Anime Buying Guide


Buying Guide Home
Region coding and video standards

Recommendations

Customs duties
Region 1 (US) Region 4 (Australia)

Region 2 (Japan)

Region 2 (UK)

Region 2 (Europe)

Region 3/0 (HK and Indonesia)
Oxford Anime Vision

This guide is no longer maintained. Although the recommendations herein may still be accurate they have not been checked in a long time!

Want anime but unsure how's best to get it? Ian Roberts and Tom Ford cover the fastest and cheapest means of purchasing anime DVDs.

This guide is broken up into sections covering how best to purchase DVDs from the various regions.

If you are not familiar with regional coding and the differences between NTSC and PAL discs please read our brief note on video standards and DVD Region codes. This explains if international DVDs will play on your player.

As well as reading the detailed guides below you may be interested in our recommended route to getting the cheapest version of the DVD you're interested in.

If you are new to buying anime DVDs on the internet, I suggest you check both the Region 1 (US) and Region 4 (Australia) releases.

Regional Guides

  • Region 1 (US) - Most popular anime available. Cheap. Discs maybe imported or purchased in the UK.
  • Region 4 (Australia) - Good selection of new releases. Very cheap. Must be imported. Fast delivery.
  • Region 2 (Japan) - More releases than you know about. Expensive. Rarely in English. Must be imported. Fast.
  • Region 2 (UK) - Few, mainly older releases. Expensive.
  • Region 2 (Europe) - varying titles, some excellent. Very rarely English. Not so cheap, quite specialised.
  • Region 3/0 (Hong Kong and Indonesia) - Often pirate, regularly poor quality, bad subtitles - the occasional official release and some anime you can't get elsewhere.