Legal

Monkey_King0 · Post by **Monkey_King0** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 12:19 am

Continuing from my last topic I should have asked if there was any LEGAL way to get anime dvd's from Japan if you live in U.S.A. for a boy under 18

Hope this post didn't disobey the rules in any way.

Kariudo · Post by **Kariudo** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 12:53 am

this one is much better.

you probably need to convince your parent(s) to import the dvds from Japan.
(and you might need to fiddle around with your dvd drive to be able to read the dvd...though you might be able to just rip it using a ripper)

there are a few websites that sell R2 disks...but they're not cheap.
(I don't import R2 dvds...so I wouldn't know of any sites that do)

Monkey_King0 · Post by **Monkey_King0** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 1:40 am

I don't think I would be able to do that. Depends how much it would cost to import the dvds from Japan. My families on a shortage of money right now. Heck, currently I'm richer than my parents!

Qyot27 · Post by **Qyot27** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 7:16 am

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp

http://us.yesasia.com/en/index.aspx

The actual process would be that your parents would probably need a credit card, you pay them for the purchase, and they order it for you. As has been said though, it is much more expensive to get the R2s - Japanese retail price is often higher than U.S. retail price*, plus the added expense of shipping (and possibly even import duties).

*An exception was with the Eva Renewal TV discs, which were just about equal to $30 USD - what Platinum was being sold for here - but then of course after adding shipping it increased to over $40 per disc.

Let's put it this way:
I ordered the Eva movies Renewal set (2 discs, regular edition) - the list price was equal to about $55-60 USD, I actually paid close to $72 when the shipping was added (because I chose the safest, most expensive option).

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 9:05 am

Depending on where you live, you may have an alternative. If you live in an area with a large asian population or have a Japanese bookstore nearby (Kinokuniya, BOOK-OFF, or a small independent) you may be able to find R2 Japan DVDs or be able to order them. Be warned that the R2s are expensive compared to the R1s, especially when they usually contain only 1 or 2 episodes versus the domestic version's 3 or 4.

Then there are comic and hobby shops which sometimes also carry anime. I have to warn you though, many of them carry bootlegs since they are cheaper and easier to get than the real R2 DVDs.

One of these days I need to troll around my town and visit all the Japanese bookstores that I used to frequent or pass by (assuming that they are still in business). BOOK-OFF is the most convenient for me, but seeing as they are a second-hand store, getting the newest stuff quickly is not always easy. I could always bother my sister to check the Kinokuniya near her home and mail stuff to me from thousands of miles away, but I'm not that bad of a brother.

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 9:45 am

Half-truths everywhere!

I got all my Bleach DVDs (13 of them) in Japan for around the same price as i'd expect to pay here (< $25 a piece) and every disc had 4 or 5 eps on it. So it really all depends on what your getting (and where you're getting it from).

Shipping will be more expensive, yes - but as for everything costing more and you getting less - that's not always the case.

Qyot27 · Post by **Qyot27** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 9:58 am

I actually prefer the fewer episodes-per-disc situation because (unless they store the audio as PCM like on the Haruhi R2s - the audio literally takes up half the space on the freakin' disc), there's more space to allot to the video, and all the R2s I've come in contact with look better than the domestics, even if in some cases the difference was just by a slight margin.