Galaxy Express 999 TV Series and Movies on BD via Discotek

[Nostalgic Twilight]

TV Series:



Galaxy Express 999: TV Collection 1

• Release Date: 12/24/2019
• Spoken Language: Japanese
• Subtitle Language: English
• Episode Count: 1-39

After witnessing the death of his mother and being left for dead at the hands of Count Mecha, ten-year old Tetsuro Hoshino is awakened by a mysterious woman, Maetal. In exchange for only his company, Maetal offers him the ride of his life on the Galaxy Express 999. It is said that those who travel aboard the legendary train to the end of the line can receive a free mechanical body and with it, immortality.

Impoverished and alone, Tetsuro leaps at the opportunity and joins Maetal on a quest that will span the cosmos. As the Galaxy Express 999 makes its way across our solar system and beyond, Tetsuro is drawn deeper into a dangerous universe where peril lurks at every stop. From the pirates of the notorious ship Queen Emeraldes to a planet that travels through dimensions, this is just the start of Tetsuro’s epic journey!

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Galaxy Express 999: TV Collection 2

• Release Date: 7/28/2020
• Spoken Language: Japanese
• Subtitle Language: English
• Episode Count: 40-76

The Galaxy Express 999 continues its journey through the cosmos! Tetsuro and Maetel face some of their most challenging stops yet as they ride along in their quest to the end of the line. Along the way they'll meet bizarre travelers, mysterious aliens, and even a sentient planet: all of whom seem determined to either get on board themselves or destroy the train entirely! Although they're in for a rough ride, Tetsuro and Maetel do their best to help those in need, learning more about friendship, hard work, and kindness along the way. Continue Tetsuro and Maetel's epic journey as the majestic galaxy train visits beautiful new planets and faces gigantic monsters the likes you've probably never seen before!

RightStuf Link

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Galaxy Express 999: TV Collection 3

• Release Date: 9/29/2020
• Spoken Language: Japanese
• Subtitle Language: English
• Episode Count: 77-113

The 999 enters the final stretch in the conclusion to this epic space story. Everything kicks off when Tetsuro is attacked aboard the train, only to be saved by a mysterious caped stranger. At the next stop, Tetsuro seeks out the Time Castle which is rumored to be ruled by the legendary Captain Harlock. Things take a turn for the weird the closer Tetsuro and Maetel get to their final destination, including a trip in a fourth-dimensional elevator and a collision with a Galaxy Express 999 from another timeline! After everything he's been through when the Galaxy Express 999 pulls into its final stop, will Tetsuro go through with his wish to get a mechanical body?

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All known (legacy) info regarding the TV series on BD:

[Show spoiler]https://twitter.com/discotekmedia/st...70999515078656

Galaxy Express 999 - the TV series - is coming to Blu-Ray! This is an upscale, but it's not the Japanese one. It is a new upscale that preserves more detail and film grain.

Originally Posted by jsevakis

The TV series will look slightly better than the JP DVDs, because of the better compression and completely 24p presentation. The subtitles have also been substantially revised. They are pretty grainy and there's only so much detail to begin with -- it IS a 16mm show from 1978. It did upscale very nicely, IMHO. It's at least a few months away -- the encode and subtitles are done but authoring hasn't been started yet.

https://twitter.com/GWOtaku/status/1028670881739010048

Galaxy Express 999 will be released on Blu-ray in three collections - NOT SD-BD, this is actual Blu-ray. They're using a new upscale that will keep film grain. The release will include TV movie specials as well #anime

TV Series to be released in three collections. Extras so far include:

• TV movie specials Can You Live Like a Warrior? and Can You Love Like a Mother?
• Recap episode
• Commercials
• Creditless opening and ending
• Episode 1 preview

[Nostalgic Twilight]

The films:



Galaxy Express 999: The Movie

• Release date: 2/26/2019
• Spoken Language: English, Japanese
• Subtitle Language: English
• Run Time: 129 minutes
• Region Code: A

Galaxy Express 999 is the name of a train which travels through space, beginning at Megalopolis Station on one end of the galaxy and ending at Andromeda on the other. But the Galaxy Express is more than just a train, it's also a metaphor for life itself, with passengers constantly boarding, debarking, and dreaming along the way. Tetsuro Hoshino is a youth who'll give anything to board the Three-Nine,including a promise to accompany a mysterious woman named Maetel all the way to Andromeda, the planet where, she tells him, he can get a free machine body to avenge the cruel death of his mother.

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Adieu Galaxy Express 999 (Movie 2)

• Release date: 2/26/2019
• Spoken Language: English, Japanese
• Subtitle Language: English
• Run Time: 130 minutes
• Region Code: A

Tetsuro Hoshino was once a boy willing to give anything to board the Three-Nine, including a promise to accompany a mysterious woman named Maetel to the other side of the Galaxy, if only to fulfill a vow to avenge the cruel death of his mother at the hands of the villainess Count Mecha. Now, two years after the events of Galaxy Express 999, Earth has become a battlefield, and Tetsuro is summoned to board the Three-Nine once more.

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Galaxy Express 999: Eternal Fantasy (Movie 3)

• Release date: 1/28/2020
• Spoken Language: English, Japanese
• Subtitle Language: English
• Run Time: 54 minutes

A young boy named Tetsuro and his motherly companion Maetel worked to rid the universe of the Mechanized Empire who had overtaken Earth. Now Tetsuro is back home on Earth, and constantly beaten by new tyrants who took over after the machines were destroyed. Right before he is executed, Maetel and the 999 zoom in and whisk him away for an all-new adventure.

[Nostalgic Twilight]

I've thought about creating a dedicated thread for Discotek's GE999 releases for some time now and finally took the bull by the horns.

[svenge]

Wow, a reasonably reputable distributor has finally taken on GE999? I thought I'd never see the day...

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by svenge

Wow, a reasonably reputable distributor has finally taken on GE999? I thought I'd never see the day...

I’d say the best distributor in North America, bar none. But yeah, this is truly an incredible thing (I went crazy when it was announced in their conference last year).

[svenge]

They're the best when they license the actual A/V encodes of pre-existing Japanese releases like what they did with their BDs of Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro and 5 Centimeters per Second, but since this is going to be a new upscale of unknown (at least to us) provenance I'm not going to say it's 100% guaranteed that it'll be great.

Hoping and expecting as much, yes, but it's definitively not certain.

[professorwho]

I think they’re the best even when it’s their own encodes- Justin Sevakis is is wizard who has never managed to produce a bad looking disc (when considering the source). Considering this track record, it should be better than the JP BDs.

[Nostalgic Twilight]

While Justin is obviously limited by the source he is working with when it comes to upscaling, I have to say that overall I was very impressed with his upscale of Skip Beat. I have high hopes. At the end of the day, anything will be better than what S’More Entertainment dumped out all those years ago, though.

[Magikor]

Their DVD's from a few years ago looked very good. I'll still be double dipping as these are some of my favorite anime films.

I've also never seen the series, so I'll probably be snagging that as well.

[llj]

I'm going to guess the TV series is an upscale of the original Japanese DVD masters. The fact that it's not going to be SD-BD is intriguing, so it's possible Discotek/Justin is upscaling it themselves.

If so, that's bloody hard work. This is like over 100 episodes.

[PissedOffPeoN]

They said they are going to make a better upscale then the Japanese blu rays that retain more grain and detail :O.

[Dragon Ranger]

Never seen this but I think I need to add it to my collection; it's my favourite era for anime.

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by Dragon Ranger

Never seen this but I think I need to add it to my collection; it's my favourite era for anime.

You should get the first movie at the very least- that’s a classic everyone should check out. (It’s also from my favourite era; my golden age of anime: 1979-1999)

[Rozay]

Originally Posted by professorwho

You should get the first movie at the very least- that’s a classic everyone should check out. (It’s also from my favourite era; my golden age of anime: 1979-1999)

For someone who hasn't seen anything related to GE1999, would you recommend waiting for the series blu-ray? Or just get the movies? Or both.

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by Rozay

For someone who hasn't seen anything related to GE1999, would you recommend waiting for the series blu-ray? Or just get the movies? Or both.

The movies are in a weird spot. They are both a retelling of the series, but also a completely different story that goes into a more surreal and art house turn of events in the second film. Just get the first movie. If you like it, then check out the second. If you still want more, then check out the series.

[gpn]

I'm pleasantly surprised that GE999 TV is going to be released on blu-ray. I was expecting DVBDs or SDBD. Hopefully the "Eternal Traveler " special featuring Emeraldas is included at some point.

[slerch666]

You might say GE999 is an obsession for me.

I have the R2 Japanese DVD LE sets of GE999 TV. I also have the R2 JP DVD movie set, along with the R2 JP Specials set.

I also own all of the Japanese BD releases. I also own the BD box you had to send away for and the BD that was part of that send away that includes some video that has never been available for home consumption before. If Discotek got all of that... would be awesome.

One thing I will say though. Temper your expectations on how "HD" GE999 TV will look on BD. They didn't denoise the crap out of it like they did the Japanese BD movies but there is exactly zero extra detail in each frame and doing a comparison of the video side by side, with the DVD resized with Photoshop, it doesn't really look any different than the DVD release. Sure. 1080p for real vs 1080p upscaled is awesome but there is certainly no extra DETAIL (no extra facial detail, background detail, etc is what I mean) on a frame by frame basis on the BD vs DVD.

Discotek has said they will use different masters for the GE999 stuff but I am pretty sure they meant the horrible quality movies not the "as good as it gets" TV on BD release.

Oh. I also own that TERRIBLE DVD release that was defecated onto the market, complete with all the same video errors that are in the Crunchyroll stream and hard coded subtitles.

[slerch666]

Originally Posted by PissedOffPeoN

They said they are going to make a better upscale then the Japanese blu rays that retain more grain and detail :O.

I am hoping this is true but I do not believe there is much more to pull from each frame. Maybe fix the grain structure of the BD release at best but the master used for the original DVD releases of the TV series are grainy as all heck.

They can almost certainly NOT do any worse than the JP BD of the movies. And I think this is where they are saying they will use a different master not necessarily on the TV series.

But again, I am going to be optimistic. Best case scenario we get a much better release of the films AND the TV series. Worst case we get a much better release of the movies and an equivalent to the Japanese release TV series!

[Nostalgic Twilight]

I'm certainly not expecting any extra detail to be present, just don't want to see any lost from the SD transfer. I heard the BD-Boxes of the TV series were a Q-Tec upscale and that made me assume they coated the image with their trademark Vaseline. To be honest, I don't think I've actually seen any screenshots, though. Also, I'm pretty sure Discotek or Justin already confirmed somewhere that the movies will be using the same heavily DVNR'd files found on the Japanese and Korean releases. My memory could be failing here.

[professorwho]

The movies are indeed the same masters, but with better compression, and some artificial grain added on top to help hide the DNR.