Defective or Disappointing UK Anime Discs

[Rui]

It seems likely that Hanabee did re-author the disc because it has white subtitles, and as far as I know Sentai have never used anything but yellow subtitles. EDIT: Also, there are no English language credit scrolls following the Japanese ED, as there are in all Sentai discs. My replacement disc 2 should turn up in the next couple of days so I'll verify the details of the issue if no-one else has done so by then.

Just popped my Sentai copy in and I can confirm that the English dub and original Japanese soundtrack seemed perfectly in sync for that episode, there's a credit scroll after the ED and the subtitles are gloriously, luridly yellow. Have Hanabee been telling MVM fibs?

Will add it to The List. What a shame.

R

 

[demonix]

It seems likely that Hanabee did re-author the disc because it has white subtitles, and as far as I know Sentai have never used anything but yellow subtitles. EDIT: Also, there are no English language credit scrolls following the Japanese ED, as there are in all Sentai discs. My replacement disc 2 should turn up in the next couple of days so I'll verify the details of the issue if no-one else has done so by then.

Just popped my Sentai copy in and I can confirm that the English dub and original Japanese soundtrack seemed perfectly in sync for that episode, there's a credit scroll after the ED and the subtitles are gloriously, luridly yellow. Have Hanabee been telling MVM fibs?

Will add it to The List. What a shame.

R

I've mentioned that on their facebook page (once I'd found the actual post on their page) and added a link to this thread (starting from where it was confirmed) for confirmation.

 

[fabio de lunatico]

I do have some sympathy for MVM. They're a small company who don't have the capability to fix these problems alone, and in all likelihood have been hoodwinked by those scallywag Aussies, but at the same time they've knowingly put out a release that has a noticeable issue. It's a shabby state of affairs.

If you had told me ten years ago that incidents like this would still be cropping up regularly and with such little communication between the companies and the fans in 2014, well, I guess I would have been stupid not to believe it.

If anything it's getting worse. I put it down to a combination of Blu-ray being more difficult to author than DVD, and less quality control as a result of falling sales/smaller margins. Pre-ordering UK releases in particular is something of gamble.

 

[MVM]

This is the response we had from Hanabee:
"We did indeed pick this up in our QC pass, reporting lips sync incorrect for much of the episode and we examined it prior to production. Our conclusion was that this was an issue out of our control, a poor dubbing in post but within acceptable margins for the release. English and Japanese audio tracks are lined up to each other and discrepancies appear in both languages.

Our examination determined that music and effects are spot on, e.g.:
00:01:46:01 – footfall in snow
00:12:01:07 – Scene change to white with sound effect
00:18:01:23 – footfall on floorboards

Also speech is correct in many sections, although sync can be loose:
00:02:16:11 – two girls talking after skiing, just after opening – sync comes in and out
00:09:14:08 – three people talking at edge of cliff, with flashback

There are notable times where voiceover drifts,e.g.:
00:05:24:04-three people talking just after discovering rat footprints

Of particular note:
00:19:38:00-last scene prior to closing credits; the boy lays down and speaks, his voice maybe 1 or 2 frames late but it’s debatable; a girl makes a noise, which is spot on sync’ed; then the boy speaks again and the voiceover is c 9 frames late.

In short, this is as-per-source and the fix would require returning to suppliers to re-address the dub in Japanese and that in English as the backing music and effects are lined up."

 

[-Danielle-]

Can you confirm that this looks to be in the BluRay version only please as I'd very much like to own the DVD but not if the out of sync dub occurs in that too

 

[Peachy]

Is the lip syncing highly noticeable? (Like Funi's My Bride Is A Mermaid noticeable) Does it ruin the experience?

 

[Just Passing Through]

Is the lip syncing highly noticeable? (Like Funi's My Bride Is A Mermaid noticeable) Does it ruin the experience?

Whereabouts on My Bride is a Mermaid is the sync screwy? I ask as I blind bought the SAVE set a month or so ago and it's sitting on my to-watch pile.

 

[Peachy]

Is the lip syncing highly noticeable? (Like Funi's My Bride Is A Mermaid noticeable) Does it ruin the experience?

Whereabouts on My Bride is a Mermaid is the sync screwy? I ask as I blind bought the SAVE set a month or so ago and it's sitting on my to-watch pile.

Save is the one I purchased too.

It's been a while since I watched it but it starts pretty early on, maybe episode three/four onwards if memory serves me correctly. I only watched till about episode 8 on disk as I had enough of it so unsure if the later episodes suffer. I could just have a faulty disk though or something.

Either way, it was unwatchable in sub, the comedy is ruined by it so I hope for your sake it's just my copy that had issues.

 

[Just Passing Through]

Is the lip syncing highly noticeable? (Like Funi's My Bride Is A Mermaid noticeable) Does it ruin the experience?

Whereabouts on My Bride is a Mermaid is the sync screwy? I ask as I blind bought the SAVE set a month or so ago and it's sitting on my to-watch pile.

Save is the one I purchased too.

It's been a while since I watched it but it starts pretty early on, maybe episode three/four onwards if memory serves me correctly. I only watched till about episode 8 on disk as I had enough of it so unsure if the later episodes suffer. I could just have a faulty disk though or something.

Either way, it was unwatchable in sub, the comedy is ruined by it so I hope for your sake it's just my copy that had issues.

I just gave disc 1 a shot in my laptop on Power DVD, randomly skipping through the second half of the disc, and the audio and subtitles were in sync whereever I checked. Have you tried it in any other players?

 

[Peachy]

I used the only region free player I have, don't have any other sort. Good point though, it could be my player.

Glad to see your copy is all good =]

 

[Y2Johnny]

I also have My Bride is a Mermaid's SAVE edition and saw it subbed, had no problem whatsoever with synch. It could really be your player :\

EDIT: Sorry, I messed up, I double-checked and my edition of My Bride is a Mermaid isn't the SAVE edition after all, sorry.

 

[Rui]

My non-SAVE copy of My Bride Is A Mermaid was fine when I watched it subtitled a long time ago (aside from the infamous poor quality during the EDs due to FUNi zooming the picture). Odd!

Thank you for the lengthy reply, MVM. If someone who has the UK release of From The New World part 1 (disc 2) could check those timestamps and confirm how bad the problem is, we can compare with the US version and decide whether it's a serious glitch. A few frames here and there sounds within the usual margin of error for anime voice sync if the sound effects aren't affected, but if the voice is so badly timed that it's distracting then it's obviously an issue.

Another thing which needs verifying: Is the issue with an unplayable second disc in the set (discovered by fabricatedlunatic and Cloud Strife as per viewtopic.php?f=10&t=18768&p=430857#p430750 ) widespread, or just really bad luck?

R

 

[Mangaranga]

I used the only region free player I have, don't have any other sort. Good point though, it could be my player.

Glad to see your copy is all good =]

Isn't My Bride is a Mermaid region 1, 2 & 4, or am I getting confused with something else?
Try it on a region 2 player.

 

[NormanicGrav]

Isn't My Bride is a Mermaid region 1, 2 & 4, or am I getting confused with something else?

The back cover does mention it's UK & AU DVD compatible.

 

[Peachy]

Well, that's a little embarrassing :| I legit had no idea, didn't even think to look at the region coding at the bottom (I switched covers as soon as I got it yonks ago) ...always just presumed it was locked to region 1.

It works fine on my other player, I can now put it back into my shelf's seeing as its watchable. Thanks and ..don't judge me too much for being a twit & causing a bother over nothing.

 

[fabio de lunatico]

I received my replacement FtNW disc 2 a couple of days ago, and gave it a once-over in English and Japanese with subtitles. The sync issue is definitely noticeable - characters finish speaking just before their mouths stop moving - but to be honest it's not terrible. Subtitles are, thankfully, synced with the spoken dialogue. I imagine it might be more bothersome if you're watching the dub since you've have no words on the bottom of the screen to distract your attention... but frankly if you're watching a Sentai dub you've got bigger problems than lip sync

 

[Just Passing Through]

I received my replacement FtNW disc 2 a couple of days ago, and gave it a once-over in English and Japanese with subtitles. The sync issue is definitely noticeable - characters finish speaking just before their mouths stop moving - but to be honest it's not terrible. Subtitles are, thankfully, synced with the spoken dialogue. I imagine it might be more bothersome if you're watching the dub since you've have no words on the bottom of the screen to distract your attention... but frankly if you're watching a Sentai dub you've got bigger problems than lip sync

Do you have a Panasonic Blu-ray player? You can introduce an added delay into the audio stream to sort out sync issues (I use it on ADV's Voices of a Distant Star). It only works where the audio is ahead of the image, but it should work here. Also check if your Blu-ray player does the same anyway, regardless of brand. (It won't fix the subs though).

 

[Rui]

I received my replacement FtNW disc 2 a couple of days ago, and gave it a once-over in English and Japanese with subtitles. The sync issue is definitely noticeable - characters finish speaking just before their mouths stop moving - but to be honest it's not terrible. Subtitles are, thankfully, synced with the spoken dialogue. I imagine it might be more bothersome if you're watching the dub since you've have no words on the bottom of the screen to distract your attention... but frankly if you're watching a Sentai dub you've got bigger problems than lip sync

Thanks, watched the episode with both language tracks again (wow, Maria's dub voice really isn't so endearing) and the only one of the issues in MVM's list I found noticeable on the US disc was the final one, and even then it was still well within the normal margin of error for anime so I've changed the report in the first post. The stream on Crunchyroll seems pretty similar.

I think it's good to have all the information there for people who notice these issues but it's probably more a 'disappointing' disc than a 'defective' one.

Fantastic series, anyway!

R

 

[NormanicGrav]

Been a bit long overdue so here's a few more titles:

Accel World - Part 1 & 2 (Blu-ray) (DVD)
As pointed out by Mangaranga, both parts in the UK and Australian release do not contain Character Artwork from Viz Media.

Mardock Scramble: The Third Exhaust (Blu-ray) (DVD)

Once again, a Kazé disc refuses to show caption translations and translated dialogue simultaneously. Fortunately for Mardock Scramble, it’s only an issue in the extra features.

Note that if you buy this film on Kazé’s DVD, the only extra on that disc is the Promo Video. Sentai’s Region 1 DVD has all of the extras.

There's also some Frenglishese (JP-FR-EN) on the back cover info on the film's cases.

Source: MyReviewer

Mysterious Girlfriend X - Complete Collection (DVD)

There is one disappointing factor to be had though; this set does not contain any Japanese promotional material – content that was available in the American (Sentai Filmworks) release of the set – or the bonus OVA Episode. To be clear the Bonus OVA Episode wasn’t included on the American release either, but the American release did receive the Japanese promotional materials so its abit disappointing that we didn’t get them either.
This ‘alteration in bonus content’ is probably due to the fact that Hanabee (Australian Distributor) authored the discs and had to the remove content so that the episodes would fit on to two DVD discs as opposed to the American (Sentai Filmworks) release which came on three DVD discs.

Source: Anime Blu-ray UK

Nekomonogatari Black - Complete Collection (DVD)

In terms of this DVD release then not a lot can really be said; the visual quality is on par with previous releases although compared to the Blu-rays it looks rather blurred. It’s also worth mentioning that this is a ‘sub-only’ release and as such plenty of reading will be done and while watching I did notice that some subtitles did not appear at the correct time (or disappeared rather adruptly), most of which happened on the second episode; basically the characters were speaking but no subtitles were displayed. Interestingly this is the least of your worries, especially when it comes to the insane amount of subtitle text appearing on screen at a moments notice (and not for very long either).

The subtitling isn’t perfect, although once again all the on screen text is translated, and you’ll spend a fair bit of time manning your pause button to get everything read. It’s just that there are moments where two people speak to each other in short, clipped sentences, and the subtitle translation has both bits of dialogue on the same line, which can be confusing. There’s also a missing subtitle caption at 33:21, and another 11 minutes into episode 4.

Just received this and panicked as it only has one disk in that says disk 2 on it?

Source: Anime Blu-ray UK, MyReviewer, Facebook

Psycho Pass - Season 1 Collection (Blu-ray)

Unfortunately while this UK release may have the better audio quality we do receive a few disappointing faults. To start off with the subtitles are grey, seem to be amateruishly made and can sometimes be relatively awkward to read during dark scenes but not only that the “signs and songs subtitles track” does not feature any subtitles for the opening and closing songs. To me this isn’t “that” disappointing but I know a fair amount of people enjoy having the songs translated as subtitles when watching the English Audio track. Fortunately this ‘subtitle issues’ isn’t the biggest problem with this release as the biggest issue is with the odd-chapter markings. For instance most anime releases, as well as the US release of Psycho Pass, feature five or six chapter points (Prologue, Opening, Part A, Part B, Ending and next episode preview) where as in this UK release the chapter marker is at every 4 minutes so if you wanted to skip just the opening song you’d end up missing around 2 minutes (give or take) of episodic content.

Source: Anime Blu-ray UK

 

[Rui]

Thanks Grav, it was easy to update the list with all the info in one place like that

R