The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread

[BigOnAnime]

The Sentai and Anime Limited (UK & FR) releases of Tamako Love Story are the theatrical version. TThomas saw this blog post of mine documenting instances of the broadcast or theatrical version being released here, and linked me this for Tamako Love Story where the FR Blu-ray was the theatrical version, and noted the UK release also had it, and should be a clone of the Sentai Blu-ray. I popped in my Sentai Blu-ray (2017 combo pack, I currently don't own the 2020 Love Story Collection) and found the same error. The differences are very minor, but it remains an issue.
https://slow.pics/c/U8e5gUJE



BTW, anyone know why the Sentai release is like 4 minutes shorter? When I copied/pasted the sceenshot into trace.moe to get the timestamp, it noted it was at 01:05:36/01:23:52 on the JP release, yet here you can see it's 01:00:43/01:19:55 for the US release.

[Edit]Is it because of the Dera-chan short? Was it placed differently on the JP release? On the Sentai release, it's in the special features.
https://anidb.net/anime/10565

If so, kind of wow the reason then why MAL deleted it.

Feb 9, 2022 10:43 AM

Removed:

March 23
Stone Age Episode 0 (21864): Advanced screening of first two episodes of https://myanimelist.net/anime/36657
Minami no Shima no Dera-chan (21014): introduction part of the movie https://myanimelist.net/anime/21647/

http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topici...msgid=65675558

[BigOnAnime]

Does anyone have any comparisons between the Kaze UK release of Black Lagoon and the FUNimation release? I heard from someone recently apparently despite Kaze's abysmal track record, their release of Black Lagoon ended up looking better than FUNimation's. Is this true? The Anime Limited release is supposedly a clone of FUNimation's release.

I do know FUNimation's release was plagued with banding not found in the Japanese release. Some posts I remember seeing from back in the day.
https://fandompost.vbulletin.net/for...ge5#post270117
https://fandompost.vbulletin.net/for...ge6#post271478
https://fandompost.vbulletin.net/for...ge6#post271710

[TThomas]

@NLScavenger did a comparison here
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=5955
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=5956

[BigOnAnime]

Well, well... The brightness/gamma issue that was common with FUNimation releases back then is something I notice only if there's a comparison, but the Kaze BD is closer to the JP BD, the banding isn't as visible. That's quite the surprise given how poor their track record was.

[lilwolf555]

To probably no ones surprise.. The Viz US release of chainsaw man is bad. Not sure if its the same as UK or worse but skipped around to stillframe closeup of Pochita in the small shack near start of Ep1 and my god the banding is horrendous. Flip to JP release and no banding.

I didn't expect much, but was hoping for something, as foolish as that was to expect from Viz. At least the Steelbook is nice

[BigOnAnime]

The future site review from Neil Lumbard...

Released on Blu-ray by VIZ Media, Chainsaw Man – Volume 1 is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high-definition in the original television broadcast aspect ratio of 1.78:1 widescreen. An impressive high-definition presentation with crisp animation and beautiful, evocative, and mesmerizing colors. The presentation shines with great color reproduction and the line art looks lusher than one might expect. The action is well encoded, too. VIZ did a solid job with the presentation quality. The encoding enhancing the presentation quality.

One strength of the Blu-ray format is superior encoding compared to streaming video services. Though streaming services can offer a nice try- before-you-buy option for anime fans, it is worth noting that a streaming presentation can sometimes offer a lower video bit-rate compared to physical media. For home theater enthusiasts wanting to eek out the best possible video quality, the physical option is something that can provide a more robust presentation. Fans can appreciate this about the release.

[Show spoiler]I copied the text from the Tokyo Revengers review. Amazing how I changed only the title, and you could think it was a real review when there isn't one for Chainsaw Man atm.

Commenting again about the state of most anime reviews on the site these days aside, it's sad how VIZ Media remains the worst. This long of a wait for a region A release and it's the same or worse than the already not good region B release?

Good thing VIZ Media rarely handles anything I care about (I've seen about half of CSM, I was rather bored by it), but really sucks to see how a show this popular and liked by most got shafted this hard in the west.

[Glorian]

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

The future site review from Neil Lumbard...

[Show spoiler]I copied the text from the Tokyo Revengers review.

Commenting again about the state of most anime reviews on the site these days aside, it's sad how VIZ Media remains the worst. This long of a wait for a region A release and it's the same or worse than the already not good region B release?

Good thing VIZ Media rarely handles anything I care about (I've seen about half of CSM, I was rather bored by it), but really sucks to see how a show this popular and liked by most got shafted this hard in the west.

Yeah, as a general rule of thumb I avoid the Viz release whenever a different alternative is available; I've even gone back and replaced older Viz releases I had with region B copies whenever I can confirm they aren't just reusing the Viz discs.

Honestly, it's not just about the fact that the video quality is worse then releases done by anyone else (with a couple of exceptions, like Ranma); it's the fact that their subtitles are eyestraining and difficult to read, especially in lighter scenes. I want to have subtitles that are clearly legible, especially as I start to move into middle age.

[BigOnAnime]

Oh yeah, VIZ Media is a dumpster fire with the subs. I've admittedly watched like none of my current VIZ Media Blu-rays (as I've already seen the shows through streams and don't do rewatches often, especially on longer shows), but when I watched the Sailor Moon SuperS specials through the original Blu-ray, was a pain to read the subs at times. Shout! Factory is also quite bad too, Lu Over the Wall was difficult to watch subbed.

I also sometimes have difficulty reading subs on Sentai's Blu-rays despite the fact they're yellow because they still haven't made the subs have adequate shadowing or borders. Even on cel-animated anime it's a problem, many daylight scenes on land for Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water were a problem, and that release is from before Sentai shrank the size of the subs and on 4:3 content would sometimes display on the black borders.

On another note, wish there was a good alternative for Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, it was released DVD-only in the UK by Kaze (who would have likely done the same or worse than VIZ on Blu-ray). Really liked that show back in the day, but the VIZ Blu-rays are garbage, and then S2 (a sequel that is better than the original) used the broadcast masters. My only hope is Anime Limited gets it in the UK and does not simply reuse the VIZ masters, or VIZ's license expires (it's been like 15 years now (I feel old)) and then Discotek can save the day (I doubt AnimEigo would be interested).

[Rosenkreutz]

There are some older posts that mention Sentai Filmworks' SDBDs having frameblending and interlacing issues. Would anyone happen to know if these issues are present in their releases of Orphen, Princess Tutu, Saiyuki, Saiyuki Reload, Saiyuki Reload Gunlock, Sakura Wars and Votoms?

[BoopityBoop]

Originally Posted by Rosenkreutz

There are some older posts that mention Sentai Filmworks' SDBDs having frameblending and interlacing issues. Would anyone happen to know if these issues are present in their releases of Orphen, Princess Tutu, Saiyuki, Saiyuki Reload, Saiyuki Reload Gunlock, Sakura Wars and Votoms?

The original Princess Tutu BD release does have ghosting issues, but the steelbook release fixes them. The most recent Votoms release is largely problem-free, however Pailsen Files does not display in the correct aspect ratio.

[llj]

Any thoughts here on the Queen Millennia Sentai release compared to the German release?

[professorwho]

Originally Posted by llj

Any thoughts here on the Queen Millennia Sentai release compared to the German release?

A friend bought it and shared some screenshots: the compression is expectedly quite poor on Sentai's release. ze German KSM release was probably either encoded by Plaion internal or by LSP Medien and is superb, handling the grain much better than Sentai's bit-starved and poorly encoded release. The macroblocking is quite rough at points.

[Gowho]

Oh lovely

And why should we want Sentai to get more old anime again?

[Glorian]

Originally Posted by Gowho

Oh lovely

And why should we want Sentai to get more old anime again?

That's easy; because Discotek isn't going to release everything, and an imperfect release from Sentai is better than no release at all. But obviously, it would be better if Sentai made some improvements.

[BigOnAnime]

But at least it's better than streaming services, right? And it has lossless audio unlike the VHS quality audio from streaming services. /s

(We desperately need Kenneth Brown or Randy Miller III to do the anime reviews instead.)

[SteamfloggerBoss]

Rather unfortunate. I want to support these releases because I want to see more old anime from Sentai but this information really makes me want to wait for a heavy discount...

[BigOnAnime]

Should be noted if everyone waits for a steep discount, that sends a message to Sentai that people don't want older anime anymore. Sentai takes less risks these days, when something doesn't work, they stop (See: SD Blu-ray, Sentai Kids, SoftCel Pictures). With how few of companies there are dealing with catalog content, you'd see stuff remain without a release. The initial sales are the most important and factor into what gets licensed or not.

Shame Sentai didn't handle this well. When a title really needs the love and care in certain apsects, mainly the video quality, Sentai doesn't do what MediaOCD does, would be nice if at the bare minimum they'd contract the work out sometimes. They can deliver in the translation aspect, though Discotek had to make corrections they didn't do for When They Cry (S1: Sentai didn't fix the Geneon subs from someone that has very few anime TL credits to their name, S2 apparently had some issues from them tweaking the Siren Visual translation, S3 apparently had issues with Sentai's in-house translation).

[SteamfloggerBoss]

Yep, that's the pickle for me. I'll probably buy at 30 something.

[Gowho]

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

Shame Sentai didn't handle this well. When a title really needs the love and care in certain apsects, mainly the video quality, Sentai doesn't do what MediaOCD does, would be nice if at the bare minimum they'd contract the work out sometimes. They can deliver in the translation aspect, though Discotek had to make corrections they didn't do for When They Cry (S1: Sentai didn't fix the Geneon subs from someone that has very few anime TL credits to their name, S2 apparently had some issues from them tweaking the Siren Visual translation, S3 apparently had issues with Sentai's in-house translation).

For those who are fans of the visual novels, is there anything that's unique to them that neither company did well with the anime's translation? I'm also curious if the same issue applies to Gou & Sotsu by Funi as well as Umineko by NIS America.

[BigOnAnime]

Gou and Sotsu were translated by Katrina Leonoudakis (who regularly gets harassed by the anti-localizer crowd), nobody submitted the credits to ANN for Umineko as per usual for NISA titles (nearly every NISA title has no English staff credits submitted to ANN, I could only add from what little NISA releases I own, hopefully someday someone can help fix that...).

A reminder on the original When They Cry:

S1: Mitsuyo Vicky Umene
S2: James Rushton (Siren Visual), Sawa Savage (Additional translation for Sentai)
S3: Sawa Savage

Really curious what would have needed cleaning up for S3 as Sawa Savage is considered one of Sentai's best translators to my knowledge.