The News Thread (for news that does not need a thread)

HdE said:
Properly fascinating. I may have to read up on that myself. I knew old style film stock had to be carefully stored, but the idea of it being cheaper to digitise than simply look after is something I'd never really considered.
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There are a lot of variables that can affect that statement, such as the present condition of the film materials. It is not unusual for live action films like The Red Shoes to cost 7 figure sums to restore and, while I doubt that any older anime series have had that amount spent on them, you have to consider that something like Mobile Suit Gundam will be ~800 minutes long.

The Blu-Ray/DVD release that follows is to try and recoup the costs in the short term. While it is correct to say that the longer you put off the restoration the more it will cost (probably, as there's also the possibility of restoration technology decreasing in price over time) due to degradation, that is ultimately money that you will only *potentially* spend as studios themselves can make the decision to just leave a film to rot - if they have an SD master that didn't sell, they've got little incentive to make a 2K or a 4K one. MGM have made the decision to not spend the money required to restore the longer cut of John Wayne's The Alamo - despite protests - and the original film is now likely useless.

So, the reason I'm willing to pay more for an older release is also one of support - I want to see these films/series taken care of, restored and released in the best possible quality.

That being said, I see where you're coming from with regards to making something like Mobile Suit Gundam appeal to a modern audience - after all, this isn't Japan where there will already be a market for it that have watched it on TV in it's original airing. This is why I think it's important to have extras that look at its legacy and contextualise it (like Criterion/Arrow/Masters of Cinema do) - but I realise that I may not be speaking for everyone. It's ultimately a balancing act that a distributor like AL has to perform - which demographic to aim at, what price point to choose etc.
 
It's not like digitising stuff is a future proof technology in itself. Back in 1986, the BBC did this digital version of the Domesday book to celebrate its 900th anniversary. Today, nothing can read it, the laserdiscs and the dedicated player, and the computer are obsolete. It was only 16 years afterwards that they had to do a restoration project to salvage the digital data.

A more pertinent example might be the Star Wars movies. Back in the nineties, it was found that the film was degrading, so George Lucas went about restoring the film for the Special Edition releases with all the digital effects. He decided to digitise the prints for future generations, and apparently for his new edit he worked from the original negative. Scanned at 2k, the new digital effects added at 2k. That's pretty much 1080p, and while Phantom Menace was shot on film, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith were shot at 2k digital. So much for watching the original Star Wars movies on a new 4k TV!

Same thing with Star Trek the Motion Picture, which came out on a director's cut back around 1999, or 2000, with Robert Wise finally completing the film to his vision, adding new effects. The project was done for DVD release, the new effects done at 480i. So you can't even get that Director's Cut of TMP on Blu-ray.

Digitising is all well and good, but it has to be done at a resolution high enough that you don't lose any of the original information, and that is expensive enough to make it prohibitive. They used to scan movies at 2k for HD masters to create DVDs, and those transfers also worked for Blu-ray. They're now going back and scanning films at 4k for Blu-ray release. When you have your 4k TV, will they have to go back and scan at 8k. They're already talking about UltraHD going straight to 16k. Will they scan film at 32k, 64k?
 
Just Passing Through said:
It's not like digitising stuff is a future proof technology in itself. Back in 1986, the BBC did this digital version of the Domesday book to celebrate its 900th anniversary. Today, nothing can read it, the laserdiscs and the dedicated player, and the computer are obsolete. It was only 16 years afterwards that they had to do a restoration project to salvage the digital data.
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There's a fascinating article about this issue that I'd recommend.
 
HdE said:
The greatest demand for this particular show seems to come from Gundam newbies, so I'd have thought more affordable price = greater accessibility and maybe more sales of other Gundam shows later on?
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I wonder if that's right, I'd imagine quite a lot of people would have either seen the show through alternate means or seen another Gundam and want to get a copy of where it all began. People who already know they really want the show would generally be willing to pay a bit more too.

If the show is "rough" then I'd think a better option for drawing in Gundam newbies would be to release one of the later and fancier series. It could just be my perception but when people talk about their favourite Gundam it doesn't seem that they often pick the original. On the other hand, maybe the original has something about it that makes it a good foundation for getting people interested in the idea of Gundam so they can then go out and see which of the other Gundam shows will actually become their favourite.

I think it must be more difficult to target the "casual" buyer with older shows in general, even at £20 for 21 episodes it might be tough to convince someone that knows nothing about Gundam to pick up a show that is over 30 years old. I guess the name itself is likely to draw attention but maybe not so much beyond people that have been into anime for a while. I think people who would mind paying £40 rather than £30 are more likely to be the ones who are somewhat indifferent about the content in the first place and there may not be enough of them to justify a lower starting price (though I guess there's a pretty good chance that the sets will drop to £30 or lower at some point as well).

It'll be interesting to see what happens anyway.
 
HdE said:
ColdCobra said:
The Gundam sets to seem a tad steep, but as others said, I'm sure they'll drop, and quite quickly too. I need to track down some image comparisons before I decide to upgrade though...
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£60, I would say, SHOULD bag you a full 26 episode series on blu ray.

Not a fan of that price, but it's early days and I also expect it to come down. I'm also not about to complain too loudly about it because it's:

A. More Gundam in the UK
B. Probably still a bit of a gamble for Anime Limited at this point
C. Literally the most recent Universal Century show out of Japan

and

D. There's no info at this stage about what that particular package contains. So we can't really comment with any authority on whether the price seems fair just yet.


I would REALLY expect a lower SRP on single box releases of other Gundam shows, though. To my mind, £60 is a CE price point.
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Now to be fair folks - the price is SRP, which is usually discounted and secondly we've got to respect US price points so for now this is a placeholder and the price will match US pricing when done here :).

So TL;DR watch this space, we're working on it right now :).

AP
 
Oh don't worry, as I said I was never under the impression that would be the final price! Any confirmation on whether Gundam: R in G will be a complete set or two halves?
 
Discotek Media have posted a trailer for Street Fighter II: The Movie on their Facebook page. I find it pretty hilarious if you ask me.

Unlike the UK KAZE set, the Discotek version will include all versions of the English dub including the uncensored language as well as the uncut video version on Blu-ray and DVD in 2016.
 
Joesph's voice fits pretty well in my opinion. I was expecting an American like accent but instead they went for a British one (since his parents and grandparents are from England) I like it.

Dio's MUDAMUDAMUDA ended up being Useless! Useless! Useless! in the end. I guess they had to translate that part.

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Toonami's Akame ga Kill! English Dub trailer was revealed.


At first I thought it was pretty decent, but when some of the characters say certain lines I feel that voice just didn't match the character.
 
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NormanicGrav said:
Toonami's Akame ga Kill! English Dub trailer was revealed.


At first I thought it was pretty decent, but when some of the characters say certain lines I feel that voice just didn't match the character.
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Oh dear.

If that male voice later in the trailer is Bulet .. Yeahhhh..no.
 
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Maybe it's just me, but I've yet to come across a dub, that wasn't from FUNimation or The Animatrix, that didn't sound absolutely terrible. The JJBA one is just plain wrong, and it doesn't work, the AgK one is just horrible (which is weird, because AgK probably lends itself slightly more to being dubbed).

Don't know why, but somehow FUNimation can get dubs to work in ways other companies can't...
 
Kids on the Slope didn't sound half bad for a Sentai dub... Well I ended up watching it subbed but the English voices were ok I think.
 
Black Lagoon has a fantastic dub and I think that was done by Geneon, also dunno who did Tiger & Bunny but pretty sure it wasn't Funi and that's a great dub too.

I don't mind the JJBA dub, but at this point I don't think I could switch the voices to English, too used to the Japanese ones so be far too jarring for me.
 
I'm pretty easy when it comes to English dubs these days - as long as it isn't Manga 90s levels of awfulness then it's fine with me.

I think the Jojo dub will end up being a bit of a marmite thing - it seems to be really dividing fandom. Some people love it, others hate it. In my eyes, it's supposed to be super camp and OTT though, just like the show itself. Also, I imagine people aren't used to hearing British accents in U.S. dubs so there's an instant !!?!? factor in the mix too.
 
Having thought about it a bit more, I think the main problem I have with dubs is that they all seem to be done in incredibly loud, incredibly brash, excessively cheery/borderline smug American accents, even when the work doesn't call for it.

FUNi has somehow managed to get their actors to tone the excessive cheeriness and brashness that other dubs have and as a result it's significantly less grating.
 
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