[JP] Mamoru Oshii's The Sky Crawlers

[SneakerPimp]

HMV Japan has listed two Blu-ray releases for Mamoru Oshii's latest The Sky Crawlers for February 25, 2009. One of the is a limited edition with three bonus DVDs, a model airplane, some kind of box (lunchbox?) and some extra booklets.
-> http://img.hmv.co.jp/news/images/free/mo/newsfvl/skyc-2.jpg
No word of English subtitles yet. Sony Pictures got the international rights back in September.

http://www.hmv.co.jp/news/article/812110060
http://www.asianblurayguide.com/news/324/the_sky_crawlers_start_their_engines_in_february_2 009/

[Skywise]

Good to finally see a BD release not getting shafted in the extras department compared to the DVDs. FWIW I think Studio Ghibli did some of the animation for this (they had a section for it in the Ghibli Museum when I was there earlier this year).

[RyGuySays]

This awesome that it coming out so fast. It came out in August in Japan.

I'm really hoping this gets subs. It premiers tomorrow in NY, but I think I'll wait until February to see it.

[AUSTIN316]

Seems slightly stupid to do DVD bonus discs with a BD special edition when they could most likely fit them all on one 50GB Blu disc.

[Skywise]

Multiple DVDs is cheaper, they don't have to author an extra BD and you give the customers more "value" by including them as extra discs.

[zipCode]

The VAP page sais: 劇場公開時字幕/日本語字幕
Anyone have a clue what 'theater subtitles' means?

[Quarkboy]

The VAP page sais: 劇場公開時字幕/日本語字幕
Anyone have a clue what 'theater subtitles' means?

I have no clue... Does anyone who's seen the movie know if there was some english or other non-japanese text in the movie? It's possible those were subtitled for the theater release into Japanese, and that's what it was referring to.

If I recall, the movie takes place in some european-esque land, so that's possible.

[Buster Darkwings]

Yeah, a lot of times subtitles in Japanese theaters are more simplified than the home video subtitles so people can read them faster.

[Quarkboy]

Yeah, a lot of times subtitles in Japanese theaters are more simplified than the home video subtitles so people can read them faster.

There's an 4 character per second limit on Japanese subtitles that is "standard". Any more and they simplify it down. I think that only applied to kanji, however, not hiragana.

[mighty_vespa]

I have no clue... Does anyone who's seen the movie know if there was some english or other non-japanese text in the movie?

I've seen the movie and there is English dialogue and text; quite a bit, in fact, from the movie's lead on down to its many background characters. But nothing near the level of, say, a Blood: The Last Vampire. The majority of the film is still in Japanese, so I wouldn't want to give any importers the wrong impression.

And, yes, those Japanese subtitles were for the spoken English bits and were part of the film print it seemed.

By the way, those of you who own BD players and are planning on importing this... I'm quite envious of you. I want to see the film again because visually it's just stunning. And, frankly, even that's a bit of an understatement on my part. This will probably be one of the first BDs I purchase in the not so distant future. It'll be the one Sony releases in North America though.

[AUSTIN316]

Multiple DVDs is cheaper, they don't have to author an extra BD and you give the customers more "value" by including them as extra discs.

My first thought at seeing the DVD extras was cost but christ, at 43,000yen for the L.E, you'd think they could have used BDs. There sure as hell is no "value" in that price! So you either get zero extras on the single BD release or you have to pay over 43,000yen for the L.E. It just seems stupid to me. If they want to do a premium release with a figure, I don't see why they have not done what Ghibli have done in the past with having a decently priced L.E and a super pricey special, premium edition. Oh well, guess I will be stuck with no extras, and paying 3000yen more than the DVD!

[SneakerPimp]

According to this post, Sony pictures will release Sky Crawlers on BD in the US on May 26, 2009:
http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=88941

[Ingraman]

According to this post, Sony pictures will release Sky Crawlers on BD in the US on May 26, 2009:
http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=88941

That's great if true, but I do worry about Sony and their subtitles... ^_^;

[hikaru004]

I'm still ordering the US version despite SONY's previous hiccup with Blood+. I don't think they have too many problems with theatricals.

[Ingraman]

I'm still ordering the US version despite SONY's previous hiccup with Blood+. I don't think they have too many problems with theatricals.

I'll probably be getting it, since the Japanese version has no translation. If there's no dub on the US release, that might be better for the quality of the subtitles (no dubtitling), but Sony could still get lazy (or go too far the other way and over-adapt the translation).

I'll just cross my fingers and hope for the best. ^_^

[kanechan]

This just in from Blu-ray.com about extras on the US BD:

...Extras for "The Sky Crawlers" include:

*Animation Research for The Sky Crawlers Featurette
*The Sound Design and Animation of The Sky Crawlers Featurette
*Sky's the Limit: An Interview with Director Mamoru Oshii Featurette (BD Exclusive)

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=2501

(Notice the number at the end of the link? :sdsmiley: )

[mifuneral2]

I read about this earlier at HighDefDigest. Pretty awesome news! I'm kinda surprised it's coming out so early (or maybe it just seems early to be since I haven't paid much attention to this project).