Hmm, I checked for the mangaka that I wanted but it's not available. Worst is that I check in Amazon also don't have but I read online that Viz Media already licensed that manga. Maybe it's not translated yet?

lots of manga they only took the license but they never really translated it, they declare all the titles cos they have an exclusive agreement with the company japan manga publisher... they will list the title but it's up to them to translate and sell or not.

well thats one of teh reason why people goes to "on-line" translate manga/novels or local ones like kreko/etc..

price also teh gap is quite huge for local "ori" bm/chinese translate manga compare to "international one"

Deng... No wonder I can't find some of the titles that's been licensed by Viz Media laa. Some already licensed for several years but still can't find it on Amazon. Now want to finish the manga also cannot. (T_T)

Beli cetrom sudey..

Actually... There are original animes here, licensed and authourised, but they are few and sometimes rare and can only be found at either Sp**dy or EzyV*deo (because of licensing problem), mostly...

I'll list some of it that I've found, seen or bought -

Karas: The Prophercy and Karas: Revelation - released by Innoform, region 3. I am a big fan of Karas, I've actually collected all 6 volumes of the Limited 2-disc Edition from Hong kong (by AVP, original japanese transfer), the collector set from US (by Manga) and yeah, a special collector's edition that comes with a Karas figurine (by Innoform, priced around RM 70-80)...

Steamboy and Appleseed - released by Innoform as well.


Appleseed Ex Machina - licensed by Warner, distributed by Alliance Entertainment which is under Spe*dy... Yeah, that Sp**dy...

Final Fantasy Advent Children - licensed by Sony Entertainment, distributed by their local authorized distributor which is Mediamax.

And yeah, Bleach is actually licensed in Malaysia to the one and only Berjaya HVN... It's an 'indirect disctribution' (I think...), not from japan but through a company named Medialink which is located in Hongkong, so don't be surprised if ya find an extra audio track which is cantonese dubbed... I remember seeing old stock of Bleach volume 1 (1 disc - 4 episode) somewhere, and it comes with a insert - a free poster.

Shonen Omnyouji and Keikaishi (by PMP) are both licensed authorized distribution as well. But, they seemed to be lacking the original japanesed audio... Which is ashame...

PS: Best way to spot a local original is focus on company like PMP, Innoform, HVN, Alliance Entertainment, Mediamax and Movie Magic. Finding logos\trademark of the anime production company, original distributor(japan based), licensor and ect are important as well...

Anyway, I am an average joe as well, but I still manage to save some money to get myself original stuff from amazon\rightstuff and ect, well, maybe it's a little slow, but it's better than bootleg or BT, for me atleast...

This post has been edited by thesecond: Mar 3 2009, 06:28 PM

well if it's licensed from hong kong company, don't it means that the hongkong counterpart illegally sell the license that japan company given exclusively to develop in HK, Taiwan and China market?

Not really... Medialink is actually a licensing agency, which is probably given the right to distributed (licensing) the product exclusively in region 3 which include malaysia, singapore, thailand, taiwan and hongkong... China is not included since they are region 6 (not one of us). And yeah, Japan is region 2. This regional system is more or less created by the japanese, so blame them...

And, yeah, medialink won the Best Asian Licensing Agency of the Year awards last year...

This post has been edited by thesecond: Mar 3 2009, 06:52 PM

please provide me link to support and proof that those company you mentioned have legally license those anime for selling purpose

by this I Mean

I mean proof of warner give alliance entertainment right to distribute applespeed
innoform licensed steamboy and appleseed for distribution
mediamax have been asked by sony to sell ff advent children
berjaya hvn have licensed bleach for distribution in malaysia
pmp have license shonen and keikaishi for distribution

any licensing that is happening will instantly become headline and news in many anime news network , finding legimate proof should be easy
if you cant find any IM sorry but those are fake and pirate .

take example on one piece/budak getah:

RM24 for original at kino
RM5.8 for translated at any book stalls

LOL Malay version of One Piece is licensed lar (if you read SBS section in the tankoubon, Oda did mentioned Malaysia as one of the countries that have OP translated in their respective native language), and it's RM 4.30. The original one (I assumed you talked about the japanese version) is RM 24 due to difference in currencies.

BTW, AFAIK, Comics House got license for all of the manga they printed.

Though the "international" one is more exp. at least you will get the uncensored version

actually i was talking about how u can pick either original japanese and translated malay. it's up to you to choose what u want to read

Well, we are actually lacking a 'proper and more official channel' for anime actually, anime are just the 'minority' here and quick to be ignore... And more Malaysia company don't really update their website anyway, and they are always lacking of information... But, there are still other way...

News About Mediamax being the sole distributor for Sony Entertainment locally - from starAll Sony Entertainment releases are distributed by Mediamax, there is no other(mediamax doesn't distributed other products beside Sony Ent's as well)... Appleseed Ex Machina is licensed to Warner in region 1 & 3, not sure about region 2 which is UK.

Mediamax official Site

This About Us page in Speedy's new official site has an article which show that Alliance Entertainment is the sole licensed distributor for Warner locally, Movie Magic for Fox and MGM, again there should be no other...
Click n' Scroll down to near the end to read about Speedy's About US...
Again, Final Fantasy Advent Children is released by Sony Entertainment worldwide, so the only sole distributor here is Alliance Entertainment.

Berjaya HVN is the largest distributor locally and here is the list...
Berjaya HVN's Official Website - product Breach belongs to the other studios here... So again, lack of information...

But, found here is the same release for Bleach I see selling under HVN's license locally, Poh Kim SingaporeBerjaya HVN operate across malaysia and singapore, so it might as well be 'parallel import' since HVN does not own the license for Bleach in Singapore (checked at HVN's singapore site)...

Anyway, this is the page for Innoform Media's Karas item page-
Karas The Prophecy

The PMP entertainment part is to blur due to lack of information (the only certain thing is the E-muse logo on their release - E-muse is a licensing company in taiwan), sorry...

I hope these above are useful though...

One thing is quite certain though, any legitimate distributor doesn't distribute different animes from different company all at a time - point to L*mb*ian F*lm, An*pl*x, V*sc8p* and ect, simply because licensee are expensive and exclusive.

PS: Anyway, I am not doing this to get people to buy 'em, anyone not confident with our distributor here can just try other option like buying online (or continue with their DL), just don't buy too much at a time - something that we've gotten used to with those so called 'ori' anime here - 1-50 end in one whole box inside 2 disc...?!!

wow you really go and search

but anyway sad news is that even if they are licensed to sell sony and whatever title , they still can sell anime illegally bootleg from hk or taiwan , nobody would really care anyway

furthermore , most anime have max of 4 eps per disc and usually cost you arm and leg

well it is up to you to buy or not from those shop but I highly advice people not to . unless you want to suffer with hk eng translate or middle of the show got written this is a free fansub

I am a little surprised how uniformed and naive (and also dumb if you want to put it harsher) the mass is. It really shouldn't take a genius to realize all the "tulen" chopped stuff are just pirated things, most people should be able to observe how large the price gap is between the actual legit stuff you can get online and the stuff you can buy at your local shop. The reason why the pirated things are able to get the tulen sign is because they are legitimate copies from taiwan or china, but they aren't legitimately produced in taiwan or china in the first place, to put it another way it is a legit copy of a pirated product.

And personally I find it worse to buy pirated things than downloading them. By downloading it illegally, the original maker loses money. By paying money for illegal copies, the original maker loses money and the pirates earn money for doing nothing.

So stop and think again before you hop to your local SPEED store thinking of buying a few series or soundtracks next time.

Do vscape have licensed to anime OST? I saw some OST selling at RM15 but with cheap printing..

lol for uncensored one can get online imo should be ok to be collected for those who have the "local-ori" manga

same thing happen to anime in most cases..

buy "local ori" but with censored thinggy but download teh uncensored version for another collection/viewing purposed

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Added on March 3, 2009, 10:37 pmIMO other aspect should also take into consideration, such as average salary that a malaysian earn vs teh price of "ori" items that in international market.

At least they has tried to buy "ori". Btw are j-dorama applicable as well?

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Added on March 3, 2009, 10:44 pmwhich remind me... a cozen of my fren goes to singapore last year, in her bag few "bootleg" anime and some burn anime dvd (download ones) and at teh "kastam/checkup" kena tahan, thank goodness she tell teh officer in-charge that the burn anime is her backup, and they let her pass if not...

This post has been edited by miloy2k: Mar 3 2009, 10:44 PM

Well, in my case I'm looking for Yoshihara Yuki's manga - Since most of her titles are considered smutty (there are several josei titles which are very good), there's no way it's gonna be translated and distributed locally. I really appreciate some of her works and don't mind to fork out the money to buy her manga (as a collection le). There are some mangas worth paying the big moolah for. Damn Viz Media licensing her manga but not translating it. Damn them.

BTW, you guys who bought original translated manga - do they change the japanese names into english names or are the names retained? I hate it when they start giving them english names. If that's the case, I sure as heck won't buy the manga.

As for Speedy selling original anime - I highly doubt it. Maybe selected outlets, I don't know, but most of the Speedy shops sells bootleg anime and same goes for Tower Records (bootleg anime and OSTs).

Heck, I paid RM60+ for a LOTR extended version VCD (ok, so I was in a hurry to watch it and couldn't wait for the DVD) and the quality was so freakin bad that I stomp back to Speedy and demanded a refund. Knew what the idiot told me? "Speedy punya quality memang macam tu le". Bad visual (very blur like pirated cinema version and you can't even read what the subtitles clearly) and bad audio (can barely hear what they're saying). Ever since that incident, I NEVER bought anything from Speedy ever again.

This post has been edited by chibi_tenko: Mar 4 2009, 07:34 AM

Tower Records shut down worldwide years back, the Tower Records here is no longer the same entity, they are just using the name.

I don't really need to search, they have passed my way a long time ago... - I have been buying vcd (and later, dvd) for the last eight years starting from 'ori', fake and bootlegs, I stopped and convert to buying only licensed and authorised stuff nowadays (with an exception of a few 'ori' now and then because of my 'hunger' for some specific anime, but will replace 'em in the future.) So, yeah, I have to walk a long path to reach where I am today - wasting thousands on fakes and bootlegs, I think... Got cheated many times too...

I think people misunderstood how Sp**dy operate, as a whole Sp**dy consist of several businesses including distributor, copyright holder, and 'brick and mortal outlet', and yeah, now, or currently, online merchant. - with an expensive shipping rate for foreigners...

As a distribution company, Sp**dy own two susidiaries - Alliance Entertainment which is the sole licensed distributor for Warner Bros and Warner Bros only. Movie Magic which is the sole licensed distributor for Fox and MGM. They don't sell 'em, they only distribute 'em to shop and their Sp**dy outlets. Any Warner or Fox's title
that is not distribute by 'em is totally not legit except for 'parallel import'.

Sp**dy (Alliance Ent. & Movie Magic) does not made, produce or manufacture their dvds or well vcds (avoid them anyway), the whole content or package is supply by the Warner Bros or Fox - same goes for Hongkong or Taiwan, in this case here Deltamac for both, mostly (equivalent to HVN here -malaysia and singapore)... All region 3 Warner Bros, Fox and MGM dvd release all same for Malaysia, Singapore, Hongkong and Taiwan (even Thailand too) - same content, quality, package.

But... One exception is the extra merchandise like the giftset or steelcase - need to pay extra fee for 'em, so it differ from country to country within region 3. Heck, I got the Limited 'batpod' edition of Dark Knight, and yeah, it's the same and 20++ bucks cheaper than getting it from Y*sasi*\Pl*yasi* despite the annoying stickers.

As a copyright holders, Speedy holds broadcast and screening copyrights for tv and cinema, heck, golden screen cinema is actually licensed under them...

As a 'brick and mortar' outlet, Sp**dy sell stuff that are supplied by other supplier as well, supplier like LF, Vsc*p* and ect.

Actual licensed release are always fewer, just a few new titles, some old stocks and less than 0.1%% of animes or even less (Warner, Fox and MGM don't do much anime, or well, probably none for Fox and MGM, but Warner did licensed Ex Machina and they did do Batman: Gotham Knight), and there's a limit imposed (let say, 10,000 for the whole malaysia?) by the licensor to the total amount of dvds to be distribute. And then even after adding in the stuff supplied by other legit distributors like HVN, Innoform, PMP, AOE, Multimedia, they are still really the minority here comparing with the other stuff supplied by other company.

That's the reason why more than 80% of what Sp**dy is selling is just 'ori' with stickers is because stuff supplied by those other company are not authorized - not need to pay licensed fee, no distribution limit imposed, so they can just made more and more and more, without any worry or ect... The problem is the law, the law that is never enforce strict enough locally - Just close one eye lah, no problemo, easier for all...

Anyway, I am not encouraging people to buy at Sp**dy, it's just that next time ya happen to be miraculously inside Sp**dy or any other video shop, go look at the region 3 release and then compare them to other 'ori' - look at the back cover, mostly the mess of stuff below, ya shall see the differences between an authorized release and the so called 'ori'.

And yeah, bad customer service is a common thing here locally anyway, and then there's the 'no refund, change only' rules that doesn't seem to apply elsewhere beside here... The best way to get dvd locally (if ya want to), is to wait, patiently, do your homework, search the announcement for official region 3 release especially Hongkong (our release date is close to them), use HVN's site if it's a Paramount, Touchstone, Buena Vista release (there should a banner for new release especially the popular ones), read about the spec and info if ya can find them and compare them with the region 1.

At the end of all of that, go to the store and find the dvd and then ask 'nice' staff to open and test it - it's your right as a consumer.

PS: Update: This is Innoform.

News about Innoform acquiring Alliance Entertainment Singapore - not to be confuse with Alliance Entertainment Malaysia...

PSS: Although 1 volume of a single original release DVD might just contain 4 episodes and it is a-hell-expensive, one can always wait for the eventual Thinpack especially since US company are starting to put back the same extra nowadays... Waiting for price drop, special offer or going direct to Rightstuf (my anime heaven - by anime fans for anime fans) is a good idea as well.

This post has been edited by thesecond: Mar 4 2009, 12:27 PM

yeah i bought many mangas such as FMA and GTO, they didn't change their original name. It's only on Chinese translated manga