The Bizarre World of Bootlegs

[Char Aznable]

Recently a friend told me that they were moving overseas and, to lighten his load, decided to give me the majority of his anime collection. Well, two-thirds of said collection turned out to be bootlegs. He said that many came from a single source he had bought from years ago. Apparently this was one big mega-purchase for him, since the prices were "too good to be true" and he was genuinely thinking they were legitimate releases. Lo and behold, they arrived at his door and were not. Now, with his impending move, either they all went into the trash (because he obviously can't sell them) or I take them. So, being the humane fellow I am, I decided to save them from the dump.

I'll say this, it's fascinating how bootleg companies really churned somewhat "official looking" products, at least on the outside packaging (though this isn't always true). However, I figured I'd post a few images just for curiosity sake and as a potential visual resource. I've been on more than one anime forum where I've seen worried members asking if something on eBay is a bootleg or not…well, if they're any of the products in the following images, I can assure you, they most certainly are bootlegs and to avoid them! So, take this as my public service announcement for staying away from bootlegs if anyone finds a "too good to be true deal". Truth be told, despite many of these covers looking professional, it's still fairly easy for many fans to spot signs of an official release and bootleg. But, nevertheless...

First up, is EVANGELION. Always a popular one. Sometimes bootlegs will have a "company" name on the box (FX, EverAnime), but not here. The front/back of the box is completely devoid of any logos. This is always a clear indicator of a bootleg. This nameless company did pull out all the stops though, in terms of artwork. It's an impressive high-quality cover, with some nice artwork throughout. Even the discs have some vivid art on them.

However, the episodes are clearly compressed and the quality leaves much to be desired. To make matters worse, the final two episodes won't play. It appears they'll work somewhat on certain DVD players (I tried three players, earning mixed results), but not at all on others and, even then, when it does work there's still issues playing through the whole way.

One of the most peculiar things about this set is the subtitled lyrics for the opening title song, "Cruel Angel's Thesis". They're not the same subs from the ADV discs, in fact they're not subs I've ever seen before on any release. I have no clue who translated them. Oddly enough, they don't seem half-heartedly translated, so it doesn't seem like some crappy rush job, nor are the subs a nonsensical mess. I figured if they just ripped this off completely from an official source they would have ripped the subs too, but nope. Bizarre!

And, here are those images:











That last disc is a mystery to me. The entire 26 episodes of EVANGELION are on the first 3 discs, and this 4th disc (the so-called "Disc 2") is filled with weird clips of freakin' super sentai shows! All of which are neither subbed or dubbed. I have no clue what any of the shows titles are. I assume some of these aren't clips but actual show openings... If anyone knows of a '70s super sentai show where a kid runs around with a black ball creature with a yellow hat that looks like a sombrero -- it's featured here. There's a bunch more too, including some guy with weird bug eyes (not Kamen Rider -- though he's featured later in the disc). I even spotted what looked like a war-themed super sentai show complete with soldiers, tanks, machine guns and...you guessed it...a giant robot. It's a trip. I guess whoever put this bootleg set together figured that after watching EVANGELION, who wouldn't want to watch around 50 super sentai show openings -- all from the '70s/'80s! If you make it through the Super Sentai openings (and there is a bevy of cute female actresses in many of them) your reward is some more outlandish Japanese TV show openings at the end, which that defy all manner of explanation. Some of these shows I would imagine are now obscure in Japan, let alone never dreamt of in the US.

Oh, and final note. Anyone who ever had the misfortune of handling a bootleg box set knows how fragile the cases typically are. Take a DVD out and you have a 90% chance of breaking the clips that held that disc in the case. Not so here, shockingly, the case for this EVANGELION set is more durable than 9 out of 10 official releases. So, I guess they got that right...

Next time, maybe I'll showcase -- and I use that term lightly -- the Ranma 1/2 sets. Jeez, those are a mess. Though nothing comes close to some of the DBZ VCD titles.

[llj]

I have a few bootlegs. 90% of them are crap but 10% are actually halfway decent. My most "prized" one is my WMT Anne of Green Gables DVD set--somewhat official looking package, and the picture quality is actually pretty good for the first 30 or so episodes. It's obvious the master copy was the Japanese DVD release. Then they "cheaped out" on some of the later discs in the set by cramming in 10-12 episodes per disc, which is where the quality nosedived. I have to give it to the english subs, though, they did a decent job trying to convey Anne's flowery speech patterns.

It was probably still a better quality product than S'Mores' Galaxy Express though.

[greg]

So many of those Chinese anime DVDs have ridiculous Engrish subtitles. There was a Miyazaki box set an old friend of mine bought that had ridiculous subtitles. Like it called Porco Rosso a "little piggy" or something. I had owned a KOR box set that was Chinese, which I disposed of once I got the AnimEigo version. They actually used fansub scripts for the TV episodes, which even still said the "NOT FOR SALE OR RENT" (oops) during the eyecatches. But the subs for the OVA were classic terrible "translated from Japanese into Chinese and then into English" subtitles such as, "Much the funny! Brother is play joke now." Ugh!

[Char Aznable]

I've certainly come across a fair share of some wacky subtitles. One of the worst offenders that immediately springs to mind is a Ranma 1/2: Big Trouble in Nekonron China VCD (supposedly an "official" release from Malaysia). I'm convinced either the person subtitling it was on acid or had no clue what the translations were and just decided to wing it.

And speaking of Ranma, here are those bootleg DVD sets...











I haven't made it through every disc but, so far, it looks like the picture quality isn't half-bad. It's certainly not great, but I've seen far worse. Nevertheless, there's definitely noticeable compression going on with these discs. The box is littered with tell-tale signs of odd uses of English, like "Love & Tears, Panda & Kenpo" along with "Human and man and woman are pitted against each other."

One of the worst things about these Ranma sets, right off the bat, is the terrible cases they come in. As soon as I opened the case, discs were falling to the ground. The "hubs" that hold the discs into place are made out of some of the cheapest plastic known to man. When you remove a disc by pressing down on the plastic center hub, there's a 80-90% chance you just broke it -- and that's regardless of how gentle you're being with it. It's like they were made to be one-touch-damage-assured. And, since these aren't standard Amaray DVD cases, once it's broken, it's ruined for good! Comparing these sets to the latest Viz Media Blu-ray release is like comparing a rusty penny to solid gold.

[usamimi]

Oh, man, I had a similar thing happen to me--back when I lived in WA, a friend of mine gave me a huge box of anime because she said her husband had bought it and decided he didn't want it anymore...I took it home, and it was ALL bootlegs. Every single thing. I assumed he'd probably bought them in one of the shops in the International District (back in the day, they sold bootlegs ALL the time...now I think there's only one guy who still sells em). My guess was he probably tried to trade them in somewhere after watching them all and no one would take em, so they were like, "Oh, Dawn likes anime...lets give em all to her!" I ended up giving most of them away, though I still have a couple. Like a box set of Mamotte Shugogetten, since that never got released here, so I figured I'd keep it. Amazingly, the first few episodes are translated REALLY well...my guess is whoever made the set found fansubs and copied their subs. However, after that, the subs go into varying degrees of not making sense AT ALL (if I recall, they start calling characters by really weird names...Rishu became "Wendy" I think?! It was so odd.) I'm guessing because no one ever bothered to fansub the rest of the series, so they had to wing it for the rest. And yeah, the box set totally suffered from the crappy plastic issues you mentioned...I think you'll rarely find bootlegs with decent cases.

That mystery disc for Evangelion seems pretty bizarre! They must've just thrown that in there to fill the last disc spot. I remember I got a copy of the Gantz live-action movie from a swap site and was VERY disappointed to see it was a bootleg...though oddly, found the bootleg had a random episode of some super sentai thing in the "Extras" section! I was very confused, as it was obviously a 70s-era sentai thing... Yeah, needless to say, that disc totally got given away to someone else.

[ServantOfPriss]

Char, do you happen to have bootlegs for stuff like Dragonar, or Angel Cop?

[Char Aznable]

Unfortunately, no Angel Cop or Dragonar bootlegs. It's a shame that Angel Cop has been out of print for so long, it really needs a re-release.

Usamini, I can't believe they threw in a super sentai show with Gantz too! I guess '70s sentai was just the go-to bonus feature for many of these bootleg companies...

And here's a couple photos of the Macross: Do You Remember Love bootleg. It has the original Japanese track, as well as English dub. I usually don't mind dubs, but this one's terrible beyond words. Not bad image quality on here and the sound's not bad either. This was cobbled together by FX, who released a staggering amount of bootlegs.

[greg]

Oooh, the tricky part about that DYRL bootleg is that it uses the same cover artwork as the legitimate Japanese DVD. Conspicuously missing on the bootleg is the Emotion logo. Tricky!

[llj]

I think I have that same DYRL bootleg. I believe the dub on it is a fandub that was done a few years back. They managed to get Cristina Vee (from Bang Zoom) to do Minmay's voice for free.

However, the video quality on mine is crap. It looked like a youtube rip. I was expecting this bootleg to use the Japanese DVD as the source, but apparently I was wrong.

[Char Aznable]

I wish mine had that fandub, I can imagine Cristina Vee doing a pretty good Minmei voice. I think my DYRL copy might have been lifted from one of the now rare Japanese laserdisc releases. The dub sounds like Japanese actors, not well versed in speaking English, trying their best to sound out the words. I believe I had read something about this years ago, that it was done as some sort of experiment to teach English to Japanese audiences, particularly by playing these dubbed films on plane flights for Japanese business men to pick up some English. Not sure if that's true or just hearsay. But it's certainly the strangest dub I've ever heard.