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Hey, Answerman! - Back in the Side Saddle

On Sailor Moon, I do think it is liable to come sooner rather than much later. It's not just Italy now; the property was recently licensed again for German-speaking areas of Europe as well. Doesn't seem like Toei is really holding onto it that tightly these days.

I do agree about not getting worked up over vague rumors though. I can't see its status in Italy having much to do with the market that all parties know exists in the U.S.

I remember when I had videos of the different Sailor Moon 1st OP languages from all over the world. The German one was interesting.

Okay, I don't post much here, but someone needs to defend the blu-ray releases that are being reamed here. I own both the Champloo and FLCL upscales, and Brian is right, they look FINE. I can't prove my credentials, obviously, but I can promise you I do have a stake in visual fidelity-- I like things that are aesthetically pleasing, don't like watching things on computers because they never look quite "right," don't buy useless upscales (I.E., lots of pre-HD/post-digital anime really doesn't look any different on blu-ray or DVD) and have, over the past few years, been replacing my DVD collection with any well-done blu-ray releases that come out (I guess the best example would be Disney movies-- I own a lot of Disney movies on DVD, but the difference in quality between the DVDs and blu-rays is HUGE, even for the non-remastered movies. Like, my old DVDs of Meet the Robinsons and the Enchanted are nigh unwatchable because the color is so bad and there's so much artifacting, but the blu-ray release are lovely), but I'm also not a crazy person who sets up two 60" HDTVs side by side to freeze-frame my way through two different versions of a show to check for any minute differences.

My boyfriend and I actually started watching the blu-ray release of Samurai Champloo halfway through the original DVD releases, (I was EXTREMELY nervous about ordered the set, too, since the entire internet was screaming about how Funimation had gutted the series and it would never be good again now that it had been released on blu-ray) and it was like night and day. The colors were more vibrant, there was less ghosting/artifacting and zero digitization (and seriously, has anyone actually watched the DVD release recently? any scene with any green or black is basically swimming with pixels, and considering how much of that show takes place at night, that's BAD.), and more importantly, the audio was WAY improved-- no more having to sit with remote in hand, turning the volume up and down between every action and talking scene. The dynamics are still there, obviously, but no longer in a way that makes you have to max the volume to hear anyone talk and then turn it all the way back down again so your neighbors don't think you're killing anyone when the characters are. Yes, they did remove some of the purposeful grain and noise, but (a) the series is so visually arresting to begin with that you don't really miss it and (b) the tradeoff for less muddiness and brighter colors is, in my opinion, worth it. If you already own the DVDs then I think it's a matter of preference and amount of disposable income for whether you want to upgrade or not, but if you're looking to buy the series for the first time I really don't think it's in your best interest to try and track down the old release unless you REALLY prefer the existence of artistic noise to, well, basically improvements in all other audio-visual areas. And blu-rays are more durable, so it'll also last longer.

Similarly, we watched the FLCL blu-ray release last week (both of us had watched borrowed DVDs a long while back, so I can't directly compare the two sets), and while I do feel that there was something "smooth" about the blu-rays, I would hardly say it was "bad" smooth or "distracting" smooth. It might look strange if you're watching it on a standard def TV (in which case, why are you buying HD discs anyway?) or a computer screen, since the refresh rate is different, but... seriously, if you aren't some kind of self-important, nitpicky "I can tell this is shooped because of the pixels" kind of person, I cannot imagine why you would want to track down the ancient, ridiculously expensive second-hand DVDs rather than buy the current release, which looks just fine, sounds just fine, and will last you many years into the future.

But then again, everyone on the internet is a critic, so I'm probably just going to be told that I have bad eyesight and no taste, so hey. I know this is a losing battle, but I think people should take anything (including this!) they read on the tubes with a grain of salt and make their OWN decisions about what looks good and what doesn't, and not just assume that because someone has an elitist "I know what looks good and what doesn't" attitude that they're right. So much of what one believes "looks good" is subjective. Don't judge a release you've never actually seen.

Cowboy Bebop should be native HD when it arrives on Blu-ray, with the exception of the bits with CG. It was animated with physical cels and photographed on film. The same applies to Escaflowne.

Anime made from about 2001 to 2008 (with the exception of big budget films) will benefit the least from Blu-ray because those are mostly standard definition digital animation.

FLCL (1999) was one of the earliest digital productions; hence why it is an upscale.

Anime made in the '70s, '80s and '90s has the potential to look wonderful in HD as long as the original negative is still available and they do a new HD transfer. Just look at the Bubblegum Crisis BD box available in Japan.

This whole HD thing just feels like a forced, rushed, and largely unnecessary upgrade.

My fear is that we seem to be locking in to 1080p. How many years will it be before we go past that? Hopefully not another 20+. Even computer monitors seem to be jumping onto the 720/1080p hype, and instead of powering innovation, we're content to sit here at "better than we had". I see few monitors which go above 1920x1200, which saddens me. There's only so much a lower resolution can do.

I wonder if there's ever been an internet forum discussion dealing with Blu-ray quality that hasn't been unbearably obnoxious.

Unless you're running a 200" screen in your basement or sit a foot away from a 50" screen, 1080p is very usable.

it appears that Sailor Moon might get blocked from hitting the US because supposedly Brazil has been denied rights to redub Sailor Moon because supposedly Takeuchi is against "redubs". And since SM had like 3 different companies handling it at once, getting everyone on one page would be too hard.

I remember buying the uncut Shaman King ones with my allowance at age 15 at best buy and they were my treasures.
then once i figured out they weren't making any more and my Shaman King love had faded, I donated them to a library.
I still find those volumes at used DVD stores and at a FYE where they charge full MSRP for things and I just kindof of chuckle at them. and amazon has them for like...a dollar each.

amazon has the Yugioh ones too (those are all for the expensive price of 4 dollars each! ) but those I think I only saw in the store once when they just came out, so...

so yeah, they definitely existed.

I don't really want to throw out the theory that Al Kahn/4Kids somehow sabotaged the uncut DVD's, but given the circumstances, I hate to be wrong.

Like any talk of tech, it comes down to comparative luddites trying to explain to comparative technophiles why they should hold themselves back because the luddites don't want to embrace change. No one likes being held back, and no one likes being told they're wrong. Hence the hostility.