The old-school anime DVD/BD news thread.

[danth]

I have confirmed that the new release of Black Magic M-66 by Maiden Japan indeed has the same shitty transfer as the original Manga release, god damnit.

[usamimi]

I have confirmed that the new release of Black Magic M-66 by Maiden Japan indeed has the same shitty transfer as the original Manga release, god damnit.

aww, SERIOUSLY?! Damn. :/ That's disappointing.

[llj]

Shit. Guess Black Magic M-66 wasn't popular enough in Japan to warrant a restoration. I'm sure MJ would have gotten the better materials if they could.

[llj]

I've been trying to take a guess as to what titles will be involved in the Tatsunoko deal. I am assuming that it will be all the titles Tatsunoko released on BD for their 50th anniversary last year.

The video below should provide some possible examples. Yes, Gold Lightan is in there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f3UoD0J ... r_embedded

The other titles would be Speed Racer, The Genie Family, Time Fighters, Mospeada, Urashiman, Ippatsuman, Yatterman, Casshern, Yoroshiku Mechadock

Along with Gatchaman, that makes 11. The exact same number of shows that the press release specifies is involved in the deal. The only thing that throws it off is that there may be rights issues with Speed Racer. And you'd think they'd mention that show in the press release as it's probably "bigger" than even Gatchaman in the U.S.

Personally, I'd want Gatchaman, Speed Racer, Gold Lightan, Urashiman on BD the most out of that list. If I had some extra money I'd get Mospeada (already have it on DVD, but wouldn't mind the upgrade) and Yatterman.

[SteveH]

I note that Gold Litan seems to be getting a Blu-Ray release in Japan soon, so that may increase the likelyhood it's one of the Section23/Maiden Japan titles.

(written before looking at the Youtube link, which is a commercial for the current Tatsunoko BD releases. Hope they aren't over processing the stuff)

ADV (screw it, we all know it's still ADV) has had a bad track record with any series over 26 episodes. I am still surprised they got all of Golgo 13 out. We'll just have to wait and see how they handle this stuff.

Mechadoc would be fun.

GIVE ME STARZANS!!!

[davemerrill]

Starzan S in ANY kind of home video format would be great. I think every bit of it I've seen has been off-air episdoes from of Eldred's tape collection.

There are a lot of shows like this, shows that are mildly amusing but that might not warrant a full-series DVD set, that would be good candidates for a "best of" set or perhaps even one of those William Winckler compilation film treatments. You might not sell an entire series, but a Best Of Starzan S would be a fine thing. Not that it's not a good show, but it leans a little too strongly on the "funny robots and funny space pirates" material, and neither the robots nor the space pirates are all that funny, really.

[SteveH]

Starzan S in ANY kind of home video format would be great. I think every bit of it I've seen has been off-air episdoes from of Eldred's tape collection.

There are a lot of shows like this, shows that are mildly amusing but that might not warrant a full-series DVD set, that would be good candidates for a "best of" set or perhaps even one of those William Winckler compilation film treatments. You might not sell an entire series, but a Best Of Starzan S would be a fine thing. Not that it's not a good show, but it leans a little too strongly on the "funny robots and funny space pirates" material, and neither the robots nor the space pirates are all that funny, really.

Oh, now, TetsujinUltraZetto never gets old. Nor the whole 'wordplay confusion' over Toilet Paper/God. I mean, I suspect StarzanS could be condensed to 13 episodes very handily but hey, I prefer the entire journey and not what someone insists are the 'best' highlights, so I'm a mutant.

I'm still rocked by the reality that Space Pirate Captain Harlock comes out on American DVD in August. Still hard to process that.

[llj]

ADV (screw it, we all know it's still ADV) has had a bad track record with any series over 26 episodes. I am still surprised they got all of Golgo 13 out. We'll just have to wait and see how they handle this stuff.

Which long releases have ADV cancelled midway through? I really can't think of any. As far as I can remember, they released all of Gatchaman on DVD way back too. The longest show they're currently releasing in installments is Letter Bee, and they're already halfway there.

Gatchaman, by the way, will be released by Sentai (sorry, I mean ADV ) as one large release compiling the entire first series this fall. The BD release will cost about $150 for all 105 episodes + the 90s OVA on BD. So you won't have to worry about it getting cancelled midway through since it's a brick release. My only personal concern is will it be an upscale or will it use the Japanese HD masters, because Japanese companies are still pretty annoying about reverse importation for BDs today, and seeing as how the Gatchaman BDs were released in Japan only recently, they might try to do something stupid to dissuade reverse importing.

For me, it has to be the HD masters or nothing. And no "locked subtitles" or "whoops, we got 1080i masters instead" either.

[llj]

And now add original Devilman, Dallos and Lily C.A.T. (which I already mentioned here a few weeks ago, but now it's official) to Discotek's growing library of old-school classics.

Dallos? Would they go one further and pick up Angel's Egg too? I dare them!

"Newer" anime announcements from Discotek: Jin Roh and Card Captor Sakura The Movie. Both will get BD releases. I can finally toss the old Bandai DVD of Jin Roh I've had with the muddy looking picture.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Discotek ... 8055312297



It's good to be an old school anime fan these days. Time to weed out the bandwagoners from the early to mid 2000s.

[SteveH]

Discotek destroys my brain. And hurts my wallet.

But for me,the proof, the proof is going to be how good the Harlock set turns out. If they got that right I'll feel much better about Devilman.