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Answerman - Is It Ethical To Import Anime From Other Countries?

Just Passing Through wrote:

You're arguing ethics and morality over consumer goods. Governments don't work that way in a global market, why should consumers? If it is a legitimately licenced and produced product, who cares where it's made?

I actually wasn't arguing ethics and morality over consumer goods. I clearly said I was not saying one way or another my opinion on the matter. I was simply pointing out to nagpo that his assumption of the question being nonsensical was false. That the ethics of importing discs does in fact matter to some. I never once said I was actually part of that group. The ethics also becomes more of an issue for those items that are not legitimately licensed products.

DJStarstryker wrote:

I have the Japanese Gosick BluRays, and got them a few years ago, back before we thought it would ever be released officially in the US. It's released in the US *now*, but it's 1) only out on DVD, not BluRay, and 2) it doesn't include all of the extras my Japanese set does anyway..

This is not true. Funimation put Gosick out in a Bluray/DVD combo pack.

harminia wrote:

legality comes into stuff like rating for example, new zealand refuses to classify a few anime, thus making them illegal in the country. if a new zealander ships that title from, say, australia, theoretically that's illegal and that show is a contraband item.

It has to be "refused classification" to be contraband. For example I imported "Garden of Sinners" from Australia. That was rated MA 15+ in Aussie but was not submitted for classification in NZ so has no rating. The only "Anime" I can think of that has been refused classification in NZ is some lolicon Hentai and an Excel Saga OVA spinoff for having underage lesbian sex.

" And those discs are important and do add to the bottom line, but the revenue from those is lower (in part because the discs are cheaper) and is received indirectly. "

From my understanding, and I'm by no means an expert, the japanese studios get barely any of the revenue generated by licensed DVD/BD sales in other regions. When people say you're supporting the industry by buying from Funi or whatever, it's not entirely accurate, you're supporting the american anime market but the japanese studios barely see any of it.

I'm more familiar with the UK rules, but not having a rating or having a rating rejected makes it illegal to sell, but not automatically illegal to own or import. Even if it was rejected because the BBFC believes the content contravenes obscenity laws, that doesn't automatically make it illegal (but it is still probably something to avoid if you don't want to be the first Chris Hanley of the UK/AU).

The decisions they make one which titles get blu-rays and which don't alway boggles my mind. And it seems more often than not the titles I like are the ones they deem not worthy of blu-ray. I guess there must be a portion of the audience that doesn't mind watching blurry anime on a modern TV...

The Australian distributors can't afford to single-handedly master blu-rays (the market in Australia is too small), they have to work with a US or UK distributor to master a version that is almost identical except for region code and perhaps whose logo appears at start up (which could be dependent on the region code anyway).

Curious. For DVDs, it was often the case that UK distributors had to wait for Australian PAL conversions to be produced to save on the expense. I presume this one-way dependancy is no longer the case.

Reading that makes me wonder how a certain major UK online retailer of anime goods is able to sell US editions, even of shows not released in UK, without running afoul of the BBFC.

The Australian distributors can't afford to single-handedly master blu-rays (the market in Australia is too small), they have to work with a US or UK distributor to master a version that is almost identical except for region code and perhaps whose logo appears at start up (which could be dependent on the region code anyway).

Anime Limited tend to release NTSC only. There have even been a few anime released Blu-ray only from them, because the Japanese producers want PAL discs for the UK or nothing.

Blanchimont wrote:

Reading that makes me wonder how a certain major UK online retailer of anime goods is able to sell US editions, even of shows not released in UK, without running afoul of the BBFC.

Well, DC-DVD ended up shutting down years ago. The one you're probably thinking of at least used to purport to be using a loophole regarding "private member clubs" and hence issued every customer with a membership number.