Thursday, May 17, 2007

BREAKING NEWS: DO NOT BUY THIS BOXSET!

Update 1
Update 2
It sure has been a busy newsweek for Sailor Moon!

Anime News Network reports the existence of a bootleg boxset of Sailor Moon Stars on Amazon.com . Fans should know while their marketplace sellers are notorious for selling bootlegged anime, this is not coming from a marketplace seller but from their own main site (and potentially their warehouse as well). It's like walking into a Best Buy or a FYE store and seeing a pirated copy of your favorite anime with a gold sticker on it that says "Official" when you really know it isn't. We suggest fans read this article, they have done a very good job of explaining why this boxset is fake. We're going to go a step further and show you what the real DVDs look like. We here at Moon Chase! do not support this product and as a Sailor Moon Fan, you probably shouldn't either. The quality of these DVDs are likely to be very poor and make no mistake, NO ENGLISH DUB EXISTS.

This product needs to be pulled, but having read others' unsuccessful accounts at trying to contact Amazon, fans do have other options.

1.) Post comments on Amazon's page for the product. Let potential buyers know that this product they are interested in purchasing is fake. And, perhaps seeing less star ratings at the top will also deter them.

2.) Contact Amazon, and voice your concerns by either filling out this form , or over the phone (they will contact you). Let them know that no company in North America has licensed this series for release and that this is a bootleg. Fans may even want to encourage them to speak to Geneon, TOEI and ADV about this series for "official proof".

3.) Contact Toei. Through their English site we found an email for their Sales office in Los Angeles (isn't this great? You don't have to type in Japanese!)! Let them know about the product by sending them a link either to the ANN story or to Amazon and let them know how disappointed you are in the largest online store in the world selling pirated Sailor Moon goods. Fans should note that now is not the time to ask TOEI to bring Sailor Moon back to North America. Their email address is sales@NOSPAMtoei-anim.net . Fans that are interested in contacting them in other ways can go here (et nous encourageons les fans qui parlent Francais devraient entrer en contact avec le bureau en Paris).

I will be contacting TOEI and Amazon about this shortly and we will keep you up to date with anything that happens. We would love to hear what fans have written or conversed to any of these parties above and may use letters in a future story. We will not display your email address but for credit we will display a username. If you get any responses those would also be great to hear! As always you can contact us at moonchasers@NOSPAMPLZKTHXgmail.com. We would like to thank Anime News Network for bringing this issue to light and also trying to get this resolved!

EDIT: ANN has since updated the story - and we'd like to note we have not heard a word from Amazon other than the letter that I had sent was being forwarded to the appropriate department. Amazon has not pulled the item but has now labeled it for what it is - a bootleg! We have to wonder just what it is going to take for them to pull this product and others like it. While we are glad Amazon has identified this product for what it is, we are very disappointed that they are still selling it.

****EDIT #2 (Monday, May 22nd): It appears that at least as of last night, the product has been removed from Amazon's site. The pictures are still there when you search for Sailor Moon Stars but the products have no names and are listed as not available.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every fan who wrote to the powers that be to get this boxset removed in a matter of a few days after the first notice from ANN! Acts like this support legitimate and legal releases of anime - and probably in some ways lets the companies know that fans are still eager to purchase a real release of the product.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

FYI, Due to the negative feedback recieved from this and other anime news website readers, Amazon.com has removed this box set from thier listings.