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NEWS: Re:Zero's Western Blu-rays Show Color Banding Artifacts, Companies Respond

As someone who bought this set, although I have not tried it out as it was just delivered today, I am disappointed, and hope replacement discs can be procured. When I buy anime, I expect the exact same quality customers get in Japan. We should not have to settle for sub-par, especially if Crunchyroll's stream is higher quality than the bluray.

Yazu13 wrote:

Artifacts in a blu-ray release? Really? Did they record someone's dial-up stream and burn it to a blu-ray disc or something? That's unacceptable.

Welcome to western anime bluray releases where publishers like Funi or Sentai don't care about image quality. Despite Aniplex prices, at least they do a good job with encoding.

First, the FUNimation Now stream doesn't have the massive issues of the Blu-ray.

the audio being LPCM (the best) Stereo at 2304 kbps 24-Bit.

Apparently there are reports (also from Professorwho) that these discs lack the Next Episode Previews. I know many care don't care about them, on the grounds of "Show's already finished, you can watch the next ep without waiting a week, you don't need the previews if you've already seen the whole series." But I agree with Professorwho's sentiment; you can easily skip them if they're present, but you can't choose to watch them if they're not there. I for one choose to watch them >99% of the time, whether the show's complete or not, and regardless of whether or not I've seen it before. Maybe the licensor didn't want them on the overseas versions of Re:Zero?

For those who want to see what it looks like, someone posted all about it here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/8s595f/psa_rezero_bluray_us_and_uk_has_serious_video/

Based on the pictures in there, though, it definitely does not seem like it is bad enough of an issue to be marked as defective. There might be a lot of quality issues, but unless you are actually looking for them, you likely wouldn't even notice or if you are using a 60+ inch TV screen from an inadequate distance.

He noted that, while the problem is "disappointing," it does not fit "the common vernacular definition of defective" in order for Anime Limited to replace the discs.

Did the Japanese release have this as well? Curious to see if it's production of the show related issue or a the licensees messed up issue.

I agree that the artifacts in this release make it subpar even by Western standards, and were likely avoidable with better encoding... assuming this wasn't a total anti-reverse-importation sabotage operation. Hopefully replacements get made available at some point. But do we really have the right to expect the same quality Japanese customers get, when we're paying so much less? When we're paying 20% of the JP prices, even getting something half as good means we come out ahead.

Zalis116 wrote:

I agree that the artifacts in this release make it subpar even by Western standards, and were likely avoidable with better encoding... assuming this wasn't a total anti-reverse-importation sabotage operation. Hopefully replacements get made available at some point. But do we really have the right to expect the same quality Japanese customers get, when we're paying so much less? When we're paying 20% of the JP prices, even getting something half as good means we come out ahead.

So if Switzerland pays $6.80 for a Big Mac while the U.S. pays $5.30 and Japan pays $3.40 then that means the U.S. should get 20% less beef in their burger and Japan 50% less because they aren't paying the same prices or everyone should pay the same price as the Swiss for their Big Mac? Hollywood live-action movies are also more expensive in Japan than the U.S., how is that fair to the Japanese? Why don't Americans pay say $50 for a Hollywood BD and pay $80 for UHD? Markets are different. Purchasing power and what consumers value is different.

Also Japan is now making money from licensing for streaming and home video sales. This means they have more than one revenue stream coming in for their product when in the past they didn't. How about the increase in licensing costs? So I'm not sure its accurate to suggest that the Japanese are only getting a piece of that 20% and therefore its ok to get less quality.

I'm sympathetic to the Japanese concern over reverse-importation and I'm ok with things like burned in subs and other methods to mitigate reverse-imports. However, I don't buy BDs to get "half as good" video and audio quality, we might as well go back to DVDs then. It certainly doesn't want to make me buy their product if it is deficient, which means they would be losing a buying customer. I get annoyed enough when Hollywood takes short cuts with their BDs.

@professorwho
?
I agree this release is not worth me paying for. My response to Zalis116 was primarily about his statement: "But do we really have the right to expect the same quality Japanese customers get, when we're paying so much less? When we're paying 20% of the JP prices, even getting something half as good means we come out ahead." Which I don't agree with. I was pointing out that just because prices are higher in some regions doesn't mean that a product should be of lesser quality and reverse importation fears which he suggested as a possibility still doesn't justify crippling a product (if that's what was done).

You're right, I think we maybe hear of a Funi disc error around once a year, and given the amount they work on for home release and simulcast of dubs it's kinda surprising that only on thing slips through the cracks every year.

Apparently there are reports (also from Professorwho) that these discs lack the Next Episode Previews. I know many care don't care about them, on the grounds of "Show's already finished, you can watch the next ep without waiting a week, you don't need the previews if you've already seen the whole series." But I agree with Professorwho's sentiment; you can easily skip them if they're present, but you can't choose to watch them if they're not there. I for one choose to watch them >99% of the time, whether the show's complete or not, and regardless of whether or not I've seen it before. Maybe the licensor didn't want them on the overseas versions of Re:Zero?