Anime
Yes, FUNimation Will Be Releasing Serial Experiments Lain|RESTORE
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the upcoming release of Serial Experiments Lain on Blu-ray. As I wrote that post I was filled with joy for knowing Lain will soon be available in Blu-ray form in the U.S. At the same time I was also worried of the pos?ibility that FUNimation will just slap the very old Geneon Entertainment DVDs onto a Blu-ray disc. I tried to contact FUNimation in various ways to ask for an honest to god answer but they didn’t even bother to respond. However this all changed today when I stumbled upon a blog post originally posted during August 22 on Robert’s Anime Corner Blog. Some of you might be fimiliar with this post already but for those of you who aren’t, and were painstakingly waiting for an official statement like I was, here is what Robert had to say:
“A lot of people have been asking if the upcoming Lain BD from Funimation is going to be a native master or an upscale. I asked the product manager in Houston, and he gave us some good news this morning:
“We’ve been getting a lot of questions about the Lain Blu-ray, it’s not an up-res, it is native HD. They actually went back and
remastered the whole series, we even have a 24 page restoration booklet (along with a 320 page artbook) included with our
release.”
So the upcoming Lain set will indeed be Native HD. Sweetness! Bet you’re glad you didn’t pay $400 for the Japanese BD box… :-)”
Yes, we are glad indeed. The product manager’s talks of a 320 page art book explains why FUNimation has prices the upcoming release at a premium price (the retail price is $89.98) unlike any other DVD&BD bundle it has formerly released. However the 24 page restoration booklet might not be a part of the regular release – Right Stuf! have announced some time ago that they will be bundling a free gift with the Lain set while supplies lasts. This free gift might end up being that separate 24 booklet. Of course this is a pure speculation on my behalf and time might prove me wrong but there have been such instances in the past.
Lastly the abovementioned post also revealed the box art for the upcoming release (which you can see above). Although other retailers have yet to attach a box art to their listings of Lain this picture, coming from an official online retailer, seems valid.
Those who would like to preorder the Serial Experiments Lain DVD and Blu-ray combo and secure their free gift right now (whether it proves to be a booklet or not) can do so here.
My Answers To Yumeka’s Ultimate Anime Questionnaire
Yumeka from the Mainichi Anime Yume blog started a questionnaire carnival with 27 questions regarding our personal taste in anime. Since I haven’t been doing any carnival related activity in a while I decided to give it a go. This is your opportunity to learn more about my anime-watching habits and comment on your own! Continue reading
Summer 2012 Anime Season – Half Point
Last season I watched too many series for my own good. So this time around I decided to nitpick the ones I thought will be the most rewarding to watch. Hop in to read what you should expect and which series you should pick up among them. Continue reading
Believe It: Anime Sells More Copies In The U.S. Than It Does In Japan
Recently anime fans have become more vocal about the delay between the release dates of DVD/BD anime series in Japan and in the U.S. Except for a couple known examples anime is always distributed first in Japan and only later (sometimes much later) in the U.S. and Europe. The most common reason for these delays are the much higher prices of DVD/BD products in Japan, which allow the production committee and studio behind an anime to at least regain their investment in the series, if not make a profit. Because a series that is sold for 200$ in Japan is usually sold for around 50$ in the U.S. the owners of the show in Japan are reluctant to have it released in the U.S. before the Japanese audience have all but bought their copy of it, for fear of reverse-importing. The common belief (that is not always correct) is that Japanese studios don’t really take the Western audience into consideration while making a show, focusing instead on maximizing the sales of that show in Japan. The Japanese market is the one that fuels the anime economy. That’s a fact. But what will you say if I told you that even though the anime industry is firmly based around the Japanese consumer more people buy copies of anime series in the West than in Japan? Continue reading
Five Anime series That Could Use A Revised Version
It used to be the case that once an anime series goes off the air you will only be seeing it again in VHS/DVD form. Those old series from the 80s and 90s can still be seen in their old glory either on physical media (when possible) or using the almighty internet. But recently we’ve seen old series receiving new life in revised versions. Continue reading
FUNimation To Release Serial Experiments Lain And Black Lagoon On BD In November
FUNimation Entertainment will be releasing a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack of Serial Experiments Lain comes November. These are good news to all the old anime fans out there who have missed the series, and even better news for those who have yet to watch this masterpiece. Although this is yet to be cofirmed if this version of Lain is a budget release of the Japanese Serial Experiments Lain|RESTORE Blu-ray box than it’s only fair to assume that those who already have the (old) DVDs and would be willing to double dip will be able to watch a much higher quality of Lain than they already own. As mentioned in a previous post about the Japanese Blu-ray version (aka Lain|RESTORE) “the production studio took the original 35mm film and telecined it specifically for HD. Yoshitoshi ABe personally recolored part of the scenes and added details to others. The opening and ending themes were resampled.”
Truth be told Serial Experiments Lain was original released on DVD only shortly after the technology had been introduced to the worldwide markets. As a result both the Japanese and U.S. releases looked a little blurry, even on CRT TVs. Of course at the time this still was a great series to own on DVD, as it did look better than the VHS release and had nice things such as the ability to switch between subtitles and dub, skipping chapters, looking at extras and so on.
On the same day of the Serial Experiments combo pack FUNimation will also be releasing a Black Lagoon BD/DVD combo pack that will contain both seasons of this (not so old!) anime classic. While the original Black Lagoon DVDs Looked pretty good the series has since ran out of stock at most retailers and copies of it have been selling for bloated prices on e-commerce websites. This new release will give anime viewers with a tighter budget the opportunity to watch both seasons of the series. You can expect to see reviews of both the Serial Experiments Lain and Black Lagoon Blu-rays here on animereviews.co when the series are released later on in November.
As a side note the prophetic Top 10 Forgotten Anime List continues to correctly guess the future. half of the titles from the list have already been rescued and will be forgotten no more.
Update: Haibane Renmei will also be seeing a rerelease (albeit on DVD only) in September. This means 6 titles from the list have been rescued!
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