The Bizarre World of Bootlegs

[llj]

Here's an Air Master bootleg. The "Part 1" labelling is pointless; this is actually the entire series.





I dug out my DYRL bootleg and I found that it was different from Char's after all. They don't even try to hide the fact that it is a DVD-R

[greg]

Ooooh, nice sticker! At least it isn't written with a Sharpie marker or something.

[usamimi]

Wow, the art for Air Master looks weird. And classy sticker on that MDYRL? bootleg, lol. XD

[llj]

Man, I should post a screen capture of my bootleg Ashita no Joe's subtitles. They keep referring to Joe as "Zan" which I guess must have been translated from a Chinese script.

[Char Aznable]

Ooooh, nice sticker! At least it isn't written with a Sharpie marker or something.

Years ago I got a bootleg of the Japanese "Transformers: Headmasters" series. Half the discs had stickers and the other half were labeled with multi-colored markers. Unfortunately, they were the circular stickers that covered the whole disc, which for some reason wouldn't play in my DVD player at the time, yet the sharpie-written ones would.

I know a friend who used to buy bootleg Crayon Shin-Chan VHS tapes in the late 90s and the seller would write on the labels and draw pictures of Shin on the covers -- all with crayons.

[_D_]

Chinese bootlegs as well as legit for the Chinese market LDs were always a hoot. Because at the time it was mandated that the films had to be released in Cantonese, Mandarin and English, the subs were hilarious. Spoken English that did not match the subs was common. Probably all done by the same subbing house. I know it was like that on English dubbed for the overseas market films. The same voices in every last film.

Just been reading about Chinese comics. I have a bunch of pirated St. Seiya comics that I acquired at a time before China got rich and started to legitimately acquire rights for publication. Some of this stuff looks like photostats were used. Crazy!

[Char Aznable]

Here's another bootleg that I haven't posted yet: Elfen Lied. The quality on this one isn't too bad. There's certainly some compression going on, but I've seen worst. The DVD case has those terrible center hubs that, once pushed, break instantly.

[usamimi]

Yikes, that's some seriously ugly packaging design going on there. D:

[Animusubi]

I love this thread! I should really get some of my bootlegs up, though I don't have many anymore. I donated quite a few of them or gave them to friends.

[Char Aznable]

I've been wanting to post this one since late November/early December--but I was too lazy to upload the pictures.

Anyway, here are some pics of the Gundam Unicorn DVD bootleg. It's a 3-DVD set, though a 4th DVD was included as a "bonus" for some anime titled Galilei Donna. Most of the bootleg anime DVDs I've seen are well over a decade old, so this is a more current one and I was pretty surprised at the packaging and picture quality. One of the best--if not the best--I've seen, with regards to bootlegs. However, getting some of the DVDs out of the case can test even the calmest person's patience. I'm assuming by the gaudy sticker on the box that this one came from Malaysia. Also, while the packaging is slick, I would have opted for a different character on the front cover--I forgot the Zeon character's name, but I'm fairly certain she was only in one episode of Unicorn, and was pretty insignificant in the story's grand scheme. Odd to put her on the DVD cover when other characters like Full Frontal, Mineva, or even Marida played far more pivotal roles.