Zeden, did you get Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa yet?

If thats the movie then I can tell you no. (for me and the Z).
Though I'm working on aquiring it.

I'm currently sorting out my paypal account which is taking an age. The second its done I will be getting it, dont you worry. I just pray that the nice £50 set is still available.

Have you watched Kai-do-maru again yet Chris? I'm curious to know whether we just didnt watch it properly or if it was the boring snooze-a-thon I remember it being.

Kai-do-maru isn't a fast paced actioner, but it is beautifully drawn and a nice little story. I rate it more on its artistic merit than its blood and guts crazyness merit, but it is a good little film. I think it was a straight to video type thing as well, OVA or something?

Can't really fault the artistry but the story mostly seems to take place off screen and we're left with the dull in between bits. Much like Blood: The Last Vampire it felt like they couldn't be arsed writing one so just cobbled together a few scenes from a complete movie that doesn't exist.

That's what made it so interesting to me.

Don't know if it's been mentioned here, but is that new Final Fantasy DVD worth seeing? I don't know the games at all, but the film looks gorgeous...

Worked a lot better in Blood than in Kai doh maru. Kai doh maru is just unsatisfying rather than intriguing.

Yes, and like Blood: The Last Vampire, it's only about 45 minutes long, so it doesn't have a lot of time to flesh the characters out too much. Its a bueatifully drawn transgender cross-dressing warrior love story, with political and familial intrigue thrown in to boot.

I think the story in Blood: The Last Vampire is better than Kai Doh Maru, and they are both drawn and CG's beautifully.

Yes, yes and yes. In fact I will track you down and inflict pain if you dont. Its worth seeing if only for the experience of watching it. It is without a doubt the most beautiful CGI I have ever seen and isnt likely to be topped for a while yet. The plot will be lost on you for the most part but the DVD has a recap of some of the stuff from the game so it shouldn't be that bad.

I agree with Whitey on the Kai-doh-maru front, it was a frustration to hear about the good bits without seeing them. I remember we (me and monkey man) were watching it at about 2am and every once in a while we would both comment that we were missing stuff left right and centre when in fact there was nothing to miss.
Very much a case of style over content.

Jubei- I believe your right in thinking it was an OVA

I I'm adding: Dead leaves. To my list. That film was fucking insane.

I'l bring Kai do a round next time I come down.

Cool. Dead Leaves certainly deserves a place on any anime fans list. There is literally nothing else like it and I hope nothing ever tries to emulate its style.

So, is that all we get? I've never heard of it before, care to share?

The Official Site
I dont have flash on my comp so I cant make a judgement on the site intro but if its hyper fast and vivid then its a good reflection on the film.
Its basically an all out, insane action acid trip following the actions of the two amnisiac heros and their freaky in-mate assistants. Its a film that deserves a few watches just to take in the fact that the whole thing is hand drawn ( a feat you can only appreciate by watching some footage). If you've got some spare cash banging about and you want to spend it on some mindless but memorable entertainment look no further.

Ah, this is the thing you mentioned before with the guy who has a drill for a dick. Not sure thats entirely my cup of tea, but may have a looksee.

Ugh the intro was a poor reflection of the anime.

It's just an insane hour of non stop all out fucking awesome action.

And the cock drill is done for comedy not perversion (for the most part).

Quite a few people say Dead Leaves is good. I don't think I'll bother though - it just looks like one of those "crazy" animes everyone loves because it's so "zany and random". I don't watch anime because it's anime, I watch a show/film because it's good.

You're right, it's stunning to watch. My only problems with it was the length and the fact that when it ended was when I was hoping it was just getting started.

I need some advice, I'm tempted to buy Gantz, but I've read mixed reviews about it. Has anyone here seen it and would you recommend it? I've seen the entire 26 episode set on ebay for about £25.

You know that'd be pirated, right?

I had considered that, but it seemed to be in a reasonably genuine loking box. What had pretty much convinced me was that episode 1 of season 2 was on the same disc as the last episode of season 1. Still, wherever it comes from and in whatever format it comes, the question still stands as to whether it's any good. Also, I have a genuine copy of all 26 episodes of Ghost in the Shell: SAC 1st Gig that was £34.99, so not unbelievably cheap.

ebay linky.

That's pirated.

As for the show, no idea.

Well I found it good because it was so kinetic and crazy. Not Zany.
I mean it was so fast paced and the action was well animated,the storyline isn't that important but it still makes sense.If you can get it for cheap or from Juarez then I would really like to hear your opinion on it.

I mean I've never liked things just because they are populare or well known. For instance, I really don't like the Akira anime much at all.

It looks quite real to me. How come it's pirated. Also Gantz sounds quite interesting.

Because it's region free is generally a good indicator of its legitimacy.

I have also bought from that seller before. I got Berserk and Trigun in a nice box and high quality region free discs.
They are pirated but they are good pirates.

It's called "Perfect Collection" in a weird font, it's a cardboard set with frosted plastic sleeve, it has no logos on the discs or packaging, the style of art for the disc/holder, it has 12 episodes on a disc... I can go on. I've got about 15 anime sets that are pirated and they all look like that. I looked it up, and it's made by a company called Mac, which used to be called Anime Cartoon. I have a few sets by them and they're fine. This is what the official DVD set looks like. And that's £40 for Season 1. And that's on 6 DVD's for just 1 season - this pirate set is 3 DVDs for 2.

It's a perfect collection with the English dub, so I'm guessing it'll be R1 rips. The picture quality will be fine, but not great, and might pixelate a little during heavy scenes. Some DVD players (PS2 especially) might not like the discs.


Piracy is very common in Asia as you know, and they use very professional methods and mass-produce their sets. It's not like some guy with BitTorrent and a DVD Burner like here, the sets look nice. In fact, I have a couple where the artwork and packaging is nicer than the official sets. It's still illegal though, and I only ever got them for shows that aren't out in the UK (and still aren't, 5 years later). Just bear this in mind when you think of buying them.

I believe if they buy a licence to produce and sell titles. SOme companies on ebay do that, but most don't.

No, they don't. Because if they did, you wouldn't get subtitles like:

"Upgrade to forced conflicts"
"Do you bread the order?"
"I'll bring you to the hell!"
"I'll show you economy!"
"I senseded the enemy murderous atmosphere"

And these are just a few I remember off the top of my head because me and my friends say them. There are some that make no sense at all like:

"Lousamei.bada had leaved Agiema. Fly to Gripps No.2 space. Gripps No.2 satelite wants to aim his gun at the moon city and Gulanuoda. Gulanuoda's Mainalian.qiaoge in order to break the situation out He sent a legate to Ageima." - That's the word-for-word synopsis of last episode on one of my DVDs. It's not that bad, at least the names of places and people are constant. One of my sets, the main characters name can be written as one of 8 different words, some of which look nothing like his actual name and others which are other characters names. One of the characters even has the name of a space station, whilst the actual station is called an entire line of random letters and numbers.

And the picture wouldn't have the TV channel logo appear at the start of each episode, or the menu screen would spell the shows title correctly.


Believe me, some of them are very good. When I was 15 and bought a boxset on eBay (my first online purchase), I thought the DVDs were official. Some of them have perfect subtitles, perfect picture and nice menus. Others don't. A website like Import Anime is a good resource for HK bootleg DVDs, with reviews for them from buyers (though this Gantz one hasn't got any reviews).

Fair enough then, I have been officially told.

Quite tempted to buy that Gantz but can't seem to find it anywhere.

The reason why so many of the DVDs have poor subtitles is because they're being translated by Chinese people. Someone who knows Chinese and Japanese will translate the Japanese script to come up with the Chinese subtitles for the DVD. Then, someone else who speaks English as a second language (and might not be incredibly good at it) will translate that and form the English subtitles. So our subtitles are a translation of a translation, and it's often an extremely literal one. If you've ever gone on Babelfish and translated something, you'll know the kind of style they're in.

Oddly enough though, after a while it doesn't bother you. The subtitles convey the message, just not in proper English. The line makes no sense when you first look, but all the structure of what it's about can be found. After a few episodes you understand what's going on. After a weekend binge of Gundam 0079 (which has the worst subtitles, I can't even begin to tell you how bad they are), 43 episodes in 3 days, I'd gotten so used to poor translation and no grammar that I didn't notice spelling mistakes in things for weeks. I just sort of saw what the word was supposed to be.

Before the time when BitTorrent and fansubs became all the rage, this was the only way to see many anime shows. Nowadays I don't see the point in spending £30 on eBay to wait 3 weeks for some pirate DVDs with potentially terrible subtitles, when fansubs exist online that are quicker and better. Also, not owning a DVD already makes me more likely to buy the official one once I like the show.


Ah, what an interesting adolescence I had. When my friends were buying Addidas trousers and CD's, I was buying DVDs with titles like "The name of this movie: Motive Flighter Silver Bullet Fighter" (actual title "Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket". You can really see where they got the subtitle title from...). On the plus side, some of the subtitles really are hilarious, and are still running jokes among my friends over 6 years later - some of them have never even seen the show and it's still funny.

I'm quite tempted to torrent it myself. I've often found that fansubbed anime has better and more complete subtitles that the subtitles that come on official releases, and I have also upgraded from laptop only fansub to official release on DVD in the past. For me the bonus is being able to watch on an actual TV.

I know what you mean. Fansub subtitles have little messages at the top if a cultural reference is made, so you understand it more than if it was on DVD. Little things like that. Then you get shows like Paranoia Agent which are fantastic, but the DVDs have dubtitles and the dub changes all the names and so on.

I saw Evangelion as a fansub, and then spent £80 on the official DVDs, so I am perfectly willing to shell out for a series I like. But because most shows aren't on TV, you have to make a leap of faith based on reviews and such for some shows, and I wouldn't be willing to spend £20 on a volume of a show without seeing it first. Fansubs are good in that respect too.

My favourite fansubbing is for Ghost in the Shell by Laughing Man Fansubs. As well as the subtitles, and like you say - the extra cultural info and explanations for terms or references that only make sense in the original country - they also subtitle all the signs and on screen text, but they do it very faithfully. For example, a van may pull up with writing on the side, and the english translation will be on the side too, and almost perfectly synched with the movement on screen. The time and effort that these people put in, for no financial gain of there own, puts commercial subs to shame. If I could have legally purchased the fansubs on DVD I would much rather have had that than the official release, which I have bought. The official version is a kind of dumbed down version, which is a shame.

Also, the cost of anime series on DVD is almost prohibitive. At £17 to £20 per volume you can only afford to buy so many series. They usually take 7 discs to run a whole 26 episode series, and thats going to be nearly £140! Definately not the kind of money you want to spend when you haven't had the chance to check it out on TV first. I tend to wait for box sets, but then the fansubs have been out for years already.

I picked up Noir volume 2 because it was on sale, only £4 or so, but I wasn't that impressed, so I won't buy the rest full price. If they were all affordable on the other hand, I might have bought them.

Yeah, I've seen that. Thought the show was bollocks, though. Some fansubbers even get the fonts the same as the signs, really good stuff.

Surely it'd be better for everyone if the owner companies paid the fansubbers to do the show. The company doesn't have to pay as much, the fansubbers get some money, and the product would be better.

Ah well, in a perfect world...

I absolutely agree.

I agree with you on the ludicrous cost for DVD volumes at the moment.

I got my Bootleg copy of Berserk in a fold outbox with great artwork on the box and discs, menus and some extras.
The Dubbing is well done but the Subtitles are also done well. It cost me£14

If they sold that in shops,who knows how much they would charge.£10 for every 3 episodes I imagine,and I am not prepared to pay that much for something I can get that is high quality even if it is bootlegged.

Where do you get your bootlegs from?

I want to start watching a few series' because I love anime but all that I can afford are films and normally they're too short and rarely make sense.

If you go on eBay and search for any anime series, there will be many bootleg sets listed. You can usually tell by the price and the number of DVDs (a 50-episode show will be 5 or 6 DVDs, and a 26-episode will be 3 or so. There are exceptions; I have a 50-episode show on 12 DVDs, and the video quality is worse than the 6-disc version [same subtitles]).

They're also almost always in the cardboard fold-out case with a plastic sleeve. Also, if the set is located in Hong Kong, you can bet it's a HK bootleg (duh).


I find in general, anime films are better than series. There are many, many series, and only a relatively small percentage are great. Once you've seen Fullmetal Alchemist, Evangelion, Full Metal Panic!, Cowboy Bebop, Universal Century Gundam, etc, there aren't a huge amount more that are on-par with them.

Yar all my bootlegs come for ebay.
My Trigun,Berserk and GTO are lovely botlegs though.
The only disadvantage is my PS2 won't play Region free discs (well it will in Black and White) so I have to get the DVD player from downstairs or watch on my PC, so it's still not much of a hassle.

My PS2 plays mine. Though a couple of episodes don't work, and 1 set won't load on anything but a PC and 1 of my players at home (everyone elses players I've ever tried it on it didn't work).

Then again, my official DVD of Evangelion: Death and Rebirth won't play on my PS2. For some reason.

I think there were changes with the different models.
All I know is that my PS2 won't play themin anything but black and white.
Perhaps if I got a different cable they might work.But it's nt much hassle to watch it on the PC or get the DVD player so I'm not really bothered.

Are you watching it through a scart on a NTSC compatible tv? If not, thats why. If you are then your PS2 is just rubbish.

Gonna watch some more Bleach tomorrow night.

Wow.
I never even tried it with my new TV I always assumed it was the PS2.
Remember the old SOny TV I gave you,that wouldnt play them,but my new one will.....well this is all sorts of awesome.

Also:Put your grasses on! Nothing will be wong!

EDIT:I think it's time to rewatch GTO.

You fanny. You could have been watching it all along.

Indeed a rewatch of GTO, Berzerk and Trigun are in need.

meh,I just assumed it was the PS2 not the TV so never really tried it again.

My friend gave me about 6 pirated* discs of Full Metal Alchemist. I've gone into it with no preconceptions; I cant even read the case becuase there isn't one. I didn't even know it was anime until I started watching it and I love it! I'm on episode 6 I think, and I love the relationship between Ed and Al plus its just so cool. He's metal!

* I know it's wrong and I don't do it myself.

How strange, my friend has just given me 51 episodes and a movie of pirated full metal alchemist too. I've only seen the first 2 before, and I was wondering just how an alchemy battle might work. Now I know, tis fantastico!

I loves it! Although I have now run out and i'm craving some more. I might have to persuade him to get some more.

There are 51 episodes then you'll have to try and find a copy of the film. The end of the series is a cliffhanger so your hankering for new stuff will not be sated when you get there by the way.

Are they still making episodes?

The story comes to a conclusion of sorts on episode 51. I think that there at least 3 films out/in production. Not sure