Viz Licenses Original Sailor Moon Anime Franchise

[Thomas Guycott]

Originally Posted by Lnds500

yeah, the trailer looks pretty bad, let's hope it's not what will be on the disc.

Would they have the nerve to pull something like that with Sailor Moon?

If you guys wanna know, you gotta ask. Don't wait for somebody to ask questions for you.

[Chiyo_chichi]

Holy Moly.

[chronoclast]

Originally Posted by Bubblegum2032

I honestly don't think they care anymore, so I certainly won't put it past them. Far easier and economical to upscale via Q-tech post processing than a legitimate restoration. Plus they are on a roll as of late. Galaxy Express 999 TV series & movies, Slam Dunk, Saint Seiya (though Bandai is the distributor on this one), and now potentially Sailor Moon.
Its infuriating knowing that these shows don't look the best that they can because of inane practices such as these.

There is only one smiley suited for this situation ->

In the interview at ANN, Viz has said that they are handling the "restoration" which means they're upscaling Sailor Moon here themselves, not Toei. Viz also confirmed they are using the 2009 DVD remaster as those materials are the best they have access to which is because Toei hasn't produced proper HD masters and they very likely aren't going to either. Whenever Toei does a BD release in Japan, it's very likely going to be upscaled too just like GE999, Slam Dunk, etc.

It sucks Toei is being cheap and upscaling is all Viz are able to do here. We'll have to live with it but I'm bothered by how Viz are going about their upscale though. Based off the one BD screenshot there's way too much DNR and warp sharpening. It could look a lot better if they dialed down the filtering to retain the grain and not have the edges smeared.

[Thomas Guycott]

Has it been confirmed that the masters are upscaled or is that just speculation? Because transfers for DVD are usually done in HD/2K before getting reduced to SD, and anything above a 2K scan would be overkill for a 16mm source.

[GenPion]

These sure better not be SD upscales. Considering the source is film it should be proper scans.

Considering they mentioned that they have reverse telecined it, I hope that literally does mean they were given the film materials to work with.

[Mel823]

Originally Posted by Scarface32

You don't spend money "just for subs" you spend it on quality content. I suppose that means you wouldn't spend money on any of the great Yasujirō Ozu or Akira Kurosawa films either? I guess that also means you don't like any of the great German, French, and Italian films either?

What garbage are you spewing?! If you didn't understand what I was saying in my comment that ask me to clarify instead of jumping to some asinine conclusion.

[UseY0ur1llusi0n]

Originally Posted by chronoclast

We'll have to live with it

Just like I said before.. I'll be waiting another millennium for certain cel anime to be properly remastered from film to HD. I'm out, cya Viz!

[madlost1]

Originally Posted by UseY0ur1llusi0n

Just like I said before.. I'll be waiting another millennium for certain cel anime to be properly remastered from film to HD. I'm out, cya Viz!

Why not wait for a review or two or for it to actually be released before dismissing these releases completely.

[madlost1]

Originally Posted by Mel823

For me, I'm just happy the sub will be on blu-ray. I usually don't buy anime blus because I never watch the dubs, and don't feel like spending a lot of money just for the subs, but for Sailor Moon, I'll gladly part with my money.

Most anime releases can be had for around $30 if you know where to look. Considering that it's only around $10 more then a new release movie on blu and contains around 4 times the content that's not too bad at all.

[Mel823]

Originally Posted by madlost1

Most anime releases can be had for around $30 if you know where to look. Considering that it's only around $10 more then a new release movie on blu and contains around 4 times the content that's not too bad at all.

I don't mind paying $30-$35 for anime, but the thing is that some of the series I'm in interested in buying can only be found on DVD, or some of the seasons are still on DVD, and it's still pricey. It's actually more of the DVD pricing I've had an issue with more so that the blu-ray.

[madlost1]

Originally Posted by UseY0ur1llusi0n

Just like I said before.. I'll be waiting another millennium for certain cel anime to be properly remastered from film to HD. I'm out, cya Viz!

I don't know why you deleted your post in reply to mine but: I love it when people accuse me of not reading the thread. I'll guarantee you right now that I've read every post in this thread. I'm simply not going to base my opinion of the picture quality or if its an upscale or not on one pre-release screenshot out of a 200 episode series especially when they are releasing the series on both DVD and Blu. That could be a DVD screen upscaled to 1080 for all we know. People make rash decisions based on screenshots way to often these days before seeing what the product could look like in motion or in this case from pre release to a shot from the product itself.

[UseY0ur1llusi0n]

Originally Posted by madlost1

Why not wait for a review or two or for it to actually be released before dismissing these releases completely.

There's no need. If you tried reading a few posts back in this thread, you might actually understand... You can clearly see in the screenshot provided by Viz that this will be another Q-tec upscale. Please prove me wrong. I'm tired of these Japanese companies molesting the video on all these classic cel/film based anime. It's the fastest, half-assed way to go about remastering it, and is simply not right. They should be ashamed! And now, because Toei didn't produce proper HD masters, Viz has to upscale the release. There is no grain visible in that shot. I also see DNR and the edge's are smeared. What's most depressing is the the fans will still buy it no matter what, especially because this is the first time the series is being released on Blu-ray in North America. It is rather sad really, because when redone with proper film telecines/scans it can make these older shows look simply jaw dropping. It could have looked "stunning beautiful" (as Blu-ray.com likes to say). But I'm afraid that opportunity already went down the shitter.

[UseY0ur1llusi0n]

Originally Posted by madlost1

I don't know why you deleted your post in reply to mine but: I love it when people accuse me of not reading the thread. I'll guarentee you right now that I've read every post in this thread.

I don't know what you're talking about, my post is still there. I didn't delete anything. And if you guarantee me right now that you've read every post in this thread, then you obviously still don't get it.

(PS - you misspelled guarantee)

[madlost1]

Originally Posted by UseY0ur1llusi0n

I don't know what you're talking about, my post is still there. I didn't delete anything. And if you guarantee me right now that you've read every post in this thread, then you obviously still don't get it.

(PS - you misspelled guarantee)

Auto correct on my phone. But your post disappeared for quite a bit at least on my end. Like I said I'm not going to judge it by a prerelease screen that isn't clear if it came from the DVD or Blu version and who knows if it even came from these releases. The info I gathered reading through is that VIZ is doing the remastering themselves. That doesn't necessarily mean its going to be an upscale. Have a little bit of hope it goes a long way.

[Mel823]

Viz said they'll have two episodes to show at Anime Expo, so I'm going to hold off any judgement until then. Makes no sense for me to jump to any conclusion based off of a screen shot.

[UseY0ur1llusi0n]

Originally Posted by GenPion

These sure better not be SD upscales. Considering the source is film it should be proper scans.

Considering they mentioned that they have reverse telecined it, I hope that literally does mean they were given the film materials to work with.

It's most likely upscaled SD footage.

[Jr7936]

for me i am just happy we are getting sailor moon on blu ray uncut with subtitles, it doesn't matter to me if they true HD or SD upgrades since the other dvd box sets are way out of print and now command an over $200 price point used

[Xtempo]

Damn the future is going to cost a lot. This and CCS and Ranma 1/2 what next?
I'll need five jobs to get all the greatness.

I do hope we get all the special features. I've been wanting to buy the LaserDiscs to get them particularly the movies.

I would love to see a real sub/dub for Ami's First Love.

Which should I save for first Cardcaptor Sakura or Sailor Moon

decisions decisions... I should try to get the edited DVDs now before they get more expensive which they might. Finally no more Lita. It never did suit her.

I shall miss Rini though. It would be awesome if they included the DiC version but that is probably asking for too much.

[Jr7936]

if i can't sell them i will just keep my cardcaptor sakura and clow book dvd sets =)
and wait on the blu rays
at the moment more interested in sailor moon and the rest of ranma

[honeylatte]

Originally Posted by chronoclast

Viz has said that they are handling the "restoration" which means they're upscaling Sailor Moon here themselves, not Toei. Viz also confirmed they are using the 2009 DVD remaster as those materials are the best they have access to which is because Toei hasn't produced proper HD masters and they very likely aren't going to either. Whenever Toei does a BD release in Japan, it's very likely going to be upscaled too just like GE999, Slam Dunk, etc.

You just crushed my hopes, I thought this was going to be true HD.

Now I don't know if I'm willing to buy the BD sets. It depends on how the quality looks.