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ferricide
Regional Manager, Wernham Hogg
Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 2935
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 Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 10:36 pm Post subject: bandai to fans who were foolish enough to buy Z gundam: FU |
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| AOD wrote: | Bandai says no on Zeta Replacements (09:24 AM EDT): It's been something of a contentious year for fans and Bandai Entertainment with certain sticking points coming up, between choices pushed down on them from Japan to problematic discs. While they are being reactive and proactive on their disc problems now, a new wrinkle has hit in that it has been confirmed by representatives from Bandai Entertainment that there will not be a replacement program for those who bought the Zeta Gundam box set.
Replacement program? For? Well, when Bandai Entertainment put out the double disc sets earlier this year after the full box set had come out, they had put together a more accurate and faithful subtitle track for the Japanese language track. This cleaned up a lot of the problems in the translation which while not 100% dubtitled was fairly close in a lot of scenes. The decision has been made however to not provide replacements for those that have the original box set with the inaccurate subtitles. While we expect plenty of discourse and vitriol over the subject, we do recommend that at minimum, if you have an issue with this and own the set that you contact their customer support and let them politely but strongly know your dissatisfaction over this. |
on one hand i'm pissed because the translation is, in fact, godawful.
on the other, i understand it, because it's not like the disc doesn't play. plenty of translations suck.
in all honesty i completely regret buying the Z gundam box. i didn't want (and don't want) the toys that came with it at all, the translation sucks and was corrected. the songs problem sucks too.
but i figured this was the only way i'd get to buy/see Z gundam, since that was how things were represented. turns out, i could have waited and bought sensibly packaged discs with corrected translations later. gee, thanks, bandai.
this makes me grumpy. bandai sure doesn't do much to try and appease the gundam fans in the US, does it? |
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Subatomic Brainfreeze
Your Mom
Joined: 20 Dec 2005
Posts: 212
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| Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 10:42 pm Post subject: |
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I figured this was the official stance as soon as the individual volumes started coming out. This release was a disaster, and I've finally learned never to put faith in Bandai on a Gundam release ever again. The kicker is really seeing all those unsold sets (the ones we'd better buy now or we'd never get the chance again) going for $40 at Otakon this year. Some people say it's Bandai, some people say it's Sunrise; I say they've both done a great job of running Gundam in the US into the ground.
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Tochiro
I STILL CAN'T STOP FUCKING POSTING
Joined: 06 Nov 2005
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Location: The Sea of Stars
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| Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:30 am Post subject: |
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Should we be surprised by this?
Remember, as far as Bandai US is concerned, there was not a single thing actually *wrong* with the DVD box release. And, if you're a dub watching Cartoon Network fanboy, everything is just prefect.
I'm still convinced that their intent was to pull the "The Japanese won't let us use the Japanese Track" excuse and release a dub only Zeta Gundam after its Cartoon Network airing. But when THAT deal went south it was suddenly "Oh, crap, we're going to have to cater to *shudder* the fans to make anything back on this...I know! Limited edition box set! Quick, find some translation from when we were doing the ADR and call that the subtitles!"
I want to say more about how Bandai seemingly went OUT OF THEIR WAY to crap up the sub script, but I would have to...no, maybe not...I recall being told back around 1999 that Bandai US was working on Zeta THEN, and I know sight unseen the job was 200% better than what Bandai used in this box set, because it became politics and "we have to use what Ocean used" and crap crap like that.
I know I sound like a paranoid idiot when I discuss the whole 'intentional planning to failure' thing, but when you see things like this, you just HAVE to wonder, ya know?
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Gen Fukunaga
CEO, Funimation
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
Posts: 587
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| Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 4:33 am Post subject: |
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| Tochiro wrote: |
I know I sound like a paranoid idiot when I discuss the whole 'intentional planning to failure' thing, but when you see things like this, you just HAVE to wonder, ya know? |
Got about half way through paranoid bit of vitrol before I realised I hate you.
As one of those people who also bought the set and had to wait two years before any kind of confirmation, on top of them messing up Scrapped Princess and GitS: Sac (and probably others), I'm not really keen on Bandai Entertainment at the moment and don't think I will be for some time. Added to the fact that we'll probably never seen the rest of UC Gundam, because lets face it, UC Gundam generally doesn't sell well outside of people who've probably already seen it, or would get pissed off at those kinds of things. bandai might put out another preorder only box for I dunno, ZZ, it'll bomb because no one wants to take another risk on another flawed Gundam UC release, and'll just focus on putting out SEED crap forever.
Gotta wonder why they even fucking bother. |
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Darkseid
Hello Kitty Douchebag
Joined: 17 Oct 2003
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| Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 8:16 am Post subject: |
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Dude, I bought that set so I could enjoy and review it.
I am so not thrilled right now.... just.... oh, and I'm working on a letter to send right now via snail mail to show my considerable displeasure..... along with a lil something to hurt them financially.
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Daryl Surat
Your Mom
Joined: 15 Oct 2003
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Location: Oakland Park, FL
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| Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 8:40 am Post subject: |
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So by what method was this official announcement made, again? Oh right. It was a post on the Anime on DVD message boards. Of course. See, you can't actually get information regarding faulty discs and exchange programs from say...the actual company website. Oh no, that's just crazy talk since then more people would actually KNOW about this stuff. Here's the official line courtesy of Jonathan Nguyen from Bandai (who's just the messenger on this, so we won't be shooting HIM):
| Quote: | | There will be no replacements. We had a discussion regarding having a replacement program but in the end it was decided that since there really is no playability error with the discs we can't justify replacing them. |
He's clearly not too keen on the manuever either, but being a pretty low-level grunt without the power to change things on his own, he suggests we follow Darkseid's lead and physically write courteous letters to customer service. Still, on the one hand, at least I finally have official confirmation of what I already knew. On the other hand, this is nothing but even more bad PR for Bandai with pretty much zero benefit to them whatsoever.
Bandai's messed up tons of stuff in the past, prompting fans to make requests for revisions that fall upon deaf ears time and time again. The difference with Zeta Gundam is that they actually DID it. The hard work, the part that actually costs them MONEY, has already been done! Printing up the physical DVDs, that's the CHEAP part, man! For them to not allow their absolute most diehard supporters--the kind of people with the money and desire to pay $200 up front for something sight unseen--to exchange their discs for discs THAT HAVE ALREADY BEEN MADE is just going to make everyone despise them.
How hard would it be for them to offer even something kind of crappy like "mail us all your old DVDs plus $10 for shipping and we'll mail you back replacements after two months?" That would at least send the message that they sort of give a crap, but the message that they're sending with these actions is "if you pay us money to support our releases, then you are stupid for doing so and should be penalized."
"Gundam" is Bandai's flagship title. Period. They should be taking every measure to assure that anything that's got Gundam written on it is satisfactory to the fans, but that's not been the case since well, the beginning. They screwed up Gundam Wing's subtitles, they screwed up G Gundam's subtitles, the original Mobile Suit Gundam was dub-only and they're not going to release a subtitled version because FOR SOME MYSTERIOUS REASON people didn't buy that release, they screwed up Zeta's subtitles, and even if we do end up seeing the rest of this stuff chances are high they'll screw THOSE up too. I honestly can't remember if Char's Counterattack has a screwy translation or not, but at least some of the earlier releases, such as the original movie trilogy, 0080, 0083, and 08th MS Team, weren't as notoriously poor with this stuff...because some of those were notorious for their video quality instead.
I'm sure that according to them, NONE of this has anything to do with the failure of Gundam in the US! Oh no, this is all nitpicky stuff that only a few insignificant people who like to complain on the Internet care about! After all, those pesky otaku are too few in number to make Gundam financially successful, right? Maybe, maybe not, but one thing's for sure: this "pesky otaku" is done with paying money for Gundam anime. Let it burn for all I care.
I don't want to hear "it's impossible to please these hardcore otaku" or the convenient catch-all excuse "the Japanese made us do it and there was nothing we could do about it." I'm sick and tired of paying hundreds of dollars for this stuff, only to find out that now that these people have got my money in their pocket, they don't owe me jack in return. You can't submit civil complaints through their customer service lines because they'll just ignore them with a form letter response. You can't complain angrily anywhere or they'll just write you off as being a nutcase. You can't vote with your wallet against a release because they'll just interpret the lack of sales to mean "well, guess nobody cares about this property since clearly we're incapable of doing anything wrong!" No wonder there's some people out there think they're morally justified to steal this stuff. They're still wrong, but things like this make me understand.
What does it take to make a statement to these people that would actually deliver the message? What, do we gather up 100 like-minded people, go to Bandai's panel at Anime Expo, then all up get up en masse, have everyone hold out $1000 in cash in front of them, then say "my associates and I are LITERALLY standing here with our arms outstretched waiting to give you $100,000 right here, right now, and that's just the beginning..." before having everyone pocket the dough and finish up with "...but we CAN'T give you our money because you've made it continually clear to us that you neither care about us nor want our business" then all walk out while giving them the finger? Then take video of it, post it on Youtube, and encourage others to follow suit? Fun as that would be (since you'd have to do it very Glengarry Glen Ross style), this shouldn't be that hard.
Oh well. Here's their snail mail address. May as well fire off a printed letter, for all the good it'll do:
Bandai Entertainment
P.O. Box 6054
Cypress, CA 90630
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Winter
The NY Citizens were really underrated.
Joined: 15 Oct 2003
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| Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 10:54 am Post subject: |
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I have to say, I'm generally pretty easygoing when it comes to company workings, but even I'm inflamed over this.
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Mike Toole
Licensed Infotainment Expert
Joined: 15 Oct 2003
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Location: Cambridge, MA
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| Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:47 am Post subject: |
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| Daryl Surat wrote: | | So by what method was this official announcement made, again? Oh right. It was a post on the Anime on DVD message boards. |
A few too many "official announcements" get made that way, IMO. Remember when Darius reviewed Dangai-oh and complained about the crappy dub-only DVD? There were people who were annoyed that he didn't know about the problem, which had already been picked over at the AoD boards. Dude, not EVERYONE reads those damn things every day!
| Quote: | | at least some of the earlier releases, such as the original movie trilogy, 0080, 0083, and 08th MS Team, weren't as notoriously poor with this stuff...because some of those were notorious for their video quality instead. |
Don't forget the distorted English audio on the Miller's Report disc!
Here's something interesting. The Gundam movie trilogy, 0080, 0083, and 08th MS Team (prior to Miller's Report) were all localized without any input from Sunrise. They all feature excellent subtitles and translation from Neil Nadelman and Dave Fleming, fantastic dubs by Animaze... very solid, faithful work in general.
Everything after that, all the stuff with the bad translations and deliberate mistakes, cheap Canadian-produced dubs... from Gundam Wing onward, all supervised by Sunrise.
Connect the dots! La la la la! Connect the dots! La la la la! I could also mention a certain bald-headed cranky, lying psychopath named Yoshiyuki Tomino, but I won't.
| Quote: | | What does it take to make a statement to these people that would actually deliver the message? What, do we gather up 100 like-minded people, go to Bandai's panel at Anime Expo, then all up get up en masse, have everyone hold out $1000 in cash in front of them |
No, this is too dramatic and hard to organize. What we need is a pie in the face. Not for poor Jonathan Nguyen, or even Ken Iyadomi. Their hands are pretty much tied, at least as far as Gundam goes. Someone higher up the chain, someone at Sunrise, is ultimately responsible for this shit. And for us never getting Layzner and Giant Gorg.
So... yeah, pie in the face. Maybe at Anime Expo? I dunno. In the meantime, I'll join the angry chorus of letter-writers. |
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Subatomic Brainfreeze
Your Mom
Joined: 20 Dec 2005
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| Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 1:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Daryl Surat wrote: | | I honestly can't remember if Char's Counterattack has a screwy translation or not, |
It does. The subtitles seem to go the Cartoon Network route in using euphemisms for death, and the most memorable fuckup is during Char's speech when he makes reference to the events of ZZ Gundam. The subtitles refer to "the Haman", as though he is speaking of a group, and not that wacky chick Haman Karn.
You know what the nail in the coffin for me is, though? The impending (or is it out?) R2 release of the Gundam TV series, after all that talk about destroyed audio materials. Thanks a lot, assholes. You're not getting any more of my money.
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Andre
Prime Minister of Ireland
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| Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 2:48 pm Post subject: |
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Of course, that R2 Release could feature a new or messed up japanese dub, like they did to the movies for the DVD release. It's apparently Sunrise's fault that we have original version subbed VHS and dubbed VHS versions of the movies, and a subbed DVD version of the movie with all-new voices and soundeffects [which bites, when there's preexisting audio that Bandai Ent already released!].
And there was also the apparently Sunrise endorsed push to have the 70's Gundam theme song purged from the DVD's after it appeared on the first disc....
And is it just me, or shouldn't we of gotten Turn A Gundam by now in some form? Given most of the other Bandai discs I have have decent subs and dubs, I blame Sunrise for all the Gundam problems myself. And there isn't anything wrong with cheaply produced Candian dubs ^_^
Of course, there doesn't seem to be any problems with the Bandai Visual releases based on reviews [I'm guessing those are handled by a seperate group of Japanese studio people from Bandai Ent, which seems to be watched over by Sunrise, while Bandai Visual might be a different department like Emotion.....]. Mabye we'll see decent releases of the Turn A Gundam and Zeta Gundam movies yet? Or mabye not....
It's too bad about the whole Zeta Gundam situation. It just kinds of kills any chance of getting any more of the 80's/early 90's Gundam shows imported. I imagine even Gundam X and Turn A Gundam's TV version have slim chances now....
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Tochiro
I STILL CAN'T STOP FUCKING POSTING
Joined: 06 Nov 2005
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Location: The Sea of Stars
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| Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 3:03 pm Post subject: |
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For all my bitching about stuff, for all my burning otaku passion over EVIL COMPANIES, I have to say this:
Bandai's customer service people replaced my fucked up copy of Overman King Gainer V.4 in as prompt and timely a manner as one could expect.
I went thru 2 discs at Suncoast before I gave up and decided to email the Bandai customer service, and *whew* 3 was the charm.
But the whole thing with Gundam, ya, bites hard.
Did I mention another 'black helicopter' thought? That the REAL reason why Zeta didn't have the songs is that since it was supposed to be a dub only CN release, it was felt they just weren't needed, and NOBODY EVEN THOUGHT TO CHECK into securing the needed rights for the re-purposed release. Then the set was released and they had to fake up a reason. Where's my tinfoil?
(I mean, at some point, SOMEONE had to at some level run a check disc and say "Um, hey, don't these things usually have a song?" didn't they? DIDN'T THEY? didn't they, Taiso?)
I still don't get why people act like Sunrise is a seperate, independant company, it's Bandai. It's all Bandai. And screwed up thinking by Tomino.
I have a counter. 1984. L.A. Worldcon. I have a picture of Tomino in a kimono and Mickey Mouse ears, holding a drink. AND SMILING.
Maybe what sense and logic can't fix, simple shame can....MUUWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
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Mike Toole
Licensed Infotainment Expert
Joined: 15 Oct 2003
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| Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 4:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Tochiro wrote: | | I still don't get why people act like Sunrise is a seperate, independant company, it's Bandai. It's all Bandai. |
No, not really. Bandai Entertainment (BEI) is a subsidiary of Bandai America, which itself is the American arm of Bandai Co., Ltd. of Japan. Sunrise is a completely separate subsidiary of Bandai Co., Ltd. of Japan. These two companies may have the same ownership, but that doesn't mean they're the same company. Bandai Entertainment must license the shows they import from Japan, even stuff produced by Sunrise, and daddy doesn't pay the bills.
Theoretically, the shared relationship these two companies have should make doing business easier (and in some cases it does, like the fact that all Gundam video goes through BEI), but all that goes out the window when you're dealing with massive tools like Sunrise, who were actually in material breach of contract when they withheld materials for Gorg and Layzner, thus torpedoing their releases.
As for stuff like the missing OP/ED songs, in my experience you can just chalk it up to Hanlon's Razor. ("Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.") I've been told by numerous parties that the songs were omitted because of a publishing problem, and Sunrise didn't want to spend the cash to license the songs for release outside of Japan. As for other stuff... stupidity, probably. Seriously. Jeff Thompson, may he rest in peace, once told me a great story about how the next-episode trailers were not included with the Tylor materials. He repeatedly asked for them, only to be told they didn't exist anymore. He just kept asking, until finally someone on the Japanese side got fed up and asked around. Turned out they were in an unlabeled cardboard box in the garage of one of the producers.
Ordinarily, I don't care about stuff like this, but this case really smacks of egregious stupidity and arrogance. Zeta is a niche release that was handled very badly, and we should see about letting Sunrise know that they fucked up. |
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Tochiro
I STILL CAN'T STOP FUCKING POSTING
Joined: 06 Nov 2005
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Location: The Sea of Stars
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| Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 5:53 pm Post subject: |
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But Mike, look a couple posts up. It's a pretty consistant story of Bandai Ent. US screwing up Gundam releases in SOME manner ever since the Anime Village.com days. So how does that happen?
Of course, we're back to our internets fanboy whining over such things as Mediablasters needing SOMEONE who can spell doing the last minute 'we're locking this and NOBODY touches it after this point!' checking of subtitles, the audio issues that never got fixed, blah blah blah.
It really bugs me. Zeta Gundam is the series that changed my views on Gundam, that made me sit up and pay attention and learn to groove on it. Having it come out on R1 DVD should have been some kind of....thing...for me and it's just so fucking bitter, like eating a brick of baking chocolate.
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Mike Toole
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| Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 6:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Tochiro wrote: | | But Mike, look a couple posts up. It's a pretty consistant story of Bandai Ent. US screwing up Gundam releases in SOME manner ever since the Anime Village.com days. |
Okay. How did the company screw up the first 3 movies, 0080, 0083, and 08th MS Team?
| Quote: | | like eating a brick of baking chocolate. |
That reminds me, I'm hungry. |
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Tochiro
I STILL CAN'T STOP FUCKING POSTING
Joined: 06 Nov 2005
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Location: The Sea of Stars
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| Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 6:27 pm Post subject: |
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| Mike Toole wrote: | | Tochiro wrote: | | But Mike, look a couple posts up. It's a pretty consistant story of Bandai Ent. US screwing up Gundam releases in SOME manner ever since the Anime Village.com days. |
Okay. How did the company screw up the first 3 movies, 0080, 0083, and 08th MS Team?
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Poorly phrased on my part, reboot to "Post Anime Village.com"
Altho video quality issues have been brought up, and there WAS that HORRID first Gundam Movie dub job, that "OMG we're back to Jim Terry days!" thing. You know, where they changed names, turned machine guns into lasers and all that.
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Mr.X
GOKU
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 8:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | that HORRID first Gundam Movie dub job |
God, don't bring that up. It, along with my childhood memories being shattered after I re-watched Gundam Wing 5 years later, kept me off of Gundam for at least two years.
| Quote: | | Altho video quality issues have been brought up, |
That wasn't a problem with my DVDs of the movies and 0080 so, at least for those two, I'll chalk it up to AOD forum-style "OMG ITS NOT IN 1809p BANDAI R BAKAS  " stuff, can't speak for the others though.
| Quote: | | Mobile Suit Gundam was dub-only |
To play devil's advocate for a second weren't the audio masters for the TV series royally fucked-up or lost or Sunrise wouldn't gonna turn them over due to "quality issues" or something to that effect ? The thing that lands credence here is that the audio has had to be re-done for the Japanese DVD release (from what I've read anyway). That said, it's still dumb but there are at least reasons for it.
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Tochiro
I STILL CAN'T STOP FUCKING POSTING
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| Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Mr.X wrote: |
| Quote: | | Mobile Suit Gundam was dub-only |
To play devil's advocate for a second weren't the audio masters for the TV series royally fucked-up or lost or Sunrise wouldn't gonna turn them over due to "quality issues" or something to that effect ? The thing that lands credence here is that the audio has had to be re-done for the Japanese DVD release (from what I've read anyway). That said, it's still dumb but there are at least reasons for it. |
The current story as I understand it is, Bandai/Sunrise had a deep and terrible fear of 'reverse importation' if Original Gundam had been released in the US with a Japanese track, as there had not yet been a R2 Japan release on DVD.
I honestly don't know how realistic that fear is. Somehow I just don't figure there's that many Japanese who have gone to the trouble to either find an all region player or modded one. yeah, there's the deep otaku, the tech savvy who probably has done so, but by THAT point they're already downloading the episodes via Bandai's own site. So just to pull a number totally out of my ass, Bandai/Sunrise was terrified that maybe a couple hundred Japanese Gundam fans would pay the insane shipping to buy US Gundam DVDs.
If Bandai NEEDS that couple hundred sales of a Gundam Video product to stay in business, there's much greater problems in play than anything we can imagine.
But you can read that other thread where I discuss the Seiyuu suit from a few years back and how I think that played into all this.
Hey, someone remind me which is the 'forbidden' episode from the US release, huh? I want to dig into my books and see what it might have been that made Tomino say "Um, no, I don't want this seen now"
maybe I can come up with another fun 'black helicopter' theory! 
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Subatomic Brainfreeze
Your Mom
Joined: 20 Dec 2005
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| Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:38 pm Post subject: |
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[quote="Mr.X"] | Quote: | | the audio has had to be re-done for the Japanese DVD release (from what I've read anyway). That said, it's still dumb but there are at least reasons for it. |
See, here's the thing. Sunrise re-recorded the audio for the movies, not for the TV series, and it was the R1 DVDs of the TV series that were dub-only. They couldn't have re-recorded again; off the top of my head, both Sayla (and Haro) and Bright's voice actors have passed away. Maybe there's a reason, but what it looks like to me is that they just said that about the Japanese audio to avoid reverse importation while they waited to release the (i think) $400 box set to Japan.
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Tochiro
I STILL CAN'T STOP FUCKING POSTING
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| Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:43 pm Post subject: |
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Ya know, I can be SO stupid! (shut up!)
Is THAT the real reason they dropped the songs from Zeta Gundam? To quash reverse importation? Because the JAPANESE fans wouldn't consider that acceptable.
Man, them black helicopters sure are loud...
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Tochiro
I STILL CAN'T STOP FUCKING POSTING
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| Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:49 pm Post subject: |
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[quote="Subatomic Brainfreeze"] | Mr.X wrote: | | Quote: | | the audio has had to be re-done for the Japanese DVD release (from what I've read anyway). That said, it's still dumb but there are at least reasons for it. |
See, here's the thing. Sunrise re-recorded the audio for the movies, not for the TV series, and it was the R1 DVDs of the TV series that were dub-only. They couldn't have re-recorded again; off the top of my head, both Sayla (and Haro) and Bright's voice actors have passed away. Maybe there's a reason, but what it looks like to me is that they just said that about the Japanese audio to avoid reverse importation while they waited to release the (i think) $400 box set to Japan. |
I have assumed that when the seiyuu were dubbing the movies Sunrise went ahead and re-did the TV series too, in anticipation of your insight-I mean, in anticipation for the anniversery release. Yes, nobody has said this happened, but it's easy to assume the possiblity, it's *logical* for the franchise, and if nobody asked the question, they wouldn't part with the answer.
We'll know soon, I'm pretty sure Gunota will have lots of links to Japanese blogs discussing the issue.
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My name is Steve, how ya do? I'm blogging now, look out! http://tochiro998.livejournal.com/ |
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Gen Fukunaga
CEO, Funimation
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
Posts: 587
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| Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 12:03 am Post subject: |
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You're still not seeing it, though. The audiop masters, well, good enough ones, were used to create Laser Discs not too long ago (10 years maybe?). I highly doubt they would have managed to mangle or fuck them up in any great regard, and even if they did, they STILL could have used the audio from the laserdiscs because the Japanese do not remix old TV series sets into 5.1. It's just pointless.
The main reason why they charge so much for it, and why it's taken so long for them to put it out, is because Tomino/Sunrise do not want to put it out. It's comparable to George Lucas/Lucasarts not wanting to put out the original versions of Star Wars eps 4-6 until now- A 'canonical' version* has come out that as far as the original production staff are concerned, is the 'superior' version and the only one they want out. The TV series is very Robot-of-the-week and not something they want people having, but like with Star Wars, they gave in (though how it's being handled is something completely different). Pulling the "Oh, no one wants it" and "oh, the audio masters are screwed" are ploys intentionally made to get people less interested in wanting it, therefore less inclined to bitch to Sunrise/Bandai to release it.
The audio won't get re-recorded. It'd be a horrendously bad idea. Bandai would have always had some way to get the original Japanese audio and fix it up where possible. It's their big franchise and I doubt, despite how down they look apon it, won't be something they'd 'mistreat' by loosing audio masters.
Subseqeuntly, the reason they're charging $400 for it is because the people who would buy a 43 episode TV series like that are more than likely the types of gigantic saps who would pay $400 for it. That and the remastering is supposed to be really quite something, but I don't know yet.
*Star Wars being the re-releases without Han shooting first, or the new guy as Anakin in episode six. Gundam is things like the Core Booster or more inclusion of the Newtype plot, etc |
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Subatomic Brainfreeze
Your Mom
Joined: 20 Dec 2005
Posts: 212
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| Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 1:04 am Post subject: |
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| Gen Fukunaga wrote: | | It's their big franchise and I doubt, despite how down they look apon it, won't be something they'd 'mistreat' by loosing audio masters. |
Right, and you figure the LDs came out early to mid-90's or so? For Sunrise's story to check out they'd have had to, I dunno, EATEN the original audio or something after finishing up with the LDs. Much older stuff than Gundam's been put on DVD. They didn't lose nothin'.
Also, I checked over on CDJapan: The box sets are $300 apiece. There's a limited edition that comes with a figure of the RX-78. That's kind of weird. I bet every single person who buys the set owns at least one. Hell, I have a couple.
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ferricide
Regional Manager, Wernham Hogg
Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 2935
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| Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 2:42 am Post subject: |
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nice! this done blowed up while i was traveling cross country.
i finished disc 9 of Z gundam on the plane and was once more deeply annoyed at the craptastic subtitles. and wondering, also, why i never finished watching it in the first place. because it rulz.
yeah, i need to write bandai a fucking letter. expressing my frustration. as daryl suggested, if they want me to pay the cost of replacing the discs and postage and will require me to mail in my discs so they can shred 'em... fine. fine! that seems reasonable to me. |
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Mike Toole
Licensed Infotainment Expert
Joined: 15 Oct 2003
Posts: 751
Location: Cambridge, MA
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| Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 5:26 am Post subject: |
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| Tochiro wrote: |
Altho video quality issues have been brought up, |
I dunno, I'm not seeing any huge problems. Then again, I don't know what the hell the AoD kids are talking about when they complain about "dot crawl" either.
| Quote: | | and there WAS that HORRID first Gundam Movie dub job, that "OMG we're back to Jim Terry days!" thing. You know, where they changed names, turned machine guns into lasers and all that. |
Huh? I have those movies. The first movie has some very amusingly weird changes (the classic "roboton invaders!!!" line and a few others), but that's about it. No name changes. The person responsible for rewriting the lines in the first movie was, quite literally, sacked, and movies 2 and 3 are pretty faithful.
I actually liked the voice cast of those movies (Steve Blum as Char? BADASSSSSSS, not to mention giving Bright the annoyed upper-class English accent he should have had in the TV dub). Shame they couldn't be used for the TV version.
| Quote: | | Hey, someone remind me which is the 'forbidden' episode from the US release, huh? I want to dig into my books and see what it might have been that made Tomino say "Um, no, I don't want this seen now" |
From this interview:
| Quote: |
Q: The Gundam TV series was released on DVD in the United States, but an episode is missing-- episode 15, "The Isle of Kuklas Dom." I'm wondering what happened to that episode.
YT: Was it the fifteenth, or the thirteenth...? Anyway, I asked that it be skipped.
Q: Any particular reason? You just didn't like it?
YT: There's a reasion, but since the staff is still alive, I can't talk about it. [laughter.] |
I asked this question. I'd still like it answered. There is nothing wrong with that episode. What's the deal?
Also of interest, from the same interview:
| Quote: | Q: I believe my question speaks for many Gundam fans in the United States. We understand the reason that we did not get the Japanese language version of the first Gundam TV series was because it was not available in Japan. But if it did become available in Japan in the near future, would you leave the audio recordings as they originally were, or would you do another special edition re-recording, as you did with the movie trilogy recently?
YT: The sound quality of the recordings that remain from First Gundam is quite poor at this time. Because of this, there was no other way but to re-record the First Gundam movies, including the addition of new music. So there would be no possibility of having the original soundtrack released in the United States. I agree with Bandai's decision that they had to re-record the soundtrack, and I also understand that there are a lot of fans that are disappointed with this. But there's really no other option, and I'm very sorry about it. [in english] Sorry! |
Stephen's George Lucas analogy is accurate; Tomino, for whatever reason, simply isn't fond of the original soundtrack. Pisses me off, too, because the shithead changed the music in the re-recording and IMO it's not as good, especially the final scene of the 3rd movie. The man, as talented as he is, is basically a lying egomaniac who's just as lousy as the salarymen and managers he crusades against. One of my biggest regrets of going to AXNY was not getting 1-on-1 interview time with him, so I couldn't ask him important questions like "So, at what point did you realize you were a failure?" and "Garzey's Wing - what went wrong?" |
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Gokiburi_Chachacha
Lesbian Totoro
Joined: 10 Oct 2004
Posts: 1062
Location: Tarpon Springs, FL
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| Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 9:33 am Post subject: |
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Bandai really boggled this one, that's for sure.
Ah, well. I can live without Zeta. Even with (mostly) corrected subtitles, the lack of the OP / ED themes is a deal-breaker for me, especially at the prices they were charging for the original pre-order box. I'll just have to make due with the UC Movie box-set, Char's Counterattack, and War in the Pocket.
I find it mind-boggling that Bandai would issue such a statement, effectively slapping their staunchest supporters in the face. This is bound to lose them some business. The question remains, though, is will that business be significant? Something tells me that the same small group that was willing to pony up 200 greenbacks for Zeta Gundam sight-unseen is no longer Bandai's target audience; they must be aiming for the Cartoon Network SEED / Destiny / Mai Hime crowd, because they sure as heck have been alienating the UC crowd for some time now...
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