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Happy_Smiles
07-24-2009, 03:51 AM
I have just recently bought 3 DVDs off Playtechasia.com and they all have dreadful English subtitles making them utterly unwatchable! I totally did not see this coming, it looks like its been done by google translator and now I have a bunch of DVDs that are totally worthless to me! Has anyone else had this problem?? Can you get like a manuscript of episodes somewhere so I can watch these DVDs?! Its made me very angry lol I was really looking forward to watching School Rumble 2!

Amray The II
07-24-2009, 07:46 AM
This has happened to me, although it did not concern me much as I am currently in the middle of learning the Japanese language and, hence, could translate most of the words myself.

One has to be really careful when purchasing anime DVD's online. 'tis a lesson most of us anime fans learn at some point when we find an amazing anime that has not been released yet, especially in the UK where most of the new or amazing anime's are not released yet, or sometimes not released at all. I say this because I can see you, too, reside in England.

Despite this there are some authentic asian anime DVD's out there, but as an overseas buyer it is difficult to decide who to trust. As a School Rumble fan I can understand how you must feel, and there are quite a few of us that fall prey to these rubbish subtitles. This usually occurs to anime boxsets that have Japanese dialogue only.

My advice would be to wait for the anime's to be licensed in your country. I know waiting is painful, as I had this problem with Death Note, but ultimately it is better to do so for a decent end result. But, like I say, I can understand a lot of Japanese now so I can usually withstand rubbish subtitles as I hardly feel the need to look at them.

Happy_Smiles
07-24-2009, 10:03 AM
Thanks very much for your reply Kajiwara, I was just so annoyed by the whole thing lol but well you live and learn don't you :). It is very frustrating also at the incredibly poor availability of anime releases in the UK but I suppose its all supply and demand. Nice avatar btw!

Doom85
07-24-2009, 10:08 AM
Kajiwara is right, it's easy to accidentally buy a bootleg, especially on sites like Ebay or sometimes Amazon where such illegal items are not always noticed by the site's mods.

Your best bet would be to stick with the anime that are licensed by your country's companies, however since the UK often is far behind in anime releases compared to North America, I might suggest getting a region-free DVD player (these can play DVDs from any "region", so DVDs from North America, Japan, Australia, etc. will work on them) and importing North America (Region 1 or R1) DVDs. Importing can be expensive (though I think certain sites cut down on the costs), but it's a quicker way to get newer anime releases if you see a series that's available in NA and not the UK. Hope that helps.

Happy_Smiles
07-24-2009, 10:15 AM
Thanks Doom85, I honestly thought I was buying these DVDs off a reputable website, it's a shame that there are people out there hell bent on ripping people off. I actually have bought quite a few DVDs from America but since I prefer watching my anime on my region protected laptop in can be a bit of a pain

wolfgirl90
07-24-2009, 03:36 PM
1. Although this is not true for all DVDs out of Japan, any Japanese DVD that claims to have English subs or English and Chinese subs is most likely a fake. A lot of bootlegs come from Hong Kong and Taiwan (due to their close proximity to Japan and large number of English speakers), so if there are any Chinese subtitles, its a fake.

2. Unless you have a region free DVD player, Japanese and/or American DVDs shouldn't work in your DVD player anyway. If the DVD or the ad says "Region free" or "Region 0" on it, its a fake. Absolutely NO anime distributor (American, Japanese, British, etc) uses Region free DVDs.

3. Check the number of episodes on the DVD. On average, there are no less than 2 but less than 6 episodes per disk. Bootleggers like to compress episodes on a disk (which on its own is illegal). For example, the complete collection of School Rumble 2 has, officially, FOUR disks on it, not three, so that's a clue that its a bootleg.

4. Check the price. While deals are great, if the price gets too low, then there is a chance that it might be fake (usually, if its over half the official price, then that's a red flag). Again using School Rumble 2, the website you gave has the box set at 25.99EUR (about $36.95). That's a bit too low, at least from a website that doesn't seem to have individual dealers.

Mrpurple
07-24-2009, 04:41 PM
Kajiwara is right, it's easy to accidentally buy a bootleg, especially on sites like Ebay or sometimes Amazon where such illegal items are not always noticed by the site's mods.




hehe you should come to Afgahnastan to the Bazaar and buy movies.
its like a dollor a DVD and you get the entire naruto first season and the entire dragonball z for like 10$ you can always haggle and stuff. I watched a boot leg Land of the lost before it came out on dvd it was pretty funny but you could tell he was recording in the theater you can hear other people Laughing and stuff. It was weak. yea I hav rozen maiden and I noticed the subtitles did not go with the actual japanese. It was kinda like if it was in english dub. -.- (I speak a little)

Happy_Smiles
07-25-2009, 05:14 AM
Everything you said wolfgirl applies to my DVDs lol, they're from Taiwan....have chinese subtitles..... are compressd onto fewer discs.... are region free and were relatively cheap! I paid through paypal so I'm hoping I'll be able to get the money back through them! Wish me luck!

Teddy2116
07-25-2009, 10:04 AM
Hm, usually the animes I buy are usually from Funimation, I like their subs the most (tho I don't know why you didn't enjoy School Rumble 2) I guess the only thing I can tell you how to solve this is read the mangas.

Happy_Smiles
07-26-2009, 07:54 AM
it's note that I don't enjoy School Rumble 2 it's just the fact that it as total jibberish. Nothing made any sense they were just random words put into sentances!

AnswerBAK
07-26-2009, 05:08 PM
Yeah yeah 'bootleg' anime y'say, Holly Mongomery!!!! I dont like the sound o'that
can y'please recommend a safe site which will deliver to Ireland...???
Also is there anyplace I can buy mnemosyne ...???? Thanks..!!!
There is also a helpful 'how to spot a bootleg.....' video on metacafe if you're
interested.

"hi would you like to buy some anime":cool:

"uh-huh" :laugh:
"whoops":eek:

RaShayRitto
07-26-2009, 06:25 PM
yeah i had a weird experience when i purchased the gungrave box set from animekrazy. i guess the price was so damn low (30 bucks) because it wasnt geniune. in which case i gotta give whoever made this box set props because it at least looks totally pro. the only giveaway is the sometimes awkward subs which dont keep the same font/color through the whole series

LittleGirl
07-27-2009, 01:14 AM
This happened to me when I bought Death Note. This was before they put out the box set, and I didn't want to pay that much for all the DVDs. Anyways, the english subtitles were pretty bad. I couldn't continue watching it. Oh well!

Lighsaber
07-27-2009, 03:34 AM
Honestly, you are saying fansubs are much better than that?
Well, you should only buy officially released anime series on respected sites like Play-Asia.com and Amazon.com.

Happy_Smiles
07-27-2009, 04:26 PM
amazon I would agree is very good, as for playtech asia they always seem like a bit of a rip-off to me, but I suppose this stuff isnt cheap, although manga can be....lol dirt cheap actually!

Gero50
07-27-2009, 04:50 PM
I have never had that problem though I have run into some proly subbed anime before and it realy dose suck. I would sugest going onto Google and searching for episode guides to this anime. In a lt of cases fans will either make them themselves or find ones made by the producer or creaters of the anime. A lot of times the fan made guides are better cause it often will try and do a compare and contrast between both the sub and dub if there is one. In any case this is what helps me find out a lot about the Japanese anime I watch. I hope this helps and good luck.

Lighsaber
07-28-2009, 01:38 AM
amazon I would agree is very good, as for playtech asia they always seem like a bit of a rip-off to me, but I suppose this stuff isnt cheap, although manga can be....lol dirt cheap actually!
Well, I think PlayTech Asia is just a rip-off of Play-Asia, a legitimate source of anything related to Asian Entertainment. We should stay away from that one.

Happy_Smiles
07-28-2009, 10:55 AM
Yeah I can safely say that playtech asia is a dreadful company and one to avoid! I have been looking on the internet for those episode guides and hopefully I will find a good one soon. Thanks very much for the tips, it seems such a waste all these episodes and I cant watch any! lol btw anybody buying through paypal thinking that protects them from buying this stuff, nope! Paypal are not concerned if the companies they operate with sell counterfeit items!

Mrpurple
07-28-2009, 09:23 PM
Any ways if your gona buy boot leg why not go all the way and not buy it at all ...

Diocletian
07-28-2009, 10:17 PM
Any ways if your gona buy boot leg why not go all the way and not buy it at all ...

Because some of us are trying to support the industry and get screwed along the way.

If it says it's from China, don't buy it. Counterfeit is China's main export and often look for sites like Amazon that have some sort of penalty for people who sell bootlegs.

Mrpurple
07-28-2009, 10:22 PM
Buying boot leg does not support the industry it suports people who steal the movies.

Diocletian
07-28-2009, 10:32 PM
Buying boot leg does not support the industry it suports people who steal the movies.

You missed my point. Some people think they are buying anime from a legal distributor but tend to get screwed over by bootleggers. It doesn't mean they weren't trying to support the distributors.

naotavespaboy
07-31-2009, 08:52 AM
The first few official English Naruto DVD's suffered from "dubtitiling" where the subtitles were exactly the same as the rubbish English dub. Fortunately manga entertainment corrected this for the second series on.

Happy_Smiles
08-02-2009, 04:26 PM
I would just like to point out to Mr Purple, that I do try to avoid bootlegs, obviously, hence the title of the thread because they are useless and as you say do not benefit the producers. I personally feel quite strongly that we need to buy the manga or anime that we like rather than just watching it or reading it on the internet. It may be incredibly tempting, but if we do it's just going to make the number of titles released in the UK smaller and smaller which in turn effects us!