The all things Anime related thread.

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Akira turned up today, look forward to trying the bluray version!

Just currently watching Planates, really enjoying the realistic physics going on in it though I haven't found the story the best yet.
 
Werewolf said:
Cheers, in that case I'll probably order the set when i have some spare pennies :)
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I would suggest getting it as quickly as possible since if this is a error in the masters then it will be likely that funimation will be in the process of getting new masters made which will have the correct region coding.
 
Woo, my copy of both S1 and S2 arrived today as well, I hadn't expected them so soon as they only despatched them on the 14/15th, so I think thats pretty much a time record for RS for me.

Just a shame Funimation didn't think to package Season 1's BDs in a DVD size case, as S2 says, S1 fits snuggly in the box....on the DVD release, whereas it's a bit loose if you've bought the new the BD. You'd think they'd have thought of that :)

Still, I've got all 3 US releases now of S1, so I've stuck the matching style DVD case in the dual holder as it looks neatest, with the remaining original DVD release and insert (keeping it as I like the art) sitting next to it, with the S1 BD's on the outermost edge now for neatness.

The other slight dissapointment I've got is that there's still no 5.1 JP audio; which I'd kinda been hoping for.
 
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Got to be honest I'm a little disappointed with Akira on BD. Watched it last night and it's a wonderful film. But why on earth have a black border round it????? And it certainly can do with a dirt clean up. Should be easy to do with todays modern technology
 
Is the border on the left and right or the top and bottom?
If it's the top and bottom, it's probably in an anamophic aspect ratio (aka wider than 16:9) and the only way to deal with this properly is either to border the video on the top and bottom, or cut the sides off.

Cutting the sides off is usually the least popular option.
 
All around. Left and right. Top and bottom i can deal with. But Left and right makes look like it's boxed in. Overscan is not an excuse, there's no such thing as overscan on flat screen TV's
 
Finished watching Paradise Kiss earlier ... there's ~12 episodes of my life I won't be getting back ... no really that's a bit harsh, it's not a bad series just aimed at a particular market. Think Nana, but with fashion instead of music (Girl is unmotivated at school, falls in with some fashion students to be their model, etc). I wouldn't really recommend it but it did have a few interesting visual affects with animated elements being added to still photographs.

Also started watching Spice and Wolf S1 off BD ... my S2 should be coming next week I think (I won't have time to watch it before then anyway). Alex if you've got S2 is the audio really as bad as it's supposed to be, (JP audio very quiet and dub audio a bit of a trainwreck)? To quote elsewhere:

I did an audio check (S2) and the results were interesting. Looking at the phase analysis and listening to it in realtime, the dialogue part of the dub audio is indeed in mono. However, other parts (op/ed, bgm, backing/fx tracks) seem to be in stereo (possibly dual-mono).

The problem is the mix. While some parts are in stereo, the dialogue ruins the stereo separation by attenuating the rest of the soundtrack because it runs a bit hot. In other words, the dialogue's volume level is louder than the rest of the audio track, so that means all the nuances and miscellaneous sounds beside the spoken dialogue is drowned out (not surprising since they're likely only using 2.0 sources). Because they've encoded this as a 5.1 track, everything is now focused onto the Center Channel. This means any channel separation will be slightly, if not barely audible once downmixed to the center. I'd chalk this up as a mono release.

As far as the JP audio track goes- as suspected, it runs an average of 7-10dB below the dub track. The thin sound is partially due to a lack of bass management/equalization and the volume level being below normal. Though the phase analysis shows stereo separation compared to the dub and has better dynamics even with the lower volume.
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I haven't loaded it up yet, in some senses I'd almost rather not know. Will take a quick listen later/tomorrow and see whether it really does sound horri-bad or whether it's not actually as bad as some people are making out.

I'm also fairly used to JP Audio being slightly quieter than the US track, this wouldnt be the first time I've seen it so that section wouldn't surprise me however. I mean if I was being really anal I could rip my BD and do an actual analysis in some of my audio production programmes like the above guy presumably has, but I doubt thats necessary heh

I've spoken to a few people in the states who've already got thier copies, and they hadn't complained, so I will have to see.

There's no mention of it being stupendously bad here either:
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Spice-and-Wolf-Season-Two-Blu-ray/24367/ said:
"Spice and Wolf: Season Two Blu-ray, Audio Quality 4 1/2*
There's a definite trade off any listener has to make with regard to Spice and Wolf two lossless audio options. The original Japanese track is presented via Dolby TrueHD 2.0, while the English dub is offered in a surround Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix. While the surround mix certainly does create a more immersive experience (albeit fairly fitfully), and better represents the series' charming underscore by Yuji Yoshino, the voicework is at least questionable at times. While Lawrence is well voiced (perhaps even better than his Japanese counterpart) by J. Michael Tatum, Brina Palencia's Holo really started to grate on my ears more and more (much more than in the first season, actually) as the show went on, and ultimately struck me as being simply too haughty and over-enunciated (final "t"'s are completely over the top most of the time), especially when compared to the original Japanese take on the character, which is softer and sweeter, albeit often feisty. Purists almost always like the original language tracks, anyway, so it may not be an issue, especially since surround activity isn't incredibly consistent or boisterous on the 5.1 track. Both tracks do offer sterling fidelity and good dynamic range."
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Has anyone ordered stuff from CDJapan before?
It sounds like Otaku.co.uk are having trouble getting hold of that new artbook, as thier distributers/buyers are struggling to get the stock, and actually recommended I order via another party if there was a valid option (they were also helpful in cancelling/refunding the order)

Luckily CDJapan have got some and ship to the UK.

I could have saved about £10 on the shipping by choosing registered airmail rather than EMS or Fedex, but once you add on custom charges from the likes of ParcelForce/Fedex, there's not a massive amount of difference in it, so I figured I might as well pay another £5-10, get it a week or two quicker and have done with it.

After a bad experience with EMS/Parcelforce before (an item got lost in the system for about 4 months), I'd take Fedex given the chance, plus they have a decent reputation, and they're meant to be a bit faster too.

My only worry is how much I'm going to get hit on customs [and how long it might take, I'd hate to think they'd open and damage the book too!]. I've asked CDJapan to label it as a gift rather than merchandise, as I heard that raises the tax exempt threshold, but I'm still expecting to have to pay at least another £20 on top of the initial layout.
 
Alexrose1uk said:
Has anyone ordered stuff from CDJapan before?
It sounds like Otaku.co.uk are having trouble getting hold of that new artbook, as thier distributers/buyers are struggling to get the stock, and actually recommended I order via another party if there was a valid option (they were also helpful in cancelling/refunding the order)

Luckily CDJapan have got some and ship to the UK.

I could have saved about £10 on the shipping by choosing registered airmail rather than EMS or Fedex, but once you add on custom charges from the likes of ParcelForce/Fedex, there's not a massive amount of difference in it, so I figured I might as well pay another £5-10, get it a week or two quicker and have done with it.

After a bad experience with EMS/Parcelforce before (an item got lost in the system for about 4 months), I'd take Fedex given the chance, plus they have a decent reputation, and they're meant to be a bit faster too.

My only worry is how much I'm going to get hit on customs [and how long it might take, I'd hate to think they'd open and damage the book too!]. I've asked CDJapan to label it as a gift rather than merchandise, as I heard that raises the tax exempt threshold, but I'm still expecting to have to pay at least another £20 on top of the initial layout.
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I haven't used CDJapan, (I tend to use YesAsia or PlayAsia (or Amazon JP)), but I know quite a few people who do with no issues.

"Gift" the threshold to around the £35-40 mark from it's usual £18 figure. I have had shipped with Fedex before (Amazon JP used to use them before switching to DHL) and they were poor. You got your item quickly, (shipping on a Tuesday would get to me on a Thursday) but you didn't know whether you were getting stung or not on customs charges until a month or so later when they got around to billing you ... if they actually did as sometimes I would get calls demanding payment for invoices I'd never received!

They were ~£8-10 handling fee on top of any charges and always go over the paper work with a fine tooth comb as they had a habit of adding in fictitious costs which throw out all the calculations ...

For example the Amazon details included shipping costs ... Fedex added an extra £60 cost for shipping into the calculations for VAT which threw them out completely then billed me these increased costs (but not the £60 which was wrong anyway) ... I had to phone up and challenge every invoice as there was always something wrong (with ~30 packages over 2 years)

tl;dr summary: CDJapan = probably ok, Fedex = sucks monkey balls
 
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I have had 2 soundtrack cds off CDJAPAN but this was years ago.Both were well packed from memory.Can`t recall if there was any customs charge,sorry.They were labelled as gifts too
 
I've used CDJapan twice thus far (one CD and a wall scroll) and items have been well packed and I haven't been stung with customs charges (maybe because the cost of the items was below the £18 limit) although a book should be exempt from any duties as they are VAT exempt.
 
memyselfandi said:
I You got your item quickly, (shipping on a Tuesday would get to me on a Thursday) but you didn't know whether you were getting stung or not on customs charges until a month or so later when they got around to billing you ... if they actually did as sometimes I would get calls demanding payment for invoices I'd never received!

They were ~£8-10 handling fee on top of any charges and always go over the paper work with a fine tooth comb as they had a habit of adding in fictitious costs which throw out all the calculations ...
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Will make sure to have a read through of the Fedex invoice when I recieve it then. I was expecting the handling fees, as even Parcelforce seem to charge about £10-15 for recieving/taking an item through customs, but we shall see. If books are VAT exempt, then theoretically it shouldn't cost much.

It seems between EMS and Fedex there's probably not much in it then lol
 
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So as long as it's below the £18 you won't incur and import tax? I have ordered a K-On 2cd album for a bargain £6 so was wondering whether to need to pay at all on top.
 
The artbook is a moderately pricey, decently sized one unfortunately, so I may still hit import tax. The book costs about £30, so in this case it'd depend on whether they counted it below the threshold if its marked as a gift.
 
Fingers crossed it'll be marked as both gift (instead of merch) and book.

Still we shall see. Fedex may be bad it sounds like with invoicing, but at least I'll have the item soon.


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In regards to the Spice and Wolf 2 audio, I've just had a quick listen and I do think the critic was making too much of a fuss over what's not a massive deal.

I've only taken a quick look at the first few minutes of the Ep 00 OVA (viewed on a PS3 for reference).

The dialogue in the English dub is focused on the centre speaker, rather than to the individual speakers, but I've heard that before, as the centre speaker is typically used as a dialogue speaker, in the JP dub I'll admit the audio does sound like the dialogue may be mono, so it's a bit lazy, but clarity is fine so it's not a deal killer.

In regards to relative volume levels, it didn't seem that different to what I was expecting really; the JP dub might be slightly quieter than the english dub, but it's not massively so having switched between the two, although obviously it could be exacerbated by different speaker setups and different volume levels. In terms of the dialogue running too hot; I still found I could hear the background music fine whilst listening to the english audio track.

I thought the music and other bits and pieces might be stereo but not entirely sure as I'm not sure if it's my ears playing tricks on me or not. It's focused, like the dialogue, on the centre speaker in the English version, and on the L/R on the JP.

All in, the mix's perhaps a little lazy, but not something I instantly would have gone mad about or perhaps even instantly have picked up without specifically listening to the audio critically and looking for certain things; certainly there's no problem with the actual clarity which is my main focus with this sort of media.
 
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