Forum - View topicREVIEW: The Wings of Honneamise DVD
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Ryusui
 Posts: 463 |
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Am I the only one who read the review just to see how Bandai Visual screwed up yet again?
They're using Manga's dubs, dammit. I can only think of two Manga dubs that were worth crap: they'd be Lupin the 3rd: The Castle of Cagliostro and Macross Plus, of course, and to this day they're legendary (though I'd love to see Cagliostro redubbed with Geneon's cast, just for the fun of it). The rest? Imagine "Bizarro 4Kids": shows butchered to make them crass instead of kiddy. I could only suffer through Patlabor for about five minutes before switching to the sub track (which I didn't have to fork over a hundred bucks for). Cheap-ass releases at exorbitant prices. Yep, that's Bandai Visual for you. You know what news I'd love to hear out of them? That they're pulling out of the American market entirely. That'd be the only thing they could say at this point that would even remotely satisfy me. Odds are it's their parasitizing the SRW:OGS OVA that's giving Atlus second thoughts about bringing the game over... |
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Bunchuu of Chouka
 Posts: 92 Location: Toledo, Ohio |
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If I'm not mistaken, isn't this new release of Honneamise being released as both a DVD+Blu-ray combo and a DVD+HDDVD combo? In other words, consumers can't just buy a plain old DVD, right?
That's just plain ridiculous. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15578 |
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There's not enough money to be made on a dvd release alone, and the regular anime dvd market is oversaturated. So I'm guessing they figured they should go directly to the hi-def market, which can reach new users who may not necessarily buy anime, but who are looking for anything which looks nice on their HD-sets. The only real rip-off I've seen from them so far is the Diebuster vs Gunbuster "movie". |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8502 Location: Penguinopolis |
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The Wings of Honneamise is one of my favorite anime movies, and I've been waiting for a good DVD release of it for a while, but jeez, talk about overpriced. I guess I'll wait for a while and keep looking for deals on it and I may be able to afford it some day.
I'm irritated that there isn't a DVD-only release, but I'm also glad that it isn't just a Blu-Ray release that ignores the people who haven't quite moved onto Blu-Ray yet. |
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ChikaraFire_7
 Posts: 35 Location: Ontario,Canada |
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I though Noein was also a good dub, though I can see your point as for Wings, it sounds like a noteworthy title that I may end up renting, or waiting till it drops in price. |
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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A C for music? I suppose you are not a big fan of YMO. I have a good amount of Sakamoto's 70s stuff, and my roommate (who doesn't watch anime) is also a fairly big fan. I think calling it "cheap-sounding synthesized music" is a bit harsh since it sounds like great classic new age music to me. The closest contemporary to Sakamoto in my collection would be the amazing Vangelis who did the music for such greats like Blade Runner, 1492 (one of my favorite CDs) and Chariots of Fire. The Honneamise OST is a must buy if you love this sort of stuff.
Paramount has also released the new Star Trek (with new CG effects) television series in a HD-DVD/DVD combo for a whopping $200. If you want to watch the newly mastered Trek episodes you need to buy the box set which also includes the HD version and costs an insane amount. This is not just a problem with BV. As for the release itself, I noticed that the menus are in Japanese and you need to select the Kanji eigo or nihongo on the option menus. Although this shouldn't be a problem for most to figure out it confirms (I believe) that this is the exact same pressing as the Japanese release which is also region code A for Blu and codeless for HD-DVD. IT indeed is bad enough to double dip for this title and have two copies, but getting a third copy with it is getting plain silly. |
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W-General
Posts: 280 Location: Ithaca, NY, USA / Taichung, Taiwan |
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Although it is very expensive, it might be a first for me to get into anime in high def, put that PS3 of my roommate's to good use...or not - we don't have a HDTV, so it'll look exactly the same on our SDTV, oops!
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18461 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Oh, let's not put this work in the same category as the soundtracks for Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire. I like good New Age music, but even if you consider this to be "good," it doesn't fit the movie. I thought I was being generous by giving it a C+ and not rating the movie down overall just because of the inappropriate soundtrack. Actually, that's an interesting point. The OST might sound better separately than it does as part of the movie. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15578 |
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Randall: There's a difference between all of Star Trek for that price, and two hours of Honneamise. I'd say that forthcoming Blade Runner set's a better example.
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Swissman
Posts: 797 Location: Switzerland |
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That's really a matter of personal experience and taste. A "C" grade is simply too harsh 
Like the movie itself, the electronic new age soundtrack by Sakamoto is unusual for anime and therefore often points to itself instead of "vanishing" behind the scenes. I own about 240 anime soundtracks, as well as some of Vangelis (Antarctica), and the one of Honneamise is one of my personal favorites among them, up to par with soundtracks like Patlabor 2, Metropolis and Macross+. The opening scene of Honneamise with Shirotsugu standing in the snow with the sunset sky, gazing at a distant plane and the following b/w illustrations with Sakamoto's opening piece, was and still is an incredibly haunting experience for me. Or the piano piece when Shirotsugu experiences his first flight with the military airplane, or the one during the countdown and the war breaking out. I could go on an on. The only track I didn't really appreciate and, in my opinion, didn't fit the appropriate scene was the one at spoiler[the professor's funeral]. That was the only moment I thought the synthesizer(s) sounded too cheaply. |
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james039
Posts: 103 |
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I hope BV decides to bring their prices down at least a little, before ever considering leaving North America, because if they do, you can expect to see none of their titles here ever again, and BV Japan's anime catalog is huge.
With regards to Wings of Honneamise, I think they would drastically improve their sales even if they just brought it down to $59.99 MSRP (most would then be able to find it for as low as $45-$50), and added a regular DVD option for $39.99 MSRP. I for one, as much as I want to pick this up (I saw this on TV in the 90's and loved it), won't bite until I find a copy for less than $50. |
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Xenofan 29A
 Posts: 378 |
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I hate to bring this up, and I'll preface by mentioning that while I primarily watch subtitled anime, I do not dislike dubs on principle. That said, I hated Wings of Honnemise's dub, to the point where I thought it truly ruined the movie. I felt that the scipt changes were significant, and that (I know I disagree with you here, Theron) the climactic scene was horribly ruined in the dub version.
I liked Patlabor 2's redub version, and would have enjoyed BVUSA doing a new dub for this film. I know you're a dub fan, Theron, but what do you like about Honneamise's dub? |
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Chrno2
 Posts: 6172 Location: USA |
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Didn't we do a review on this a couple of weeks ago?
It was on the 'Shelf Life' section. So they basically didn't do anything to the DVD. Just relicensed it under the 'Honneamise' label and sell it for a crap load. But hey look you get a choice of 'Blu-Ray' or 'HD' (which I care for neither), while getting the regular edition. I really am buying an import aren't I? I guess all those who bought it the first time are glad they did. BVUSA is going to learn the hard way that people are just not going to spend that type of money on DVDs. I just got through telling myself this last night. If they're waiting for the hardcore who like buying imports then they'll be waiting a long time. Thanks 'Bandai Visual USA', you fracked up 'GB' and now you want folks to shell out for this, and there's nothing special done about it. Call me when you have something good and you've regained your marketing senses.
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Ryusui
Posts: 463 |
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"Regained"? That implies they had some to begin with.
On a side note, I apologize for the blanket statement regarding Manga's releases. I had no idea Noein was a Manga release...what little I saw of the English dub was good, but then I wasn't quite able to follow it because it aired on Sci-Fi Channel's crappy "Ani-Monday" block. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18461 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Er, if you'll note my grades I did mark the Overall (dub) grade down a notch compared to the Overall (sub) grade, which indicates that I did not feel the dub, overall, was on the same level as the subtitled version. Also keep in mind that is is an Overall grade, so I am not saying that I necessarily think it was an A- dub effort. (As a separate grade I'd probably give it a C or C-.) That said, it was not so bad a dub that it "horribly ruined" any part of the movie - at least in my view anyway. (Gods, if you think this one is bad, I could cite some far, far worse examples. . .) I found Shiro to be perfectly fine in English; I think I even prefer that voice. Most of the supporting cast members also sounded at least passable to me, especially the old men. I only really thought the dub broke down in Riquinni and a couple of minor roles, so the downgrade was for that performance and the significant script changes. It does not sound like we're going to agree at all on this. I just found it less intolerable than you apparently did. |
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