Those of us who follow the world of anime are used to thinking about premieres under the “season” format that has been used for years. Every three months, coinciding with the seasons of the year, new releases arrive and several series end. Within each season, the most popular anime usually come to light almost at the beginning. Before the start of this season, names like Kaiju No. 8the return of My Hero Academia, and some others as the probable greats of this Japanese spring. However, it became clear that, at least in the West, the anime that best represents this strange season is GIRLS BAND CRY.
It is likely that many people have not heard of this anime, although the most otaku have probably seen art from it. GIRLS BAND CRY on social networks. This anime is relatively popular in Japan, and that is due to its simple and effective premise: Nina is a high school student from a rural town with a very strict family, who leaves her city to look for a new life in Tokyo that will fulfill her. of the happiness that is missing. There she meets several other girls who, even with different situations, are looking for the same thing and end up forming a rock band. It’s not the most original premise, but it works.
Now, why then is it so emblematic of this season if it’s not something that reinvents the genre? Beyond the fact that the story itself is of very good quality, and that it is probably one of the anime made completely in 3D with the best animation, which represents GIRLS BAND CRY It is a regression to times that we all thought were behind us, and this is due to circumstances external to the anime itself that made it the main representative of a problem that could worsen in the future: GIRLS BAND CRY It is not available on any platform streaming in the West.
For some years now, anime fans have become accustomed to the fact that most of the shows are available on the streaming service. Crunchyroll. At a time when there was also Funimationwe Latin American otaku depended on Crunchyroll to watch anime legally in our territory. The anime whose rights ended with Funimation They simply did not reach our lands, although at least they received an English version so that those of us who master that language can see.
With the passage of time, and business acquisitions involved, the main actors in the anime world in these lands ended up being Crunchyroll, Netflix and to a very lesser extent Prime Video and Disney+. Even with all the defects that each one has, these platforms are currently responsible for releasing in the West practically all the anime that comes to Japanese television season by season. Perhaps the only thing left out were extremely niche series, such as Butt Detectiveor others that aim exclusively at a more childish audience.
However, this current season there was something of a break. Several shows were left in limbo, including some of the most anticipated. Blue Archive The Animationfor example, is based on a mobile game Nexon which is a success in the West, but for some reason none of the platforms acquired the rights to bring this adaptation. It is very strange, considering even that Nexon recently commented that the game of Blue Archive had better commercial performance than a title like the shooter The Finals. Even so, this anime is conspicuous by its absence in our lands, and it was not the only one.
In case of GIRLS BAND CRY It began to become noticeable from its first episode. Even with trailers officially subtitled by Toei Animationthe show was conspicuous by its absence on streaming platforms. streaming. Those of us who managed to see it through other means realized that it is a great anime of very good quality, which has everything it needs to be a success. Several scenes from that first episode even began to go viral on social networks, and to this day every time a new episode is released, some new scene dominates the Internet. However, figuring out how to watch it quickly became a problem. GIRLS BAND CRY It revived a community of “fansubs”, subtitles made by fans, that had not been so active for a long time.
Of course this brought its share of problems. Something that was left behind with the arrival of almost all anime on legal platforms were discussions about the quality of subtitles. Being made by fans, they have no problem harshly criticizing each other, only to declare who did the best job. This inevitably leads to debates about translation versus localization, the use of literalism, and more inconveniences that every Japanese work goes through on its way to the West, but that usually remain in the hands of professionals.
Even these new times bring with them modern problems. The proliferation of artificial intelligence inevitably ended up affecting the world of subtitles made by fans, who in an effort to be the first to subtitle an anime end up resorting to these tools that spit out lifeless texts. After all, they are translated, and for some that is enough, no matter how robotic the translation feels.
At the center of all this conflict was a great anime, which in a more normal context could have been more than the symbol of a problem. GIRLS BAND CRY It is perhaps the best that this season of anime has to offer, and its popularity would be even greater if the public had legal ways to watch it, without having to enter the battlefield that is fansubs. I would like to think that in the season that will begin in just a few weeks, we will not have a case like this again, but the truth is that now the concern is there.
We had already left these problems behind, to be able to have all the anime we wanted in a timely manner, legally and with professional translations, even with the problems that each service has. streaming. I would like to believe that GIRLS BAND CRY It will only be the exception, and not the beginning of a new norm, because otherwise finding good anime can once again become a lottery.
