Waga Seishun no Arcadia W/S DVD question...

[mistressh]

A question for those who might have seen both the R1 and R2 dvd's of this...

My R2 dvd is widescreen, but increasingly when watching it, I'm getting the impression it's not entirely "all there" - it's difficult to compare it directly to the R2 4:3 sized version - anyone know if the film was released theatrically in w/s, or is it "matted" for DVD?? Or is it simply that my non anamorphic non w/s TV can't process the image properly...?? It just looks "odd"...!!

H

[slerch666]

I'll pop my R1 from Animeigo in later today.

I can't remember if they (Animeigo) used the LD masters they had for the DVD or if they got new masters from Toei. Something tells me it was probably the LD masters they already had...

Any chance you can make a screen cap of the R2 and I can get a similar cap from the R1 for direct comparison?

It IS possible it was done in 4:3 originally and then matted for theatrical release. Remember the "special" eps in the Herlock TV set? That eps was theatrically released but was matted.

[slerch666]

Just popped in the R1. Turns out it is 4:3 full screen from start to finish.

My guess is that the DVD you have is matted for "fake" wide screen and is not anamorphic.

[mistressh]

Re: R1... Thanks for looking - I've got a copy, (supposedly remastered...) what I was curious about was which has the correct ratio!

Took some doing to get a comparison, as my laptop keeps freezing up on media files since the last windows update... grrrr... hence the open question - took me two reboots to get the screen shots and then to add to my confusion it's not keeping the aspect ratio!! Unlike the modern shows which are clearly w/s screen shots, I'm hard pressed to tell which shot was from which film! ;-(

The R2 is certainly chopping off some tops and bottoms of scenes - yet the characters are elongated with respect to the R1 version, which is odd... you'd think it'd be stretched *out* not *up*... but I'm no video tech head!

It's a tough call as to which one to keep - The colour and sharpness of the Japanese disc is superior (Harlock's face is decidely yellower in the R1, but pink-flesh in the JP version for one thing!), but those chopped off scenes and the stretched faces are starting to bug me... Anyone know if there's a different R2 version out there at all? Or if perhaps the French version might be a compromise (if it's dual language, it's a possible... ISTR they did remaster it across the channel...)

It's one of those films I've watched often enough to start noticing the slightest variance between versions! (The worst for this being the live action fantasy, "Labyrinth", which I'd viewed so many times on my off-air copy, made donkey's years ago, that when the Disney channel aired a (bowdlerised <snarl>) version some time ago, I could tell straight off it was a different pan-scan print!! <g>

H

[slerch666]

Since I don't know for sure I can't make a conclusion, but I'm going to say that the R1 version is likely the proper aspect ratio. Given the "chopped off" nature of the image you're seeing, that tells you it is matted at the very least. And I doubt the Japanese would go through the trouble to matte the release if it was ever actually done in wide screen.

As far as skinnier people, perhaps they are like that due to the matting process? I am also no tech head. Perhaps a PM to Skywise would be in order as he would likely at least be able to explain how the elongation may occur, even if he hasn't seen the movie?


ONE more thing, check the setting on your DVD player's setup. Check to see how your display is setup. It is possible you set the player to Wide Screen 16x9, so when you have an anamorphic image (if the DVD is) it displays the anamorphic image instead of one formatted to properly fit your TV. Setting the DVD player to 4:3 will do that as well. Set the display for 4:3 letterbox/LB (instead of pan and scan or PS) or something like that.

[Skywise]

The elongation sounds weird - I'll need some proper screencap comparisons before I can make a judgement/come up with a theory.

[PhilipReuben]

This is made by Toei, right? Judging by the Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z movies, which are 4:3 in R1 and a cropped widescreen version (anamorphic) in R2, Toei routinely animate(d) their theatrical movies in 4:3 and matte them for theatrical release. I've seen both versions of the Sailor Moon movies, and it definitely looks to me that the scene composition was done with the (widescreen) theatrical version in mind. (They presumably animated beyond that for the sake of the VHS release and TV airings, and for some reason routinely provided R1 studios with these masters as well.)

So my guess would be that the widescreen version is the original theatrical aspect ratio, and the one the movie was designed around, even though the R1 version has more picture.

Are the people elongated when playing the movie, or just when taking screenshots? I've used programs before where screenshots from a 4:3 DVD and an anamorphic widescreen DVD are both produced in the same resolution (with the latter appearing to be stretched out of proportion as a result). Could that be the case here?

[mistressh]

Oooh, what a can of worms I've opened... ;-)

I'll have to double check on my laptop tonight... Out with the external DVD drive and multiscreening whilst hoping it doesn't crash, as is it's wont recently... ;-)

My TV however is about 10 years old and not w/s - the gods alone know what the DVD player settings are, as I set it up so that it would play w/s letterboxed about 4 years ago and have since lost the bleeping instructions that tell me how to get into the menu... As you do... ;-) Though I can remember clearly that the set-up it currently has is the only one that displays w/s on my TV set at all, so changing *that* ain't an option anyway!! <g>

Time to buy a new TV, obviously... except I've been waiting until this one bites the big one! ;-)

H

[Black Jack]

Almost every widescreen movie that was animated on cels was matted as they were usually all drawn on cels that were also used for 4:3 material. I'm more concerned with getting a version of the movie from Toei that isn't plagued by diagonal aliasing problem similar to what's on the Nadesico remaster and the R2 of Secret of Mamo. It looks like it was another thing to get a bobbed transfer and it's a shame considering how good the video looks otherwise.