The old-school anime DVD/BD news thread.

[llj]

Belladonna is an avant garde classic. Curious to see how it will be handled. I've never heard of Cinelicious, but looking at their facebook page, it sounds like an independent film restoration company who really love film and have good intentions. There are so many lost anime OVAs and films out there that still need to be released. Angel's Egg is another one I'd love to see released here someday.

[usamimi]

Belladonna is an avant garde classic. Curious to see how it will be handled. I've never heard of Cinelicious, but looking at their facebook page, it sounds like an independent film restoration company who really love film and have good intentions. There are so many lost anime OVAs and films out there that still need to be released. Angel's Egg is another one I'd love to see released here someday.

Yeah, they seem to be really into that kinda stuff, so I'm hoping their release is good! I posted about this on my podcast tumblr and a lot of people seemed very excited, so hopefully it does well enough that they'd consider other anime films. Angel's Egg would def. be a good fit after Belladonna, it's also got that avant garde, cult-classic status going for it.

On a different topic: It seems like Twitter is going nutso over the new Sailor Moon classic anime blu-ray release. There's people who've apparently gotten it in the mail (it officially releases today, iirc) that have been claiming the picture quality is terrible and that there's problems with it.

We haven't gotten our copy in the mail yet so I dunno how legit these claims are--some people have posted screencaps as well but it's kinda hard to tell if they're real since they're not coming from respected review sites or anything. (Personally, the screencaps I've seen aren't deal-breakers for me if they ARE real--I know Toei's notoriously terrible at preserving their anime, and Viz isn't well known for their in-house restoration or anything...as long as it looks as good as the Neon Alley streams, I'll be happy, since the old ADV box sets are garbage-looking in comparison and cost more, lol.)

[llj]

Well, the Sailor Moon release is still basically an upscale. I wouldn't hold my breath on Toei actually doing a true HD master any time soon, but certainly the Viz release can't be considered a definitive edition because of this fact. It's a shame. Maybe Viz would have been better off not doing anything to the masters they got at all and just released the show as is. It still would have sold even without the picture "cleanup".

[usamimi]

Well, the Sailor Moon release is still basically an upscale. I wouldn't hold my breath on Toei actually doing a true HD master any time soon, but certainly the Viz release can't be considered a definitive edition because of this fact. It's a shame. Maybe Viz would have been better off not doing anything to the masters they got at all and just released the show as is. It still would have sold even without the picture "cleanup".

Right. I wasn't holding my breath for anything SUPER AMAZING, I basically knew it would just be better than the old ADV sets, lol. To be honest, I really don't notice a whole bunch of these tiny errors in releases, probably because when I'm watching anime I'm usually not paying 100% attention to it (I usually throw on stuff to watch while working on other things). So I might be more lenient about it? I dunno. I usually don't notice that stuff in that unless it's SUPER noticeable and just outright looks atrocious.

But I know that's super important to some people, and if it does end up looking really bad, then I can understand being mad. I'm curious to see what it'll look like now when it shows up in the mail.

[usamimi]

Whoa, ok so Walmart.com has pre-order pages up for blu-rays of Porco Rosso and Pom Poko to be released next Feb!! FREAKING FINALLY! Porco's one of my faves, and Pom Poko was getting harder to find on DVD, so this is fantastic news!

Princess Mononoke's coming out on blu-ray soon, but sadly I hear reviewers who got copies already say it's dubtitled. UGH.

[llj]

Disney's QC in regards to the Ghibli Blu-Rays have been sorely lacking. Nausicaa doesn't have Japanese title and end credits, Castle in the Sky still dubtitled, and now Mononoke is dubtitled. Ponyo doesn't have lossless audio. Only Whisper of the Heart, Totoro and Arrietty are pretty much perfect (though I'm not a big fan of the Disney Totoro dub). Hope Kiki and Wind Rises come out okay. I'll wait for more reactions before I buy.

[usamimi]

I've heard the Kiki and Whisper of the Heart blu-rays also have dubtitles, but I haven't gotten either yet to check myself. The fact that WotH has dubtitles is pretty disappointing, as it's a favorite of mine. -__- TBH, none of these should have them, especially movies that didn't have dubtitles on the old DVDs! That's just being outright lazy...how hard is it to put in a subtitle track that already exists?

[llj]

Whisper of the Heart having dubtitles: NO. Because I've heard people mentioning it in light of the Mononoke dubtitled revelations, I actually checked my copy again this past weekend. It is absolutely, most definitely, NOT dubtitled. Japanese title and end credits are intact too, if you watch it with the Japanese track on. It's probably Disney's best Ghibli Blu Ray release IMO. Seriously, go buy it without any worries.

It's Castle in the Sky that's dubtitled.

[usamimi]

Whisper of the Heart having dubtitles: NO. Because I've heard people mentioning it in light of the Mononoke dubtitled revelations, I actually checked my copy again this past weekend. It is absolutely, most definitely, NOT dubtitled. Japanese title and end credits are intact too, if you watch it with the Japanese track on. It's probably Disney's best Ghibli Blu Ray release IMO. Seriously, go buy it without any worries.

It's Castle in the Sky that's dubtitled.

REALLY? That's a relief, I wonder why so many people have told me it is? That's so odd. Thanks for letting me know, I'd been putting off getting it because of that. Nitro & I already have Laputa, and I noticed it was dubtitled for sure, but the picture looks so great we couldn't NOT get it.

[llj]

Whisper of the Heart having dubtitles: NO. Because I've heard people mentioning it in light of the Mononoke dubtitled revelations, I actually checked my copy again this past weekend. It is absolutely, most definitely, NOT dubtitled. Japanese title and end credits are intact too, if you watch it with the Japanese track on. It's probably Disney's best Ghibli Blu Ray release IMO. Seriously, go buy it without any worries.

It's Castle in the Sky that's dubtitled.

REALLY? That's a relief, I wonder why so many people have told me it is? That's so odd. Thanks for letting me know, I'd been putting off getting it because of that. Nitro & I already have Laputa, and I noticed it was dubtitled for sure, but the picture looks so great we couldn't NOT get it.

It's hard to keep track of all the different screw ups with these Disney Ghibli releases, so I sorta understand why. The Cat Returns DVD was dubtitled, maybe people were thinking of that?

I honestly have more confidence in GKids these days to pump out a better Ghibli Blu than Disney. At least they give a damn about their properties.