Coming to R1: Galaxy Express 999 and Rose of Versailles

[greg]

In case you don't get rightstuf.com's newsletter, they are announcing that Galaxy Express 999 is finally being released on R1 DVD by a company called S'More Entertainment (beats me who they are, just as long as they don't screw it up) in two box installments: the first being available November 20th and the second soon after on December 4th (although somehow I bet that this will get delayed). And the other big news is that The Rose of Versailles is being released next year as two limited-edition box sets by Nozomi Entertainment. This is a series that I always figured was too niche to ever see an R1 DVD release of, but I am glad to be wrong. Since these will be LEs, I imagine that pre-ordering would be the surest way to ensure that you can get them. Both of these series I figured would only remain as fansubs due to shaky nature of the North American anime industry as well as the prevalent derp-a-derp anime fandom.

Now we just need to pray that hell freezes over so that somebody will release Legend of the Galactic Heroes on R1 DVD.

[_D_]

Thanks for the heads up. It's not just anime though that is affected. I've noticed many of the Asian movie distros are also shutting down. Rampant piracy plus people watching online is what they are saying. I can believe it. The Pacific Mall in Toronto has to be pirate central in Canada. But a lot of Asians are buying IPTV devices and not going for DVDs at all. especially true since the only way to legally watch stuff "from home" (adopted countries are never really considered home) is to go through the cable company and get the pitiful offerings through Fairchild Television. We don't get the channels available on Dishnetwork or DirecTV in the states so many people have decided to bypass it all. Pic quality is fair to good but high def isn't possible. Still, even my IPad Chinese TV apps give me over 100 channels including some anime and some channels subbed in English. A couple months with an IPTV box pays for itself rather than what you'd have to shell out for the 2 legal channels in Canada...

[_D_]

Looks like it would be cheaper to buy both GE 999 sets from Amazon at $89.99 and get free shipping...

[llj]

I'd hold off on the GE999 sets unless you are a really, really, big fan. The buzz on S'More is that they really screwed up on their first anime release, Bobobo-bo bo-bobo, by not including subtitles for the Japanese track. Well, they did have the subs, on a PDF file you read along while watching it.

S'More also announced that the GE999 subs are hard subs. That means you can't turn them off. It's also about 9-10 episodes per disc, so the quality might be bad.

The Rose of Versailles release should be great, though. Nozomi's Utena sets last year were some of the best anime sets I've seen in years. TONS of extras, THICK booklets included (the third set's book was over 100 pages), and a good price point.

Don't forget that Discotek also licensed the 1978 Captain Harlock TV series. They haven't announced a release date yet, but should be next year.

It's pretty good these days for old-school fans, to be honest. Now that the anime boom of the 2000s is over and the bandwagon fans have largely been weeded out, many anime distributors aren't aiming for the moon anymore and have adjusted their scales accordingly.

[greg]

But a lot of Asians are buying IPTV devices and not going for DVDs at all. especially true since the only way to legally watch stuff "from home" (adopted countries are never really considered home) is to go through the cable company and get the pitiful offerings through Fairchild Television. We don't get the channels available on Dishnetwork or DirecTV in the states so many people have decided to bypass it all.

I am not surprised at all. It's really not so much of a piracy issue, but an issue of TV networks not adapting to the internationalization of the world audience. People cannot turn to legitimate channels to see what they want to see, so they go through alternative methods. It's like the fansubbing issue. Instead of going after fansubbers with cease and desist letters, Japanese companies should recognize the need that the fansubbers are meeting, and instead see the situation as a potential to really expand their markets and viewership. It seems that services like Crunchyroll are a step in the right direction.

I'd hold off on the GE999 sets unless you are a really, really, big fan. The buzz on S'More is that they really screwed up on their first anime release, Bobobo-bo bo-bobo, by not including subtitles for the Japanese track. Well, they did have the subs, on a PDF file you read along while watching it.

S'More also announced that the GE999 subs are hard subs. That means you can't turn them off. It's also about 9-10 episodes per disc, so the quality might be bad.

Oh no. I hadn't read the particulars, but this is disturbing. So they just had a PDF file to read along with while watching the anime in Japanese? Welcome to 1989 all over again! Wow. As for the hard subs, this is pretty disappointing as well. I've never heard of S'more before (pretty crappy name though, I must add), but it's apparent that they really do not know who they are dealing with in terms of their customers. I was really hoping that Discotek would be releasing the TV series, since they did a stellar job with the 999 movies.

Don't forget that Discotek also licensed the 1978 Captain Harlock TV series. They haven't announced a release date yet, but should be next year.

It's pretty good these days for old-school fans, to be honest. Now that the anime boom of the 2000s is over and the bandwagon fans have largely been weeded out, many anime distributors aren't aiming for the moon anymore and have adjusted their scales accordingly.

That is cool about the Harlock TV series. Since I watched the fansubs and enjoyed them, I will make a point to get the DVDs when they come out. It is interesting that now that the anime fandom bubble has burst for Western audiences, we are getting more classic titles released on DVD these days. I never would have thought that the Dirty Pair TV series would ever be released either. Discotek and Nozomi seem to really love us at least. S'more, however... Ugh. Is there any way we could try to contact them and convince them to not muck things up?

[llj]

S'More claims that soft subs would cost too much money. In fact, it's pretty much their excuse for everything.

If you check out their catalogue, their titles are often the ones you find in the Wal-Mart DVD bargain bins.

http://smoreent.com/

So they're not really a company that has a lot of money or a particularly high standard of quality.

[llj]

Early customer reviews of GE999 have been posted on Amazon.com and they are not good.

http://www.amazon.com/Galaxy-Express-99 ... xpress+999

Video quality -

In a word, horrible. With the hard coded subtitles, there are a ton of compression issues surrounding the text. The text is easy to read, but anything under the text is made massively ugly. There is color banding in solid colors (black background looks alive). Finer detail is lost due to compression. I'm almost positive that S'More just took the streaming video and slapped it onto DVD. That's how they were able to cram 10 episodes onto a single disc

Another guy:

I have been looking forward to the Galaxy Express TV series ever since it was announced for U.S. release, but man, this is not exactly what I was expecting. First, the video quality is compressed to death! It's comparable to the watching the series on the streaming service Crackle (I'm not joking). The reason why the video is so horrible is that S'more Entertainment has crammed nine to ten episode per disc, which doesn't offer a lot of headroom for a decent video transfer. The second strike against this release is the series is hard subtitled! You can not remove them because they're part of the video.

[greg]

Yikes. Fansubs has made me used to hard subs, but the poor video quality seems like it must be worse than expected. I really want to support Galaxy Express in English, but on the other hand, I do not want to support such shoddy quality. This really is upsetting and insulting. I guess I won't bother to buy this after all. I hope that another anime company can someday give this a proper release, if they realize that the reason this doesn't sell well is not the content, but the poor workmanship. It is unfortunate that any anime company would license their works to such a crappy company like S'more that can neither take the shows nor the fanbase seriously!

[llj]

Looks like Nozomi licensed Space Adventure Cobra the TV series.

And at some of the younger fans for complaining that they didn't license something "newer" and "more exciting." I really can't wait until it's 2027 and then watch the kids of that era slag some of the anime coming out today as being "old" and "out of date" and seeing how these 2013 kids respond to that 15 years later.

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[greg]

Looks like Nozomi licensed Space Adventure Cobra the TV series.

YES!!!! I am so happy! Thanks for the heads up! I have been behind on such news. I just finished buying Nozomi's Dirty Pair releases, replacing the old ADV ones. Thanks for bumping this thread, because I'd forgotten about the Versailles DVDs.