Infinitely more eventful than the latest “Naruto” filler episode, it’s “The Cocaine Cowboy Corner!”  It is only one month into the new school year, and I am sure you hate it as much as I do.  Your assignments must be driving you insane, and all you want is a little taste of salvation.  Do not fret, for the corner is here to give you more than just a mere taste.  So take a break from your schoolwork, and put off that paper on “Warfare Strategies of Alexander the Great” for just a few more minutes.  Allow the corner to help you kick back and relax.  This time around, the corner looks to tackle the hotly debated question: Is YouTube the anime industry’s newest obstacle or favorite weapon?

I am sure there are some people out there that do not know much about YouTube.  If you are one of these individuals, where the hell have you been for the past year and a half?!?!  YouTube is an enormous video sharing website, created to give young directors the opportunity to display their work.  Since its creation back in February 2005, YouTube has become one of the fastest-growing websites on the internet.  About 65,000 videos are uploaded on the site each day.  The videos are uploaded without charge by users, and open to everyone to view/share also without charge.  Users may submit videos in several common file formats (for example, .mpeg and .avi), and YouTube automatically converts the files to flash video format (or .flv) due to its wide compatibility with different web browsers.  Though YouTube was created for original material and has a policy against copyright infringement, copyrighted video clips from traditional media find its way onto the site.  Almost anything can be found on YouTube.  The videos range from movie and TV clips, to music videos, to videoblogging, to anime.  You could easily spend an entire weekend browsing through the YouTube video library.  Hell, I’ve done it on more than one occasion!  YouTube’s copyright infringement policy is fairly passive.  Videos are only removed when a complaint is submitted.  Therefore, unless the company that owns the rights of the material polices YouTube itself, the video clip will continue to remain on the site, free to view to all visitors.  This has been the underlying controversy of YouTube, and has Japanese and American TV and animation studios fuming with rage.

YouTube began ruffling the feathers of large TV corporations very early on.  Its popularity skyrocketed through word of mouth, as the site hosted the extremely popular “Saturday Night Live” short “Lazy Sunday” as well as additional copyrighted material.  The copyrighted material was uploaded regardless of being against YouTube’s policy.  As its popularity rose, companies like NBC Universal and CBS began to take notice.  Many companies decided to take action and requested YouTube to pull all their copyrighted material from the site’s library.  YouTube has always complied with their requests.  These large TV corporations even have resorted to having employees that only search YouTube for copyright infringement and send removal requests.  But as video clips are removed, new versions are posted by users to take their place.  This has made the battle with keeping copyrighted material off YouTube a never-ending one. 

This problem has also hit companies in Japan .  The website is booming in popularity in Japan as well as in North America .  Since February 2006, the number of Japanese visitors per month has more than quadrupled, and the amount of Japanese anime and TV show rips has increased immensely.  In fact, a quick search for anime retrieves over 200,000 video clips ranging from Anime3000 AMVs to full episodes of “Bleach,” “Naruto,” “Crayon Shin-Chan,” and “Fullmetal Alchemist.”  The amount of licensed and unlicensed anime series episodes found on YouTube is off the charts, and they appear in multiple versions.  People have uploaded the original Japanese TV rips, as well as the fansub versions of some series in Japanese with English subtitles.  Even some DVD and TV rips of the English language versions can be found on the site.  Japanese TV networks, including NHK, TV Asahi, and Fuji TV, claim that YouTube is seriously affecting their viewership, and the Japanese media is predicting imminent doom for broadcasters as a result of YouTube’s impact. 

Regardless of the claims of broadcasters, there is no denying the fact that any series that lands on YouTube gains a considerable climb in popularity.  The video clips on YouTube have the advantage of gaining exposure to the site’s vast community of visitors on a daily basis, while TV is limited to a set date, time, and channel.  As a result, YouTube has had a positive impact on a few Japanese and American TV series.  For example, the anime series “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” has become a national phenomenon in Japan as well as become considerably popular in North America thanks to its vast exposure on YouTube.  Even some forward thinking TV corporations have learned to embrace the free publicity, and began exploring the possibilities the site provides.  American corporations like CBS and NBC view YouTube as internet pioneers and innovators, and have opted to take of advantage of the opportunities laid out by the site rather than fight an endless battle.  CBS and NBC have created a partnership with YouTube to create an official channel to display promotional videos of their TV series.  So now, YouTube users could visit the official NBC YouTube channel to view promos for “The Office” and their new series “Heroes.”  So YouTube is making a positive impact, if the corporations allow it to.  However, for every corporation that embraces such a new marketing scheme, there are much more that view YouTube as a serious cancer to their properties.  Japanese broadcasters have run out of patience and are considering taking further action than simple removal requests.  But with copycat websites sprouting up throughout the internet, it seems that attempting to shut down the site would not do anything. 

There has been no evidence that shows that YouTube has affected DVD sales, nor would I expect it to.  The quality of the videos on YouTube are poor, and do not match the quality of DVDs.  So while YouTube offers a quick and easy way to sample various clips from new or unseen anime and TV series, it is not a viable alternative to owning high quality, portable, physical media like DVDs.  Any anime consumer knows this, and thus YouTube should not prevent him/her from purchasing DVDs.  I would think that if anything, YouTube has helped DVD sales for certain unknown anime series due to the ease of finding new series to sample.  I can only wish that more companies would follow the lead of CBS and NBC and take advantage of YouTube.  In our ever-changing world, I think websites like YouTube are the future of promoting TV and anime, and they should become anime’s newest favorite weapon instead of another obstacle that is impossible to smash.