How to Spot a Bootleg

[silver_moon]

Can anyone help me determine if this FMA DVD is legitimate?

Since it'll be about a year before the last Fullmetal Alchemist DVD comes to North America, I've been looking around for some imports. I found some pretty cheap Region 3 DVDs for the series at YesAsia.com (which I've heard is a legitimate site). But I'm a little curious about why they're so much cheaper than the original Japanese versions. Here's the one I'm looking at:

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/c ... 004042312/

The Region 3 DVD is only $15.99 US, while the Japanese Region 2 is about $60. So I'm wondering:

-Does this look like a legitimate DVD?
-Will the region 3 be as good of quality as the region 2?
-Will this version have removable subtitles?

Any thoughts?

[Kalium]

The Chinese language stuff gives me a bit of pause, but some googling suggests that yesasia is safe.

[Melanchthon]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TRIGUN-DVD-BOX-SE ... dZViewItem

Legit or no? They're region-free, dead cheap and on three discs, but apart from that it looks okay (well, to the non-paranoid anyway). There's something a little funky about the first pic, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it's just the photo quality.

[Yunacat]

@silver_moon: It's legit. I'm not really sure what the difference is between Region 2 and Region 3, but if you bother looking around, you might be able to find it.


@Kalium: Yep, Yesasia.com is pretty much safe. I go there for Video Games, Anime, Music, and Manga!^^ (mostly games though..but still...)


@Melanchthon: Seems safe to me. Can't really tell completely though. The tracks and subtitles seem safe...

[CHS_BanMidou]

First off, let me say that I'm really glad I saw this thread. I was about to buy the Berserk DVD boxset from d*******a****d**.com when I saw it on this thread. I was like, "Oh shit!". Luckily I stopped though. I then found animecastle.com. It's priced like normal boxsets, I believe. About $72 for Season 1 of Berserk. I just want to make sure before I purchase anything. I hate bootlegs.

What sucks though is I think I got some from eBay that are bootlegged. Ragnarok Online the Animation and Star Ocean EX. Makes me a sad koala. Those were the days before I got into anime like I am now though..

[-GfN-]

I have a request to make:

Can anyone tell me if the products offered at the following links are fansubs / pirated copies?

1. http://cgi.ebay.de/FLCL-OVA-Episoden-1- ... dZViewItem

2. http://cgi.ebay.de/FLCL-OVA-Englisch-Si ... dZViewItem

3. http://cgi.ebay.de/FLCL-OVA-Englisch-Si ... dZViewItem

4. http://cgi.ebay.de/FLCL-FOOLY-COOLY-OVA ... dZViewItem

Jannis Nätke alias -Good for Nothing-

[Unpronounceable_Symbol]

Dunno about Germany's release schedule, but in the States FLCL was released on three discs, and assuming "Anzahl der DVDs" means "number of discs," any one-disc set should be assumed to be bootlegged.

[celibi87]

Can anyone validate this ste? [MOD99: site removed.]

[cholinms]

Looking at some of the other products available that's most likely a bootleg site. I mean they've got Full Metal Panic complete on 2 discs.

Also FFVII:AC hasn't been released yet and it has multi-language subtitles. Most of the time if it's a valid release it wil only have subs for the target audiance.

[Kai Stromler]

I have a request to make:

Can anyone tell me if the products offered at the following links are fansubs / pirated copies?

All four of those links are bootlegs. There's no legitimate release of FLCL on one disc with an English dub track.

With regards AnimeCastle, at least their "Hong Kong Import" section is all bootleg. Their straight DVD section is technically OK, but ethical fans should probably refrain from sending money to anyone who profits from bootlegging.

--K