanese companies, such as Gonzo). Well, it seems they're dead set on proving that history repeats itself, because they have just issued another round of C&D letters - this time to fansubbers that are / were releasing Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone. For now, this is still just a rumor, but one that points to an imminent licensing agreement for the Eva 1.0 movie in North America.

P.S. If you actually give a crap about that Naruto fansubbing non-scandal, there's an interview with a dude from Dattebayo about it, over on AnimeNews.biz.