News and Opinion

The Net, Copyright, and Japanese Cinema and Anime History

One of the problems for those of us interested in Japanese films or anime is access. Only a fraction of what was produced—even if it still exits in celluloid form—is readily available on DVD or some other form. Some of my students still don't understand that. Especially the young ones interested in American film think that everything is available either on DVD or on Netflix, when it is not, even in the case of the USA. Films from certain nations are more available, but that only enhances the illusion that those countries are the core of film history. Access is crucial not only for scholars, but for narrating the world heritage of film history.

In the case of Japan, it doesn't help that Japanese archives are expensive, hard to use, and themselves not easily accessible. Even professional scholars have a hard time viewing prints of films that definitely exist. (For more on that, check out our Research Guide.)

So I am sure many of us are thrilled when we see some rare Japanese film or anime uploaded on YouTube or some other site. We now have access! But for a long time I have warned my students about the backside of this illusion of access, a problem that has recently hit home.

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