I blame my LCD TV and a new anime media shop which brings in quality Taiwanese anime R3s for opening yet another avenue of financial demise. In a mere 6 months, I splurged over S$900 on 11 anime series and am still hungry for more. I know, it's still a loooooong way from moyism and my idol Adam but I sure am taking baby steps. Prior to April 07, I only owned Da Capo R3s (legit) and Mahoromatic (bootlegged) so the addition of 11 new anime series is a staggering 550% growth XD. Although I have to admit that of the 11 acquisitions, 3 are probably R2 bootlegs while the rest are Taiwanese licenses (1 Hong Kong). Below is a list of my purchases since May and some information/thoughts to chronicle my anime related expenditure.
AIR Boxset 1 (ep 01 - 08), 4 discs for S$113 - My most expensive cost/ep to date. Stunning packaging and DVD quality.
Angelic Layer (Complete), 7 discs for S$70 - Packed in DVD9s. Still the animation quality looks dated probably because the series is.
Cardcaptor Sakura (Complete), 18 discs for S$126 - My cheapest cost/ep so far. Distributed by Prowaremedia, which is known for quality R3s, this purchase is a real steal. Comes with Kero omakasete, creditless OPs/EDs ie the whole works.
Full metal panic TSR and OVA (Complete), 10 discs for S$100 - My strongest suspicion that it's R3 bootlegs, ripped off Prowaremedia R3s. Still it is a quality product.
Gundam SEED (Complete), 18 discs for S$130 - My only R3s from Hong Kong (licensed by Media Link Entertainment). Personally I think Taiwanese R3s are superior to HK ones. Still good quality though some inconsistencies in sound. Comes with a cantonese dub.
Jubei chan 2 (Complete), 4 discs for S$70 - An impulse buy that I don't regret. Comes with specials of Horie Yui going through kendo lessons/tea ceremonies.
Samurai Champloo (Complete), 6 discs for S$60 - My newest and only buy from Odex. I don't have good things to say about the company but I'm not at odds with my wallet. Given the price, it's a worthy purchase (they are on DVD9s even though Odex's idea of DVD9 is only 5GB). Frankly the quality is still slightly below my Taiwanese R3s (even the very cheap boxsets) and the subbing is inconsistent (varying fonts/sizes for different eps). But granting that it has a lower price plus the fact it has an English dub, I think it's a fair trade-off.
SCRYED (Complete), 9 discs for S$66 - One of the 2 boxsets from Mighty that is purchase-worthy. The quality is absolutely top-notched. Interestingly it comes with 27 different versions of Scryed's OP/ED.
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (ep 01-13), 7 discs for S$50 - Given the price, this has to be a bootleg. Again, fantastic R2 quality with its fancy menus and LOADS of extras. Many MANY Hirano Aya footages.
X TV (Complete), 14 discs for S$80 - Another Mighty boxset with SUPERB quality. After Prowaremedia's CCS boxsets, this has to be my next favourite buy.
Apologies that there's no pics since my camera's out of town currently. Just a note that all series acquired have episodes that pass my "1 Gb per ep" test which I have arbitrarily set as a benchmark for the minimal quality. I know it's a drop in the ocean but at least I'm doing my limited little to stand up to this "fansub hurting DVD purchase" fallacy. I forget to mention I have a corresponding S$900 spent on figures so far in 2007 which of course is peanuts compared to tjhan who spent an epic S$4000 on PVC just last year.
Still looking to initiate Otoboku, Mai HiME and Aria R3s into my collection.
Related posts:
- Original or bootlegged? – 4 classes of anime DVDs
- Full Metal Panic! TSR – From bootleg to blu-ray
- Why I collect 2D merchandise (Part 1) – Anime DVDs
October 24th, 2007 - 12:24
You’re absolutely right about this HDTV business. My parents recently settled for a Sharp AQUOS LC-42D64U. After connecting my laptop with it (through analog RGB) and watching some things, I can’t go back to watching non-HD/DVD quality anime on a normal PC monitor. I haven’t decided if this is a good thing or bad thing yet.
October 24th, 2007 - 12:46
There. is. no. turning. back.
My LCD TV is only a HD pretender since it supports only up to 1080i. But your parents’ baby… now that’s a HDTV! XD You need to start hauling in anime DVDs like myself to fully enjoy your TV and anime of course. Ganbare!! 
October 24th, 2007 - 12:51
not a bad list.
just got few things off ebay myself Inlcuding Kenshin Kyoto Arc Premium Collection with the niffty artbox and Noein 1-5.
btw you did know that the angelic layer thinkpack was on sale at rightstuf for 23.99 and jubei was availble form the Genon 25/100 sale a few months back.
For Haruhi i am collecting the limited Collection form Bandai with all the extras. Got vol 1-3 waiting form vol4 to ship.
October 24th, 2007 - 13:56
Yeah, the fansubs = lost sales thing always makes me laugh when I look at my anime DVD collection. Although I don’t have quite as good a setup (I watch either on a 20″ widescreen hooked up to my laptop or an older 27″ CRT TV), it’s very true that DVD quality is impressive compared to fansubs. I’m looking forward to getting Otoboku too, once the R1s start coming out, any day now…
October 24th, 2007 - 21:38
I’d always wanted to hook up my computer to my parents’ 42″ HD LCD, but since they’re here everyday, it gets tough. Perhaps the next time they leave for a couple days. Hopefully this weekend; I’d love to see what CLANNAD’s HD version looks like in actual HD.
October 24th, 2007 - 22:45
I become quite wary when purchasing DVD’s from those anime media shops that you have mentioned. Honestly purchasing things from those stores is like a lucky dip as to whether you are getting the real deal or bootlegged DVD’s…
The fact that I purchase DVD’s to support the anime industry, by unknowingly buying bootlegged ones i’m not helping the industry at all…
This has meant that I only purchase my DVD’s from trusted sources, such as Amazon.
October 24th, 2007 - 23:52
I’m just curious: are you buying DVD sets from HK/Taiwan, just because there is no English alternative available, or are you just a cheapskater? Because I can’t see the unfair justification of buying bootlegged DVDs compared to buying figurines.
Maybe I don’t understand you, but I just want to highlight that. (Oh, and sorry for the slightly offensive wording.)
October 25th, 2007 - 00:41
suguru: Ah didn’t know Otoboku is licensed in US. May get the R1s instead then since the R3 collections seems incomplete (Disc 1’s out of stock apparently
)
Zeroblade: I’m sure your parent would enjoy high quality anime once in a while. Pick a high production value series like Seirei no moribito and induct them into the Great Art
holyman282: Heh, I’m learnt the hard way to differentiate the difference between bootleg and legit. It is getting harder since typical traits like eps/discs are now irrelevant when they are copying R2s. So there are bootlegs with 2 eps per discs with superb quality. The couple of traits I use to set legits aside from bootlegs are ifpi and matrix found at the inner circle of the discs. They can be faked but I haven’t seen any pirates take the effort to so far. The information on the disc is also another dead giveaway. The licensees, region code, company logos are things always missing from a bootleg
TP: Hmm first I’m not sure if you know that HK and Taiwanese DVDs have legit licenses which accounts for most of the collection here. I choose R3s because they are almost always cheaper than their R2/R1 counterparts and more readily available – After all I can waltz into the shop, manhandle the discs and test them instead of ordering long-range online. Only R1 thinpaks or boxsets can rival R3s in price though not always. I choose Taiwanese R3s because they have a much wider selection than say Odex’s R3s here. Better quality too I may add. TP, if I’m not wrong, you’re a fellow countryman. Do check out Hypermedia in Chinatown point where I get my goods from. You’d know what I mean then.