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ANNCast - Discoteknocracy




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KitKat1721



Joined: 03 Feb 2015
Posts: 974
PostPosted: Fri Apr 05, 2019 6:04 pm Reply with quote
I've purposefully avoided re-watching the 2001 Fruits Basket, but I did re-read the manga in anticipation, and I'm glad to hear Zac's really been enjoying it. I remember I couldn't get a single guy in my anime-manga circle in college to give it a chance purely based on its demographic.

I would love that original Legend of Arslan OVA re-released, although I'll be honest, I think we've been pretty lucky lately of getting new releases of old series, so I'm trying to appreciate and save up for those announcements, rather than just keep making longer wishlists of unlicensed/released older anime. So yeah, thanks Discotek and every other company that takes those chances!

Also, I'm pretty sure FMA (2003) wasn't released on blu-ray until years after Brotherhood came out, and even then, I think it was because they knew the license was going to expire in just over a year, especially given how they released three separate sets for it.
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 10002
Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Fri Apr 05, 2019 9:14 pm Reply with quote
I preordered Kimagure Orange Road from Right Stuf! when I first heard it was being offered on the site. I got my copy Monday. It really looks amazing. It would have been nice if Justin could have mentioned the quality of material he had to work on this show.

This is the third copy copy of the TV series I've bought. I got the VHS and DVD versions direct from AnimEigo when they first released them. Added to this, DMP finally turned loose my copies of the manga just a few weeks ago. Now all I need are the OVAs and movies on Bluray.
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LumRanmaYasha



Joined: 23 Jun 2017
Posts: 14
PostPosted: Fri Apr 05, 2019 9:46 pm Reply with quote
Man, it's crazy to me how many people seem to have turned on the 2001 Fruits Basket anime. It was so beloved back in the day, and this backlash feels really recent. I revisited the anime in anticipation of the reboot and I still love it a lot personally. People's tastes in comedy differ, but I jive with the absurd visual gags and manic comedy of the 2001 Fruits Basket and Kodacha. I also felt exaggerating the comedy contrasted well with the emotional parts of the show and enhanced the effect of both. That said, I completely understand why Takaya was unhappy with it as the tone and characterization stray far from her vision, and am looking forward to watching the new show as a more accurate encapsulation of it. Though, comparing the two, I admittedly do prefer the creative direction and aesthetics of the older show - the color palette of the new show is so bright and the look of it feels so much more homogenous, whereas I don't think another show quite looks like the original anime and the color choices convey more depth and ambiance. I have a feeling that ultimately I'll prefer the new anime for its story and the old anime for its artistry.
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Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5499
Location: Iscandar
PostPosted: Fri Apr 05, 2019 10:28 pm Reply with quote
It is great to have Justin back.

And yep, uncertain times are coming for anime. Hopefully our beloved hobby survives without too much damage.
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Just Passing Through



Joined: 04 Apr 2011
Posts: 277
PostPosted: Sat Apr 06, 2019 11:56 am Reply with quote
Respect to the One Cut of the Dead movie shout out. My fave movie of the year.

Blu-ray innovations. Frame reverse would be nice. Remember DVD players could do that. Players that load BDs as fast as DVDs, java content that always works. My biggest wish, laser diodes that last. I miss that. I have a Sony DVD player from 2000 which still works, a Sony Discman almost 30 years old that I still use. I use that discman because two music systems that I bought within the last 10 years, the lasers have failed. Been through three DVD ROMs, and three Blu-ray players because the lasers always fail after less than three years of use.
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LightningCount



Joined: 04 Mar 2018
Posts: 238
PostPosted: Sat Apr 06, 2019 3:17 pm Reply with quote
Fantastic show and great to have Justin back!

I especially enjoyed the final discussion on the current reshuffling of the entertainment industry. Very few media outlets acknowledge the subtleties of these things like you guys do. The conversation on what media "clicks" with anime fans was also thought-provoking. There's definitely story structure and design choices that make anime more unique than a lot of the overly Westernized co-productions, which try to cram things into too neat of a box. But it's the quirks, and the risks taken therein, that make anime really sing--sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. That's part of what makes me wary of this rush to do live-action adaptations, even if Alita was a solid showing.

Speaking of which, I would have liked to hear Justin's thoughts on the Hollywood Alita...

The general consolidation of media going on is certainly concerning on some levels. But regarding Castlevania on Netflix, I think that was a situation where you have a very famous and influential Japanese video game property that hasn't gotten a lot of love in recent years (that's starting to change), and so it brought with it some built-in crossover interest within the anime community and larger general audience. Even being a huge fan of Castlevania, I still haven't checked it out yet, as I wasn't too pleased with some of the blatant changes to the story I've heard (i.e. spoiler[No Grant; Sypha's not an agent of the Eastern Orthodox Church; few iconic locales or enemies utilized, etc.]) and am not big on Netflix in general. (Plus, there's part of me that wishes it got more of a Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust-level treatment.)

Regarding Macross and Robotech...It's time for the Macross franchise to be released overseas en masse. Toonami's 1998 showing of Robotech was one of the things that got me interested in anime, and I still think its unique telling and its significantly expanded Del Rey Books novelizations (1987-1996) are a legitimate scifi/mecha franchise unto itself--even Macross has, coincidentally or not, co-opted some ideas seen earlier in Robotech over the years, such as Guld's mind-controlled fighter in Macross Plus. But speaking as a fan, "Robotech" has been handled poorly on multiple fronts for at least a decade now, and it shouldn't have come at the cost of Macross series not getting official, unedited Western releases. Both fan bases, and crossover fans who appreciate both like myself, haven't been served well by this. (Robotech took an extra hit, in my opinion, when, like Disney's later treatment of Star Wars, so much of the Expanded Universe-style stuff was dismissed to rewrite a new continuation that became the underwhelming Shadow Chronicles.) I do wonder if this will be the moment or not for Macross to be set free, because somehow the results have gone the other way in the past even when there wasn't much logic behind that. One wonders how this affects the Robotech live-action movie, which despite my trepidation, is getting closer to going into production than previously.

Hopefully the newest Evangelion will have a smoother release than 3.33. That was painful, and the final product after such a long wait didn't help matters for this casual/mid-level EVA fan.

The story of Justin working on Cyborg 009 was unbelievable. But I appreciate his dedication to the process and product. I saw pieces of it on Toonami and wasn't overwhelmed by it, though I did pick up the Sony release when I saw it in a clearance bin years later. That release felt haphazard compared to your general domestic anime release. It almost somehow felt more like an import, actually. The show itself does have some interesting sequences from what I've seen in that Sony set, but it didn't fully grab me. Regardless, while Cyborg 009 wasn't my cup of tea, Discotek has definitely brought back a lot of great content.

Keep up the great work!
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Lemonchest



Joined: 18 Mar 2015
Posts: 1771
PostPosted: Sat Apr 06, 2019 4:08 pm Reply with quote
As someone who still likes the 2001 Fruits Basket well enough & hasn't read the manga, I'm curious to see whether being more faithful to the authors vision will mean a better show for those who've no attachment to it.
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 6900
Location: Kazune City
PostPosted: Sun Apr 07, 2019 11:49 am Reply with quote
The original Fruits Basket singles from 2002-03 only had 6-7 episodes per disc, not 8-9. Though the alternate angles were an issue, as were the somewhat lengthy live-action extras that added even more stress against the bitrate/space limits. It seems like the best release of Früb '01 was the 2011/14 Collectors' / Anime Classics DVD version, which took out the alternate angles and did an overall better encode. But those discs were strangely out-of-print by the time the "Sweet 16" Blu-Rays came out, and those had Bad Upscale Things done to them. If they'd included those DVDs with the BDs as a combo (in which case, all the authoring/QC steps and costs would've already been accomplished and paid for), I would've bought the set, but since they didn't, I guess I'm sticking with the original singles. No sense paying more to trade out one set of issues for another.

The talk about old shows looking "like a VHS" on new TVs makes me glad I haven't even upgraded to a 1080p TV, let alone 4K. By staying with a 720p (or possibly 768p) TV I got at a pawn shop back in 2013, I might lose out on some enhancement or extra perceived quality with HD material. However, DVDs and SD downloaded files still look acceptable on it, so that small tradeoff is well worthwhile.

The "spam a wishlist of old stuff every time Discotek announces something" phenomenon is alive and kicking on these very forums. And to illustrate it... prompted by a rewatch, I'd been wondering why no one's brought back Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok. With the Marvel/Thor stuff bringing Norse mythology into the geek culture mainstream, it feels like there would've been some interest, at least for streaming if not for a disc re-release. Then again, it is very much an SD digipaint show from 2003, and it's in 4:3. Maybe the window of opportunity was there 4-6 years ago, but not so much now. And the 2008 collection can still be found for around MSRP, rather than mega-inflated OOP prices. So I trust that Discotek knows what they're doing -- I'm grateful for the lesser-known once-licensed or never-licensed 2000s titles that they do manage to go back for.

Regarding "remakes not competing with old versions," it sounded like the conversation got a little sidetracked when talking about Funimation and FMA '03. Perhaps it was heading for something like "Funi managed to dump a bunch of sets on the market at the last minute before their license expired"?
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Shar Aznabull



Joined: 12 Jan 2015
Posts: 236
PostPosted: Sun Apr 07, 2019 7:58 pm Reply with quote
As one of the five people who really loves the 2001 Cyborg 009 I owe Justin a big thank you for that hell he went through Laughing
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4609
PostPosted: Mon Apr 08, 2019 12:27 pm Reply with quote
KitKat1721 wrote:
I've purposefully avoided re-watching the 2001 Fruits Basket, but I did re-read the manga in anticipation, and I'm glad to hear Zac's really been enjoying it. I remember I couldn't get a single guy in my anime-manga circle in college to give it a chance purely based on its demographic.

I would love that original Legend of Arslan OVA re-released, although I'll be honest, I think we've been pretty lucky lately of getting new releases of old series, so I'm trying to appreciate and save up for those announcements, rather than just keep making longer wishlists of unlicensed/released older anime. So yeah, thanks Discotek and every other company that takes those chances!

Also, I'm pretty sure FMA (2003) wasn't released on blu-ray until years after Brotherhood came out, and even then, I think it was because they knew the license was going to expire in just over a year, especially given how they released three separate sets for it.


Agreed. I didn't think much of it at the time aside from being happy that my favorite series was finally getting a blu-ray version. I had pretty well given up on that when it had been years since the movie got a blu-ray and all the focus seemed to shift to Brotherhood. Once the Aniplex licenses started expiring, the timing made more sense.
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NJ_



Joined: 31 Oct 2009
Posts: 3100
Location: Wallington, NJ
PostPosted: Mon Apr 08, 2019 6:34 pm Reply with quote
Zalis116 wrote:
The original Fruits Basket singles from 2002-03 only had 6-7 episodes per disc, not 8-9. Though the alternate angles were an issue, as were the somewhat lengthy live-action extras that added even more stress against the bitrate/space limits. It seems like the best release of Früb '01 was the 2011/14 Collectors' / Anime Classics DVD version, which took out the alternate angles and did an overall better encode. But those discs were strangely out-of-print by the time the "Sweet 16" Blu-Rays came out, and those had Bad Upscale Things done to them. If they'd included those DVDs with the BDs as a combo (in which case, all the authoring/QC steps and costs would've already been accomplished and paid for), I would've bought the set, but since they didn't, I guess I'm sticking with the original singles. No sense paying more to trade out one set of issues for another.


The 2014 Anime Classics release was missing the bonus DVD where all previously-released extras were moved to leaving the set itself to only have the 2011 video commentary with the main 4 dub VAs as it's only extra. Both Blu-ray releases brought that DVD back (and I think was another new encode since the menu has the current release's logo) but I don't see it staying in-print for long since FUNi's dropping bonus discs for re-releases again (see Lucky Star and I bet Haruhi will also be next).

As for not including the DVDs, maybe it had to do with the video source? The BDs used the 2016 Japanese upscale I believe and they thought it wouldn't be worth doing new DVDs with that source? Might not be the right answer but I do agree that it is odd since they didn't start dropping DVDs from re-releases completely until last Summer.with the rebranded Classics & Essentials (former SAVE) lines.
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Just Passing Through



Joined: 04 Apr 2011
Posts: 277
PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 9:12 am Reply with quote
And One Cut of the Dead gets US distribution through AMC's Shudder...

https://variety.com/2019/film/asia/one-cut-of-the-dead-north-america-shudder-1203183919/
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sazaneyes



Joined: 09 Apr 2019
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 6:23 pm Reply with quote
Justin mentioned wanting to work on Megazone 23. AnimEigo just announced that it will be their next Kickstarter.

https://www.animeherald.com/2019/04/09/animeigo-acquires-megazone-23-ova/
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Nom De Plume De Fanboy
Subscriber
Exempt from Grammar Rules


Joined: 14 Jan 2011
Posts: 631
Location: inland US west, pretty rural
PostPosted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 6:31 pm Reply with quote
Just saw this in a KickStarter update from Animeigo ( #33, for Gunsmith Cats ):

"We are happy to announce that our next project will be Megazone 23. More details soon!"

Might just make some people happy.
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falseinfinity



Joined: 20 Dec 2018
Posts: 13
PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2019 11:39 pm Reply with quote
Does anyone know what the other ANNCast episode is where Justin first mentions Cyborg 009?
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