Laserdiscs

[Drew_Sutton]

How much of it is based off of the original Yamato series? I don't quite have the affinity for Yamato as a lot of people my age and generation do, so the more forked it is from the originals, the more appealing it might be.

It's very forked. I would say that no prior knowledge of Yamato would be necessary to enjoy this show. The original first series occurred in the year 2199, and this one in the year 2520, over 300 years later. IIRC, this Yamato ship is like the fifth starship to ever bear the name "Yamato." This is after a galactic Terran war, and it starts out on some colony. The main characters discover the wrecked remains of the Yamato, and they salvage it in a secret shipyard according to the files they found on a computer disk.

Cool - not so much a Yamato In Name Only but far enough separated that there's little required knowledge of the previous incarnations that are not inhibiting to new viewers. Steve, thanks for all the background in your reply, too. Craziness around The Nish never ceases to entertain.

While not mentioned in specific I've long believed that Bandai must have wanted their money back from Nishizaki and the utter failure of Yamato 2520 was key to his bankruptcy and later arrest and conviction on drug and weapons charges. (and to be fair, it wasn't THAT big a deal, to American eyes. Like a gram or less of speed and pot and a loaded semi-auto 'pocket pistol' under his chair. But if the Man is gunning for you, everything is a Major Case, right? I understand that in Japan drugs is GIANT BIG DON'T DO IT and that's cool.)

Not even so much the drug charges but the firearms charges are also really wild to most Americans, too. I forget where I read it (Japan Times, maybe?) but they were contrasting proposed gun legislation in the US versus Japan: Japanese tourists in Hawaii, at a shooting range, would be in violation of three separate but equally serious statutes in Japan. They were, as I recall, possession of a weapon (firearm), possession of ammunition for a firearm and possession of a loaded firearm. While there might have been some prosecutorial issues (ie, targeting The Nish), they picked the right statues to go after him with.

I tell people here that I like Noriko Sakai's music and people will often mention that she did drugs. Well, it's still okay to like her singing, isn't it?

I think I was there on vacation when that all went down. Loved how the media painted it as her 'obviously getting them from foreigners'. Some cases also get brushed aside - one of the members of L'Arc~en~Ciel got busted with marijuana possession returning from a tour overseas and their ending from Rurouni Kenshin got pulled but it doesn't seem to have hurt them too much in the long run.

[greg]

Japanese tourists in Hawaii, at a shooting range, would be in violation of three separate but equally serious statutes in Japan. They were, as I recall, possession of a weapon (firearm), possession of ammunition for a firearm and possession of a loaded firearm.

Wait, what? Possession as in holding a borrowed gun at a firing range in a foreign country? Plenty of Japanese people come to the US and fire guns. My wife even fired a .22 rifle when she lived in the US. I cannot see how they can punish people for touching a gun in a foreign country. It's not in their possession until they own it and take it home with them.

[SteveH]

Japanese tourists in Hawaii, at a shooting range, would be in violation of three separate but equally serious statutes in Japan. They were, as I recall, possession of a weapon (firearm), possession of ammunition for a firearm and possession of a loaded firearm.

Wait, what? Possession as in holding a borrowed gun at a firing range in a foreign country? Plenty of Japanese people come to the US and fire guns. My wife even fired a .22 rifle when she lived in the US. I cannot see how they can punish people for touching a gun in a foreign country. It's not in their possession until they own it and take it home with them.

No, no, he's not saying that. He was just stating what is a common and unremarkable thing in the U.S. (going to a shooting range) is, by itself, a serious offense outside of very specific and regulated situations in Japan. I'm pretty sure there are limited and expensive gun clubs and hunting allowed in Japan.

These laws are one of the reasons why some Japanese guests head to a shooting range when they attend an American convention. It's a really big deal for them.

Nishizaki's case is quite a bizarre one and I might not be remembering all of it, but it stems from him wanting firearms for self defense for when he took his ship for a cruise around various islands and the Asian mainland. Piracy is a huge problem in some areas and he wanted some self defense. Not unreasonable to the American mind, one might agree, but the prevailing thought tended more to "Just don't go someplace where you could get into trouble". His request for what I assume would have been a special license or permit was denied. I'm not sure when the Chinese made small caliber semi-auto (with only three rounds in the magazine) he had under his living room easy chair came from but my theory was he was so depressed over bankruptcy and such he had contemplated suicide-by-police.

As to the speed and pot? Heck. Music producer, movie/TV producer, Hollywood, trips to NYC... lots of points on the chart where he could have decided to 'be American' in that way.

[Drew_Sutton]

No, no, he's not saying that. He was just stating what is a common and unremarkable thing in the U.S. (going to a shooting range) is, by itself, a serious offense outside of very specific and regulated situations in Japan. I'm pretty sure there are limited and expensive gun clubs and hunting allowed in Japan.

Right - sorry - I was unclear. Going to a shooting range in a foreign country is legal. But rather, it was used as an illustration that is seen as harmless in the US (going to a range and punching some holes in paper) is strictly controlled in Japan. Having a gun, having ammunition and having a loaded gun are three separate statutes in Japan. And yes, to Steve's point, there are very limited and very expensive clubs for shooting sports (I don't know if or think hunting qualifies but I could be wrong). Let's go ask Aso!

To piggy back off of what greg last posted in the "Check Out This Item" thread: http://forum.animepast.net/viewtopic.ph ... 4&start=30

This is ridiculous. Some gouger on YAJ is wanting 23,000 yen for the three LDs of Yamato 2520 plus the "episode 0" LD. I just got these (minus the third LD) for about 5,000. Unless the third is super crazy rare, then this is pretty ridonk.
http://page16.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/u78106902

LD prices have been on the upswing, probably because people like me who couldn't afford them when they were the bees knees found them as cheap collection augments (why yes I'll take this lot of 10 LDs for 10 bucks) and now they're starting to move again. I imagine that there might be some select VHS collections that will do the same in five or ten years. Now it is hard for me to find single discs below 10 or 15 USD and multi-disc sets are approaching Blu-Ray box prices.

[SteveH]

I think Laser Discs are on their way to becoming the 'next Vinyl' as people rediscover the joy of things just not on DVD or BD. Plus, there's zero argument that those cover sleeves were generally damn sexy works of art.

I wonder who will eventually make the new LD players?

[Drew_Sutton]

Don't know, Steve. Pioneer just made their last 3000 units back in 2009, per this ANN article: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... r-27-years

There might be a surplus of functional players sitting in warehouses somewhere, the question is, where can we buy them when ours (well, mine) break?

[llj]

The thing with vinyl is that there's still an argument out there (whether it's right or wrong) that vinyl can sound better than CDs/digital files. But there is no argument at all that LD video quality is in any way better than DVD. And Blu-Rays blow both away. An LD comeback would depend purely on aesthetic physical appeal, which isn't completely the case with the recent vinyl comeback.

[SteveH]

The thing with vinyl is that there's still an argument out there (whether it's right or wrong) that vinyl can sound better than CDs/digital files. But there is no argument at all that LD video quality is in any way better than DVD. And Blu-Rays blow both away. An LD comeback would depend purely on aesthetic physical appeal, which isn't completely the case with the recent vinyl comeback.

Oh, I agree with that, a LD revival would be even more hipster driven than Vinyl, more elitist. While I argue that the LD format was perfect for watching TV shows and was terrible, just TERRIBLE for movies, the point is there are some movies that exist only on LD in a way that many prefer, such as the original Star Wars.

It still boggles my mind to see those LP racks filled with records back in stores. I recall the 'great debate' in retail back in the early '80s about how to re-purpose those bins as CD started making inroads, that's when CD 'longboxes' were a thing, and LD migrated perfectly to use them. Then LD went away.

[Char Aznable]

While I'm a huge laserdisc fan, I unfortunately don't see a revival coming anytime soon. Unlike vinyl, which had a massive consumer base and was around for decades, laserdisc was--sadly--never a dominant format, in terms of popularity or sales in comparison to VHS. In fact, more people seem to remember Beta than LD. If there is a small revival, I see it as being videophile driven--or at the least, people who used to collect LDs, as opposed to a 'hipster' driven thing. Vinyl appears to be experiencing a resurgence fueled in large part by a number of college kids or people under the age of 30, who never owned a record player until a few years ago.

The thing with vinyl is that there's still an argument out there (whether it's right or wrong) that vinyl can sound better than CDs/digital files. But there is no argument at all that LD video quality is in any way better than DVD. And Blu-Rays blow both away. An LD comeback would depend purely on aesthetic physical appeal, which isn't completely the case with the recent vinyl comeback.

While I think it's fairly well established that numerous laserdiscs have better sound than DVD, undoubtedly DVD and Blu-Ray are sharper and crisper when it comes to picture quality. Personally however, I enjoy the softer, more 'film-like' picture that LDs offer, whether it's watching films, shows, or anime. Of course, Blu-ray is amazing for modern movies that are shot via current digital technology. But I can't get into watching older films, which were shot on 35mm, on blu-ray. Viewing movies like Goldfinger, Alien or Temple of Doom on blu-ray looks clear beyond belief, but to me they feel sanitized and cleaned up to an artificial degree. Also, I don't need, or particularly want, to see every line or wrinkle in Harrison Ford's face or every grain of sand on a beach. Whereas, for me at least, my preference will always be LD, since the format retains a cinematic 'theater' aesthetic that these films had when they played in the cinema and something entirely lost in this high-def age.

[llj]

Film is actually capable of a higher resolution than many movies shot on digital. Some older films may 'appear' soft due to the film stock and camera lens used but there are plenty of 35 mm movies for which blu-ray is an excellent format. If a film appears too cleaned up, that's due to excessive DNR rather than problems with the blu-ray format. Just because something is on blu-ray doesn't mean everything has to be sharp as a tack. A good restoration would preserve the inherent filmic quality of stuff shot on film, even on blu-ray. A good example of a good restoration is Synapse's release of Prom Night, which was shot largely in soft focus, a quality which is preserved on the blu-ray. The added benefit of blu-ray though is better color separation which is actually closer to the original theatrical showings than all the murky and bled-out colors that the previous VHS and DVD releases had.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Prom-Nigh ... creenshots

I'd also argue that blu-ray is a godsend for all those old Technicolor films from the 40s and 50s. Prior to blu-ray, the only way you'd get something close to approximating the sheer vibrancy of those films was in rep theatres. VHS didn't do it, LD didn't do it. DVD came close but they were limited by the smear-ish quality inherent in the format. With BD they are now able to accurately duplicate the full spectrum of colors originally intended.

For anime, HD is great for 16 mm and 35mm even moreso. Many modern anime have an irritating tendency to be native 720p (and then upscaled to 1080p) or use some sort of weird filter that makes everything in general look softer which doesn't make good use of the HD format. The anime that were shot on film actually tend to look better than the modern digital stuff because of film's larger flexibility when it comes to creating HD masters. Pop in a blu ray of Patlabor and compare it to any anime made in the last 4 years and Patlabor looks like it was made to be in HD.

That said, Char, a lot of the movies you mentioned from big budget studios do tend to overdo the DNR and excessive sharpening. Worse still is when they changing the original the color tone (this has prevented me from getting Terminator on BD and made me hold off on The Road Warrior BD). But again, that's not blu-ray's fault, that's the fault of over-fiddly companies that need to tinker too much with their films. That's why I tend to stick to smaller fan-driven BD companies when it comes to old movies on blu-ray, because they care more about preserving original intentions while at the same time improving over past home releases.

I'm usually skeptical it comes to new tech but I still think blu-ray is the best way to view movies both modern and old, short of actually owning film prints and having a film projector. Even with excessive DNR, they're still a lot closer to the original films than those fuzzy, color-bleeding analog home releases.