When we saw the news come out on Thursday about a Japanese Production Company Acts Foolishly, Anime Fans Shocked (Not) with Fractale being taken off the simulcast schedule because of speedsubbers and the like, it certainly caused quite a few reactions because the main thrust of it seemed to be that because the show was either being ripped or subtitled (both from FUNimation's stream and from higher quality sources from Japan), that those playing by the rules wouldn't get to see it. Suffice to say, a good bit of discussion broke out about it and on Friday Evening, FUNimation's marketing director and convention regular for the company, Lance Heiskell, posted a new article on the FUNimation blog entitled, "Anime Simulcasts, Territory Rights and the Future".

As of this writing, that thread has over a hundred comments on it which mirrors the discussion here about the topic as well. While there are those that certainly understand the reasoning behind it, even most of them aren't actually supportive of what's taken place from the Fractale Production Committee. We've made our thoughts on it pretty clear back on Thursday in the first link here and that still pretty much stands. Those who were playing by the rules, watching simulcasts off of FUNimation (which are of lower quality than other commercial simulcast services in the US at the moment and certainly less than rips off of higher quality sources coming out of Japan in raw form) are the ones that are penalized. While we imagine that Fractale will likely come back at some point, FUNimation and the FPC are likely to see less support of it at this point. Again, it's not advocacy of rips, fansubs, speedsubs or anything else. It's just the simple reality of it. They've made people go elsewhere for this particular title, unless they're playing very seriously by the rules and go with the line of "If it's not available to me legally, I won't watch it." Which is where we're playing it hence no further reviews of Fractale at this time.