I used some of my paypal balance for dvds instead of vinyl for a change. While waiting for my last celga auction to get to celga I decided to buy some cheap dvds on the bay. Got Danger Diabolik and Marathon Man both were under 9 clams with shipping. Can't wait. Actually I was looking at some of those Mario Bava Collection Sets and thought for a minute hmmmm but I'll hold off for now.

C.

i just picked up the oop balzac "america's most wanted" dvd!

I went nuts on Amazon/Half.com before we visited my 'rents at Christmas...came back with half a suitcase full of ridiculous Japanese horror movies. Ironic, going from Japan to the US and coming back with a bunch of Japanese movies on DVD. But we scored some cool stuff that isn't even on DVD over here, like Uzumaki and Stacy. Also got the Female Prisoner Scorpion set and some old 70's Zero Woman, plus Horrors of Malformed Men!

I was very, very tempted to snag that Criterion Collection Jigoku, but it was about $25 and I decided to draw the line

any time you want to do a DVD exchange, I can gladly pick stuff up here and have it sent to you if you would do the same for me. not as if you couldn't just order from Amazon US when you live in Japan, or vice versa, but still...the offer stands.

there are always releases there that I'm after

It's actually FAR cheaper to buy US releases of Japanese shows/movies, than buying them in Japan. REALLY expensive. I never quite understood that...

it's just always been like that. even single disc movies over there are sometimes almost $50.

I really only try to buy things that will never get a release here or are super special editions (which they do so well)

Yeah, me too. I remember going into Yodobashi for the first time, thinking I was going to pick up a ton of DVDs. Nope. I decided in the end to just stick to some of the Toku shows never released here. It's odd that a release like Ultraman, Iron King, Red Baron and Silver Kamen, would all be well over $150 in Japan, but are only $40 over here. And longer series like Kamen Rider V3 and Kikaider? Our releases are $150...you're probably looking at $350 for the Japanese release! Craziness.

but they are much more well known over there too. they are extremely niche marketed here, pretty much at older guys who remember seeing some of those shows as kids, for nostalgias sake.

also, our sets are like 2-3 DVDs and not much else. many of their sets are like 10-12 discs with tons of extras - pins, posters, mouse pads, figurines, etc.

To be honest, they're pretty niche marketed over here, too... I don't know too many guys who would fork over $350 for the old Spider-Man tokusatsu series (well, I do know one but he's about 33 and still lives with his parents) or $75 or so for a single disc of Akumaizer-3.

I was really surprised that some stuff isn't even out on DVD over here. Uzumaki was a pretty big horror release, but still no DVD at all.

Skylar, what kind of stuff are you looking for? If you don't mind used DVDs I might be able to get you a halfway decent deal at Mandarake.

well I buy most of my tokusatsu stuff from CDJapan, so I'm pretty covered there. haha I actually do fork over that kind of dough for those sets. in fact, I paid $1000 for that first Kamen Rider set in the briefcase when it came out.

the stuff that I'm looking for that's tougher to find sometimes is Toei Pinky Violence films, although some of those are getting U.S. releases now too. I know there is an Alleycat Rock box set of all 5 films out in Japan now that I'd like to pick up at some point.

I'm always on the hunt for older Japanese stuff - yakuza, youth gang, etc. I'd love to see those Boy's Detective Team films, but I don't know if they ever got a release over there either.