Hey, Answerman!

Back in the Side Saddle

First off, much love, much love to the talented and lovely Daryl Surat for being a sport and filling in. He did a super job, and just in case you're one of the few who aren't familiar with Mr. Surat's particular brand of sardonic musings, it would behoove you to check out his great podcast and consider yourself behoove'd.

Anyway, I'm up and active and fine. I was sick. With March Madness!!! Also I was in the hospital. During March Madness!!! Lots of doctors and nurses poked and prodded me and made me uncomfortable. But then the U of A trounced Duke in the 2nd half of one of the best games in NCAA history. And then we barely lost to UConn and my bracket became invalid and I still owe my friend five bucks for it. Boo.

So, the question is, what happens now? Does 4Kids lose Yu-Gi-Oh!? Does Yu-Gi-Oh! finally end up getting the "respect" that it deserves? That's hard to answer right now. The ink is still too wet on this whole messy litigious ordeal. All that we can do is speculate.

So, let's speculate! There's two things I want to point out about all of this:

Number one. 4Kids called TVTokyo's bluff, so to speak, and filed Chapter 11. That, in itself, is a pretty strong move on their part to keep a hold on Yu-Gi-Oh!. They really, really don't want to lose it. Filing for Chapter 11 gives them the opportunity to do that. But, the Chapter 11 filing also royally bones them in every other regard. They get the chance to keep their license to Yu-Gi-Oh!, but it puts them in the uncomfortable position of possibly being liquidated and shut down completely by the court. Chapter 11 isn't the Get Out of Jail Free card that people seem to think it is; it's more of a Stay of Execution in most cases. The list of companies that have filed for Chapter 11 and succeeded is pretty small compared to the ones that have filed and then quickly evaporated.

From this, you can read into the fact that 4Kids really, really wants to hold on to Yu-Gi-Oh!. Really. Rationally, it's the only property that 4Kids still owns with any sort of muscle in this industry. If they seriously thought they were gonna lose Yu-Gi-Oh! either way, in my estimation, they would've simply closed up shop completely.

Number two. If 4Kids loses the license to Yu-Gi-Oh!, if that happens... who's to say that the series would be any more "respected" than it is now?

Yu-Gi-Oh! is considered a children's property, first and foremost. Far be it from me to dash all your hopes and dreams of watching uncut Yu-Gi-Oh! released by Funimation (you know, provided they'd still be interested in the series after the first time the uncut DVDs failed to sell), and all the joy that would bring. But what if it wasn't? What if it was given to Nelvana? What if, oh dear God, TVTokyo dubs it themselves? Eesh. I understand that nobody likes 4Kids, but trust me, it could be worse. If not worse, then it could be just as bad.

Most anime, specifically TV anime and OAVs and such, that were released prior to 2002 or so, were not designed, animated, or even meant to ever be seen in high-definition. Especially if they were digitally animated before HDTV adoption hit any sort of critical mass. There isn't any High Definition source for those shows, at all, ever. Cowboy Bebop? You're never gonna see that one in "true" Native HD. Sorry. FLCL? Same deal.

The exception to that rule is for feature films mostly, or things that were actually shot and animated on 35mm film. So, Miyazaki movies are fine. Case in point, the recent Nausicaä Blu-ray looks wonderful.

So, for those shows where a native HD release is impossible, my personal, unrepentant, completely my-own-views-and-not-those-of-Anime-News-Network-in-any-way of Blu-ray upscales is a resounding... eh. Here's the thing. To me, they look better than just a straight-up DVD. They do. They look better. On Funimation's discs specifically, at least. The colors are sharper, there's less grain and noise, and they just look better. They don't look as good as a "Native HD" series. They certainly don't look as good as something like Nausicaä, which was mastered on film. Upscales look marginally better than a DVD. It's not great, but it's okay.

Is it worth the extra ten bucks to buy an upscaled Blu-ray versus the DVD? That's up to you. I was a sucker and picked up the Samurai Champloo Blu-ray, which is one of the shows that people seem to think was utterly ruined forever because of the upscale. It wasn't, I hate to say it. It looks about as good as that show is ever going to, which is sad, but that's the way it is.

And, see, that's sort of the problem. Sailor Moon is still worth a lot of money. Both in Japan and in the WEST., people still love that show. They want to buy it. It has a pure nostalgia value now more than ever. And the main reason you can't is because of one monolithic Japanese company: Toei.

Toei owns the rights to Sailor Moon, and for whatever reason or reasons, they're clutching them tightly to their chest. So, for your sake and others, do myself and everyone else a favor:

Pay no heed to any rumors.

I don't doubt that Funimation wants Sailor Moon badly. I don't doubt that Toei wants to do something to commemorate the series' 20th anniversary. That all sounds reasonable. But these are still rumors. Trust me, everybody in the entire world already knows that we all want Sailor Moon out on DVD or Blu-ray or whatever. There's a nightmare of legalese and licensing rights and complicated profit motives at stake. As a result, rumors fly about incessantly. I mean, I love the fact that people are still passionate about that show even though it hasn't been seen on American shores in nearly a decade, but... until Toei and some Unnamed Western Anime Licensor makes an official statement saying that "SAILOR MOON IS COMING ON DVD ON THIS DATE, FOR REAL, HERE IS AN AMAZON LINK TO PRE-ORDER," it's not worth the hassle and the headaches to get riled up over rumors.

Personally, and again this is just my own outlook here man, I have no doubt that Sailor Moon will get re-released. It's inevitable. I don't have any insider information or anything that's hidden behind a cloudy wisp of Non-Disclosure Agreements, I just think it's a sure-fire way to make money. There are so few sure-fire hits in the world of anime, which is what makes Sailor Moon special.

So, pay no heed to idle chatter about popularity in Italy or off-handed mentions on anime company blogs and the like. I don't have much of a "higher answer" on this, because nobody does. The people who might have the "higher answer" aren't going to talk about it, because they're too busy trying to get a deal made on the subject.