The Old School Otaku Lounge

Funimation license rescues some Bandai titles:


Angel Links
Banner of the Stars
Banner of the Stars II
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2
Cowboy Bebop
Crest of the Stars
Escaflowne
Escaflowne: The Movie
My-HiME
My-Otome
My-Otome 0~S.ifr~
My-Otome Zwei
Outlaw Star
Passage of the Stars - Birth
Tales of the Abyss
Witch Hunter Robin

I know Crest/Banner of the Stars has some fans here. Cowboy Bebop will be released on BD too, finally.

Those are about the only two I'd be interested in purchasing anyway. I'd prefer Crest/Banner on blu ray, though. The old Bandai DVDs were not great looking, and the show itself is low budget, so it needs all the help it can get visually.

Not to be outdone, Sentai picked up these Bandai leftovers:

Brain Powered
Betterman
Z-MIND
Argento Soma
Zega Pain
The Girl Who Leapt Through Space
Infinite Ryvius
Kurokami: The Animation
Sacred Seven (NOTE: Never before released in the US)
s-CRY-ed
The Big O
The Big O II

Again, most of these I wouldn't be interested in unless a Blu-ray release was announced. Z-Mind (never realized Bandai released this in the U.S.), Infinite Ryvius, Brain Powerd and Betterman are my only interests from this list.

Oh, and the last big news is Viz will be releasing Ranma 1/2 on blu ray. Ryoran should be pleased. (Although considering how Viz has handled BD so far, maybe not?)

I'm seriously ECSTATIC about Cowboy Bebop getting a blu-ray release. Seriously, we have two different versions of it in our house. I will GLADLY triple-dip for the blu-ray (hell, the Japanese version's been on my Amazon wishlist since it was announced!) I'm really hoping they'll do blu-ray for Escaflowne, too. I have the DVD set but I'd love to see it remastered. I heard they released a set in France/Europe and it was beautiful.

I never saw Banner/Crest, but I heard good things about it. I wouldn't mind checking it out.

Well holy crap, it's like Bandai Visual had a damn fire sale or something, huh?

Nothing I'm really excited about, if I was interested I bought it back in the day.

I'm glad to see the rescues, I question the wisdom given the way the market is in this day and age. I mean, I kinda sorta liked Argento Soma (part of the 'Evangelion Wannabe' flood) but man o man I don't see anyone caring jack crap about it now.

llj wrote:Banner of the Stars
Banner of the Stars II

I know Crest/Banner of the Stars has some fans here.

I am a HUGE fan. One of the best space opera anime ever made. Although since I am a huge fan, I already own these, so there's no point in buying a re-release unless Bandai seriously screwed up with it, which I don't recall them doing. HOWEVER, if they were to release Banner of the Stars III, which Bandai never did, I would be extremely grateful! I have the fansub of it, but I would really like for someone to release the final story that was never released in North America.

*freaking out*

Otakon news from Viz Media, they are releasing the 161 episode Ranma 1/2 television anime series on Blu-ray Disc and DVD.

Ranma 1/2 will also be on Neon Alley, and will also stream on VizAnime.com. Additionally, Viz Media will host special Ranma 1/2 programming at New York Comic Con in October.

*continues freaking out*

SWEET BABIES llj, I totally missed the part where you said Ranma was getting the blu-ray! PRAISE DA LORD, now maybe they'll consider Maison Ikkoku, too, if they sell well enough!!

Man, this is great news, but now I feel kinda bummed--I got Cathy Wesluck to sign one of my DVD sets, so I guess I'll be keeping at least that one!

llj: haven't seen any of Viz's previous blu-ray releases, why are they bad...?

ryoran wrote:llj: haven't seen any of Viz's previous blu-ray releases, why are they bad...?

I've heard in reviews that Viz has had issues on interlacing/artifacts in some of their blu-rays so far...they haven't released a ton of them, (not like Funimation and Sentai have, I think) so this is something that I was wondering about, too, when I heard. I'm hoping that they'll learn from their mistakes with Ranma (HOPEFULLY), though, because really...this is a title that's really precious to some fans (myself included)...so if they fuck it up, I'm NOT gonna be happy.

usamimi wrote:

ryoran wrote:llj: haven't seen any of Viz's previous blu-ray releases, why are they bad...?

I've heard in reviews that Viz has had issues on interlacing/artifacts in some of their blu-rays so far...they haven't released a ton of them, (not like Funimation and Sentai have, I think) so this is something that I was wondering about, too, when I heard. I'm hoping that they'll learn from their mistakes with Ranma (HOPEFULLY), though, because really...this is a title that's really precious to some fans (myself included)...so if they fuck it up, I'm NOT gonna be happy.

Oh I see. D: Well here's hoping!

Yeah, if you look up Viz and blu-ray on Amazon, you'll only get maybe...2 pages of results? They just haven't released that many of them, probably because most of their titles lately are so long, they figure no one wants to drop the money on a bunch of blu-ray box sets for Naruto or Bleach. (Speaking of which, most of their blu-rays are for Naruto, Bleach, and Inuyasha movies/oavs. They only have a handful of TV shows on blu-ray.) This does make me a little nervous, considering most of Viz's competitors have extensive blu-ray catalogs already.

BUT, I'm ready to be proven wrong, esp. with something like Ranma. Ranma's been a part of my world of anime fandom since 96, so you better believe I want this re-release.

I did have a worry that popped into my head right before bed last night: I hope Viz keeps the old dub intact for this release. I know that to them it might be "dated", and they had to change a handful of actor's voices near the end of the series, but if they go back and redub it all...I don't think I'll be getting rid of my old DVDs, because the old Ranma dub is one of the few dubs I can honestly say I love. Esp. Sarah Strange as male Ranma. If they go back and re-do her with the new guy they got (the dude who plays Inuyasha), I'm gonna be severely disappointed.