All right, before I go into my usual impressions with the latest Sailor Moon Crystal episode, I gotta talk about the retro awesomeness that is the North American media distribution company, Discotek Media.
For those not in the know about this company, it has become something of a haven for resurrecting anime and Asian cinema spanning the 70s, 80s, and 90s. The company was responsible for bringing many great classics to the states on DVD, such as Mazinger Z, Samurai Pizza Cats, the Saint Seiya movies, and even a DVD release of the long sought after Galaxy Express 999 movies that was canceled by Viz Media, leaving fans only with the soon-obsoleted VHS releases.
And just recently, Discotek Media has announced a re-release of my favorite anime of all-time, Ronin Warriors (Yoroiden: Samurai Troopers in Japan) in a convenient box set collection.
http://www.fandompost.com/2014/09/05/samurai-troopers-anime-gets-license-rescue/
However, unlike the original North American release date from way back in April 2002, they will not only be exclusively released as a box set, the DVD format in which they will be released will have a bit of a separation anxiety.
The original stateside DVD release contained both the original Japanese version as well as the English dubbed Ronin Warriors in a rare DVD-10 format, which essentially is a double-sided DVD. Some fans have often complained about this format because it meant that the DVDs had to be handled a lot more carefully in order to prevent scratches. Furthermore, it also meant that the video quality in some instances had to be compressed, which led to Bandai having to cut certain footage to make ends meet (mainly the commercial bumpers and episode previews).
When Sony released the Region 2 (Japanese DVD) format on a single-sided dual layer DVD, the differences became more apparent, particularly with the original Japanese version. Some episodes lacked the sharp clarity of picture, and all of the footage - including both commercial bumpers each episode as well as the episode previews - remained intact. Which leads me to believe that Discotek Media will be releasing the series in this format as a response to previous feedback regarding the differences from back in the day. For die-hard fans, purists, and completionists like myself, this is quite a big deal.
Which begs the question: If the box set release is for the original Japanese version only, what of the English dubbed release? Discotek has gone on the record saying they're going through legal talks with Bandai on the Ocean dubbed release right now, and if they managed to get the Ocean dubs for other older anime licensed, this will likely get released sometime soon as well.
But yeah. On February 2015, the original Japanese version of Ronin Warriors will be released on DVD in a deluxe box set, based on the superior Region 2 masters complete with all commercial bumpers and episode previews intact. Big news for a big fan. When I read about this, my respect for the company just skyrocketed. And what's even more mind-blowing about this announcement is that it was made on the wake of the resurgence of Sailor Moon and it's re-release of the classic series on BD/DVD this November, which back in the day sparked lots of talks about potentially making crossovers between the two because the parallels are so good. Although realistically most of us knew this wouldn't happen, it didn't stop folks from dreaming, much less make fanfiction. But that's a story for another day. Time to talk up a storm about Sailor Jupiter in my next anime blog.
Again, thank you based Discotek for being consistently awesome!
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