Anime Buying Guide

• Domestic
• Importing

Region 1 (US) releases

The US is the place to be for anime in English with most popular anime being released quickly on DVD. Discs may be imported directly from the US or Canada, but it is generally easier and almost as cheap to buy from one of the many companies in the UK who specialises in selling Region 1 discs.

Buying Region 1 discs in the UK

This is often the easiest route, particularly for larger purchases over the value where imported goods become liable for customs charges.

play.com have recently increased their anime stock and now carry many Region 1 anime discs, although note that titles from smaller publishers are less likely to be available. They are much cheaper than the other UK companies, expect to pay 16 pounds all in. They don't charge for delivery and deliver fast (typically under a week for a stocked item). They also run special offers with anime DVDs for under a tenner. I've had no problem ordering from them.

United Publications, tel: (0)20 8325 9507 are very quick and very reliable. Give Martin a call, ask if he has something, if he has then you get it tomorrow. They are not the cheapest by any means but they have an extensive stock and are very reliable. They also have a stall at the London Anime Club every month so if you want to browse the selection it's a good place to go - he'll even keep stuff back for you to collect there.

DC-DVD are a Region 1 DVD importer and they are pretty reliable with moderate prices. They have everything you can think of listed and generally take a week or two to get a title to you if it isn't in stock, which is pretty good. However they do have a credit card surcharge (5% or £1 for debit cards) which may make them more expensive than one of the alternatives. However, they do offer a 10% preorder discount (ie. on discs not yet released).

Other good UK retailers include:

DVDmod are another region 1 importer with similar prices to DC-DVD. They have pretty good service and I have no complaints from them whatsoever. They have a very good selection and take almost exactly one week to get the DVD to you from the states which is good. They also tend to get new releases very quickly, a few weeks before other channels.

MovieTyme have a rather patchy selection of Region 1 DVDs. Their prices are very good for what they do have, sometimes better even than play.com. They do however charge a small surcharge for debit cards (40p).
Everything I've ordered from them has arrived without problems but I didn't get a reply from their customer services when I emailed a query. Delivery times vary and can be quite long in some cases.

Importing directly from the States and Canada

It's quite rare that you will save a lot of money by importing Region 1 discs directly. Do familiarise yourself with the customs situation before ordering.

Larger companies seem to be more reliable for importing. Good American sources include DVD Express and Amazon.

DVD Price Search provides an extremely comprehensive price comparison search of American and Canadian DVD sites. One site which often comes up with the best deals is:

DVD Box-Office, a Canadian company which allow you to pay in Canadian dollars, which means an excellent exchange rate. They also have free shipping internationally and ship each DVD individually meaning that normal DVDs do not exceed the customs limit. Expect to pay around 15 pounds for a DVD. However, delivery times vary dramatically from a week or so to a few months (which quite frequently happens). However, unless they really are significantly cheaper for a particular disc we would not recommend using this company.