It is currently 28 Mar 2024, 20:41




 Page 1 of 1 [ 12 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: Pony Canyon; worst Japanese company for rotters?
PostPosted: 17 Oct 2013, 14:30 
Honest fan
Honest fan
User avatar

Joined: 20 Sep 2012, 16:19
Posts: 114
Location: Australia
Has thanked: 0 time
Been thanked: 8 times
I did not think much about the dreaded laser rot when I started collecting rare (and not so rare) anime LDs that mostly received no DVD release as I had never encounted it when I originally got into LD (1998-2001). Having amassed a rather large collection of over 300 discs in the past year, I have sadly also amassed a small collection of rotted discs. It seems that one company stands out in the collection of rotters; Pony Canyon. I even have multiple copies of some of their titles and all are rotted. I always thought that after say, 1985, rotters were fairly rare in Japan. I have Pony Canyon titles from as late as 1994 with rot. Using "remove dust" in avisynth works remarkably well for removing rot specs, but it also degrades the picture.

The worst Pony LDs I have would be NORA, a analogue sound disc from 1985. Both copies, despite being mint and obviously well taken care of, are at near death state. I know rot has nothing to do with condition, but still, they were beautiful condition. The second copy was not quite as bad as the first, at least it's sound was intact unlike the first copy.

I also bought a set of the original 16 episode Cream Lemon LDs off yahoo. I have zero interest in hentai crap, but they are an exception, I plan on making edited rips for myself. I know that even later 1991-94 box set editions of Cream Lemon have rot so I expected some rotters in the set of the 1985-88 discs. All but ONE of the discs were ok, some very low level rot but perfectly acceptable. Naturally, the one disc that was rotted was the one I wanted the most, vol.2 with eps 3&4. That disc alone goes for ¥5000-7000 on its own, I paid ¥8000 for the whole set, grrrr! The first side is watchable but the second side that contains "Pop Chaser" (made by the Project A-Ko team, the episode I wanted the most) is really bad. I do not want to pay ¥6000 for that one disc because it will probably be rotted again. There was also a set of "Ami, Sorekara..." LDs bought from the se seller which included the "Tabidachi" theatrical movie (was paired with A-Ko) LD. I already owned that disc but had not watched it. I tried the second copy that came in the set and of course, rot was everywhere. I tried the other copy I already owned and again, rot!!

Other bad discs would be early Victor LDs (VILF-1 to 10 mainly) as well as Victors "pre-Victor" releases on a label called "Majors". The earlier label that published Victor titles on LD, Mix-Jam, is fine. Bandai's "C-MOON" label also produced rotters. Maryuu Senki 1-3 and Demon Hunter being some rotters I own.

Does anyone know of rotters to look for? I don't think much can be done about Pony discs.... Most sellers do not check LDs when they sell them so there usually no information about the condition of the picture. I sick of opening a large package of LDs excitedly, only to be pissed off when I play them.


Last edited by segasonic91 on 19 Oct 2013, 17:03, edited 1 time in total.
Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Pony Canyon; worst Japanese LD manufacturer?
PostPosted: 17 Oct 2013, 22:06 
Serious fan
Serious fan
User avatar

Joined: 05 Jan 2005, 21:37
Posts: 202
Location: Lexington, Ky, United States
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 37 times
segasonic91 wrote:
I did not think much about the dreaded laser rot when I started collecting rare (and not so rare) anime LDs that mostly received no DVD release as I had never encounted it when I originally got into LD (1998-2001). Having amassed a rather large collection of over 300 discs in the past year, I have sadly also amassed a small collection of rotted discs. It seems that one company stands out in the collection of rotters; Pony Canyon. I even have multiple copies of some of their titles and all are rotted. I always thought that after say, 1985, rotters were fairly rare in Japan. I have Pony Canyon titles from as late as 1994 with rot. Using "remove dust" in avisynth works remarkably well for removing rot specs, but it also degrades the picture.

The worst Pony LDs I have would be NORA, a analogue sound disc from 1985. Both copies, despite being mint and obviously well taken care of, are at near death state. I know rot has nothing to do with condition, but still, they were beautiful condition. The second copy was not quite as bad as the first, at least it's sound was intact unlike the first copy.

I also bought a set of the original 16 episode Cream Lemon LDs off yahoo. I have zero interest in hentai crap, but they are an exception, I plan on making edited rips for myself. I know that even later 1991-94 box set editions of Cream Lemon have rot so I expected some rotters in the set of the 1985-88 discs. All but ONE of the discs were ok, some very low level rot but perfectly acceptable. Naturally, the one disc that was rotted was the one I wanted the most, vol.2 with eps 3&4. That disc alone goes for ¥5000-7000 on its own, I paid ¥8000 for the whole set, grrrr! The first side is watchable but the second side that contains "Pop Chaser" (made by the Project A-Ko team, the episode I wanted the most) is really bad. I do not want to pay ¥6000 for that one disc because it will probably be rotted again. There was also a set of "Ami, Sorekara..." LDs bought from the se seller which included the "Tabidachi" theatrical movie (was paired with A-Ko) LD. I already owned that disc but had not watched it. I tried the second copy that came in the set and of course, rot was everywhere. I tried the other copy I already owned and again, rot!!

Other bad discs would be early Victor LDs (VILF-1 to 10 mainly) as well as Victors "pre-Victor" releases on a label called "Majors". The earlier label that published Victor titles on LD, Mix-Jam, is fine. Bandai's "C-MOON" label also produced rotters. Maryuu Senki 1-3 and Demon Hunter being some rotters I own.

Does anyone know of rotters to look for? I don't think much can be done about Pony discs.... Most sellers do not check LDs when they sell them so there usually no information about the condition of the picture. I sick of opening a large package of LDs excitedly, only to be pissed off when I play them.


Hi segasonic91,

Well, I am not an anime collector, but I do have a lot of Japanese discs in my collection. I too have encountered quite a few rotted discs from Pony Canyon. However, the problem is not the publisher, Pony Canyon, but the manufacturing plant where the discs were pressed. It appears that Pony Canyon used Mitsubishi to press some of their discs in the 80's, and Kuraray also. Basically, both of these manufacturing plants had some problems with rot in the early and mid 80's. Most of the rotted ones I have seen are from that period. Those from the late 80's and from the 90's are generally quite reliable from both of these plants. Most of the rotted Kuraray-pressed discs I have seen have pretty mild rot, and are usually quite watchable. I have seen some really bad ones from Mitsubishi during the 80's, however. My recommendation to you would be to check any title you are thinking of purchasing on this site, and see where it was pressed. If you are really particular about rot, I would avoid those pressed at Mitsubishi and Kuraray in the early to mid 80's, unless the seller can check them for rot for you. If you want to play it really safe, I would advise you to stick with only those from the late 80's and 90's, or only those pressed at Pioneer Japan. In my opinion, it was far and away the best of the Japanese manufacturing plants. I have seen far less rot on discs pressed there than from the other two plants I mentioned. I hope you find this information helpful!

Best Regards,
David :wave:
Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Pony Canyon; worst Japanese LD manufacturer?
PostPosted: 17 Oct 2013, 22:52 
Advanced fan
Advanced fan
User avatar

Joined: 03 Oct 2003, 10:06
Posts: 726
Location: at home :p
Has thanked: 57 times
Been thanked: 59 times
segasonic91 wrote:
I also bought a set of the original 16 episode Cream Lemon LDs off yahoo. I have zero interest in hentai crap, but they are an exception, I plan on making edited rips for myself. I know that even later 1991-94 box set editions of Cream Lemon have rot so I expected some rotters in the set of the 1985-88 discs. All but ONE of the discs were ok, some very low level rot but perfectly acceptable. Naturally, the one disc that was rotted was the one I wanted the most, vol.2 with eps 3&4. That disc alone goes for ¥5000-7000 on its own, I paid ¥8000 for the whole set, grrrr! The first side is watchable but the second side that contains "Pop Chaser" (made by the Project A-Ko team, the episode I wanted the most) is really bad. I do not want to pay ¥6000 for that one disc because it will probably be rotted again. There was also a set of "Ami, Sorekara..." LDs bought from the se seller which included the "Tabidachi" theatrical movie (was paired with A-Ko) LD. I already owned that disc but had not watched it. I tried the second copy that came in the set and of course, rot was everywhere. I tried the other copy I already owned and again, rot!!


I have several pressings of Cream Lemon:

DL-0002: Stay away from it, it has rot like all other DL-xxx pressings that I have seen.
SHLY-508: Has no problems with rot
PCLS-00001: Rot free
PCLS-00003: Rot free

Maybe I'll get my hands on the Climax box one day. But certainly not the "DL" release.
Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Pony Canyon; worst Japanese LD distributor for rotters?
PostPosted: 18 Oct 2013, 00:25 
Honest fan
Honest fan
User avatar

Joined: 20 Sep 2012, 16:19
Posts: 114
Location: Australia
Has thanked: 0 time
Been thanked: 8 times
Hi Laserking,
Thanks for the info, I was wondering which plants did Pony's pressing. It's a shame they did not get the problems fixed up or changed pressing plants sooner. It's also a shame that they never re-issued a lot of the LDs that were affected by rot. I have not seen a non-anime Pony LD, but I figured that all of their releases were affected by shoddy production. It really is a "luck-of-the-draw" situation with them. As I said, NORA is a horrible rotter and yet I have Karuizawa Syndrome which was around the same era and it is perfect. There are two more Pony LDs from the same era that I want, Cool Cool Bye and GREED. Both are rare and fetch a good price when they do pop up. I would be too afraid to buy them for a high price though because of the rot issue. My second copy of NORA cost 200yen so it was worth trying another copy. I will definitely check the Pony discs on here for the manufacturer. I am just glad Pony never had the rights to any of the Bon Jovi lds, especially the Live in Japan '85 disc. Toshiba EMI are one of the best companies for LD releases in my opinion. Not only for the quality of the pressing of the discs (although, they can be very sticky around the edges!) but also for transfer quality. The Live in Japan '85 disc is not that great to look at, but it was recorded on cheap cameras for TV broadcast so it is no surprise.

P.S I changed the topic because as you pointed out, Pony were publishers and not manufacturers.

Hi lons_vex,
PLCS-0001/3 refers to the eternal collection boxes? I read that the first Eternal box had some rot issues but the second version that included extra episodes (the Dark special and Angie and Rose? I think) had no rot. I seem to recall that DL-xxx were boxes as well? I am not sure I want the series enough to pay the price that the Eternal box goes for, haha! I have seen it go for as low as 15,000 on yahoo though and have seen the second version for 27,890 in a shop in Japan. I will probably have paid close to 27,000 when adding up the price I have paid for the original series, the Shin series, the Ami series and various specials. I watched Astarot last night, didn't like it as much as the Rall episodes, but it was not too bad. Only 10 minutes out of 40 to be cut too ;) I do wonder why it was never completed though, nothing worse than a "To Be Continued" sign (or worse, next ep preview as in the case of MARS, Elf Princess Rane, Legend of the Blue Wolves etc) at the end of something that was never completed. Haven't gotten around to watching Yamato 2520 yet so I am unsure if there was an ep.4 preview or not. I am wondering if the Cream Lemon series will ever get a BD release. Considering it was released 4 or 5 times on LD and only once on DVD, I have my doubts.

EDIT: I see now that the rot prone "Eternal" box is the DL-XXX that you refer to. PLCS-0003 is the LD/CD box.
Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Pony Canyon; worst Japanese LD manufacturer?
PostPosted: 18 Oct 2013, 01:37 
Absolute fan
Absolute fan
User avatar

Joined: 11 Jun 2008, 06:10
Posts: 1617
Location: Milky Way-Sol System-Terra-USA-North Carlolina.
Has thanked: 561 times
Been thanked: 238 times
Feel your pain segasonic91.....
Your post struck a nerve.

Can not believe that there are dealers that sell titles without checking for any kind of video or sound anomalies beforehand .........

Been there more then once, opened a long awaited for title only to have major corruption present.

If one is a serious dealer, it is a no brainer to give a scan of each side of every platter to note any and all irregularities ......

Even taking this precaution anomalies can still slip by unreported to the buyer, however this step lessons the chances for bigger surprises down the line .....................

Check your wares before selling people ..................
_________________
Acta Non Verba .....
Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum ....
Si Gorgiamus Allos Subjectatos Nunc ......
Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Pony Canyon; worst Japanese LD distributor for rotters?
PostPosted: 18 Oct 2013, 08:56 
Advanced fan
Advanced fan
User avatar

Joined: 03 Oct 2003, 10:06
Posts: 726
Location: at home :p
Has thanked: 57 times
Been thanked: 59 times
segasonic91 wrote:
Hi lons_vex,
PLCS-0001/3 refers to the eternal collection boxes? I read that the first Eternal box had some rot issues but the second version that included extra episodes (the Dark special and Angie and Rose? I think) had no rot. I seem to recall that DL-xxx were boxes as well? I am not sure I want the series enough to pay the price that the Eternal box goes for, haha! I have seen it go for as low as 15,000 on yahoo though and have seen the second version for 27,890 in a shop in Japan. I will probably have paid close to 27,000 when adding up the price I have paid for the original series, the Shin series, the Ami series and various specials. I watched Astarot last night, didn't like it as much as the Rall episodes, but it was not too bad. Only 10 minutes out of 40 to be cut too ;) I do wonder why it was never completed though, nothing worse than a "To Be Continued" sign (or worse, next ep preview as in the case of MARS, Elf Princess Rane, Legend of the Blue Wolves etc) at the end of something that was never completed. Haven't gotten around to watching Yamato 2520 yet so I am unsure if there was an ep.4 preview or not. I am wondering if the Cream Lemon series will ever get a BD release. Considering it was released 4 or 5 times on LD and only once on DVD, I have my doubts.

EDIT: I see now that the rot prone "Eternal" box is the DL-XXX that you refer to. PLCS-0003 is the LD/CD box.


Ok, so the differences between the sets basically are:
DL-0002 contains 36 episodes on 12 LD's, 35 telephone cards, a booklet, and 4 audio cd's.
Some pictures of the set here: http://www.pustan.com/ld/japan/clpepe.html
You might be lucky to find one without rot, mine is partially rotted - some sides are fine,
others are worse :(

SHLY-508 is just a collection of some episodes, and not a complete set.
It's 25 episodes on 7 LD's, bonus is a photo cd which is crap, and a booklet.
Some pictures of the set here: http://www.pustan.com/ld/japan/clbc.html

PCLS-00003 contains just one LD, but it also contains three audio cd's - so if you want
to avoid the DL-0002 release, but are interested in the soundtrack, you may want to get
your hands on it.
Some pictures of the set here: http://www.pustan.com/ld/japan/clmulti.html

PCLS-00001 contains some more episodes, no telephone cards, and no audio cd's.
I've not made pictures of it yet and the box is in a hard to reach place right now,
so I'm sorry but ICBA to unpack it and count episodes/discs. But yeah, DARK and Ami Movie
are in this set as well. And IIRC it is 14 LD's. Booklet is thicker, because of the new episodes
added, but otherwise the same content as the DL-0002 booklet.

The Climax Box is some cut together highlight sex scenes collection stuff.
Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Pony Canyon; worst Japanese LD distributor for rotters?
PostPosted: 18 Oct 2013, 13:39 
Honest fan
Honest fan
User avatar

Joined: 20 Sep 2012, 16:19
Posts: 114
Location: Australia
Has thanked: 0 time
Been thanked: 8 times
lons_vex wrote:

Ok, so the differences between the sets basically are:
DL-0002 contains 36 episodes on 12 LD's, 35 telephone cards, a booklet, and 4 audio cd's.
Some pictures of the set here: http://www.pustan.com/ld/japan/clpepe.html
You might be lucky to find one without rot, mine is partially rotted - some sides are fine,
others are worse :(


Ahhh, thanks for the clarification! How are the transfers of the DL-0002 box? I am guessing that the latter PCLS-0001 box used the same transfers. The older discs are all CAV of course (except for Ami Sorekara....) and look very nice, as usual for a Pony LD when it is not covered in rot. I ripped and cleaned up Astarot last night and you would swear it was a DVD transfer. I *think* the DVDs had new component prints though, and would no doubt look better :D

firehorse_44 wrote:
Feel your pain segasonic91.....
Your post struck a nerve.

Can not believe that there are dealers that sell titles without checking for any kind of video or sound anomalies beforehand .........

Been there more then once, opened a long awaited for title only to have major corruption present.

If one is a serious dealer, it is a no brainer to give a scan of each side of every platter to note any and all irregularities ......

Even taking this precaution anomalies can still slip by unreported to the buyer, however this step lessons the chances for bigger surprises down the line .....................

Check your wares before selling people ..................


Absolutely! Could not agree more. The problem with buying off yahoo is that almost all sellers that they cannot test the discs or simply state that it has not been checked and add "no claim/no return" to the description. I think it is ridiculous when a large volume seller of LDs, such as the seller I bought my first copy of NORA from, do not check discs that they list. Especially titles that are known to be problematic.
Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Pony Canyon; worst Japanese LD distributor for rotters?
PostPosted: 18 Oct 2013, 21:28 
Serious fan
Serious fan
User avatar

Joined: 05 Jan 2005, 21:37
Posts: 202
Location: Lexington, Ky, United States
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 37 times
segasonic91 wrote:
Hi Laserking,
Thanks for the info, I was wondering which plants did Pony's pressing. It's a shame they did not get the problems fixed up or changed pressing plants sooner. It's also a shame that they never re-issued a lot of the LDs that were affected by rot. I have not seen a non-anime Pony LD, but I figured that all of their releases were affected by shoddy production. It really is a "luck-of-the-draw" situation with them. As I said, NORA is a horrible rotter and yet I have Karuizawa Syndrome which was around the same era and it is perfect. There are two more Pony LDs from the same era that I want, Cool Cool Bye and GREED. Both are rare and fetch a good price when they do pop up. I would be too afraid to buy them for a high price though because of the rot issue. My second copy of NORA cost 200yen so it was worth trying another copy. I will definitely check the Pony discs on here for the manufacturer. I am just glad Pony never had the rights to any of the Bon Jovi lds, especially the Live in Japan '85 disc. Toshiba EMI are one of the best companies for LD releases in my opinion. Not only for the quality of the pressing of the discs (although, they can be very sticky around the edges!) but also for transfer quality. The Live in Japan '85 disc is not that great to look at, but it was recorded on cheap cameras for TV broadcast so it is no surprise.

P.S I changed the topic because as you pointed out, Pony were publishers and not manufacturers.

Hi lons_vex,
PLCS-0001/3 refers to the eternal collection boxes? I read that the first Eternal box had some rot issues but the second version that included extra episodes (the Dark special and Angie and Rose? I think) had no rot. I seem to recall that DL-xxx were boxes as well? I am not sure I want the series enough to pay the price that the Eternal box goes for, haha! I have seen it go for as low as 15,000 on yahoo though and have seen the second version for 27,890 in a shop in Japan. I will probably have paid close to 27,000 when adding up the price I have paid for the original series, the Shin series, the Ami series and various specials. I watched Astarot last night, didn't like it as much as the Rall episodes, but it was not too bad. Only 10 minutes out of 40 to be cut too ;) I do wonder why it was never completed though, nothing worse than a "To Be Continued" sign (or worse, next ep preview as in the case of MARS, Elf Princess Rane, Legend of the Blue Wolves etc) at the end of something that was never completed. Haven't gotten around to watching Yamato 2520 yet so I am unsure if there was an ep.4 preview or not. I am wondering if the Cream Lemon series will ever get a BD release. Considering it was released 4 or 5 times on LD and only once on DVD, I have my doubts.

EDIT: I see now that the rot prone "Eternal" box is the DL-XXX that you refer to. PLCS-0003 is the LD/CD box.


Hi segasonic91,

I looked up the two titles you mentioned here, and neither of them has a manufacturer listed. I suppose both of them are pretty rare titles. I noticed that one of them has a reference number beginning with "G78F", and the other has a reference number beginning with "G88F". These would indicate that both of them are fairly old Japanese releases. I know that there are rot problems with some titles having these reference number prefixes. I have seen a few such titles myself, and have heard about others, like "Conquest", which supposedly is a very notorious rotter. What I would suggest is that if you find someone selling a copy of either of these titles you are seeking, ask them to spot check it for rot. If they can't check it, ask them to look at the disc and give you the mint markings from it. If the markings indicate Pioneer Japan as the manufacturing plant, you will more than likely be just fine. If it is Kuraray or Mitsubishi from this period, I would avoid it if they can't check it for rot. At the very least, I wouldn't pay a lot for it without a rot check.

Best Regards,
David :wave:
Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Pony Canyon; worst Japanese LD distributor for rotters?
PostPosted: 18 Oct 2013, 22:52 
Advanced fan
Advanced fan
User avatar

Joined: 03 Oct 2003, 10:06
Posts: 726
Location: at home :p
Has thanked: 57 times
Been thanked: 59 times
segasonic91 wrote:
Ahhh, thanks for the clarification! How are the transfers of the DL-0002 box? I am guessing that the latter PCLS-0001 box used the same transfers. The older discs are all CAV of course (except for Ami Sorekara....) and look very nice, as usual for a Pony LD when it is not covered in rot. I ripped and cleaned up Astarot last night and you would swear it was a DVD transfer. I *think* the DVDs had new component prints though, and would no doubt look better :D


The big problem with the DVD release is, that the censorship got much worse compared to the LD version.
The pixelation is much larger, or there is censorship in scenes that have no censorship at all on the LD's.
I saw the complete DVD set on yahoo auctions recently, and the final bid was more than 50,000 Yen iirc.

Maybe a BD release could make sense, BUT it would certainly also have censorship, and if you have recently
checked prices of japanese BD boxsets, containing 40+ episodes then you know that 27,890 Yen will likely not
be enough to buy it...

DL-0002 and PCLS-00001 use the same transfer (I think).
One disc in DL-0002 is CAV: Ange & Rose. All others are CLV.

One thing would be interesting... the very first Cream Lemon LD ever published...
I wonder what kind of censorship it has for Ami, if a disc without rot even still exists.
Reference is LNK-523, pic here: http://www.pustan.com/test/lnk523.jpg
Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Pony Canyon; worst Japanese company for rotters?
PostPosted: 19 Oct 2013, 17:34 
Honest fan
Honest fan
User avatar

Joined: 20 Sep 2012, 16:19
Posts: 114
Location: Australia
Has thanked: 0 time
Been thanked: 8 times
Out of curiosity, I put both NORA and Cream Lemon Vol.2/Ep3&4 into the database and the manufacturer came up as PRINCO. I was going to check Majo Demo Steady as well (has light rot, a 1988 "Dual Disc" release I think) but could not find it in the data base. I think PRINCO also came up for the 1996 M.D GEIST 2 and M.D GEIST: Perfect Edition, Pioneer came up for the original 1986 M.D GEIST LD. I guess that explains the quality of Columbia's LDs no matter how old.

The extra censorship on the CR DVDs is kinda strange. Although I fast forwarded through the sex scenes in Astarot, I could see that the pixels were rather extreme so I can't imagine how bad it would be if the DVD is worse. I did know of that earlier Ami/Escalation LD release but have never seen it for sale. It would be kind of interesting to see if there is a difference though, if as you say, they haven't been eaten away over the past 29 year.

I would guess that the extra censorship was due to law changes between the 80's and 2001 when the DVDs were released, especially the crackdown on lolicon. I have so far only watched a few of the episodes I downloaded to see how they stood up to editing (All 3 Ami episodes ended up being about 44 minutes! I don't get why the Ami stuff was so popular personally, I am hoping that watching Sorekara (and Tabidachi) changes my mind as it seems far more story focused, like Ami III I guess) and am not sure if they are DVD or LD rips, I think they are a mixture. The newer "Fairy Dust" logo with the "written" Cream Lemon logo did appear before a few of the MKVs but I am thinking that the Eternal boxes probably had those? I would like to check the differences out of pure curiosity. I am still surprised that a rather unknown company released the series in the first place, kind of like Dream Hunter Rem. It must have been a decent earner for Pony back in the day considering how many bloody releases of the series there were. I guess Pony no longer have the rights. Then again, Pony's DVD releases of their LD catalogue was so terrible that they may not have had a release at all if it was up to them.

I have heard of other DVD releases being different to the LD releases though. There was some low rate DVD company in Japan that released Minerva no Kenshi and Dengeki Oshioki Musume Gōtaman/Gōtaman R on DVD among others. The DVDs have "SEX UP version!" plastered on the covers but they apparently have scenes censored that were not censored in the LD versions. From the screens I have seen of the subbed Gotaman MKVs, they are just nasty composite LD master dumps so the censoring was probably added digitally. Not sure what the "SEX UP!" thing means, but they are apparently terrible. I have Gotaman and Gotaman R on LD but have not watched them yet. I hear they are pretty crappy though, I cannot help but think of Kekko Kaman when I see Gotaman.
Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Pony Canyon; worst Japanese company for rotters?
PostPosted: 19 Oct 2013, 21:09 
Serious fan
Serious fan
User avatar

Joined: 05 Jan 2005, 21:37
Posts: 202
Location: Lexington, Ky, United States
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 37 times
segasonic91 wrote:
Out of curiosity, I put both NORA and Cream Lemon Vol.2/Ep3&4 into the database and the manufacturer came up as PRINCO. I was going to check Majo Demo Steady as well (has light rot, a 1988 "Dual Disc" release I think) but could not find it in the data base. I think PRINCO also came up for the 1996 M.D GEIST 2 and M.D GEIST: Perfect Edition, Pioneer came up for the original 1986 M.D GEIST LD. I guess that explains the quality of Columbia's LDs no matter how old.

The extra censorship on the CR DVDs is kinda strange. Although I fast forwarded through the sex scenes in Astarot, I could see that the pixels were rather extreme so I can't imagine how bad it would be if the DVD is worse. I did know of that earlier Ami/Escalation LD release but have never seen it for sale. It would be kind of interesting to see if there is a difference though, if as you say, they haven't been eaten away over the past 29 year.

I would guess that the extra censorship was due to law changes between the 80's and 2001 when the DVDs were released, especially the crackdown on lolicon. I have so far only watched a few of the episodes I downloaded to see how they stood up to editing (All 3 Ami episodes ended up being about 44 minutes! I don't get why the Ami stuff was so popular personally, I am hoping that watching Sorekara (and Tabidachi) changes my mind as it seems far more story focused, like Ami III I guess) and am not sure if they are DVD or LD rips, I think they are a mixture. The newer "Fairy Dust" logo with the "written" Cream Lemon logo did appear before a few of the MKVs but I am thinking that the Eternal boxes probably had those? I would like to check the differences out of pure curiosity. I am still surprised that a rather unknown company released the series in the first place, kind of like Dream Hunter Rem. It must have been a decent earner for Pony back in the day considering how many bloody releases of the series there were. I guess Pony no longer have the rights. Then again, Pony's DVD releases of their LD catalogue was so terrible that they may not have had a release at all if it was up to them.

I have heard of other DVD releases being different to the LD releases though. There was some low rate DVD company in Japan that released Minerva no Kenshi and Dengeki Oshioki Musume Gōtaman/Gōtaman R on DVD among others. The DVDs have "SEX UP version!" plastered on the covers but they apparently have scenes censored that were not censored in the LD versions. From the screens I have seen of the subbed Gotaman MKVs, they are just nasty composite LD master dumps so the censoring was probably added digitally. Not sure what the "SEX UP!" thing means, but they are apparently terrible. I have Gotaman and Gotaman R on LD but have not watched them yet. I hear they are pretty crappy though, I cannot help but think of Kekko Kaman when I see Gotaman.


Hi segasonic91,

I couldn't help but notice your mention of PRINCO in this post. I wanted to let you know that PRINCO was a manufacturing plant located in Taiwan. Virtually all of the releases pressed there were Hong Kong and Taiwanese releases. If the anime titles you are discussing here are Japanese or U.S. releases, it is almost certain that they were NOT pressed at PRINCO. I think Julien is in the process of trying to adjust the code of the Mint-O-Matic, because it is not correctly identifying the mint marks from this recently discovered manufacturing plant. I think it is incorrectly identifying some discs as being made at PRINCO, when in fact they were pressed at one of the other plants. To date, I think I have only found one disc known to have been pressed at PRINCO which was not a Hong Kong or Taiwanese release. It was a U.S. karaoke release disc. I have tried to provide updates for all of the titles which I know were pressed at PRINCO. Julien is working on validating these updates, but he hasn't finished with all of them yet. At this point, I certainly wouldn't trust the Mint-O-Matic's identification of PRINCO mint markings, until Julien has finished "tweaking" the detection codes a bit more.

Best Regards,
David :)
Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Pony Canyon; worst Japanese company for rotters?
PostPosted: 23 Oct 2013, 18:16 
Advanced fan
Advanced fan
User avatar

Joined: 03 Oct 2003, 10:06
Posts: 726
Location: at home :p
Has thanked: 57 times
Been thanked: 59 times
segasonic91 wrote:
The extra censorship on the CR DVDs is kinda strange. Although I fast forwarded through the sex scenes in Astarot, I could see that the pixels were rather extreme so I can't imagine how bad it would be if the DVD is worse. I did know of that earlier Ami/Escalation LD release but have never seen it for sale. It would be kind of interesting to see if there is a difference though, if as you say, they haven't been eaten away over the past 29 year.

I would guess that the extra censorship was due to law changes between the 80's and 2001 when the DVDs were released, especially the crackdown on lolicon. I have so far only watched a few of the episodes I downloaded to see how they stood up to editing (All 3 Ami episodes ended up being about 44 minutes! I don't get why the Ami stuff was so popular personally, I am hoping that watching Sorekara (and Tabidachi) changes my mind as it seems far more story focused, like Ami III I guess) and am not sure if they are DVD or LD rips, I think they are a mixture. The newer "Fairy Dust" logo with the "written" Cream Lemon logo did appear before a few of the MKVs but I am thinking that the Eternal boxes probably had those? I would like to check the differences out of pure curiosity. I am still surprised that a rather unknown company released the series in the first place, kind of like Dream Hunter Rem. It must have been a decent earner for Pony back in the day considering how many bloody releases of the series there were. I guess Pony no longer have the rights. Then again, Pony's DVD releases of their LD catalogue was so terrible that they may not have had a release at all if it was up to them.

I have heard of other DVD releases being different to the LD releases though. There was some low rate DVD company in Japan that released Minerva no Kenshi and Dengeki Oshioki Musume Gōtaman/Gōtaman R on DVD among others. The DVDs have "SEX UP version!" plastered on the covers but they apparently have scenes censored that were not censored in the LD versions. From the screens I have seen of the subbed Gotaman MKVs, they are just nasty composite LD master dumps so the censoring was probably added digitally. Not sure what the "SEX UP!" thing means, but they are apparently terrible. I have Gotaman and Gotaman R on LD but have not watched them yet. I hear they are pretty crappy though, I cannot help but think of Kekko Kaman when I see Gotaman.


The later episodes might be on par with DVD in terms of censorship, but the earlier episodes are different.
Cannot tell until which episode tho, you'd have to check them all :P

So I grabbed the PCLS-00001 set today and unpacked it to check contents again:
Discs 1~11 are exactly the same as in the DL-0002 collection set.
Disc 12 is CLV and now not only contains Ange&Rose, but also Black Cat Mansion Part 2.
Disc 13 is also CLV and contains DARK and the Ami Movie.
I remembered wrong, there is no disc #14.
So this set has 39 episodes, and is complete.

Someone recently added the Cream Lemon DVD Box on yahoo auctions, and the starting bid is 160,000yen. :wtf:
http://page5.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/e139805884
Offline
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
 Page 1 of 1 [ 12 posts ] 


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 9 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: