kazuo

Thanks all! Sounds like it's generally considered to be good, so I'll probably check out a few video reviews over the weekend, then decide for sure if I want to take the plunge. I should really just do it before I get stuck overpaying to resellers or secondhand toys... 🙃

You can like it - doesn't mean I have to. I was merely sharing my opinion and experience in a thread discussing the toy. Or is that not allowed around here? I politely decline to enact the labor of reiterating the various shortcomings and production/QC issues with this $200 toy. If you've been following the thread, you're well aware of what's been going on, so you're either being disingenuous or you're trying to get me with a "gotcha". I'll pass in either case. I wasn't laying bait, I wanted this thing to be good, but for this amount of money, no thanks. There's a reason there are stacks of these, NISB, sitting untouched at Amiami in Akihabara.

That's an interesting point to bring up and something I will keep an eye on once it is released. If this ends up being true, I may try to pick up a copy after all - I'm not really pressed about missing out on preorder bonuses. Hopefully the "original Theatrical Release" isn't 1080p on a standard Blu-Ray disc. Neither am I, since I want to avoid derailing the thread. The last thing I will say (and the point I was trying to get across) is that the various processes used in these remasters predate the recent marketing jargon known as "AI"; color grading, digital noise reduction, and digital manipulation of film/video have existed for the better part of 20 years (or more, depending on the specific process). None of this is "AI".

Perhaps this is pedantic, but digital noise reduction and similar filtering (which is what is typically used to remove grain) is not "AI"; it's typically doing something along the lines of nearest neighbor pixel comparison, either on the same frame or across a sampling of multiple frames. Regardless of how they're doing it, whether it is digital filtering, Skynet, or fairy dust, if the grain is gone, the detail is gone. And judging from the shared samples of the remaster, much of the detail is gone, so the grain is almost certainly gone. The recoloring is almost certainly being done by a combination of manual work supplemented by software automagically filling in the intermediate frames. Again, not really "AI", even if we're to go by the current colloquialism of "Large Language Learning Model = AI".

I ended up bailing on this as soon as I got it. All of the various issues and some of the weird design choices really put me off. Unfortunate because I'd been hoping Bandai could hit a home run with this so I could put it on the shelf next to my YF-19. Here's hoping they can fix at least some of this stuff with a renewal version?

Absolutely not shitposting or trying to start a fight, legitimately curious - was the original version of this generally considered to be a good release? I love the VF-2, kept kicking the can down the road on buying this, largely because I wasn't super excited about Hi-Metal scale and I didn't want to take up the shelf space. With the 4K Blu-Ray remaster coming soon (which is why I suspect this is getting re-released!), my interest has been rekindled. This is still available for preorder at tons of shops, so thinking about grabbing one now. Thanks all!

Wouldn't be surprised if this is what they used during the screenings at Shinjuku last year. It looked incredible despite its age. I canceled my preorder after catching up on what's been shared in this thread. Absolutely disappointing that these companies continue to butcher beloved films and shows by performing "restoration" work that isn't necessary. Really says a lot when 5 dudes blowing it up in their bedrooms can crank out better restorations that multi-billion dollar companies like Bandai (I'm talking about MediaOCD/AnimEigo here). What a frakking joke. Maybe one of these dudes should've told Kawamori that this movie is OLD and was done with CELS, and it should look as such. I think the comparisons to Lucas are more than fair. Also, can we please stop with the "AI" stuff? There is no "AI" at play here - this is not an upscale, and upscales do not use "AI".

There were no additional announcements made of any kind. It was just a normal movie screening.

This. I think some people are pretty naive about how long that whole "they will never put the original trio back on the screen!" thing will last. My personal take? It may hold for future (read: continuations of) stories, but for a reboot (e.g. The First), nope. All bets are off. Expect everyone up to and including Hikaru to be recast. To be clear, I'm not particularly excited about the idea of a remake, nor am I excited about the idea of continuining Hikaru's/Minmay's/Misa's story post-'82. But I'm also not particularly excited about Delta, nor whatever is next if it continues to follow the trend of Idolshit-in-the-sky.

Here's some reports from JP Twitter users (with photos): This last tweet struck me as super odd, since there was a notice outside the cinema that the movie might need to be stopped if they had issues with the projector. Or did they simply post that in part of their grand scheme to hide the fact that it's just a digital film scan? Doubtful. I saw the photo earlier on Twitter, but I can't find it at the moment. The theater it is being screened in is quite high-end, and provides complimentary (read: free) drinks and popcorn. It looks like the DYRL film screenings may have ended (both the digital & 35mm versions); they have yet to announce the dates for the Plus 35mm film screenings.

Do we have any idea what the original source files were rendered at? I'm going to guess 720p max, but would honestly be surprised if it was higher than 480p. I wonder if things like AstroRes can handle mixed 2D/3D content; otherwise, doing an upscale of something like this must be a tremendous pain in the rectum.

You say that as if the story cannot be completed for some reason. We all know how Macross ends. I imagine it wouldn't be hard to have HAL crank out a synopsis (assuming it doesn't exist already), and then finish his work for him. They could just make it for the Japanese market. You know, like the Macross The First manga was made solely for that market. Aside from shows made for streaming platforms (Netflix), I'm not really sure you can make a strong case for "they totally made this show with the global audience in mind" for a lot of productions. So this doesn't really hold up as a strong argument against the idea.

Perhaps a better way to look at it is the pre-order group were the ones that made the release happen. Literally, as I recall. Pretty sure Robert Woodhead said that without sufficient preorders, it was dead in the water. But it's possible I am misremembering. Too lazy to look. Maybe I'm mixing it up with the Zeta Gundam DVD boxset.

I watched '82 over again a few years back. Honestly didn't age super well. Lots of stuff in the plot didn't make sense, inconsistent animation quality (even for that era), and you can really tell when they got the news that they were getting more episodes added to the schedule. I still like it though, but I probably wouldn't recommend it to people. DYRL also has a decent number of "huh" moments with the plot, but it's just so amazing to look at that most people I've shown it to don't really think about it until way after the fact. Adapting "The First" Manga into an anime probably isn't the worst idea, honestly. Especially if they get WIT & Clover Works to do it.

Sorry if I missed the thread, but I didn't see one anywhere obvious... https://macross.jp/news-detail/24847/ Of particular note is the Basara mini-live concert, and DYRL & Plus screening on 35mm film.