Finally! BD Animé in the US

[FF750]

Great to see that anime studios are finally going Blu if only for a few titles so far here in the US. I was initially dissapointed to see Freedom come out only on HD-DVD but now Bandai's going to go dual-format with Wings Of Honneamise on both BD and HD. Funimation also announced at Comic Con that they're going to be BD-exclusive with a couple of DBZ movies being their first release.

That's great news for me because even though I'm not as much a DBZ fan as I used to be Funimation has rights to a lot of my current faves like Samurai Seven, Kiddy Grade, Tsubasa etc.

Hope other distributors join the BD bandwagon soon. Can't wait to see GiTS:SAC, Karas, Gunbuster 1 & 2, Haruhi Suzumiya, and a ton of other titles in BD

[Blu Tiger]

Yeah, I really like Samurai Seven. There is a lot of anime I'd like to see on blu:
Samurai Champloo
Gun Grave
Full Metal Alchemist
Full Metal Panic (any)
Witch Hunter Robin
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
Cowboy Bebop
Outlaw Star
Samurai Gun
Twelve Kingdoms
Tenjo Tenge
Gunslinger Girl
Trinity Blood
Area 88
Appleseed
Speed Grapher, etc.

[CptGreedle]

My anime BD wish-list includes:
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
Cowboy Bebop
Samurai X
Trinity Blood
Blood the last Vampire
Full Metal Alchemist
With Hunter Robin
Appleseed
Ghost in the Shell (both movies and series)
Arjuna
Spirited Away
Princess Mononoke
Howl's Moving Castle
Paprika
Animatrix
Gedo Senki Tales of Earthsea
Urusei Yatsura movies (aka Lum)
Laputa
Kiki's delivery service
Nausicaa
Neon Genesis Evangelion

and so on.....

[u_nick]

Yeah, Funimation holds the licenses to a lot fo stuff I like too. Some of my favorite stuff, so even if they arent the most visually pleasing shows, i would probably rebuy a bunch on BRD.

[FF750]

That's the only problem - now I'll have to rebuy all those titles if they go Blu. Kind of a good problem to have though.

[Blu Tiger]

Originally Posted by FF750

That's the only problem - now I'll have to rebuy all those titles if they go Blu. Kind of a good problem to have though.

Yeah, I know. I own all of what I listed on DVD, but I will happily re-buy them. OMG, I love anime.

[GoldenRedux]

Originally Posted by CptGreedle

My anime BD wish-list includes:
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
Cowboy Bebop
Samurai X
Trinity Blood
Blood the last Vampire
Full Metal Alchemist
With Hunter Robin
Appleseed
Ghost in the Shell (both movies and series)
Arjuna
Spirited Away
Princess Mononoke
Howl's Moving Castle
Paprika
Animatrix
Gedo Senki Tales of Earthsea
Urusei Yatsura movies (aka Lum)
Laputa
Kiki's delivery service
Nausicaa
Neon Genesis Evangelion

and so on.....

Paprika is available on BD from Sony in France (I ordered one) it has an uncompressed PCM 5.1 Japanese soundtrack with English (and French) subtitles plus English and French DD 5.1 dub soundtracks. Ghost in the Shell:Innocence has been available on BD in Japan from Buena Vista since last year (I imported that as well). It has an uncompressed PCM discrete 7.1 Japanese soundtrack with English subtitles. It's on a BD50, encoded in MPEG2, with an average bitrate of around 36Mb/s and peaks at 40Mb/s. It looks and sounds spectacular. And then, of course, the original Ghost in the Shell movie is coming out in Japan from Bandai (I pre-ordered that from CDJapan) in a Blu-ray+DVD combo. All of the Bandais will have English dubs and subs. I also ordered the Bandai Patlabor Blu-ray+DVD combo from CDJapan.


Now, I would love to start seeing these releases come out in the US so I wouldn't have to import them. It would be far less dear. And, even though they are Region A, a lot of the Japanese anime Blu-ray releases don't have any English on them.

Here are some of what what I'd love to have (assuming they weren't done in SD; I don't really know what is and what isn't):

Cowboy Bebop
The Animatrix
Noir
Betterman
Silent Mobius
Gunslinger Girl
Diamond Daydreams
Samurai Champloo

[DaveFi]

Originally Posted by GoldenRedux

Paprika is available on BD from Sony in France (I ordered one) it has an uncompressed PCM 5.1 Japanese soundtrack with English (and French) subtitles plus English and French DD 5.1 dub soundtracks. Ghost in the Shell:Innocence has been available on BD in Japan from Buena Vista since last year (I imported that as well). It has an uncompressed PCM discrete 7.1 Japanese soundtrack with English subtitles. It's on a BD50, encoded in MPEG2, with an average bitrate of around 36Mb/s and peaks at 40Mb/s. It looks and sounds spectacular. And then, of course, the original Ghost in the Shell movie is coming out in Japan from Bandai (I pre-ordered that from CDJapan) in a Blu-ray+DVD combo. All of the Bandais will have English dubs and subs. I also ordered the Bandai Patlabor Blu-ray+DVD combo from CDJapan.


Now, I would love to start seeing these releases come out in the US so I wouldn't have to import them. It would be far less dear. And, even though they are Region A, a lot of the Japanese anime Blu-ray releases don't have any English on them.

Here are some of what what I'd love to have (assuming they weren't done in SD; I don't really know what is and what isn't):

Cowboy Bebop
The Animatrix
Noir
Betterman
Silent Mobius
Gunslinger Girl
Diamond Daydreams
Samurai Champloo

Noir ran in HD on INHD in the channel's early days on Comcast.

[GoldenRedux]

Originally Posted by DaveFi

Noir ran in HD on INHD in the channel's early days on Comcast.

[FF750]

I don't seem to have seen anyone mention Makoto Shinkai's stuff yet. I'm sure Voices Of A Distant Star, The Place Promised In Our Early Days, and Byosoku 5cm would look drop-dead gorgeous on BD with Shinkai's great use of color

Oh my poor wallet. I'm already looking at expending major dosh on the latest DVDs like Haruhi Suzumiya, Innocent Venus, School Rumble etc now I have to buy BDs too, boohoo. LOL.

[WickyWoo]

Wings of Honneamise and Patlabor both ship in the US 9/25

Akira by the end of the year

GiTS whenever Manga gets around to it

[Frode]

Current list of released and upcoming anime in hi-def:

http://www.animeondvd.com/forum/show...php?tid/18821/

I need to add a couple of titles, but should be mostly up to date.
-
For those interested in Shinkai, he's said that right now there's simply not enough of a market for a HD release. Once there's a chance of turning a profit they may do it. Voices of a distant star won't ever see a HD release as it was made in SD. Beyond the clouds however doesn't have that limitation and looks pretty good in HD. That's nothing compared to 5cm however - take a look at this trailer (25MB - right click and save):

http://i.yimg.jp/images/evt/5cm/teaser8000k1280_720.wmv

[u_nick]

yeah, i watched the first part of 5 cm a couple weeks ago. its simply gorgeous, just on my computer. BRD version will look AMAZING

[FF750]

Originally Posted by Frode

Current list of released and upcoming anime in hi-def:

http://www.animeondvd.com/forum/show...php?tid/18821/

I need to add a couple of titles, but should be mostly up to date.
-
For those interested in Shinkai, he's said that right now there's simply not enough of a market for a HD release. Once there's a chance of turning a profit they may do it. Voices of a distant star won't ever see a HD release as it was made in SD. Beyond the clouds however doesn't have that limitation and looks pretty good in HD. That's nothing compared to 5cm however - take a look at this trailer (25MB - right click and save):

http://i.yimg.jp/images/evt/5cm/teaser8000k1280_720.wmv

God that trailer was gorgeous. Shows what I love about Makoto Shinkai - even that short teaser trailer has a real sense of emotion and a palette worthy of a watercolor master. Video gods bring me the BD now!!!

[JLaSoul]

I'll tell you guys what movie I would definitly love to see on blu-ray. Vlotage Fighters: The Movie, Street Fighter II: The Movie, and Ninja Scroll, Oh ya' Ninja Scroll. For anyone that has seen that movie, when that rock guys head slides down the sword and all that blood is squirting out, or when the rock guy tears that guys arms of and drinks the blood dripping from them. DAMN!

[JLaSoul]

By the way, can someone guide me to the thread that talks about anime you would like to see on blu-ray, I can't seem to find it.

[u_nick]

It's in the General section, I think with Funimation in the title.

[Blu Tiger]

Originally Posted by FF750

I don't seem to have seen anyone mention Makoto Shinkai's stuff yet. I'm sure Voices Of A Distant Star, The Place Promised In Our Early Days, and Byosoku 5cm would look drop-dead gorgeous on BD with Shinkai's great use of color

Voices Of A Distant Star? I think I have that. That's the one that is only a half hour long right? The one that was made by one guy? It is pretty cool.

[DaveFi]

Originally Posted by Blu Tiger

Voices Of A Distant Star? I think I have that. That's the one that is only a half hour long right? The one that was made by one guy? It is pretty cool.

Not even. He did it at home, all pretty much by himself on his Mac.

I have seen his theatrical film A Place Promised in Our Early Days in HD, and I have to tell you, while beautiful, it bored the hell out of me to no end.

[CptGreedle]

*Ahem* MAC RULES!
Oh and .... I didn't know they were coming out with English! Can you send me a link to those BD anime discs in Japan that have English on them?
I can read/understand enough Japanese to get by a few sites, even order some things online, but I could never watch a movie without subtitles at least. (Not yet anyways)

Although it would be sweet to see Voice of a Distant Star in HD, I don't think his one-man studio (which I hear has expanded a bit) is ready for that task. Making animations myself, it's hard enough doing them in SD, but HD is just that much harder. But perhaps if he did design his later ones for theater, it could be made HD eventually.