Kamen Rider DVD Version Choices

[Glamador]

I'm a fairly recent Kamen Rider fan and I'm looking to support the series by buying the DVDs (as well as torrenting fansubs because...frankly, the official subtitles are rubbish).

The problem is that there seems to be a number of different versions of the various rider DVDs. Specifically I'm interested in W which seems to have multiple Malaysian DVDs (I speak English only). I can't figure out which one is officially official. Can a more experienced Rider fan help a fellow out?

Having physical DVDs is important to me. I want them to be nice and not bootlegs or inferior copies. I intend to get the DVDs of all the series I enjoy most so if there are any others with this problem and you know about it please point it out.


These are the types of DVDs that I'm seeing for W:

http://animelv.com/images/stories/Live Action/KamenRiderWD5.jpg

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/DVD-Kamen-Ma...Q==/$(KGrHqJ,!lwE9JVDGL29BPvi-+r5yg~~60_3.JPG

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/DVD-Kamen-Ma...A==/$(KGrHqJHJBQE7)6opB!jBPETODn0mw~~60_3.JPG

I know at least two of those are Malaysian, which says to me that they are either knock offs of the JPN versions or else possibly printed on lower quality discs or with fewer extras.

Ideally I'd like to hear from a rider fan that owns DVDs as to which versions are the best to look out for. Does a specific company usually distribute all the KR series? I am an English-speaker living in the US so I need a high-quality DVD with ENG subtitles, US or Region-free, and preferably with some extra content.

The OOO DVDs my friend purchased came with music videos for Tajador's theme and the opening song. That's the kind of thing I'd like to see but all the descriptions on eBay and Amazon are very...nondescript.

 

[Dessa]

Can you link actual listings, and not just images? All I can tell you to start, is that full series sets are pretty rare, and make me question if any of those are legal. Every "Malasian licensed" DVD I've seen have been bootlegged, anyway.

[edit before posting]
Actually, I did find a listing on Ebay for the first image you show, and it's screaming bootleg to me.
1) Region 0 - Region 0 is not an official region designation. Given that it's from Malaysia, it should be Region 3 or 3/6 (Hong Kong and Taiwan are Region 3, Mainland China is Region 6). The fact that they list it as "Region ALL/Region 0", which are two different things (Region 0 either has no flags, or flags for 1-6, since 7 and 8 are very rarely used, Region ALL is all 8 flags) throws up warning flags to me.
2) The case - It's kinda hard to see from the listing I found (here), and you can't tell at all from yours, but that's a pretty thin case, especially for 9 discs (8 DVD + 1 CD). I have the Weiß Kreuz Capital/Glühen box, which is 8 discs, and is at least half again as thick as that looks to be, if not twice as thick. Even my roommate's 2 G Gundam boxes (6 discs each) are thicker than that. An official release would have packaging designed to protect the discs, and that doesn't look like it's thick enough to do so.
3) All episodes in one set - I've never seen a full-series set of anything come out of Japan, except for special releases. I know that at least in Korea, the series is aired on TV, so I'd assume volume-releases there as well. I don't know how it works in the rest of Asia, but since they're just getting the toys, and I haven't seen the later-series ones with Asian releases yet, I'd doubt that they'd have a legal full-series box out.
4) Discrepancies with the Item Specifics and the Item Description - The Item Specifics only notes English subtitles, and notes it as Region 0. The Item Description box adds Chinese and Maylay subs, and notes Region ALL/Region 0. The lack of disclosure on the subs in the Item Specifics (which many people look at first) for the other two sub languages is suspect to me. Also, as noted above, Region ALL and Region 0 are different things. I've never sold a DVD on ebay, but I'm fairly certain that Region ALL would be selectable for the Item Specifics, and they list that first below.
5) "selective on/off" for subtitles - At least in the US, hardcoded subs (always on, can't turn them off) are pretty rare. Even titles that give you the option of "Japanese w/ subs" or "English dub" in the menu still let you turn the subs on/off via the subtitles button once it's playing. I don't know about Asia, but the fact that they specifically note that you can turn them on or off doesn't sit well with me.
6) Chinese subs - I do recognize that a third of Malaysia is of Chinese descent, and that there are schools that teach in Chinese, but it's still always a red flag to see Chinese subs on a release.
7) "Certified by Malaysia Censorship Board" - It says "certified", not "licensed." I have a feeling it's not licensed.
8) Description - Philip (which I believe is the official spelling) is spelled both as "Phillip" (2 "l") and "Philippe" (different name).
9) Price - DVDs in Japan are expensive. I've seen the equivalent of $50 US for a single disc of 2 episodes. Even the way prices have been going in the US, it's rare to grab a full series for under $45-50, and those are generally older series, and only 12-26 episodes. $33 for a 49 episode series? That's really suspect.
10) Other items - I looked for other items that this seller has. All appear to have the same packaging, including the 152 episodes + 6 movies set for Fist of the North Star, and 5 series + 5 movies set for Saint Seiya. Or the Death Note anime + special + live action movies box. My-HiME (capitalization wrong) and My Otome as a box together, and including "Hime Zwei Movie" (there's no such thing, It's My Otome Zwei, and it's an OAV)? There's also a 2-season set for Vampire Knight (highly suspect that it wouldn't be released separately, not even the US has a 2-season set yet), and a complete set for Bodacious Space Pirates, when the last DVD isn't even out in Japan yet!

All in all, the release from your first image, given the e-bay listing I found for it, screams bootleg to me. And the other two images don't give me any faith, either.

 

[Glamador]

I suspected as much. But some bootlegs can be quite high-quality. The OOO DVDs my friend purchased were a full-series set and given how rare you say those are they were most probably bootlegs as well. They were advertised the same way as these ("chapters 1-49!").

They had high-quality pictures of each of OOO's combo forms on each disc with excellent easy-to-navigate menus (again with nice pictures of the combos) and multiple special features (music videos) as I described above.

I'm happy to buy DVD volumes separately if they really are the best quality. But I really do need SUBTITLES and I'm taken to understand that the official Toei releases are lacking English subs. What I'm really asking here is not "Of the DVDs I managed to find, which ones are good?" but rather "Out of all the possible DVDs I *might* find, which one should I look for/purchase?"

Does anybody here own any ENG subbed Kamen Rider DVDs that can give me a first hand account?

 

[Dessa]

I want them to be nice and not bootlegs or inferior copies.

You said in your opening post that you didn't want bootlegs. I showed all the reasons I believe those to be bootlegs. Now you say you want bootlegs as long as their good quality?

Quite frankly, if you're going to be downloading fansubs, why buy the DVDs anyway? Download the fansubs and then burn them to disc yourself. It would be one thing if you were buying the official DVDs to support the series, and then the fansubs because there are no subtitles, but by buying bootlegs, you're just supporting the bootleggers and encouraging them to make more illegal copies.

 

[Glamador]

All right it seems I misspoke earlier. When I said I didn't want bootlegs what I meant to say was "the kind of low quality trash that stops working after a year with labels that peel off and menus snagged from google images". The stereotypical bootleg, so to speak.

I found some imports but they seem to be $75 apiece for each of 12 volumes (no subtitles, as expected). I simply can't afford that.

As to why I want them, well, to display and show to people that come over. Perhaps you won't understand, but I like to have physical copies of things. It isn't really a matter of supporting the creators (though I would do so gladly if they released a product I could use). I don't have the ability to print onto DVDs or make laminated case sleeves that look professional. And there's just something satisfying about sitting on the couch and using a remote control. I could just hook up my computer to my TV screen (and I do that quite often) but it isn't the same feeling.


If it's true that there are no "official" subtitles or DVDs that I can purchase, I probably won't risk my money on such an unknown element as foreign bootlegs. I wish there were a way for me to legally own the shows I love, but as an anime fan I've had to accept long ago that it's just not possible a lot of the time.

Thank you for the responses anyway.

 

[Lynxara]

As to why I want them, well, to display and show to people that come over.

A display of Malaysian bootleg DVDs won't impress anyone. The cases for these things always look cheap and often don't resemble what you see in online photos at all. The subtitles tend to be extremely poor, and are usually difficult to watch unless you speak some amount of Japanese... so they'd be useless for showing to company, too.

It sounds to me like the thing you want to buy doesn't actually exist. The official R2s have nice packaging, but won't have any subtitles. You would probably be better off investing in the means to print your own DVD labels, and just burning discs of DVD-friendly fansubs. It's not hard to buy sturdy DVD cases and print your own paper inserts for them, either.

 

[Shynilyte]

Yeah, not really much of a reason to buy the subtitled bootlegs when you're getting fansubs anyway.

Also, I've had some experiencs with these. The quality of the subtitles can be all over the place. Unless the subtitles are based on the fansubs, you can expect them to be bad. Perhaps hilariously bad.

 

[SamuraiEchidna]

It sounds to me like the thing you want to buy doesn't actually exist. The official R2s have nice packaging, but won't have any subtitles. You would probably be better off investing in the means to print your own DVD labels, and just burning discs of DVD-friendly fansubs. It's not hard to buy sturdy DVD cases and print your own paper inserts for them, either.

That's easier said than done. You'd have to have some really impressive skills to make DVD labels (disc labels, box art, etc) that look like something that could be mistaken for an actual, retail DVD. On top of that, buying the printable labels, boxes, blank discs, the tons of ink you'll need, and so on can really be a drain on the wallet. Especially if you aren't employed. And the final insult to injury is having to resize a video, as in add black bars, to make sure the subtitles are readable on the screen. It's almost unavoidable since 9 times out of 10, fansub groups use HARDSUBS. I don't know what it is about doing that, but most of the time, you all ready lose some video quality when it's a hard sub, and don't get me started on using TV rips as the raw source.

I speak from experience. I've been wanting to do the same thing, and I've made lots of art for labels. So far, I've printed off nothing. And I'm the kind of guy that wants to go the extra mile and make English/Romanized logos that match the Japanese logos, just so it will be there in the DVD menus. I've reached a point where I support softsub teams. I want to be able to turn the subs off and enjoy perfect video quality. So far, the only subtitle group that gives us both of those is Over-Time. Other groups aren't bad, but they clearly know what they are doing at Over-Time.

I wish you luck, Glamador. I understand the novelty of wanting a physical copy you can have and play at any given moment. Maybe one day, there will be a collaborative fan effort for people like us. At least until that rare, perhaps impossible day when tokusatsu is given a translated and uncut release in our native countries.

 

[JettoJaguar]

Dude, I'm really sorry to be the one to tell you this but if you don't want bootlegs, you better avoid buying Kamen Rider dvds. The only english subtitled official releases of this franchise are V3 and The First movie. Everything else has no official release with english subtitles, if you ever find one online, its a bootleg.

 

[Painted_Outlaw]

And the final insult to injury is having to resize a video, as in add black bars, to make sure the subtitles are readable on the screen.

I burned the first 21 episodes of Century King's Kamen Rider Black to a DVD-R disc and when I popped them into a dvd player, I could read the subs fine; no bars added.