How many of us kept their old collections?

[_D_]

Now, with everyone trying to restore lost audio or find one of a kind showings of material or interviews with creators who may now be dead, how many of us that had Japanese pen pals back in the day kept what said friends recorded and sent to us? I'm finding out not many did owing to the sheer bulk of the material, several moves, kids, moving along to newer releases, etc. Have we got any kind of accounting? In my own collection, I'm finding about 2 out of every 3 old Betamax tapes that are over 30 years old have flaked or are untrackable. VHS are even worse as they were made on machines with ultra narrow heads and might have been out of alignment when the recording was originally made, so tracking them is impossible. Still, even with these odds and the amount of time that has passed, I'm amazed at what I have been able to recover. Anyone else?

[davemerrill]

most of the interesting VHS I have circa 1984-1990 has been transferred to DVD or digital formats, so at this point I'm not too worried about the original video tape, or the VCRs to play them with, holding up. Of course, a lot of what was on those interesting VHS tapes has been released in better formats in subsequent years, too. Tricky stuff at this stage of the game are old TV ads, convention footage, parody dubs, anime music videos, fansubs, news reports, ephemera like that; that sort of material is always #1 on my "save" list.

[_D_]

Well, there are the fans looking for broadcast audio of their fave shows, especially Toei produced ones since they dumped the master audio of all but a handful of their productions (mostly movies) prior to 1996. So, OTA recordings of those shows are in high demand just for the audio alone which (even though it's mono) is far better than the optical track audio from 16mm prints which is all that remains for DVD and Blu Ray releases. I don't have the skill to adequately clean up the tracks and resync them to the good video from DVD or Blu Ray though. But others I've dealt with in the past few months can do so. But trying to track down those few people who may still have workable equipment and the tapes is elusive. The few sources I've seen inside Japan won't have anything to do with foreigners though they do have lists of what they have, and domestically, there are only a few fans able to transfer anything anymore. So it goes...

[_D_]

Since my last visit I've been working a lot on transferring as many of the Toei shows as possible albeit only some of what I have can be tracked at all on tapes more than 30 years old. But if the audio can be salvaged, I guess it's worth it. But it's a lot of tapes to sort through. Only about 1 in 3 of the ones I've checked so far can be tracked, either VHS or Beta Hifi. The rest have flaked owing to bad tape formulations. Tape Baking might restore them but that's pretty drastic at this point. Lots more to check anyway. But now comes the dilemma of what to do with the recordings? I'm sure some fan groups would like to get their mitts on them. I've seen that already with at least one thing that was released without my knowledge but with my name on it. Getting bugged about other stuff. Hard to remain anonymous anymore. Ah well, so it goes...

[Fvlminatvs]

When I went off to graduate school around 2003, I left almost all of my VHS anime with my brother, who was in high school. After he went to college, my parents packed up everything and put it in giant tupperware totes in the basement or boxes in the garage. I haven't gone through any of the stuff. I actually completely forgot about it all through the early-to-mid 2000s until I graduated and moved to South Korea and saw how much Japanese manga the kids there read and how much anime (Korean dub) they watch on TV. Up until that point, the anime boom put DVDs of the stuff all over the shelves of rental places so if I wanted to see Patlabor or Ghost in the Shell, I just rented it. I only collected DVDs a little bit.

I do know that I have a VHS copy of Evangelion episode 19 (I think) from Japan and a few store-bought VHS tapes, along with a lot of fansubbed and bootlegged stuff, in those boxes. I should go through it all. However, they don't make VCRs anymore and nobody I know has one so I can't tell if they're any good or they've rotted away.

Now, I'm starting to get into preservation. I'm starting to get scared that much of the older stuff will get lost and forgotten. I sometimes spend time finding and downloading videos of Apollo Smile from Sci-Fi channel's summer anime weeks, for example, just to keep the stuff around. I've a half-dozen different versions of the old Daicon III and IV animations on a backup hard drive as well. Unfortunately, that stuff is all digital and hard-copies are getting harder and harder to find. However, I think hard copies of shows (like Blu-Rays and DVDs) are probably the best way to make sure the stuff gets preserved and saved. I should see if I can invest in a Blu-Ray burner.

[Daniel]

so I can't tell if they're any good or they've rotted away.

Sometimes tapes literally do rot away: I've seen many of them with mold growing inside...
VCRs are cheap. You can find them at thrift stores. Just make sure to try them out before buying so you don't end up with a big paper weight instead.

[DKop]

There's a thing going around where the new "hip"ster thing to do is collect VCRs, so me finding them in the wild are scarce. However, I got two in my storage as backups, and I found one thats a DVD/VCR combo im using to archive my stuff digitally.

I have two big boxes of VHS tapes in storage that I think they'll be good for a while. Most are taping of anime off TV and whatever I find at thrift/pawnshops/ flea markets for hardly nothing to add to my collection. I kinda don't wanna give them up since some never got released on DVD and they have their old CPM/ADV/Bandai/AnimEigo promos on them that i'd like to keep. I just need to spend a solid half a year sitting in front of a TV with a large ext. HD just digitally ripping them and then putting them on ebay. It's one of the goals I got going on now with the tapes I have since im part of an online site thats about uploading VHS tapes of tv recordings and movies long out of print, so that gives me that push to do more with that.

[Fvlminatvs]

When I left for Korea back in 2008, the world was a different place. Years later, I returned to the United States to discover 1) all the rental shops were gone, 2) VCRs were dead, 3) flat-screens were everywhere, and 4) the entire anime scene had dramatically changed back home. It was like this huge reverse culture shock.

Sometimes tapes literally do rot away: I've seen many of them with mold growing inside...
VCRs are cheap. You can find them at thrift stores. Just make sure to try them out before buying so you don't end up with a big paper weight instead.

Good to know. I'll keep that in mind. I don't know if you enjoy Red Letter Media's stuff on YouTube but they've made a big joke on their Half in the Bag series about being VCR repair men that never work and just talk about movies. Good stuff. When the last company making VCRs announced they were discontinuing them it was a small joke on the show.

Unfortunately it is an impediment to digging up my tapes because I can't try them. I've got a copy of Sailor Moon R and Sailor Moon S films that I want to show my niece. I don't think they've been released yet. Or if they ever will be.

There's a thing going around where the new "hip"ster thing to do is collect VCRs, so me finding them in the wild are scarce. However, I got two in my storage as backups, and I found one thats a DVD/VCR combo im using to archive my stuff digitally.

I wouldn't be surprised if my parents still have a TV/VCR hanging around somewhere. I'll have to ask them.

I have two big boxes of VHS tapes in storage that I think they'll be good for a while. Most are taping of anime off TV and whatever I find at thrift/pawnshops/ flea markets for hardly nothing to add to my collection. I kinda don't wanna give them up since some never got released on DVD and they have their old CPM/ADV/Bandai/AnimEigo promos on them that i'd like to keep.

God, that brings back memories. AnimEigo--Anime Your Way.

Yeah, I've got a lot of sentimental value for some of those old tapes. I never did pick up Evangelion on DVD, for example, so all of my Evangelion tapes could have just rotted away in storage, which would be a shame. Then again, I'm not a huge fan of the dub and the vast liberties ADV took with the translation and editing. Either way, though, I've no way to watch Evangelion legally without them at this point.

I just need to spend a solid half a year sitting in front of a TV with a large ext. HD just digitally ripping them and then putting them on ebay. It's one of the goals I got going on now with the tapes I have since im part of an online site thats about uploading VHS tapes of tv recordings and movies long out of print, so that gives me that push to do more with that.

I've got that issue, too. Tons of stuff haven't been licensed or the licenses have lapsed and the majority of the fandom is younger and interested in more recent anime. (I saw one kid refer to Haruhi Suzumiya as "old" and I shuddered to think what he'd say about Yamato.) So, sitting around waiting for Patlabor to get licensed again, or hoping we get a release of Minky Momo seems a bit painful.

[Akage]

I've got a copy of Sailor Moon R and Sailor Moon S films that I want to show my niece. I don't think they've been released yet. Or if they ever will be.

Excluding the final season, the entire series has been released and is in the process of being re-released by Viz. I think Viz is through the first part of SuperS, and they've also released all of Crystal. Video quality for the first season was horrid from the reports that I read. Viz didn't receive remastered versions of the original season (while some other countries did).

I still don't understand what's taking them so long to release Sailorstars. It's just as violent as S was. I really hope the non-detailed nudity in Episode 200 isn't what's holding them back.

[Fvlminatvs]

Excluding the final season, the entire series has been released and is in the process of being re-released by Viz.

Does that include the movies? I don't think I've seen them on Amazon or Rightstuf.

I think Viz is through the first part of SuperS, and they've also released all of Crystal. Video quality for the first season was horrid from the reports that I read. Viz didn't receive remastered versions of the original season (while some other countries did).

I've heard the same thing about the quality. That's disappointing.

I still don't understand what's taking them so long to release Sailorstars. It's just as violent as S was. I really hope the non-detailed nudity in Episode 200 isn't what's holding them back.

That would also be disappointing.