2008-03-10, 07:38 | Link #142 |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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Wow, Media Blasters certainly got this series out quickly. The first volume will be relased on 3/18/08 and contains two discs with episodes 1-7 (?) of the series plus a few extras.
I don't know what they mean by an "episode" here, though. The running time is about 160 minutes, but an episode of TW is only ten minutes long. Perhaps these are doubled up the same way the R1 DVD was? In which case 1-7 really is 1-14 of the original forty. The Media Blasters website is such a gigantic mess of useless Javascript and other cruft that I can't find a simple answer to this question. Hell, I can't even find the TW announcement page. Their site is a good example of how marketing can absolutely destroy a website by stressing "bling" over actual content.
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2008-03-10, 11:06 | Link #143 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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I'm finding the website comment true of most anime and manga distributors -- more "bling" than data and way too much reliance on idiotic Flash and other resource-wasting crap. Media Blasters is one of the bigger messes I've seen though. Let me be stronger... the Media Blaster site is a total pile of blingy crap that only lacks BLINK text....
I'm assuming that the releases will be 'subtitled only' without an english dub track so that vastly reduces the time-to-release. However, it *does* say dubbed.... so I'm kind of doubting the dub is worth much with the short turn around. I wonder if they're just going to tie episodes together in 24 minute clumps or something? Trying to remember if any of the episodes ever started out with a recap (which would make episode coupling awkward).
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2008-03-10, 11:21 | Link #144 |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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They all have brief recaps. One of those ten minute episodes actually consisted of 3 minutes of OP/ED and another minute or so of recap. There's really only about six minutes of new content in each ten-minute episode. I presume all of this was intended to work well with the attention span and memories of young children.
Of course, here in the United States, only people 13+ are supposed to watch Tweeny Witches! I don't know who gave this show such a ridiculous rating, but now the parents of the real audience for this anime, elementary school children, will be discouraged from buying the DVDs. I know the story has some darker themes, but I don't think it's worse than, say, Snow White. Unless MediaBlasters is afraid of young childrens' reactions to the mistreatment of the sprites, or more importantly parents' reactions to these themes? It just puzzles me how they could set the minimum age so high.
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2008-03-10, 11:59 | Link #145 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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This is the society that now proclaims imagery of Cookie Monster "smoking" in Monsterpiece Theatre makes Sesame Street classic episodes too mature for children.
Translation: we're completely ****ed as a society and its just a matter of time before the collapse
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2008-04-09, 14:18 | Link #146 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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Got my copy of the first volume and the collection box.
The quality of the box is a bit less than, say, Bandai but it really is pretty cute. Its constructed like a thick magic spell book with enbossing. Bound and uses a "page mark" red ribbon to open. Will update later to comment on DVD #1. Edit: I'd forgotten just how rich this series was, particularly the soundscape. It still has a lot of the really disorienting weird camera angles and still shots that I originally thought were shortcuts to animation --- apparently its artistic However, despite them using a lot of CGI underlay, the animation is painted over in a rich lush fashion. The result is just beautiful and the story itself, though oriented to children/young teens (especially young girls) is very, I don't know the words.... but I'd rather have a daughter of mine watching this ANY DAY over the crap that passes for entertainment on the toon channels (Bratz, Sabrina-happy-moral-of-the-day, etc). The label is 13+... but I'd show this to almost any age group 7+ I think. Disk quality itself... the menu system is decent, you get your choice of english/japanese mixes in 2.0 and 5.1. For being "Media Blasters" cheap -- they've done a pretty good job with the budget.
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Last edited by Vexx; 2008-04-09 at 14:44. |
2008-04-10, 08:32 | Link #147 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Jul 2004
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What a disappointment this release is. For anyone who hasn't read the review at animenewsnetwork.com you should do so now http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/revi...-witches/dvd-1
Media Blasters has butchered this series. Right from the get go the first episode starts different in some odd attempt to cut and re-edit the episode. They insert non-existing dialog thus resulting in many "off screen" dialogs where you're looking at feet/legs/table chairs etc when the talking is happening. What a joke ~_~ |
2008-04-10, 14:55 | Link #148 | ||
Just call me Ojisan
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: U.K. Hampshire
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Quote:
The ANN review has this. Quote:
Anyway, I will wait until Vexx reports back here and gives us the actual situation. I would say that the ANN review is a positive thumbs up. |
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2008-04-10, 15:05 | Link #149 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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I think someone at ANN may have simply been disconcerted by the artistic style of the editing/directing. I have just compared the first couple of eps with the old fansubs. There's some random cleanup --- but the use of camera angles, arty still shots, and flashback/forwards is still there, so I have to conclude the directing and editing is exactly the way the creators intended it.
The series starts off with a lot of those techniques -- I believe the intent is to increase the disorientation so you can sympathize more with the main character who has been thrown into a topsy-turvy world. They definitely had some budget (sound, art, colors, voicework, CGI, KOTOKO) so though its possible a slim animation budget drove some of the results ... I suspect the director was actively going for a sense of disorientation. yeah, I now remember the poster was involved in the original fansubbing so kudos to him for that effort, but the post almost looks like an outrageous ANN advert link placement to drive page views, doesn't it? I won't be visiting it.
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Last edited by Vexx; 2008-04-11 at 01:09. |
2008-04-10, 15:29 | Link #151 | ||
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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Aye... what MB did was simply concatenate two episodes together to produce "an episode". It is only annoying if you're trying to, for example, jump directly to an ED because the scene selection menus lack sufficient resolution within an episode. A DVD episode consists of "OP-Episode_A-interstitial-Episode_B-ED+bonus_moment"
The dub is passable (caveat: I hate dubs). The voicework probably wouldn't bother anyone already fine with dubs and maps the original dialog fairly well. The english voice for Arusu is pretty grinding whiny at times. The other voices I found no issues with. The DVD limitation on subtitles really hurt the magnificent scenery though when watching with Japanese track+subs -- I really wish anime distributors would do something with the standard like letterboxing the scenery with the subtitles in the black space. On the ANN "review", Yeah, someone copied me a transcript of the ANN site since I don't "send them money" in the form of page views if I can help it. I'm with Xris.... the ANN review is actually quite a positive review so I'm either wondering what crack was being smoked --- or that the purpose of the post was simply to drive pageview counts up for the ANN website. At the least, its a misleading characterization of the review. I'm a bit confused because if I'm remembering right, driftr was involved in the original fansubs so he'd definitely know about the quirky camera angles and off-screen dialog that were part of the original airings. Some Fair Use snippets of the review for those who also don't want to visit include: Quote:
Quote:
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Last edited by Vexx; 2008-04-11 at 01:11. |
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2008-04-10, 17:44 | Link #152 | |
Weapon of Mass Discussion
Fansubber
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: New York, USA
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Quote:
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2008-04-10, 19:27 | Link #154 | |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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Quote:
And I, the dub hater, thought the dub was okay (though I'm not fond of the voice for Arusu) -- basically the product appears to be a good value for the money. Well-written review, gaguri, and it pretty much correlates with my feelings about the series.
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Last edited by Vexx; 2008-04-11 at 01:12. |
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2008-04-11, 08:51 | Link #155 |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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I was about to order this today until I looked at my email. Rightstuf is including the collector's box in its Weekly Specials list for just $18 (normally $30)! I just hope that's not an indication of their sales expectations for this series. Maybe they're trying to build an audience for the remaining discs.
The sale price is good until next Wednesday.
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2008-04-11, 09:17 | Link #156 | |
Just call me Ojisan
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: U.K. Hampshire
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Quote:
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2008-04-11, 13:16 | Link #158 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Jul 2004
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Correct I have not seen it. Incorrect in that I don't know what I'm talking about. As another member of the original fansub team has purchased it and watched it, we know what we're talking about. If you were to watch the start of episode 1 R1 DVD to the start of episode 1 R2 DVD (yes both 22min long as they're R2 TV eps 1&2) they DO NOT match. Media Blasters has hacked the video apart and pieced it back together. They also butchered the translations (thou it was difficult to translate lots of bits to english and make it mesh well). If you don't believe me please request that I give you some comparisons as I'm purchasing it (mostly for the box) now.
Please understand when I say, this is an unacceptable action on their part. Last edited by driftr; 2008-04-11 at 13:49. |
2008-04-11, 16:25 | Link #159 |
FMP wubber
Join Date: Mar 2007
Age: 39
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@driftr: I wouldn't mind seeing these comparisons because I was debating about picking this up sometime down the line. It is one of my favorite series and I really enjoyed the R2 version.
I find it amusing that most people say that the pacing is what they didn't like. For me, that's one of the beauties of the show. While I don't think every anime would do well with this approach I do think Mahou Shoujo Tai pulls it off quite well. Granted, I don't have a non-fast-paced version to compare with but I find that this makes it really easy to speed through the episodes (which adds to the addictiveness) Really hope that a fansub group releases the OVAs cause I wanna see them :\ |
2008-04-11, 16:37 | Link #160 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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okay.. I guess I'll go compare the old fansub ep 1/2 against the DVD again. I didnt see much in the way of re-editing from the aired broadcast.
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