Anime DVD's

Atavarius · Post by **Atavarius** » 2003-10-22 08:20pm

I am an insomniac and i spend hours at night flipping through the channels. Here we have an action channel that on friday nights shows different anime. Now i have never really been able to get into anime in any big way, but this show Hellsing captured my attention. Now the probelm is i have missed about half the episodes, so i decided to shop around for the DVD's. Little had i known that anime is a bitch to buy. There like 90 different versions and i need to know which one to buy. I know that alot of people on this board have some experience so i am humbly requesting some help.

What is the difference (besides price) between these 2?

Numero uno.

Part deux.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-10-22 08:27pm

The first one is a lot cheaper, because it's a bootleg. Not only would you be letting some twat get rich off of someone else's work, you would be buying an inferior product as well (the quality of bootlegs is a little bit lower, as far as I'm aware).

Get the boxset listed at amazon.com. Although you could probably find it 10-15 bucks cheaper if you shopped around a bit. Half.com often has good deals on anime, but before you buy make sure to contact the seller and make sure you aren't getting a bootleg.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-10-22 08:39pm

Not to mention that bootlegs are also illegal...

Before they closed last year, Iguana Comics in Iowa City had a 3-disc set for Love Hina on their shelf. I never got a good look at it, but it was obviously a bootleg release, most likely from Hong Kong (where a lot of anime bootlegs come from). I never said anything about it to them because I didn't want to get banned from the store or something.

You'll notice that the site selling the bootleg version doesn't list a studio or distributor, while Amazon.com lists it as Pioneer.

In almost every single case like this, if the disc count is significantly lower, they're described as All Region or Region 0, the packaging looks different from the known official domestic release, and if they're significantly cheeper: 99% of the time it's a bootleg, so avoid it like the plauge.

Besides, since most are from HK, they have attrocious English subtitles, and I mean of the "all your base" quality or worse.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-10-22 08:47pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Not to mention that bootlegs are also illegal...

Taiwan can produce them legally, but I think it's still illegal to buy them anywhere.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-10-22 08:51pm

That's only because Taiwan has some really fucked up copyright laws, although it would be probably more accurate to say that they practically don't have any at all.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-10-22 09:02pm

Anyway, ignoring the legal issue for a moment, buying anime bootlegs is still quite a dishonest practice, as neither the distributor that licensed the product or the creators receive any money from them...

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2003-10-22 09:29pm

By chance you end up getting an HK bootleg, prepare yourself for some of the most puzzling engrish subtitles you've ever seen.

Atavarius · Post by **Atavarius** » 2003-10-22 09:41pm

Hamel wrote:By chance you end up getting an HK bootleg, prepare yourself for some of the most puzzling engrish subtitles you've ever seen.

Nah, after all the replies, i decided to buy the one at Amazon. Thanks for help guys.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-10-23 12:45am

Let's also remember that subtitles for bootlegs are translated from Japanese into two or three languages before being translated to English, usually using a crude tool such as BabelFish. Leading to hilarious and incomprehensible subtitles.

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2003-10-23 12:49am

Atavarius wrote:
Hamel wrote:By chance you end up getting an HK bootleg, prepare yourself for some of the most puzzling engrish subtitles you've ever seen.
Nah, after all the replies, i decided to buy the one at Amazon. Thanks for help guys.

Careful on Ebay, my friend got a bootleg copy of Trigun there (Without knowing it was bootleg)

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-10-23 04:44am

You might want to use a site like dvdpricesearch.com first. That way you can get the best prices from reputable sources.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-10-23 04:29pm

Also the first one is the English dub which in my opinion is not very good. It get's some dialogue wrong and the voices actors aren't well suited to their roles. Plus they the secondary characters tend to be baddly done, just enough out of sync to be really annoying.