Official or Bootleg?

Discussion specifically regarding the "refreshed" TV version of DBZ created in Japan for its 20th anniversary, including individual threads for each episode.

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Bansho64
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Official or Bootleg?

Post by Bansho64 » Fri Jan 29, 2016 1:12 pm

I was recently I was scrolling the internet for DBKAI dvds and I found this. http://m.ebay.com/itm/Dragon-Ball-Z-Kai ... 2184210497. I kept looking to see if it was official or not but I can't find an answer. Has anyone else seen this. Is it official?

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Re: Official or Bootleg?

Post by Ajay » Fri Jan 29, 2016 1:18 pm

Bootleg.

Never buy DVDs from Malaysia or China/Hong Kong on eBay.
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ShinGaijin
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Re: Official or Bootleg?

Post by ShinGaijin » Fri Jan 29, 2016 6:16 pm

"All the rights of the manufacturer and the owner of the recorded work reserved. Unauthorized public performance, broadcasting, renting or coying of this disc prohibed".

:lol: Yeah, yeah, sure...

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Bansho64
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Re: Official or Bootleg?

Post by Bansho64 » Fri Jan 29, 2016 7:05 pm

Ajay wrote:Bootleg.

Never buy DVDs from Malaysia or China/Hong Kong on eBay.
Damn for real!? Too many bootlegs out there.

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TheBlackPaladin
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Re: Official or Bootleg?

Post by TheBlackPaladin » Fri Jan 29, 2016 9:18 pm

The best place to get anime DVDs/Blu-Rays--in my experience, at least--is Right Stuf. Huge discounts and, often, they ship before the official release dates...and yes, they only sell legally-produced and legally-distributed DVDs/Blu-Rays.

However, if you want to go the eBay route, here are some of the easier ways to spot bootlegs. These are some typical (but not universal) signs that something is a bootleg.

-No company logo (or a cheap/fake-looking logo of a company that has nothing to do with the show). It's best to look for the logos of both the original animation company (Toei, in this case) and the distribution company (FUNimation, in this case).

-English is a tough language, I know, but another common sign that something's a bootleg is that the grammar on the package is not very good. In the case of the DVD you linked to, you may note that the description on the back contains such questionable sentences like, "Dragon Bal Kai: Buu Saga narrates seven years have passed..." and, "With the emergence of evil wizard Babidi and Majin Buu into Earth, Gohan, Vegeta take part in the World Tournament Saga and Goku also join them."

-No region code. The vast majority of movies and TV shows released on home video are region-locked. For example, you can't play a Region 1 DVD in a Region 3 DVD player. You could, of course, get around this by getting a region-free DVD (or Blu-Ray) player, but the point remains, very few legally-released home videos are not region-locked. Here's a map of DVD regions, and here's a map of Blu-Ray regions.

-Languages that are available that don't seem to have much to do with the region code. For example, the DVD you linked to is a Region 3 DVD set, and yet it also says that it has English subtitles. There isn't much use for English subtitles in the territories that Region 3 falls under. Also, while I can't confirm this, the subtitles are likely as good as those found in the infamous Chinese-bootlegged version of Revenge of the Sith (or, as it said in the subtitles, "Star War The Third Gathers: Backstroke of the West"). If you see lots of unrelated languages put under region codes that don't correspond to the proper geographic areas, that's another sign. I once saw a picture of a DVD box set (obviously a bootleg) for DBZ that contained the original Japanese audio...in addition to the Russian, Chinese, and French dubs. Either Toei felt like distributing Dragon Ball DVDs for viewing at UN Security Council meetings, or it was a bootleg.

-Kind of related to the first thing, but...packaging that does not resemble the official packaging. Even if you want to go the eBay route, go to the official site of the company that handles the series (FUNimation, in the case of Dragon Ball) and see what their DVD/Blu-Ray packaging looks like. If something you see on eBay looks absolutely nothing like the official packaging, that's another red flag.

Those are the general signs. Here are two bonus items that apply specifically to Dragon Ball, though. Firstly, the DVDs you linked to have both the "Dragon Ball Kai" and "Dragon Ball Z Kai" logos, which would never be the case, since the show is only called "Dragon Ball Kai" in Japan, and called "Dragon Ball Z Kai" internationally. Secondly, this box set says that it has the Buu saga. FUNimation has yet to officially release the Buu saga. We know they're working on it, but they haven't released it yet.
A "rather haggard" translation of a line from Future Gohan in DBZ, provided to FUNimation by Toei:
"To think of fighting that is this fun...so, it was pleasant fight, as many as, therefore is a feeling which is good the fight where."

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Re: Official or Bootleg?

Post by sangofe » Sun Feb 07, 2016 3:26 am

Bansho64 wrote:I was recently I was scrolling the internet for DBKAI dvds and I found this. http://m.ebay.com/itm/Dragon-Ball-Z-Kai ... 2184210497. I kept looking to see if it was official or not but I can't find an answer. Has anyone else seen this. Is it official?
First hint should be the disc count... 8 dvds for 159 episodes? That's about 20 episodes a dvd!

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Re: Official or Bootleg?

Post by Lord Beerus » Sun Feb 07, 2016 5:50 pm

TheBlackPaladin wrote:The best place to get anime DVDs/Blu-Rays--in my experience, at least--is Right Stuf. Huge discounts and, often, they ship before the official release dates...and yes, they only sell legally-produced and legally-distributed DVDs/Blu-Rays.
Do Right Stuf ship internationally?

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Re: Official or Bootleg?

Post by coola » Sun Feb 07, 2016 7:31 pm

They do, had to send picture of front and back of my credit card on 1st order, but now i can buy no problem
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Re: Official or Bootleg?

Post by Lord Beerus » Sun Feb 07, 2016 7:53 pm

coola wrote:They do, had to send picture of front and back of my credit card on 1st order, but now i can buy no problem
That seems like a bit of a weird request to have them ship internationally.

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