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Shelf Life - Galaxy Express 999: The Movie




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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 4816
PostPosted: Mon Apr 08, 2019 12:17 pm Reply with quote
I grew up watching the Viz dub of the Galaxy Express 999 movie on Sci-Fi Channel in the 90s and it's always been a favorite classic of mine. I just love how unique the story and characters are and the journeys to different worlds and there's no other sci-fi anime quite like Galaxy Express 999. It's too bad this release doesn't contain the infamous Roger Corman dub if only for historical purposes and curiosity.
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pachy_boy



Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 1323
PostPosted: Mon Apr 08, 2019 2:56 pm Reply with quote
The inclusion of the liner notes sounds interesting, but I'm still kind of on the fence in getting the Galaxy Express 999 blu-ray, especially when the Discotek DVD still looks near-blu-ray-quality great.

Thoughts on the sequel, Adieu? It really wasn't bad for what it was, but it was clearly made to capitalize on the first movie--which told its whole story that rounded out with a great conclusion. You watch this original the whole way through and you end up preferring this was all there was without it getting messed with.
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Otaku-sempai



Joined: 27 Mar 2017
Posts: 118
Location: Lackawanna, NY
PostPosted: Mon Apr 08, 2019 4:37 pm Reply with quote
Well, pilgrim, the first time I saw this movie, it was the Roger Corman edit with Captain 'Warlock' sounding like John "the Duke" Wayne! It was a heck of an experience, I can tell you. Wink
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Mon Apr 08, 2019 5:05 pm Reply with quote
pachy_boy wrote:
Thoughts on the sequel, Adieu? It really wasn't bad for what it was, but it was clearly made to capitalize on the first movie--which told its whole story that rounded out with a great conclusion. You watch this original the whole way through and you end up preferring this was all there was without it getting messed with.


Feels a little too much Rintaro, and not as much Leiji Matsumoto:
Tetsuro now being a gun-toting mercenary teen doesn't feel as "fairytale" sympathetic as the goofy potato-head orphan from the first story--The two new plot episodes are "Please do not reveal the 'surprise' endings" Rolling Eyes , and while it feels like closure to see the Express's tracks finally crumble and the Conductor turn in his coat, you know it's a Rintaro movie when, in the final climax, Tetsuro sees Maetel fly off forever on the train to her tragic mysterious destiny, and after a minute of dead silence we hear "........MAE-TE-RUUUUUU!!!!!!"

(fiddles ear)...Er, yeah, thanks, Rin, that's, like, really artistic. Confused
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DangerMouse



Joined: 25 Mar 2009
Posts: 3982
PostPosted: Mon Apr 08, 2019 8:29 pm Reply with quote
I saw this on Sci-Fi as well. Smile

pachy_boy wrote:
Thoughts on the sequel, Adieu? It really wasn't bad for what it was, but it was clearly made to capitalize on the first movie--which told its whole story that rounded out with a great conclusion. You watch this original the whole way through and you end up preferring this was all there was without it getting messed with.

I wonder if they'll be posting a review for that soon too since I know my preorders from rightstuf shipped at the same time for both movies.
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GeorgeC



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Posts: 795
PostPosted: Mon Apr 08, 2019 8:29 pm Reply with quote
Cardcaptor Takato wrote:
I grew up watching the Viz dub of the Galaxy Express 999 movie on Sci-Fi Channel in the 90s and it's always been a favorite classic of mine. I just love how unique the story and characters are and the journeys to different worlds and there's no other sci-fi anime quite like Galaxy Express 999. It's too bad this release doesn't contain the infamous Roger Corman dub if only for historical purposes and curiosity.


Maybe they couldn't find a clean copy of the audio for that dub or there was a rights issue.
There have been stories they've literally had to "scrape" (capture) audio from old VHS tapes and clean those up for the Discotek releases.
It's much easier to rip clean audio (assuming the audio quality was good to begin with!) from past DVD releases.
Actually, scratch what I said about laserdisc... You still need a capture device to capture those and it's usually the same capture device (USB-to-PC hardware; video inputs on back of a PC or Mac if not a dedicated video card with appropriate software) they use for VHS and with VHS you have to pray then that it doesn't have copy protection which from personal experience can make capturing iffy (but usually the audio is fine; it's the video that gets scrambled!).
DVD is easier to use for obvious modern-day reasons (optical drives being standard or easy add-ons for more modern computers).

Did Corman (or whoever did that dub of GE) even release their version on home video video? I can't say I was LOOKING for anime on video in the 1980s. It was much easier to find things in the 1990s. Generally, when they did dubs of anime in the 1970s and 1980s those dubs ended up on TV -- if not syndicated, they would have been shown on cable (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, or Disney Channel in the most tame cases).
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SolHerald



Joined: 07 Oct 2012
Posts: 99
PostPosted: Mon Apr 08, 2019 10:14 pm Reply with quote
^They mentioned on Twitter that it was a rights issue.
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LuveniaTrahan



Joined: 09 Apr 2019
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:53 am Reply with quote
For sure, voyager, the main event when I saw this film, it was the Roger Corman modify with Captain 'Warlock' appearing John "the Duke" Wayne! It was a hellfire of an experience.
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FLCLGainax





PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 9:14 am Reply with quote
GeorgeC wrote:

Did Corman (or whoever did that dub of GE) even release their version on home video video? I can't say I was LOOKING for anime on video in the 1980s. It was much easier to find things in the 1990s. Generally, when they did dubs of anime in the 1970s and 1980s those dubs ended up on TV -- if not syndicated, they would have been shown on cable (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, or Disney Channel in the most tame cases).
Yes it was released on VHS by Embassy Home Ent. back in the mid-1980s. I found the tape for a dollar at a thrift store back in 1998.
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AkumaChef



Joined: 10 Jan 2019
Posts: 821
PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 10:35 am Reply with quote
GeorgeC wrote:

Actually, scratch what I said about laserdisc... You still need a capture device to capture those and it's usually the same capture device (USB-to-PC hardware; video inputs on back of a PC or Mac if not a dedicated video card with appropriate software) they use for VHS and with VHS you have to pray then that it doesn't have copy protection which from personal experience can make capturing iffy (but usually the audio is fine; it's the video that gets scrambled!).


The copy protection on laserdiscs applies to the video only, the audio is not scrambled. You could record analog audio with a standard line-in or MIC input. You could capture digital audio using either a digital coaxial input or a toslink (fiber optic) input. The former is standard on just about any PC. The latter may not be on every PC, but it's far from rare.

The only issue I can forsee is that if you were copying something that required a side flip you'd have to cut out the silent pause during the flip.
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GeorgeC



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Posts: 795
PostPosted: Wed Apr 10, 2019 3:19 am Reply with quote
AkumaChef wrote:
GeorgeC wrote:

Actually, scratch what I said about laserdisc... You still need a capture device to capture those and it's usually the same capture device (USB-to-PC hardware; video inputs on back of a PC or Mac if not a dedicated video card with appropriate software) they use for VHS and with VHS you have to pray then that it doesn't have copy protection which from personal experience can make capturing iffy (but usually the audio is fine; it's the video that gets scrambled!).


The copy protection on laserdiscs applies to the video only, the audio is not scrambled. You could record analog audio with a standard line-in or MIC input. You could capture digital audio using either a digital coaxial input or a toslink (fiber optic) input. The former is standard on just about any PC. The latter may not be on every PC, but it's far from rare.


Laserdisc protection, I do know.
They did do macro-protection on laserdisc for a very short while but it created compatibility issues. They generally didn't bother to copy-protect laserdisc because it wasn't worth the extra expensive given how few laserdiscs were actually sold!
The average print-run on a laserdisc was 1500 copies per title. Most people weren't even aware of laserdisc at its peak in the West and many of the people posting here were born AFTER laserdisc died which was around 1996! The major studios don't like to press many titles that sell under a million copies on DVD/Blu ray today. That's how much the expectations have changed between what was the premiere video format 30 years ago and what is the big deal today. FYI, the best-selling video titles of all time were sold on VHS. There are Disney titles that sold tens of millions copies (well above 40million copies) on VHS. Something like The Lion King sold around 80million copies on VHS. I don't think there's been a Blu ray that's sold 10million copies or more and most DVD's never got anywhere near that and DVD was a far more popular format than Blu ray at its peak. 4K Blu ray is selling next to nothing compared to DVD OR Blu ray. I saw the breakdown in sales recently and the signs are NOT good for 4K Blu ray. Blu ray itself never made up the difference in sales for DVD at its peak and they're still selling more DVDs in general than Blu ray which surprised me!
I've NEVER had an issue in the past (when I cared to do this) with digitizing a laserdisc. I have encountered issues with VHS and in a few cases (not that I've bothered because there's not much on VHS I'd like to archive) I'd have to buy a descrambler to get enhance the video signal/crack the copy scheme on the tape. I've never noticed audio being affected -- it's always the video, a sure sign that Macrovision was used on that particular VHS tape. They (VHS protected) would probably still be scrambled with a USB capture device unless something's been changed. The signals were scrambled with video capture cards on PC/Mac back 20 years ago. Scrambling happened as well VHS to VHS recorder, or VHS to DVD-recorder. That's been my experience unless you use a video stabilizer/enhancer between the play-through and recording device.
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