Manga & Anime THREAD

[Ben]

Reconstructing Sunset Boulevard?

Ambersons' lost *reel*…?

SD-Blu?

Okay, I know that last one, as oxymoronic as that "format" seems. Less compression, granted, though even better is an upscale to 720p that at least makes better used of the delivery format and, with good mastering, can really make standard def pop more.

[EricJ]

Reconstructing Sunset Boulevard?

Ambersons' lost *reel*…?

Okay, how about "Restoring the theatrical cut of Star Wars, if George Lucas had just lost it by accident"? That kind of event-restoration.

We literally didn't think we'd EVER see A-Ko on actual Blu-ray (and I was just on the border of buying Discotek's better-mastered DVD from a few years ago), but Discotek continues to be the Criterion of anime.

SD-Blu?

For those who don't know, that's cramming a hundred SD episodes on a Blu disc, for space, as they already did with Samurai Pizza Cats, since it's not worth trying to up-res a few hundred long-running bits of video-sourced TV animation.
Discotek's become quite good at it.

(Remember back when Blu first hit in '08, nobody outside of theater-techies knew what it was for, and we were deluged with dorks saying "We can put the entire Seinfeld series on one disc!"? That was the weird part, it was always Seinfeld, never Friends or Cheers or Star Trek... )

[Ben]

Because *those* shows would *never fit*…!

[Daniel]

I remember Blu-ray coming out in 2006.

[EricJ]

I remember Blu-ray coming out in 2006.

...Gamer.

(I remember the public being apathetic through 2007, but hoping maybe HDDVD would win since they seemed to be more interested in classic movies than Sony's goofball action-gamer marketing of Blu, before Disney got into the act--
On our DVD group, we had one idiot who thought he was one of those "paid Sony social-media shills", or was trying to audition to be one, and if we never heard about the daily sales of Casino Royale again and why PS3's built-in Blu was crushing X-Box's add-on, it would be too soon.
It got to the point that even Blu supporters just wanted to make him cry with bad news about apathetic mainstream sales, until the war was over on W-Day, January '08.)

[droosan]

Indeed, Project A-ko being found on 35mm film is huge .. even though it seems it was merely 'lost' due to a clerical error on the film lab's part.

It's also a movie very much of its time. In addition to the Fist of the North Star parody scene EricJ posted .. there are direct (and obtuse!) references to many popular anime & sci-fi of the 1980s. I personally find Project A-ko a very difficult movie to describe or discuss, with anyone who hasn't seen it .. only because it's packed so full of delightful surprises, both in its references and its bonkers 'action-packed-with-plot-twists' climax .. capped by a parting 'throwaway' gag at the very end that is kinda up there with the Planet of the Apes ending reveal (IMHO).

--------------------

Diskotek Media has certainly become the 'Criterion of anime', as EricJ put it.

In an era when many longtime anime import companies have either scaled way back on releases (or outright disappeared), Diskotek has quietly been cranking out title after title -- some of which are long-sought unreleased 'holy grail' anime like the early Lupin the Third TV shows, or the Dr. Slump movies -- alongside important milestone titles such as Osamu Tezuka's Unico films .. and early anime featuring animation by Miyazaki/Takahata, like Horus: Prince of the Sun, Puss N' Boots, or Animal Treasure Island.



.. but Diskotek has also brought over genuinely obscure stuff that no other anime importer would think to touch .. like the 'borderline-R-rated' 1981 comedy TV series Miss Machiko, or various & sundry 'Super Robot' anime of the 1970s like Combattler V, Voltes V, Lazerion, or Gaiking.

Perhaps my favorite of these 'obscure' Diskotek releases is X-Bomber / Star Fleet .. a 'Supermarionation-esque' puppet anime created by Go Nagai in 1980, featuring 'Super Robot' action heavily influenced by Star Wars. It's an SD-Blu .. presenting all 25 'subtitled' episodes of X-Bomber -- and all 24 episodes of its 'english dub' version Star Fleet (there was a 'recap' episode, that the dubbed version skips) -- on a single Blu-ray disc, in standard definition.



This aired in England at around the same time Gerry Anderson was making Terrahawks .. but I'd never heard of it, or seen it, before Diskotek put it out there for me to discover. It's cheesy fun.

[Randall]

I have a UK DVD of Star Fleet. It's kind of amazing, in its way.

[EricJ]

It's also a movie very much of its time. In addition to the Fist of the North Star parody scene EricJ posted .. there are direct (and obtuse!) references to many popular anime & sci-fi of the 1980s.

Like Captain Harlock toasting his enemy with a glass of brandy before the space battle.
(And our captain, who appears to be rather well toasted...)

Even a reference to what is widely agreed to be the worst 80's feature-anime movie ever made, Harmageddon, only here, it comes out as, um...


When it came out, it was one of the few comedies among all the weird artsy and action-splatter pictures coming out of Streamline Pictures' attempt to keep Akira's cult reputation going, we wanted to show it to more newbies, but thought "They'd never GET Captain Harlock and Fist of the North Star jokes!"
Nowadays, with Cartoon Network still parodying their old grudges of Dragon Ball Z, it's more fun to show it to newbies saying, "Whatever you think an 'Anime movie' is going to be, this is a parody of it."

Also worth noting that the movie was a side project by the animation and character designers of the Urusei Yatsura TV anime, and which was originally supposed to be a softcore title, but UY's old instincts for a silly Zucker-style jazz of obtuse deadpan pop-ref anime/sci-fi parodies took over.
That's why I found it serendipitous that Discotek was also working on the Urusei movies, and wanted to get in another plug for their currently streaming free-with-ads on Crunchyroll.

[droosan]

Other important Diskotek reissues include HD releases of Kimagure Orange Road, the Crusher Joe movie & OVAs, and the esoteric Galaxy Express 999 .. not just the movies, but the entire 113-episode TV series (which I'd long been convinced would never be made available, in english).

Another 'personal favorite' Diskotek release is the 2004 remake of Tetsujin 28 (aka 'Gigantor'), directed by Yasuhiro Imagawa, of Giant Robo fame.

[Ben]

Well, now, if you’re going to start talking Star Fleet, then this is how I remember it from the UK in 1982/83…


Whenever you mentioned this in school, you *had* to sing the title, it was law!

There's a whole EP/mini-LP soundtrack album, too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zux1-a2rRHc

…and you can find the UK dub versions, featuring the voices of many later better known UK names, down the page too.

Also, would I have seen Animal Treasure Island in an English dub around the same time? I distinctly remember this from some fever dream back in the day, although the crummy VHS print we had was nowhere near that sparkling quality Droo posted above.

[droosan]

That's fun!

That Brian May song isn't included on Diskotek's X-Bomber / Star Fleet SD-Blu set .. due to rights issues, I'd imagine. Shades of the the X-Bomber opening theme, though .. which is likewise a post-punk-y ballad, sung in japanese (with several random english phrases thrown in!).



It seems there was an english dub of Animal Treasure Island, back in the day. I've only ever watched in it japanese, however .. first in the 1990s, on import Laserdisc (without subtitles), then on Diskotek's DVD (which includes japanese and english audio tracks, with available english subtitles), released in 2005. That DVD, sadly, is now 'out-of-print' .. but it's still well-worth seeking out.

[droosan]

Another seminal anime coming soon to Blu-ray (not to mention, to North America in english -- for the very first time!) is Future Boy Conan .. a 26-episode sci-fi TV series from 1978 -- designed & directed by Hayao Miyazaki, based on the novel The Incredible Tide by Alexander Key.

.. and this is coming not from Diskotek .. but from GKIDS, in association with Shout Factory .. on November 16, 2021. It'll have japanese audio with available english subtitles .. and a newly-created 'english dub' track!
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FutureBoyConanBD.jpg (158.54 KiB) Viewed 9678 times

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As I'd mentioned lo-o-ong ago in the "favorite Studio Ghibli film" thread, Future Boy Conan ranks high among my favorite anime TV series .. and served as a 'precursor' for much of what Hayao Miyazaki would create throughout the ensuing decade; Conan's 'post-apocalyptic' world is evocative of Nausicaä's .. Conan & Lana's relationship (and their entire design/appearance) presage Pazu & Sheeta of Castle in the Sky .. there are imaginative (often improbable) aircraft, and the same attention to detail and powerful storytelling that permeates Miyazaki's later -- and better-known -- Studio Ghibli works.

Another fun detail is that the bulk of the main story -- set far in the future, from the perspective of its creators -- takes place in the year 2021! A global war using electromagnetic weapons which shatter the earth's crust (and causes all its continents to sink below sea level) occurs in 2008 .. Conan is born to a tiny group of survivors on an isolated island, around 2010 .. and he's 11 years old at the beginning of the series.

The basic thrust of the series' overall plot has similarities to Castle in the Sky; Conan meets Lana as she is on the run from agents of Industria -- an island nation seeking to rebuild mankind's pre-war technology. They also find themselves pursued by Captain Dyce: a mercenary 'pirate-like' ship captain -- who crosses-over from being their 'adversary' to an 'ally' against Industria, part-way through the story.

One key difference from CitS is that Industria is not after Lana herself, but her uncle .. a 'gentle giant' of a man (with a monstrous appearance) who holds the key to reviving one of the last surviving machines responsible for the apocalypse .. which the leader of Industria (who greatly resembles Count Cagliostro!) is intent upon using, to secure his rule over what remains of the world. The series' climax features an epic showdown aboard this very weapon of war: an immense flying fortress, named 'Giganto'.

This is another anime which I've owned for many years on import Laserdisc & DVD (in japanese language, only) .. using typed episode synopses -- and later, a 'fan-translated' dialogue script -- to follow the story.

I'm super excited to see this series get an official North American english-language release, at long last .. and in HD, to boot! I'm definitely buying this, as soon as it comes out .. and (of course) it has my highest recommendation, to anyone who enjoys Hayao Miyazaki's works.

[Randall]

I was pretty excited to see this announced, too. Big news, indeed! A must for any Miyazaki fan, and we have a few of them in my house.

[EricJ]

And while we're on resurrected vintage classic 80's anime, it was wandering through random YouTube videos that I even discovered Nozomi/RightStuf's Kickstarter campaign to restore and release Dirty Pair TV on Blu-ray, with sub and English dub:


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/16 ... -tv-series

Ah, the days of my college-campus club youth...20 days left, and already kicked (full disc set with $60 pledge), so chances look good.

[droosan]

As EricJ mentioned in the Warner Archive thread .. there's a new Urusei Yatsura, which just launched in Japan.

Its main title 'OP' certainly has the right kind of 'energy' ..