'Wings of Honneamise' - High-Def Digest review

[jed]

Kenneth's review of the anime classic 'Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise' is up. Although he's a huge fan of the film itself, he says the 4.5 star TrueHD audio mix is the one highlight on this otherwise middling HD DVD release. Add to that an exorbitant pricetag of $79.99 ($55.95 on Amazon), and this one's for fans only.

Full review here:
http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/987/w...onneamise.html

[DrAndonuts]

Yeah, I don't get the pricing on this one. It looked interesting, but not 60 dollars interesting.

[mrkiller]

Ill pass on this one,

[momaw]

According to IMDB the original Aspect Ratio of this film is 1.85:1 not 1.66:1 as stated in the review. Now this is no biggie except, I have the Japanese Import of this title on Blu-ray and I can tell you that it is 1.85:1 and not 1.66:1. It is in full glorious widescreen. I also noticed *no* dirt on it whatsoever. Yes it was not perfect. There was obvious source damage in some scenes, but it was far better than the review here.

Is the US release an inferior product? Is the review wrong?

[Ken Brown]

Originally Posted by momaw

According to IMDB the original Aspect Ratio of this film is 1.85:1 not 1.66:1 as stated in the review. Now this is no biggie except, I have the Japanese Import of this title on Blu-ray and I can tell you that it is 1.85:1 and not 1.66:1. It is in full glorious widescreen. I also noticed *no* dirt on it whatsoever. Yes it was not perfect. There was obvious source damage in some scenes, but it was far better than the review here.

Is the US release an inferior product? Is the review wrong?

Actually, it is 1.66:1 -- the original theatrical aspect ratio. Make sure your screen isn't auto-stretching the image (as some default settings are likely to do) and you will notice distinct (but thin) black pillar box lines on either side of the screen.

I have verified this on the Blu-ray and HD DVD editions again just to be sure. Reviews of the Japanese edition of the Blu-ray confirm this as well (the aspect ratio and the pillar boxes). Even if there was a discrepancy, I definitely don't think the American product would be inferior based on the aspect ratio if it was an accurate representation of the original theatrical presentation.

IMDB is most likely reporting previous aspect ratio numbers from earlier DVD releases in the US -- the ratio was artificially stretched on several occasions by the DVD producers to completely fill the screen.

As far as the dirt, watch the first act of the film closely. You'll see flecks of dirt appear for split seconds constantly (sometimes every few seconds). If you pause, you can see that these flecks are slightly transparent and asymmetrical -- this means they are flecks of dirt that were on the original animation cels. This is common to older anime and can be seen on most home video releases of these films before the late '90s.

Hope all of that info helps!

[cordillius]

Dissapointing review but I bought it regardless.

[Ice2Dragon]

Post a picture of the case! My area stores didn't carry it...

[Sarang]

Originally Posted by Ken Brown

Actually, it is 1.66:1 -- the original theatrical aspect ratio. Make sure your screen isn't auto-stretching the image (as some default settings are likely to do) and you will notice distinct (but thin) black pillar box lines on either side of the screen.

I have verified this on the Blu-ray and HD DVD editions again just to be sure. Reviews of the Japanese edition of the Blu-ray confirm this as well (the aspect ratio and the pillar boxes). Even if there was a discrepancy, I definitely don't think the American product would be inferior based on the aspect ratio if it was an accurate representation of the original theatrical presentation.

IMDB is most likely reporting previous aspect ratio numbers from earlier DVD releases in the US -- the ratio was artificially stretched on several occasions by the DVD producers to completely fill the screen.

As far as the dirt, watch the first act of the film closely. You'll see flecks of dirt appear for split seconds constantly (sometimes every few seconds). If you pause, you can see that these flecks are slightly transparent and asymmetrical -- this means they are flecks of dirt that were on the original animation cels. This is common to older anime and can be seen on most home video releases of these films before the late '90s.

Hope all of that info helps!

Ken it's nice to see another person who likes this film. I never held it in the same regards as Akira anyway. I have to say I'm distressed that Bandai brought back the same halfassed DVD transfer for this new pressing. I would've thought for a re-issue they would fix the DVD picture that was so atrocious it was recommended one buy the VHS instead.
Judging on your HD DVD review for picture it looks like Bandai STILL didn't give the HD version much love which leaves me very distressed. I was hoping to see this being given a quality remastering, enough so that it would get 4 or 5 stars. Thank you Bandai for halfassing it and doing nothing to the DVD transfer the original U.S. company that had the rights did!

[ragebot]

Originally Posted by Sarang

I have to say I'm distressed that Bandai brought back the same halfassed DVD transfer for this new pressing.

Are you reffering to Bandai Visual's first Japanese R2 release or Manga's R1 transfer? Manga's transfer has long been considered one of the very worst ever done for DVD. Similar to Sony's release of Once Upon A Time In China, they took the old non-anamorphic D1 master and stretched it into anamorphic.

All of the other BV releases of the film have been a substantial improvement.

[Ken Brown]

Originally Posted by ragebot

Are you reffering to Bandai Visual's first Japanese R2 release or Manga's R1 transfer? Manga's transfer has long been considered one of the very worst ever done for DVD. Similar to Sony's release of Once Upon A Time In China, they took the old non-anamorphic D1 master and stretched it into anamorphic.

All of the other BV releases of the film have been a substantial improvement.

The DVD transfer included on the second disc is an improvement over other DVD transfers of the film in the past -- when I called it soft, I was comparing it to the HD DVD version which is clearly superior.

[momaw]

Originally Posted by Ken Brown

Actually, it is 1.66:1 -- the original theatrical aspect ratio. Make sure your screen isn't auto-stretching the image (as some default settings are likely to do) and you will notice distinct (but thin) black pillar box lines on either side of the screen.

I have verified this on the Blu-ray and HD DVD editions again just to be sure. Reviews of the Japanese edition of the Blu-ray confirm this as well (the aspect ratio and the pillar boxes). Even if there was a discrepancy, I definitely don't think the American product would be inferior based on the aspect ratio if it was an accurate representation of the original theatrical presentation.

IMDB is most likely reporting previous aspect ratio numbers from earlier DVD releases in the US -- the ratio was artificially stretched on several occasions by the DVD producers to completely fill the screen.

As far as the dirt, watch the first act of the film closely. You'll see flecks of dirt appear for split seconds constantly (sometimes every few seconds). If you pause, you can see that these flecks are slightly transparent and asymmetrical -- this means they are flecks of dirt that were on the original animation cels. This is common to older anime and can be seen on most home video releases of these films before the late '90s.

Hope all of that info helps!

I replied in the BD version so as not to duplicate the conversation

[Sarang]

Originally Posted by ragebot

Are you reffering to Bandai Visual's first Japanese R2 release or Manga's R1 transfer? Manga's transfer has long been considered one of the very worst ever done for DVD. Similar to Sony's release of Once Upon A Time In China, they took the old non-anamorphic D1 master and stretched it into anamorphic.

All of the other BV releases of the film have been a substantial improvement.

I thought Ken was referring to the Manga one but I guess not. Regardless Bandai COULD'VE been smart given that Ken says this is a step up and sold it for a lower price, like $30 MSRP, selling for $20 in Target. In case it sounds like I'm shooting too low I'm thinking in terms of selling it to the DVD owners as well who I'm sure want a NON Manga butchered DVD of this. What did happen to Manga Corp? They go out of business or something?

[Ken Brown]

Originally Posted by Sarang

I thought Ken was referring to the Manga one but I guess not. Regardless Bandai COULD'VE been smart given that Ken says this is a step up and sold it for a lower price, like $30 MSRP, selling for $20 in Target. In case it sounds like I'm shooting too low I'm thinking in terms of selling it to the DVD owners as well who I'm sure want a NON Manga butchered DVD of this. What did happen to Manga Corp? They go out of business or something?

That was my biggest disappointment with the price -- it will make it far more difficult for the film to find a new audience. 'The Wings of Honneamise' isn't like 'Akira' -- it doesn't have a rabid cult following and many people have never even heard of it.

It would be nice if studios made it convenient to sample new anime (at an affordable price), rather than to make it so pricey that only the most fervrent fans would be interested.

[Sarang]

Well as a fan of the film I can tell you I'm disgusted with the halfassed job Bandai did on the pic. If they gave it such good sound treatment I don't understand why they couldn't give the same for video. Unfortunately I'm starting to think I'll NEVER see a good video transfer of it given what you say about the HD version. We're also not that big enough of a fanbase to demand it sadly. We need to beg Criterion to do it and offer to pay $50, i.e. be gouged since we're not big enough.
I definitely agree on the pricing issue but Anime started expensive and they don't feel like looking back on it much, at least a decent amount. Strangely some Anime here and there are reasonable for the amount of episodes they feature on the disc. Viz was surprisingly good pricewise with "Key: The Metal Idol". It may depend if it's a name or not. But if they honestly want to mainstream Anime more and tap into the big money of the mass market the need to hit the $20 mark more often and make it a good value episodewise.

[ragebot]

Originally Posted by Sarang

If they gave it such good sound treatment I don't understand why they couldn't give the same for video. Unfortunately I'm starting to think I'll NEVER see a good video transfer of it given what you say about the HD version.

It is a late-80's cel-animated film that has been optically photographed. It's pretty much as good as it's going to get. Even movies from Disney of that time were very grainy (The Little Mermaid, for example, which DVD features a transfer that shows how NOT to 'clean up' an animated film), so there really isn't room for improvement.

While it's true that a company such as DTS Digital Images could have given the film a good polish, the original negative can not be restored to the level of classic Disney films. Those ones being photographed in Technicolor and, I believe for a number of them, 70mm film.