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 Post subject: Best Picture Quality Anime LDs
PostPosted: 05 Feb 2019, 03:04 
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gypsy wrote:
Zeta, what would you say are some of the best looking anime discs of GOOD movies/oavs? Disregarding DYRL and GITS as I already have those.


Let’s just make this thread about good picture quality anime LDs regardless of the quality of the program since it’s unlikely to get out of hand either way.

The aforementioned Ghost in the Shell: Premium Box (1995) [BEAL-921] set is a good one. While they did use cels on this movie the master was digital so it has that going for it. It’s also multilingual.

Picture quality on Macross The movie : Perfect Edition (1984) [BEAL-448] isn’t super awesome, IMHO but it’s pretty good. It’s certainly a must have disc. The CAV functionality alone makes it an essential Macross fan item. A movie worth watching at 1/8 speed if there ever was one.

Bubblegum Crisis: Complete Collection (1987) [BVLL-539] is one I picked up a few years ago having completely missed it back in the day. Picture quality is WAY better than the 80s pressings or the Animego versions. Everything is included, even the Bali video. Even the book is good. Easily one of the best box sets out there. Again, video quality is as good as it gets here. I can’t stress that enough.

One of the biggest box sets out there that isn’t a TV series or sports is Ghibli Ga Ippai Collection (1996) [TKLO-50180]. Again video quality here is superb. Publius was under the impression that the remaster was done in HiVision for a never released edition on that format (lord, can you even imagine what that would have cost? Then or now?) but only a regular NTSC release made it. There isn’t a lot of printed material in the white satin wrapped box with foil letters but what is inside is every Ghibli movie then ever released plus Nausicaa, the TV special I Can Hear the Ocean, the On Your Mark music video, a ton of random TV promos they did. There is also a Making Of for the movie Only Yesterday and a literal fireside chat with Miyazaki and the actual holy s**t OMG Akira Kurosawa. Damn! This is my favorite box set ever. The covers are all new. Whisper of the Heart and On Your Mark have their theatrical 5.1. Dolby tracks now. All discs have new art. Mononoke isn’t on here since that came out later. IMO it doesn’t belong here. It belongs in some Blu-ray box that begins with that movie, IMO.

If you get a first print version of Mobile Suit Gundam: Memorial Box Part 1 [BELL-1201] it will come with a big outer box to also house Mobile Suit Gundam: Memorial Box Part 2 [BELL-1202] giving you a massive box. This was, amazingly, the first time the TV version of Gundam was ever for sale. (Most fandom was and is focused on the compilation movies). Being released in the Winter of 98/99 you’d be right in assuming they made an HD master for this and use the same thing for the DVD. The covers are VERY pretty in this one. All new cel art (digital cels anyway...) which was also reused for the DVDs but here it’s all square and massive like it should be. This show doesn’t have the most amazingly clean animation ever seen but the video quality of this release is as good as it could possibly be, I’m pretty sure. The packaging is first rate as well. One thing I like about Bandai’s Gundam TV release is that in the gatefold there are chapter marks and screen shots of every episode on those discs so if you’re looking for that scene where your third favorite character dies is way easier to find than it would be with more modern packaging.

Speaking of Gundam, video quality varies with theatrical and TV releases. Char’s Counterattack kinda sucks, sadly. Usually the OVAs are pretty nice. With 0083 they made a big deal about using D2 tape and it’s in CAV so quality is super high. Every episode is available individually starting with the Boobytrap long Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory vol.01 (1991) [BEAL-421]. The earlier OVA, 0080, has a different sort of feel to it. Whereas 0083 was about quick action and...a lot of robots...0080 is more subtle. There’s a lot of detail to the backgrounds and stuff and it shines as an LD in a different sort of way. That word people use a lot here, “filmic” really applies.

I’m sure we can add a bunch more.


Last edited by signofzeta on 05 Feb 2019, 20:05, edited 1 time in total. _________________
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 Post subject: Re: Best Picture Quality Anime LDs
PostPosted: 05 Feb 2019, 03:33 
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I don't really know how much better the transfer was from the first Japanese language only set but this was an amazing pressing: Akira: Special Collection (1988) [PILA-1086]

Another super clean amazing transfer is the box set: Space Adventure Cobra: The Movie (1982) [BEAL-417]
This release is the exact same pressing: Space Adventure Cobra: The Movie (1982) [JSLA-22299]

This is also a super clean transfer, so much so that I was in doubt that it was really a movie from the late 1960s:Cyborg 009: The Movie (1966) [LSTD01168]

I felt that the Macross CAV box set was a really good pressing.
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 Post subject: Re: Best Picture Quality Anime LDs
PostPosted: 05 Feb 2019, 03:44 
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I love the BD of BGC but if I see the LD pop up for sale I will keep that in mind.

Unfortunately I don't have all that much anime on LD at this point. I do have LDs of a crappy anime (b*****d) coming as I want to direct compare them to the horrid US DVD release. I imagine they will be better, in which case I would rip and add subtitles.

There is plenty I want to get but it will be a waiting game of some volumes even coming up for sale, from the look of things currently.
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 Post subject: Re: Best Picture Quality Anime LDs
PostPosted: 05 Feb 2019, 10:32 
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Talking about great transfers that I enjoy watching this OVA comes to mind:
Hekiru Shiina: Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou: vol.1 (1998) [SRLM 5628]
and Hekiru Shiina: Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou: vol.2 [SRLM 5643]
Also most of the late pressing category stuff seems to look close to perfect, just thinking about Betterman and Bubblegum Crisis 2040. Boogiepop Phantom just got a new installment in Japan, I should re-watch the 2000 OVA one of these days, really liked it back in the day, and the LD's were absolutely flawless.
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 Post subject: Re: Best Picture Quality Anime LDs
PostPosted: 05 Feb 2019, 20:32 
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lons_vex wrote:


These are really OVAs? with animation?

I have one of Shiina's live LDs, Starting Legend Dash.
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 Post subject: Re: Best Picture Quality Anime LDs
PostPosted: 05 Feb 2019, 23:06 
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I forgot to mention that while Macross 7 isn’t for everyone Macross Dynamite 7: vol.1 Wonder (1997) [BEAL-1057] and the other episodes have maybe the best looking anime LD video of all thanks to the extremely bright colors used and all digital production. All the crazy energy beams and space whales spouting spiritua or whatever will really light up your TV. The packaging is really nice too with the usual paper case being the backgrounds and a sort of manufactured cel thing with the characters around it on the outside of that. It’s similar to Miller’s Report and some other stuff from that time. I think LD sales were down already so they are thinking of ways to make LD more atttactive.

I feel like I should say that, even more so than with live action, the more brilliantly vibrant the color is the more noise you see on anime LDs. So if you have a high end setup Mononoke Hime might look amazing but if you have a Laseractive and a Jenson 27” CRT you may think it looks like crap.

So I guess we have the subtly beautiful soft filmic whatever stuff. The sometimes accidentally fantastic pressings. And then we have the hyper rich mid 90s and later stuff that benefited from digital mastering if not totally digital production which made a lot of noise, especially in the reds, but looks great on a clean setup.

Most of the stuff I’ve been listing is of the later variety. Dynamite 7 totally is.

Now something that’s from the other direction...the first Tenchi Muyo series (stick with me here!) was basically made because Pioneer loved pressing anime LDs and wanted to do more. They made themselves an anime imprint and greenlit a bunch of projects from new tallent with low prices per episode and regular schedules. Basically they acted like grown ups instead of working mad to make Birth or T-oy just to go out of business the next day.

It is my opinion that the desaturated color pallet of the first TM series was chosen because it naturally looked good on LD. You rarely see that noisy over saturated red. It looks good, even though at this point is hard to imagine anyone still having patience for this show. The first OVA series and the two specials were pretty good. Maybe the first movie, which has its charms. After that it was hundreds more episodes of mediocre crap.

The US ones have a dub track, CCs, and another set of inserts in English but crappy thin American style covers. The JP ones have real paper jackets. It’s possible the JP ones have slightly better video in some scenes but I don’t think so, not by much anyway.

I haven’t seen Ihatob Illusion: Kenji No Haru (Kenji's Spring) [BELL-1002] since my friend’s brother bought it new. I remember it being very good video-wise and that’s probably true. It’s a great movie also.
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 Post subject: Re: Best Picture Quality Anime LDs
PostPosted: 05 Feb 2019, 23:54 
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forper wrote:
These are really OVAs? with animation?

I have one of Shiina's live LDs, Starting Legend Dash.


She is voice acting the main character of the show.
Complete anime, no live action segments.
Really popular manga too, well worth a try.
https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=586
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 Post subject: Re: Best Picture Quality Anime LDs
PostPosted: 25 Feb 2019, 06:41 
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As I said on an other page, Escaflowne (BEAL-820 to BEAL-832) is certainly the best quality anime LD i ever seen.
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 Post subject: Re: Best Picture Quality Anime LDs
PostPosted: 25 Feb 2019, 16:42 
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"Tenchi Muyo!" was just about the first non-Mecha-oriented Anime i ever came across,
as a budding MACROSS/ROBOTECH-centric Anime fan in the late-1990's.

PIONEER attempted to push TM into the U.S. mainstream as a gateway Anime in the very-late-1990's/very-early-2000's,
with an edited, cleaned-up CARTOON NETWORK TOONAMI run of the OVA/T.V./TOKYO series.

i caught and taped random episodes at my grandma's back then, unable to afford or even find any of the proper home video releases
besides the first two movies on VHS, and the four/five volumes of CART. NET. sanitized OVA PIONEER released on VHS,
then available for cheap at my local WAL MART.

meanwhile, PIONEER licensed multiple, fairly rinky-dink firms to produce TM merchandise for the western market.
"TOYNAMI" a rather mediocre collectible toys outfit, was one of them,
their contribution to the short-lived U.S. TM! marketing campaign being an equally short-lived series of three 12in. Character Dolls.

i was mad into Tenchi Muyo at the time, and, thanks to one of my favorite comic shops of the time,
i came across all three dolls, "Ryoko Hakubi" "Tenchi Masaki" and "Ayeka Masaki Jurai" for $27 and change each,
and, even though the better part of $100.00 was hardly fun money for me at the time, i HAD to have them.

these fairly mediocre dolls were the impetuous that descended me into Anime Character Doll collecting and customization.
i wasn't satisfied for long with their stock, generally-series-accurate costumes, and wanted to seem them wearing something else.

this led me first to buying Barbie fashions, learning how to sew and modify them,
and, eventually, moving to making clothing for them entirely from scratch.

by the time i was finally able to get my own internet, and actually enter the 21st century, around 2007-ish,
i was more than ready to begin looking for the superior Japanese-market Character Dolls
that the brand-new (to me) open, worldwide online market promised to make available to me,
and, in any case, by then, my doll-tailoring skill was refined to the point where i was well ready
to move to something beyond those original, clumsily-designed TOYNAMI TM dolls.

today, over a decade later, though they've long since been supplanted by vastly superior character dolls,
i still retain those Tenchi Muyo examples, as they literally single-handedly kickstarted a major hobby for me
that i had positively zero interest in beforehand...

Image

Image

Image


and though far from comprehensive, i do have a TM video collection with most of the essentials,
pretty much what would have amounted to a wild pipe dream during the height of my fandom, nearly 20 years ago...

Image
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 Post subject: Re: Best Picture Quality Anime LDs
PostPosted: 26 Feb 2019, 05:45 
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I've got some Tenchi. I think Movie and OVA BD sets. Maybe one of the shows I am not 100% on that. Been awhile since I watched any.
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 Post subject: Re: Best Picture Quality Anime LDs
PostPosted: 26 Feb 2019, 16:49 
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should have turned out as a far better series than it ended up being.

the first three OVA episodes, for example, were great. they had some very promising character development.
from then on, however, they started playing it safe, relying on the same old tired harem tropes and such.

another PIONEER series, "Ai Yori Aoshi" (2002) suffered a similar problem, but managed to come out much better despite it all.
alas, it is simply a general problem with the Harem/Romance/Drama genre of Anime;
Japanese writers and production houses almost always seem to take the stupid and easy way out...
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 Post subject: Re: Best Picture Quality Anime LDs
PostPosted: 06 Mar 2019, 01:03 
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Tenchi was, in the beginning, extremely original. The designs were cool and also there were a lot of them. In the first six eps (all that were originally planned) characters wore completely different outfits in every episode. You know, like humans. Sadly the show was a huge hit and the OVA series doubled its planned run and added two specials before a TV series was announced that basically told the same story again only with more girls in the harem and four times the length. Then there was an OK movie and then it got way worse. Three more entire TV series, another OVA, and multiple Pretty Sammy things that, save for the first one or two things (two if you include that music video that was the first appearance of her) the rest of it falls into the “arrest any pedo you see buying this” category of grossness. The later shows are incredibly bland compared to the first OVA.

A decade before Love Hina and this stuff wasn’t so played out but it’s very hard to tolerate the vast majority of Tenchi Muyo. If you like LD and you don’t already know all of the stuff I just wrote up there do get OVAs 1-6 as well as the Night Before the Carnival and Galaxy Police Mihoshi specials. The first movie is OK, not amazing, but I will recommend it to LD fans because it has almost every technical feature you could possibly want. It’s dual lanuague, AC-3, CCed (possibly LD+G, can’t remember) in CAV with pit art on the last disc (which is gold colored). It’s in a huge box, has the THX cert (for what it’s worth...) with all new art everywhere, and is as impressive as any Pioneer Special Edition or Criterion release.

Tenchi Muyo in Love: The Movie (1996) [PILA-1393]

There are other versions but they all kinda suck compared to this one.
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 Post subject: Re: Best Picture Quality Anime LDs
PostPosted: 12 Apr 2019, 18:14 
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I broke out my SPT Layzner LD boxes last week and started watching them. The quality is amazing. VAP really did nice LD boxes. I have GodMars which also looks great. I have the 73 LUPIN, First half of series 2 and series 3 on the way to me. I imagine they will be the same high quality as well. BV also did some nice LD boxes.

It is a shame VAP did not pay such attention to quality with certain OVA, movie and TV series they released in non box form. Hi-Speed Jecy and Mellowlink come to mind! How those LDs were allowed to be sold with the s**t quality they had, I will never know. BV did plenty of nasty, ghosty, blended frame garbage as well. All of course had no DVD releases, which means the ghosted mess is all that exists. Well Mellowlink had a limited DVD release but used the nasty LD master.
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 Post subject: Re: Best Picture Quality Anime LDs
PostPosted: 13 Apr 2019, 00:24 
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The VAP ID is my 2nd favorite from the 90s, after the Bandai Emotion lines and mouai.

Layzner is also a great SF show. It completely flips the script in the last third and turns into Hokuto No Ken as you probably know. I watched the fansubs last year but one day I'll get the LD boxes for a rewatch after my Japanese gets better (studying daily, almost mastered JLPT N4 vocab after 6 months)
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 Post subject: Re: Best Picture Quality Anime LDs
PostPosted: 13 Apr 2019, 11:45 
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Ahh, very nice! I have not used my Japanese for a few years now so I feel like my once fluent level has dropped considerably.

One thing with VAP and BV that I would to know, is how the series they swapped around compare. VAP did the first box releases of Creamy Mami and Magical Emi with BV releasing half box sets in 98/99. No idea if they used the same master or if they were given new scans that were also used for the DVDs. Patlabor is another. VAP did the individual releases and BV did boxes again, in 98/99 for TV and OVA.

LUPIN was the other way around. BV released the original series very early and also had a box. Their Shin LUPIN discs just had a "best of" selection. I must grab some BV discs to compare to the VAP discs.
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 Post subject: Re: Best Picture Quality Anime LDs
PostPosted: 14 Apr 2019, 00:09 
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segasonic91 wrote:
Ahh, very nice! I have not used my Japanese for a few years now so I feel like my once fluent level has dropped considerably.


You did a tour or two of The 'Pan too huh? Me? 6 tours/years.

I can write down exactly what just about anyone says in Japanese but I never studied vocab so I usually don't know much of what they're saying except basic stuff. I understand the sounds and most of the grammar but not the words, so late last year I resolved to finally just study vocab properly and hopefully meet the goal I always had when I first studied Japanese at uni, to actually be able to watch anime without subs..

I've been playing vocab every morning before work on Quizlet and testing myself once in a while. Last test I got 75% right so hopefully I can move onto JLPT N3 soon. I've also been making custom Quizlet lists with specific vocab that comes up in shows I like, good stuff like "weakness", "strategy", "training", (mini self test: that's ????, sakusen and kunren), damn, forgot weak point/weakness but I'd probably recognise it if someone said it, that's the actual goal..

Once I start something I never give up, even if it takes me years. I'm not very smart though and now I'm older with a full time job so I think 80% comprehension is my realistic goal. Right now I'm at about 25%.

I'd recommend Quizlet to refresh your vocab.
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