The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[Mangaranga]

The UK BD of Silver Spoon Season 1 has incorrect gamma and loses a decent amount of texture detail compared to a 720p JP BDrip. Not ideal by any means but still entirely watchable. Season 2 however has been Evergarden'd, immediately noticeable by how unnaturally the character's faces glow. This appears to be when the sloppy output from the UK author began as it also has the I-frame pulsing problem that plagues B The Beginning and Birthday Wonderland - something which once again was very easy to pick up on as the S1 BD is very clean with minimal noise, whereas S2 is the polar opposite.

https://slow.pics/c/ipJ0s2jC

As far as I'm aware, this was also the first title to see the subtitles changed too. IMO the original was better. Latter is too thick for me.

https://slow.pics/c/AoNrbWah

Personally I will not be touching any more of the titles this author worked on, especially after April of 2019 (which was when S1 was authored).
Given how much attention was given to the Violet Evergarden disaster, I can only assume and hope that we won't have to worry about anymore discs from them at least.

[Dino-Killer 912]

Uh, I am wondering if there's any way to tell if the OP/ED credits of a title has been changed to English texts, like Code Geass and Eureka Seven, prior to buying a US release?

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by Dino-Killer 912

Uh, I am wondering if there's any way to tell if the OP/ED credits of a title has been changed to English texts, like Code Geass and Eureka Seven, prior to buying a US release?

There's no way to 100% know for sure, but there are ways to make safe bets:

FUNimation likes to change the JP telop to English whenever possible

Sentai, Viz, and Discotek tend not to unless a master has English credits baked in.

Same can be said for other international labels:

Dynit used to change the text to Italian for a long time, but then stopped doing that from what I can tell. Sadly, that means Cowboy Bebop, for example, doesn't have a 100% perfect version, as the OP/ED text is in Italian (and not even done that well, as the animation staff was left out of the credits, like WTF?!). Not sure when they stopped, but they seem to not do that anymore.

Dybex in France seems to be hit or miss, with some changed and some not. Same can be said with other French labels like Black Box (I know their Katanagatari release has French OP/ED, but I'll still buy it anyways, as I don't want to pay up for the NIS America OOP version or the JP BD Box, and being an Aniplex title, the chances of it getting a re-release are less than 1%).


Then there's a few films where they had English text all along. The opening credits for Ghost in the Shell (1995) are in English, and the ending credits for Akira are in English (in the case of Akira, they were originally in Japanese for the theatrical version, but the updated Laserdisc version, which is what we all know and love, changed it to English. Since it's still originally from Japan with English credits, it's fine by me).

[kk1]

Originally Posted by Mangaranga

The UK BD of Silver Spoon Season 1 has incorrect gamma and loses a decent amount of texture detail compared to a 720p JP BDrip. Not ideal by any means but still entirely watchable. Season 2 however has been Evergarden'd, immediately noticeable by how unnaturally the character's faces glow. This appears to be when the sloppy output from the UK author began as it also has the I-frame pulsing problem that plagues B The Beginning and Birthday Wonderland - something which once again was very easy to pick up on as the S1 BD is very clean with minimal noise, whereas S2 is the polar opposite.

https://slow.pics/c/ipJ0s2jC

As far as I'm aware, this was also the first title to see the subtitles changed too. IMO the original was better. Latter is too thick for me.

https://slow.pics/c/AoNrbWah

Personally I will not be touching any more of the titles this author worked on, especially after April of 2019 (which was when S1 was authored).
Given how much attention was given to the Violet Evergarden disaster, I can only assume and hope that we won't have to worry about anymore discs from them at least.

Such a shame a lot of these UK only Blu-rays are all authored so poorly (I think Amanchu is bad too)

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by kk1

Such a shame a lot of these UK only Blu-rays are all authored so poorly (I think Amanchu is bad too)

Looked back. Seems that the encoding was decent enough for Amanchu, but the brightness levels were messed up. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I don't have it, so someone who has it should probably chime in. (I too am curious)

[Dino-Killer 912]

Originally Posted by professorwho

There's no way to 100% know for sure, but there are ways to make safe bets:

FUNimation likes to change the JP telop to English whenever possible

Thank you so much, you always know so much!

And yes, FUNimation is an annoying player. I found out that FUNimation's English version of FA Brotherhood and Eureka Seven left out the major animation staff, such as key animators and background artists, which made me couldn't stand. But Code Geass translated all of the staff very well.

Regarding US releases, I guess checking the streaming version helps (like I just went to FUNimation's official site and found that the original Japanese-texted version of Eureka Seven can be streamed there). Besides, Japanese customers' reviews on amazon.co.jp for the imported US releases sometimes can help.

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by Dino-Killer 912

Uh, I am wondering if there's any way to tell if the OP/ED credits of a title has been changed to English texts, like Code Geass and Eureka Seven, prior to buying a US release?

Pretty much everything released by ADV Films, FUNimation, Geneon, and VIZ Media changed the credits to English, and the way it was done in the singles era was not good, like look at this garbage. Not only did it look awful, it hurt the video quality. Hell, the Gankutsuou Blu-ray upscale is worse than the DVDs, but for just the ED, it looks better because the way the English credits were done caused the video quality to tank, resulting in the Blu-ray looking a bit better briefly.
http://acacallis.com/gankutsuou/gankutsuou_R1DVD_10.png
http://acacallis.com/gankutsuou/gankutsuou_BD_10.png

Then you have ADV Films who was king at ugly and bad English credits as it the same scrolling credits with the same font on nearly every single show with no attempts to try to match the original font or way they appeared. I will give credit to FUNimation for attempting to make their English credits appear how the original Japanese credits did even though they should just leave the credits alone in the first place (and put the English staff after the original Japanese staff-nobody else in the past put the English staff first except FUNimation).

Media Blasters, they sometimes left the credits alone, other times they translated them, and when they did, it usually was the end of disc format, Bandai Entertainment could be the same way. RightStuf, I don't know about how they did things during the singles era and when their releases were dubbed, but they generally leave the Japanese credits alone and either do an after every episode or end of disc credit roll. Discotek, they pretty much always leave the Japanese credits alone, though on many of their DVD license-rescues, they often re-used the English credits and masters from who the original company was (Ex: DearS is reusing Geneon's credit rolls, Ghost Stories is reusing ADV's credit rolls). Maiden Japan and Sentai Filmworks, they almost always leave the credits alone, though for Akame ga Kill! and Parasyte, they translated the credits for both the Toonami airing and the Blu-rays, though IDK if the re-releases changed that. I've no idea if they've done the same for Food Wars! which has English credits for the Toonami airings. BTW, it should be noted, while Maiden Japan and Sentai have translated credits afterward, they've become pretty bad in recent years. They just give you the general staff and cast and many times fail to use episode-specific credits which is how you're supposed to do them in the first place. *Headdesk* They also do a poor job of credits on license-rescues, failing to credit the original company and staff and making errors along the way, even on former ADV Films titles.

[Memade]

I also hate the translated credits. They are so freaking wide and blocks out a lot more scenes compared to the original.

It especially sucks if the episode plays the ED while the show is still going. These English BD will just have wide names ruining scenes.

[Dino-Killer 912]

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

Media Blasters, they sometimes left the credits alone, other times they translated them, and when they did, it usually was the end of disc format, Bandai Entertainment could be the same way. RightStuf, I don't know about how they did things during the singles era and when their releases were dubbed, but they generally leave the Japanese credits alone and either do an after every episode or end of disc credit roll. Discotek, they pretty much always leave the Japanese credits alone, though on many of their DVD license-rescues, they often re-used the English credits and masters from who the original company was (Ex: DearS is reusing Geneon's credit rolls, Ghost Stories is reusing ADV's credit rolls). Maiden Japan and Sentai Filmworks, they almost always leave the credits alone, though for Akame ga Kill! and Parasyte, they translated the credits for both the Toonami airing and the Blu-rays, though IDK if the re-releases changed that.

Thank you for your detailed explanation!

It's totally acceptable to have a separate English credits roll after each episode or at the end of disc. I just hope that foreign distributors don't put their efforts above those original animators.

Sure enough, Discotek and Sentai Filmworks know how to respect the creators much better than Funimation.

Imagine if when you watch a Kurosawa film, there comes huge alphabets on the screen - gosh, I don't think English-texted anime is any different.

[BigOnAnime]

FUNimation also used to have a bad practice of trying to force their English credits on shows they didn't receive creditless masters for, resulting in disasters like this. They ruined Birdy: The Mighty: Decode, and this is for the final episode. Nobody else really tried to do this, even ADV Films would do a black screen credit roll afterwards if there were no creditless masters.

Originally Posted by NJ_

First off here is the issue in question from episode 1 so you can see for yourself.

Link!

Now here's a list of shows that had other issues.

Mania thread link!

-Birdy The Mighty Decode - ED 1 & Episode 25 epilogue
-Ghost Hunt - Episode 13 ED
-Initial D: First Stage - Episode 26 ED
-Initial D: Fourth Stage - ED 1
-My Bride Is A Mermaid - ED 2
-Sengoku Basara (season 1) - Episode 12 ED

Plus there's also what they did with Trigun which was unacceptable since they basically repeated the same mistake that Geneon made on their original & Signature DVDs.

Link to thread with details!

https://fandompost.vbulletin.net/for...096#post164096

Most of those links don't work anymore (just the first one for Sekirei still works), but look at how many things they ruined, and that's not even all of the shows IIRC. This nonsense finally stopped around 2012 or so.

[Dino-Killer 912]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Sentai, Viz, and Discotek tend not to unless a master has English credits baked in.

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

Pretty much everything released by ADV Films, FUNimation, Geneon, and VIZ Media changed the credits to English

I hate keeping asking but... Viz tend to do it or not? Say, how they did on Death Note and JoJo series?

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by Dino-Killer 912

I hate keeping asking but... Viz tend to do it or not? Say, how they did on Death Note and JoJo series?

JoJo has Japanese text at least

[BigOnAnime]

At least when VIZ was active with DVDs and not Blu-rays, they'd translate stuff into English. I've not looked into how things have been with them in the Blu-ray era.

[Dino-Killer 912]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Same can be said for other international labels:

I'm still digging and noticing that it's so hard to search for how Kaze, KSM or Nipponart do on this issue, as German is the third largest market for anime Blu-ray in the West.

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by Dino-Killer 912

I'm still digging and noticing that it's so hard to search for how Kaze, KSM or Nipponart do on this issue, as German is the third largest market for anime Blu-ray in the West.

I have a German friend who I think posts here, so I can ask him about it

[TThomas]

To be honest: Editing the opening credits requires extra effort nobody wants to pay.
So for Germany it's quite uncommon to edit these.

However, this is not always the case. Exceptions are:
- anything related to Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh! (well, this was done by US licence holders)
- anything sourced from old German TV masters (e.g. Kimba, the White Lion Blu-ray and many old DVDs)
- e.g. Wolf's Rain (they used the Funimation encode including Engdub credits - despite not including that dub)
(Toei Europe and other license holders may decide to supply international masters with western credits for specific titles)
(also not sure about DVDs from companies, that went under 10+ years ago)

Series that were originally brought to Germany by TV channels (for children) may have the opening replaced entirely - and DVDs sourced from these often kept the changed opening. (Mostly affects titles that were released Dub-only, keep any edits from TV-channels and are only aimed for nostalgia fans)

Hardsubs for signs and/or openings/endings are quite common in Germany - especially for Animoon and Peppermint. But also for other companies depending on the title.

General quality:
Most releases use BD25 - which is fine for releases with 3-5 episodes, but might end up with quality issues in other cases. A bad example is Dragon Ball Super with up to 10 eps per BD25.

Regarding translated credits:
KSM has the credit roll at the end of the playlist - so if you select "play all" it's at the end of the disc. If you select a specific episode, it plays after the episode.
Leonine (former Universum) has the credit roll at the end of each episode
Kazé usually has them somewhere in the menus
some companies may decide to not include them at all

[SpaceDandy]

Originally Posted by professorwho

France & telops comments

To be more specific on the French market:
• Projects handled by IDP Home Video on behalf of AB Video, Black Box, Dybex (and previously Kana, Wakanim and WE Anim) all had translated telops, whenever it was possible. They often tried to match the exact timing & style & effects. I don't know how they handle the telops for their subtitled-only releases but they might have stopped doing this additional effort. See my review for Baccano for such an example or FMP TSR.
• Kazé doesn't, as far as I remember. In fact they uses the subtitles and translates selected pieces of the credits. See this screenshot by yuripa for example. The additional credits such as the translator and project supervisor are usually in the subtitles as well, at the end of the ending. They may have stopped doing it that when they changed staff in 2019-2020 but I don't have any newer boxset, for obvious reasons.
• Kana does (?)
• Dybex - depends. They did on the titles they authored in-house (something they stopped doing a long time ago - I need to review a few of these) or all-time classics like Bebop. In the past 4 years, beside Bebop, I don't think they released anything with translated telops. Otherwise, see my comment's on IDP. What they have been doing for a very long time however is add a final staff roll after the last episode of a given disc, which credits the whole Japanese staff, the french translator, box designer and authoring company.
• Black Box : All of their Blu-Rays are from IDP.
• AB : I'm not a UFO Robot or Dragon Ball fan, so I don't know
• All the Anime : does not, or not on the boxset I have.

Originally Posted by TThomas

General quality:
Most releases use BD25 - which is fine for releases with 3-5 episodes, but might end up with quality issues in other cases. A bad example is Dragon Ball Super with up to 10 eps per BD25.

A m a z i n g. And the people on amazon seem really happy about the quality.

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by professorwho

Looked back. Seems that the encoding was decent enough for Amanchu, but the brightness levels were messed up. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I don't have it, so someone who has it should probably chime in. (I too am curious)

Amanchu is definitely way too bright.

I probably would've bought Welcome to the Ballroom if it wasn't for the likely awful mastering.

[Mangaranga]

Originally Posted by Naiera

Amanchu is definitely way too bright.

This. It also uses the broadcast version of the show rather than the home video masters with the redraws/animation fixes.

[TThomas]

Originally Posted by SpaceDandy

[German DBS 10 eps per BD25]
A m a z i n g. And the people on amazon seem really happy about the quality.

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00EHG1P5W
64 eps on a single BD50 - 4.7 stars
Dub only and a damn ugly 1080p (1080i?) upscale from PAL masters.

Nippon Animation classics, Naruto and the first half(?) of Shippuden have similar issues.
Nipponart's own upscales like Texhnolyze are qualitywise similar to the Funimation streams (well: Funimation uses insane 9 Mbit/s for 480p streams)

Regarding SD on Blu-ray, German companies still have to learn:
- Yu-Gi-Oh! is a good encode from PAL masters (but "SD" is only mentioned in fineprint on the back)
- Super Kickers 2006 (= Captain Tsubasa 2001) uses MPEG2, way to low bitrates and some episodes were pillar boxed widescreen encodes ("SD" is only mentioned in fineprint on the back - and the DVDs look way better)
- Solty Rei is more or less a direct copy of the 7 DVD singles (so 8000 kbit/s MPEG2 PAL, subtitles slightly restyled)
- Soul Hunter is missing Jap audio for one episode(Rest should be a copy of the PAL-DVD singles)