Perfect Blue (Blu-Ray)

[gloomranger]

It’s probably about time to burn this thread to the ground.

[kevers7290]

I say we take off and nuke this thread from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

[Tylerfan]

How about we relocate this thread to Itomori and let the comet do it in?

[rewak]

We could just discuss hopes for a real restoration. I've owned many different copies of this movie across multiple formats and it's just always missed the mark. I happen to own an original cel from the movie so I can see exactly what was painted and should be there on the screen.



The DVD version was taken from a Laserdisc era transfer, the
colour was for the most part correct but the contrast was blown out to hell and the image was letterboxed. The previous HD version doesn't come close, it's got this sepia tone all through the movie, scanner noise (not film grain), and the picture wobbles constantly, but at least it's true anamorphic widescreen now. It was just a cheap transfer done with minimal effort. Sadly that's it, that's all the transfers they've done. All they did for the "restored" Blu-ray was fix the colour but then went overboard with a quick auto DNR pass to reduce the scanner noise and ended up screwing with the detail that should be in the image. Now I'm not a fan of DNR but for anime I can deal with it, to me a film should look as close to the original source as possible which to me in anime are the cels. This is just my personal opinion and I understand why people disagree but if no detail is removed and weird blocky smearing isn't introduced I can accept it. This isn't what happened with Perfect Blue. They weren't trying to remove grain, they were trying to remove the grid pattern left by the shitty scanner, but that pattern is easily confused with finer background detail. So that turned into a mess.

Perfect Blue wasn't made as a theatrical movie, it was given an OVA budget and it's basically been handled that way ever since despite the fact it had a theatrical run anyway. It's no surprise the OCN is reportedly lost since the original distributor closed not long after and besides Blue they only ever worked on a PS1 game and distributed an American show in Japan. It's not like they could go back to the original cels either since they've been thrown around the world. The print they scanned for the HD transfer may very well be the only print Madhouse have left and given how piss poor (and coloured) it looked I can only imagine it's in worse shape now. The transfers 13 years old at this point! Still, I think Anime Ltd did at least show you can fix a lot of problems by just doing a real colour correction pass on it. Rescan that print in 4K with a decent film scanner this time to eliminate errors, stabilise the image, and colour correct it. That's all it would take to vastly improve what we have. Will they do it though? Probably not. That's just the visuals covered as well, audio is another bag all together! I would pay big for a 25th anniversary edition 4K release with a new fresh scan, but I just don't see it happening.

[Unkown91687]

Curious; out of the copies you've owned, was one of them the 2008 JR2 HD remaster?

[rewak]

Yes actually, the first edition with the storyboard book. That was my first experience of the new master, I hadn't upgraded to Blu at that point. At the time it was passable and an improvement on the letterboxed transfer we had previously, but it still has all of the problems I mentioned that are inherent in that master. Bad colour, telecine wobble, scanner noise. The scanner noise just becomes smeary at the lower resolution, it does help mask the problem at the cost of detail being lost and odd looking blocky compression artifacts. The Blu fixes this, at the cost of all the noise now being apparent.

[Kyle15]

Real life doesn't have "grain" in it, so DNR is good for live action and being closer to actual real life.

[Show spoiler]

[Unkown91687]

Interesting. Would you mind posting, or sending me some (Japan) Blu-ray caps, allowing a side by side comparison using my DVD copy. I'd use bulletsnbabes as a reference, but am unsure if they're lossless; the image of Mima's hallucination dancing with her bandmates show signs of compression. Also, said comparison doesn't use the DVD remaster, but instead its initial R2 release. If not, I understand.

[GeoffOliver]

Perfect Blue doesn’t look amazing, but it’s certainly a humongous upgrade from the old DVD, and after seeing the GKIDS master theatrically, I’m satisfied enough with it. It unintentionally gives the film a weird visual quality that I think suits the film enough. Of course, a new 4K scan of the original camera negative would be ideal.

Originally Posted by Kyle15

Real life doesn't have "grain" in it, so DNR is good for live action and being closer to actual real life.

[Show spoiler]

I’ve always said that, while real life doesn’t have grain, grain gives an image texture that makes it FEEL more real, if that makes sense.

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by GeoffOliver

Perfect Blue doesn’t look amazing, but it’s certainly a humongous upgrade from the old DVD, and after seeing the GKIDS master theatrically, I’m satisfied enough with it. It unintentionally gives the film a weird visual quality that I think suits the film enough. Of course, a new 4K scan of the original camera negative would be ideal.



I’ve always said that, while real life doesn’t have grain, grain gives an image texture that makes it FEEL more real, if that makes sense.

Exactly.

[Show spoiler]I was making a funny, btw.

[rewak]

Originally Posted by Unkown91687

Interesting. Would you mind posting, or sending me some (Japan) Blu-ray caps, allowing a side by side comparison using my DVD copy. I'd use bulletsnbabes as a reference, but am unsure if they're lossless; the image of Mima's hallucination dancing with her bandmates show signs of compression. Also, said comparison doesn't use the DVD remaster, but instead its initial R2 release. If not, I understand.

Sure, I've grabbed some shots from various releases and upscaled the DVDs to match the Blu resolution;

Original DVD


Japanese 2007 DVD


Japanese 2007 Blu


Australian 2009 DVD


UK 2019 Blu

[Unkown91687]

https://imgur.com/a/7yZqiQe

Nice, and thank you for the uploads. Don't know if it was intentionally, but I appreciate the choices; (mostly) no panning/tracking, which makes capturing an image that's as close to the ones you've provided, without knowing the frame in the series. Now, that being said... I have to question your (2008) Japanese DVD caps. I've posted a link with the four images, and I think we can agree- there's a noticeable discrepancy between our two versions, especially the second image. Also, the "Original" DVD is JR2 (Jewel Case), a copy I have, and isn't what your screen caps indicate. But nonetheless, I value the post.

[Nothing371]

LMFFFAO at the previous page.

[rewak]

Originally Posted by Unkown91687

It's, THE same, like literally. I've said this before: Blu-ray uses the remastered DVD- they didn't create two new scans.

Well yeah, that's what I said in my post above. Every release since 2007 has used the same scan, overseas distributors haven't been allowed access to a print to do their own scan so they've just had to work with it. Siren Visual in Australia did a little colour correction work for their release, but it was DVD only. Anime Ltd then did their release, the colour is better presented but if a character with dark hair is sitting in front of a dark background, which happens a lot in this movie, then there's a good chance the hair and background will just merge as one. Then there's also the DNR, it is too heavy handed. You don't notice background detail being erased in motion so much unless you're really looking for it but it is there. What you do notice a lot is a great deal of cel imperfections like dirt/dust being present on the original cel. Removing all the film grain makes these stand out a lot more and again, this was made on an OVA budget so imperfections like this are rife in this movie. Also the sharpening pass they did on it just makes it all the more noticeable. They tried to do everything they could to improve the image without having access to a fresh scan but there's really only so much you can do.

On the subject of DVD vs HD though, if you can't tell the difference then power to you but I don't think you'll find many who agree on a forum like this

[InuYashaCrusade]

No idea what the source is but it appears a 4K Steelbook is on the way:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=341102

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by InuYashaCrusade

No idea what the source is but it appears a 4K Steelbook is on the way:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=341102

Either a horrific upscale or maybe an all new scan of existing elements? Who knows with this one. Gonna be mortified or pleasantly surprised!

[Dailyan]

If it's a new master then I'm hoping it's more "Tokyo Godfathers" than "Millennium Actress".

[keitaro]

Originally Posted by Kyle15

Either a horrific upscale or maybe an all new scan of existing elements? Who knows with this one. Gonna be mortified or pleasantly surprised!

I dunno what's more horrific, the Perfect Blue HD transfer or your avatar.
Sorry, but your avatar is creepy

[NLScavenger]

The steelbook is BD+DVD+Digital (or was there another listing on dealsareus?) https://b2b.dealsareus.ca/perfect-bl...-raydvddigital

EDIT: Deepdiscount listing https://www.deepdiscount.com/perfect-blue/826663219425

[starsteam]

Spine only shows the Blu-ray logo. Would have double dipped if it was 4K.


https://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Blue-.../dp/B07GNW45TN

Still helluva better than their Ghibli Steelbooks.