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REVIEW: Macross DVD 4


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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15604
PostPosted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 1:08 pm Reply with quote
Dude, the animation is not that bad. Sure, they cut corners in certain places, but it still looks better than many shows of that period, such as Gatchaman and certain second series second season Lupin episodes. If you want a really horrible mecha anime from the 80's, try Orguss.
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sykosteve



Joined: 22 Jul 2006
Posts: 356
Location: columbus, ga
PostPosted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 12:16 am Reply with quote
I'm thinking of buying macross, but i'm iffy on whether i should go with Animeigo's version or ADV's version. I don't care much for dubs, and Animeigo already has box sets out, but did ADV do anything better with the visual remastering than animeigo has already done?
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Key
Moderator


Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18496
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 12:42 am Reply with quote
Don't know about the visuals, as I've never seen the AnimEigo but the audio quality is undoubtedly better with the ADV version. (Well, the dub, anyway. The Japanese track isn't even in stereo.) The ADV version also has some respectable extras.
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Steventheeunuch





PostPosted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 12:48 am Reply with quote
Key wrote:
(Well, the dub, anyway. The Japanese track isn't even in stereo.)


But that's not really suprising, considering the age of the material and the format it was originally meant for (TV, 1980's, basically everything was mono)
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Renaisance Otaku



Joined: 15 Jan 2004
Posts: 469
Location: Modesto, CA
PostPosted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 2:03 am Reply with quote
If you don't intend on watching the dub, then go with Animeigo. Personally, I don't consider remixing audio an automatic improvement. It's updating sure, but there's nothing wrong with mono for a show from the early 80s. The reason the Animeigo is better in this respect was that Animeigo secured a different Japanese track from Big West. They were in better condition than the Harmony Gold ones. Since Animeigo got it themselves, ADV uses the HG track. Basically, most fan report that it's considerably cleaner. It' also in mirorred stereo. The video's the same, also remastered by Animeigo.

Another Macross fan offers his opinion.

Quote:
Well, having heard that the newer edition's original Japanese audio isn't as good as the Animeigo release. . . I just compared.

It's much worse on the new edition.

The volume level is much lower, and things just sound "fuzzier". . . not to mention that I don't think it's really even in stereo anymore (no difference in the sound piped to each side).

Tried to watch a bit of the 5.1 english dub. The sound effects are drastically different too. In "Burst Point". . . when Skull Team tries to engage the battle cruisers, the signature gunpod sound is totally replaced with a generic laser gun sound, etc.

Now, I don't know if they degraded the original Japanese audio track because the DVD didn't have enough room on it (yet Animeigo was fitting four episodes on a single-layer DVD!) or just because they didn't want "competition" for their english audio (or some other reason). . . but it's certainly a cryin' shame. To my ears, the Japanese track on the new edition isn't even worth the viewing anymore.

If you want SDF Macross, and you want it subtitled, there's only one real choice: Animeigo. Get it while you still can.


Also of note is that the on disc liner notes are also from Animeigo. They were included as cards, per Animeigo tradition.

So if you're not interested in the dub, as well as ADV's extas, you have little reason not to just pick up the Animeigo set. HG's been selling it at cons for forty bucks. That, and while not as pretty as ADV's, I like how the covers detail the characters, and not just the mecha. Macross was always more about the characters and story to me, not just transforming machines. They already made that approach with Robotech, couldn't they have done otherwise fo Macross?

As for the sub and dub, I thought the sub was pretty much perfect, whereas the dub has the more questionable casting/acting. A lot of characters didn't sound quite right and rather flat (I can't really stand Misa). I actually pefered some of Robotech's voices over it. It's not a bad dub, but I'd hardly consider it superior in anything other than number of channels. I've already mentione I'm not a fan of watching mono shows in ways they weren't intended. It just messes with things too much.

Why do so many rag on Orguss, by the way? It's a shame US Renditions never finished it. I though it was rathe interesting and hea it gets really good past where it was released.
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DKL



Joined: 08 May 2005
Posts: 1962
Location: California, USA
PostPosted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 4:54 am Reply with quote
Which reminds me, DAMN the quasi-recap episode was cheap... there was some new footage, I guess. It did get the point through... but man... it was cheap.

That said, I'm pretty satisfied with the dub for the series; it's pretty obvious that Matt Greenfield knows what he's doing... I'm even getting use to Mari Ijima's accent (which I think should be toned down *I think it was made a little thicker on purpose* given that it does interfere with her delviery here and there... but it's getting better, so no worries for me).

I really liked Greg Aryes and his running crew; it was funny.

I really liked Vic's chemistry with Monica.

Anyway, this is right up there with Greenfield's Gantz, but... you know, without the super swearing.

In the end though, when I think about it, the only reason why I even picked up this series was because of the dub... but, now I'm glad that I did since it's actually a real fun show that has a neat way of glorifying angst and whatever; a little crude (yeah... because of the production values), but surprsingly stylish (there were great sequences... even if they weren't conveyed as effectively as they should've been).

And I feel that the battle scenes actually have this logical cohesion to them, which is cool.

Oh! And I really like the music! Though, I do think that Mari Ijima should re-sing them for the English track... but, there could be various reasons why this wasn't done (licensing issues... too much time in the booth... no non-vocal tracks for the songs... etc.).

Yeah... can't wait for the next one.
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bennyb



Joined: 06 Jun 2006
Posts: 477
PostPosted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 7:36 am Reply with quote
In response to Gatsu, I think saying the age of the animations shows as the only bad quality means just that; there's really no other flaws to this title.

And that is rather ironic that an older release has better quality japanese audio. Huh.
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sykosteve



Joined: 22 Jul 2006
Posts: 356
Location: columbus, ga
PostPosted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 12:32 pm Reply with quote
well...with all that said, i'm gonna get the animeigo version while i still can. thanks for the input folks.
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Greg Aubry



Joined: 10 Feb 2006
Posts: 224
Location: Detroit, MI
PostPosted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 12:03 pm Reply with quote
Call it nitpicking if you will, but I find the pronunciation of "Macross" ("muh-CROSS") in this dub to be very irritating, when Robotech, Macross II and Macross Plus's dubs all set the precedent for it being pronounced differently ("MAC-ross"). Apart from that glaring annoyance, it's a pretty decent dub, overall.
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StudioToledo



Joined: 16 Aug 2006
Posts: 847
Location: Toledo, U.S.A.
PostPosted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 3:03 pm Reply with quote
Renaisance Otaku wrote:
Why do so many rag on Orguss, by the way? It's a shame US Renditions never finished it. I though it was rathe interesting and hea it gets really good past where it was released.

I feel your pain too!
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hanachan01



Joined: 11 Dec 2005
Posts: 504
PostPosted: Sat Aug 19, 2006 11:13 pm Reply with quote
Greg Aubry wrote:
Call it nitpicking if you will, but I find the pronunciation of "Macross" ("muh-CROSS") in this dub to be very irritating, when Robotech, Macross II and Macross Plus's dubs all set the precedent for it being pronounced differently ("MAC-ross"). Apart from that glaring annoyance, it's a pretty decent dub, overall.


I found this confusing too. In an ad for Anime Network, Mari Iijima said it MAC-ross, where was in the dub, it's said muh-CROSS. Oh well. It's a good dub otherwise! I'm a huge fan of Vic's from FMA, so that was one of the reasons I bought this anime. The other was because I was curious to see how Mari Iijima sounded compared to her original Japanese performance. I haven't heard the Japanese track yet, but I plan to. I'm only on episode 3, but I really like it so far.
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Kouji



Joined: 01 Oct 2005
Posts: 978
PostPosted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 9:41 am Reply with quote
Greg Aubry wrote:
Call it nitpicking if you will, but I find the pronunciation of "Macross" ("muh-CROSS") in this dub to be very irritating, when Robotech, Macross II and Macross Plus's dubs all set the precedent for it being pronounced differently ("MAC-ross"). Apart from that glaring annoyance, it's a pretty decent dub, overall.
Furthermore, the Japanese version also pronounces it "MAC-ross". Since ADV is supposed to be staying closer to the original version with this redub, why did they mispronounce it "muh-CROSS"? I just don't see how the name Macross is hard to pronounce. How do you get "muh" out of it?
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sykosteve



Joined: 22 Jul 2006
Posts: 356
Location: columbus, ga
PostPosted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 4:28 pm Reply with quote
Do they put more emphasis on the Cross portion of the word? I can see very easily how an american would draw Muh Cross from Macross...but people in this industry should definitely know the proper way -_-
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indrik



Joined: 22 Jul 2006
Posts: 365
Location: yonder
PostPosted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 4:49 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, just like that: muh-CROSS. It hurt my head. At least I'm not the only crazy one.

GATSU wrote:
Dude, the animation is not that bad. Sure, they cut corners in certain places, but it still looks better than many shows of that period, such as Gatchaman and certain second series second season Lupin episodes. If you want a really horrible mecha anime from the 80's, try Orguss.


I've been thinking about this lately, watching a lot of mid 80s stuff. If you'll forgive me meming on your idea in a kind of off topic way. I just saw Dagger of Kamui for the first time in years. It's hard to judge the older stuff fairly, but I think a review like that has to compare even the older shows to what's out now. I mean, if you can remember Gatchaman and Orguss, it's a completely different perspective from somebody who's comparing it to Fullmetal Alchemist or something. There are some great spots in Kamui, and I don't think there's much that can compare to the painted backgrounds. But somebody coming from a current state of the art perspective is probably going to think "80s" watching it. So I think the review was fair.

Plus, there are some horrifically bad moments in Macross, balanced by some pretty good ones. Like, where Hikaru looks like his neck is jointed in ways no other human neck is jointed, or spots when the Valkyries transform by Magic. Heh.
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hanachan01



Joined: 11 Dec 2005
Posts: 504
PostPosted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 11:32 am Reply with quote
I emailed Vic, and he said that the reason that the dub prounces it muh-CROSS is because Matt Greenfield, the director, said that is was the 'correct' way to say it. He said was confused at first as well. Why it is the 'correct' way, neither he nor I know.
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