Wolf Children (2012) from GKids

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by GKids

Mamoru Hosoda's catalog is coming to 4K UHD for the first time ever, and we're kicking it off with the beloved virtual reality epic SUMMER WARS!

Hosoda's heartwarming tale of love and parenthood, WOLF CHILDREN, arrives on 4K UHD Steelbook, Blu-ray & Digital On Demand on August 5.

Stay tuned for updates on final artwork, pre-orders are available now!

Source

Amazon Exclusive SteelBook Pre-order

[kevin87]

Interesting, we get Summer Wars now this... wonder if/when The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and The Boy and The Beast will come too.

If only they'd stop being stupid and making 4K steelbook only releases to raise prices.

[doubles1283]

Originally Posted by kevin87

Interesting, we get Summer Wars now this... wonder if/when The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and The Boy and The Beast will come too.

If only they'd stop being stupid and making 4K steelbook only releases to raise prices.

GKIDS first post sounds like the whole catalog is getting the 4K treatment
"Mamoru Hosoda's catalog is coming to 4K UHD for the first time ever, and we're kicking it off with the beloved virtual reality epic SUMMER WARS!"
https://bsky.app/profile/gkids.com/post/3lgthhuvq6s2q

[PissedOffPeoN]

Any of these have a 4k native?

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by PissedOffPeoN

Any of these have a 4k native?

Nope, of course not. These are firmly in the 720p to 1080p territory that almost all digital anime films reside in. The saving graces here will be superior compression and HDR. Belle is one of the most transformative UHD upscales ever for that reason (the vastly superior compression, lack of low pass filtering, and nicely done HDR grade), so if the Hosoda remasters are on-par in how they treat the material, these should be knockout discs.

[SCS_Shoug]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Nope, of course not. These are firmly in the 720p to 1080p territory that almost all digital anime films reside in. The saving graces here will be superior compression and HDR. Belle is one of the most transformative UHD upscales ever for that reason (the vastly superior compression, lack of low pass filtering, and nicely done HDR grade), so if the Hosoda remasters are on-par in how they treat the material, these should be knockout discs.

Not to mention movies like Summer Wars are pretty obviously stuck with late-2000s-early-2010s home video masters on BD. I wouldn't doubt if that's why Summer Wars is especially noisy on BD and them going back to the DI for this 4K if they do so could make it a night and day difference still.

[Herry Dunston]

I understand the compression when it comes to very busy scenes that takes place in the digital world like a number of Hosoda's movies. But Wolf Children is a slice-of-life light fantasy. Assuming it does have HDR as with Summer Wars, no official word on either, Wolf Children theoretically gets the least benefit on the resolution and compression bump.

[ccateni]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Nope, of course not. These are firmly in the 720p to 1080p territory that almost all digital anime films reside in. The saving graces here will be superior compression and HDR. Belle is one of the most transformative UHD upscales ever for that reason (the vastly superior compression, lack of low pass filtering, and nicely done HDR grade), so if the Hosoda remasters are on-par in how they treat the material, these should be knockout discs.

Couldn't they rerender the files in 4k?

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by ccateni

Couldn't they rerender the files in 4k?

Re-composites of digital anime are almost unheard of. There are so few out there, and even then, they were SD to HD. HD to 4K is an even bigger jump in resolution.

Assuming the master files still exist (genga/scanned artwork, backgrounds, CG elements, original timelines, etc), it would be an insane amount of work to do, having to essentially redo the entire post-production of the film. While it could look better, they're still limited by resolution (as in, what the genga and backgrounds were scanned in originally, and what the CG was rendered at), so at most you'd be going from ~720p to maybe 1080p if you stick at native resolutions, which you'd then have to upscale to 4K anyways.

There's a reason this is almost never done, because the amount of effort required just isn't worth it for a slight gain in quality... assuming every single original file still exists, that is! (Probably not)

[FoFo17]

I have no words. This is the most excited I've ever been for a 4K release since I didn't think anyone would care enough to do it. If even half the work they put into Belle is put into this we're in for something magical. Thank you GKIDS.

[qw0aszx]

Based on the promotion info on the 4K remaster release of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time here in mainland China last month, all previous Mamoru Hosoda catalogue were upscaled to 4K by qooop in 2024. That 4K upscale of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time looks basic the same as the previous version, thoes soft lines inherited from the sub 1080p (maybe 720p) native resolution were kept untouched.

[emailking]

Might be my favorite anime.

[Fresca]

Hugely excited for this! Don't care about steelbooks but I guess that's the only option for now, and the price is acceptable.

[doubles1283]

4K preorder is down to ~$27
https://www.amazon.com/Wolf-Children...e/dp/B0DV5M8W62

[5meohd]

When folks say all of his films have had new 4K transfers, are they saying Mirai also has?!?! That is my favorite of his. And if it is getting a 4K, I may try and sell it along with our Hosoda collection box set to distinguish it on eBay from the other boxsets a litte...

[lilwolf555]

Amazon just notified me my pre order is now unknown delivery date/will update when available.. and item itself says unavailable now.

Anyone else? Ordered on Feb 7.

[RickyBluTan]

Originally Posted by lilwolf555

Amazon just notified me my pre order is now unknown delivery date/will update when available.. and item itself says unavailable now.

Anyone else? Ordered on Feb 7.

Mine says shipped but no date. So I'm assuming I'll see it by next week. Hope you do too!!

[Brian81]

I started being annoyed by anime releases slapping English dub credits on the covers so I quite like these SteelBook releases only giving director credit on them. Seeing Dakota Fanning on the front of a movie released before she was born is like seeing Mad Max with whoever did Mel Gibson’s dub on the first film being credited instead of him.

[the-pi-guy]

Originally Posted by RickyBluTan

Mine says shipped but no date. So I'm assuming I'll see it by next week. Hope you do too!!

Your Wolf Children shipped? It doesn't come out for 4 more months.

[kevin87]

Originally Posted by lilwolf555

Amazon just notified me my pre order is now unknown delivery date/will update when available.. and item itself says unavailable now.

Anyone else? Ordered on Feb 7.

I got an email saying the same, new date and then the date is "We will email you as soon as we have a delivery date." but I don't remember it having a date to begin with. The page says it comes out August 5th.

Originally Posted by Brian81

I started being annoyed by anime releases slapping English dub credits on the covers so I quite like these SteelBook releases only giving director credit on them. Seeing Dakota Fanning on the front of a movie released before she was born is like seeing Mad Max with whoever did Mel Gibson’s dub on the first film being credited instead of him.

Apart from steelbooks usually having weird artwork, this won't have the usual GKIDS spine theme that they all share and to me that's a disappointment. I'm all for steelbooks for those who want them, but I don't like how they're forcing them on everybody who doesn't. Thankfully Shout hasn't overcharged for them, yet.