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 Post subject: Anime on LD
PostPosted: 01 Oct 2011, 16:40 
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I know that Japanese animation is a major interest of some of us who still find it worthwhile to keep LaserDiscs around, so I thought I would start a thread to discuss such topics.
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 Post subject: Re: Anime on LD
PostPosted: 01 Oct 2011, 16:53 
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ive just started collecting anime on ld, i got the first 4 tenchi muyo volumes, the tenchi sound file disc and rg veda part 1, currently looking for call me tonight, mermaid forest, and rg veda part 2
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 Post subject: Re: Anime on LD
PostPosted: 01 Oct 2011, 17:03 
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So, I bought my first LDs & player (of all things, an LD-660 tube job) in the summer of 2000. I had been a little interested in this analog format which was being phased out in favour of DVD, & that summer events happened to rekindle a dormant interest in Japanese animation. I noticed that a local bookstore had quite the selection of anime LDs, including the complete series of Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki, so I started buying them, & hunted around the pawn shops until I found a player. It wasn't a very good one, so I eventually wound up buying another, but it made a good start. Because it wasn't capable of reproducing the digital soundtrack, which on Pioneer USA discs was the English dub, I got used to listening in Japanese with the closed-caption English subtitles.

Over the years, I've built up what I think must now be one of the largest libraries of anime on LaserDisc in the United States. I say "library" because I think the word fits better than "collection". I'm not enormously concerned about condition, as long as the discs play — sure, I like a pristine jacket, obi, inserts, whatever, but what matters most is the material. And the discs don't just sit on the shelf. I have put on viewing parties at my home, I take discs to show at the meetings of a local anime club, and I even have put on, for several years now, a "Classic Anime Festival" show at Project A-Kon, the longest-running Japanese animation convention in North America. I have an outboard Closed Caption decoder, & a "genlock" which I use to superimpose subtitles on Japanese discs while playing them back. (Speaking of which, if anyone has a good source for fansub scripts, do let me know — I still have a lot of discs with no scripts.)

Many of my discs have been acquired at local bookstores — North Texas seems to be a good market for this, & I make it a point to try my luck when I'm out of town, as well. Some I've bought from on-line retailers, others through eBay ; I obtained quite a few discs from AnimEigo as closeout items. I've also bought many privately, from people who had decided they weren't worth keeping around any more, & in fact I was given (for the cost of postage) a group of almost 200, a transaction which took several months to complete. While I have paid as much as $150 for a single item (the Wings of Honneamise AC-3 memorial box), I believe my average price per catalogue number is perhaps $5, & per platter much less than that.

I even created, long ago before I know of LDDb — in fact, possibly before LDDb started — a Web site devoted purely to anime on LD, although I haven't updated it much recently.
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 Post subject: Re: Anime on LD
PostPosted: 01 Oct 2011, 21:00 
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publius wrote:
I even created, long ago before I know of LDDb — in fact, possibly before LDDb started


LDDb was started end of 2001, got beta August 2002, fully live (with shops) in October 2004.

Wow... 10 years soon??

Julien
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 Post subject: Re: Anime on LD
PostPosted: 02 Oct 2011, 00:22 
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So where was I all this time? :) I started collecting LDs in 1989 when I managed to snag a player for 200 bucks. Was 1500 to start, went 1/2 off, then 1/2 off for the floor model and then another 1/2 off and another 10 percent for some sale or another.
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 Post subject: Re: Anime on LD
PostPosted: 02 Oct 2011, 02:32 
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publius, is this your website? http://www.caldc.com/ ive been there before, its got some good info man, u may also like this site: http://www.animeclassicreviews.com/ its great for looking up old school anime, they've got some really good one-shots up for download, one-shots that have never been subbed by anyone else accept them. oh, and im in an anime club too :P
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 Post subject: Re: Anime on LD
PostPosted: 02 Oct 2011, 03:12 
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btw tell me more about this "genlock" sounds like something i'd want!
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 Post subject: Re: Anime on LD
PostPosted: 02 Oct 2011, 04:33 
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Technically speaking, it's a "genlocking overlay generator". It's a box which serves two functions : (1) it takes an input signal in the form of computer video, through a VGA connector, & downconverts it to standard-defintion TV format, without output through a composite or S-Video connector ; (2) it takes a composite or S-video input, & reclocks the downconverted computer video to match. The trick is that it also includes an internal mixer circuit to allow combining the input video with the input computer graphics. Thus, if my computer is outputting a black screen with yellow text, I can feed the genlock with video from my LD player, & set the genlock up to output the LD video with the text cut into it. This is how fansubs were made back in the days before computer video editing, when they were circulated on VHS tapes.

And, yes, that is my site. A version of it first went up in the fall of 2002, so I was a bit behind Julien, though I didn't know it. I registered the domain name, I think, about a year after that.
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 Post subject: Re: Anime on LD
PostPosted: 02 Oct 2011, 04:47 
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wow, sounds like a pricey piece of hardware, i was thinking recently that i could just burn dvds of text over black screen and play it on a mini tv next to my 30" and watch raw anime that way lol, either that or continue to learn japanese, which is realy tough
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 Post subject: Re: Anime on LD
PostPosted: 02 Oct 2011, 04:54 
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Thank you both,publius and yazorin, for the in depth anime info....
I know a few collectors who will benefit from this data....
Grateful Regards for putting this into the Forum.
Please keep this thread going.............
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 Post subject: Re: Anime on LD
PostPosted: 02 Oct 2011, 06:21 
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Well, the genlock is the type of thing which was very expensive when new, but can be found today (if you're lucky) on eBay or the like for a tiny fraction of the original price, because nobody has much use for it. I got a "Deltascan II GL" quite cheap ; it malfunctioned, & I wound up buying a more expensive device from the same manufacturer. I managed to repair the original one, though — it's not perfect, but it works. I might be persuaded to sell it, if you can't find one elsewhere.
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 Post subject: Re: Anime on LD
PostPosted: 02 Oct 2011, 20:38 
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I've got some anime on LD, most notably the Evangelion movie collection (don't check it out if you don't know about it, you'll get extremely jealous ;) ).
The main problem for me when it comes to anime on LD is that I don't have a Closed Caption-encoder, making it quite useless for me to watch my edition of Ghost In The Shell for example. I saw both Tenchi Muyo In Love and Mononoke-Hime on LD without subtitles and, while it somehow worked out for me, I can't imagine trying it out again.
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 Post subject: Re: Anime on LD
PostPosted: 02 Oct 2011, 20:59 
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One thing I will say for Anime, it looks awesome in LD format. The colors of most of the stuff is amazing and it is similar to dvd and blue ray picture wise for many of the discs I have watched.
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 Post subject: Re: Anime on LD
PostPosted: 03 Oct 2011, 00:58 
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Only got into anime here in Japan because I was always so impressed with the contents of the box sets that I found on my travels. Even without knowing a thing about the anime it's self, I wound up purchasing a bunch.

I particularly like the Tenchi Muyou in Love movie box sets. Huge booklets, posters, Mini CDs, strips of film. Anime box sets kick the sh#t out of regular movie ones. My copy of Perfect Blue has a damn animation cell in it. Awesome stuff.

I now have my eye out for that huge neon evangelion box. Looks sweet.

Also I recently got my hands on a closed caption decoder, so now I can actually watch some of them and understand what's going on :lol: . Tenchi Muyou is quality stuff. Anyone else into it?
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 Post subject: Re: Anime on LD
PostPosted: 03 Oct 2011, 02:41 
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I just picked up the “Ghost in the Shell” Premium Box set and it is a thing of beauty...
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 Post subject: Re: Anime on LD
PostPosted: 03 Oct 2011, 02:49 
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They have the Tenchi stuff in with english subs dont they? At least I thought they did.
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 Post subject: Re: Anime on LD
PostPosted: 03 Oct 2011, 07:06 
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Pioneer USA anime LDs, including the various Tenchi releases, as well as many US releases from other companies such as Manga Entertainment & Software Sculptors, used Closed Captions for subtitling. Among Japanese releases, there are a few — Memories, Ghost in the Shell, at least one edition of the aforementioned Tenchi movie to name three — which do the same.

The great advantage is that these subtitles can be switched on & off, allowing you to enjoy the film without distractions if you prefer. The disadvantage is that, while American TVs in general can decode these, not all European TVs & few or no projectors do.
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 Post subject: Re: Anime on LD
PostPosted: 03 Oct 2011, 17:34 
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I'd probably buy more but sometimes they cost more than the DVD and plus they are bigger and harder to move. I do have a few anime LDs but lots more on DVD since it was justifiable to get the DVDs than the tapes at that point and I didn't have an LD player at the time so..
US:
the two different releases of Ghost in the Shell
Gall Force complete for all the ones released in the US
Akira both Criterions
Urotsukidoji Perfect Collection
Baoh
Evangelion volume 1 and 2
Here is Greenwood volumes 1-3

My favorite would be the Eva box with GNR
JPN:
all of Eva except for Symphony of Evangelion
Project A-ko versus battle 1 the gray side

probably get more at some point..
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 Post subject: Re: Anime on LD
PostPosted: 04 Oct 2011, 02:29 
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the tenchi lds are actually pretty cheap, i guess they made alot of them cuz theres always a bunch on ebay, i got the first 4 episodes for like 20 bucks
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 Post subject: Re: Anime on LD
PostPosted: 04 Oct 2011, 02:48 
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Does anyone know off hand which editions of 'Urotsukidoji' are uncut? I read the US 'Perfect Collection' is but want to make sure before spending the $$...
Thanks in advance!
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