Gasp! Oh no! Whatever shall we do? The effortless repackaging of Sony's 2003 Astro Boy anime on single DVDs has been delayed from its originally scheduled August 18 release date.
While a new date has not been officially announced, a distributor is currently listing September 15 as the day these disks will go on sale.
Anyway, don't expect the delay to be because of any legitimate reason, like adding the original Japanese audio or resorting the full picture to widescreen. It's more likely they are just delaying these disks to gain better market positioning for the upcoming animated movie by Imagi.
Thanks to TV Shows on DVD, we have a look at the front and back cover art for these disks. I've mirrored the images right here in the link below. As you can see, the specs indicated that there is no Japanese audio, no widescreen, and thus there shall be no buys from this ninja. Oh well.
Click for larger views.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Astro Boy 2003 DVD Singles Delayed
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3 comments:
If anything, the case screenshots seem to proclaim that it's the colour-enriched version, which is good because the TV & box set had slightly dulled colour. Maybe there'll be less digital scratches, too...
Maybe Sony lost the rights to the Japanese version? They already cut it down into one version that was redubbed and reused around the world, and it would cost them too much to get the Japanese version.
Hmm, could be. But they did release some episodes of Cyborg 009 uncut with Japanese audio. I think it's more likely they they saw Astro as a kid's property, and thus wasn't worth the time and effort to put the Japanese version on DVD. And this re-release is just a quick cash-in, so there's no changes to their original DVD release they did back with the box set.
The English version of the 2003 anime is too different from the original uncut version anyway. The Japanese audio stream wouldn't match the edited-for-time English video. I wish they would put forth the effort to make it work, but it doesn't surprise me that they're not. If they were going to pick only one version to release on DVD, then obviously they're going to pick their own English adaptation.
Sayonara.
I love the Astro Boy series and the new movie, but the complete set for the 2003 version that Sony released has a few flaws.
My primary problem with the set is it does not have the option of Japanese with English translation subtitles that I prefer having while watching anime. If you agree please sign the following petition to have an English/Japanese (uncut) DVD set released: http://www.petitiononline.com/as3d1234/petition.html
My next concern as I watched the set is I noticed that things seemed off. There seemed to be scenes missing in episodes and what was being said at times seemed wrong. Also most of the episodes are out of order, but that didn't bother me as much as the lack of dual language option and the missing scenes. I bought an import copy (Japanese with English/Chinese subtitles) of the series and found I was right:
--Many of the missing scenes I don't understand why they cut, like the scene in the second episode that explains why Astro sleeps even though he's a robot (only about 2 minutes long).
--A couple more examples are the missing scenes in the first and last episodes of Dr. Tenma finding Tobio after the car accident (there's no blood/gore just a father crying over his dead son) and the episodes that had a brief flashback of Dr. Tenma calling to robot Tobio to wake up actually have more in which he then hugs robot Tobio after he first wakes up and robot Tobio calls him father.
--In this DVD set Atlas is said to have always been a robot and is just remade, but in the uncut he was actually the man's son who died in an accident and Dr. Tenma agrees to make the robot with the boy’s memories (like he did with Tobio).
--Even though I bought an import copy I would still buy a domestic English/Japanese uncut release, partly because the translation subtitles on the import are not great quality and are hard to understand at times.
There is also a episode that was completely cut out. The cut episode has to do with Astro and his school friends watch a robot play of Peter Pan in a park and bring up the fact that Astro will never grow up. A man nearby has the robot fairy sprinkle dust on the kids watching, which allows him to hypnotize the kids that night. The hypnotized kids end up on a flying space craft that looks like a pirate ship. The man plans to use a device he built that will make it so the kids will never grow up and take the kids to a place in space he made to look like Neverland. Astro is trying to find his missing friends and meets a boy in a floating (wheel) chair in front of a fountain in the park who is also looking for missing friends. The two boys find the ship and rescue the kids who when no longer hypnotized tell what they want to be when they grow up and also tell Astro they will always be his friend even though he will never grow up.
The following is the order the episodes play on the import uncut set:
01. Power Up!
02. Rocket Ball
03. Destination Deimos
04. Into Thin Air
05. Rainbow Canyon
06. Atlas
07. Astro vs. Atlas
08. Neon Express
09. Franken
10. The Venus Robots
11. Robot Circus
12. Reviving Jumbo
13. Little Sister, Big Trouble
14. Micro Adventure
15. Only a Machine
16. Robot Hunters
17. The Rise of Pluto
18. The Fall of Acheron
19. Robot Boy
20. (Eonian Teenagers)= missing episode replaced by Dawn of the Techno-Revolution
21. Dragon Lake
22. The Legend of Tohron
23. Lost In Outland
24. March of the Micro Bears
25. Deep City
26. The Blue Knight
27. Old Dog, New Tricks
28. Hydra-Jacked
29. The Case of the Phantom Fowl
30. Geo Raider
31. Gideon
32. Secret of the Blue Knight
33. Fairy Tale
34. Shape Shifter
35. Firebird
36. Space Academy
37. Atlas Strikes Back
38. Battle-Bot
39. Time Hunters
40. Escape From Volcano Island
41. Avalanche!
42. Battle of Steel Island
43. Undercover
44. Into The Dragon's Lair
45. Night Before the Revolution
46. Robotonia
47. Showdown in Robotonia
48. Journey to Tomorrow
49. Astro Reborn
50. The Final Battle
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