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NEWS: HD Wings of Honneamise, Akira Slated for North America


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Dranxis



Joined: 23 Feb 2005
Posts: 591
Location: Ohtori Academy
PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 7:21 pm Reply with quote
I've always wanted to see Wings of Honneamise since I'm a huge Gainax fan, but I heard the quality of the older DVD release was crap. So I'm pretty excited about a HD release. Very Happy

Though, I wonder how much better Akira could be than it already is. The current DVD version was painstakingly cleaned cel by cel, or something.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15564
PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 7:39 pm Reply with quote
Does this mean that BV now has the rights to Akira? Or are they just re-mastering it for Geneon?
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HellKorn



Joined: 03 Oct 2006
Posts: 1669
Location: Columbus, OH
PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 7:54 pm Reply with quote
... Wait, Blu Ray as well in addition to the previous DVD/HD-DVD release for The Wings of Honneamise? Since the DVD/HD-DVD is a dual format disc (or whatever the hell it's called), then does mean that the Blu Ray is separate? Or will there be a DVD/Blu Ray combo? Or they've snuffed their DVD/HD-DVD plan and will release it across three separate formats?

I'm confuzzled.

Regardless, I'm buying Honneamise in some form because I love it way too much to pass it up -- it is my favorite anime film, after all.

Also, I'm echoing Gatsu's question on Akira. I know that BV USA recently shook hands with Geneon USA, but that was simply for distribution of their DVDs. Does this mean that their talk(s) went further than that...?
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Deltakiral



Joined: 07 Oct 2004
Posts: 3338
Location: Glendora, CA (Avatar Hei from Darker than BLACK)
PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 8:05 pm Reply with quote
I guess I should be excited but for some reason I can't. Maybe when I finally see the final product all be more excited. As for the Akira Licensing dilemma (if you can called it that.) isn't BV partnered with Geneon? So it's not to unreasonable to think that there might be a HD release by BV made widely available by Geneon.
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hikura



Joined: 21 Nov 2004
Posts: 565
PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 8:16 pm Reply with quote
They already announced the hd dvd release of Wings of Honneamise at animeboston(they must have decided to go with blue ray also).That is old news.
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Deltakiral



Joined: 07 Oct 2004
Posts: 3338
Location: Glendora, CA (Avatar Hei from Darker than BLACK)
PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 8:28 pm Reply with quote
hikura wrote:
They already announced the hd dvd release of Wings of Honneamise at animeboston(they must have decided to go with blue ray also).That is old news.


Yeah we all know about an HD release of WoH, but now we have confirmation of both Blue Ray and HD-DVD release for movie. That information was up in the air for a while.

Quote:
According to Bandai Visual after the convention, it is planning both HD DVD and Blu-Ray Disc releases for September 11. Bandai Visual is also planning a Blu-Ray Disc release of Akira, but it has not set the release date.
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Pepperidge



Joined: 13 Sep 2003
Posts: 1106
Location: British Columbia, Canada
PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:31 pm Reply with quote
For those excited: please keep in mind that these releases are going to be $70 US each. (And over $100 Canadian.)

I was going to make a comment in regards to disasters, pertaining to the release date... but I'm not even going to bother going there. Bandai Visual's business strategy transcends even the most tasteless of analogies.
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hikura



Joined: 21 Nov 2004
Posts: 565
PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:53 pm Reply with quote
Pepperidge wrote:
For those excited: please keep in mind that these releases are going to be $70 US each. (And over $100 Canadian.)

I was going to make a comment in regards to disasters, pertaining to the release date... but I'm not even going to bother going there. Bandai Visual's business strategy transcends even the most tasteless of analogies.

While i agree with you on the pricing stragey being way off.It is about time a company steps forward and releases material for either the hd dvd or blue ray market.No other company has the guts to finally start doing this.We keep badgering the other companies but keep getting the same response..we shall wait and see for the winner to come out.Like you i shall refrain from making any comments.
To Deltakiral they did say they were going to release a dual sided hd dvd/regular verison(dual sided) of the disc at animeboston.The only new part of the announcement was the blue ray verison.


Last edited by hikura on Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:55 pm; edited 1 time in total
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:55 pm Reply with quote
hikura: The other companies don't want to worry about taking the wrong side of the format war. Plus it's up to the Japanese companies to decide if they want the upgrade.
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ChrisBeveridge



Joined: 13 Apr 2002
Posts: 162
PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:55 pm Reply with quote
The Honneamise news is technically new as all we really had before was the Japanese branch indicating an August 2007 release in the US. The 9/11 date is new as is that we're getting the Blu-ray release at the same time.

In regards to the other question, Blu-ray does not have a "twin format" style disc that has both a DVD layer and a Blu-ray layer; so that release will be just the Blu-ray disc by itself - unless it's like the Japanese release where they're bundling the DVD and Blu-ray disc together in the same package (just not the same disc).

So potentially it could be cheaper. Japanese fans are irate over the inclusion of the DVD in the Blu-ray release and the presumed increase in cost because of it.
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hikura



Joined: 21 Nov 2004
Posts: 565
PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:57 pm Reply with quote
GATSU wrote:
hikura: The other companies don't want to worry about taking the wrong side of the format war. Plus it's up to the Japanese companies to decide if they want the upgrade.

Hey gatsu take a look at this link.Looks like the "war" isn't much of a war to me(just saying the major movie companies have already choosen sides).
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/soapbox/soap060107.html
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jgreen



Joined: 14 Mar 2005
Posts: 1325
Location: St. Louis, MO
PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 10:20 pm Reply with quote
hikura wrote:
We keep badgering the other companies but keep getting the same response..we shall wait and see for the winner to come out.Like you i shall refrain from making any comments.


I can certainly understand why they'd wait for a clear winner. I'm sure there are probably still people at Geneon who have nightmares from how many Laserdiscs they had to sell at deep discount when that format up and died. Razz

dranxis wrote:
I've always wanted to see Wings of Honneamise since I'm a huge Gainax fan, but I heard the quality of the older DVD release was crap.


I've read this from more than one source, but I watched the DVD not two months ago and I honestly didn't see anything wrong with it. It had some pretty nice extras, too: full director's commentary and the original short film that Gainax submitted to Bandai to score the funding for the film in the first place.

And if anyone out there is wondering why they should care about an HD release of Wings of Honneamise, I suggest running to your local bookstore and snagging a copy of the new Protoculture Addicts. Some guy named Jason Green has an article with some really good arguments as to why you NEED to see this movie. Very Happy
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15564
PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 10:24 pm Reply with quote
hikura: The consumers are the ultimate decision-makers here, not the studios. The fact that Sony dropped the price of its BD player indicates the company's feeling the heat from Toshiba. Sony's already losing to the Wii in Japan and 360 in the U.S.; those delays for MGS 4 and FF 13 aren't gonna help the situation, either. Sony might have a slight edge now, but it could change this holiday season.
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Mozilla
SPAMMER


Joined: 10 Nov 2005
Posts: 93
PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 11:01 pm Reply with quote
Honestly, I don't care.

I don't own a Blu-Ray player cause its overpriced and I will kick myself in a few years if I buy one now as they are slowly becoming cheaper and efficient, the player itself.

I already own the remastered Akira movie (didn't like it that much but still cool) ... and I don't think I need to buy it again for a small fortune (much less even thinking about CDN taxes) ... I mean, seriously are you kidding me, $80 for an anime movie that wasn't originally in HD in the first place so how much better can this old animation get to make it worth that much?
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Obsessive Touga Fan



Joined: 03 Jul 2005
Posts: 27
PostPosted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 4:36 am Reply with quote
Dranxis wrote:
Though, I wonder how much better Akira could be than it already is. The current DVD version was painstakingly cleaned cel by cel, or something.


It could, uh, be in high definition? That's the point of HD, its feature that DVD can't provide no matter how much the image has been cleaned up.

Mozilla wrote:
I mean, seriously are you kidding me, $80 for an anime movie that wasn't originally in HD in the first place


I'm not arguing that the price isn't excessive (because it really is), but the latter part is nonsense. Akira was drawn and painted by hand and shot on 35mm film. While 35mm film doesn't have resolution as such (since it's analogue), the effective resolution of it is four times the resolution of HD.

Whether there was enough detail drawn/painted there originally for the extra resolution on the HD release to be of much benefit is open to debate, though for something as detailed as Akira I don't doubt that it's worth it. At the very least, to say that it "wasn't originally in HD in the first place" is nonsense, since the original film negative was essentially at a MUCH higher resolution than HD.
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