The old-school anime DVD/BD news thread.

[llj]

But I don't know how they can even do a 1080p version of the old dub, unless it's just an upscale.

By syncing the dub audio to the video from the Japanese HD remaster, cutting out the cut scenes, and recreating titles wherever necessary. That should be reasonable to do, as long as you make sure the playback speed matches. Here's hoping Funimation did a competent job on this.

That's more work and time than I expect Funimation to do. Companies don't even usually do this with old films on blu-ray that include multiple cuts of the same film--quite often one cut of the film is in completely different shape than the other, even if 90% of it is the same scenes as the other. Only a very select handful of films out there use a branching system for multiple cuts.

I think you'd have to get the US broadcast masters of Speed Racer and make an HD master out of the old dub, not use the Japanese HD master.

[llj]

Well, looks like Amazon's Speed Racer page has been taken down. I knew it couldn't have been that cheap.

[usamimi]

That makes me wonder if this is why it's taken so long to come out after announcing it. Maybe the editing process took much longer than they anticipated?

[usamimi]

Discotek announced recently they'll be doing a bluray for Horus: Prince of the Sun. They also got the license for Babel II, which they said will come out in April.

Preorders for their new Key The Metal Idol set are now up on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2jMtq2T

[SteveH]

Discotek announced recently they'll be doing a bluray for Horus: Prince of the Sun. They also got the license for Babel II, which they said will come out in April.

Preorders for their new Key The Metal Idol set are now up on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2jMtq2T

Fact check (;) ), I believe the Babel II they've licensed is the later OAV series, not the uneven earlier Toei TV series.

Babel II looks like it should be SO AWESOME but for some reason after a couple of episodes they do a 'Johnny Sokko'* and plop the hero in a quasi-uniform deal complete with wacky helmet. I dunno, the original image of a 'typical' Japanese schoolboy fighting crazy psychic villains while wearing his school uniform resonates better.

The Babel II OAV only sticks in my memory because Dave and I chatted a little with Carl Macek about it at a Project A-Kon. Macek was SO PROUD of his audio remix for that, how he really punched up the sound effects and all that and I don't recall how we responded (I think it was in the vein of "well that's nice but it doesn't convey what's going on and kinda misses the point") but I do recall Macek became boo-boo faced.

*'doing a Johnny Sokko' is my stupid way of saying 'change the essential power of the original to conform with current pop culture nonsense'. The live action Giant Robo quickly took the kid out of his blazer and shorts and put him in a goofy 'science patrol' uniform complete with impractical helmet. The wildly uneven English dub 'Johnny Sokko and his flying robot' claims Unicorn is a secret organization and yeah, the Toyota they drive around in IS unmarked most of the time. Hard to imagine that garish uniform is much of a secret.

[DKop]

The Babel II OAV only sticks in my memory because Dave and I chatted a little with Carl Macek about it at a Project A-Kon. Macek was SO PROUD of his audio remix for that, how he really punched up the sound effects and all that and I don't recall how we responded (I think it was in the vein of "well that's nice but it doesn't convey what's going on and kinda misses the point") but I do recall Macek became boo-boo faced.

Its interesting how Macek thought your remarks on Babel II got him 'boo boo faced', but he didn't write how the story went, he just amped up the audio to make it sound better. It seems that certain people in the industry think that if you didn't like the show they worked on from a storytelling standpoint and how it didn't make sense to you, but you had no issue on their acting, ADR, translation work, etc, they still would take offense to it like your spitting on them personally because they worked on it.

[SteveH]

The Babel II OAV only sticks in my memory because Dave and I chatted a little with Carl Macek about it at a Project A-Kon. Macek was SO PROUD of his audio remix for that, how he really punched up the sound effects and all that and I don't recall how we responded (I think it was in the vein of "well that's nice but it doesn't convey what's going on and kinda misses the point") but I do recall Macek became boo-boo faced.

Its interesting how Macek thought your remarks on Babel II got him 'boo boo faced', but he didn't write how the story went, he just amped up the audio to make it sound better. It seems that certain people in the industry think that if you didn't like the show they worked on from a storytelling standpoint and how it didn't make sense to you, but you had no issue on their acting, ADR, translation work, etc, they still would take offense to it like your spitting on them personally because they worked on it.

Here's the thing, I'll amplify a little. Macek had said in several interviews the Japanese didn't know how to 'do' audio, their sound FX were weak and other stuff. His Babel II OAV remix took out the original music and threw a bit more 'back and forth' between the left and right speakers. Oh, and dialog where there was none. I would not say it made the scene sound BETTER, just louder.

And Macek seemingly HATED those moments of quiet contemplation, where the camera is panning over a background or holding a shot for a few seconds.

[DKop]

What you said about Macek is also said by him on a number of occasions. He talked about his audio work with his titles at AnimeCon 91 and in an interview with ANNCast before he passed away, and he is always discussing stories on how he has to make the audio better with the anime he receives. They are some really good stories, and ill post the links to those in my post:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/anncast/2010-01-14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CpSfrXxHmc&t=113s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccRY8GY6_5s&t=22s

[usamimi]

Discotek announced today they picked up Midnight Eye Goku! I haven't seen that in quite some time, that'll be interesting to revisit.

[DKop]

FFFFREAKING YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That has been on my list of "Things Discotek will one day release, but just be patient Dustin!" for a few years now. I'm just waiting on Angel Cop and Sol Bianca, its coming!!!!