Defective or Disappointing UK Anime Discs

I have recently purchased and been re watching Durarara!! in English dub that Anime limited released and on the last disk after every episode it reverts back to the Japanese dub and i have to change back, is this meant to happen? and has it happened to anyone else?
 
Looks like Andrew is trying to sort out a fix with Siren based on the comments he made on Amazon:
Sorry to hear you feel this way about it! We're working with Siren to get a fix put together as obviously we don't like seeing fans upset either about a title!

These things take time to do but as always as the UK distributor we'll look to issue replacements as soon as humanly possible to anyone upset with the quality. Likely this is towards end of year or start of Season 2 but it's in the works least.

Hopefully you're not put off future Anime Limited titles as it's a rare occurrence we let other territories do the authoring and it's something next time we'll take a closer QC of as well now even if it means delays.

Very best,

Andrew,
President, Anime Limited
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DURARARA: RE-AUTHORING

Firstly – thank you to anyone who has supported the Durarara!! release so far – it’s greatly appreciated and we know a lot of you have been looking forward to this.

WHAT HAPPENED?

As many of you know – the discs for this release were authored in Australia by the distributor there for their release and we piggy-backed on it for this project. By the time they were delivered to us, the project had been completed for some time with no reports of errors reaching us from there. So we went ahead to press discs – which is when we receive final checks usually (as stock is being made).

Since it hit reviewers, we’ve been made aware of a litany of problems though including some pretty important ones with subtitles dropping. Also a lack of signs track despite there being one on the original US release.

IN DEFENCE OF AUSTRALIA – QC’S A PAIN IN THE BEHIND!

To defend Australia – how most studios (even small ones) work is that they pay the authoring house to QC the work and they normally flag any problems. This works 95% of the time and is pretty understandable as a full QC takes 2 x the run of the show.

From sore experience, Anime Ltd actually pays for one QC and we do a full QC in house too. The benefits are twofold nowadays – the biggest of which is we catch serious errors (Tiger & Bunny and Garden of Words being good examples of cleared product and Outlaw Star we caught the errors). Secondly it means if our team hasn’t seen a show (not everyone’s been in the anime business for 10+ years like I have) then they get a chance to watch it which helps them talk to you all about them!

For materials too – you have to keep in mind you can only work with what you have and as the project was so old, they had to source the materials again. Now some studios will only accept subtitles in the correct file formats – which also explains the lack of signs track.

WHY NOT JUST FIX IT AND ISSUE REPLACEMENTS?

Well the standard would be – we return to our authoring house hacked off at the errors that passed QC, they’d fix it and we’d put it on the next print run.
No extra cost from the authoring house but extra cost for replication and new glass masters obviously – but problem fixed (about to be that with Cowboy Bebop).

The issue is – as this project was done and dusted last year for Siren with no real notes, it’s passed by. This means it will cost even more to re-author the discs again.

SO WHAT IS ANIME LTD GOING TO DO?

We’ve taken the decision to re-author the discs for fans in the UK! We don’t want anyone feeling unhappy and anyone who orders it will get replacement discs per show from us that needs them as soon as it’s done.

Nobody likes a broken product on the market and we’re not happy about that, nor is Siren in Australia for that matter.

In the meantime, as it makes sense to use the same materials to create the DVD – we’ll wait and post a new release date for the DVD as soon as it’s done.
Tentatively it’ll be all good to go in time for Durarara!! Season 2 though.

While we’re there – we’ll also work to add signs tracks to each disc as well. Can’t say fairer than that really!

Hope this helps and in the meantime – if you’re eager to support us (or a fan of the dub who is unaffected by the biggest issues with the subtitles) you can knowing you’ll be first in line for revised copies towards the end of this year.

Very best,

Andrew
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http://www.alltheanime.com/durarara-re-authoring/
 
Excellent, thanks for the updates :D

Are all of the problems with Cowboy Bebop going to be wiped out when that's reissued, by the way (asking in case Andrew has a moment)? I'd like to use my green pen on the list more often.

R
 
I've had confirmation that the faults in the Girls und Panzer US BD release haven't leaked into our DVD release, so all that has to be confirmed is if they're still on the BD or if Hanabee decided to create their own masters with all the issues fixed after they got the stock from sentai.

Edit: Although, you could count the fact that the DVD release in only on two discs instead of the three for the US release a defect.
 
Girls und Panzer recap specials have a slight issue:
While there is a lot of positives to be had with this release there is also two minor problems to be found, first of all the Episode re-caps (Episode 5.5 & 10.5) are only available in Japanese and the that picture quality in both of these episodes suffers from minor pixilation/distortion, it’s nothing major but some will notice it. It’s interesting that the whole series has been dubbed into English, yet the bonus episodes are only in Japanese, but luckily there are only re-caps so you do not miss much.
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Ignore the recap not being dubbed, it's not an issue to be honest.
 
Another issue with episode 10.5, the second recap episode on the Girls und Panzer DVD. It only has the dialogue translated for the subtitles. For this episode only, there are no translations for the screen text, and to be honest there is a whole lot of screen text here, which would probably clash with dialogue subtitles, and I can understand why they might make that choice. This episode also has no subtitles for the theme songs.
 
Just Passing Through said:
Another issue with episode 10.5, the second recap episode on the Girls und Panzer DVD. It only has the dialogue translated for the subtitles. For this episode only, there are no translations for the screen text, and to be honest there is a whole lot of screen text here, which would probably clash with dialogue subtitles, and I can understand why they might make that choice. This episode also has no subtitles for the theme songs.
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I know that all the subtitles for the screen text is present in episode 10.5 on the US BD version (also the subtitles for the OP and ED songs), so it likely the masters MVM were supplied with had faulty subtitles for that episode or they were missing in the US DVD release as well and nobody has spotted it (but considering how poor sentai are at QC for their releases, it might be more the latter).
 
I just poked my nose into the Sword Art Offline Bonus Episodes for SAO BD 2 (Took a while to get it offa Lovefilm) and oh wow. They screwed that up on a fundamental level. Whoever let that one pass, even with Aniplex press-ganging them, should be drug out into the street and forced to watch [Insert S'tty insert show here].

Edit: I'm serious, the genius that encoded that such that the audio is slow to that degree (Asuna sounds like a drag queen, Kirito someone who's smokes 40 a day, god) should be forcibly divorced from his job by medium of fist.
 
The UK gets K'd by Kaze since they can't do a oK job on K.

(humiliating bad puns aside)

K: Complete Series - Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack
Anime Blu-ray UK said:
Of course with this Kaze release the series presentation, which does make sense the further you get into it, isn’t the biggest downfall – the biggest downfall is that all 13 episodes, along with two different audio options (English & Japanese), two subtitle options (English & French) and two menu layouts are “crammed” onto a single Blu-ray disc. HD tech savy folks may like to know that the episodes also play at a variable rate between 4mbps & 22mbps, however they average out at around 15mpbs – which is considerably lower than a two disc blu-ray release, such as Guilty Crown, which plays at near double the amount. Interestingly with this much content (and the disc packed to the brim) I’m surprised to say that the episodes still look as detailed as they do, but I assume when compared to the US release the difference may be noticeable to some.

That’s not the only disappointment either, as with the disc being so full there is no room for additional content. If the French menu layout wasn’t included then additional items could have been included, so I assume that this disc is also the same one being used in the French Kaze release of the series, as it would save on production costs for both regions. Speaking of French menus, the pop-menu on the English side of the disc uses the French pop-up menu and although only one word is in French (fermer) it is still present and untranslated. The Pop-Up Menu is important as well, as it is the only way to change audio options (as the audio button will not change it for you), furthermore by pressing the main menu button you’ll be redirected to the very start of the disc, whereby you have to choose either the English or French Disc menu. It’s not very quick or nimble either, so it can be bit annoying – but these seems to be the trend of Kaze releases.
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NormanicGrav said:
The UK gets K'd by Kaze since they can't do a oK job on K.
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Does anyone honestly expect anything else of Kaze at this point? We've been getting the **** end of the stick for over two years now.
I highly doubt they're going to change anything considering how much (or little in this case) they care about their audience.
 
ConanThe3rd said:
What's shocking is that Manga continues to do business with them.
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I'm going to guess you've noticed, but they seem to no longer put the MangaUK logo on the Kaze releases. Guess that says it all.
 
Not sure if it counts ..but on The Cat Returns Blu Ray, the first half of scene markers are messed up [when you're on the main menu and go to pick a scene from the film] Basically, scenes 1-7 show the same preview images as scenes 8-15 ..those probably aren't the correct numbers for the scenes as I'm remembering off the top of my head, all I know is the images are definitely incorrect for the first half of the film.
 
The girls und panzer OVA collection blu-ray is likely to have locked subtitles, and I've found a fault in the main series which would be in the UK version as there are a few inconsistencies in the dub where a scene that appears twice (I'm talking about the exchange between Miho and Yukari at the beginning of episode 1 which was shown again in episode 4) where some of what is spoken doesn't match up along with the constant change when the automotive club is mentioned (they keep on changing between that and vehicle club).

Can someone who had the main series on blu-ray confirm if what I reported before is present so it can be put in the list or put to rest.
 
Just thought I'd point out some potential problems with Manga UK's release of One Piece - Movie Collection 1 (i.e. films 1 to 3) which is due out on Monday 28th July 2014 (mine arrived though post today form Zavvi).

By now everyone should know that One Piece Movie 1 to 3 are only available in Japanese with English Subtitles (as they have never been dubbed) but amusingly the tech specifications listed on the back of the packaging state English and Japanese Audio (with 5.1 Surround Sound). This is incorrect all three films are only available in Japanese Stereo (2.0) with English Subtitles.

Another 'potential' problem is that the packaging states this set includes the Dream Soccer King OVA Episode ( a 5 minute episode which sees Luffy play Football against previous bad guys) but this is no-where to be found on any of the discs.

You'll see what I'm referring to in the picture below:

BtZ5fIkCIAAp7L4.jpg


The third (and final) potential problem is that the Visual Quality of this release is pretty pathetic. Ok I understand that One Piece is a relatively old series but the quality of these films make them look 30 years older (when in fact they were made in 2000 ti 2002); they remind me of Malaysian imports rather than official releases. Also the screenshots on the back of the box in no-way represents the visual quality you will receive.

On the plus side it does have spot-on English subtitles as well as decent packaging (artwork and menu design).
 
Looks like Manga UK just copy/pastes the info sheet across all of their releases since H.O.T.D. Drifters of the Dead OVA also displayed English/Japanese and 2.0/5.1 when it's a subtitle only release.

Also the video quality is apparently 16:9 when it's supposed to be 4:3 (apparently the theatrical version was 16:9 in Japan). In addition (according to MyReviewer) Manga used the KAZE masters, swapped the French stuff with English subtitles and bam they have a release (one of the films has the French name on the menu).
 
NormanicGrav said:
Looks like Manga UK just copy/pastes the info sheet across all of their releases since H.O.T.D. Drifters of the Dead OVA also displayed English/Japanese and 2.0/5.1 when it's a subtitle only release.

Also the video quality is apparently 16:9 when it's supposed to be 4:3 (apparently the theatrical version was 16:9 in Japan). In addition (according to MyReviewer) Manga used the KAZE masters, swapped the French stuff with English subtitles and bam they have a release (one of the films has the French name on the menu).
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Yea MangaUK copy & paste tech-specs quite often; same happened with Samurai Girls and Angel Beats (both were listed 5.1 when its 2.0 only)

In terms of the 'French menu' i believe that was the reviewer assuming it was a KAZE Release (as the second movie is actually called THE Adventure of Spiral Island). but yea it does mimic that of the KAZE release
 
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