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So what's is all this Animé and Manga then?
What's Animé and Manga … well the definition depends a lot on where you are. In Japan Animé and Manga is taken to cover all animated media and graphical novels whilst in the West it is taken to cover just those produced in Japan. Here we will take the latter definition.
I know it's all that Pokemon/Naruto/Bleach stuff I see on TV!
Whilst those series are Animé they are a specific genre aimed at a certain demographic. Unfortunately it appears that the majority of Western broadcasters are of the opinion that this sort of series, aimed at the young male audience, is the only one which will currently perform well. There are many other genres of Animé available.
Oh you mean all of that school girls in little skirts and tentacles stuff?
*sigh* that again is a very narrow definition of Animé and doesn't cover the wide range of things that are available. It's like this; Animé and Manga are media types. Within each of them many, many genres of titles are available. Animé genres can range from Action to Romance and from Sci-fi to Magical Girl. Also note that, as these series are created with a different culture as their primary target, what you see may not be what you expect to see in any genre.
The equivalent of porn is called Hentai, as this site is family friendly discussions on Hentai should be avoided. However in main stream works there may be some "fanservice", i.e. flashing of pantsu etc, but there tends to be little more than that and a big deal is normally made if two characters say that they like one another let alone kiss.
But it's all for kids isn't it?
Nope, like there are many different genres of Animé and Manga there are also many different target demographics, examples are:
Kodomo - aimed at children
Shojo - aimed at young women (<18)
Shonen - aimed at young men (<18)
Josei - aimed at older women (18+)
Seinen - aimed at older men (18+)
Note that just because the target demographic for a series is not yours doesn't mean that you cannot watch and enjoy it. In fact it can be quite surprising what is in which category.
So if it's not on TV how can I watch it?
Well if it is not on TV then you'll have to watch it either by a legitimate online streaming service or by purchasing DVDs/Blu-rays or Books. Of the many series released in Japan each year a small proportion are licensed for release in the US and an even smaller proportion are licensed for release in the UK. Once a company has licensed the release they will then normally put together a subtitle stream for it and possibly, although more rarely now, an English dub. We'll cover streaming sites and media regions later on.
But my mate/brother/cousin/cell mate/priest says they downloaded 900TB of good Animé
*sigh* That is what we call Fansubs. A Fansub is normally a video file taken from either a recording of a broadcast or some other media and then subtitles have been added by an amateur third party. This is then uploaded onto the Internet and distributed without the copyright holders permission, which is illegal. There are many groups and individuals who do this of varying quality, quite often limited by their understanding of the Japanese, or even English, language. This is also one of the reasons which causes problems in the Animé industry as some of the Fansubs are of licensed shows which impacts sales and hence costs the industry money which could otherwise be reinvested to license more titles. Fansubs are also often used on non-legitimate streaming sites so be careful that the site you are using is ok, see links below. Note: see the rules/guidelines section below.
OK, I want to buy my Animé but where can I get it from?
Well do you want to watch it streamed or do you want to own it on physical media? For streaming solutions see the links section below. Note, as we said above, there are a lot of streaming sites out there which are populated using Fansubs, in fact CrunchyRoll was one before it went legitimate. the sites listed here are all legit.
For DVDs/Blu-rays Animé is available from many online sellers. In the Links section the lists preferred vendors are listed. Note the following though; if it's too cheap then there is a good chance it's a pirate copy … we'll cover things to look for to try and avoid these later.
The other thing to be aware of when buying Animé is region encoding. Lots of series are released in the US but never make it across to the UK, (or do as singles instead of box-sets) … this means that anyone with a large Animé collection has probably got content from multiple regions. This means that if you want to buy some Animé you need to know what region it has been released on and whether your player supports that region.
Region 1 : US releases will normally be released as this region.
Region 2 : UK releases will normally be released as this region. Additionally Japanese
releases also are R2 but are NTSC instead of PAL.
Region 3 : Places like Hong Kong and Taiwan use this region. It is fairly unlikely you
will get anything with this region.
Region 4 : Australian releases will normally be released as this region.
For Blu-rays things are slightly different;
Region A : US and Japanese releases will normally be released as this region.
Region B : UK releases will normally be released as this region, as a bonus Australian discs are also normally B.
It is possible that Blu-ray disks be released as Region A/B but it is worth checking carefully before buying as a disk whose region does not match that of your player will not be playable. Also note that a lot of multi-region Blu-ray players are only multi-region on the DVD side, not the Blu-ray side, hence it is worth checking carefully prior to purchase to prevent disappointment.
So I can just order all my Animé from Japan then?
Well yes you can but there are a couple of points you should be aware of:
1). Japanese Animé is expensive …. really. It used to be that an average US release of an Animé series would be across three disks if it was a 13 episode (1 cour) series and six disks if it was a 24 episode (2 cour series). At $30 a disk this was expensive. now US releases tend to be in half or full season box-sets at $30-60 price points. All of this is nothing compared to the Japanese pricing.
In Japan the number of episodes per disk is normally lower so that a 13 episode series may be released across six disks and a 24 episodes series across eight disks. Each of those disks may be £40+ going up to £70 for some limited editions. The limited editions for popular series can sell out very quickly and then be many times this to get hold of. Recently Blu-ray box-sets have started to appear for some series, these can retail in the £260-400 range (and that’s the reduced price from places like Amazon).
2). There is a very good chance that it will have no English subtitles. There is practically no chance of it having an English dub. There are exceptions but the majority of Japanese Animé releases do not have English language options on them.
Japanese Manga will, of course, be in Japanese not English.
I ordered all my Animé and when it came the Post Office wouldn't deliver it until I paid some extra money?
You are importing goods from outside the UK hence they are liable for tax and duty if they are worth more than £18 going to £15 in November 2011, (or £36 going to £30 if they are marked as a gift). On top of this the delivery company will normally add some form of Admin charge to cover their costs to handle paying these for you and then billing you afterwards. Some vendors will send their packages with the values, erm, adjusted to decrease the chances of vat an duty being charged. If they do this then it can cause complications if the package goes missing and legal implications if the package is stopped and Customs investigate. Sucks I know.
I bought a 24 episode series off of a popular auction site for £5 and it looks rubbish!?!
That will be because you have bought a pirate copy. They take Fansubs and shove them on DVDs then sell them to you cheap and thus make themselves a pile of cash to spend on drugs, guns and Pocky.
It is possible to buy Anime cheap off of the auction sites but you have to be very careful to check if it is legitimate or not. Before bidding, (or before purchasing), check the following:
- Is the release region free / region 0 … if so the chances are it's dodgy.
- Is the release in Japanese with Chinese and English subtitles … if so the chances are it's dodgy.
- Is it an Official Malaysian release with seal of authenticity … if so it will be dodgy
- Is it a Perfect Collection … very good chance that it's dodgy (there a few legitimate releases which are Perfect Collections though).
- Is it a Studi Ghibli Collection … there are no legitimate releases of collections of Studio Ghibli films.
- Is it 13 episodes per disk … if so it will be dodgy
- Is the series listed on TRSI as being available …. if not then it could well be dodgy (or just out of print) so you should investigate further.
- If the rest of the indicators don't look good then have a look on Wikipedia and see if the series is licensed for release in US/UK (don't read the article though as it may contain spoilers) and does the advertised release match the company given.
If in doubt then ask here, we'll will be happy to take a look and comment on whether the release looks kosher or not, there may well be some advertisments for legitimate releases which ping one or more of the above notes. If you have already purchased the item … well the item is a pirate copy and is not as described.
Animé Thread Rules / Guidelines
[ Note that failure to follow the rules can lead to wielding of the ban hammer / tentacles ]
- All normal forum rules should be respected.
- Fansubs are bad mmkay. Whilst discussions of currently airing series are allowed, discussions on how/where you got them are not, (including hinting). There is also no need to discuss Fansub groups, the differences between their releases, or that episode N of series XYZ has been released.
- Spoilers. This is a thread which is read by many people who may or may not have seen the series which you are talking about. Hence don't spoil the series for anyone else. Unfortunately the forum does not have spoiler tags enabled so use the following to mask the text (use the color tag with the colour code #1c5780, so that it looks like [color=#1c5780]your text[/color], and work like thus). This works for the standard forum colour scheme, but not quotes or alternate colour schemes.
- Youtube clips. It would be very simple for a thread about a visual medium to devolve into a large number of postings of Youtube clips. Whilst the odd clip is ok to make a point it is requested that members do not post them frequently.
- Hentai. this is a family friendly forum so don't even go there.
Links
Vendors.
The RightStuf International (TRSI) www.rightstuf.com - US based R1 Vendor, will ship to the UK but only to the Cardholders address. Initial order does have to go through an extra card verification process. Reliable with good Customer Service. Shipping can take 1-3 weeks.
United Publications www.up1.co.uk - Kent based importer of R1 DVDs. As they import the goods to themselves and then reship out to you customs duties etc have already been dealt with. After the first order they will happily ship to an alternate address. If they don't have an item to hand then they will need to order it which can take an additional 7-10 days on top of their normal shipping. Note that for R2 DVDs there are quite often cheaper options.
Otaku.co.uk - UK based site which does import R1 DVDs. Tend to be good for Art Books.
Other vendors which you are less likely to use:
Amazon Japan - Are generally good but have expensive shipping, (via DHL). The secret to finding things on their site can be to get the Japanese text of the series name from Wikipedia to search with.
YesAsia - Hong Kong Based. Have a very wide range of stock but can occasionally have bootlegs as they are not 100% on checking everything (due to their stocks size). Do have an option which means they will refund customs charges under certain criteria and accept PayPal.
Play-Asia - Hong Kong Based. Very similar to YesAsia and are worth comparing with them to get the cheapest option. Have a number of (cheap) shipment options and also accept PayPal.
CDJapan - Can be good for OST's and Artbooks as well as merchandise.
dvd.jsmall.com - Taiwanese DVD store. Majority of stock is in Japanese with only Chinese subtitles but it is possible to get some R3 things from there, (e.g. Nodame Cantable), at good prices. Can be good for getting cheap artboxes for R1 series which are not going to get one.
Distributors.
Funimation www.funimation.com
Sentai www.sentai-filmworks.com
Bandai Entertainment www.bandai-ent.com
Media Blasters www.media-blasters.com
Nozomi Entertainment http://www.rightstuf.com/rssite/nozomiEntertainment/
Manga UK www.mangauk.com
General.
Anime News Network
AoDVD @ Mania.com
The Fandom post
Wikipedia
Anime Planet
DVD Profiler – Very handy app for keeping track of your DVD (and Blu-ray collection), for a modest fee you can get it for windows, and there are versions for Windows Mobile and IOS available which can sync with the PC one.
Legal Streaming services.
Nozomi Youtube Channel
Crunchy Roll
Anime on Demand
Ye olde anime thread can be found here.
Many thanks to memyselfandi for the actual content of the post, I've just done some minor edits and added a couple of very small bits to it (so I'm the one at fault for any mistakes).
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