More Miyazaki on US Blu Ray

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GeorgeC

More Miyazaki on US Blu Ray

Post by GeorgeC » August 16th, 2014, 1:49 am

The Wind Also Rises is getting the US release on November 14th... One of the faster turnarounds for a 'new' Ghibli film release in the US.
Kiki's Delivery Service and Princess Mononoke will also make their American BD debut November 14th.

These are far from the last Ghibil films licensed by Disney to debut on Blu ray...
The Cat Returns, My Neighbors the Yamadas, Pom Poko, Porco Rosso, Spirited Away, and Tales from Undersea have still not had their US Blu ray debuts although many of these films are available on BD in Japan and Europe.
Disney doesn't seem to have any plans on releasing Only Yesterday on home video in the US...

From Up on Poppy Hill was already released by another company, GKids. The supervisor of the English-dubbed and subtitled version of that film is producing the English versions of When Marney Was There and Ronia, the Robber's Daughter. There's a fair chance Disney passed on the North American theatrical and video rights for those films, too.
Grave of the Fireflies was released well over a year ago by Sentai Films on Blu ray... This was the first Ghibli film skipped over by Disney since it was already licensed by another company (the defunct Central Park Media) prior to license rescue by Sentai Films. Apparently, the film did NOT fit the Disney brand and was skipped over after CPM's license lapsed.
The Tale of Princess Kaguya is being released by GKids on October 17th... Dunno if that will be a theatrical release -- From Up On Poppy Hill HAD a limited US theatrical release before the home video debut -- but it seems like there's some decent talent lined up for the dub.

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Re: More Miyazaki on US Blu Ray November 14th

Post by droosan » August 16th, 2014, 2:28 am

Meanwhile, released just a month ago in Japan was the Hayao Miyazaki Complete Works Blu-ray boxed set:

Image

For nearly US$600 :shock: you get 13 discs containing all of Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli films, plus his Lupin the 3rd feature The Castle of Cagiostro and his music video, On Your Mark. Each of the movies includes english-language subtitles and english-dubbed dialogue tracks. They'll play in standard U.S. and Canadian Blu-ray players, too .. since Japan and North America share regions on BD.

It'd be neat to see Disney offer something comparable (I'm certain that if they did, it would at least be cheaper!) .. but I kinda doubt it'd happen.

Considering all the hoops I had to jump through just to see these movies at all back in the 1980s & 90s, it's nice to see them get even a 'bare-bones' domestic release, period. :)

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Re: More Miyazaki on US Blu Ray November 14th

Post by Buzz Bumble » August 16th, 2014, 3:05 am

... have still not had their US Blu ray debuts although many of these films are available on BD in Japan and Europe.
Most of the Studio Ghibli movies have been available on Blu-ray down here in Australia and New Zealand for a while as well.

GeorgeC

Re: More Miyazaki on US Blu Ray November 14th

Post by GeorgeC » August 16th, 2014, 11:05 am

droosan wrote:Meanwhile, released just a month ago in Japan was the Hayao Miyazaki Complete Works Blu-ray boxed set:

For nearly US$600 :shock: you get 13 discs containing all of Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli films, plus his Lupin the 3rd feature The Castle of Cagiostro and his music video, On Your Mark. Each of the movies includes english-language subtitles and english-dubbed dialogue tracks. They'll play in standard U.S. and Canadian Blu-ray players, too .. since Japan and North America share regions on BD.
......................
I'm sure it's a nice set but the thing that keeps me from buying Japanese discs now is cost.
I went through this with laserdisc and now I'm stuck with a bunch of discs nobody wants and that frankly I just don't watch anymore...

$600 actually isn't a bad price for 13 films IN Japan. I'm not personally going to splurge on something like that and do wait for sales. I got my last 3 Ghibli features for about half-off in an Amazon sale last year.

BD's are nice and portable but the Ghibli films are the exception to the rule with most Japanese BD's... they generally don't have any English soundtracks let alone subtitles of any kind. There are very few films outside of the Ghibli releases that aren't coming to the US that I'd bother to buy personally. The extras on the Ghibli BD's from what I understand are basically the same as the US releases with few exceptions but unlike the feature films they don't have English subtitles, period, so for a non-Japanese speaker you're buying extra stuff you're not gonna be able to enjoy. Gotta admit I've never bothered to watch the storyboard/animatic version of any of the Ghibli films, period.

It's frustrating to see the Ghibli releases available everywhere else in the major English-speaking parts of the world but I do understand about regional marketing and sales. Besides, the US gets more anime imported than the other territories outside of Asia and in general the US releases of anime don't get cut or censored as often as in other countries. For all the complaints about localization on contemporary releases, editing rarely happens in the US aside from broadcasts on Cartoon Network and other non pay-for-play TV channels.

Castle of Cagliostro is coming to the US late this year on Blu ray, probably early next year. The US release is being held up again because of the fact that the film owners want at least a half-year to sell the discs in Japan before Eastern Star/Diskotek Media releases what will be a much cheaper US edition (of the same thing). I don't think Cagliostro is Miyazaki's best work let alone the best Lupin III feature but it is worth getting (again!) on BD.

The US BD release of Cagliostro will be the first time in over 15 years that the original English dub will be available on home video in the States. The two previous DVD releases by Manga Video only had the second English dubbed version of the feature. The situation's like Akira. Some people like one dub generally better than the other but still a lot of people are curious about the differences between the dubs. For me, I usually watch the features mostly with the Japanese audio but I DO occasionally switch back-and-forth to the English language audio.

FYI, my favorite Lupin III film is probably The Fuma Conspiracy. Great car chase scenes and insane action scenes. Standout animated sequences in that film even for the Lupin features and TV specials which are generally more enjoyable for me to watch than the closest Western equivalents (James Bond).

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Re: More Miyazaki on US Blu Ray November 14th

Post by Dacey » August 16th, 2014, 12:17 pm

I could be wrong, but hasn't Kiki's Delivery Service already been on Blu-Ray in the states? Could've sworn I saw it on store shelves here.
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Re: More Miyazaki on US Blu Ray November 14th

Post by Dan » August 16th, 2014, 1:17 pm

Nope, Kiki hasn't been available yet on blu in the states.

But I'm PSYCHED Mononoke is coming to blu!

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Re: More Miyazaki on US Blu Ray November 14th

Post by droosan » August 16th, 2014, 2:13 pm

Disney's most-recent DVD re-release of Kiki's Delivery Service (2010) uses the same cover-design elements as their Studio Ghibli Blu-ray packaging .. so -- at a casual glance -- it's an understandable misunderstanding (intentional..? nahh-h-h-h) :twisted:

Image

GeorgeC wrote:BD's are nice and portable but the Ghibli films are the exception to the rule with most Japanese BD's... they generally don't have any English soundtracks let alone subtitles of any kind.
In addition to Ghibli, Pioneer's anime releases (Tenchi Muyo, El Hazard, etc) also tend to include the english versions on their japanese discs.

The 1990s OAV series Giant Robo Blu-ray boxed set (already out-of-print! :shock: ) had optional english available.

The recent Space Battleship Yamato 2199 re-make was fully subtitled in english on the japanese Blu-ray release .. the current Space Dandy japanese Blu-rays include english subs and dub! :)

But yeah; the bonus features for these discs are mostly japanese-language only.

GeorgeC wrote:I went through this with laserdisc and now I'm stuck with a bunch of discs nobody wants and that frankly I just don't watch anymore...
I managed to liquidate my 600+ Laserdiscs on eBay, a few years ago .. and was pleasantly surprised to find buyers for pretty much everything, within a matter of months. My japanese LD titles held their value better than most of the american movie & cartoon LDs I sold (though, nowhere near the crazy 'import' prices I'd originally paid). 8)

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Re: More Miyazaki on US Blu Ray November 14th

Post by GeorgeC » August 16th, 2014, 3:46 pm

I have the last Manga home video release of Cagliostro...

Manga intentionally patterned the colors and stripe pattern of the (second edition, remastered) Cagliostro DVD cover art to mimick the style Disney was using on its licensed Ghibli first-wave DVD releases.
I wouldn't doubt that doing that helped sell more copies of Cagliostro... it's meant to be subliminal/suggestive but I caught it right away.
The Disney US re-releases of the Ghibli films saw them going with the "blue art" that's used on the DVD AND Blu ray editions of the films now. I gotta admit that I think the DVD re-releases and Blu ray editions have more elegant art design than the first wave DVD editions.
Of course, not all the Ghibli releases have been re-released on DVD with the new cover art in addition to films 'missing' on Blu ray. Pom Poko and My Neighbors the Yamadas haven't been re-released with new cover art to my knowledge... Disney seems to be focusing more on Miyazaki's films since they're the most popular Ghibli films worldwide.

I don't know why Disney's second edition Ghibli DVD and Blu ray cover art is so similar. Honestly, it just confuses consumers and at any rate most Disney Blu ray releases bundle DVDs with the Blu ray!
If I didn't look at the cover art and see the product coding, I probably would have bought a DVD edition by mistake! It's simple to do that with online ordering if you're not careful...

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The Cagliostro Blu ray being released in the US is a big deal for Diskotek. It's their first licensed anime Blu ray release. All their other anime releases have been DVD-only. The Blu ray releases of anime in the US have been muted because of the lower overall video sales. The US anime industry is maybe a quarter the size of what it was 10-12 years ago at its peak. (That's in spite of the crazy attendance numbers at cons!) The extra cost of Blu ray with its evolving protection schemes is hard to justify for many companies.

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Re: More Miyazaki on US Blu Ray November 14th

Post by Randall » August 17th, 2014, 2:24 pm

Having owned 3 versions of Kiki already (including the LaserDisc, which I still have), I also felt like it had come to Blu already.

I'm most excited to finally see Mononoke come to BD. I've held off re-watching it in recent years, expecting the BD to come out at any time. (My daughter, a Ghibli lover, couldn't wait any longer, and watched my DVD with a friend just a few weeks ago.)

The Wind Rises... Sigh. I wanted to love it, but found myself a little bored. Maybe another viewing will go better. It's themes just never quite came together for me, and the story was paced slowly. Many films improve with a second viewing, so maybe that will happen here. I'm game to try.

I already sold off my Cagliostro DVDs, so I'm hoping the BD comes out well.

Spirited Away (my favourite Ghibli) comes to the UK on Blu soon, so I'm disappointed we'll have to wait longer in North Am. The other Ghibli films still awaiting BD release here I'm not too bothered about.

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Re: More Miyazaki on US Blu Ray November 14th

Post by GeorgeC » August 18th, 2014, 1:33 am

I'm sure that the Cagliostro Blu ray disc will be fine...

Diskotek should be getting a copy of the remastered, restored version of the film being released (or has it already been released?) in Japan soon.

I doubt Cagliostro will be available in North America before the end of the year.

As far as favorites go, most of the Miyazaki/Ghibli films I really enjoyed and care to watch over and over again are already out on Blu ray. My Neighbor Totoro is one of the few films I've seen in my lifetime that's still as good as the first time I saw it. Howl's Moving Castle -- one of the Miyazaki films lumped in with a few others as many people's 'non-favorite' -- is another. It's also a film for which I have wanted to get the soundtrack for quite a while. It's those darn prices for the Japanese CD release that's a killer. Pretty much any CD release under $20 outside of a very licensed discs in the US is a bootleg...

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Re: More Miyazaki on US Blu Ray November 14th

Post by Dan » November 28th, 2014, 5:02 pm

This may have gotten slipped under the radar, but Disney will be putting out a blu ray for Porco Rosso on February 3 along with Pom Poko and Tales From Earthsea. Which means the only Miyazaki film Disney has yet to set a blu ray release for is Spirited Away.

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Re: More Miyazaki on US Blu Ray November 14th

Post by GeorgeC » November 29th, 2014, 12:03 am

Not really...

I saw the announcements for those BD's on The Digital Bits.com within the last week or so.


Of course, the only Ghibli films Disney doesn't look set to release in the US are the exclusive shorts that are shown only at the Ghibli Museum in Japan, and some of the non-Miyazaki features that are considered too adult (plot issues that a 'family-oriented' company doesn't want to deal with in its video releases) or too esoteric (too Japanese?) to do well enough in the States for Disney to bother.

I already talked about a few of these features that WON'T be released through Disney because of various issues that can't be discussed in this forum without raising eyebrows. One of these films is "Only Yesterday" which Disney DID license along with the Miyazaki features almost 20 years ago now. Again, that's only been shown on Turner Classic Movies once and at film festivals in North America. There are adult issues in that that film and it's considered to have a deliberate pace (slow-moving) by many people who have watched that film. If you want that "Only Yesterday", you have to buy it import from Japan or Europe (presuming there was a European release which is likely). Pretty much everything Ghibli is getting a release now except "Only Yesterday". I wish Disney would let another company pick up the option for that film... The most visible Ghibli feature that Disney didn't license otherwise was "Grave of the Fireflies" which was one of the hardest films I had to sit through. That film's a real tear-jerker!

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Re: More Miyazaki on US Blu Ray November 14th

Post by Randall » November 29th, 2014, 12:16 am

I do have the UK DVD of Only Yesterday, as well as one for Ocean Waves. The issues are more "adolescent" than "adult" (dealing with girls coming of age phsically) but you're right--- such discussion is not condoned in North America.

See the front page for reviews of two of this month's Miyazaki releases (the catalog titles). I'm currently working on the review for The Wind Rises.

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Re: More Miyazaki on US Blu Ray November 14th

Post by GeorgeC » November 29th, 2014, 2:23 pm

I meant to say that I didn't think any company had optioned "Only Yesterday" for a US release. I kind of wish Disney would let up on that and let it be sublicensed by another company if they're not going to bother with a US release themselves. If not, I'll probably break down and get either the Japanese release or a European edition if the Euro-BD is region-free. Not gonna bother with a DVD edition since the DVD and Blu ray costs are close enough. At least I don't have to worry about region-coding with Japanese BD releases. A lot of Blu ray discs outside the North American market are not coded for region protection. They must not be that worried about bootlegging or the sales really aren't that good to be bother with region coding.

As for adult issues... I would consider puberty of either sex to be an adult issue myself.

It's really too bad in some ways. Some of the stories about Walt Disney were that he was concerned about the pre-1980s Disney company pigeon-holing itself into the family-fare market (not that it was such a bad thing long-run; general release films do better than PG-13 or R-rated films in general; how many of the top-grossing films are 'family/kid' features?). About the most adult live-action film that was done when Walt Disney was alive was probably "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." I think he would have liked to have done something a bit more adult... maybe not on the level of "The Godfather" but something with more teeth in it than what was otherwise done. It's amazing to me that some of the earlier classic animated features are generally more adult in some senses than what's being made today. (That's a huge part of why I have looked outside the US and to the Japanese market to watch animated features. You can only take princess and buddy/road pictures so much.) There's definitely more to those earlier Disney films than most people give credit for. I noticed some fairly sly jokes in "The Absent-Minded Professor" and "Son of Flubber" but I'm pretty sure most of that stuff will fly over many people's heads. Another good example of sly in-jokes is "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." I don't think I'd still watch and enjoy that film without some of the implied humor in it... :D

That said, it still kind of puzzles me that Disney had no problem releasing "Pom Poko" in North America considering, well, you know! :lol:

And yeah, "Pom Poko" is in the next wave of Ghibli releases in February 2015 along with "Tales from Undersea," Goro Miyazaki's directorial debut. Goro also directed "From Up on Poppy Hill" which I thought was excellent.

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Re: More Miyazaki on US Blu Ray November 14th

Post by Randall » December 1st, 2014, 12:42 am

The Wind Rises is a tricky one to assess. I had mixed feeleings, but decided the positives outweighed the negatives. Interesting subject matter to be sure.

http://animatedviews.com/2014/the-wind-rises/

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