Ranma 1/2 to be released on Blu-ray, DVD and 2-in-1 Manga

[greg]

Hard subs are a big "fuck you" to American fans in my opinion.

It's also a big "fuck you" to Japanese people. "Hey, Americans can buy this Ranma Blu-ray box for only $39.99 at Right Stuf, but we expect you Japanese people to pay out the ass for these discs! In fact, we'll stipulate to Viz that they must include hard subs. So if you want clean animation with no English blather barfed all over the screen, you'll need to pay through the nose."

I guess it goes both ways.

[Ben]

Hard subs are a big "fuck you" to American fans in my opinion.

It's also a big "fuck you" to Japanese people. "Hey, Americans can buy this Ranma Blu-ray box for only $39.99 at Right Stuf, but we expect you Japanese people to pay out the ass for these discs! In fact, we'll stipulate to Viz that they must include hard subs. So if you want clean animation with no English blather barfed all over the screen, you'll need to pay through the nose."

I guess it goes both ways.

I don't know how legit this is, but I've read on several sites that the hard subs on some of these bd releases may exist for that exact reason, to prevent reverse importing.

[llj]

It IS for prevention of reverse importation. This is no secret at all. But it's dumb and in the end pisses off people on both sides of the Pacific. And many Japanese aren't going to know or care about the locked subs when they order it.

[usamimi]

Yup. I've always felt it was kind of unfair to the Japanese market that they have to pay so much for not only single disc releases, but for box sets. It seems like Japan consistently pays way more for their physical media than the rest of the world (even CDs are still around $30-40 sometimes, which is kind of nuts to me.)

[Ben]

It IS for prevention of reverse importation. This is no secret at all. But it's dumb and in the end pisses off people on both sides of the Pacific. And many Japanese aren't going to know or care about the locked subs when they order it.

I have to say, I haven't followed this much, I'm not in a huge hurry to upgrade to BD because most of the series I want haven't been released on it in the US. But, I am going to have to start looking into this before I buy, I guess I've just been lucky in that almost all of my BDs are imports anyway and I haven't been burned wth a hard sub disc yet.

[llj]

Generally, most BDs aren't locked subbed. My guess is that it usually depends on the differences in release date. If the U.S. release date of a BD is within 1-2 years of a Japanese BD release, you can count on it probably being locked, with the exception of Ghibli BDs.

I do think we should make a bigger deal out of this, to be honest. This is not the VHS era anymore, we made so many strides in the DVD era to give consumers a choice on how to watch our anime, and we don't need things like this being enforced on us again, especially when the motives behind this are dubious and misguided.

I will say, however, that there are some more expensive blu ray players out there that can "unlock" locked subs. So perhaps one day all these locked BDs can be watched without "hard" subs when this feature becomes more common in BD players. Also, most computer BD players can take off locked subs as well.

[Ben]

Generally, most BDs aren't locked subbed. My guess is that it usually depends on the differences in release date. If the U.S. release date of a BD is within 1-2 years of a Japanese BD release, you can count on it probably being locked, with the exception of Ghibli BDs.

I do think we should make a bigger deal out of this, to be honest. This is not the VHS era anymore, we made so many strides in the DVD era to give consumers a choice on how to watch our anime, and we don't need things like this being enforced on us again, especially when the motives behind this are dubious and misguided.

I will say, however, that there are some more expensive blu ray players out there that can "unlock" locked subs. So perhaps one day all these locked BDs can be watched without "hard" subs when this feature becomes more common in BD players. Also, most computer BD players can take off locked subs as well.

Ah, that makes more sense to me now. I was under the impression they were literally hard subs, as in the way that a lot of DVDs (say Macross Plus: The Movie) were. I bought my Blu-ray player from 220 Electronics, and it is region free, I might email them to ask about whether it is capable of playing those discs without subs or not. http://www.220-electronics.com/

[Kame-Sen'nin]

Does anyone know exactly how limited the "Limited Edition" Blu-Ray sets for Ranma 1/2 will be?

I noticed that the price seems to be rising for Set 4 on Amazon at the moment. Of course, this could just be a temporary fluctuation, but it does have me a little worried after seeing what people went through (and the prices they paid) once the U.S. Dragon Boxes were discontinued.

[usamimi]

Does anyone know exactly how limited the "Limited Edition" Blu-Ray sets for Ranma 1/2 will be?

I noticed that the price seems to be rising for Set 4 on Amazon at the moment. Of course, this could just be a temporary fluctuation, but it does have me a little worried after seeing what people went through (and the prices they paid) once the U.S. Dragon Boxes were discontinued.

Hmm, y'know, I'm not sure. They say they're "limited edition", but I've seen em for sale at nearly every place I buy DVDs/blu-rays...plus I hear they're selling WELL, so Viz would be smart to reprint them (or at least the DVDs). I think it might just be temporary...either that, or people are trying to make them seem more popular than they are to try to pressure people to buy em. (I mean, set 4? Really? I dunno why that'd be the one to sell out....season 4 is where a lot of people I knew stopped watching the series, actually, lol.) I think you'll be safe, even if Amazon sells out, there's plenty of online stores that still have copies.

Speaking of Ranma--they finally announced they'll be releasing the Movies & Classic OVAs in Japan in a 3-disc set this August! I hope this means that Viz will be releasing it soon after. I know tons of people have been hounding them for those, and their answer was always "well, a blu-ray for em doesn't exist in Japan yet...." So now they don't really have an excuse, lol.

[Kame-Sen'nin]

Does anyone know exactly how limited the "Limited Edition" Blu-Ray sets for Ranma 1/2 will be?

I noticed that the price seems to be rising for Set 4 on Amazon at the moment. Of course, this could just be a temporary fluctuation, but it does have me a little worried after seeing what people went through (and the prices they paid) once the U.S. Dragon Boxes were discontinued.

Hmm, y'know, I'm not sure. They say they're "limited edition", but I've seen em for sale at nearly every place I buy DVDs/blu-rays...plus I hear they're selling WELL, so Viz would be smart to reprint them (or at least the DVDs). I think it might just be temporary...either that, or people are trying to make them seem more popular than they are to try to pressure people to buy em. (I mean, set 4? Really? I dunno why that'd be the one to sell out....season 4 is where a lot of people I knew stopped watching the series, actually, lol.) I think you'll be safe, even if Amazon sells out, there's plenty of online stores that still have copies.

I think that you're probably right about this usamimi; it's likely just a few prices rising that have caused the market to temporarily fluctuate. Still, it's a great reminder to pick up the remaining sets I need soon!

Speaking of Ranma--they finally announced they'll be releasing the Movies & Classic OVAs in Japan in a 3-disc set this August! I hope this means that Viz will be releasing it soon after. I know tons of people have been hounding them for those, and their answer was always "well, a blu-ray for em doesn't exist in Japan yet...." So now they don't really have an excuse, lol.

I really hope Viz picks these up!