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NEWS: Ghibli's Pom Poko, Princess Mononoke, The Cat Returns Get Blu-ray in U.K., Australia




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Samo2222





PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 12:38 am Reply with quote
Yeah. Stick with the Japanese release rather than the Australian or maybe hold out for the NA version. They'll charge $38 for each barebones film like they've been doing for the past few years.
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GeorgeC



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Posts: 795
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 2:41 am Reply with quote
Unless you know you're going to die tomorrow OR know that there are extras or an audio track that WON'T be on the North American release, your best tactic is to just wait for the US Blu ray. They're essentially the same discs they get in Japan.

***********************************

I just saw the North American Blu ray release of "From Up on Poppy Hill" and a couple of things struck me on that release...
A) Except for a subplot detail -- sure to cause problems with anyone who doesn't bother to watch the film all the way through(!) --, there's no other significant reason Disney couldn't have released this movie themselves in the US... Even though GKids did the North American release, Disney Japan was still credited at the beginning of the film. I guess Disney is still providing seed money for Ghibli productions even though they have right of refusal on North American distribution;
B) This is only the third Ghibi film Disney passed on or decided not release on home video in the US. Disney had a chance to get "Grave of the Fireflies" but passed on it (probably because it's one of the saddest animated features ever made!). The other film is "Only Yesterday" which was broadcast on TCM subtitled 7-8 years ago. At least half the Ghibli films Disney has licensed have been shown on Cartoon Network, too...
C) "From Up on Poppy Hill" was a simple film but still pretty darn good! It doesn't have the fantasy and mystical aspects of most of Hayao Miyazaki's films but it's human and heart-felt. It's one a very few dubs I actually sat through but it wasn't bad...
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14886
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 4:52 am Reply with quote
GeorgeC wrote:

B) This is only the third Ghibi film Disney passed on or decided not release on home video in the US. Disney had a chance to get "Grave of the Fireflies" but passed on it (probably because it's one of the saddest animated features ever made!).


That's not it.

http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/disney/

  • "Grave of the Fireflies" is not included in the [Disney-Tokuma] deal because Tokuma Publishing does not hold the rights to it. It was produced by a company called Shinchosha.
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omiya



Joined: 21 Sep 2011
Posts: 1850
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 5:45 am Reply with quote
Samo8412 wrote:
Yeah. Stick with the Japanese release rather than the Australian or maybe hold out for the NA version. They'll charge $38 for each barebones film like they've been doing for the past few years.


Which past Madman blu-ray release(s) have been barebones? Although the extras for Princess Mononoke aren't much, what I'd really like would be an English-subtitled:

[Princess Mononoke (Mononoke Hime)] How the film was conceived (wa Koushite Umareta)
「もののけ姫」はこうして生まれた
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Samo2222





PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 7:12 am Reply with quote
omiya wrote:

Which past Madman blu-ray release(s) have been barebones?

Just about every one of them to date, with a very small percentage of them getting artboxes if they're a series. Either way, expect the extras (if any) to all come from the U.K. side of things. Australian companies usually take the exact content from the U.K. releases for Blu-Rays anyway (Persona 4) and charge a higher price.

The Japanese releases are much better than anything we'll ever get for quality, can't speak about extras yet, they can go either way. Still, if I wanted the films at the moment I'd pay the extra $20-25 for the nicer Japanese releases, which include subtitles rather than feed Madman. I can't say I'm a fan of their home releases when better quality content can be found cheaper overseas.
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Ryu Shoji



Joined: 15 Jul 2009
Posts: 676
Location: Cambridge, United Kingdom
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 7:53 am Reply with quote
Samo8412 wrote:
omiya wrote:

Which past Madman blu-ray release(s) have been barebones?

Just about every one of them to date, with a very small percentage of them getting artboxes if they're a series. Either way, expect the extras (if any) to all come from the U.K. side of things. Australian companies usually take the exact content from the U.K. releases for Blu-Rays anyway (Persona 4) and charge a higher price.

The Japanese releases are much better than anything we'll ever get for quality, can't speak about extras yet, they can go either way. Still, if I wanted the films at the moment I'd pay the extra $20-25 for the nicer Japanese releases, which include subtitles rather than feed Madman. I can't say I'm a fan of their home releases when better quality content can be found cheaper overseas.

It's actually the opposite - the UK tends to use Australian master copies for almost everything.
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pachy_boy



Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 1336
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 8:13 am Reply with quote
Lucky for the UK that they get Ghibli titles faster than we do, while getting most other Anime titles later than us. Having a region-free player, I'm most tempted to pick these releases up right away, The Cat Returns most especially. One can only hope this entails they'll get a North American release by the end of this year. To this day, however, only in the UK can you get a Blu-ray of Tales from Earthsea and the UK-dub version of Arrietty (although the American audio is still solid, the UK version is definitely superior), which were definitely not bare-bones releases and actually had an abundance of behind-the-scenes features one would never find on the North American releases.
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wonderwomanhero





PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 12:55 pm Reply with quote
I understand that we will probably never see Only Yesterday here in the States due to the harmless mention of menstruation, but what about Ocean Waves?
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Anime_Otaku35



Joined: 01 Sep 2010
Posts: 74
Location: USA
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 2:38 pm Reply with quote
wonderwomanhero wrote:
I understand that we will probably never see Only Yesterday here in the States due to the harmless mention of menstruation, but what about Ocean Waves?


A reference to the female menstrual cycle is also made in Ocean Waves. I really wish the films would get a US release. I finally got tired of waiting and decided to import the Japanese BD for Only Yesterday, and I will upgrade my R2 Ocean Waves DVD to BD when it's released.
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omiya



Joined: 21 Sep 2011
Posts: 1850
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 2:48 pm Reply with quote
pachy_boy wrote:
To this day, however, only in the UK can you get a Blu-ray of Tales from Earthsea and the UK-dub version of Arrietty (although the American audio is still solid, the UK version is definitely superior), which were definitely not bare-bones releases and actually had an abundance of behind-the-scenes features one would never find on the North American releases.


http://www.madman.com.au/catalogue/view/17469/tales-from-earthsea-bluray

The Madman release of Arrietty contains the UK English dub (can't tell from what I can find online if it also contains the US English dub but I suspect it does).
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