A buddy of my linked me to this online anime store last week, which seems to be selling region free DVDs at unusually cheap prices. However the price and region of these products makes me a little sceptical as to whether these products are the real deal or maybe copies. Can someone give me the low-down on how stores like this get cheap region free stock and sell it for these prices, and also is it 'questionable' to buy from such places?
Are these kind of stores legit?
- Thread starter Nemphtis
- Start date
Pirated trash, most of those are rips of the US discs (notably the dubs) but put into box sets and no money paid to any of the creators or licensors. Stay well away from garbage like that.
I've noticed most of these sites say "import" but not where they're from (or lie and say Japan, because Japan is well known for producing cheap discs with American dubs on them for obscure otaku harem shows...).
R
I've noticed most of these sites say "import" but not where they're from (or lie and say Japan, because Japan is well known for producing cheap discs with American dubs on them for obscure otaku harem shows...).
R
Yeah, it looked too good to be true. Since I only really buy my anime on DVD to support the creators, I didn't want to risk buying copies disguised as the real thing. Anyway, thanks for the heads up folks, I'll tell my friend about this as well since I have a feeling he doesn't know about the legitimacy of those products either.
beez_andrew
Great Teacher
Definitely all illegal and some of which have to be fansub works as some of those aren't even out from BEI in the US yet.
Thanks for raising it though!
Thanks for raising it though!
Bad way to tell, to be honest. R1 DVDs only use suggested age ratings (e.g. 13UP, TV14 etc) because, correct me if I'm wrong, the US don't have a proper age classification system like we do. I even have two R1 boxsets, Noein and Tokko (both legit), that have no age rating (not even suggested) at all. Yet R1s, even without some form of age rating, aren't bootlegs.
Every bootleg I've ever seen has always been a boxset. I don't think non-legit singles exist because, like Otaku-san said, what's the point?
Yeah, sites like this need to be taken down.
Total crap.
Blood+ DVD Box Set Part 1 Eng Dub for £18.99, that's £50.00 ($90.00+) for an official R1 release.
I was offered some stuff cheap the other day by the guy I buy my comics from. I have known him years so I felt a bit hurt he was trying to pass off knock-off Monster (13 eps a disc), Patlabor and GTO discs to me as Japanese imports. I don't think he meant anything by it, I just think he had been caught out on a trade in deal (not really knowing anime) and was trying to just get rid.
The problem with a lot of these bootlegs is that the packaging look so much nicer than some of the official stuff people are drawn in by it.
Blood+ DVD Box Set Part 1 Eng Dub for £18.99, that's £50.00 ($90.00+) for an official R1 release.
I was offered some stuff cheap the other day by the guy I buy my comics from. I have known him years so I felt a bit hurt he was trying to pass off knock-off Monster (13 eps a disc), Patlabor and GTO discs to me as Japanese imports. I don't think he meant anything by it, I just think he had been caught out on a trade in deal (not really knowing anime) and was trying to just get rid.
The problem with a lot of these bootlegs is that the packaging look so much nicer than some of the official stuff people are drawn in by it.
Otaku-san is right in that you can often tell a fake UK disc by the lack of BBFC rating, but not that you can tell an import by it. American DVDs are not formally classified by a central body (like the BBFC here or the ESRB for other entertainment). Companies can have their products rated for cinema or DVD if they like but there's no need to and most just make up ratings of their own and print them on the discs or label them "unrated".
Generally though:
If someone says "import" but not where from, it's probably a fake.
If it's subbed/dubbed and labelled as a Japanese disc yet isn't something huge like a Ghibli film or Pokemon, it's probably a fake.
Likewise if it has Chinese language as well as all those options. Actual Chinese releases are usually pretty bare bones and almost always region locked due to the obvious ease of them getting back to the Japanese market.
If it's region free, it's probably a fake.
If it's released by some company you've never heard of instead of one of the known anime companies for that area...yeah.
If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Good on the OP for checking though
Like chaos says, a lot of inexperienced fans are tricked by the lavish packaging (not surprising given that they charge £20 per series and pay nothing to make it except a couple of DVD-Rs for pennies). Back in the pre-DVD days the same happened with soundtracks; the infamous Son May and Everanime releases which just ripped off the real CDs
R, who buys far too many things from overseas
Generally though:
If someone says "import" but not where from, it's probably a fake.
If it's subbed/dubbed and labelled as a Japanese disc yet isn't something huge like a Ghibli film or Pokemon, it's probably a fake.
Likewise if it has Chinese language as well as all those options. Actual Chinese releases are usually pretty bare bones and almost always region locked due to the obvious ease of them getting back to the Japanese market.
If it's region free, it's probably a fake.
If it's released by some company you've never heard of instead of one of the known anime companies for that area...yeah.
If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Good on the OP for checking though
Like chaos says, a lot of inexperienced fans are tricked by the lavish packaging (not surprising given that they charge £20 per series and pay nothing to make it except a couple of DVD-Rs for pennies). Back in the pre-DVD days the same happened with soundtracks; the infamous Son May and Everanime releases which just ripped off the real CDs
R, who buys far too many things from overseas
There are legit region free discs out there - I can give examples later from my shelves but a bunch of the early DVDs were and a great deal of early CPM in particular had "Region: ALL" labels.
It is confusing though and most of the bigger studios seem to have a hard time being allowed to do it as it is thought to cut into domestic [Japanese] sales, having cheaper overseas versions playable on their normal hardware.
Blu-ray is the same, all but one of my discs are region free despite being legit. I think more will be region coded later on...
R
It is confusing though and most of the bigger studios seem to have a hard time being allowed to do it as it is thought to cut into domestic [Japanese] sales, having cheaper overseas versions playable on their normal hardware.
Blu-ray is the same, all but one of my discs are region free despite being legit. I think more will be region coded later on...
R