The Animie/Manga Rip Off

[Fat1Fared]

I love Animie and manga's but usually refuse to buy them, as I hate to be ripped off and though I don't know what market is like in countries other than England , but here they take P??S, taking around 1-2 years longer than any other country to get them out and once they are out, because every few places sell them, they put 100% mark up on it, meaning for DVD worth around 10pounds, you can be paying up to 20-30 pounds

Has anyone else found this and what do you think about it

And this is when get good copies, as to find ones which are translated well is war in itself

[dragonqueen]

true
DN live action is 20 quid each
but films like spirited away and those one are like ?10
but i do notice some anime stuff in britain can be expensive,....but not all the time

[TitanAura]

If you're not going to pay for them, at least read manga the legal way and borrow them from the library. Official releases are significantly more accurate than scanlations anyways and english dubs of animes are only getting better as time passes and companies are starting to take dubbing more seriously as an artform *except 4kids obviously because they refuse to listen and understand complaints from their viewers*. Those you can just watch on TV! *minus straight to DVD releases*

[Fat1Fared]

TitanAura, I will watch/read them legally when I can, but every few libraries have manga's and apart from few younger based ones like Digimon, very few are watchable on english TV without getting extra TV channells

The thing which annoys me, is that they are pretty poor with their making/ selling of them (though getting better) but know that as it is still a specialised area (in that only some groups like it) they can still rip you off with it and then wonder why some poeple, hit back at them by legelly downloading it,

I would rather have a real copy, but if they try to mess me about with it, I will say screw you and get illegal ones, in hope that they take note and realise that only when sell them properly, I will buy them properly

PS I like subs more than Dubs, but most English people cannot handle the idea of reading, and so go insane at thought of subs

[XxEnslavedNekoxX]

Reminds me of here in Nevada a few years back. The only place to buy animes was at a Same Goody or a Suncoast and back then they charge 30 dollars for a VHS and 40 dollars for a dvd. Things have gotten better here now. I find if you are looking for stuff cheap, Amazon.com normally has a good selection with people who don't sell bootlegs as much as Ebay.com.

Region free normally means it's a bootleg in my experiance. I bought a Record Of Lodoss War set off ebay for 15 dollars and realized afterwards it was a bootleg. It's the only Bootleged item I own.

[TitanAura]

TitanAura, I will watch/read them legally when I can, but every few libraries have manga's and apart from few younger based ones like Digimon, very few are watchable on english TV without getting extra TV channells

The thing which annoys me, is that they are pretty poor with their making/ selling of them (though getting better) but know that as it is still a specialised area (in that only some groups like it) they can still rip you off with it and then wonder why some poeple, hit back at them by legelly downloading it,

I would rather have a real copy, but if they try to mess me about with it, I will say screw you and get illegal ones, in hope that they take note and realise that only when sell them properly, I will buy them properly

PS I like subs more than Dubs, but most English people cannot handle the idea of reading, and so go insane at thought of subs

I'll bend on the fact that DVDs are fucking expensive and I reserve my anime collection to my favorite series only and only the series that are finished and are only 24-26 episodes in length or under. Hell, even the anime movies are usually $25-30 compared to normal DVD releases of movies which are $15-20. But that's because of supply and demand. Otaku fandoms are still a sub-culture and, though self-sustaining, it doesn't raise the level of demand required to drive down the prices by the DVD distributers.

But manga I have to defend. You see, even if a single volume of a manga only takes 3-4 hours to read total, depending on your reading speed, you have to remember that they are graphic novels and the artists work tirelessly to meet deadlines for their publishers. The amount of effort they have to put into releasing weekly/monthly chapters is astronomically greater than if they were to simply write a light novel with significantly less effort. Drawing art is time consuming and they should be justified in the prices they demand.

People don't go insane. It's just how it's advertised and distributed. I was raised with parents who liked foriegn films and so watching movies with subtitles became a habit, but for most people, that isn't their preferred method of viewing and they usually just watch a movie on the default settings, which is usually English dub, no subtitles. My preference is having sub on while watching the English dub to be able to see if they say anything drastically different. The problem with fansubs however, is that too many fansubs go nuts with their texts and animations that draw your attention away from the actual show and to their vibrantly colored WORDS. Ever wonder why official releases have that bland yellow text at the bottom? It doesn't distract the eye that much. Not to mention the absurd methods most fansubs have of translating certain words. Nakama is a good example because it's an oh so special word that can't POSSIBLY be translated. We KNOW what a friend is and we UNDERSTAND the implications of the idea that friendships can be more than just what the word implies. The problem is fansubbers are egotistical and want to condescent to their audience by throwing translator notes into their subs as often as possible to show just how much knowledge of japanese they have. It's childish and it gives the wrong impression of the Japanese language. Most animes are set in a fantasy world with characters that wouldn't even be speaking Japanese! Japanese is just like any other language and manipulating it to convey a message is just as much as an artform as writing the original story itself.

[TitanAura]

Reminds me of here in Nevada a few years back. The only place to buy animes was at a Same Goody or a Suncoast and back then they charge 30 dollars for a VHS and 40 dollars for a dvd. Things have gotten better here now. I find if you are looking for stuff cheap, Amazon.com normally has a good selection with people who don't sell bootlegs as much as Ebay.com.

Region free normally means it's a bootleg in my experiance. I bought a Record Of Lodoss War set off ebay for 15 dollars and realized afterwards it was a bootleg. It's the only Bootleged item I own.

I bought several bootleg items before realizing they were such. It makes me feel dirty and I dare not sell them back into circulation because I condemn such behavior but I don't want them to go to waste so I'll be giving them to my family when I leave home so they can at least enjoy them. They're actually pretty good for bootlegs.... it's just a shame they're incomplete versions of what I was trying to get.

[Fat1Fared]

I'll bend on the fact that DVDs are fucking expensive and I reserve my anime collection to my favorite series only and only the series that are finished and are only 24-26 episodes in length or under. Hell, even the anime movies are usually $25-30 compared to normal DVD releases of movies which are $15-20. But that's because of supply and demand. Otaku fandoms are still a sub-culture and, though self-sustaining, it doesn't raise the level of demand required to drive down the prices by the DVD distributers.

But manga I have to defend. You see, even if a single volume of a manga only takes 3-4 hours to read total, depending on your reading speed, you have to remember that they are graphic novels and the artists work tirelessly to meet deadlines for their publishers. The amount of effort they have to put into releasing weekly/monthly chapters is astronomically greater than if they were to simply write a light novel with significantly less effort. Drawing art is time consuming and they should be justified in the prices they demand.

People don't go insane. It's just how it's advertised and distributed. I was raised with parents who liked foriegn films and so watching movies with subtitles became a habit, but for most people, that isn't their preferred method of viewing and they usually just watch a movie on the default settings, which is usually English dub, no subtitles. My preference is having sub on while watching the English dub to be able to see if they say anything drastically different. The problem with fansubs however, is that too many fansubs go nuts with their texts and animations that draw your attention away from the actual show and to their vibrantly colored WORDS. Ever wonder why official releases have that bland yellow text at the bottom? It doesn't distract the eye that much. Not to mention the absurd methods most fansubs have of translating certain words. Nakama is a good example because it's an oh so special word that can't POSSIBLY be translated. We KNOW what a friend is and we UNDERSTAND the implications of the idea that friendships can be more than just what the word implies. The problem is fansubbers are egotistical and want to condescent to their audience by throwing translator notes into their subs as often as possible to show just how much knowledge of japanese they have. It's childish and it gives the wrong impression of the Japanese language. Most animes are set in a fantasy world with characters that wouldn't even be speaking Japanese! Japanese is just like any other language and manipulating it to convey a message is just as much as an artform as writing the original story itself.

Well think all has been said on Animie by us both for minute, so I will leave that one for now, apart from saying I know it is sub-culture and know that is reason they mark it up, but still doesn't mean it is right.

But with Manga's, I am amatar writer, so can say writing isn't easy (and even harder for me,) but don't think that it is writers/drawers who will see that 100% mark, they would get same pay whatever, it is the pulishers who will make profit here, and that is what angers me, them knowing that like all sub-culture things they can put Monopoly on it and betray the fans love of their product and make so us play ball or get nothing,

With most products if one place puts on silly prices we move on, but with sub-cultures cannot do that and so live on the good will of seller <facepalm> or wait for it to get bigger (However for some poeple I know they would no longer like Animie/Manga, if it became popular, I would personally have no problem with it, as long as the marketers didn't start forcing changes on their shows to meet a more western market, but that is off my own topic anyway)

With Subbing, I not so bothered with Animie, as dudding in Cartoons can be easier to do well, but still like to hear it in orginial langauge, I hate dubbing in movies as it usually has really bad voices, lines and just looks dumb, yet I know poeple will not watch a movie unless has Dubbing, and so lose the chance to see some of worlds great films,

though I have noticed what you re sayying about fan subbing, not all do it, but some really do, and it is one of reasons, once finish learning Mandarian, I will learn Japanese

[XxEnslavedNekoxX]

I bought several bootleg items before realizing they were such. It makes me feel dirty and I dare not sell them back into circulation because I condemn such behavior but I don't want them to go to waste so I'll be giving them to my family when I leave home so they can at least enjoy them. They're actually pretty good for bootlegs.... it's just a shame they're incomplete versions of what I was trying to get.

Yeah I've kept mine too. I've made sure to stay away from anything that says Region Free on it too. It's one of the first things I look for. Still played pretty well for a bootleg though. Just gave me a wierd feeling when I was watching it.