The strange Sailor Stars DVDs released in Chile

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Clow

Clow

Quasar
#1
Jul 29, 2012
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I have been intrigued about this for a long time.

We all know that licensing and releasing "Sailor Moon" is very difficult due to all restrictions... so how did this company in Chile (or was it Argentina?) manage to release "Sailor Stars" on DVD? :redghost::blueghost::yellowghost::purpleghost::orangeghost::greenghost:

Video below.

 
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NJ_

NJ_

Gurges Ater
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Oct 31, 2009
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Clow

Clow

Quasar
#3
Jul 29, 2012
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NJ: What puzzles me is how this particular company managed to release the DVDs.

Licensing "Sailor Moon" is very difficult. A Brazilian distributor/company attempted to release "S" in Brazil and licensing the franchise not only was allegedly very difficult, but the season also got discontinued. They only released one volume of the "S" season and the upcoming volumes never came out.

When I heard of this release of "Stars," I thought it was unofficial and unauthorized, but nope, the cover of the DVDs has the TOEI logo and everything.

I am intrigued about how this company got the rights of Stars and released the DVDs not only for a very reasonable price, but also with English subtitles.

I wonder what the catch is.
 
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Clow

Clow

Quasar
#5
Jul 29, 2012
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^Nope, this company wouldn't have the resources to deal with Naoko's demands.

To this day, it remains a mystery how the company was able to release "Stars" on DVD.

We all know that licensing and selling any official "Sailor Moon" DVDs in Central and South America is not something easy to accomplish.
 
Memento

Memento

Stella Nova
#6
Mar 8, 2012
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I mean... Do we know for sure these DVDs were officially licensed? Anyone can put the Toei logo on a DVD cover; it doesn't mean said usage was authorized. After all, why would a truly official, authorized South American DVD release include with English fan subs?
 
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Clow

Clow

Quasar
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Jul 29, 2012
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MementoNepenthe said:
I mean... Do we know for sure these DVDs were officially licensed? Anyone can put the Toei logo on a DVD cover; it doesn't mean said usage was authorized. After all, why would a truly official, authorized South American DVD release include with English fan subs?
Click to expand...
Prior to releasing the DVDs, the company allegedly contacted a fansubber and the English subtitles were provided by the fansubber.

According to fans from Latin America and here in the United States, the DVDs are official and legit. As NJ pointed out above, the DVDs were sold in the U.S. through major retailer stores. No reputable retailer would sell pirate DVDs because that would be illegal.

It is a mystery. Knowing how difficult it is to license anything "Sailor Moon," especially in South America, I don't know how this company managed to achieve this.

 
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Mosaic

Mosaic

Planeta
#8
Jun 6, 2006
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They were also definitely supplied artwork by Toei. The DVD Menus and stuff though... they definitely grabbed those off the internet. I'm amazed Toei would approve that. I know the releases I've worked on with Discotek, Toei is strict about the artwork we use. If we use any screenshots, we have to list the episode and exact timestamp for it.
 
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NJ_

NJ_

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Clow said:
Prior to releasing the DVDs, the company allegedly contacted a fansubber and the English subtitles were provided by the fansubber.
Click to expand...
Allegedly? Kakeru confirmed it in those threads I linked. They're from Sailor Moon Center.

From the first thread:

SMC subtitles are featured on the DVD, plain white font. They asked for permission to use our subtitles about 5 days or so before the authoring took place. They were under a lot of pressure with very limited time, so I didn't get to fix the typos nor remove the honorifics :( Sorry! I would have done the Spanish subs for them. It doesn't take much time to insert the translation from a script to a timed sub file.

Edit: Also, episodes titles are not included in the English subtitle files since they were hard-subbed in our episodes and I forgot to add them to the script.
Click to expand...
 
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Memento

Memento

Stella Nova
#10
Mar 8, 2012
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So...this is an officially licensed, authorized, approved-by-Toei release made by a legitimate company that used downloaded DVD menus, solicited English subtitles from a fan subbing group (which they didn't take the time to edit), and used the randomest cover art (I mean, why does the last disc use a picture of Sailor Saturn!?)........................

Mess. If Toei and TPTB okayed this release, I don't get why they give a hard time to everyone else.
 
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onesurvive

onesurvive

Luna
#11
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#11
Clow said:
Prior to releasing the DVDs, the company allegedly contacted a fansubber and the English subtitles were provided by the fansubber.

According to fans from Latin America and here in the United States, the DVDs are official and legit. As NJ pointed out above, the DVDs were sold in the U.S. through major retailer stores. No reputable retailer would sell pirate DVDs because that would be illegal.

It is a mystery. Knowing how difficult it is to license anything "Sailor Moon," especially in South America, I don't know how this company managed to achieve this.

Click to expand...
It's as if the inners aren't even in the season.
 
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Clow

Clow

Quasar
#12
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MementoNepenthe said:
So...this is an officially licensed, authorized, approved-by-Toei release made by a legitimate company that used downloaded DVD menus, solicited English subtitles from a fan subbing group (which they didn't take the time to edit), and used the randomest cover art (I mean, why does the last disc use a picture of Sailor Saturn!?)........................

Mess. If Toei and TPTB okayed this release, I don't get why they give a hard time to everyone else.
Click to expand...
I think this release of Stars may have escaped Naoko's attention. And the DVDs were so cheap that they sold like hot cakes in Chile.
 
Clow

Clow

Quasar
#14
Jul 29, 2012
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MementoNepenthe said:
So...this is an officially licensed, authorized, approved-by-Toei release made by a legitimate company that used downloaded DVD menus, solicited English subtitles from a fan subbing group (which they didn't take the time to edit), and used the randomest cover art (I mean, why does the last disc use a picture of Sailor Saturn!?)........................
Click to expand...
So let's review the facts...

South American fans who are hungry for any official release of "Sailor Moon" on DVD... get one.

The DVDs have the original Spanish dub that fans grew up with, the Japanese audio with Spanish subtitles... and English ones... and because they are super affordable, most fans can actually buy them.

Do you think anyone will care that the last disc has a picture of Sailor Saturn on the cover?! :redghost::blueghost::yellowghost::purpleghost::orangeghost::greenghost::pinkghost:
 
cuau_cg

cuau_cg

Luna Crescens
#16
Jan 10, 2010
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I think this was sold with a newspaper too, or maybe it was a gift, I don't remember, but that might say something.
Maybe this was some kind of agreement for tax reduction. For example if you give it as a gift, you can pay less tax, something like that, it happens a lot in Mexico.
What TOEI is looking it's not a perfect product, that's clear. What they want is money, if the newspaper paid a lot without making a lot of questions, and the newspaper didn't care about sales, since they were already getting the money from taxes, that should explain the strange situation.
BTW, this don't have spanish subtitles, only english.
 
Clow

Clow

Quasar
#17
Jul 29, 2012
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NJ_ said:
Allegedly? Kakeru confirmed it in those threads I linked. They're from Sailor Moon Center.
Click to expand...
Because some of my friends are lawyers, I use the word allegedly a lot. Someone may have said that the subs are from Sailor Moon Center, but can I factually prove that? Nope.
 
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Clow

Clow

Quasar
#19
Jul 29, 2012
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cuau_cg said:
I think this was sold with a newspaper too, or maybe it was a gift, I don't remember, but that might say something.
Maybe this was some kind of agreement for tax reduction.
Click to expand...
Sold with a newspaper? Tax deduction? Naoko's tax deductions? :redghost::blueghost::yellowghost::purpleghost::orangeghost::greenghost::pinkghost:



Imagine this scenario:

You are in the United States and the newspaper boy says to you:

"Oh hi, thanks for being a loyal subscriber; as a special thank you, we would like to show you a collection of super affordable 'Sailor Moon' DVDs... here, have one for free..."

Seriously, as someone who knows the difficulties of licensing anything Sailor Moon in South America, I don't know what the catch was and I am willing to bet that this particular release of Stars escaped Naoko's attention.
 
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