Holy crap, it's finally up for pre-order.
This is a release that previous owner Robert often told people could never happen, and until recently it was, in fact, impossible. None of the 35mm film elements used in its creation were kept, making a true remaster impossible. The old master tapes were a little too crusty for traditional upscaling.
However, here at MediaOCD, we don't like taking "no" for an answer. We've already become known for our work with the groundbreaking AI restoration technology AstroRes (used on such previous productions as Digimon TV series, Lovely Complex, IGPX and Katsuhiro Otomo's Memories). We ran some tests with Bubblegum Crash, and while it wasn't the BEST thing that's ever come out of the process, it looked pretty decent!
A big problem with the old masters is that a lot of detail got "crushed" out of the dark areas of the picture due to the video technology at the time. AstroRes was able to get back some of that lost detail.
Even more exciting, some colleagues were able to find a 35mm print of Episode 2 from a mysterious source online. We excitedly got it scanned, but quickly discovered that it was... QUITE badly damaged.
First of all, since the OVA was shot on film, but edited on video, whoever cut this print together did so very loosely, so virtually none of the cuts matched the edit points on the video master exactly – sometimes being off by as many as 6 frames. No existing audio tracks would match up. This print was clearly only assembled for reference after-the-fact.
Second of all, it was NOT protected from moisture, and was infested with mold. This damaged MANY scenes, with certain frames flashing discolored hues, stretching and warping, and blotches of mold spores.
As if that wasn't enough, it seems that this print was used as a donor to supply screenshots for packaging and marketing purposes. Many of the most iconic shots had a giant, nasty Scotch Tape splice right in the middle of them, causing the image to jump and several frames to go missing. Luckily, duplicate frames could be found for most of the missing ones.
Let me tell you, this was one of the hardest restorations we've ever done, and without the experience of other projects under our belt, I very much doubt we could've pulled it off. It was a solid two weeks of grueling work. I am very proud to say that we have managed to get it looking about 85% of perfect. (Some damage couldn't be completely overcome, I'm afraid.)
We can't wait to share the final product with you. As a bonus, this Blu-ray will feature the UK English and Castillian Spanish dubs, as well as German subtitles. It's now up for pre-order at the MediaOCD Store. It'll ship in January, 2025. (Pages at other retailers, including Crunchyroll, will be up soon.)
More updates:
Bubblegum Crisis is now out of print for both Blu-ray and DVD editions. We're out of the Blu-rays but still have some DVDs left. (Other retailers should still have some Blu-rays.) Once these are gone, these old editions will NOT be re-printed. That said, one shouldn't ever underestimate the Knight Sabers...
We have just finished authoring our incredible new edition of Megazone 23! This new version will be quite an upgrade. Here's what the Extras page looked like from the previous edition...
...and here's what it looks like now:
How in the world did we manage to cram even MORE goodies onto one disc? Magic.
We scoured the ends of the earth to see if Full Moon wo Sagashite had been dubbed past the 28 episodes that were originally released by Viz Media. We checked with the original dub studio Blue Water Sound, Viz Media, AND the person at the licensor in Japan that worked with Viz on it at the time – and we got conflicting stories. Regardless, since they were never released, there was only a couple of places that copies could be, and they are not there now. So if they ever did exist, they have been lost to the ages. However, fear not! The 28 existing episodes of English dub will be preserved on our forthcoming release.
We should have a brand-new, first-time-in-English new license to announce in the coming weeks, and it is NOT one you saw coming. Stay tuned...
If you're in Europe, you will soon have an alternative to paying for overseas shipping. Our friends Anime Sugoi will be carrying selected AnimEigo titles, rebranded for sale in Germany. In fact, local versions of Otaku no Video and Riding Bean are already up for pre-sale! (The discs themselves are the same, but the packaging has been revised for the German market.)
Please note that we won't have European and/or non-English rights to some shows going forward, so not every AnimEigo title will be sold this way.
Otaku no Video will be shipping in the next few weeks! We're just working on getting the store exclusive slip covers printed. Get your pre-orders in now!
Please welcome MediaOCD's longtime video editor Caleb McPhee, who joined MediaOCD full-time this week! Caleb will be heading up new and exciting video stuff and other marketing initiatives. We'll have a livestream soon where you can get to know him!
With undying gratitude for all of your support,
Justin
Any plans to do Tokyo 2040?