The Anime Blu-ray Video Quality Thread - Page 261 - Blu-ray Forum

Rosenkreutz · 10-20-2020, 06:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Naiera

Don't bother with the original Fate/Stay. It's not very good and the Blu-ray releases are lacking one way or the other.

I'm aware that the first F/SN series is pretty divisive, but just as BigOnAnime said it's currently the only adaptation of the Fate route and I kind of doubt that they'll be making another series devoted to it. Additionally, I still think that the 2006 anime has some merit, especially for newcomers as it spends more time explaining things that the later ones just sort of glanced over, kind of like how FMA:B assumes that you already seen the stuff that was already covered in FMA 2003. If anything, it's still probably a better adaptation than what Tsukihime got, sadly there isn't a whole lot I can defend about that one outside of the music.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

The 23.976fps 1080p release drops frames because the series uses a variable framerate. The only way to present the series without dropping frames is in 1080i.

Thanks a lot for the info, it looks like I should seek out the two 1080i sets then, assuming that it's still an upgrade from the DVDs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

BTW, should be noted with Slayers, if you at all care about extras, FUNimation is missing a bunch from the CPM DVDs.

That's good to know, I ended up getting the Funimation release for a friend a couple years back and we were both a bit distracted by the washed out colors in some scenes which was enough to deter me from upgrading my CPM sets for the Funimation release. I just wish we could get a NA BD release for the series, OVAs and movies, that be great. Regardless, it makes me curious if there's any oddities like that for Funimation's release of Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of a Heroic Knight since by all accounts it shouldn't be hard to outdo the old CPM releases, but we all know how Funimation is when it comes to their rescued licenses.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BoscoTheMan82

Checked out my discs for Canaan, it is a little soft looking. Found out the reason for the bad 1080i encode and its that they used VC-1 for video at the time and VC-1 does not do interlaced encoding well at all.

Did you notice anything else besides it looking a little soft? If that's the worse that it has to offer than I imagine it should still look better than the regular DVD at least.

TThomas · 10-20-2020, 08:00 AM

Wasn't that sweet music video featuring Lina Inverse as an Idol exclusive to the Funimation DVD?

Rosenkreutz · 10-20-2020, 08:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TThomas

Wasn't that sweet music video featuring Lina Inverse as an Idol exclusive to the Funimation DVD?

Are you referring to the music video for "A Maiden's Prayer" ("Otome no inori" / "乙女の祈り") from Slayers NEXT? That one from the episode where both Lina and Amelia had to dress up and sing? I could be wrong, but I don't think it was featured on the CPM DVDs, its been a long time since I've looked through the extras. According to the Kanzaka wiki it was released on the Japanese Slayers NEXT DVD-BOX, I have no idea if it's on the Funimation release or not though.

Naiera · 10-20-2020, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rosenkreutz

If anything, it's still probably a better adaptation than what Tsukihime got, sadly there isn't a whole lot I can defend about that one outside of the music.

Lunar Legend Tsukihime is miles better than the original FSN.

BigOnAnime · 10-20-2020, 09:26 AM

But I was told there isn't a Tsukihime anime...

Fans of the VN despise the anime so much they refuse to acknowledge it exists. They do acknowledge the Fate/ anime as much as they dislike that too.

Naiera · 10-20-2020, 09:55 AM

One-Eye · 10-20-2020, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rosenkreutz

I'm aware that the first F/SN series is pretty divisive, but just as BigOnAnime said it's currently the only adaptation of the Fate route and I kind of doubt that they'll be making another series devoted to it. Additionally, I still think that the 2006 anime has some merit, especially for newcomers as it spends more time explaining things that the later ones just sort of glanced over, kind of like how FMA:B assumes that you already seen the stuff that was already covered in FMA 2003. If anything, it's still probably a better adaptation than what Tsukihime got, sadly there isn't a whole lot I can defend about that one outside of the music.

I've got the Geneon DVDs and the last time I looked at it on a HD screen (its been many years) I vaguely remember dot crawl and general ugliness. I suspect the BDs wont look great, but will probably be some improvement over the DVDs. I still like the 2006 show even though can't stand Shiro in it, because it ends strong with Saber. I tried to pick up the BD last year and ordered it thru RS after a month they told me it was OOS, and then 3 months later they cancelled the order said it was OOP. Yay, RS.

As far as Canaan I sold my set awhile ago, but I recall it visually ok with some softness. The turnoff was the translation, at times dub and sub contradicted each other and once or twice contradicted what was on the screen. This was one of those early Sentai BDs where they rushed thru everything. Similar to their FSN/UBW movie release where the translator seemed to give up translating one scene and I had to switch to the dub to figure out what was being said.

BigOnAnime · 10-20-2020, 12:19 PM

Looking, seems the translator for the UBW movie was never credited, rather interesting. Translator for Canaan was Javier Lopez, and the dub was directed by Steven Foster, so stuff being different isn't surprising there, though both Steven Foster and Javier Lopez did the ADR script. Those first few years were rough for Sentai given how they had limited funds as Sentai was the escape route ADV made to escape from the Sojitz deal that absolutely crippled them when it fell apart, though it was a horrible deal from day 1. Sentai was them starting from scratch.

Rosenkreutz · 10-22-2020, 05:36 AM

BigOnAnime, I was thinking back to a couple weeks ago when you told me about the handful of DVD sets that ADV Films put out in the passed decade before they stopped releasing DVDs and I was curious to ask, do you know if these more compact single DVD case releases are exactly the same as their previous thinpak ones?

I was debating if it be worth it or not to switch out my thinpak of Kino in favor of the single case housing 3 DVDs. In terms of space it'll only be a very slight upgrade, but thinpaks are a lot more prone to natural wear and tear which is another reason why I was considering it, especially since I can't seem to find any sleeves large enough for most of my thinpak/box sets. I suppose I could finally check out the Mezzo Forte TV series as well seeing as it apparently also got a single case re-release as well, not that the thinpak for it is particularly hard to find anyway.

Regardless, which do you consider superior, a 3 DVD thinpak or 3 DVDs in a single case? Though that's assuming that they're of identical quality of course.

BigOnAnime · 10-22-2020, 02:16 PM

Are you referring to these from this list?
https://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=835361

The UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie Ultramaiden Collection from 2012 is exactly the same as the 2009 release, just the UPC was changed (they couldn't even change the copyright year from 2009 to 2012), and it apparently later on finally stopped coming in a stackpak. The cover almost ended up being different before they decided to to reuse the 2009 one.
https://fandompost.vbulletin.net/for...on-seasons-1-2

I can't really speak for the others DVD-wise for ADV Films. I've got the 2017 releases of Mezzo and Kino's Journey, but don't have the prior ones to compare, save for the dub-only Kino's Journey AniMini DVD containing only Episode 3 (all AniMini DVDs were dub-only and had one episode, it was a weird short-lived marketing thing ADV did). Should be noted, Kino's Journey re-uses the ugly ADV English credit rolls, but has a Sentai-style black screen credit roll afterward. Mezzo on the other hand, they left the credits alone in Japanese, and then did the black screen credit roll. Now AEsir Holdings, I've got the 2017 release for Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi and also the original ADV Films singles, but have yet to do a comparison between the two. The 2017 release unlike the ADV singles (and also the other ADV releases as ADV only redid credit rolls for the Essential Anime Collection DVDs and anything that was on VHS then later put on DVD) left the credits alone in Japanese and then did a black screen credit roll.

BTW, should be noted, the 2017 release for Kino's Journey is the very first since the original singles to have the production sketches video extra.

Rosenkreutz · 10-23-2020, 10:22 AM

Yes, those were the ones that I was referring too. It's a little strange that they didn't even bother updating the copyright info for Valkyrie, but I suppose that happens more often than you'd expect. I didn't know that series had gotten a stackpak release, I personally can't stand overlapping disks let alone having them all stacked on top of one another, I remember how baffled I was when I saw that there was a release for Vampire Princess Miyu and Princess Tutu that had all the disks just pilled up like that. Thankfully, I don't think either of the 2017 releases for Kino or Mezzo were like that, at least judging by what pictures I could find for the 2017 release of Kino.

I did recently purchase the thinpak for Mezzo, but I was planning to return it as it wasn't new like the listing had stated. However, before I do that I'd be glad to try and get whatever information you'd require in order to make a proper comparison, what sort of stuff would you need to know, some screenshots for comparison, maybe the size of each of the disks?

I'm surprised that they re-added the production sketches video to the 2017 release of Kino, I'm aware that they stripped the extras on their thipaks as some weird attempt of incentivizing people to get the single releases (why even bother making the thinpaks at all then?,) but wasn't it also the reason they were able to include more episodes per disk? I wonder if the video quality on that release is still the same despite the re-inclusion of one of the extras.

As someone who owns a couple of the releases with 3 DVDs in a single case how do you like the packaging when compared to any of ADV's regular thinpak sets?

Also, somewhat off topic, but I saw that you were inquiring about the Princess Tutu Blu-ray a few months back (on page 247,) did you ever by chance find out how the release was overall? I read that there was some ghosting issues, but other than that I don't know how bad said ghosting was, if there were any other issues with it, or if the DVDs are the overall better option or not.

BigOnAnime · 10-23-2020, 12:52 PM

After the Sojitz deal fell apart (it was a bad deal from the start-almost none of these made money, 009-1 was reported (bottom of article) to need to sell 10,000 units just to break-even on just licensing costs alone) and ADV was having some serious money issues, plenty of their 3+ disc releases from late 2008 and on used stackpaks and their slates were nothing but re-releases to "the end". Stackpaks continued through Sentai Filmworks up until around 2013, and Sentai also used eco cases a lot during that time period as well, shows you the budget they were working with. They did silently give some stuff like La Corda d'Oro: Primo Passo regular DVD cases for their reprints after a while.

Anyway, I personally LOVE ADV Thinpaks despite the lack of extras. There are multiple shows where I own both the thinpak and the singles. It's a shame ADV/Sentai, Nozomi, and FUNimation moved on from those releases. There was still a point to ADV doing them, box sets sell. I found in an old article on I think it was ANN where ADV mentioned one reason why the extras were cutout was because they were viewed as budget releases.

I never did find out more regarding the Princess Tutu Blu-rays. As for Mezzo, I've still yet to see the show, and wouldn't know where to start a comparison. I don't know how to screencap DVDs to do proper comparisons. Printscreening in Media Player Classic I'm told is not how you do it.

BoscoTheMan82 · 10-23-2020, 07:40 PM

Well here's one thing to check to see if they changed the discs for Mezzo TV since both the Thinpak and the 2017 release are ADV branded, these are the previews on disc 1

BigOnAnime · 10-24-2020, 01:19 AM

The fact that they left the credits alone in Japanese should be enough to tell you that the Mezzo discs are new for the 2017 release, but I don't know how much better or worse the discs look compared to the prior releases, and then there's the subtitles to consider as they may have updated them (the person credited for doing the 2017 release differs from what ANN initially has as those people are no longer at ADV/Sentai). The 2017 release has the clean OP and ED unlike the thinpaks (there was a 2005 and a 2008 one) and previews, but for Kino's Journey and Elfen Lied only. The ADV Films logo is also different, and super boring, it fades in, and fades out, that's it.

[Show spoiler]

Re-using of discs with ADV Films stopped happening after like UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie. Though those discs for the 2009 release are new as they had the clean OP/ED which the thinpaks lacked, though they're still missing a bunch of the stuff from the singles. Prior to 2010, if a complete set had extras, it re-used the singles discs, and if they gave a show another complete set, it re-used the prior release's discs. I have the 2008 thinpak for Aquarian Age and it re-used the discs from the 2005 thinpak. The copyright on the disc credits was dated 2005, and the overall design matched only the 2005 thinpak as the graphic designer was different. The graphic designer for the 2005 thinpak was Russell Etchen and the graphic designer for the 2008 thinpak was Hiroko Fukumori.

Rosenkreutz · 10-25-2020, 07:06 AM

I've been meaning to check out the 1988 Appleseed OVA for a while, but to my surprise it sounds like opinions on it range from so-so to negative. I was pretty surprised to hear that seeing as all the other Masamune Shirow anime adaptations from that era such as Black Magic M-66, Dominion Tank Police, Ghost in the Shell are all fondly remembered. I did read that it isn't a very faithful adaptation so maybe that has something to do with it.

Alternatively it sounds like a lot of people liked the CG film from 2004, but I never got around to watching that one since I was put off by said CG. I still intend to check out the 1988 OVA, but this has gotten me curious enough to check out the CG films/series now too. The only thing is I don't know which release to get since it appears there's 2 DVD and 2 BD releases for the 2004 film. There's the Geneon and Sentai Filmworks DVDs, but I assuming that either the Geneon release is better or that the two are the same. Next there's 2 BDs both by Sentai, one from 2010 and a "Sentai Selects" one from 2015. It looks like the first release used a VC-1 codec while the second used MPEG-4 AVC and also featured an additional dub on top of the of the one used for the Geneon release, I guess the new dub carries over the cast from the TV series or something, not sure if one English dub is considered better than the other or not though.

From what I read here it would seem that the 2015 release is much less compressed, but for some reason is a lot brighter than the DVD which results in the banding being more noticeable, not sure if the 2010 had the same problem or not though. As a result I'm not sure if I wanna look for the BD or the DVD, I don't think the BD look horrendous and some of the details such as text on the uniforms look a lot better, but the lighting and contrast does look a bit better in the DVD screenshots.

Also, has anyone ever seen or heard of a Essential Anime release of Legend of Crystania: The Chaos Ring before? I came across a page for it on animenewsnetwork the other day, but outside of that stock picture I can't seem to find any physical evidence of it anywhere, not even when searching for past completed sales on ebay. I was wondering if the release got canceled or something or if that particular release for it is just really rare.

BigOnAnime · 10-25-2020, 08:23 AM

If you want to watch the 1988 Appleseed OVA, don't pick up the Manga DVD (Essence of Anime release uses same 2001 disc). Despite being yellow, the subs are hard to read due to a lack of good outlines, and the subtitle timing is quite off making for a rather unpleasant viewing experience. I don't know much about the Discotek release, but I imagine it's a lot better than Manga's low effort release. I plan on getting that release sometime in the future.

[Show spoiler]

As for the 2004 CG movie, both the 2010 and 2015 Sentai releases have the Geneon dub in addition to the new Sentai dub. The new dub was done to match the dub Warner Bros. had comissioned at Seraphim Digital (successor to Amusement Park Media/ADV Studios) for Appleseed Ex Machina. The 2010 release is likely significantly worse than the Sentai Selects release as that was the very first Blu-ray Sentai ever put out. You'll have smaller and improved subs on the Sentai Selects release in addition to superior video quality.

As for that Essential Anime Collection release, that did come out, it's just rare. DVDEmpire has the back cover for it, meaning they did receive stock of it back in the day.
https://www.dvdempire.com/651850/leg...ime-movie.html

Rosenkreutz · 10-26-2020, 08:13 AM

Thanks again, out of curiosity would you recommend one of the two dubs over the other? Assuming that you haven't only viewed it subbed of course.

Sorry to bother you with yet another question, but I just so happen to see your name come up on the Fandom Post Forums when I was trying to find out some information on Sentai's BD release of The Big O and I figured that you might possibly know the answer.

As far as I am aware, the second opening theme, "Respect" was never used as the intro on any of the US releases and instead they just recycled the first opening up until the Anime Legends release in 2007 where they replaced both openings with a new one. However, despite its removal it was apparently still featured as background music in a few episodes on the DVDs as well as the Japanese BD. Would you by chance know if this was true for Sentai's release as well? I know that the later releases also replaced the 1st opening theme when it was used during a fight in episode 7, but I'm not sure if the same was done for instances where Respect was used as a background track as well.

Additionally, while I was viewing that thread I also saw you state the following...

"You did read how they said that Blu-rays of older shows can look worse than the DVDs right? It depends on the circumstances. There are plenty of Blu-rays that look worse than the DVDs (Ex: Kaleido Star, Gankutsuou, Sailor Moon, Blue Seed, Blue Submarine No. 6)"

I was a bit concerned when I saw that you had listed Blue Seed among those examples as to my knowledge the only BD release of it was the SDBD by Discotek. I recall that jsevakis said that it had the same video quality as the ADV DVDs, but is there perhaps some sort of issue with it that you're aware of? I was thinking about replacing my thinpak with the SDBD at some point which is why I was curious to know.

BigOnAnime · 10-26-2020, 12:34 PM

I don't have Discotek's release of Blue Seed, but I imagine it's better than ADV's, though it's worth noting that Discotek's release is missing the Spanish dub that is present on ADV's DVDs. Every release of Blue Seed re-used ADV's singles DVD discs from 2001 (though only 2 of the complete sets included Blue Seed Beyond-how did this show get 4 complete sets, with 3 being thinpaks?). Also, Discotek's release does have Blue Seed 1.5 which ADV never licensed. When I said Blue Seed was an example of a Blu-ray looking worse than the DVDs, I was referring to the Japanese release which looks like this. This is why Discotek's release is an SDBD and not a regular Blu-ray, because the JP Blu-ray masters are horrible, so they opted to go the SDBD route instead.

BoscoTheMan82 · 10-26-2020, 04:05 PM

There was only 1 opening theme for the first season of Big O, the rip off of the Flash Gordan theme. Respect was the theme song for the second season. The Blu-ray for Big O has the new theme "Show Must Go On" which in itself is a "homage" to The Kinks.

jsevakis · 10-26-2020, 05:01 PM

Only caveat is that the ADV masters of Blue Seed had hard subs for signs, but we couldn't help that. The Japanese HD masters were totally unusable.

10-26-2020, 12:34 PM	#5218
BigOnAnime Blu-ray Knight Top contributor Member since:Mar 2015 Location:Minnesota, USA 4K collection:17 Blu-ray collection:671 DVD collection:714	I don't have Discotek's release of Blue Seed, but I imagine it's better than ADV's, though it's worth noting that Discotek's release is missing the Spanish dub that is present on ADV's DVDs. Every release of Blue Seed re-used ADV's singles DVD discs from 2001 (though only 2 of the complete sets included Blue Seed Beyond-how did this show get 4 complete sets, with 3 being thinpaks?). Also, Discotek's release does have Blue Seed 1.5 which ADV never licensed. When I said Blue Seed was an example of a Blu-ray looking worse than the DVDs, I was referring to the Japanese release which looks like this. This is why Discotek's release is an SDBD and not a regular Blu-ray, because the JP Blu-ray masters are horrible, so they opted to go the SDBD route instead. Last edited by BigOnAnime; 10-26-2020 at 12:39 PM.

10-20-2020, 08:00 AM	#5202
TThomas Senior Member Top contributor Member since:Mar 2019	Wasn't that sweet music video featuring Lina Inverse as an Idol exclusive to the Funimation DVD?

10-20-2020, 09:26 AM	#5205
BigOnAnime Blu-ray Knight Top contributor Member since:Mar 2015 Location:Minnesota, USA 4K collection:17 Blu-ray collection:671 DVD collection:714	But I was told there isn't a Tsukihime anime... Fans of the VN despise the anime so much they refuse to acknowledge it exists. They do acknowledge the Fate/ anime as much as they dislike that too.

10-20-2020, 09:55 AM	#5206
Naiera Blu-ray Prince Top contributor Member since:Jun 2012 Location:Denmark Home Theater Gallery:2 Trading Score:25

10-20-2020, 12:19 PM	#5208
BigOnAnime Blu-ray Knight Top contributor Member since:Mar 2015 Location:Minnesota, USA 4K collection:17 Blu-ray collection:671 DVD collection:714	Looking, seems the translator for the UBW movie was never credited, rather interesting. Translator for Canaan was Javier Lopez, and the dub was directed by Steven Foster, so stuff being different isn't surprising there, though both Steven Foster and Javier Lopez did the ADR script. Those first few years were rough for Sentai given how they had limited funds as Sentai was the escape route ADV made to escape from the Sojitz deal that absolutely crippled them when it fell apart, though it was a horrible deal from day 1. Sentai was them starting from scratch.

10-22-2020, 05:36 AM	#5209
Rosenkreutz Member Member since:Aug 2020	BigOnAnime, I was thinking back to a couple weeks ago when you told me about the handful of DVD sets that ADV Films put out in the passed decade before they stopped releasing DVDs and I was curious to ask, do you know if these more compact single DVD case releases are exactly the same as their previous thinpak ones? I was debating if it be worth it or not to switch out my thinpak of Kino in favor of the single case housing 3 DVDs. In terms of space it'll only be a very slight upgrade, but thinpaks are a lot more prone to natural wear and tear which is another reason why I was considering it, especially since I can't seem to find any sleeves large enough for most of my thinpak/box sets. I suppose I could finally check out the Mezzo Forte TV series as well seeing as it apparently also got a single case re-release as well, not that the thinpak for it is particularly hard to find anyway. Regardless, which do you consider superior, a 3 DVD thinpak or 3 DVDs in a single case? Though that's assuming that they're of identical quality of course.

10-22-2020, 02:16 PM	#5210
BigOnAnime Blu-ray Knight Top contributor Member since:Mar 2015 Location:Minnesota, USA 4K collection:17 Blu-ray collection:671 DVD collection:714	Are you referring to these from this list? https://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=835361 The UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie Ultramaiden Collection from 2012 is exactly the same as the 2009 release, just the UPC was changed (they couldn't even change the copyright year from 2009 to 2012), and it apparently later on finally stopped coming in a stackpak. The cover almost ended up being different before they decided to to reuse the 2009 one. https://fandompost.vbulletin.net/for...on-seasons-1-2 I can't really speak for the others DVD-wise for ADV Films. I've got the 2017 releases of Mezzo and Kino's Journey, but don't have the prior ones to compare, save for the dub-only Kino's Journey AniMini DVD containing only Episode 3 (all AniMini DVDs were dub-only and had one episode, it was a weird short-lived marketing thing ADV did). Should be noted, Kino's Journey re-uses the ugly ADV English credit rolls, but has a Sentai-style black screen credit roll afterward. Mezzo on the other hand, they left the credits alone in Japanese, and then did the black screen credit roll. Now AEsir Holdings, I've got the 2017 release for Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi and also the original ADV Films singles, but have yet to do a comparison between the two. The 2017 release unlike the ADV singles (and also the other ADV releases as ADV only redid credit rolls for the Essential Anime Collection DVDs and anything that was on VHS then later put on DVD) left the credits alone in Japanese and then did a black screen credit roll. BTW, should be noted, the 2017 release for Kino's Journey is the very first since the original singles to have the production sketches video extra.

10-23-2020, 10:22 AM	#5211
Rosenkreutz Member Member since:Aug 2020	Yes, those were the ones that I was referring too. It's a little strange that they didn't even bother updating the copyright info for Valkyrie, but I suppose that happens more often than you'd expect. I didn't know that series had gotten a stackpak release, I personally can't stand overlapping disks let alone having them all stacked on top of one another, I remember how baffled I was when I saw that there was a release for Vampire Princess Miyu and Princess Tutu that had all the disks just pilled up like that. Thankfully, I don't think either of the 2017 releases for Kino or Mezzo were like that, at least judging by what pictures I could find for the 2017 release of Kino. I did recently purchase the thinpak for Mezzo, but I was planning to return it as it wasn't new like the listing had stated. However, before I do that I'd be glad to try and get whatever information you'd require in order to make a proper comparison, what sort of stuff would you need to know, some screenshots for comparison, maybe the size of each of the disks? I'm surprised that they re-added the production sketches video to the 2017 release of Kino, I'm aware that they stripped the extras on their thipaks as some weird attempt of incentivizing people to get the single releases (why even bother making the thinpaks at all then?,) but wasn't it also the reason they were able to include more episodes per disk? I wonder if the video quality on that release is still the same despite the re-inclusion of one of the extras. As someone who owns a couple of the releases with 3 DVDs in a single case how do you like the packaging when compared to any of ADV's regular thinpak sets? Also, somewhat off topic, but I saw that you were inquiring about the Princess Tutu Blu-ray a few months back (on page 247,) did you ever by chance find out how the release was overall? I read that there was some ghosting issues, but other than that I don't know how bad said ghosting was, if there were any other issues with it, or if the DVDs are the overall better option or not.

10-23-2020, 12:52 PM	#5212
BigOnAnime Blu-ray Knight Top contributor Member since:Mar 2015 Location:Minnesota, USA 4K collection:17 Blu-ray collection:671 DVD collection:714	After the Sojitz deal fell apart (it was a bad deal from the start-almost none of these made money, 009-1 was reported (bottom of article) to need to sell 10,000 units just to break-even on just licensing costs alone) and ADV was having some serious money issues, plenty of their 3+ disc releases from late 2008 and on used stackpaks and their slates were nothing but re-releases to "the end". Stackpaks continued through Sentai Filmworks up until around 2013, and Sentai also used eco cases a lot during that time period as well, shows you the budget they were working with. They did silently give some stuff like La Corda d'Oro: Primo Passo regular DVD cases for their reprints after a while. Anyway, I personally LOVE ADV Thinpaks despite the lack of extras. There are multiple shows where I own both the thinpak and the singles. It's a shame ADV/Sentai, Nozomi, and FUNimation moved on from those releases. There was still a point to ADV doing them, box sets sell. I found in an old article on I think it was ANN where ADV mentioned one reason why the extras were cutout was because they were viewed as budget releases. I never did find out more regarding the Princess Tutu Blu-rays. As for Mezzo, I've still yet to see the show, and wouldn't know where to start a comparison. I don't know how to screencap DVDs to do proper comparisons. Printscreening in Media Player Classic I'm told is not how you do it.

10-23-2020, 07:40 PM	#5213
BoscoTheMan82 Active Member Member since:Feb 2019 Location:North Dakota Blu-ray collection:655 DVD collection:464 Trading Score:1	Well here's one thing to check to see if they changed the discs for Mezzo TV since both the Thinpak and the 2017 release are ADV branded, these are the previews on disc 1

10-24-2020, 01:19 AM	#5214
BigOnAnime Blu-ray Knight Top contributor Member since:Mar 2015 Location:Minnesota, USA 4K collection:17 Blu-ray collection:671 DVD collection:714	The fact that they left the credits alone in Japanese should be enough to tell you that the Mezzo discs are new for the 2017 release, but I don't know how much better or worse the discs look compared to the prior releases, and then there's the subtitles to consider as they may have updated them (the person credited for doing the 2017 release differs from what ANN initially has as those people are no longer at ADV/Sentai). The 2017 release has the clean OP and ED unlike the thinpaks (there was a 2005 and a 2008 one) and previews, but for Kino's Journey and Elfen Lied only. The ADV Films logo is also different, and super boring, it fades in, and fades out, that's it. [Show spoiler] Re-using of discs with ADV Films stopped happening after like UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie. Though those discs for the 2009 release are new as they had the clean OP/ED which the thinpaks lacked, though they're still missing a bunch of the stuff from the singles. Prior to 2010, if a complete set had extras, it re-used the singles discs, and if they gave a show another complete set, it re-used the prior release's discs. I have the 2008 thinpak for Aquarian Age and it re-used the discs from the 2005 thinpak. The copyright on the disc credits was dated 2005, and the overall design matched only the 2005 thinpak as the graphic designer was different. The graphic designer for the 2005 thinpak was Russell Etchen and the graphic designer for the 2008 thinpak was Hiroko Fukumori.

10-25-2020, 07:06 AM	#5215
Rosenkreutz Member Member since:Aug 2020	I've been meaning to check out the 1988 Appleseed OVA for a while, but to my surprise it sounds like opinions on it range from so-so to negative. I was pretty surprised to hear that seeing as all the other Masamune Shirow anime adaptations from that era such as Black Magic M-66, Dominion Tank Police, Ghost in the Shell are all fondly remembered. I did read that it isn't a very faithful adaptation so maybe that has something to do with it. Alternatively it sounds like a lot of people liked the CG film from 2004, but I never got around to watching that one since I was put off by said CG. I still intend to check out the 1988 OVA, but this has gotten me curious enough to check out the CG films/series now too. The only thing is I don't know which release to get since it appears there's 2 DVD and 2 BD releases for the 2004 film. There's the Geneon and Sentai Filmworks DVDs, but I assuming that either the Geneon release is better or that the two are the same. Next there's 2 BDs both by Sentai, one from 2010 and a "Sentai Selects" one from 2015. It looks like the first release used a VC-1 codec while the second used MPEG-4 AVC and also featured an additional dub on top of the of the one used for the Geneon release, I guess the new dub carries over the cast from the TV series or something, not sure if one English dub is considered better than the other or not though. From what I read here it would seem that the 2015 release is much less compressed, but for some reason is a lot brighter than the DVD which results in the banding being more noticeable, not sure if the 2010 had the same problem or not though. As a result I'm not sure if I wanna look for the BD or the DVD, I don't think the BD look horrendous and some of the details such as text on the uniforms look a lot better, but the lighting and contrast does look a bit better in the DVD screenshots. Also, has anyone ever seen or heard of a Essential Anime release of Legend of Crystania: The Chaos Ring before? I came across a page for it on animenewsnetwork the other day, but outside of that stock picture I can't seem to find any physical evidence of it anywhere, not even when searching for past completed sales on ebay. I was wondering if the release got canceled or something or if that particular release for it is just really rare.

10-25-2020, 08:23 AM	#5216
BigOnAnime Blu-ray Knight Top contributor Member since:Mar 2015 Location:Minnesota, USA 4K collection:17 Blu-ray collection:671 DVD collection:714	If you want to watch the 1988 Appleseed OVA, don't pick up the Manga DVD (Essence of Anime release uses same 2001 disc). Despite being yellow, the subs are hard to read due to a lack of good outlines, and the subtitle timing is quite off making for a rather unpleasant viewing experience. I don't know much about the Discotek release, but I imagine it's a lot better than Manga's low effort release. I plan on getting that release sometime in the future. [Show spoiler] As for the 2004 CG movie, both the 2010 and 2015 Sentai releases have the Geneon dub in addition to the new Sentai dub. The new dub was done to match the dub Warner Bros. had comissioned at Seraphim Digital (successor to Amusement Park Media/ADV Studios) for Appleseed Ex Machina. The 2010 release is likely significantly worse than the Sentai Selects release as that was the very first Blu-ray Sentai ever put out. You'll have smaller and improved subs on the Sentai Selects release in addition to superior video quality. As for that Essential Anime Collection release, that did come out, it's just rare. DVDEmpire has the back cover for it, meaning they did receive stock of it back in the day. https://www.dvdempire.com/651850/leg...ime-movie.html

10-26-2020, 08:13 AM	#5217
Rosenkreutz Member Member since:Aug 2020	Thanks again, out of curiosity would you recommend one of the two dubs over the other? Assuming that you haven't only viewed it subbed of course. Sorry to bother you with yet another question, but I just so happen to see your name come up on the Fandom Post Forums when I was trying to find out some information on Sentai's BD release of The Big O and I figured that you might possibly know the answer. As far as I am aware, the second opening theme, "Respect" was never used as the intro on any of the US releases and instead they just recycled the first opening up until the Anime Legends release in 2007 where they replaced both openings with a new one. However, despite its removal it was apparently still featured as background music in a few episodes on the DVDs as well as the Japanese BD. Would you by chance know if this was true for Sentai's release as well? I know that the later releases also replaced the 1st opening theme when it was used during a fight in episode 7, but I'm not sure if the same was done for instances where Respect was used as a background track as well. Additionally, while I was viewing that thread I also saw you state the following... "You did read how they said that Blu-rays of older shows can look worse than the DVDs right? It depends on the circumstances. There are plenty of Blu-rays that look worse than the DVDs (Ex: Kaleido Star, Gankutsuou, Sailor Moon, Blue Seed, Blue Submarine No. 6)" I was a bit concerned when I saw that you had listed Blue Seed among those examples as to my knowledge the only BD release of it was the SDBD by Discotek. I recall that jsevakis said that it had the same video quality as the ADV DVDs, but is there perhaps some sort of issue with it that you're aware of? I was thinking about replacing my thinpak with the SDBD at some point which is why I was curious to know.

10-26-2020, 04:05 PM	#5219
BoscoTheMan82 Active Member Member since:Feb 2019 Location:North Dakota Blu-ray collection:655 DVD collection:464 Trading Score:1	There was only 1 opening theme for the first season of Big O, the rip off of the Flash Gordan theme. Respect was the theme song for the second season. The Blu-ray for Big O has the new theme "Show Must Go On" which in itself is a "homage" to The Kinks.

10-26-2020, 05:01 PM	#5220
jsevakis MediaOCD Insider Member since:Apr 2016	Only caveat is that the ADV masters of Blue Seed had hard subs for signs, but we couldn't help that. The Japanese HD masters were totally unusable.

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