[JP] WB's Brave Story Anime Movie

[Chris Beveridge]

Just got this in today, it was an 11/23 release in Japan from Warner Bros. of their theatrical movie from earlier this year, Brave Story. Done by Gonzo, it wasn't a big box office movie but the visuals are lush and this is the first "true" anime released on BD.

Main disappointment: The R2 encoded DVD has English subtitles. The BD and HD DVD do no.

Otherwise, well, sorry. Holy [crap].

First, Warner Japan apparently does MPEG2 releases. Or at least this one is. No idea on the HD DVD. These things are too expensive to buy multiple unsubtitled versions. Audio is Dolby Digital 48khz 640kbps. Video, via PS3, says MPEG-2 and average bitrate with the info status up over the first 30 minutes of this 2 hour movie is - 39.9mbps. Several 40.X hits as well.

On my 50" LCD set (720P), the visuals are just stunning. If anyone has seen any amount of anime (digital or traditional), there are almost always the bad areas of dark blues in backgrounds that seem to be alive. I had to be six inches away from the screen before I could see those in these backgrounds. I watch on average 60 anime DVDs a month for review and it's prevalent in everything - visible from several feet away easily. This is just gorgeous. Colors are lush, solid. Near perfect (Because nothing can be perfect!).

The menu system is clunky. Really slow. Not impressive at all.

The real kicker folks? At least I think it is.

THX Optimizer 2.0 is on here. I can't imagine them putting a DVD level optimizer on a BD disc. It *is* in Japanese for the text, but presumably it's the standard menus we've seen on other ones. Due to the text, I can't be anywhere near 100% sure that it's an HD optimizer though.

The opening THX trailer is the one with the robot getting stuck inside the car engine. near constant 40mbps video for it. Flawless and aurally amazing.

[WriteSimply]

Nice to hear. 40Mbps MPEG-2 video eh?

I guess the reason there is no English sub is to prevent imports. After all, Region A covers a wider area than Region 2 Japan on DVD.


fuad

[Chris Beveridge]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

Nice to hear. 40Mbps MPEG-2 video eh?

I guess the reason there is no English sub is to prevent imports. After all, Region A covers a wider area than Region 2 Japan on DVD.

I figure as much as well, but still, if the company heads haven't realized that DVD region coding is a joke, then they know that someone who has a BD player more than likely has a region free deck. Especially at this stage of the game. It just seems silly.

[GoldenRedux]

Darn, no English subs. I definitely would have purchased this title. Oh, well. At least it's good to see studios actually tweaking releases for the higher capabilities of Blu-ray and not crippling them for HD DVD.

[Chris Beveridge]

And you know, that's really the biggest thing to note here. While Warner US is making sure there is parity, Warner Japan is ensuring each release is optimized for that format. Obviously the HD DVD release of Brave Story can't have 40 mbps video. So they're not using the same materials at this stage.

[shido]

Just a quick question. Your PS3 was actually outputting at 720p? There have been conflicting reports regarding whether the PS3 would output Blu-ray at 720p or not. According to IGN, the PS3 would only output Blu-ray at 1080i on their 720p sets, relying on the tv to do the scaling. Hopefully they're wrong, but they only went back to check on the issue because a lot of their readers had been complaining about it.

[Deciazulado]

Tho I don't know Japanese, where do I sign?
If only for a reference of what 40 Mb/s mpeg-2 can do this will be a fine addition. And it has a story and sound too

*starts to think of having a small video projector hooked to a Mac or something doing a timecoded QT sub track

Thanks for the heads up Chris

[Chris Beveridge]

Shido, the PS3 is set to output at 1080i and the TV does the scaling to 720p.

Deciazulado, you can get it off of Amazon Japan but I got mine via www.cdjapan.co.jp. I like ordering from them since they provide an English language version. Plus they used to do huge amounts of laserdisc mailorder back long before the internet.

[GoldenRedux]

Originally Posted by Chris Beveridge

Shido, the PS3 is set to output at 1080i and the TV does the scaling to 720p.

Deciazulado, you can get it off of Amazon Japan but I got mine via www.cdjapan.co.jp. I like ordering from them since they provide an English language version. Plus they used to do huge amounts of laserdisc mailorder back long before the internet.

Hey, why do they have an HD DVD search category, but not a Blu-ray option?

[GoldenRedux]

Hey Chris,

This may be a silly question, but, are you going to be getting that Air box set?

[GoldenRedux]

Originally Posted by Deciazulado

Tho I don't know Japanese, where do I sign?
If only for a reference of what 40 Mb/s mpeg-2 can do this will be a fine addition. And it has a story and sound too

*starts to think of having a small video projector hooked to a Mac or something doing a timecoded QT sub track

Thanks for the heads up Chris

So much for the folks who claim you don't need 50GB and 'HD DVD is holding it's own against Blu-ray' (sound familiar Deci? ) .

I wish more studios would tweak their releases to take advantage of the Blu-ray specs. What's more, I wish they would use high bitrate AVC instead of Mpeg2, that would really shut some people up.

[Chris Beveridge]

Originally Posted by GoldenRedux

Hey Chris,

This may be a silly question, but, are you going to be getting that Air box set?

No, that's too big of a box and price tag for something unsubtitled. Plus, the show itself won't be in HD, just upconverted from source. It WILL look fantastic; giving it the dual layer 40mbps treatment for 4:3 material will give it all the space it needs. But without subtitles, i can't justify $200+.

[Deciazulado]

Originally Posted by Chris Beveridge

the show itself won't be in HD, just upconverted from source.

Chris, what would be the source?

[Chris Beveridge]

The original digital masters; AIR was I believe like most other anime releases today in that was done solely on computers. Typically they don't work in a much higher resolution if they're only looking to be releasing things on tv/video. Anime isn't quite as future proofed as hollywood movies since they're more of a "now now now" thing. There wasn't any high definition source materials to be used in creating the BD; they animated a new opening sequence entirely in HD however. But the show itself is an upconvert of the original source materials.

[DaveFi]

Come on, let's get a US title already! Original language/English, Subs, extras, plenty of space for this on BD.

Kind of sad the only animation we've seen so far has been CG. Says a lot for the way things are going with the US studios- they just don't believe US audiences want 2D animation yet anime still rules Sat morning and afternoon TV these days.

Feh.

[GoldenRedux]

Originally Posted by DaveFi

Come on, let's get a US title already! Original language/English, Subs, extras, plenty of space for this on BD.

Kind of sad the only animation we've seen so far has been CG. Says a lot for the way things are going with the US studios- they just don't believe US audiences want 2D animation yet anime still rules Sat morning and afternoon TV these days.

Feh.

I agree. I want some Anime titles released on Blu-ray in the US already. I can't believe that not even Ghost in the Shell: Innocence is coming out as a U.S. release. That would seem a perfect launching pad for Blu-ray Anime in the States.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Chris Beveridge

Video, via PS3, says MPEG-2 and average bitrate with the info status up over the first 30 minutes of this 2 hour movie is - 39.9mbps. Several 40.X hits as well.

As we've talked elsewhere, that Warner Japan is optimizing for BD is a very positive sign.

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

Nice to hear. 40Mbps MPEG-2 video eh?

I guess the reason there is no English sub is to prevent imports. After all, Region A covers a wider area than Region 2 Japan on DVD.


fuad

I wonder if BD allows downloadable subtitling? That would be a nice service.

Gary

[DaveFi]

Originally Posted by GoldenRedux

I agree. I want some Anime titles released on Blu-ray in the US already. I can't believe that not even Ghost in the Shell: Innocence is coming out as a U.S. release. That would seem a perfect launching pad for Blu-ray Anime in the States.

Our only hope now is that Disney will release some of the Studio Ghibli stuff on BD.

They showed Howl's Moving Castle on Starz-HD OnDemand a few months ago, and I was transfixed by the beauty of the transfer (too bad I can't make a copy of OnDemand offerings).

[GoldenRedux]

Originally Posted by DaveFi

Our only hope now is that Disney will release some of the Studio Ghibli stuff on BD.

They showed Howl's Moving Castle on Starz-HD OnDemand a few months ago, and I was transfixed by the beauty of the transfer (too bad I can't make a copy of OnDemand offerings).

Too bad I don't get Starz-HD on DirecTV. I did see Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence on DirecTV HD PPV, and it was amazing. I can only imagine what it would look like on Blu-ray.

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by Chris Beveridge

The original digital masters; AIR was I believe like most other anime releases today in that was done solely on computers. Typically they don't work in a much higher resolution if they're only looking to be releasing things on tv/video. Anime isn't quite as future proofed as hollywood movies since they're more of a "now now now" thing. There wasn't any high definition source materials to be used in creating the BD; they animated a new opening sequence entirely in HD however. But the show itself is an upconvert of the original source materials.

Actually, that depends on the studio releasing the titles.

While traditional cell animation relies on printing the final composition to film thereby locking the aspect ratio early on, animation using computers don't have to print anything. They just have to render.

If the right software is used, the studio that is rushing to output as many episodes as possible can render the scenes in 480i first. Then using the original animation files, recompose the scenes to 16:9 format and render in 1080p. It won't be as computing-extensive render since it's not 3D CGI.


fuad