The Sky Crawlers (Japan - VAP) info & impressions

[kannisto]

I received the new Mamoru Oshii Anime movie "The Sky Crawlers" (normal edition) today on it's official release date.

Sky Crawlers, The (Japan - VAP) (25-Feb-2009)
Amazon JP HMV JP Yesasia
Audio: Japanese
Subtitles: Japanese
Region: Free
Notes: No English. more info

It's region free as confirmed with ANYDVD HD:

Summary for drive G: (AnyDVD 6.5.2.2)
HL-DT-ST BD-REGGW-H20N XL05 [serial no removed]
Drive (Hardware) Region: 2

Media is a Blu-Ray disc.

Total size: 18425696 sectors (35987 MBytes)
Video Blu-ray label: BDROM
Media is AACS protected!
Removed AACS copy protection!
Blu-ray disc is region free!

For some reason I can't scan it with BD Info, the right playlist that contains the movie is not found at all with it. I scanned it with eac3to instead, but can't get bitrate information that way. The video bitrate seems to be hovering at >30 mbps most of the time anyway.

M2TS, 1 video track, 2 audio tracks, 2 subtitle tracks, 2:02:22
1: Chapters, 25 chapters
2: h264/AVC, 1080p24 /1.001 (16:9)
3: TrueHD/AC3, Japanese, 6.1 channels, 48khz
(embedded: AC3 EX, 5.1 channels, 448kbps, 48khz)
4: DTS Master Audio, Japanese, 6.1 channels, 16 bits, 48khz
(core: DTS-ES, 6.1 channels, 16 bits, 1509kbps, 48khz)
5: Subtitle (PGS), Japanese
6: Subtitle (PGS), Japanese

There are two lossless 6.1 audio tracks in Japanese. The first set of Japanese subs includes text only for those portions of the movie where there's some non-Japanese dialogue. The 2nd set of Japanese subs includes text for all dialogue. There are no English subs (weren't expected either). I hope to find them from the internet at some point.

The menu is in Japanese and there are no extras apart from a HD trailer for the same movie (2m:13s). There is a Warner intro at the beginning of the movie so I guess Warner has something to do with the distribution rights in some countries. The Japanese release's case has no Warner logo or anything though, it's strictly a VAP release.

At a glance the PQ looks pretty similar to that of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (Absolute Edition), i.e. fine & glowing but a bit soft as per director's intentions. The back cover states that this has been transferred straight from a high quality HDCAM-SR 1080/24P master using AVC encoder (or something like that).

I'll try to take screencaps soon and will add case pics tomorrow. I'll add more impressions when I have watched it.

[kannisto]

Screencaps part 1:

[kannisto]

Screencaps part 2:

[Clueless_Monkey]

Thanks for the info and screencaps!
I still don't like the character design, looks kinda to bland to me.

[kannisto]

Case pics:

[kannisto]

Thanks for the info and screencaps!
I still don't like the character design, looks kinda to bland to me.

Yeah, I think the character design is a bit minimalistic but it didn't bother me. I watched about one hour of it yesterday and the aerial battles are very nicely done, it's quite slow paced overall and I wish I understood all of the dialogue perfectly, I'm missing some details without English subs.

[Clueless_Monkey]

There's a HK release with English subtitles coming out today from Panorama:
http://www.dddhouse.com/v3/product_d...3&LanguageID=0

[kannisto]

I noticed that external subs had become available as well, haven't yet watched mine with those but I plan to.

[werminard]

Any more info on the HK release? There seem to be extras in it, including an interview with the director Mamoru Oshii. Any idea if the extras are subtitled in English?

[ng3]

The extra are in DVD, only Chinese sub.

Note, the Blu-ray is only max at 25GB.

The disc hang while playing on Pioneer 51 at Chap 2 (version 1.21), so those using pio51 will need to take note

Any more info on the HK release? There seem to be extras in it, including an interview with the director Mamoru Oshii. Any idea if the extras are subtitled in English?

[MrCoops]

Any more info on the HK release? There seem to be extras in it, including an interview with the director Mamoru Oshii. Any idea if the extras are subtitled in English?

As mentioned above the extras have no english subs, but it's still worth a purchase. Nice packaging, great audio and decent PQ.

As an Oshii fan though I found it to be a huge disappointment. However, even his weaker efforts stand head and shoulders above most anime.

Ordered from DDDHouse, arrived in 4 days.

[werminard]

Well, I think I'll go for the USA edition which will be released in May 26th. I assume from the review at dvdtalk that it will be the best release so far for me at least (since I want to see at least the interview with subtitles).

I saw the movie itself last year in a film festival. I agree it's not Mamoru Oshii at his best but it's still pretty intriguing stuff.

[Sky_Captain]

My US copy has already been posted to me...

[ng3]

Sorry.. not chap 2.. think is chap 4.. when the main flighter flying up..
Have uploaded 1.25a for pioneer 51, still have the same problem.

Tested on my samsung 1400 ok

The extra are in DVD, only Chinese sub.

Note, the Blu-ray is only max at 25GB.

The disc hang while playing on Pioneer 51 at Chap 2 (version 1.21), so those using pio51 will need to take note