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

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

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...?!!

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

Not anime, but does toku show count...? - A local company named M. Master holds the exclusive right for Ultraman Nexus from Tsuburaya, they apparently took their master source from the HK Region3 version (japanese audio + cantonese dubbed + chinese subtitle + original HK menu) which would of course be 'cheaper' (in case of copyright and license fees) and 'quicker' to produce.

They add in the malay dubbed audio track (from the one which was broadcasted at TV3), and put malay episode titles to the original menu (no additional subtitles though), then they got Sp**dy to distribute their product under Sp**dy with dvd cover and slipcase printed by Sp**dy (adding the logo). Have no doubt that Sp**dy also provided help during the manufacturing - providing the malay dubbed and factory press - Sp**dy holds the right for the tv broadcast.

And voila, each single volumes of the dvd (1st volume = 5 episodes, 2nd++ volume = 4 episodes, all 13 volumes) are selling for RM 19++ at Sp**dy, or even less in other shop, if ya know where to find 'em.

Each of the volume almost always released a month late following the release of their HK counterpart. So one can assumed that they do follow a contracted schedule.

I bought 'em but stopped after volume 3 because there was a glitches, went to the shop and try to get a change but outcome is still same - conclusion, either the master source they obtain was tainted or not much quality control... They should hired people to view the disc first...

PS: I've bought some of the Odex copies before the Odex Fiasco...

This post has been edited by thesecond: Mar 4 2009, 05:58 PM

Mediamax only distribute Sony Entertainment's release and nothing else, so yeah, it is 100% okay - they're much more focus on the local bluray distribution these days anyway, which is freaking expensive...

Innoform is a part of Innoform Group Singapore (they have sales point here in malaysia) and HVN is a part Berjaya Group, so yeah it's no good for big corporate group like 'em to sell non-legitimate stuff.

Anyway, if a release doesn't show any indication of it's production, sponsor, licensor, manufacturer, international distributor, local sole distributor(one and only), rightful copyright holder for media content, print and stuff, it's 100% not legitimate, unless ya get 'em from the pirate\bootleg shop who 'mass-print' 'em from the original dvd cover but mostly bad quality print none the less...

For buying online, well, anime, atleast, I prefer rightstuf and amazon for the region 1 release, then there's playasia, yesasia and jsmall for region 3 release, with chinese sub...

If Sony Entertainment decides to release Advent Children in bluray to the rest of region A, ya betcha, mediamax would be the only sole distributor for it, well, here only... - but RM 140++ for a freakin bluray disc is still expensive compare to the discount stuff online...

Tower Records already filed for bankruptcy years back, the local Tower Records are more like in-names only... Most and all local store sell stuff that are supplied by supplier locally regardless of their 'true origin' as long as the 'authorized for sell sticker' is there...

Oh yeah, about those OSTs, there were never any real original anime OST been sold here anyway (except for third party imported one - imported from japan).

Well, the only way to get 'real' and 'cheap' (minus the import fees and taxes) anime OST locally is when local music & records distribution companies like Sony BGM or Warner to start taking interest in them and licensed them from their japanese counterpart (like avex and ect). - which is currently equals to... none...

Anime music and Anime itself is a totally different business even though they are related... - anime would be handle by the video media distribution company, while music would be handle by the records distribution company.


PS: And yeah, forgot, never buy by faith, buy with research and double checking...

Somewhat same here - bought 'em since they are cheap and available... Wasted nearly thousands on 'em until I got frustrated...

Amazon is expensive...? Well, okay, they ARE most of the time. You can always try rightstuf.inc though, they can be really cheap, an online anime merchant founded by anime fans for anime fans, but their shipping rates is much more expensive though if you're thinking of buying singular but effectively much cheaper if ya buy more than 2....

Only two problem though, foreign customer needs to either scan\photograph (I used a webcam ) their cards and any documents (invoice from amazon is acceptable) that helps confirming that their billing address is real. (they only ship to your billing address as stated in your card - billing addreess on document must be same with billing address of card)

The second problem is they tend to mark the price really low on the custom declaration form (automaticly), like US$ 10 bucks for a big boxset that is worth US$ 50-90++... So, remember to leave a note to remind them to write a higher and believable price or just the exact price of the product (if the product price plus shipping does not exceed the RM 500 limit) ~ I got one large parcel held up by custom before because it was too cheap to believe.

Of course, they are 'legal' since the government censorship board already allegedly 'filtered' and approved 'em for sell, licensed authorization of release doesn't concern them at all.

As long as no one is taking claim on that certain release with a proper and authorized license or distribution rights, then the government won't bother with these release. Once a company bought the license or obtain distribution rights to a certain show, those other 'Ori' would automaticly vanish from the shelves unless those are obvious bootlegs that are sold a pasar malam stall and obvious bootleg video shop.

Example: Shounen Omnyouji, Kekkaishi, and Kamen Rider Dragon Knight from PMP. You won't see Sp**dy selling 'other' version of those release by other company because they are legally claimed by PMP and previous 'Ori' and unauthorized releases of these same products would disappear as well, well, in time... Sp**dy would be the first to act. Other store would probably try to sell 'em as quick as possible because it would hurt them more.

That's the way our locals here do their stuff, 'by the book' and there are always loopholes to be exploit.

Japanese anime production company, their local authorized distributed and their middleman the licensing agents are way too outdated (or used to, I wonder if they are too late to claim back what was their's), since they prefer to sell their license to other foreign companies to be license\distribute instead of dirtying their own hands to get the job done. Selling the license would spare them the risk and the commiment since they won't be spending any of their money and would be sitting down enjoying the $$$ instead.

No 'stingy' local company would dare go to them since the japanese are very demanding, with the big mess like separate licenses for the anime itself, the soundtrack (OP, ED, BGM), merchadising, copyrighted characters and ect. ~ The Opening song for Skullman "hikari no machi" by TOKIO was left out from the US region 1 released by Funimation (it was edited with some clips and some BGM) because it's a separate entity and it is authorized to be use in Japan only on the part of the Japanese production company, Funimation would have to deal with the music company instead if they want to include that song and probably ending up paying more.

So, imagine that the Japanese've learnt their lesson and start coming down here themselves (like what the americans did - WB, Fox and ect) and finding an appropriate partner locally to create a joint venture (sole distributor, licensing company, whatever) that will help them reclaim their products and make way for future products, then we'll finally see the government taking a more active role to cleanse the local anime market - foreign+local joint venture = investment = money = legal action...

They all bother, by circumstance only... If something is known to be 'illegal' and properly notified then they would bother to take action (ordered to do so), but if that one thing is an 'unknown' and there is no Notice to look out for it nor there is any particular legal claim by any party related, then they wouldn't be bother to do anything. Jumping to conclusion that one boxset of DVD might be bootleg (paranoid much?) would lead to a lot work and head will spin, why bother?

That one set of DVD would probably be hard to determine if it's legal or bootleg- it might be possibly legal in a country but illegal in another country, but there's no way to differentiate them without going through a proper processing channel...

Imagine this, in a perfect world where rules are strictly and properly enforced and the government officer cared and bothered -

a)The custom detained a DVD set at an airport, sent the owner off giving the fella some documents and asking him to wait for further confirmation while they process it.

b)The custom then sent the DVD to a processing channel, it's taken apart, the wrappers torn off, the box and the disc are carefully check for chemical residue (bootleg used cheap glue betwen the dvd and the protective membrane ).

c)They cross-referenced the information from the invoice and the dvd set by communicating with the original merchant and the original distributor to determine the originality.

d)They probably screen it, to check any unappropriate stuff (for the sake of morale and religion and ect). ~ probably decide to confiscate it if it doesn't meet their standard.

e)The whole processing would probably take alot of time since they cared and bothered and detained every parcels (all are potential candidates) to determine if they are legit or bootleg.

g)Voila, 4-12 weeks later (or more if counting public holidays), the poor fella finally received a call or a letter telling him to pick his genuine original dvd set at a certain address and reminded to pay a certain fee and filled a certain form and stick 'Ori' stickers on them to prove that it's legal and original. Or it's consficated for being to violence and it's against the law and furthermore it will from now on be banned and so the copy will be rid off. Or it's being determined as a bootleg. it will be confiscated and act as an evidence as the government as a representative of the public and the copyright and license holder will proceed to prosecute the fella...




So.... Since processing takes time, and pretty much a chore, why bother doing so? And don't forget that people already complaint whenever their stuff are detained, then going through the so called 'rape' process, and possibly then tainted with a shiny 'Ori' sticker and a big filtered and approved sticker and not to mentioned that they have to pay a certain fee to let the government do that. The stickers was an idea created to simplify the identification of an original release and a bootleg but all it did was worsen the matter...

And what if the DVD set turned out to be a parallel import, a grey product licensed only to be sold at a certain country, but with a simple click online it flew across the globe to another country that is outside the legal regional licensing agreement. It might already been licensed in said country, and the existance of this foreign DVD set goes against the agreement between the local distributor and the copyright owner, more head will probably spin... So why bother?

So...

I do. Amazon.com was my first time... They have alot more shipping options to choose from (unlike Amazon Japan who only ship internationally using courier).

By standard shipping, the shipping cost for 1 dvd\bd is about $4.99(per shipping)+$3.99(per item). ~ takes between less than 2 weeks to a month to arrive, unless stucked within a heavy postal traffic jam.

By expedited shipping, the shipping cost for 1dvd\bd is about $13.99(per shipping)+$3.99(per item). ~takes about more than 1 weeks to 2 weeks to arrive, unless stucked within a heavy postal traffic jam.

By priority courier, the shipping cost for 1dvd\bd is about $29.99(per shipping)+$3.99(per item). ~ takes around 3-5 days, normally there's no traffic jam to worry about.

I use standard shipping the most, it's quite secure and cheap by my standard, I have only experienced one missing package which actually arrived much later after Amazon resent my item without any hassle (you only gotta wait somewhere around a month from your expected arrival date as calculated by Amazon). There's actually no need to send back the extra package as Amazon insisted that you don't need to, you should just keep it to yourselves...

Amazon always resent by expedited shipping if your lost item was standard shipping, if the second resent still failed to arrive, they'll use priority courier instead, if priority courier also failed (which is less than likely), they'll probably refund you (maybe not full refund). ~ Best Customer Service in the world, by my POV anyway.

Anyway, My order of Evangelion 1.11 BD has shipped from Amazon last Tuesday...

Simple. Speedy and the other shop like it are just retail shops, they only sell what is provided by through the distribution companies (like Speedy and Eastern and ect), which is obtain from the various local 'legitimate' publishing\production company. As long as the products are 'declared' original by the Government, then they can sell, it's just a grey area.

Anyway, as long as the products (no matter what methods) go through KDNK or even FINAS - get an 'authorize to sell\distribution\import form', filled it up, provide them with some documents, do some screening of the media (sometimes), pay up and voila, original stickers... 'Ori' here means certified by the Government for selling and distribution, it does not mean 'licensed'.

According to local laws, a foreign distribution\publisher needs a local partner (representative - sole or exclusive) to distribute and to publish their stuff - This is how Fox, Warner, Disney and ect do their stuff. A part from a few small licenses, there are no local representatives for anime distribution in a whole.

Real licensed 'Ori' product (stickers or no stickers) will have enough details and information on their prints to legitimate themselves from the not so real 'Ori'. It's quite easy if you know where to look.

Correct.

That statement is correct also aside from a few exceptions, and I'm too lazy to say it...

LF =

A true legit release would have come with alot of official info on the back-cover, like the anime studio (who holds the copyright), the licensing company (who licensed the product), the distribution company(who distribute), the editing company (who edit the video and audio, create the menus, put on subs and ect).

If any of the above is not present, then not legal. ~ simple.

Yes, there is. Thing changes after 2004\2005, when the officials from the Japanese side turn towards the previously bootlegging companies and actually made them into their official representatives - because they recognised the taiwanese's ability to come out with low cost and high quality bootlegs (packaging wise ).

The taiwan made bootlegs you see now in the market are either left-overs (from early 2000) or burned DVD-R through online deals (bad quality, they might go bad after multiple plays).

There are currently several legal and official licensing and distribution company in Taiwan like Mighty Media, Muse Inc...

Here's a list of their official website (in chinese). Each of the company have their own catalogue of anime and merchandise, which means that a certain anime would be solely under a certain company (in taiwan), example: Naruto is under Might Media. So if you see others, then those are bootlegs.

And sadly, as official licensed release, most of their products only have chinese subs, english subs is a rare thing. - that's the truth about legit version.

Prowaremedia - one of the taiwan based company who are releasing their own anime BDs (only FMA: Conqueror of Shamballa comes with english subs). ~ corrections.
http://www.prowaremedia.com.tw/

Mighty Media - they are also starting to release their own BDs such as Summer Wars (which included english subs)
http://www.mightymedia.com.tw/

Muse Inc. - A distribution company and a licensing agency, who also deasl with character merchandising and OEM products (Original Equipment Manufacturer) ~ They are listed inside the Animenewsnetwork's database.
http://www.e-muse.com.tw/


Top Insight - famous for their release of the 100% uncut version of Garo DVD set. The one that was aired locally is their dubs but it was gunting and potong... Gundam UC and 00 are licensed to them as well.
http://www.my-cartoon.com.tw/

Then there's PIMGroup which seemed to be currently unactive, for quite a long time now.
http://www.pimgroup.com.tw/

And yeah, most of the Ghibli stuff (most, not all - all licensed seperately) are release under Deltamac of Taiwan (based in Taiwan but also active in Hongkong, while in the same time they are also a joint venture partner of Walt Disney\Sony Ent\20th Century Fox\BBC in China under the company name - Excel Media.)

Deltamac HK
www.deltamac.com.hk

Deltamac TW
http://www.deltamac.com.tw/

Excel Media
http://www.excelmedia.net/

But again, I repeat as official licensed release, most of their products only have chinese subs, english subs is a rare thing except for a more all regional and international release. - that's the truth about legit version.

PS: The lastest dvd (2-disc) release of One Piece Strong World by Bees Factory Entertainment which is slated for late December is said to come with english subs.

This post has been edited by thesecond: Dec 13 2010, 05:20 PM

How dare you doubt me...? ~ Just joking...

First of all, those company don't 'sell', they produce\manufacture\distribute. If you want to get them, try finding them at either Yesasia, books.com.tw or jsdvd. They are much more affordable than the North American release, but beware the pricy shipping fees though. And yeah, sometimes their packaging especially the repackage price down edition are really 'cheap' looking...

Well, there's one thing about legit distributors that is completely opposite of illegal ones - legit distributors often have a much more limited catalogue, they only distribute what they can afford to get (japanese licenses are never cheap), and sometimes some of them are official sole distribution which means that the other company won't be releasing products from the same japanese production company if it's belong to that sole distributor.

So, you won't see the same title release by two or more company at once, unless the original license had expired (most likely after more than 5 years - maybe, according to their contract of agreement.) and transfered to another new licensee. - This is not the same with the local release, where you can see two company compete with each other by releasing product of the same title.

And yeah, you can put all the faith in Madman since they are pretty much the biggest anime\japanese series distribution company in Australia (probably the only one, if I remember correctly).

Yeah, don't forget to add in duty fees and sale taxes...

Wait...? So prowaremedia ship internationally...? I never knew that...

Well, the taiwanese tend to follow the japanese release strictly during the first press run, sometimes their artbox and even gift item are the same as the japanese counterpart.

I tried to order stuff from Madman before, I tried but never actually done it.

Bluray is the future, man. Well, atleast for the next 5 years maybe...

I buy according to favour, if I like the title so much, I would probably pay more. I might even double dip just for the sake of the packaging or bonus content, if I have the money of course...

PS: Mind PM me how you get Prowaremedia to work? There's nothing about international customer on their site. Thank you very much.