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My first thought here is that an open market for translations would just create lots of really bad, free translations and make discovering good translations impossible.

Ultimately, there will be a concern that it devalues the translation process, leading to translators getting paid less, not more.

I'm not aware of the landscape right now, but for a long time the absolute best translations were free, and potentially baked into pirated videos.

Anime viewers tend to be passionate, I think there's a reasonable chance to have groups emerge with a reputation to defend and getting paid more than they are now (which could be 0)

> I think there's a reasonable chance to have groups emerge with a reputation to defend

This already exists today -- translation groups rush to be the first to translate a new series, and some fans have strong preferences around which groups provide the best translations (both in terms of accuracy and style). You can see the set of groups doing translations on the AniDB page for any Anime you like.

This could work in the same way fiction podcasts do: Have an editorial board rank decide which translations they want to pay for.

Make sure the editorial board is paid a living wage and the translators are too. Set up a marketplace for a dozen such organizations, and let them compete. All the incentives align.

I remember watching a video a decade ago, of someone doing review of the subs for each group that was doing Black Rock Shooter, specifically the wheelchair scene, because what it's said has to be taken within the context of what's presented.

It's already happening. There are visual novel groups that take pateron sponsorship to run the script through machine translation. It's now done in giant batches. They're released for free and I am not able to speak of the quality as I've never tried them, but when I see reviews on steam for a VN that has been machine translated, it never results in a good review.

this is a huge problem with opensubtitles - download count or year count for a TV show or movie's subtitles tells you absolutely nothing about how reliable it is.

My first thought would be consistency in localization / typesetting. Groups have their own ways of localizing and typesetting content and most likely would not want to share their style guide when they lost out on something they recently translated to a lower bidder.

Isn't it the same issue when a localization team/member with its distinct style decides to get off the train and the next contractor can't replicate it ?

Yes

That appears to happen sometimes in the middle of Crunchyroll seasons. Suddenly the translations change. Spelling of names, other things. Jarring.

> I really wish we could have had a subs/dubs marketplace.

There already is (at least for subs). In the wise words of Gabe Newell, piracy is a service problem.

> Japanese distributors wouldn't need middle-men for airing their shows abroad. They'd just stop region gate it and let fans inject the translation through their players.

What does it even mean? The IP[1] holding single-purpose LLCs[2] have no means of distribution on its own. They commission sweatshops and license the artifacts to TV stations and streaming services. They can sell to Western streaming services like Netflix or send in brochures to American TV stations, in case they're taking it, but if they aren't taking it, then they aren't taking it.

I guess they can set up an IP to be worldwide exclusive on nicovideo.jp and let anyone pay for nicovideo.jp Premium subscription through VISA. But how many is going to actually sign up and how long will VISA work if it worked?

Japanese companies being "just allergic to opening up" is definitely half of the story or more, but it's also not the whole picture. The masses, and the distributors that can reach the masses, are also involved.

1: as in intellectual property, copyright, not the set of octets

2: the oft in-universe-named entity like "Julius Deane Import Export" shown in the copyright line

Many IP holders belong to a group like Kadokawa, which straight own several streaming platforms (dwango/niconico is a perfect example of this)

Other groups like DMM or Fuji already have their direct platform where they also stream their own content. Except they fiercely cut it from foreign registration.

They all already accept credit cards, and could further cut H content from foreign audiences if needed.

If they wanted to, they could open it internationaly tomorrow.

You couldn't do this legally without cooperation from the license holders, and good luck with that.

License holders have the means to do it themselves (and keep the money), they're already bound to streaming companies.