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AHAHA JYB is at it again.

If this means a re-release...well, I might just end up owning both DVDs haha. I mean, the new dub can't possibly be worse than the old one. (lol nvm it definitely isn't) I'll stick with the Japanese though, lol.

...maybe the new packaging will include the OST *dreams*

EDIT: Ok, JYB is actually not half bad in this role haha. But Akari's VA... Uguuuuuuuuuu

Finally finished the only one of the three movies I hadn't already seen, Voices of a Distant Star. It was good, but the awkward subtitles hindered my enjoyment. Maybe I'll rewatch 5cm later today.

Tofusensei wrote:

Teriyaki Terrier wrote:

Splitter wrote:

I'm sorry but... I just can't condone the viewing of Makoto Shinkai anything on Crunchyroll. I just can't.

Same here. As much I like enjoy hearing Johnny Young Bosh's english dub, I will not be part of a criminal activity. I'll rent the second version from Netflix or purchase it from Best Buy. Those fan subs hurt the companies enough, watching free without supporting any company other than illegal downloading isn't going to happen for me. Not to mention that the quality would be greatly lessened. If I want to watch anime, the quality must be at least somewhat clear and easy to see.

I am "cursing" them for their past sins. Any site that condones illegal fan subs or illegal downloading, is not a site I will ever go to again.
Makoto Shinkai deserves much more respect than that.

You realize that there's likely revenue being shared back up the chain via watching on CR (and click an ad or two)? Plus it'll lend credence to arguments to produce more Makoto Shinkai anime and release to global audiences.

I wasn't sure from your post if you're cursing them for their past sins or if you honestly think it'd be "watching free without supporting any company" even now on CR.

-Tofu

I am "cursing" them for their past sins. Any site that condones illegal fan subs or illegal downloading, is not a site I will ever go to again. Despite this "trying to become Napster 2.0" facade, I read an article that said there is still plenty of licensed shows CR didn't remove. I am only speaking for myself when I say I won't support Crunchy Roll, everyone else can do what they please.

Have any of you stopped to think, that maybe the "wanted a better translation" is just a BS answer, and when ADV's license got dropped/expired, the rights to the dub stayed with them and not the original license holders?

eely225 wrote:

Which was my main complaint with the "updated" script. If they were trying to be more literal, they managed to sacrifice fluidity and emotional impact for technical correctness. I'm not a Japanese speaker, but the script really lacked a lot of the impact that the original had.

Come on, we all know the Japanese talk "blocky". Wink

souleater wrote:

Right, and I was wondering why they would expect 720p from a 480p source. Crunchyroll can't do magic and pull 720p content out of 480p. If you want an upscale, just click fullscreen.

My guess is that as Crunchyroll were advertising 720p, that he expected them to provide 720p. There's this little thing known as 'false advertising'.

Quote:

It's impossible to stream DVD quality, so you have to have realistic expectations. H.264 is a far superior codec to MPEG2, especially for anime. So simply comparing bitrates is not really fair.

Streaming high-bitrate h.264 is FAR from impossible. An 8mbit connection is enough for at least acceptable quality HD streaming (and more than enough for Superbit-DVD-level SD streaming if transcoded properly). Stage6 managed to stream macroblock-free (assuming a decent source) HD video with no stuttering. BBC streams above-broadcast-quality h.264 (there is far les macroblocking evident than in the usual MPEG2 transport stream) via iplayer, though I have other complaints about their service, as a TV-license holder, such as region locking and time-limited viewing periods.

Poor quality low-bitrate streaming is NOT a necessity.

Dargonxtc wrote:

Have any of you stopped to think, that maybe the "wanted a better translation" is just a BS answer, and when ADV's license got dropped/expired, the rights to the dub stayed with them and not the original license holders?

That sounds somewhat probable. Does this mean that if 5cm is ever re-released by another company it'll come with this new dub instead of ADV's effort?

edzieba wrote:

though I have other complaints about their service, as a TV-license holder, such as region locking and time-limited viewing periods.

Such is the problem with streaming nowadays. In my case, not even paying for a CR subscription would allow me to watch the shows I'm interested in over there.
My opinion of the TV-licence isn't a very favourable one anyway.

edzieba wrote:

souleater wrote:

Right, and I was wondering why they would expect 720p from a 480p source. Crunchyroll can't do magic and pull 720p content out of 480p. If you want an upscale, just click fullscreen.

My guess is that as Crunchyroll were advertising 720p, that he expected them to provide 720p. There's this little thing known as 'false advertising'.

Quote:

It's impossible to stream DVD quality, so you have to have realistic expectations. H.264 is a far superior codec to MPEG2, especially for anime. So simply comparing bitrates is not really fair.

Streaming high-bitrate h.264 is FAR from impossible. An 8mbit connection is enough for at least acceptable quality HD streaming (and more than enough for Superbit-DVD-level SD streaming if transcoded properly). Stage6 managed to stream macroblock-free (assuming a decent source) HD video with no stuttering. BBC streams above-broadcast-quality h.264 (there is far les macroblocking evident than in the usual MPEG2 transport stream) via iplayer, though I have other complaints about their service, as a TV-license holder, such as region locking and time-limited viewing periods.

Poor quality low-bitrate streaming is NOT a necessity.

Sometimes I have to sleep... Smile

Since I started this, I'll clarify. Yes, when I paid for my subscription, it said I would have access to 720p. Checking back, this article doesn't mention 720p, but only 480p. When I went to view the show, there was no 720p option.

I tried viewing it in in 480p, and it was far inferior to DVD. I have two display options: A 24" HD-resolution LCD computer screen, and a 42" 480p plasma panel. I have a 2Mb pipe for streaming. I don't like watching TV or movies on my computer, so I generally play fansubs and streams from my laptop connected to my home theater system. I always watch in "fullscreen" mode, as that is the way it's intended, and the way I want it.

Not being an A/V professional by any means, I can only observe the difference in quality as a consumer. A 480p stream blurs/offsets lines and creates artifacts on either of my displays, whereas a DVD is crisp and, well, normal quality. 720p streams can achieve DVD quality, and can match H.264, high-bitrate fansubs, which often equal DVD quality, but not always. The actual quality has much more to with the encoding than the bitrate, IMHO, as two versions of an episode from two different fansub sources from the same raw can vary widely, with the lower bitrate video sometimes superior. My setup also has an influence, I'm sure. This is the real world vs. all the theoretical suppositions based on the technology.

My point was that especially for a show famous for its visuals, that I haven't seen before, I'm not going to allow my first viewing to be at a low enough quality that I am constantly reminded of it. I'll wait, pay the price for the new DVD (or if none, someday shell out the probably $75 for the ADV version), and watch it within my standards.

That's all.

Zin5ki wrote:

Dargonxtc wrote:

Have any of you stopped to think, that maybe the "wanted a better translation" is just a BS answer, and when ADV's license got dropped/expired, the rights to the dub stayed with them and not the original license holders?

That sounds somewhat probable. Does this mean that if 5cm is ever re-released by another company it'll come with this new dub instead of ADV's effort?

If that's the case, I'm glad I went the extra mile to get a hold of ADV version, because I like their script better. As some one else said it had a little more emotional impact than this new one. I actually watched this new dub and the old one side by side with the dvd popped into my tv and my laptop on my lap. Nothing major was changed just mainly wording of sentences and some of those changes I saw as unnecessary and diminished the finesse the original wording had.

Teriyaki Terrier wrote:

I am "cursing" them for their past sins. Any site that condones illegal fan subs or illegal downloading, is not a site I will ever go to again. Despite this "trying to become Napster 2.0" facade, I read an article that said there is still plenty of licensed shows CR didn't remove. I am only speaking for myself when I say I won't support Crunchy Roll, everyone else can do what they please.

OK, I couldn't tell from your original post if you were ill-informed or not, that's all. You'd be amazed at the amount of FUD on the interweb lol

Teriyaki Terrier wrote:

I am "cursing" them for their past sins. Any site that condones illegal fan subs or illegal downloading, is not a site I will ever go to again. Despite this "trying to become Napster 2.0" facade, I read an article that said there is still plenty of licensed shows CR didn't remove. I am only speaking for myself when I say I won't support Crunchy Roll, everyone else can do what they please.

Hmm, I'm pretty sure that all anime content on the site is there with the express permission of the rights holder.

The past is the past. Yeah, they used to do some shitty stuff. But right now all that matters is that they're helping to support the industry, and that's alright in my book.

Well, I just got finished watching the stream. I took a long break right before the second segment so the emotional impact was a bit dulled by that. Overall though, I think ADV's script had a little more emotional impact.

As for the VA performances: I think Hilary Haag's Akari trumps Erika Weinstein's. I'm a bit biased toward Hilary in general but this performance just felt a bit lacking in the earlier segments. It was strongest, I think, in the final segment. I've loved Erika in Kamichu! as Mitsue and Rozen Maiden: Träumend as Meg but there was just something off in this dub. It wasn't a bad performance but the emotional impact was less vs. the ADV dub.

In the case of the male lead Takaki, I think that Johnny Yong Bosch and David Matranga are about equal. They both seemed to approach the character in similar ways. I think Johnny's performance has more of a wistful feel while David's is more stoic. Both good yet different in my mind.

My favorite character in 5cm Pers Second is Kanae Sumita so I was very curious to learn how Kira Buckland compared to Serena Varghese. I ended up liking Kira Buckland's Kanae more than Serena's, though both are quite good. There's just something I felt was stronger about Kira's take on her. Kanae's emotions seemed to come across better to me and while I also very much enjoyed Serena Varghese's Kanae, I do feel that Kira did better. It's not something I can entirely explain. I was quite surprised to feel like this.

Anyway, overall I think the new dub and the ADV dub are equally good but they have different strengths and weaknesses.

As for the Crunchyroll first time experience, I found it quite easy to navigate and the stream was smooth and loaded quite easily for me. I watched 5cm on the H264 setting, whatever that is, and it looked quite nice on my monitor. Definitely can't see any reason to complain about it. (No offense but I think some people take video quality concerns to Olympic levels. All I know is it looks just fine on my monitor and doesn't detract from the viewing experience.)

I wasn't eager to check out Crunchyroll given the fansub past and because I felt putting content on it in the beginning seemed like a desperation move by some companies, like ADV with Welcome to the NHK, which made it seem like a "last resort" and those are usually not great. However, my opinion is now much higher for them. I don't have a lot of streaming experience but Crunchyroll seems to be doing a good job with it. I expect to use the site more in the future.

I feel like some of those complaining about the video quality of these offerings are taking this material waaaaay beyond the viewing level it was originally designed for. I mean, you're talking about an H.264 stream that, at the most, can output in 480p resolution. And at least one of you was trying to play that on...a 48" HDTV? Seriously? I'd imagine that even normal DVDs would look rather iffy on such a display, unless you had some super-top-of-the-line upscaling player (and even that would be a crap-shoot). These things were intended to be viewed on ordinary computer monitors, not some spectacular home-video setup that an AV club nerd would drool over. I watched both Voices of a Distant Star and The Place Promised in our Early Days full-screen on a 19" CRT monitor running at 1280x960 resolution, and both of them looked just as good as any DVD I've ever played on this computer. I couldn't be happier with the whole experience, really.

As for the films themselves, I finally see why Makoto Shinkai has the reputation that he does. I loved both Voices and Place Promised, particularly the latter; it's a rare piece of any entertainment that brings me to the point of tears, but it just about pushed me over the edge. I can't even comprehend how one man working on an iMac could create something as beautiful and detailed as Voices on its own, but it definitely adds to the rough-around-the-edges simplicity that it exudes. I don't think I'm going to have time to watch 5 cm/s before it's taken down, but I have the ADV DVD release lying around here somewhere, and I'm certainly more than motivated now to finally watch it.

Top Gun wrote:

As for the films themselves, I finally see why Makoto Shinkai has the reputation that he does. I loved both Voices and Place Promised, particularly the latter; it's a rare piece of any entertainment that brings me to the point of tears, but it just about pushed me over the edge.

Place Promised contrasts the sadness of Voices quite well. I certainly prefer the older work, but will admit that spoiler[seeing the plane coming into view after the credits roll] in Place Promised still had me welling up.

I've been listening to One more time, One more Chance, the ending theme for 5cms, over and over. I adore the melancholy bitter sweetness of it. The emotional impact of 5cms didn't hit me at all at first. I'm rather tough skinned and I never cry when watching any entertainment, but after the umpteenth time listening to the song and watching the video that went with it, when it got to the parts in the lyrics when it was saying if he could live life over again he'd be with her forever, my eyes welled up and I started to crying! It's such a sad message, he's choosing to move on but if he could do it all over again he'd never part with her. Just the over all message of the song about him searching for her face where ever he goes, it's so sad and is the perfect ending to such an emotional story about the reality of first love.

Tofusensei wrote:

Teriyaki Terrier wrote:

I am "cursing" them for their past sins. Any site that condones illegal fan subs or illegal downloading, is not a site I will ever go to again. Despite this "trying to become Napster 2.0" facade, I read an article that said there is still plenty of licensed shows CR didn't remove. I am only speaking for myself when I say I won't support Crunchy Roll, everyone else can do what they please.

OK, I couldn't tell from your original post if you were ill-informed or not, that's all. You'd be amazed at the amount of FUD on the interweb lol

I was in a time crunch when I wrote the original post, I am glad I was able to clerify what I meant. The internet is full of lies and untruth's, so one really has to dig deep to find information that is true.

Souleater: I'll never forgive Crunchyroll. It's site's like that one that causes honest, hardworking people to lose their jobs. I'll agree with you the past may be the past, but that doesn't instantly justify Crunchyroll's criminal activity.

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