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Anime (Classic)
Hello my fellow Moonies! I was hoping to borrow some of your wisdom! I recently ordered what I thought was volume 6 of the DiC dub of Sailor Moon (3rd picture), but I got this instead! I don't know much about the old English dubs and now I'm wondering if this is a good find? All 6 disks are in the package and look to be in fairly good condition. Haven't tried to watch any of them yet though. I spent around 30 dollars on this including shipping and taxes!
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This link showed the cover of the original first like 6 episodes think on DVD that were produced by Pioneer. I bought this and 3 other DVDs from this season. One of the really nice things about this set was it included a reversible cover you could switch around. Anyway, How I know they were real was that I bought them in store at physical retail US store brand called Electronics Boutique. It's hard to tell in the pictures but also: this version has the holographic S and Gold Holographic Font on the spine.
Pioneer Sailor Moon S Heart Collection DVD release Volume 1
This is definitely a bootleg, the seller pulled a bait and switch on you. However, this bootleg has the original English dub of S with most of the original DiC cast (the infamous cousins dub that aired on YTV/Cartoon Network). So if you wanted a nostalgia trip of those particular episodes, this wouldn’t be a total loss for you.
Since you asked in the other comments on how to tell it’s a bootleg:
-Pioneer/Geneon licensed the release of S and SuperS in North America, (later rerelease by Viz) none of their logos are shown here
-Animage is not an official company. I did come across one of their Sailor Moon sets in a thrift store and picked it up for novelty sake/was cheap. The quality was surprisingly kinda decent compared to my official DVDs.
-The most obvious is that really awful photoshop job on the cover. It’s a bizarre mashup of the covers from Pioneer’s release (I can get pictures of the original images if you’re interested). I mean, the logo is in the middle of Saturn’s face. No legit company designs a cover like that.
-Not related to this particular set, but another good way to tell if the DVD is a bootleg is the number of discs. If the DVD crams more than 6-7 half hour episodes onto a single disc…run for it! Guaranteed bootleg, and a really, really terrible quality one at that! Region free and Chinese subs are also common signs too.
All really good points, but just to be "that guy" on that last one - that is a good rule of thumb EXCEPT for ADV Films DVDs back in the day did actually crunch a bunch of episodes per disc. Disc 1 of Sorcerer Hunters, for example, had episodes 1-7 on there. Great value for the buy when you were buying shows a disc at a time, but the quality wasn't all the way there.
DVD can only do 2 hours at full quality. Don't ask me how I know
I have that set and the original DiC DVD u were looking to buy. It's definitely not the right season for what you were looking to buy but it's not a bad Edition of season 3 imo. Good enough for how difficult the original English dubs are to find.
Her tiara being off centered irks me
That is definitely a bootleg.
The picture you thought you were getting is the official dic VHS cover art.
You can probably get a refund since they pulled a bait and switch.
However if you just want them to watch they are probably the correct media so you might as well check them out.
What tipped you off that it was bootleg? I'd love to know for future reference!
And I'm fine with keeping it lol! I've just never seen this version of the dub and was curious!
There are many things that can be a tipoff.
The amount of disks is sus. DVDs can only do 2 hours at 9.8Mbps bitrate. Lowering the bitrate allows for more content at a cost of visual fidelity. You're looking at 7 episodes per disk, so half the bitrate.
The only logo that is worth a damn is the Toei logo. The rest are fake. No mention of ADV or Pioneer, these are the only distributers who could sell the series on DVD.
The packaging design is amateurish, a mix of legit cover art.
If they are the classic dub, it's worth preserving but since they are bootlegs and likely cheaply pressed, they're gonna rot in a few years so backing them up is worth while.
Well first off there are very few actual official releases so you can just look at those.
The other major tip-off is the lack of any sort of logo from Bandai or copyright information for Naomi Takeuchi.
So what it looks like you were trying to get was the ADV single release of the old DiC dub. In the United States those are the only DvD releases of the old DiC dub that existed legally. There were 14 of them from the start to right after the Doom tree is what the episodes are.
What you got is a bootleg of the third season or season S which is geneon dub (though it could be Viz dub).
I have 1 like this, I got it many years ago when sailor moon stuff was hard to find. The cover art is a giveaway and the official is Viz and would say so on the side, Crunchyroll's website should only have the official release for North America, so that might be a good reference place, although you can probably get them on Amazon or elsewhere cheeper. The original dub isn't easy to find, but the original dub would have Pioneer/Genon or DiC logos on them.
If it's anything like the bootleg I have some of the subtitles are glaringly wrong for the Japanese version w/English subtitles lol.
This looks similar to the bootlegs I used to own. They were watchable but the audio was a bit flat at times.
Are you only able to watch DVDs? Are you looking specifically for the DiC dub?
I ask because the newer Blu-rays are $35ish per season. They are VIZ dubs in English audio.
Ultimately, if the purchase is worth it to you then that’s what matters. Some media is difficult to find in the correct format and edition.
Awww bummer that they're a bootleg! Was there anything in particular on the case that clued you in? I'd love to know for future reference!
And yes, I'm particularly looking for the DiC dub. I've watched most of the series subbed at this point, but the DiC dub is very nostalgic for me! It's what introduced me to Sailor Moon! And I own over half of the first two seasons on DVD currently lol. I'll end up reordering the DVD I originally wanted at some point!
Here’s what I noticed:
Overall the graphic design is just not what we’ve come to expect from official releases. This is true even as design trends change over the years. There is (usually) a high quality level, with crisp, and professional graphics, printing, material, text, etc for official releases.
I recognize the Sailor Moon and Sailor Saturn as artwork that was used for the official covers, and they weren’t featured together like this.
Saturn’s face and Chibi-moon’s face are both blocked by the logo.
I can’t recall any release of Sailor Moon tagged as “Diamond Series.” My memory isn’t the best so I tried to find info on it and nothing comes up.
The “Uncut” version of S was called the “Heart Collection.”
The official “Uncut” version of Sailor Moon was released by Pioneer.
No copyright tagline for Kodansha, Naoko Takeuchi, no copyright date.
I have never heard of Animage from Sweden in my time as a Sailor Moon nerd.