Rumbling Hearts, Ai Yori Aoshi and Rumbling Hearts on Blu-Ray?

[TheLibrarian]

Anyone know if any of these anime will be out on Blu-ray anytime soon?

[Thomas Guycott]

No, both were produced in standard definition.

[BigOnAnime]

They'll probably never get R1 BD's, especially Rumbling Hearts, a show which FUNi's license to will expire any day now.

Ai Yori Aoshi while popular in Japan has never received a Blu-ray box, and who knows if it ever will. Rumbling Hearts saw one a few years back in Japan, but I can't speak for the quality of it other than the Next Season OVA's which FUNi never licensed are apparently native HD.

[Naiera]

Rumbling Hearts is so nice we need it twice!

[MOONPHASE]

Rumbling Hearts became 1 of Funimation's S.A.V.E. series quite some time ago. So yeah I don't think Funimation will release it on Blu-ray. They also never released Shuffle on Blu-ray either which also has a Blu-ray release in Japan probably because it's been a S.A.V.E. title for quite some time too but i'm pretty sure the Japanese Blu-ray is English friendly unlike Rumbling Hearts. I guess the DVDs just didn't sell enough. I enjoyed them along with Ai Yori Aoshi.

Ai Yori Aoshi isn't on Blu-ray, but believe that is up to NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan or whatever they are called now since it used to be a Geneon title.

[TheLibrarian]

Thanks for all the info, really appreciate it all.

Admittedly I'm only a casual anime fan, so I wouldn't know a great deal about Funimation's releases or length of licences.

I noticed some pointed out that both titles were produced on standard definition. Does this mean the footage was transferred to video? I'm assuming if the original film elements exist (presumably they do for Rumbling Hearts if it had a Japanese release) Funimation could work from there, similar to what they did for the level sets for Dragon Ball Z (granted these were cancelled but unlike DBZ, RH and AYA are short series).

Then again it might be risky if, as MOONPHASE said the DVD editions didn't sell well.

[Thomas Guycott]

Originally Posted by TheLibrarian

I noticed some pointed out that both titles were produced on standard definition. Does this mean the footage was transferred to video?

It means they were produced in standard definition from the beginning, and there are no film elements. Starting in 2000 the industry began shifting away from cells and film to producing animation digitally. And since they only aired in standard definition, the vast majority were only produced in standard definition.

[MOONPHASE]

Originally Posted by TheLibrarian

Thanks for all the info, really appreciate it all.

Admittedly I'm only a casual anime fan, so I wouldn't know a great deal about Funimation's releases or length of licences.

I noticed some pointed out that both titles were produced on standard definition. Does this mean the footage was transferred to video? I'm assuming if the original film elements exist (presumably they do for Rumbling Hearts if it had a Japanese release) Funimation could work from there, similar to what they did for the level sets for Dragon Ball Z (granted these were cancelled but unlike DBZ, RH and AYA are short series).

Then again it might be risky if, as MOONPHASE said the DVD editions didn't sell well.

Ai Yori Aoshi was more popular in America than Rumbling Hearts. So it does have a better chance for a U.S. Blu-ray from Funimation. But that's only depending on the quality. Like would it even look good on Blu-ray?

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by MOONPHASE

Ai Yori Aoshi was more popular in America than Rumbling Hearts. So it does have a better chance for a U.S. Blu-ray from Funimation. But that's only depending on the quality. Like would it even look good on Blu-ray?

Depends on if it gets a competent upscale from a competent company instead of a cheap and lazy one by like say Q-TEC.

[Naiera]

I'd buy a Q-Tec upscale of Ai Yori Aoshi. I loved it but only got through it once.