Revised 2002, 2005
Select Country: [U.K. | USA | France | Japan]
Cheap Far East DVDs
I have made some investigation of these: they are certainly cheap and available on Ebay, and various trade sites.
There are a few legitimate outlets such as yesasia selling licensed regional releases, with international
shipping. It seems however that most of the items offered on Ebay, and many of those from elsewhere, are
pirate editions, even when they say they aren't. I have seen a 3-DVD set of the complete Cowboy Bebop (26 episodes), with excellent
video quality, good stereo sound, but with all the opening and closing credit sequences stripped out. This was packaged as a
legitimate release, with "English" & Chinese subtitles on Japanese dialogue, but it was incredibly cheap. The "English" subtitles
were penned by a non-English person and barely comprehensible. And one of the episodes has a fault and won't play in any of my players.
Also saw the new Escaflowne movie (great movie, by the way) on 2x VCD discs, which turned out to be a transcription of a fansub (presumably American) with excellent sound but blurry visuals. And it cost as much as a legitimate release.
These experiences seem to be typical. A considerable variety of titles seems to be available, including runs of TV series only available elsewhere at great expense or slow delivery, but buyers should be prepared for "pirate" quality control.
On Ebay there are complaints of non-arrival of goods leveled at some pirate retailers.
U.K.
From personal experience, there are a number of good places to go:
In London: Forbidden Planet (New Oxford
St), Japan Centre (Piccadilly), Yaohan Centre (Edgware), and 2nd hand bookshops for manga etc. outside the Yaohan Centre and in
Brewer St. (?).
The Japan Centre has some videos you might find very interesting: original Miyazaki, also World Masterpiece
Theater movie versions and suchlike. Bring your credit card...
The Virgin Megastore at Oxford Circus has the largest stock of UK anime videos.
For comics, there are two shops a few minutes
from the British Museum. There's also a Japanese bookshop just by St Paul's Underground - in a pedestrian precinct.
Also try the Chinese district around Gerrard St, Soho, for mangas and PAL anime videos.
Outside London there's a comic shop in
Aylesbury, and also the Sheffield Space Centre. The latter does mail order.
For more up-to-date information, check out the websites for Animejin, www.anime.org, and Britanime.
Generally, anime videos can be found in video stores. Virgin and HMV stores regionally have useful anime sections. Be aware that
quite a range of anime is now available in the UK on DVD. However it is often at silly prices (£20) and if you may find that you
can buy the same title at half the price as an import from the USA. To get good value, look out for a sale, where anime DVDs may
appear in the general sale racks, or just buy good value DVDs (several Miyuzaki/Studio Ghibli movies have appeared in the UK at
sensible prices). Remember that you can order current U.K. videos from ANY high street video outlet, so long as the distribution
chain can reach there (ask!).
If you want videos released in, say, the USA or France, it is, at the moment, quite legal to order them from another EC country for your own use. It's also legal to carry in such unlicensed videos for your own use (provided that they don't contravene the obscenity laws, of course!) A number of French market anime videotapes were, I'm told, released in PAL as well at in SECAM. See the French section.
Important note. All European anime DVDs will be in R2 PAL and will play on a British DVD player without problems.
However do not assume that you will get Japanese dialogue or English subtitles - you won't unless it explicitly says so,
and if it has it's probably a USA import.
On the other hand, USA market DVDs are R1 (sometimes helpfully all-region R0) and
NTSC, so you need an all-region DVD player to play them. It's usually safe to assume that a USA anime DVD has selectable English
sound, Japanese sound, and English subtitles (denoted in some catalogs by "Hybrid").
SHOP BY PHONE. You can mail order any current UK-market anime by ringing 0990-334578 (UK). If you live somewhere else, search for the HMV International web site.
Otaku Publishing Commercial site; catalogue; also has a few reviews of UK anime.
USA
Manga Entertainment Inc.
Nikaku Animart Various
WWW.Jlist.com Various
France
If you speak/read French, Paris is an excellent place for personal shopping. Best buys are the Tonkam manga, in the original tankuobon format with French text at about 32FF, and soundtrack CDs, which appear to be genuine Japanese but from 120 FF are much cheaper than in the UK and stocked in depth. Videos in SECAM (cheap) and NTSC (usual import pricing), also DVDs, may be found.
Also the usual Japanese books and magazines.
There are three shops in the same street in the Bastille district which will be anime & manga heaven for British fans who find them. e-mail me for directions if you want to go and then I'll paste it here for the benefit of others.
All-French comics or "bandes dessinιes" are also worth checking out.
Japan
Anime visitors will head for the Akhiabara electronics district in Tokyo. I visited almost a decade ago, before the advent of the DVD. There were many shops and stalls selling anime tapes and LDs. The cheaply priced tapes were, it seems, ex-rental tapes. I bought several, and they still work..
If you are shopping for DVDs, be aware that these will be Japanese-only (usually), and if it is a major new series, a wait of a few months will reward you with a cheaper USA edition, even if there isn't a simultaneous release.
Japanese DVDs are R2 and NTSC, so you will probably need an all-region player to play them.
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