Eirtaku I think I'm learning Japanese

Hello everyone.

I'm new to this forum (obviously) but not new to Anime or Japanese pop culture.

I found this forum through anipike and thought I might post considering how few Irish anime fans I know.

I notice that some of you might be doing the 'Introduction to Japanese Language and Culture' course from the 10th of October on....well I'll going on that particular adventure as well so I suppose I'll see you there even if I don't recognise you.

I myself buy anime (subtitled of course) from Singapore. I have 'The End of Evangelion' (brilliant, by the way, far superior to the series which itself is excellent), the Nadesico movie, the entire series' of Cowboy Bebop, Gasaraki, Noir, Kane Kano and the Macross Saga of Robotech. I also have a few stand alone movies (including Princess Mononoke and the old but excellent 'Macross: do you remember love?').

Personal info: male, 20, full time student at DIT BSt.

Well, see you all around.

 

Welcome to Eirtaku
The more Irish members we can get on here the better.

 

Hello and welcome. I guess everyone comes here with a similar story(same as me anyway), not knowing anyone who shares you passion, or at the very least liking, for anime. So, eh? your not alone and stuff.


Anyway I'll be attending the anime classes in Trinity as well so I suppose I'll see you there.


btw, Is Kare Kano any good?

 

Thanks for the greetings.

Other anime fans....hurrah!!

As for Kano Kane, I was really surprised....it really is very good. In case you don't know its a 'romantic comedy' but don't even let notions such as 'Friends' enter you head, this is an excellent show.

Its directed by Hideaki Anno so the character development is very good....heck it touched me and I'm the kind of person who finds Battle Royale hysterical.

Being a work by Anno, it does get VERY 'arty' the end (think the last two episodes of Evangelion) but having said that its the best non-violent anime I've ever seen. It really is pretty good.

And to Nick D, I'll see you in October

 

Hehe.... I unconsciously put anime instead of japanese classes but then again maybe that won't be too far off. It'll probably be the only place where some of the people on this board will meet.

We can trade trade and the like, which'd be nice.


Hmmm I guess I'll have to give Kare Kano a go, sounds good.

 

if anyone's trading, I'll be there... i don't have to go to the classes either, I can just hang around outside and exchange blank cdr's in a dark alleyway

"ey man, you want some ****?"

 

Yup see you there everybody

 

Of course I would NEVER suggest this in reality but, in theory, do any of you have the facility to copy DVDs to CD-Rs ?

Trading might be good...well not so much trading as loaning for a time (I love my Kane Kano and others too much....it would be like swapping a child) but, word of warning, my DVDs are region 0 but are NTSC....if you television is no NTSC compatible they will run in black and white........fine if you're watching the finale of Gunbuster....not fine anywhere else!

To be fair though, most modern large TVs are.

 

er,, if you want to copy dvds to cd.. erm.. www.vcdhelp.com is prob where you oughta look, divx em and all that

but it's gona reqiire a bit of a good machine and it takes a ***** of a long time

also, when we say trading.. we mean blank cdr's I doubt anyone here is gona trade their japanese babies for anyone elses when we can clone em and sell em off

 

I rip bootleg DVD's that haven't gotten any sort of western release but I totally refuse to rip anything official.
If you insist on ripping official releases you are as close to **** as a human can come in my eyes.

 

Yeah, I don't really know how to rip DVDs onto a CD-R myself. My computer isn't the fastest and my Re-writer often jams up in the middle of burning music CDs, so I can only imagine the difficulty it would encounter with DVDs.

All my anime (well my interesting anime at least) are actually the Hong Kong versions which I buy because they have no region code. The other reason though is that I can get entire series' for about $45 in beautiful packaging as well.

A good place is www.amazon.com/shops/live23

 

Prices are way too steap on that site, http://www.ebay.com is the best place for bootleg stuff

 

I'm not sure if I'd call the DVDs on the site 'bootleg' though. I don't know their source but they are perfect DVDs of perfect quaility....the very same as if you went down to Xtra-vision and rented them. The presentation is also to notch (menus and the like).

 

nope, they're bootleg alright

something about china not signing some digital rights international thing and it's legal *or not as illegal over here* to copy and sell dvds and stuff

 

Nah, I've seen plenty of them and the quality is miles off perfect. Most of 'em have terrible video compared to the official releases and in many cases the subs are terrible.

 

No, no....I'm talking about the DVDs I buy from the amazon site I gave you. I've have loads of them and they are perfect. That's why they are so dear. They are what is actually released in the shops in Hong Kong and Singapore. They even have 'Made in Japan' written on them and the DVDs themselves do not look bootlegged at all.

 

They're dear because that seller is a prick, I can get all of those DVD's direct from the producers for US$5 per DVD, with possible discounts on major orders. Only ploblem with those guys is the fact that they'll only accept cash in USD.

I've seen a hell of a lot of boots and none are what I'd describe as perfect. The visuals never match the quality of an official release and I've seen some awful subbing jobs.
I know the packaging doesn't look bad, it's usual pretty damn good, in some cases better then the official releases, the DVD's have pictures on 'em and all.

Having made in Japan or the copyright warning on the packging is common practice in bootlegging, it doesn't make them legitimate products.

 

Yeah, there are a lot of bootlegs coming out of Hong Kong but there are quite a few official DVDs from HK, Singapore and the like. I just received the official HK version of Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away and I'm just about to order the Official HK set of Hellsing and I seriously doubt the R1 version will be able to match it. It's a bit more expensive($90) than your average asian release(still cheaper than buying the R1's) but you do also get full size replica's of Alucards guns, which is pretty damn cool.


Anyway I have some bootleg HK set's and I have to say I really wish legit US/European companies would package their releases as well as bootleg HK companies do. I really love those gatefold boxes and the boxart is just unbelievable. Recently these HK bootleggers have teken to using fansub scripts and, more commonly now, professional subtitlers(or near enough anyway) so your more likely to get a decent product. Also they have taken to releasing alot more classic shows than they did before, probably because no one makes much of a fuss over them doing it. In a way I'm thankful for their existence, because of them I have gotten to watch many shows I would otherwise not have been able to.

 

Maybe I am getting screwed, but the actual quality of the DVDs I get from him is as high as any official release. Maybe I'm just getting a certain batch but I can honestly say that this is the case....I have bought about 5 series' from him and and a few movies. In each case the DVD quality was to the highest standard.

Where some of them fall down however, is the subtitling (as you have pointed out). The visuals on my copy of The End of Evangelion are perfect but the subbing is pretty bad. You can follow it if you watch it several times and have the background knowledge of having watched the series....but I showed it to my cousin and he didn't have a clue what was going on.

The subbing on my Cowboy Bebop box-set is so bad it might as well not be there.

Yet, there are some instances where its very good. The subbing on Kare Kano is perfect (the only problem is that occasionally it runs a little behind what is being said) as is the subbing on Noir.

I find it really is a lottery when it comes to subbing, but I cannot fault the quality of the visuals of my DVDs at least....I mean I have watched them.

 

I owned a CB bootleg boxset a while back which suffered from similar problems - best described as a headache inducing experience and eventually i forked out for the US release. Anime certainly isn't a cheap hobby.