Dattebayo to Drop Naruto Effective 1/15/2009

Dattebayo announced that they will cease fansubbing Naruto Shippuden starting January 15, 2009 due to the availability of the latest episode playing in Japan being offered with subtitles by Viz on Hulu, Joost, Crunchyroll, and Naruto.com. Interacii posted on behalf of the fansubbing group Dattebayo that they will permanently stop fansubbing Naruto with episode 91, which coincidentally is the first episode Dattebayo, known back then as Anime-Heaven, "officially" started subbing Naruto back in July 2004.

This news should not be a surprise to anyone since Crunchyroll released a press release announcing that they would start offering the latest subtitled Naruto episode one hour after broadcast in Japan for paid subscribers of Crunchyroll with TV Tokyo also releasing their own press release (in Japanese). Viz released a press release on November 17 stating that the episode would be shown for FREE one week later on Naruto.com, Hulu, and Joost, with a new English-subtitled episode offered every Thursday. In an effort to catch up to the current episode of Naruto, starting January 2, Naruto.com, along with Hulu and Joost, will offer for free, eight uncut, subtitled episodes from the beginning of the Naruto Shippuden with eight additional episodes each Friday until they catch up to the current episode.

Also, if you watched the video of the Fansubber and Industry Discussion Panel (Watch it, if you haven't yet - 79 minutes) held at Otakon 2008, which was held during August 8 - 10, Interacii with Hishoburaiken from Dattebayo along with YaoiBoy (LiveEvil) and GetFresh (Shinsen Subs) discussed when they would stop fansubbing, and among their comments, they stated that they would stop fansubbing when episodes were offered free and in a timely manner. Well, one hour or one week is definitely timely and free is free. Thus, it should come as no surprise that they would stop subbing. Interacii states that Dattebayo has never received a Cease and Desist order so has never had to stop and with the new way Viz and Crunchyroll is handling the Naruto episodes, there's no need for Dattebayo to continue subbing the series and that they have decided that they aren't going to wait for a Cease and Desist before stopping.

Source : mangahelpers, Dattebayo