Macross Plus Remaster Box /Macross 7 TV/OVA

[Zinjo]

I dont think I`ve ever heard of ANY Japanese market anime release DVD with English subs or dubs on it. Correct me if I`m wrong but I dont think there is any significant demand in Japan or in specialist export market (hardcore fans like yourself who go for the Japanese releases) to warrant the time and money needed to include them.

- Megazone 32 Pt II

- My Neighbour Totoro (the Fox Family American version audio track-whether they recorded the track or not isn't generally known)

- Castle in the Sky Laputa (probably from the very limited theatrical release of the movie in America in the late 80's)

All had English audio tracks that were commissioned to help teach English to Japanese audiences (at least that was the explanation back in the day). Many of the voice actors from RT worked on those projects.

The Region 2-Limited Edition of Robot Carnival DVD has the Streamline Pictures English audio track included as part of the optional audio set up (there is also a Korean subtitle track along with the English one).

Edited July 3, 2007 by Zinjo

[TheLoneWolf]

Akira has an English dub and subtitle track on it. Tokyo Godfathers has subtitles. Macross Plus 1-4 has of course the "International Version" US dub on it (but a different cast for volume 4 -- I think there were problems with the master, gotta check out what happened with that). Erm, that's all I can think of so far, but then I don't watch so much anime these days.

I can't comment on Akira and Tokyo Godfathers, but wasn't Macross Plus "International Version" released as an educational tool to help teach English in Japan? Hence the reason it had Japanese subtitles, but no English subs. The same thing happened with Super Space Fortress Macross.

I suppose there's a very slim chance BD \ HD Macross releases could include subs, but Japan doesn't need to do us any favors. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that Japanese companies stand to make a more lucrative profit by selling a license to an American company verses selling a couple hundred extra copies of their own DVDs that include English subs.

[Zinjo]

I suppose there's a very slim chance BD \ HD Macross releases could include subs, but Japan doesn't need to do us any favors. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that Japanese companies stand to make a more lucrative profit by selling a license to an American company verses selling a couple hundred extra copies of their own DVDs that include English subs.

Possibly, however if HG cries wolf, it may scare away potential licensers and thus leave BigWest with a whole lot of nothing in terms of international markets. This may attribute to the lack of interest in Mac Zero by Western distributors, that the potential legal costs might leech any profits the show could make...

If it is a direct import from Japan, the law allows for such side stepping of any copyright claims made by US license holders, hence why Yamato valks can be sold here along side Toynami valks. It also gives BigWest direct profits from the DVD sales as opposed to a one time fee.

Since Big West has no love for HG and it appears that Manga Ent. may have let their licenses lapse, they would not be hurting any business partnerships by such moves.

[Keith]

If anyone happens to come across a Bandai Visual (not Bandai Entertainment) booth or panel at any upcoming cons, run up and ask them what their stance on releasing Macross in the U.S. is, since they've just starting bringing properties out over here, and put out the DVD's in Japan.

[Zinjo]

If anyone happens to come across a Bandai Visual (not Bandai Entertainment) booth or panel at any upcoming cons, run up and ask them what their stance on releasing Macross in the U.S. is, since they've just starting bringing properties out over here, and put out the DVD's in Japan.

Or you could just send them a message directly:

https://www.bandaivisual.co.jp/usa/

[sketchley]

I can't comment on Akira and Tokyo Godfathers, but wasn't Macross Plus "International Version" released as an educational tool to help teach English in Japan? Hence the reason it had Japanese subtitles, but no English subs. The same thing happened with Super Space Fortress Macross.

I suppose there's a very slim chance BD \ HD Macross releases could include subs, but Japan doesn't need to do us any favors. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that Japanese companies stand to make a more lucrative profit by selling a license to an American company verses selling a couple hundred extra copies of their own DVDs that include English subs.

If memory serves... that was with DYRL, not Macross Plus. By the mid-90's there was a lot more native-speaker English teachers in Japan than there was in the mid-80's. Therefore, there was no need to use Macross Plus as a teaching tool, as more than enough ALT and Eikaiwa existed to fill it.

Lucrative profit or more likely not. It's a business gamble. In the case of the Macross properties 7 and Zero, the gamble did not pay off, as no company purchased a license to release them in English.

Now that we've moved into the digital age, and especially with the High Vision recordings available on formats like Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, it's possible to cram both Japanese and English tracks onto releases (unlike the VHS age, were we'd be lucky if someone included an extra audio track, if anything at all.) That said, many Japanese companies have historically ignored the international market with the majority of their products (I don't mean this in the sense of including English labels, I mean it in the sense of actively promoting it and more specifically, litegating rivals that produce copy products,) so without a major rethink in business strategies, we may not be seeing an increase of English tracks or subtitles on the latest releases...

[jet660]

They are probably going to deny the existence of the remaster box and are under hush hush orders not to talk about Macross. hahaha

On a serious note - Has anyone actually sent a message to Bandai Visual and got a actual response from them? I could try and ask them about it, if there response is pretty fast.

I believe that what comes down to it is the quality of how a product is marketed. Don't forget it starts in Japan first. Macross Plus was a tremdous hit first domestically then internationally. Possibly HG cried wolf about it, but the demand to bring Macross Plus stateside was huge because of its reviews on the animation and story. Hence, BV giving ME getting their recognition and profits. I don't know if BW/BV were given the green light by HG or they sidestep them, but there wasn't any serious legal consequences stemming from it. If Macross Zero was a big hit like Macross Plus there would been a huge interest in getting it here in the states faster than most other anime. There could be numerous reasons why it is not here or in the future.

I agree with sketchley, Macross is an intellectual property of BW/BV. They have control whether they want to add subtitles/dubs to their dvds among other things. I am sure if they wanted to they could distribute internationally on their own if they felt that distributing through a third company would not be attainable or profitable. BW/BV are probably aware there is a growing recognition of anime internationally, likely resulting in more anime being dub or sub in the future.

[Ishimaru]

Guess I got to delete those ripped videos for my next AMV then.

[Keith]

I got one of the first (& only) responses form BV about the Gunbuster audio replacement, though since that time they seem to have become a bit more tight lipped.

[EvaUnit02]

I have one additional movie to add to the list of domestically released DVDs with an English track or subtitles: Ghost in the Shell (movie, 1st one.) Sadly, the 2nd one doesn't have English subtitles...

Actually there was a subsequent "International" DVD release of GITS2: Innocence with English subs. Even the Japanese Bluray of GITS2 has English subs. The majority of the classic anime films that Bandai Visual will be putting out on Bluray/HD-DVD within the next year or so will have English subs as well.

[treatment]

heads up, guys. seems like BV had put up the box-art for the upcoming Plus boxset:

http://product.bandaivisual.co.jp/web_serv...em_no=BCBA-3048

[oshan]

Crappy Artwork!

I preordered mine from amazon, Good Price!

Having the macross plus movie on dvd has sucked as you had to deal with the crappy tranfer manga did or the non-chapter encoded dvd that bandai visual released.

Did the region 2 UK dvd look any better?

Doubt it!

[Keith]

UK was the same as the U.S., i.e. a VHS dump.

[TheLoneWolf]

heads up, guys. seems like BV had put up the box-art for the upcoming Plus boxset:

http://product.bandaivisual.co.jp/web_serv...em_no=BCBA-3048

wow

That probably took them all of 5 minutes in Photoshop. I hope Bandai spent more time than that on the actual encoding process. Don't forget, just because it's on Blu doesn't guarantee knock-out video quality. Bandai needs to seriously work on the encoding and possibly remaster the original print to take full advantage of the Blu format.

In comparison, I have Bandai Visual's Macross Plus DVD box set. While the quality is better than Manga's R1 release (which isn't saying much), the video quality is hardly better than my old Macross Plus laserdiscs and really didn't take advantage of the DVD format. I didn't hold it against Bandai since M+ was one of the early DVD releases in Japan, but now M+ is once again an early adopter of the Blu format, let's hope that history doesn't repeat itself.

[Zinjo]

Now that we've moved into the digital age, and especially with the High Vision recordings available on formats like Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, it's possible to cram both Japanese and English tracks onto releases (unlike the VHS age, were we'd be lucky if someone included an extra audio track, if anything at all.) That said, many Japanese companies have historically ignored the international market with the majority of their products (I don't mean this in the sense of including English labels, I mean it in the sense of actively promoting it and more specifically, litegating rivals that produce copy products,) so without a major rethink in business strategies, we may not be seeing an increase of English tracks or subtitles on the latest releases...

I suspect the "rethink in business strategies" has already arrived! Prior to the 21st Century we didn't have any japanese based distributors in North America, now we have Bandai USA, Geneon and now Bandai Visual USA.

All of these distributors have direct distribution rights for many popular titles here and in the era of the Bluray region coding which combines Regions 1 & 2, it opens the market up for direct distribution by these already positioned Japanese companies. It wouldn't surprise me if in the near future some of the smaller American dubbing houses are eventually bought by these large Japanese companies.

With the success of the GIS movies and the Appleseed movies here, the Japanese producers must be taking notice of the potential revenue of the Western markets (they did it with Home Electronics and Cars!) particularly when they examine the sales figures of the Toho Studios "Appleseed" selling 3 times as many DVDs in the US alone as compared to domestically. I suspect this is one of the reasons why Sony's Bluray now has regions 1&2 in the same region code.

Has anyone actually sent a message to Bandai Visual and got a actual response from them? I could try and ask them about it, if there response is pretty fast.

I have a month ago, but no response so far.

I believe that what comes down to it is the quality of how a product is marketed. Don't forget it starts in Japan first. Macross Plus was a tremdous hit first domestically then internationally. Possibly HG cried wolf about it, but the demand to bring Macross Plus stateside was huge because of its reviews on the animation and story. Hence, BV giving ME getting their recognition and profits. I don't know if BW/BV were given the green light by HG or they sidestep them, but there wasn't any serious legal consequences stemming from it. If Macross Zero was a big hit like Macross Plus there would been a huge interest in getting it here in the states faster than most other anime. There could be numerous reasons why it is not here or in the future.

Actually Plus was not as well received domestically as compared to internationally.

HG was not involved in the release of Mac Plus here, that was entirely Manga Entertainment. At that point their RT property was essentially dead in the market and HG wesn't interested in anime at that time. Which is why their claims over ownership of the Macross trademark are erroneous and would not survive a serious court challenge.

The most interesting "side step" coming up will be the Japanese distributors exercising their domestic rights by releasing their titles on Bluray. I suspect before that becomes an issue, either American distributors will be bought out or the stream of anime licensing will dry up and the Japanese will distribute their titles here directly.

I agree with sketchley, Macross is an intellectual property of BW/BV. They have control whether they want to add subtitles/dubs to their dvds among other things. I am sure if they wanted to they could distribute internationally on their own if they felt that distributing through a third company would not be attainable or profitable. BW/BV are probably aware there is a growing recognition of anime internationally, likely resulting in more anime being dub or sub in the future.

Well Bandai Visual who has the domestic distribution rights for Macross has already stated that they will only be subbing the shows for Western markets. At this time no plans for dubbing existing properties is planned, according to an interview I've read online. ( http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/10937.html )

Thus the ability to English subtitle domestic releases may be in the pipeline for them, particulary with Bluray releases, but they aren't revealing their strategy.

With they being the principal distributor for Macross productions, it may allow us to see Mac 7, Mac Zero and Mac 25 without HG being able to obstruct anything or prohibitive music re-licensing costs.

Edited August 1, 2007 by Zinjo

[bandit29]

heads up, guys. seems like BV had put up the box-art for the upcoming Plus boxset:

http://product.bandaivisual.co.jp/web_serv...em_no=BCBA-3048

ugh..hopefully thats just a sleeve thats goes over another box lol. But as long as the DVDs look good who cares. I have the first two R2 DVDs(the YF-19 box) and the R2 movie already...hm oh well

Edited August 1, 2007 by dejr8bud

[Area88]

Keep the updates coming guys, I really want to know if this boxset is geting English subtitles like some of their other releases.

[JB0]

wow

That probably took them all of 5 minutes in Photoshop.

Doesn't matter if it looks good.

Personally, I think it does. A high-gloss box like that would be BEAUTIFUL.

I hope Bandai spent more time than that on the actual encoding process. Don't forget, just because it's on Blu doesn't guarantee knock-out video quality. Bandai needs to seriously work on the encoding and possibly remaster the original print to take full advantage of the Blu format.

A. It's not on BR. It's DVD.

B. You can get away with a lot more on BluRay, since you have 50 GB per disk and more advanced codecs than MPEG2.

Of course, being 1080p takes the space advantage back out(6x the pixels, 5.9x the space, so ALMOST even in terms of space per pixel), but there's still more room to be lazy with the better codecs offering double(MPEG4) or even triple(VC1) the compression at a given quality level.

... but now M+ is once again an early adopter of the Blu format, let's hope that history doesn't repeat itself.

Again, no it's not.

They're talking about DVDs.

Pity I don't have a regionless/R2 player.

I'd so buy this set.

Same reason I never bought the DVD of the movie. VHS rip doesn't appeal to me at all, and I can't use R2 disks.

....

I hate region codes.

[DARKWIND]

Ok does anyone have a set Mac7 dvds for sale? (the whole series)

willing to pay a good amount via Paypal. . .

[ruskiiVFaussie]

When will they do a Macross Zero with proper english subtitles translation release? That's more interesting for me.

[Zinjo]

When will they do a Macross Zero with proper english subtitles translation release? That's more interesting for me.

Only Bandai Visual knows that for sure and they aren't talking at the moment...

[Scream Man]

im more into dubs than subs, but id love a remastered mac plus, and id take m0 and m7 with good subtitles. i have the hk versions which are.....well, bad, really.

[jet660]

The chances that Mac Plus will have the dub version is very remote. There previous box sets had the dub version on it (or so called international version). You have to wonder why BV had it on one, but not the other. I think it is more of a marketing strategy. I think it is gear to the Japanese consumer, rather than the international one (I could be wrong about it ) and dealing with HG licensing issue which complicates it much more. As someone mention it before, many Japanese companies are not known for thinking on a global scale compare to the states. There must be a huge demand or interest in order to make some sort of profit from the international market. Which is why some anime such as GITS came out quick than some others.

Mac 0 finished more than 4 years ago. In my own opinion it is highly doubt it will be dub/sub anytime soon. It had a good start, but the ending was anti-climatic (storyline fell apart in part 5). I am sure it left many audiences unsatisfied. It makes me wonder how this 25th anniv. tv series will fair out. I agree with Zinjo, BV are not saying much, which could be they are focusing on other upcoming projects.

Edited August 14, 2007 by jet660

[Gunbuster]

Keep the updates coming guys, I really want to know if this boxset is geting English subtitles like some of their other releases.

according to cdjapan, there are no subtitles on the new Macplus boxset

[Gunbuster]

Pity I don't have a regionless/R2 player.

I'd so buy this set.

Same reason I never bought the DVD of the movie. VHS rip doesn't appeal to me at all, and I can't use R2 disks.

....

I hate region codes.

Why don't you pick up a Philips DVP5982? Just punch in some special code and its region free. the DVD player also upscale DVDs to 1080p over HDMI and it also does Dvix and has a USB port that you can plug a flash drive or an external Harddrive to play dvix and mp3s from. the player cost is around $70 USD

forgot to add link

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-DVP5982-1080...r/dp/B000N254LU

Edited August 23, 2007 by Gunbuster

[bandit29]

Hooray!! my order for the Macross Plus box has shipped

[Gunbuster]

I got mine today and can confirm there's no subtitles or dub tracks. the picture quailty is very good for a 4:3 ratio format.

I didn't have that much time to review it caus eI had to go to work... :-(

Below are some pics I quickly took... there's an awesome booket of line art that comes with the set

[ruskiiVFaussie]

nice! bummer about the flash in the last pic lol.

But no dubs/subs means no buy for me i'm afraid...

Edited August 25, 2007 by ruskiiVFaussie

[sketchley]

At first I was going to say that there isn't very much new stuff in the line art, only a few trinkets here and there. However... it's got line art for the VF-11's gun pod AND the arm multi-weapon thingy for the YF-19! That's almost worth buying the box set! (I'll wait a few months, and hope that it'll show up in a used shop in Den-den Town.)

[isamu]

MINE CAME TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMFG THE BOX IS SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!

Gonna watch it on Monday evening and boy, am I gonna wake up the neighbors!!!!!!! :lol:

(anyone know what's on the fourth special disk?)

[GGemini]

The fourth disc includes:

- the previews for the following episodes that appeared at the end of each LD

- the TV clips (including the one with Basara and Mylene watching Sharon)

- all the movies from the PS2 game (!)

- Macross: A Future Chronicle (not updated, sadly)

- the trailers for the Movie Edition

- an interesting video of SK in CA, doing research at an airbase

- an interview with SK

I must say that the best thing of this set is the Movie Edition... it finally looks decent (better than all the previous releases, US an Japanese ones)... does someone know if there is a subtitle file available anywhere?

[Uxi]

That lineart looks like its straight out of the Designworks. Hopefully we'll get a Region A Blu-ray release soon with all the goodies.

[bandit29]

Cool. I should have mine on Monday. Don't really care about the lack of dubs or subs. I've seen Macross Plus enough to know whats happening.

[Area88]

- the TV clips (including the one with Basara and Mylene watching Sharon)

TV Clips? Do you mean TV Ads or deleted scenes?

Anyway the extras sound amazing, alot better than previous editions.

[Zinjo]

Those goodies are TOO sexy!!!