"Ghost in The Shell 2: Innocence" Coming To North America!

[Arkadin]

Bandai says this title will be released in the US later this year.
(It is already available in Japan which is also Region A)

http://techdigest.tv/2008/04/in_need_of_a_ki.html

EDIT: January 13th is the release date!
pre-order is up at Amazon.com

[Josh Z]

When did Bandai get the American distribution rights to this? The theatrical release and DVD were distributed by Dreamworks.

[Sunny]

I couldn't really enjoy the movie with the english subs. Still, I didn't think this was as good as the first movie or the tv series.

[cheez avenger]

I hope they tweak the English subtitles. I have this on SD and the subtitles are in English for the hearing impaired.

[Sunny]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

I hope they tweak the English subtitles. I have this on SD and the subtitles are in English for the hearing impaired.

(typing)
What do you mean by "hearing impaired"?
(mouse click)
(stomach growling)

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by Sunny

(typing)
What do you mean by "hearing impaired"?
(mouse click)
(stomach growling)

ROTFLMFAO!!!!!!

[Sinistarr]

Actually, it's Bandai Entertainment bringing out the US Blu-Ray release, not Bandai Visual USA. The 2 are actually seperate entities.

It's strange that they're recording a new English dub. An English dub, using the English cast of the GitS: Stand Alone Complex TV series, was actually recorded for the UK release (possibly Australian as well - don't remember).

Regardless, it's nice to see some more anime being released in the US by someone other than Bandai Visual. I will happily buy high-def anime that's not $40+ a disc with Japanese-language presentation only...once I pick up a Blu-ray player, that is.

[GamerGuyX]

I like how they try to flaunt the fact that they are including a new English dub. Like any serious anime fan gives a damn.

[Krycek7o2]

Hopefully they'll port the 7.1 Uncompressed audio...

[Josh Z]

Originally Posted by GamerGuyX

I like how they try to flaunt the fact that they are including a new English dub. Like any serious anime fan gives a damn.

You, I, and the "serious anime fans" may hate dubs, but the majority of anime buyers are terrified of subtitles and demand dubbed audio on all their releases. Subtitle-only anime DVDs sell a fraction of what dubbed anime DVDs do.

[inu-liger]

Originally Posted by Sinistarr

Actually, it's Bandai Entertainment bringing out the US Blu-Ray release, not Bandai Visual USA. The 2 are actually seperate entities.

Correct.

The admins really need to correct this article, because the words "Bandai VISUAL" will guarantee lower sales already (turning fans away because of their notorious MSRP's)
Bandai Entertainment is much more reasonable, and I've found their releases to be pretty good, and much more fairly priced too.

[Kotatsu Neko]

I have the Japanese BD of this and while it has a fantastic soundtrack it is visually a mediocre MPEG 2 effort. It also has no extras to speak of.

I love the movie though, one of my favourite anime movies of all time. Mamoru Oshii at his best. (well, except for Angel's Egg, which is even better)

[Kotatsu Neko]

Originally Posted by Josh Z

You, I, and the "serious anime fans" may hate dubs, but the majority of anime buyers are terrified of subtitles and demand dubbed audio on all their releases. Subtitle-only anime DVDs sell a fraction of what dubbed anime DVDs do.

Funny thing is of course this movie is pretty hard core Oshii and impenetrable for dub loving casual anime 'fans'.

People need to get over their fear of subtitles. Reading isn't difficult.

[inu-liger]

Originally Posted by Kotatsu Neko

I have the Japanese BD of this and while it has a fantastic soundtrack it is visually a mediocre MPEG 2 effort. It also has no extras to speak of.

Actually, it does.
Have you been able to navigate through the albeitly hard to read (read = smaller text!) menu?

And yeah, I hope BE uses MPEG-4 AVC with a proper remaster for the video. I sampled this at FutureShop along with some other imports, and it fared the worst out of all of them from what I saw so far. VERY grainy and soft

[inu-liger]

Originally Posted by Kotatsu Neko

Funny thing is of course this movie is pretty hard core Oshii and impenetrable for dub loving casual anime 'fans'.

People need to get over their fear of subtitles. Reading isn't difficult.

Yeah, I'm one of the pro-sub fans. I rarely enjoy dubs, though I'll admit that aside from some Disney-produced Ghibli dubs, my favourite dub so far, TV-wise, is Serial Experiments Lain.

I also listened to the dub on the recent BVUSA dub of Patlabor 2 The Movie with a friend who was too tired to read the subs, and that one was rather well done too. I don't know how the older Manga dub compares, but I imagine that one is worse.