You're Under Arrest Second Season R3 (Proware) thoughts

[slerch666]

First, anyone looking to buy the R3 You're Under Arrest DVDs can find them at JSDVDMall (http://mall.jsdvd.com/product_info.php?products_id=2342) and likely Yesasia.

So anyway, I found this set a couple weeks back, ordered it and received it. I've just gotten around to start watching it and I have a few thoughts and some screen caps to share.

The video is taken from a composite master as there is plenty of dot crawl in the video. My guess, given Proware's track record, this is in line with the Japanese release as generally they receive the same masters (as best I can tell) as are used on the Japanese R2 releases.

In terms of audio, it's LPCM though given the nature of the show I'd say Dolby Digital 2.0 would have been enough. Sounds good though.

As far as the show itself, I'm slightly disappointed as they lost the traditional cel based animation in favor of digital animation. Which is also part of where the dot crawl comes in I believe.

The story itself sees a new member of the team arrive, which was nice, though I'm not so sure I like her all that much.

I've only watched the first 2 episodes and have the third (on the 2nd disc) paused as I write this, so these are my initial impressions of the show.

One thing that I find kind of annoying is that while the op/ed retain the Japanese credits, they have opted to use the creditless version of the episode title cards and put Chinese soft subs up instead. What happens if you turn off the subs is you get this badge with absolutely no text on it. It's easy enough to head over to ANN and get episode titles if you need them though.

So here are a set of 8 screen caps for your perusal.

Series title (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/slerch666/YUA/1.jpg)
In the opening (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/slerch666/YUA/2.jpg)
Really bad dot crawl during opening (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/slerch666/YUA/3.jpg)
Missing Japanese title card for eps titles (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/slerch666/YUA/4.jpg)
In show 1 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/slerch666/YUA/5.jpg)
In show 2 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/slerch666/YUA/6.jpg)
In show 3 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/slerch666/YUA/7.jpg)
In show 4 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/slerch666/YUA/8.jpg)

Oh, and I really like the opening theme, though the ending is a little meh.

Before anyone says "OH NO, DOT CRAWL, give me the R2s," if someone has the R2s I'd like to see some similar shots to compare.

For ~$40 USD + $20 shipping (EMS), I'd say the price for what you get isn't bad at all. Sure, it'd be great to have no dot crawl and the Japanese eps titles, but at this price it's a bargain. If your option is this or nothing, this is definitely better than never seeing the second season I say. Now if you want to spend the money on the R2s, you are more than welcome to it. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Randall Flagg]

Wow. I haven't started watching mine yet, so that's a bit of a shame. Not that it's gonna keep me from watching and (hopefully) enjoying it.

Since I couldn't find any scripts for it over at scriptclub, would you know of any sites that give episode summaries? My knowledge of Japanese is quite limited.

[hub]

Wow, I'm surprised at how bad the video quality is considering that it's a Proware release. If it's any consolation, I think YUA Season 2 was one of their earlier releases, hence the reason why it doesn't measure up as well as their more recent releases (in my case Kimiga, Scrapped Princess, and Maburaho). Anyway, here are some screen grabs I took from Ep.9 on Vol.4 of the R2s:

Series title (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c341/hub_00/PDVD_000.jpg)
In the opening (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c341/hub_00/PDVD_001.jpg)
No dot crawl in the opening (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c341/hub_00/PDVD_002.jpg)
In show 1 (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c341/hub_00/PDVD_003.jpg)
In show 2 (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c341/hub_00/PDVD_004.jpg)
In show 3 (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c341/hub_00/PDVD_005.jpg)
In show 4 (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c341/hub_00/PDVD_006.jpg)

It's funny, but the only reason I started collecting the R2 release over the R3 release is because I like the show so much that I wanted to own the "originals." /images/graemlins/shy10000.gif

Edit: Forgot to mention this, but the audio is Dolby 2.0, just like slerch guessed.

[slerch666]

Well, looking at the screen caps it does appear as though the R2 has better video (no dot crawl). It could be an instance where they used component masters on the R2s and sent Proware composite masters. It isn't like we haven't seen that happen on R1s frequently (usually from Kadokawa).

Oh well, for $60ish I'm not complaining since I really only want to watch the show. I'm definitely not enjoying it enough to justify the R2 prices, even used prices of ~$200-$300 on Yahoo Auctions Japan. From what I've watched thus far the show isn't quite on par with the first season (for me at least).

Looking at the 3rd screen cap you've got there, it's really evident how bad the R3 video is. If it's any consolation to those who are thinking of buying, the video is MUCH better than say, ADV's Fumoffu release.

One thing I am wondering... do you have the first disc? I wonder simply because it is possible (though unlikely) that the R2s have crap video on the first disc. I guess I'll know when I get to disc 4 of the R3s since the eps layout for both the R1 and R2s are the same.

EDIT- and I just wanted to say thanks for taking the screen caps. Sorry I forgot when I originally posted. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[slerch666]

[ QUOTE ]
Randall Flagg said:
Since I couldn't find any scripts for it over at scriptclub, would you know of any sites that give episode summaries? My knowledge of Japanese is quite limited.

[/ QUOTE ]
Sorry man, I am working through it w/o any scripts and didn't even try to look for scripts on the 'net. Actually, they only thing I've ever done that for was the R2 Aa! Megami-sama LE which now that I've had a class in Japanese I can watch w/o subs or a script. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

If I do happen to find anything, I'll PM you since I'm guessing the Mods probably don't approve of links to stuff like that.

[slerch666]

After seeing hub's screen caps from disc 4 (thanks again), I decided to check out disc 4 of the R3s. I would say there is hope that the video in the R3s does match the R2s, at least from disc 4+ (disc 2 is "bad" as is disc 1, and I haven't gotten to disc 3 yet). Here are some screen caps from the opening that are definitely bad on disc 1:

Title (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/slerch666/YUA/1a.jpg)
In the opening (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/slerch666/YUA/3a.jpg)
No dot crawl in the opening (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/slerch666/YUA/2a.jpg)

So hub, if you have disc 1 from the R2s, can you check it out? You don't really NEED to give screen caps again if you don't feel like it, though it would be appreciated. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[slerch666]

Having watched through disc 2 and now well into disc 3, I can say that while disc 1 and 2 have dot crawl in many areas, volume 3 has none anywhere. So disc 1-2 seem to be composite masters and disc 3-4 (and likely the rest of the series) are component masters and look damn near flawless. Score.

[hub]

[ QUOTE ]
slerch666 said:
One thing I am wondering... do you have the first disc? I wonder simply because it is possible (though unlikely) that the R2s have crap video on the first disc. I guess I'll know when I get to disc 4 of the R3s since the eps layout for both the R1 and R2s are the same.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope. The video quality on the first disc is the same throughout, ie. no composite-related problems. /images/graemlins/happy.gif

[hub]

[ QUOTE ]
slerch666 said:
Having watched through disc 2 and now well into disc 3, I can say that while disc 1 and 2 have dot crawl in many areas, volume 3 has none anywhere. So disc 1-2 seem to be composite masters and disc 3-4 (and likely the rest of the series) are component masters and look damn near flawless. Score.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah; comparing the new pics you took, I'd say the video quality looks identical on the R3 and R2 release starting w/ vol.3 onwards.

Edit: And don't I feel stupid. I just re-checked vol.1 again, and it has the same dot-crawl problems as the screen shots you took! But the weird thing is that the opening itself doesn't have any flaws at all. /images/graemlins/stunned0.gif So I guess this really is a problem w/ the masters used, however from what I can tell Ep.2 doesn't have any problems at all. Think maybe you can post some more screen shots to compare? And possibly for Vol.2 as well?

Ep.1 - Dot crawl along the lines (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c341/hub_00/aPDVD_001.jpg)
Ep.1 - More dot-crawl along the ties (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c341/hub_00/aPDVD_006.jpg)
Ep.2 - No problems here... (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c341/hub_00/aPDVD_002.jpg)
Ep.2 scene (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c341/hub_00/aPDVD_003.jpg)
Ep.2 scene (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c341/hub_00/aPDVD_004.jpg)
Ep.2 scene (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c341/hub_00/aPDVD_005.jpg)

[slerch666]

Well, I can post some shots of vol.2 if you want, though judging by the shots you took of the second eps, my guess is that the R2 vol. 2 doesn't have the dot crawl issues. I'll do that later today if you're interested.

For comparison sake I took the same shots (or around the same shots) you did for eps 2 and here they are:

Eps 2 - Problems here (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/slerch666/YUA/ep2-1.jpg)
Eps 2 Scene (w/ problems) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/slerch666/YUA/ep2-2.jpg)
Eps 2 Scene (w/ problems) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/slerch666/YUA/ep2-3.jpg)
Eps 2 Scene (w/ problems) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/slerch666/YUA/ep2-4.jpg)



So what we've learned is that if you want the best video quality, buy R2 vol. 1-2 and then decide on your own if you want to continue with the R2s or just purchase the cheaper R3s from vol. 3 on (well, at least through vol.4, I'll know more about the rest later today when I watch the rest of the series).

[Randall Flagg]

[ QUOTE ]
slerch666 said:
[ QUOTE ]
Randall Flagg said:
Since I couldn't find any scripts for it over at scriptclub, would you know of any sites that give episode summaries? My knowledge of Japanese is quite limited.

[/ QUOTE ]
Sorry man, I am working through it w/o any scripts and didn't even try to look for scripts on the 'net. Actually, they only thing I've ever done that for was the R2 Aa! Megami-sama LE which now that I've had a class in Japanese I can watch w/o subs or a script. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

If I do happen to find anything, I'll PM you since I'm guessing the Mods probably don't approve of links to stuff like that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I figured you were able to watch without any help. Even with my limited knowledge, however, the first 2 eps weren't too difficult to follow.

I'm gonna keep looking for scripts/summaries, and I'll let you know if I find any so you don't have to keep looking.

[Njr Scrawl]

[ QUOTE ]
The story itself sees a new member of the team arrive, which was nice, though I'm not so sure I like her all that much.

[/ QUOTE ]

She is the wannabe-cop kid from series 1 IIRC. Which gives some time scale between both TV series, if she's graduated from school, police academy & got into the force.

BTW Miyuki's eye colour changes, the *&%$#& animators did it. /images/graemlins/anger200.gif /images/graemlins/anger200.gif

[slerch666]

[ QUOTE ]
Randall Flagg said:
I'm gonna keep looking for scripts/summaries, and I'll let you know if I find any so you don't have to keep looking.

[/ QUOTE ]
I was thinking... you could always go Super Ghetto. You could use something like subrip, rip the Chinese Kanji subtitles (of course, you'd need to find a subrip character file unless you can write Chinese Kanji) and then run that through a translator like Nifty Global Gate or Babel Fish. The results would probably be... less than stellar, but it would be something to work with.

[slerch666]

[ QUOTE ]
Wrath of the Njr said:
She is the wannabe-cop kid from series 1 IIRC. Which gives some time scale between both TV series, if she's graduated from school, police academy & got into the force.

BTW Miyuki's eye colour changes, the *&%$#& animators did it. /images/graemlins/anger200.gif /images/graemlins/anger200.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
Saori Saga. That would be her. I didn't like her much in the first series and I'm not liking her much this time. Thankfully after the first couple eps she stopped being a big focus.

As far as the eye color, the change from standard animation to digital animation is a bigger issue for me personally. /images/graemlins/wink.gif Call me a "purist" but when you have a series that is originally done in the traditional cel style they shouldn't change. Of course... there were 4 (?) yrs between when the original series finished airing in Japan and when the second started so I guess it is more forgivable than a series that had 2-3+ consecutive series.

[Randall Flagg]

[ QUOTE ]
slerch666 said:
[ QUOTE ]
Randall Flagg said:
I'm gonna keep looking for scripts/summaries, and I'll let you know if I find any so you don't have to keep looking.

[/ QUOTE ]
I was thinking... you could always go Super Ghetto. You could use something like subrip, rip the Chinese Kanji subtitles (of course, you'd need to find a subrip character file unless you can write Chinese Kanji) and then run that through a translator like Nifty Global Gate or Babel Fish. The results would probably be... less than stellar, but it would be something to work with.

[/ QUOTE ]

/images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif
I hadn't thought of that. I actually think I'm gonna try it.

[slerch666]

So here's the "official report"

Disc 1- dot crawl (likely composite masters are the cause)
Disc 2- dot crawl (likely composite masters are the cause)
Disc 3-9 No dot crawl, likely component masters

So again, if you want the best picture, buy the R2s of vol. 1-2 and then decide if you want the R3s or the R2s. Considering you can get the R3s for the cost of 1 R2 + shipping, I'd say go for the R3s, but that's just me.

I liked the series, though it isn't something I would have felt justified the $300 +/- tag you find on it through Yahoo Japan Auctions.

If you want the best sound, well, I'm not sure how to judge that since I don't have the R2s, but the R2s are Dolby Digital Stereo while the R3s are LPCM. Of course I'd go so far as to say that LPCM probably doesn't help this one all that much considering it's mainly dialog.

[hub]

[ QUOTE ]
slerch666 said:
Saori Saga. That would be her. I didn't like her much in the first series and I'm not liking her much this time. Thankfully after the first couple eps she stopped being a big focus.

As far as the eye color, the change from standard animation to digital animation is a bigger issue for me personally. /images/graemlins/wink.gif Call me a "purist" but when you have a series that is originally done in the traditional cel style they shouldn't change. Of course... there were 4 (?) yrs between when the original series finished airing in Japan and when the second started so I guess it is more forgivable than a series that had 2-3+ consecutive series.

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought it was kind of strange how they make you think Saori will be the main focus of the new series, and then they go back and settle on Miyuki and Natsumi. After the first couple of episodes Saori just kind of feels like a throw-away character that they simply forgot about. Hell, she only got one episode devoted entirely to her (but w/ Strike Otoko no less /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif).

Oh, and I actually welcomed the change from cel to digital. The one thing that bugged me the most about the first series was that the animation was so cheap looking. I mean, almost 90% of the time the character models were way off or just plain ugly. At least w/ the second season they managed to stay consistent for the most part. I thought the change wasn't as jarring as say, The Big O and The Big O 2 was.

We also get some nice drama involving the Miyuki/Nakajima relationship near the end.

[Captain Impulse]

Alas, I had hopes that for some freakish reason there would be English subtitles in this boxed set, so I finally invest some money into the second season (I hate watching fansubs). Too bad too, because the price is almost too good to resist. I tend to be more forgiving of video issues (mostly because I don't notice them or tend to be less picky, I guess), so this release would've been perfect. Oh well, looks like I'm back to praying for an R1 release.

/images/graemlins/cry00000.gif /images/graemlins/cry00000.gif /images/graemlins/cry00000.gif

[slerch666]

[ QUOTE ]
Captain Impulse said:
Alas, I had hopes that for some freakish reason there would be English subtitles in this boxed set, so I finally invest some money into the second season (I hate watching fansubs).

[/ QUOTE ]
Sorry, but I don't recall any of Proware's DVDs including English subtitles, so if you are ever thinking about picking up any of Proware's stuff, don't do it until you verify the languages. If you head over to the JS DVD Mall link in my first post it tells you what languages are available and as far as I can recall have always been accurate on the things I've purchased.

[slerch666]

[ QUOTE ]
hub said:
I thought it was kind of strange how they make you think Saori will be the main focus of the new series, and then they go back and settle on Miyuki and Natsumi. After the first couple of episodes Saori just kind of feels like a throw-away character that they simply forgot about. Hell, she only got one episode devoted entirely to her (but w/ Strike Otoko no less /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif).

[/ QUOTE ]
Had Saori been the focus, I probably would have stopped watching the series. I just don't like her that much. And she's no more or less important than any of the secondary characters. They all have an episode or 2 devoted to them. And the Aoi episode was a bit... odd.

[ QUOTE ]
Oh, and I actually welcomed the change from cel to digital. The one thing that bugged me the most about the first series was that the animation was so cheap looking. I mean, almost 90% of the time the character models were way off or just plain ugly. At least w/ the second season they managed to stay consistent for the most part. I thought the change wasn't as jarring as say, The Big O and The Big O 2 was.

[/ QUOTE ]
I find the digital animation in this also looks "cheap." The detail is all generic though the animation is fluid. The character designs are consistent for all 26 eps, which is nice, but overall I think they lack some of the "warmth" that can be found in traditional cel animation. Given it's air date it was kind of expected as it hasn't been until recently that I feel studios have begun working hard at making series have a less "generic" look and feel. Pierot makes some of the most generic looking shows IMO.

[ QUOTE ]
We also get some nice drama involving the Miyuki/Nakajima relationship near the end.

[/ QUOTE ]
I was actually wondering about the whole <span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'>Honda</span> thing, which is part of why I just kept on watching the last few discs in extreme marathon style. I think I got up to use the bathroom and switch discs. I fully expected it to end up with <span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'>Miyuki and Nakajima of course, though it was nice that it was Miyuki's turn to cause some stress to Nakajima.</span> /images/graemlins/wink.gif

And the way the series ends is good too, as it closes certain things off really well that if it were a harem show would have been left wide open.

[Randall Flagg]

[ QUOTE ]
slerch666 said:
[ QUOTE ]
Randall Flagg said:
I'm gonna keep looking for scripts/summaries, and I'll let you know if I find any so you don't have to keep looking.

[/ QUOTE ]
I was thinking... you could always go Super Ghetto. You could use something like subrip, rip the Chinese Kanji subtitles (of course, you'd need to find a subrip character file unless you can write Chinese Kanji) and then run that through a translator like Nifty Global Gate or Babel Fish. The results would probably be... less than stellar, but it would be something to work with.

[/ QUOTE ]

Screw this!! I demuxed the sup file from the DVD and used vobsub to make the idx/sub files that I can open in notepad or word. Well, it only shows up as gibberish. Now I can view Chinese characters fine on websites, so it's not that. I did find a program named SubOCR that can open the idx/sub files and OCR them. I can see the Chinese characters fine in the program, but when I try to copy and paste them into a translator, it pastes them as gibberish.

This is too big of a pain. I'm just gonna watch it raw.

[slerch666]

[ QUOTE ]
Randall Flagg said:
Screw this!! I demuxed the sup file from the DVD and used vobsub to make the idx/sub files that I can open in notepad or word. Well, it only shows up as gibberish. Now I can view Chinese characters fine on websites, so it's not that. I did find a program named SubOCR that can open the idx/sub files and OCR them. I can see the Chinese characters fine in the program, but when I try to copy and paste them into a translator, it pastes them as gibberish.

This is too big of a pain. I'm just gonna watch it raw.

[/ QUOTE ]
Your problem is that notepad probably doesn't support Kanji.

As far as Word, it should work if you have the Japanese IME support installed/turned on.

In XP:

Start -&gt; Settings -&gt; Control Panel -&gt; Regional Settings (or Regional Options?).

Language Tab -&gt; Check Install East Asian Language Support (probably already installed if websites work). Don't restart after it tells you to, IF you need this step.

Click the Details button.
Click Add
Choose Japanese from drop down for Input Language
Check Keyboard layout/IME
pick Microsoft IME Standard 2002 ver 8.1

Restart is likely.

You should then have the language icon in your taskbar (next to the clock) and should be able to copy/paste Kanji into Word.

[Randall Flagg]

Thanks for the advice. I thought I had everything set up right. I have it now, though. I just love Babel Fish. /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif

Edit: One of the lines translates as:
On the first stem tenant farmer drought all exited to patrol catches stared at?

I actually think I will get more out of it raw. I do appreciate the help, though.

[slerch666]

It was worth a try at least. If you have any questions I might be able to help as can probably others. I won't be on-line from ~11:30 today until sometime Monday so if you ask a question and I can't answer right away that is the reason. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[hub]

Another thing, but I have the fansubs on hand so if you want a summary of each episode I can write one up for you (don't expect any sprawling articles though). /images/graemlins/happy.gif