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Shopping Guide - Bootlegs

How to spot a bootleg

You might want to read The Pirate Anime FAQ, a guide to unlicensed anime and manga related goods. Their site has a lot of detail on spotting bootlegs by SonMay and others, including scans.

• Serial number: Sailor Moon CDs all start with COCC-, CODC-, COCX-, or FMCC-. Bootleg CDs start with ANG-, SM-, GGG-, GA-.
• Back of case: the name "SonMay" or "Ever Anime" will be printed on the bottom of the CD backside if bootleg. Licensed Japanese CDs will say Nippon Columbia Co. Ltd. or Forte Music Entertainment Inc.
• Cover: check against the covers on SailorMusic.net (which are the licensed versions).
• Price: bootleg CDs run about $10-$15 in the U.S. The licensed Japanese CDs cost about $27-35 USD.
• Location: Chinatown or Japantown stores usually carry bootlegs. So do many online anime stores. AnimeNation, CDJapan, Amazon, JPQueen do not.

Special Bootleg CDs

SonMay also makes compilation CDs: Sailor Moon Complete Vocal Collections Vol 1 and Vol 2 and the Merry Christmas Song Collection (combines Christmas For You and Merry Christmas - see tracklist).

Japanese anime series and soundtracks are very prone to bootlegging by other Asian countries. There are two officially licensed Japanese companies which print Sailor Moon CDs: Nippon Columbia and Forte Music Entertainment. Being an older series, most Sailor Moon CDs are no longer being produced. However the bootleg Asian market working out of Taiwan continues to produce Sailor Moon CDs cheaply for Taiwan and at a mark-up overseas. SonMay and "EverAnime" are two such companies.

Why might a fan (knowingly) buy a bootleg Sailor Moon CD? Probably because nearly all Sailor Moon CDs are out of print. I own some bootleg Sailor Moon CDs myself for this reason. If you have no problem buying these Taiwan versions, almost all of the Sailor Moon CDs can be had. Buying bootlegs of CDs that *are* in print, however, is just cheap.

Many stores that carry SonMay/Ever Anime CDs mark up the prices quite a bit. These CDs sell for under $10 USD in Taiwan (and of course are dirt cheap to make) but usually sell for $16-20 US in North America and online. Some of their CD booklets leave out a few pages (not lyrics, just "extras"). Both the Memorial Box Sets have been bootlegged, and some online stores charge nearly as much for the SonMay/EverAnime box sets as the original sets! This is pretty bad because it fools people into thinking they're getting the licensed version. The CDs themselves are fine, but the stiff cardboard boxes that hold the box sets are much flimsier than the original Nippon Columbia sets.