Anime Those cheap imports...

Question about the DVDs at Discount Anime DVDs...

Are those subtitle jobs legal? 'Cuz I don't wanna go through the whole SonMay ordeal again...>.>;

 

If I were you, I'd follow my first instinct of not trusting it. It looks to me like these are Hong Kong discs, and we have precious few reports of legally licensed stuff out of Hong Kong. Jin-Roh is the only one that I can think of. There's a Singapore company called Odex that's fully above-board; I know that UrashimaKeitaro has bought some of their stuff through the web-store Popular. This company (Discount Anime DVD) appears to be doing some mixed business; for example, you can get all of Gasaraki with Chinese and English subtitles for $39, or you can get the individual ADV discs for a more normal $22.50 a disc. So, some of their stuff is definitely suspect, while others might be real. However, I'd just avoid them altogether if you don't want to risk getting unlicensed product.

 

No true anime fan would ever buy those stupid HK bootlegs if an official Eng. dubbed/subbed version is availible.

When I 1st realized that there was an anime industry outside of the UK I accidently bought the Gundam 0080 HK DVD's on ebay, they were awful.

I avoid the HK stuff like the plague with the exception of some stuff that will not see an official release in the west for quite some time. At present the only bootleg stuff I have is Avalon and Initial D 3rd stage.

The bootleggers are getting better though, or worse depending on your point of view. On many releases they use fansub scripts which are availible online. This does result in some decent stuff getting a higher quality visual and audio quality release, Zeta Gundam being a good example.

Recently FX (one of the larger bootleggers), released a 3 DVD Cowboy Bebop set which was a direct rip of the region 1 release. It has the English dub included along with all the extras which featured on the official discs.
Anybody who buys a product such as that is scum in my book.

If I ever meet anyone involved in producing these products I'll literally kill the bastard for what he/she is doing to the anime industry as a whole.

 

Thanks bunches. ^_^ See, I stumbled upon that site while searching for Megami Kouhosei stuff, since the Bandai releases are pretty crappy. (But it's legal, I have 2 out of 4 of the discs, and I don't care if the subtitles suck. The scripts can be found online ^^ I'm a happy girl!) I was gonna get some stuff for my birthday and ALMLOST bought their MK DVD. (Yes. One with all the eps in it, English/Chinese subtitles) But at the time they weren't shipping to U.S. territories. Which is GOOD, because I didn't get the disc, which means I did nothing wrong.

Now I all I have to do is buy non-SonMay/EverAnime soundtracks and figure out what to do with the bootlegs. (Maybe I'll burn them. I've always wanted to see what a CD looks like when it's burning...^^)

That really annoys me. I hate that! Bootlegs. Damn bootlegs. !! >.< I could vent, but why bother? We all pretty much have the same opinion… (What annoys me the most is that the majority of sites and stores that carry anime merchandise opt for getting the cheaper bootlegs instead of the real deal and keeping a clean record. -_-; What ever happened to integrity?)