Narrative Warfare: Cutting Out Converged Middlemen Is A Good Idea

This may not seem like a big deal to you, but it is and I'll explain below.

Next weekend, as a promotional effort to increase the public awareness of the television series (and, more importantly, its associated merchandise), Bandai Spirits will allow free and legal streaming of the first eight episodes of Kyoukai Senki (English: "Amaim Warrior at the Borderline").

You're seeing this. That means that this will not be region-locked, and may---hopefully--include English subtitles as Closed Caption options.

This is a big deal for the same reason that GundamInfo putting up Gundam media and Macross making moves to expand overseas is a big deal: it signifies that the corporate management has recognized, at last, the value is using YouTube in addition to native platforms like NicoNico to promote its offerings- especially to overseas audiences and prospective customers (i.e. us).

And that means making it easier to get what we like out of Japan directly from Japan, cutting out converged middlemen.

A Japan that doesn't need Western middlemen to get its media and merchandise into the hands of audiences and customers is a Japan that is more resilient to the Death Cult. Moves like this are steps in that direction, steps we are wise to recognize and promote because it directly attacks our enemy's primary means of exerting control.

This does not remove the threat that Western involvement in the production process presents, or other threats that don't involve these converged middlemen, but if moves like these succeed it gives parties a viable argument to deny such involvement in favor of more amenable alternatives that don't involve such bothersome partners.

Will there be countermoves if this presents a threat? Of course; that's when we'll be certain that this works. That's why I want to spread the word, because the better this succeeds the greater the odds of getting more direct transmissions becomes and thus the odds of successfully cutting out bad actors playing the middleman role to spread the rot.

Perfect? No. Good? Yes.

Don't let the former defeat the latter; we can fix what doesn't work down the road.