I agree we have to get back to the human touch. That's why I like anime on blu-ray: On a well-made one, what you see is closer to what the artists were looking at when they drew it and shot it. VHS, vinyl, and the like aren't more "human" than high-definition formats; they're just a different flavor of artificiality between the artists and the audience.

I've seen Kiki's Delivery Service on 35mm. It looked a lot more like blu-ray than laserdisc.

But, that's me, someone who likes drawings more than analog video artifacts.

That is very interesting because, in regard to TV shows and and OVAs, at the same time the artist was looking at a cell being shot they had in mind it would be broadcast on TV and/or released on VHS and/or LD. That is, that environment shaped their creation.

For example they might use cellotape to affix a character to a background and not pay too much attention to or spend much time on dust or dirt on the cell because in the director's vision it wouldn't be visible - more time could be spent on creation and beauty.

So if Blu Ray had existed in 1982 the shows would not have been what they were. There would have been less shows with less episodes and less creativity because things would have to be "perfect". Perfect is the enemy of beauty. The Japanese actually say imperfection is necessary in beauty, it is like a plain landscape background in a painting, it enhances the beautiful element. it's why the most good looking movie stars don't have "perfect" looks, there's always some imperfection that makes them human to the viewer and humanity is beautiful to humans. Models don't usually become top movie stars, guys like Stalone with a funny lip or Arnold with his gumby like appearance do. Cage is just ugly but he's extremely enjoyable to watch on screen.



I argue they are the formats that match the vision of the creators when they were created. Historically its important too, when these shows were fresh that was how people watched them at home and how they became legendary, I want to watch them the same way.




Film is a different thing, I'll agree UHD is the best I've seen many classic films and USUALLY closer to how they looked in cinemas at the time. Some look bad tho because they went too far with the technology and it looks I believe cleaner than any mid life print in a cinema would have looked. Still historically the home experience at that time is something I want to recreate too. So I'll keep my 2001: A Space Odyssey LDs.

Rails and limits are very good thing in everything. The limitations of VHS and LD forced people to push them to the limits, some of the new tech allows people to go too far.

There are lot of reasonable sentiments here, but you're still tripping over yourself on the specifics.

2001 came out in 1968. There was no home release for 2001 until 12 years after the fact.

Citing mid-life prints as a standard to strive for makes no sense. No director given the choice would show you a mid-life print over a new print.

The notion that film is a "different thing" than TV anime is full of asterisks, even putting aside that they were all literally shot and edited on film for years. What about TV anime like Mobile Suit Gundam that got re-cut for theaters? Made for TV, blown up for the big screen.

If you think perfect is the enemy of beauty, that's all the more reason to watch old anime on blu-ray. You see all the mistakes, all the shortcuts, and all the genius. I appreciate seeing things as the people at the time saw them too (I wouldn't have any anime LDs otherwise), but setting up an absolutist standard of period-authenticity as an irreconcilable enemy to the new windows into the past afforded by high-resolution scans of film negatives is downright myopic.

Comparing the creative output of different eras will never have one totally eclipse the other. There are things they made back then that they couldn't make today, and things they're making today that they couldn't make back then. I'll take both.

If you own animation cels and the movies/shows they were part of, you understand how crisp the original art was and probably want something that can show that.

If you found out about anime from fansubs and Toonami and Suncoast VHS tapes then you may not understand that it isn’t “scrubbed clean” animation *IS* that clean when they make it. They don’t add detail, it was always there in the original film, but analog video doesn’t capture it.

It took until 1080p was common for people to realize that. Some people anyway. There is some exquisite line work in shows like ZZ Gundam that you just can’t see on the LDs, and Angel’s Egg…IMHO, as a long time fan of the movie, myself and most people didn’t really see it until the 1080p version. That movie is beyond beautiful and it was that way in the 80s but it was obscured by mediocre video. They didn’t put all that detail in there for no reason.

This reminds me of Iron Maiden and all the Loudness War wisdom we often get from people who don’t actually understand it but looooove to repeat it because they think it proves that nothing new is any good but all it really proves is that Maiden didn’t hire the right person for that job.

Nice on Berserk. It really is timeless I feel, especially that part of it.



Yeah if you really dig you can get find deals but it's a lot of work.



As someone who has watched a lot of old anime on BD it's a mixed bag. Some things are excellent like BGC (definitive way to watch it imo) while others are a qtec travesty like the 2nd blu ray box set for Dancouga. It's bothered me enough that I'm going to track down the first JP blu ray release, rip that and mux in the subs from the US release which was forced to be based of the 2nd JP release.

Yeah well its also true that a lot of the LD box sets of shows came out 20+ years after they aired. So you have a point. Still, if you have a well calibrated setup that eliminates most analogue video artefacts you talk about it's still imo the best way to watch these shows. The presentation is so basic. It's an archival approach to serious fans who didn't want tacked on marketing BS, they wanted a "forever" perfect historical copy. Each episode is presented simply complete with opening, ending. No bells and whistles except maybe on a separate bonus disc. LD is more likely to be unmolested and as close to the original airing quality as you're going to get. Also LD's natural colours being analogue is best setup to display these shows as they were seen. That's mainly where the concept "Anime ends on LD" comes from.

The problem with the "remaster" thing really hit me when Animeigo released their Macross subbed DVD boxsets in 2002. I bought instantly having been stung by the HG Perfect Collection tapes never continuing years before. Egan Loo liner notes, "remastered" video. I loved seeing the original show but something was off..everything "popped" way too much and when I finally got a Macross TV LD box in about 2007 the contrast was incredible - the original show had a washed out natural quality. THAT's what I remembered from Robotech. I never went back to the DVDs. I keep them for the liner notes but I guess I should scan them and sell on the boxsets.