Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise - Releases

[FF750]

Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise 4K Blu-ray



Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise Blu-ray



Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise Blu-ray



Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise Blu-ray

Got my copy of Wings Of Honneamise on BD/DVD combo today and, although I'll be the first to admit I'm not as much of a coin-yah-shur of video quality as I'm sure a lot of people here are, I have to say it looks superb.

In case anyone has doubts about the benefits of BD for high-quality anime here's some quick and dirty comparison shots I made tonight - upconverted 1080i DVD on the left and 1080i BD on the right:



Here's a closeup of one portion:



A different zoomed-in image:



Note that these were just some quick snapshots I put together but I think they at least can give you a better idea of the difference in quality. In motion it's a stunning difference. As a hardcore anime fan I can't wait for other BD releases

Hope you other anime fans out there find this post useful.

[Rolo]

Thanks for the post as I was on the fence of purchasing this BD.

Is yours an import or domestic BD?
Is the soundtrack much improved with the PCM track or the Dolby TrueHD track?

Thanks!

[MOONPHASE]

Wow it looks awesome i cant wait for Wings of Honneamise to come out

[u_nick]

Great news, an d thanks for those shots. Hopefully this will make more and more people realize that animation will benefit from Bluray as well!

[MOONPHASE]

So this means Bandai is neutral to the format war if you count Freedom on Hd-Dvd. Funimation we know supports Blu-Ray but not sure if it supports Hd-Dvd or not and all of the other anime companies dont know which one to support like for instance ADV Films even though in Japan they already have the Air Tv Blu-Ray boxed set and I watch the english dubbed and I think all anime fans should purchase it, its a great anime series .

[u_nick]

From what I can tell Bandai And Bandai Visual are different. Bandai Visual went HDDVD first, releasing Freedom and a couple others maybe, but then their entire country went Blu. They still had contracts to uphold apparently, so they couldnt just drop it all together. so they went dual-format. People are assuming theyll eventually go blu only.

but from what i understand, the Bandai with the larger number of releases (formerly Love Hina, other general releases, etc) is a different company, so we dont officially have an announcement or plans on what they are going to do.

EDIT: Also I'm hoping we get an announcement of ADV soon. Now that they own or are running the sales for Geneon, they have a ton of titles between them that I would LOVE to see released on Blu. Especially the recently licensed Gurren Lagann

[FF750]

Originally Posted by Rolo

Is yours an import or domestic BD?
Is the soundtrack much improved with the PCM track or the Dolby TrueHD track?

Thanks!

This is the domestic BD/DVD combo I posted about a few days ago. The street date wasn't supposed to be until first week of September but my favorite online anime store always seems to get their stuff early.

I didn't really have much time to check out the soundtrack - I just gave the discs a quick viewing in snippets so I can't really comment, plus I'm not really picky about audio. There didn't seem to be a lot of directionality or surround effects to the parts I watched (the rocket launch for example) but it's an old movie so I wasn't expecting much except for clean audio which it did deliver on. Anyway, the last time I watched Honneamise it was on VHS so I'm more than happy with this release

[FF750]

Originally Posted by MOONPHASE

So this means Bandai is neutral to the format war if you count Freedom on Hd-Dvd. Funimation we know supports Blu-Ray but not sure if it supports Hd-Dvd or not and all of the other anime companies dont know which one to support like for instance ADV Films even though in Japan they already have the Air Tv Blu-Ray boxed set and I watch the english dubbed and I think all anime fans should purchase it, its a great anime series .

Both Bandai Japan and its US subsidiary are releasing on both formats now. I don't know the specifics why they initially picked it but Bandai first preferred HD-DVD but has now gone format-neutral for later releases primarily due to the overwhelming market share of BD in Japan. Freedom is for now HD-DVD only but based on what Bandai Japan has done future releases of other titles will probably be on both.

As for other companies, Funimation has confirmed it will support BD exclusively with its first release being a pair of DBZ movies. Other companies have yet to say anything which is why I'm hoping fans will buy these BD releases to sway the ones that are on the fence. I don't see smaller companies like Media Blasters or Right Stuf making any decisions until the big players like Bandai, Geneon, Funimation, and ADV make theirs. Unfortunately it might be a while before ADV and Geneon decide on anything since the markets still small.

BTW, Air being on BD in Japan doesn't mean ADV will decide to put it on BD here since ADV is just the US distributor with the license for the US. The Japan release is handled by totally different companies.

Bandai is a different situation since Bandai US is a subsidiary of Bandai Japan so they have the option of using their US subsidiary (which it almost always does for it's bigger properties like Gundam or GITS) or selling the license to another US company (like ADV for Innocent Venus).

[WickyWoo]

Both Bandai Japan and its US subsidiary are releasing on both formats now

All the titles they just announced are Blu only, and the HD versions are not sold in retail stores in Japan

Sounded like filling a contractual obligation to me

[FF750]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

All the titles they just announced are Blu only, and the HD versions are not sold in retail stores in Japan

Sounded like filling a contractual obligation to me

Then I stand corrected, I thought they were still doing both in Japan like they were here.

[Frode]

ADV does not have the rights to Air BD, which doesn't really matter much since it was an upconvert to begin with. They *did* get the complete remastered 5.1 audio track though and included it on the DVDs. That alone is very much worth it. It's just too bad they didn't get any of the extras.

They also have no plans of releasing hi-def on either format at this time. It's just too expensive and the sales number don't support it. Anime on DVD sells pretty low numbers to begin with, and I can't think of any titles they might have that could sell well enough for it to be feasible. Maybe if they release Akira in collaboration with Geneon and Bandai Visual, but that's pretty much the only one that comes to mind.

Bandai Entertainment.. is not going anywhere close BD for a long time either. At the current growth rate I'd say we probably have a year or so before you see more of the US anime studios commit to a HD format. They have a lot of SD material that's never going to come out in hidef to begin with, so they can afford to wait.

[WickyWoo]

You're probably going to see a lot of disc co-productions with Japan

For the record, all the non-theatrical anime coming out in "HD" are upconverts

[Frode]

FLAG is not an upconvert I believe. It's more of a compilation OVA.

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=ANSX-5024

That leaves Air and Yukikaze, which are upconverts as you note.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Frode

FLAG is not an upconvert I believe. It's more of a compilation OVA.

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=ANSX-5024

That leaves Air and Yukikaze, which are upconverts as you note.

Educate an anime ignorant. Upconvert from what?

As for sales numbers, isn't anime pretty huge in Japan? Seems with BD it would be easier to make one production run for all markets. So, with the right outlets in NA and Europe, the Japanese market could dictate the release schedule.

Gary

[Frode]

Upconverts from SD. This isn't a problem for theatrical anime, but TV shows and OVAs (high budget direct to video releases) are rather hit or miss whether you can get proper HD versions of them. Anime made using cel is shot on film, so HD should be possible, but a lot of the time it got edited on SD equipment for broadcast and subsequent video release, which then requires a lot of extra work if you want to retransfer the original film elements. They stopped using cels at around the end of the 90s, beginning 2k and switched to digital animation production. Digital was all SD at first, until the last couple of years where some titles have switched to HD, but some are still in SD.

They *could* do simultaneous releases in both areas which is what BV USA are trying (and is generally a good idea), but it means you need to spend more time and resources on localizing - this can delay the Japanese domestic release, which most studios don't want. In addition the US and JP markets are very different with regards to pricing and run-time length of discs. Something that would sell decently in Japan, will tank in the US simply because people don't think the content is worth what they're asking. People from the US are used to discs with 4-6 episodes at $30 - in Japan the same show can have 2-3 episodes at $60, effectively costing 4 times as much.

[WickyWoo]

Except in buying power, 5800 yen is like $30 locally

The real problem is that the anime market is shrinking back, disc sales are flat. So they're trying to appeal to the people that actually buy discs

A lot of those people are the same ones that were buying import LDs at $100 a pop for a $60min OVA

[Frode]

Right, but the number of importers that are willing to pay that much is very small to begin with, and a dying breed. I'm actually one of them, but even I refuse to touch their US releases. I would have gotten Gunbuster, but then they went and edited it without telling anyone and hoping people wouldn't notice.

[MOONPHASE]

Originally Posted by Frode

ADV does not have the rights to Air BD, which doesn't really matter much since it was an upconvert to begin with. They *did* get the complete remastered 5.1 audio track though and included it on the DVDs. That alone is very much worth it. It's just too bad they didn't get any of the extras.

They also have no plans of releasing hi-def on either format at this time. It's just too expensive and the sales number don't support it. Anime on DVD sells pretty low numbers to begin with, and I can't think of any titles they might have that could sell well enough for it to be feasible. Maybe if they release Akira in collaboration with Geneon and Bandai Visual, but that's pretty much the only one that comes to mind.

Bandai Entertainment.. is not going anywhere close BD for a long time either. At the current growth rate I'd say we probably have a year or so before you see more of the US anime studios commit to a HD format. They have a lot of SD material that's never going to come out in hidef to begin with, so they can afford to wait.

It's really too bad people from the US won't enjoy the Air game but yeah I was hoping for some extras on Air but since its from ADV they are not great with their extras like they used to. Plus ADV has so many side companies like Anime Network, the website store, downloading episodes of series, and more. ADV has really good anime series coming out like Xenosaga, Red Garden, Innocent Venus but no one wants to buy them because they dont hear about them. If you were in Japan it would be the complete opposite. I believe there were plans a while back for Full Metal Panic, Rahxephon, and Noir to be in Blu-Ray but that sure didnt last long. Geneon is just to expensive for the customers like $29.99 per disc pratically plus the starter sets hardly ever come with anything and they sell for like $35 its like no wonder they are not making the kind of money for their series like they should be. Bandai was smart to start it here in the US even though they are coming out slowly but surely but at least they can say hey we have high def anime and we really need people to buy the 3 Blu-Ray anime series that are coming out this year to Blu even if we have to broadcast it.

[MOONPHASE]

Originally Posted by FF750

Both Bandai Japan and its US subsidiary are releasing on both formats now. I don't know the specifics why they initially picked it but Bandai first preferred HD-DVD but has now gone format-neutral for later releases primarily due to the overwhelming market share of BD in Japan. Freedom is for now HD-DVD only but based on what Bandai Japan has done future releases of other titles will probably be on both.

As for other companies, Funimation has confirmed it will support BD exclusively with its first release being a pair of DBZ movies. Other companies have yet to say anything which is why I'm hoping fans will buy these BD releases to sway the ones that are on the fence. I don't see smaller companies like Media Blasters or Right Stuf making any decisions until the big players like Bandai, Geneon, Funimation, and ADV make theirs. Unfortunately it might be a while before ADV and Geneon decide on anything since the markets still small.

BTW, Air being on BD in Japan doesn't mean ADV will decide to put it on BD here since ADV is just the US distributor with the license for the US. The Japan release is handled by totally different companies.

Bandai is a different situation since Bandai US is a subsidiary of Bandai Japan so they have the option of using their US subsidiary (which it almost always does for it's bigger properties like Gundam or GITS) or selling the license to another US company (like ADV for Innocent Venus).

Well for ADV we dont even know yet what they decide upon it will probably be based on the sales of these upcoming anime series that are coming out for september and november so cant really saw Air will not be on BD just because its from ADV it just wont be out sometime soon since they are still working on putting the dvds out with their bi-monthly routine and then have the dvd thinpack version for next year. I would say Air on BD in the US will probably be about summer time or maybe fall of next year if it sells a lot of dvd versions that is. This is probably why you shouldnt buy them used is so that they can be on BD sooner

[Frode]

Full Metal Panic, Rahxephon, and Noir were announced for WMV-HD way back, but were pulled and never actually released.

A little bird told me that it's fairly safe to say that Air won't be released in the US on BD. A lot would have to happen for that to be a reality, and DVD sales aren't a factor in this case. If you like the show or are interested in it just get the DVDs. The only thing you're missing out on is an interview extra and two music videos specifically made in hi-def for the Japanese BD.