Adv. Review: Stand Alone Complex #2

Paul

Paul

Ghost of Animes
Administrator
Only days away from its UK release, I've taken an advanced look at Manga Ent.'s Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex #2. My apologies for the excessively dramatic opening paragraph! <ul><span class=menu>"... Luckily for them, Kusanagi and others are on hand to lend some physical support; and suddenly, the action is turned up a notch as the Major back flips through corridors and the previously cloaked Tachikoma tanks swing down from neighbouring roof tops. If you hadn't already been enamoured by Stand Alone Complex's animation, these heart-fluttering moments will surely cause you to rethink."</span></ul><a href="http://www.animeuknews.net/viewreview.php?showreview=84">Read full review</a>. Also please note, our deadline for new news posters/reporters is passing on Friday, so if you're interested, be sure to get those applications <a href="mailto:p[email protected]">e-mailed to me</a> by Saturday.
 
animeondvd have just reviewed volume 2, and weighed in on the audio side. It seems that despite the massive 5 months gap, they still haven't been able to quash the audio bugs. From the review review :

Having listened to the Japanese track in the past, and immensely enjoying the performances from the entire cast, I opted to listen to the English track for review purposes. The dub, by fan favourites Animaze/ZRO Limit, is excellent, with particularly promising performances from Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Kusanagi), Richard Epcar (Bateau) and Crispin Freeman (Togusa) at this early stage in the series. In listening to the 5.1 track, I noticed no dropouts or distortions, and it provides some great directionality, especially during the action sequences; it's a wholly immersive track.

Spot-checking the Japanese 5.1 track introduced some problems though. There are a few dropouts in sound at various points, which becomes a bit frustrating. In spot-checking the other tracks, though, it didn't seem to affect the English tracks or the Japanese 2.0 track, which is at least something. It's very disappointing to see such problems on this disc though, considering the time it's been since the release of the first volume and hence the amount of advance warning they had to give these discs a thorough quality check given the problems of that volume.


.....


In what will quickly become a farce if it continues though, the audio dropouts on the Japanese track at times here are pretty unforgivable. With five months to get it right and learn from their mistakes on the first volume, Manga have still managed to put out a disc with some stupid audio problems. Thankfully though, the show is still very watchable as the dropouts are isolated and only last a very short amount of time. Still, some fixes to these issues wouldn't go amiss now they've made a similar mistake again. I guess we should be thankful that the subtitles made it out OK this time.
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Well, I guess my trust that Manga wouldn't botch the audio again wasn't well founded. You'd think that with all that time and complaints about the first disc release issues (in the US and UK) would have prevented something like audio dropout.

Ah well, roll on volume 3 then.
 
It's a disappointment for sure, especially with such a high profile release. Personally, I think it could be down to inexperience (since Manga switched over to Anchor Bay)- thankfully, it doesn't really hurt the overall experience as much as the problems with first volume.

Having said that, there are still a few subtitling errors (i.e. they occasionally change way too fast) and the audio drop outs are annoying, if just because it taints what is a landmark anime soundtrack. I'm no technical DVD expert, but I agree with your comments. There is certainly room for improvement here.
 
The white subtitles on volume #1 gave me a headache ( along with the few technical problems on the volume ) , so Im watching this in dub format as my main viewing , which is unusual for me. Normally I will watch subtitles first then a dub on a second viewing but with the audio errors and those awful white subtitles :evil: , the dub is my preferred way of viewing this show.
 
^How is the dub track? I've heard it's quite good.

My view is that almost all foreign films are better subbed than dubbed. Still, With the positive reviews I've been hearing, I might have to try it myself, which is a rarity for me.
 
Frecking... piece of... login... problems... frecking...

Anyway, I was just wondering what the specifics were about the Audio problems on the 1st disc (UK release)? I thought that most of the problems from the US printing had been quashed.
 
The GiTS:SAC dub is excellenet, cant wait to see more off it. Lukcily for me, i dont have a 5.1 decoder so i dont have to worry about the audio drop outs :) (if i choose to watch the JP track that is)

There wernt audio probs on UK Vol 1, it was Slightly out of sync subs.
 
I think the dub track is excellent for this volume , while I watch in japanese first time around normally I do enjoy dubs , and the GiTS:Stand Alone Complex dub has some excellent voice acting.
 
IanC said:
There wernt audio probs on UK Vol 1, it was Slightly out of sync subs.
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That's alright then. At least it wasn't anything major.

It's a shame still though. Even minor defects can detract from an otherwise stellar release of such a heavily anticipated title. I mean in terms of how big this title is, SAC is like the anime equivalent of Lord of the Rings. I guess That's why I had such high hopes for a perfect release.

In any case, I'll watch through both sub & dub before deciding which I prefer for my standard viewing.

With Hellsing, it was almost the dub. Very professionally voice acted. If only we didn't keep getting American renditions of what a British accent sounds like. :lol:
 
subedii said:
With Hellsing, it was almost the dub. Very professionally voice acted. If only we didn't keep getting American renditions of what a British accent sounds like. :lol:
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erm, they where actual Brits :p
 
IanC said:
subedii said:
With Hellsing, it was almost the dub. Very professionally voice acted. If only we didn't keep getting American renditions of what a British accent sounds like. :lol:
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erm, they where actual Brits :p
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Really?

Weird. I thought they were American VA's to tell the truth.
 
is it me or do you think this serie needs 2 DVDs a vol as theres not really many extras and they put the eps on both disc it just seems waste of time really.
 
I agree with the above post, Stand Alone Complex does not need two discs at all, and whats with putting all four episodes on both??
 
Im actually kinda glad theres two discs as on my copy of Stand Alone Complex #2 , one of the episodes refuses to play on one disc :? , fortunately the episode on the other disc played fine.
While in normal circumstances Id agree it was rather pointless, in my situation it was nice to have the other disc as backup :D
 
valha said:
is it me or do you think this serie needs 2 DVDs a vol as theres not really many extras and they put the eps on both disc it just seems waste of time really.
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Disc 1 is Japanese or English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Disc 2 is Japanese or English DTS 5.1 Surround

I'm not too sure what this means, but I assume there are some problems when DTS and Dolby Digital soundtracks are placed on the same discs. So basically, it all comes down to what sound system you have (I have DD 5.1 Surround).
 
Let's just say DTS (Digital Theatre Surround) is more advanced. I don't know how much space a DTS track needs in and of itself, but considering that they couldn't fit another audio track on the 1st disc and instead decided to release the title with 1 extra disc, even at the same RRP, implies that it must be a lot. That's something that impressed me with this release. That even though they're releasing a 2 disc edition with DTS for the home cinema nuts amongst us (wish I could say I had a system that supported it :mrgreen: ) they aren't upping the standard retail price.
 
Anonymous said:
IanC said:
subedii said:
With Hellsing, it was almost the dub. Very professionally voice acted. If only we didn't keep getting American renditions of what a British accent sounds like. :lol:
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erm, they where actual Brits :p
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Really?

Weird. I thought they were American VA's to tell the truth.
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Got that fact from Jonathan Klien who works at NewGen pictures (the company that dubbed it) Apprently, they like to go the extra mile on things like that.

Paul said:
I'm not too sure what this means, but I assume there are some problems when DTS and Dolby Digital soundtracks are placed on the same discs. So basically, it all comes down to what sound system you have (I have DD 5.1 Surround).
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Simply, its a space issue. DTS takes up more room than Dolby Digital.
 
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