to buy or not to buy?

I download and watch 2-3 episodes, then decide if it would be worth it to continue watching; usually it's not since the last couple of seasons have been 90% generic bishoujo/harem fanservice crap. But if it happens to be worth watching, like Kamichu! or Ergo Proxy, then I won't watch anymore but instead wait for the R1 license and the DVDs (though it was already pre-licensed in the case of EP.)

The exception to this is old-school anime like Captain Harlock and Touch as well as other niche shows which have pretty much a 0% chance of being licensed.

Originally Posted by David Deluxe

Although it sucks a little bit, I have to confess that I only download anime. I mean, it's not like I don't enjoy watching those downloaded animes and shows like Azumanga Daioh or Last Exile would be worth getting a purchase, but I won't pay 30€ for three or four episodes. On the other hand, I'd never spend my money on bootlegs.

You can import DVDs from places like DVDPacific and you'll rarely pay much more than $20/disc. That's still a significant amount in the long run, but fortunately almost everything gets released in cheap collections if you wait. For example both Azumanga and Last Exile are available in sweet complete sets for $45 and $65 respectively. I see in your profile however that you may be a bit too young to have your own VISA or other credit/debit card to use for imports, but I think most banks should be able to offer them when you turn 18, so make sure to get all those great shows then. (That's what I did.)

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by ComCrimson

I get all my anime from Ebay seeing as that is the only place i can find it in the UK without having to import it and i don't want to pay some ridiculous ammount for a tiny ammount of episodes.

Again with this preconception that anime has to be ridiculously expensive... Anyway, eBay is a nasty place, I hope you're steering clear of bootlegs.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by ComCrimson

Anime is ridiculously expensive. I saw one volume of Azumanga Daioh in HMV or Virgin a while back and it was about £20 for just a few episodes. Stupid price for so little. Well, the recent anime i purchased were bootlegs and they're just fine. They were cheap and it allowed me to clear my hard-drive. Ebay is my anime store.

It can be, but as I said doesn't have to be if you just look around (although I must admit I'm not all too familiar with the UK market.) Still, you can get the entire first season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex for £30 from Play.com, damn cheap for one of the best shows ever made.

And I've always been against pirating for profit, no matter if it's games or apps or anime, so I think it's unfortunate that you choose to support these scum bootleggers. You're wasting your own money, giving it to some lamer who doesn't deserve it as well as help funding who-knows-what illegal businesses in East Asian countries. If you refuse to support the creators at least have the courtesy to just download and enjoy it.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by AcerBandit

However, I still haven't bought Azumanga Daioh on DVD yet and that's in my top 10. Why? Well although it's available for a nice price on thin pak I don't like that ADV has cut out extras just to make it on think pak AND the fansubbed verion by Triad in my opinion is the better watching experience. I'm very tempted to buy it on dvd but I don't think it will have the same soul as the effort and love Triad put into its version. Simply that a lot of fansubs are just better than the official stuff keeps me from buying a dvd. Why should I pay for something that is very expensive that isn't as good as a fansub? Sure there's the dvd quality to account for but video quality is something fansubbers generally have done really well now-a-days. Does anyone else feel this way?

I used to, I still do a bit. I have a lot stuff on DVD that I've never watched, but I bought it anyway because I had already seen it and felt obliged to pay back somehow. You have to remember that most of what you pay for is not the translation/adaptation (i.e. the same work that fansubbers do for free, and which you are comparing here) but for the actual content, the show. The one exception to this is the significant cost of dubbing. I'm against it, I'd prefer cheaper releases without them, but a lot of people are whiny and simply won't buy anything if it's not dubbed, so a sub-only release could potentially have to be even more expensive to make up for the lack of sales. Not much you can do about it except try to convince people to join the 'other' side.

As for fansubs being better in quality, translation etc. I think that's just a made up excuse for not having to pay for anything, because in my experience that's not really true. Continuing with Azumanga as an example, the individual DVDs have booklets with a total of 30+ pages of translator notes (and 10+ pages of staff comments) for the entire show. I haven't seen the Triad version, but you can bet that the other release skipped a lot of cultural stuff they didn't catch, didn't know about or couldn't fit in the pop-up notes/subs.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?