Questions about the SIREN ENTERTAINMENT VHS's

[Genshi-san]

I recently bought the first 10 volumes of the english dub (australian release)
I grew up with these versions but what im wondering is
Do the episodes include the episode previews? "next time on astroboy"
I know the episodes are in broadcast order but im not too sure if the previews where kept in.
I currently dont have a working vcr to check my tapes (my vcr was damaged in shipping)
Id realy appreciate the help

[DrFrag]

No episode previews on the Siren version unfortunately. The episodes of the first 10 volumes (30 episodes) are in broadcast order, but there are gaps. Later on they released the remaining 21 episodes in 7 volumes, so the Siren tapes are out of order and they edited out the previews.

They also edited out the filler footage before the closing credits of Astro flying around fighting Bruton to instrumental music, which was added to the original broadcast to make up for lost time due to cut scenes.

Another interesting thing they did was reconstruct the opening and closing credits. The font is slightly different, most noticeably the letter W. The Astroboy title no longer "zooms" onto the screen. To overcome the audio bleed of the preview end over the start of the end credits, they replaced the first second or two of the end credits (where still shots of Astro appear) with those first few still shots already frozen on the screen.

The only VHS version I've seen with the previews is the USA Manga VHS release, which also ends with back-to-back previews of all the episodes on the next volume which is cool. I'm not aware of any English DVD release with the episode previews. The Japanese bluray release has the previews in dual audio.

[Genshi-san]

Thank you for the info dump
i was Not aware the aus tapes where THAT eddited.
Any releases that ican get here in australia that are uneddited?
i can get the US tapes for 30$ on ebay but its the first 10 volumes

[Genshi-san]

I know the SIREN TAPES opening is kind of washed out collour wise. are the US tapes better quality when it comes to the opening?

[DrFrag]

Yeah, the US tapes are definitely better quality. The Siren version lost some quality when it was converted to the PAL format used in Australia. But to play the US VHS tapes in Australia you'll need an NTSC-compatible VCR and TV. I tried it with only the VCR being NTSC-compatible and I got a black & white picture that was a bit fuzzy.

I'm going through my files trying to figure out what versions have what. It's a bit of a mess at the moment. iirc I bought every edition and none of them are perfectly true to the original broadcast, but I think the US VHS tapes might have been the closest.

[Genshi-san]

well im not realy aware of wat is perfect, like i said i grew up with the siren vhs's

[Macboy2000]

No episode previews on the Siren version unfortunately. The episodes of the first 10 volumes (30 episodes) are in broadcast order, but there are gaps. Later on they released the remaining 21 episodes in 7 volumes, so the Siren tapes are out of order and they edited out the previews.

They also edited out the filler footage before the closing credits of Astro flying around fighting Bruton to instrumental music, which was added to the original broadcast to make up for lost time due to cut scenes.

Another interesting thing they did was reconstruct the opening and closing credits. The font is slightly different, most noticeably the letter W. The Astroboy title no longer "zooms" onto the screen. To overcome the audio bleed of the preview end over the start of the end credits, they replaced the first second or two of the end credits (where still shots of Astro appear) with those first few still shots already frozen on the screen.

The only VHS version I've seen with the previews is the USA Manga VHS release, which also ends with back-to-back previews of all the episodes on the next volume which is cool. I'm not aware of any English DVD release with the episode previews. The Japanese bluray release has the previews in dual audio.

Wait, the opening on the Siren tapes is the same as the Madman DVD version?

[DrFrag]

No, they're different.

Another interesting thing they did was reconstruct the opening and closing credits. The font is slightly different, most noticeably the letter W. The Astroboy title no longer "zooms" onto the screen.

I think I got this bit wrong. I've checked the Siren version and the title card does zoom out from the viewer. The "©" symbol has a thin outline and appears below the R in ASTROBOY, and the copyright line disappears as the same time as the title when Astro flies through it. The "&" symbol in the opening credits is drawn with a single unbroken line. It might be the original English broadcast opening, but unfortunately I don't have a surviving copy of that to check.

The Madman DVD version is definitely a redone version. The title card is drawn with a laser beam, then moves up and closer. The "©" symbol has a more even weight and appears below the T in ASTROBOY, and the copyright line disappears before Astro even shows up. The "&" symbol in the opening credits has a broken line in the upper right curve.

While I'm at it, here's a few more versions:

The Manga VHS opening is the same as the Siren version.

The Japanese Bluray opening has the original Japanese title card, fonts and subtitles. Audio is English or Japanese.

The Manga DVD opening is the same as the Japanese Bluray, but with English audio only.

The AnimeLab streaming version is perhaps the most interesting. It's the 1080p Japanese Bluray "clean opening" version, so it has a Japanese title card but no other Japanese text for credits or subtitles. Below the Japanese title, is the English zoom-out title card like the original English TV broadcast. Below it is the copyright line, which looks and behaves like the original English broadcast version but with the "©" having an even weight. The opening credits are in English, and appear similar to the Madman DVD version. Audio is English only. Someone put some effort into this. IIRC, AnimeLab was Madman's streaming service. It was bought out by Funimation who immediately dropped the show from their lineup, so this version is not available anymore.

[Macboy2000]

Ah, I was a little worried. I've also been told that that the Siren tapes have a significant amount of frame ghosting (probably because the film to tape idk). I've also been told that the Manga VHS tapes are probably reconstructions. I could notice because the dub's title cards appear after the next episode previews instead of the blue end board. IDK. Also, I def need to get the Siren tapes, probably because I just want to see the visual quality but I don't have a multisystem VCR yet. Got plans to do that. I also have all 9 volumes of the Manga VHS tapes lol.

[DrFrag]

The Siren version looks pretty bad, but the Manga VHS version has ghosting too. Here's an untouched frame from the Siren version (25fps 720x576).

SirenVHS.jpg (85.14 KiB) Viewed 38009 times

Here's the Manga VHS version (29fps 720x480).

MangaVHS.jpg (59.85 KiB) Viewed 38009 times

And here's the Japanese version (23fps 640x464 but might be resized/cropped). Not sure of the source, probably DVD, I found it on Kazaa in 2005.

JapanDVD.jpg (56.78 KiB) Viewed 38009 times

Looks like the Manga VHS version had a telecine pulldown to 29fps causing interlacing/ghosting, and the Siren VHS was probably converted to 25fps from that.

You're right about the Manga VHS version changing the "Next time ..." card. I found a clip from the original TV broadcast to compare it to.

BroadcastPreview.jpg (11.5 KiB) Viewed 38009 times

This is the Manga VHS "Next time ..." card from the end of The Death Balloon on volume 9.

MangaPreview.jpg (70.5 KiB) Viewed 38009 times

I think they also changed the extra footage added to some episodes that ran short due to cut scenes. Astro's First Love has almost a minute of extra footage and it's all scenes from the episode itself. I clearly remember the broadcast version having footage of the opening sequence and Astro fighting Bruton, because it had the longest clean instrumental track of the main theme which I wanted a copy of. I'm not sure why Manga bothered messing with that, it seems like a bunch of work for no good reason.

I haven't actually sat through the Manga VHS version. By the time I got a VHS player that worked with NTSC tapes I already had the Blurays.