I don't use Crunchyroll's shop. So I'm going to set that aside as irrelevant; there are shops which price higher than others all over the Internet (and high street) and it doesn't bother me as I can decide where to buy.
Some fallacies in your essay.
Crunchyroll commissions its own subtitles (or uses existing ones). I don't believe they do them in house - Quarkboy's subtitling company in Japan has definitely done work for them before, and it's obvious that different shows are done by different subtitling companies, with variations in style, formatting and rendering of names. There was even a protracted debate on the topic of honourifics when one of their subtitling partners (MxMedia if you want to Google) changed their policies. On the whole I find Crunchyroll subtitles on par with official releases. There are sometimes mistakes and typos, however I want to dispute this part:
"Can you imagine buying an officially translated novel or manga, only to find crude mistakes? I’d be annoyed."
This happens with almost every kind of release. It's not just an anime thing at all; I've found major errors in bestselling novels and mainstream movie subtitles too. To say Crunchyroll isn't worth paying for because of this is simply nitpicking. They even accept submissions for corrections so they can bring problems up with their teams if needed (they don't always get fixed, but several I've reported have been). Complaints about literal versus localised translations are simply a matter of personal taste.
You also assert that Crunchyroll keeps all their ad revenue. That's not what their CEO Kun Gao said in an interview:
"One week after the episode airs, it is made available to all viewers with ads in lower quality. The revenue generated from ads and subscription is shared back with license holders in an equitable way, based on viewership. Crunchyroll keeps a percentage to cover costs and operations and from there we generate a profit as well."
http://thenextweb.com/media/2012/10/15/ ... ew/#!rlQA5
What's your source?
The US anime companies use Crunchyroll (and other streaming sites) to decide which titles get localised for BD (versus DVD) and which get dubs. This is not speculation; Sentai Filmworks and FUNimation have both spoken about it openly. Manga UK relies on the US studios for their materials and dubs (sometimes via Australia). By not participating in the 'voting', you are deliberately letting people with bad taste - like me - pick which shows get better local releases in years to come. Your choice.
The "merchandise is better for the industry" argument is inherently delusional as
many shows do not have merchandise. Sure, if you like the big hits you can pay way more into the industry than you can with an annual Crunchyroll subscription by buying mountains of figures and OSTs. If you like something unpopular or one of those five-minute gag shows, though, you're lucky if there's anything more than the soundtrack or a few pin badges to buy. And sometimes a good show has a soundtrack I don't actually want, or pin badges I won't use - so pontificating about merchandising makes no sense. I loved watching Gifuu Doudou on Crunchyroll recently. Am I going to buy a life-sized bust of Naoe Kanetsugu to support it? No, I'm not.
However, if I've seen something on Crunchyroll and loved it, I'm more likely to buy the Japanese Blu-ray release. They can hit me twice for differing amounts of money for the same show, and I'm more likely to buy shows I saw on Crunchyroll than blind buys. I'm not seeing how that's a bad thing for the anime industry. It's not like I buy less just because I have an annual subscription to Crunchyroll.
Ultimately nobody is holding a gun to the head of big corporations like TV Tokyo and Aniplex. They're putting their stuff on Crunchyroll because they think it's a good idea, and as long as they're doing it I'm going to return the favour and watch their stuff. And pay for it.
So in other words, if you don't want to pay to watch anime, that's your decision. At least you're paying for other anime-related items from a handful of your favourite shows. From the rude tone though, I would like to personally ask that you try to avoid the assumption that everyone who avoids fansubs is a blind fanboy with no understanding of how things work. From where I'm standing, you don't come off so well yourself.
R
