ADV's Sailor Moon/R Box Sets

devilmaykickass · Post by **devilmaykickass** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 6:38 pm

Ok, so the first two seasons of Sailor Moon (Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R) were released back in 2003 by ADV, they lost the liscense, and now they are out of print. I was just wondering - the people of Sailor Moon Uncensored have done nothing but bitch about these boxed sets and how horrible the quality is...now, I've heard from other people who have supposedly seen the masters that the quality isn't much different, and it's just an old print, and it looks/sounds that way...

So my question is to the people who know: Did ADV fuck up, or is that just how they look/sound? I purchased Season 1 before they went out of print, and Season 2 is on it's way to me from eBay as we speak...I don't regret purchasing them reguardless, seeing as it took so damn long for them to be commercially released, and now yet again they aren't availible.

Moonlight Soldier · Post by **Moonlight Soldier** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 8:33 pm

Wow, I'd never seen that before, and wow, a lot of useless whining and griping on their part. (As well as poor editoreal writing skills).

As far as the video quality goes, the animation is old, and that's the crispest I have ever seen quality wise.

Org Profile · Post by **LantisEscudo** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 9:22 pm

The people at SMU can gripe all they want, but it doesn't change the fact that when ADV was making the DVDs, the original materials were 11 years old. About the only way to make the materials look better would be to go through some expensive, difficult digital remastering process like Animeigo did with Macross. Doing that, though, would be pretty stupid on ADV's part, given how short-term their sublicense from DiC was. If they had tried, the license probably would have expired before they managed to release it. And that's all assuming Toei would let them remaster it in the first place (this being the same company that won't release Stars or episode 67).

I own all four seasons of SM that are available in the US, and they look very close to me, quality-wise. If SMU wants to chuck rocks, they should be denigrating Pioneer, too, not just ADV.

My only big complaint with ADV's (and Pioneer's) releases of the series is how muddy the audio gets in some episodes. There's also a fair amount more dirt and scratching on ADV's releases than on Pioneer's, but the source ADV got is also as much as three years older than what Pioneer got, so that's excusable. Other than that, the show is old. Deal with the quirks of poorly-stored film that's between 9 and 11 years old.

Org Profile · Post by **LantisEscudo** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 9:44 pm

Eeek... Reading back, I think I sound a little harsh... Reminder to self, don't post when hungry.

To directly speak to the quality of ADV's release of Sailor Moon:

The video is pretty dirty. But, again, it's more than a decade old. The video is perfectly cleanable with AVISynth, and is not nearly the worst DVD I have in my collection. I think the disks are about on a par with Animeigo's release of the Ah! My Goddess OVAs or Bandai's Vision of Escaflowne TV DVDs. Nothing like Gundam SEED, but you really can't expect them to be.

The audio is a mixed bag. Some episodes, especially early in the first season, sound terribly muddy. The audio quality picks up around episode 10 or so, and stays about the same through most of the rest of the first season. Some episodes in the middle are again muddy, but not nearly as bad as the first few. The second season has a few muddy episodes towards the middle of the first story arc (pre-episode 60), but is pretty clear throughout the rest of the series. As a note, all the DVDs are in mono, but so was the original broadcast.

The missing episode 67 is annoying, but when the licensor won't give it to you, there's not much you can do.

On the whole, I'm quite happy with the quality of the release, given the show's age.

devilmaykickass · Post by **devilmaykickass** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 10:01 pm

LantisEscudo wrote:The missing episode 67 is annoying, but when the licensor won't give it to you, there's not much you can do.

So, there's NO way to get that episode? What's so special about that episode that they wouldn't let ADV have it anyway?

Moonlight Soldier · Post by **Moonlight Soldier** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 10:05 pm

devilmaykickass wrote:
LantisEscudo wrote:The missing episode 67 is annoying, but when the licensor won't give it to you, there's not much you can do.
So, there's NO way to get that episode? What's so special about that episode that they wouldn't let ADV have it anyway?

I'm sure you can find it somewhere just not legally >.>

As for why, I can't remember, all I know is that's the episode where Chibi-Usa goes to the beach and there's a baby dinosaur.

Org Profile · Post by **LantisEscudo** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 10:10 pm

devilmaykickass wrote:
LantisEscudo wrote:The missing episode 67 is annoying, but when the licensor won't give it to you, there's not much you can do.
So, there's NO way to get that episode? What's so special about that episode that they wouldn't let ADV have it anyway?

It was a mid-season non-plot "swimsuit episode" that was essentially an excuse for the creators to put the entire cast in swimsuits. Hitoshi Doi has a summary of the episode here.

I have no idea why Toei said no. The only way to get it is on the Region 2 release, which is also apparently a remastered edition.

AquaSky · Post by **AquaSky** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 6:14 am

devilmaykickass wrote:So, there's NO way to get that episode? What's so special about that episode that they wouldn't let ADV have it anyway?

Well, story goes that when they were acquiring the rights to the R season, it was only on the condition that episode 67 not be included. Apparently, Naoko Takeuchi disliked that particular episode. Something about not fitting in with the storyline, if I recall correctly.

As far as the quality goes, yeah, I'm a bit peeved. The DVD quality is, quite honestly, worse than that of my fansub copy. Supposedly, they could only obtain the rights to use some lesser-quality footage, on the grounds that "If the US release were of the best quality, the Japanese would import theirs from the US, since it's less expensive". That, to me, is bull. That's no reason to give us a shoddier product. And yeah, I can vouch for the audio issues. The volume and quality varies greatly from episode to episode. I was thrilled to hear they'd finally be releasing the SM and SMR seasons here (uncut), but am quite disppointed in the final product.

lilgumba · Post by **lilgumba** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 12:48 pm

I agree that the quality of the videos suck but it's still worth seeing the episodes as close to as they should be. Any fan would easily bypass the quality after watching a few episodes. As far as episode 67 I have seen it. It is a bunch of filler that is Chibiusa based. I really did not like it that much and you don't really need to see it to enjoy thr rest of the show. If anything it should have been a side special but there was no way it was connected to the plot at all. I can see how they might be embarrased or disgusted with it. If you don't like Chibiusa you really shouldn't see it.

devilmaykickass · Post by **devilmaykickass** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 12:53 pm

Well that makes me feel better, since it's just like a side tv-specialish thing anyway. Maybe it'll be released when the TV specials get released, if they ever do.