Azazoth

It looks like a bunch of Amazon retailers are offering a 3-disk set of the complete Cowboy Bebop series for ~$30. Anyone know if this set is any good?

joshualane

It's a bootleg (aka illegal copy) so no, it's not any good.

Maxflier

You sure that isn't the "Best Sessions" set?If so it is only some of the episodes.The only official complete set is the 6 discs.

Azazoth

No it's not the Best Sessions disk, it looks like it's a new 3-disk import. If it's a bootleg, then I'm sorry I brought it up. I thought Amazon had more reputable sellers.

Maxflier

It is the bootleg then.I bought the same set not knowing what it was,after which i bought all of the official discs,so no harm done.

Rypro 525

oh and they should rerelease the complete sereis with dts and remastered video.

Maxflier

I agree,the difference in quality in the Bandai release and the particular bootleg in question is barely noticeable.

But I think Joshualane was just saying it is not any good from a moral standpoint,but I could be wrong.

joshualane

That's exactly what I was saying. I've personally never seen the "import" being discussed and while it may have excellent audio and video quality, it's overall existence is "not any good" for both the anime companies and consumers alike. Bootlegs are nothing more than copies placed in fancy packaging to make them look real.

littlefuzzy

Any and all "Import" sets of anime listed at Amazon, Half, and E-Bay (with very few exceptions) are bootlegs.

Warning signs:
Import (Region 0, all region, etc.)
Chinese & English subtitles (these may include English dubs ripped from the original licensed discs.)
26 ~30-minute episodes on 3 or 4 discs.
Digipacks.
http://www.digital.anime.org.uk/piratefaq.html#dvd
http://www.jazzmess.com/merch/bootlegfaq.html

Psychlowne

My favorite is when they say:

Chinese & English Subtitles (Removable)

That definitely means bootleg.

eau

The 3-disc sets are bootlegs. Almost all 3-disc sets of any anime series that you find anywhere are bootlegs.

The only official R1 releases are:

Vol. 1 - 6
Perfect Session (a LE boxset containing all 6 volumes plus OST1 CD - already OOP)
Best Session (2-disc set containing select Episodes, remastered and DTS)

The movie DVD is released by CTHE. Available separately or as a bundle with Metropolis (anime).

Jackskeleton

because for the most part, half of those are a copy of the bandai releases (Those that do have both dub and sub). a fansub bootleg is also floating around. either way they are bootlegs and really shouldn't be supported.

Whenever you see a full anime series for 20-40 range.. the chances of it being a bootleg is high. Especially if it's region 0..

TomOpus

A friend of mine has tried to buy an XBox from 2 different reputable Amazon sellers and neither one arrived. I tried to warn her after the first one didn't show but did she listen? Nooooooooo...

eXcentris

I own it. Is the quality good? Yes. As far as "morals" are concerned I agree. However, 6 x $50 CDN = $300 for the R1 releases. Sorry, but that's just ridiculous. I own 4 bootlegs out of 750 discs and I normally don't support them but if you want people to buy your releases, at least make them somewhat affordable.

Psychlowne

It is sad how much some of this stuff costs, but that's just the way it is, sadly. If you're willing to sacrifice quality/legitimacy for a good deal, go for it. However, there are deals that pop up every once in a while.

I picked up a few box sets for around the price of 2-3 DVDs this past month. Can't complain with that.

Rypro 525

its 100 bucks at amazon to buy the entire set.

DVD Josh

No, it isn't.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...lance&n=507846

The only real set is $300.

Even if you were to just buy the 6 sessions at $25 per, you are looking at $150.

So I'm not sure where you got that information from. If you can find me a legit copy for $100, I will be the first in line to buy it!

trigun

The discs could cost $500 each. That still wouldn't make it right to steal.

eXcentris

Yes, I admit it, I'm a thief. But with 4 bootlegs out of 750 discs, I can live with the guilt.

MrsMiaWallace

deepdiscountdvd has volumes 1-6 for $17.99 each

$107.94 isn't bad at all

Rypro 525

it was this link
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...v=glance&s=dvd
it was about 96 bucks, and i got mine about 10 months ago at that price.

young

how do you tell it is a real version? they put 3-4 episodes per dvd... stretch out a 17 episode series on 5 dvds when they all could fit on 3 dvds w/out any loss in quality or extras.

this is not to say that you should buy bootlegs; support the artists. but, frankly, stop ripping off the customers also. if you made if more of a "value," a lot of those bootlegs would disappear.

amazon should do a better job of enforcing the sellers as well.

Maxflier

While I don't agree with bootlegging in general,I do think that some companies deserve to have their stuff bootlegged.Take for instance the anime series "Hellsing",it is only 13 freaking episodes,yet it is stretched out over 4 discs and cost over $100 bucks to get them all if you go to Best Buy or Amazon.To me that is just as criminal as bootlegging.

Jackskeleton

Companies deserved to be bootlegged? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU FOLKS?

You realize why the price on anime is so high right? IT'S BECAUSE OF BOOTLEGS. it's also because of high distribution fee's and the fact that it is still a niche market that is even narrowed down more when you have people bootlegging.

Can't afford the dvd set? Guess what, I would love to live in the hollywood hills. I can't afford it, So that's the way it goes. Can't live within your means? Don't under cut someone else because of your circumstances.

Anime prices have huge factors to play as to why they are expensive. Why help support someone else who will continue to undercut and destroy the industry. Would you like other titles not to be picked up simply because the distribution fee's are way to high and the majority of buys will be taken away by bootleggers? I can pick up a copy of any given movie for 8 bucks at the flea market. does that mean I do it? No matter how good the quality is, there is still something about buying the legit item and supporting the company. Showing them that the choice of getting the distribution rights for the said show was a good choice. This also reflects what other future shows they will pick up distribution on.

Best buy and amazon conducting criminal actions because they happen to charge MSRP? Dude, you do realize that it does cost a great deal of cash to get distribution rights. especially on titles where the creators are already asking a lot for those distribution fees. You want to see bad? Take this example. FLCL came out here. It's a six episode series that came out on 3 disc. 2 episodes per disc.. OOOOH THE HORROR!! THE HORROR!! CRIMINAL INDEED!! before you jump to that conculsion think of this. It came out in japan one episode per dvd. and it was just about the same price per dvd. So just think about that for a second.

Eventually prices will go down as the market grows bigger. But not if you keep on giving your money to bootleggers. If you are going to steal atleast keep your money to yourself and not encourage bootlegging. YACK!

I agree, amazon should do a better job about bootleggers, but the problem is that there is too many to even begin to try to monitor them.

Civic2oo1

You also have to put some of the blame on the consumers who continue to support bootleggers. There was a thread not too long ago in the store forum about a guy who mistakenly bought a bootleg copy of Underworld on ebay for $9.00. Looking at the item description it did seem a little funny, but hard to tell if you don't know much about DVDs. He probably burned the copy onto a DVD-R, printed a few labels for it and the cover art and sold it. All the people buying his auction got the exact same product. Now what does it say under his feedback? I think he had about 3 or 4 negative feedback against a few hundred positive. People even wrote that 'Discs are copies' but gave him a positive feedback. Tons of remarks about the discs not being real but people kept on giving him good feedback boosting up his score, getting more people to buy and support his activities.

Like the other poster said, if you can't afford it then don't ruin for everyone else and bootleg it. If I can't afford to buy a Benz, I'm not going to go out and buy a Camry and slap some Benz emblems on it. Because no matter how good it can look from the outside, it's not the real thing.