wtf again??

Damn and here I was hoping they'd start stocking ramen again. I think they stopped during the covid lockdowns because it would just expire in the private warehouse and they'd have to refund or replace it at their own expense.

My wife has started me on Detective Conan. She loves mysteries, so she always liked this series.

Only problem for us is, she doesn't like listening to the Japanese language track on the DVDs, and I generally don't enjoy English dubs. Yet, she needs to watch it subtitled since English isn't her first language. Makes watching the English dub with the Japanese translated subtitles awkward since they're often saying rather different things and most of the names are different (since they localized the show for US TV as Case Closed most of the Japanese names have been changed to Western names in the dub.)

Yeah, that’s literally the worst way to watch anything. If someone likes a show they should meet it where it is, IMO. If the sound of spoken Japanese bothers someone they should probably watch something other than anime.

Gunbuster and Cowboy Bebop Region 2 DVD sets.

Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex Season 1 and 2 DVD, Ghost in the Shell Special Edition DVD.

Today I will watch Bubblegum Crisis from the laserdisc. I do wonder how many laserdiscs were transferred from original negatives like this set, and the Tenchi Muyo set.

There aren’t a lot of remastered anime LDs like BGC. The Ghibli box is of similar quality. (All new transfers, digital mastering, etc). In fact it was kind of a problem with most of the first wave of anime DVD being based on less than amazing masters. Dagger of Kamui is getting its first proper transfer THIS YEAR and it’s 40 years now. I’m very excited for that one.

I’ve never actually viewed Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-oh-ki (1992) [PILA-1464] since the OG LDs looked pretty great to me and that series goes to hell around episode 8 or so.

Watched a fair bit since I last posted here. Way too much to list. Did a rewatch of Dirty Pair, one of my favorites.

I've been waiting forever for the Nozomi blu-rays of Dirty Pair to get a retail US release.

I've had the Japanese set the limited edition one for years. Other than some of the grain management it's one of the best box sets I've ever owned. Sure no English subtitles or Dub.

I think at this point I'll hold onto my Japanese set and keep my old Nozomi DVDS. Whatever price they are going to charge is not worth it for the show to be dubbed.

I also have the laserdisc box set. Its Dirty Pair's big payoff?

I finally watched Babel II the OVA.

This takes the original story and reduces it to 4 episodes. This sounds extreme but since the OG was brutally repetitious it just about evens out, even with more characters. They went with a “psychic of the week” kind of thing sort of like Harmageddon, Psychic Force, ESPRaDe, Locke the Superman, and a bunch of others. This allows the main boss to take a step back. It starts out pretty much like the manga did but diverts quite a bit toward the end…at which point I wasn’t paying all that much attention. There are a lot of people screaming at each other in this show. Psychics, you know…

The ending reminds me of the ending of Birth (1984) in that they seem to have run out of money and the shots are missing FX layers. It seems the way to me anyway. Also the audio quality is horrible, that taped off TV sound, while the video quality is AAA.

The music was instantly recognizable to me. It’s by Katsunori Ishida (and his orchestra) who did the music for all the Japan-only Transformers series. I like this stuff quite a bit. The fact that the audio on this Blu-ray sucks as bad as the audio on all my JP TF DVDs probably has some kind of explanation but I don’t know what it is.

It’s no Giant Robo: The Animation but if you think you’d like this you probably will. Don’t pay a lot for it, I’m sure I didn’t.

I can't remember if I ever mentioned how the 1970s TV series version ended. I'm still kind of mad about that one.

Ever seen the 90s OVA of the other Mitsuteru Yokoyama manga, Mars? I don't think that one even has proper fansubs for it, just crabsticks.

If you're around San Francisco end of year (until January 25th):

https://www.famsf.org/exhibitions/art-of-manga



Julien

I guess I should go since I basically live here and within a 10 min drive of the museum .

In 2007, when I was in SF to see Daft Punk, I saw a Tezuka exhibit of original art, some of it going all the way back to Metropolis. It was extremely cool. I don’t remember if it was this museum or another one though…

I just got the OVA volumes of Crusher Joe on Laserdisc and I'm watching them in raw Japanese.

Only after purchasing them, did I realize there was reissue perfect box. The ones I have are 1989 with digital audio and the reissue is 1999.

The only version of these I had was the AnimEigo laserdisc. I had missed out on the Discotek DVD I just looked for that and very out of print and expensive.

I was watching the trailers for Scarlet, and I don't know if it's going to be another Belle disappointment. Beautiful animation but nonsense story.

This time adapting Hamlet instead of Beauty and the Beast, Mamoru Hosoda. The local cinema is not going to be showing it, I will have to hope for a video release sometime down the line.

Yeah…Crusher Joe is one to have on Blu-ray, the movie specifically. I’ve never seen the 1999 version. I’m sure it’s great but it won’t be 1080p great.

The Project A-Ko 4K. To my eye no DNR was used. And it was absolutely amazing. Have no idea how they were able to fit both 4:3 and widescreen versions and all the other sequels in 1080P on the same disc and for the main feature to not look bitrate starved.

All of those worries on film forums about the color timing or compression were unfounded. The Blu-Ray was one of the best I've ever seen for an old OVA/film. But the 4K is even better.

I Recently grabbed a copy of Project A-Ko 4K Myself. it did in fact look Amazing.

The Joey Carbone A-Ko 1 OST is Among my Top Favorites in All of Anime. "Dance Away" alone
Fully Embodies the Joyfully-Optimistic Spirit of the Anime Girl-Next-Door like Nothing Else i've ever heard before...

Looks like Ninja Scroll is getting the 4K home treatment: Anime Masterpiece “Ninja Scroll” Gets 4K Treatment from Sentai

Since I don't have the blu-ray yet, I'll be grabbing this one when it comes out.

As of recent: not much.

I finished Jormungand a few months ago and got to episode 2 of Bocchi the Rock last week.

I'm cautiously optimistic about Ninja Scroll.

As far as recent anime watchings, just finished the 1st season of Tougen Anki. Very bloody anime, and the mangaka sure does like his women thicc.