The supplemental DVD in the 80s bluray 2nd boxset is a gold mine
Posted: Tue May 23, 2017 6:00 pm
I finally got around to buying the second Japanese bluray boxset of the 1980s series. It's an expensive set, around US$200 for each box, so I'd been putting it off.
I wrote about the first box set here. Quick summary: it contains 1080p episodes with Japanese and English audio, but no subtitles. It's uncut so there are some inconsistencies with the English audio. Episodes 1 and 2 have two audio tracks but they're both completely Japanese. Edited scenes like Cleopatra's death switches to music and sound effects only, so there's lip movement but no words. Tezuka's intro to the last episode is in Japanese, but switches to English when the episode starts. Title cards are all in Japanese. The episode trailers are present, and in dual audio. It's a shame there's no subtitles, but I think they did a good job getting the audio on there. There are no extra ads or anime trailers. There's 7% more visible frame on the sides over the DVD version. Something I neglected to originally mention - video quality is great to a fault; it shows up film grain and dust specks.
The real surprise for me has been the DVD of extras. I couldn't find anywhere that said exactly what was on it, so I figured it had some repackaged junk or advertising for other products. Maybe some web site links and an .exe I would refuse to run.
The disc is titled TETSUWAN_ATOM_DIGITAL_LIBRARY, and contains 41 pdf files in Japanese. Some are production notes about characters and settings or official documents (handwritten in Japanese). There are 3 files containing the full storyboards to The Birth of Astroboy, The Robot Vikings, and the opening animation. The amazing part is 1500 pages of character and technology and set designs from 22 of the episodes. If you have one of the DVD editions with the character sketches set to background music you will have seen some of them. This has so much more, stuff that is so obscure I didn't recognise some of it. Technical drawings for the tiger polisher Astro used in Robot Circus. Front and back and inside drawings of Photar's orphanage. Designs for doors, park benches, establishing shots, guns, spaceships, hospital corridors, obscure characters that appear in a single scene. And it's reference stuff, so you get to see the edges of shots and backs of characters and small details that don't appear in the animation. There is so much detail. This is some of the best material for the serious fan I've seen come with any anime release. All up there are 2210 pages of production material across 366MB of PDFs.
It is hard to justify the pricetag for the blurays. The higher resolution is awesome, but the lack of subtitles makes it an imperfect release. The Manga region 1 DVDs still look great at 480p resolution, plus you get dual audio with subtitles and deleted scenes. But if you're a big fan and can afford it, I think the bluray PDFs are a great addition to a collection.
I wrote about the first box set here. Quick summary: it contains 1080p episodes with Japanese and English audio, but no subtitles. It's uncut so there are some inconsistencies with the English audio. Episodes 1 and 2 have two audio tracks but they're both completely Japanese. Edited scenes like Cleopatra's death switches to music and sound effects only, so there's lip movement but no words. Tezuka's intro to the last episode is in Japanese, but switches to English when the episode starts. Title cards are all in Japanese. The episode trailers are present, and in dual audio. It's a shame there's no subtitles, but I think they did a good job getting the audio on there. There are no extra ads or anime trailers. There's 7% more visible frame on the sides over the DVD version. Something I neglected to originally mention - video quality is great to a fault; it shows up film grain and dust specks.
The real surprise for me has been the DVD of extras. I couldn't find anywhere that said exactly what was on it, so I figured it had some repackaged junk or advertising for other products. Maybe some web site links and an .exe I would refuse to run.
The disc is titled TETSUWAN_ATOM_DIGITAL_LIBRARY, and contains 41 pdf files in Japanese. Some are production notes about characters and settings or official documents (handwritten in Japanese). There are 3 files containing the full storyboards to The Birth of Astroboy, The Robot Vikings, and the opening animation. The amazing part is 1500 pages of character and technology and set designs from 22 of the episodes. If you have one of the DVD editions with the character sketches set to background music you will have seen some of them. This has so much more, stuff that is so obscure I didn't recognise some of it. Technical drawings for the tiger polisher Astro used in Robot Circus. Front and back and inside drawings of Photar's orphanage. Designs for doors, park benches, establishing shots, guns, spaceships, hospital corridors, obscure characters that appear in a single scene. And it's reference stuff, so you get to see the edges of shots and backs of characters and small details that don't appear in the animation. There is so much detail. This is some of the best material for the serious fan I've seen come with any anime release. All up there are 2210 pages of production material across 366MB of PDFs.
It is hard to justify the pricetag for the blurays. The higher resolution is awesome, but the lack of subtitles makes it an imperfect release. The Manga region 1 DVDs still look great at 480p resolution, plus you get dual audio with subtitles and deleted scenes. But if you're a big fan and can afford it, I think the bluray PDFs are a great addition to a collection.