Anyone interested in a WaniKani Book Club except it's for Anime?

Japanese Language
1

We all know about WaniKani Book Clubs. I think it’s a fantastic idea, haven’t seen anything like it elsewhere. :star: :+1: :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

But then I got thinking. A number of people also watch anime as a form of immersion and/or for learning the language. I’m sure there are quite a few people here who started learning Japanese in order to watch their favourite anime without English subtitles.

So, how about something like a Book Club except it’s for watching anime? It would be something that functions similar to a book club:

  • pick an anime (with Japanese subs)
  • pick a date to start watching it
  • ask questions
  • help others by answering their questions etc.

Learning Japanese through anime isn’t easy, especially for beginners. Lots of beginners have benefited from WaniKani Book Clubs so maybe it’s time for a WaniKani Anime Club!

Please let me know what you guys think!

10 Likes
2

There are 2 ongoing anime watching clubs:

https://community.wanikani.com/t/the-irresponsible-captain-tylor/53101

…and we recently finished The Vision of Escaflowne.

https://community.wanikani.com/t/the-vision-of-escaflowne/51757

Which is not to say that we can’t have even more Anime watch clubs. :grin: I might wanna join if it’s a show I have an interest in. :high_touch:

5 Likes
3

@cheese_blitz

If you want to, I could make a Wiki post for people to put suggestions for what to watch? :eyes:

1 Like
4

The main issue I see is that most anime aren’t available legally with Japanese subs in most regions. So it might be much harder to organize than the book clubs.

2 Likes
5

I mean, only one person has to get it and then everyone could go on a discord and watch it together right? That’s what I usually see people do.

1 Like
6

There’s no way I can see this as being a legal method. (Unless I misunderstood.)

And Netflix seems to work hard to keep anyone from outside of Japan from being able to subscribe+watch, even with a VPN =(

1 Like
7

Usually people read on their own first, so I figured the intent was the same here.

8

Well, the other anime clubs don’t demand Japanese subs, and I don’t see a need to do that here either. :woman_shrugging: It has worked fine to just let people decide for themselves how they’ll watch a show.

If this turns into some streaming club, I’m out.

9

For good reasons, actually. I’m more annoyed with the language filters and availability, but that might related.

Yup, I think the main idea is to watch a show in some approximate time window and then have a chat about it, right? :slight_smile:

1 Like
10

True. I just said harder, not impossible. Personally, I’d want Japanese subs which is why my mind leapt to that immediately.

1 Like
11

Ah yeah, frick the law.

2 Likes
12

We’ve done 3 episodes per week in the other clubs, and had lots of fun talks. It doesn’t really matter if some watch without subs, some with, and some with English subs. You can still have a discussion about the show. :slight_smile:

1 Like
13

I don’t think there are any good reasons, but I suppose that’s up for debate. In my view, there should be no region restrictions for this kind of thing.

7 Likes
14

I completely agree and I find it equally annoying, but there are some laws regarding regional distribution and language localization and to my understanding Netflix is trying to avoid any such issues.

But then there is YouTube which clearly found a way around it :man_shrugging:
(or not always, because there is the notorious GEMA in Germany and the ongoing issue with watching music clips from Germany on YouTube)

To the original question - we could definitely have more anime clubs :slight_smile: . I feel like that form might be a little less challenging than reading.

2 Likes
15

Should the copyright owner have the right to distribute their work as they see fit?

There are lots of reasons for region restrictions, but they all boil down to either (a) the distributor in one region doesn’t have the rights for other regions, or (b) the copyright owner has a region-specific distribution strategy for whatever reason. (Local content restrictions, plans for future translated versions, whatever.)

1 Like
16

All I know is I could be paying companies to let me watch anime and they don’t want me to give them money. :man_shrugging:

I can buy Japanese physical media and have it shipped to me in the US. I see no logical reason I shouldn’t be able to do the same with digital media.

9 Likes
17

I’ve never understood why this is such a thing in regards to anime, tv shows etc. but not other media. Like I can go and buy just about any manga, novel, visual novel, video game in almost no time with minimal effort. I’d even be willing to pay per show/movie if that’s what it takes but that’s not really an option for the most part as far as I can tell.

4 Likes
18

To my understanding, digital media (usually multimedia, not sure about books) have to be more tightly regulated and obey regional laws in a country where it’s accessed, because that’s how distribution in their case is defined. Physical media can be distributed locally, shipped abroad under specific international laws and it doesn’t violate anything.

More importantly because there is always some organization which likes to control local distribution channels of digital goods (see: GEMA in Germany, ZAiKS in Poland, etc.). The added gotcha is that local laws often define in which languages a certain medium can be distributed and if that somehow limits options to only the local language or require a translation to the local language, there’s the issue :frowning: .

What kind of bothers me personally is that some countries are extra particular about copyright and distribution, making it very hard to find a workaround and say “well that’s still legal”.

1 Like
19

Three hundred years of accumulated copyright law being a little bit sluggish to keep up with the times.

9 Likes
20

Wow, how did I miss this when I was looking for anime threads on WaniKani? Shame on me!

So, correct me if I’m getting this wrong, but in this thread, you guys pick an anime to watch, only you can watch it however you want (English subs, Japanese subs, no subs etc.). Is that right?

I can’t imagine me who just got into immersion going through three episodes in a week hahahaha. xD Jkjk.

1 Like