Moon Phase (Tsukuyomi ~Moon Phase~) Vol. 1 thoughts and comparisons to R2 release

[slerch666]

So thanks to having had quite the ordeal in obtaining a corrected YYH 13 (working on 3 years and spanning at least 5 contacts), Funhack over on the FUNimation message boards wanted to do something special for me, and special they did. I received a copy of the R1 Moon Phase DVD along with, finally, a corrected YYH 13. Woohoo!

As Tsukuyomi is absolutely, hands down, one of my all time favorite series, I dropped that bad boy in and began watching right away.

The first order of business is the packaging. FUNi did a really good job with this one. This is just the first disc w/o the box (I still have the LE ordered through TRSI and will still pay for it and receive it). The artwork on the cover is nice. The booklet on the inside appears to translate some of the cast and crew interviews from the "Forest" booklets that were with the R2s, and also includes synopses of each episode. The back page of the booklet has the image "missing" from the box that was on the R2 box.

Included in the case are the 5 post cards. The artwork matches the R2 artwork for the postcards that were included in the first presses. They modified the logos to read simply "Moon Phase" and also added some copyright info that was not included on the R2 postcards (tiny print, no big deal). Very nice.

The disc artwork looks nice, though retaining the blue hue for the first "season" and pink for the second as the R2 DVDs did would have been cool. I suppose it's still possible they'll go this route and make vol. 4-6 pink hued though the first disc is purple hued?

The menu is functional and retains the "dark" feel of the cover. In terms of extras we get ONE creditless opening, not all 5 that are on these 5 eps. We get some character bios and trailers as well (FMP is on there). And for openings, Houston we have a problem, which I'll get into later. Menus look good.

Next up will be the audio. You have Stereo English and Japanese, along with English 5.1. There is, however, a problem with the English 5.1 mix. In the opening AND ending credits, you lose all channels except the right and left, plus you get a ridiculous amount of bass from the sub. I'm not sure what happened there, but it seems someone decided to just set it as a stereo mix within a 5.1 mix instead of properly mixing it for 5.1. You lose the center channel completely and it's kind of jarring.

I've a feeling most English 5.1 watchers (who actually watch in 5.1) will be annoyed with the 5.1 op/ed theme glitch. The music sounds fine on both stereo mixes.

I do not like English dubs, but I did however spot check places to verify that the 5.1 audio was working within the episodes. It is. The center channel exists as do all the others. I'm not a fan of English Hazkuki as to me it felt as though she was trying TOO hard to sound "cute." That's MY personal preference and MY opinion. The other issue here for me that may skew it is that Saito Chiwa IS Hazuki. I've watched the Japanese R2s so many times it's not even funny. All the other English characters sound good IMO. I didn't spot check Elfreide as that would be another disappointment FOR ME as I love Kakazu Yumi.

Now finally the video. In terms of video quality, as expected the alternate op/ed cause some compression issues in the op/ed. Nothing major though and I only really noticed because I was watching for it. In the episodes themselves I didn't really notice any problems, and generally I'm pretty anal. Doing a comparison of the R1 to the R2 I didn't notice any glaring issues either. It should be noted though that both versions ARE interlaced. Neither is progressive, which is unfortunate.

In terms of video, had I gone frame by frame I'd probably notice problems, but that's not how normal people watch a show. I'm sure I'd fine some compression issues on the R2 if I looked hard enough.

The video appears to be from the DVD version of the show, not the broadcast (which is what I expected). I never saw the broadcast version as I never watch anything in "that" format; I only ever watched the R2 DVDs I own. Content wise everything seems to be the same as the R2 (except the openings, which I'm getting to).

One of the things missing from the disc are the end of disc images from the R2s. Basically at the end of the 2 eps on the R2 discs you have still images of the post card images, along with the "thanks for watching" message. Those don't exist on the R1. No big deal since you have the artwork on the post cards already, right?

Now for the problem. For some it is major, for others maybe not as much so.

In the Japanese version of the show, every episode opening was different. Sometimes it was just the images on the Hanafuda cards and sometimes more dramatic changes. On the Japanese angle the openings are intact and are the proper endings. The problem comes in on the English language angle. Some of the episodes have duplicated openings, so they aren't the "proper" openings. Here's the run down for ENGLISH openings ONLY, ALL JAPANESE OPENINGS ARE CORRECT:

Eps 1 - correct
Eps 2 - wrong (same as eps 1)
Eps 3 - correct
Eps 4 - wrong (same as eps 1 and 2)
Eps 5 - wrong (same as eps 1, 2 and 3)

Sure you can just switch over to see the proper opening but for those that have to have English credits it isn't possible to see the proper opening AND see the English credits.

One other change is the English logo. They eliminated the Kanji and the "Tsukuyomi." For me personally, where the problem is would be in the opening. Anyone that's seen the Japanese opening knows the "fade in" of the logo is smooth (imagine an interlaced image with the odd or even lines being drawn in while the opposite lines remain visible). On the English side the effect loses a lot and just doesn't jive properly with me. Minor gripe.

And as promised, here are some comparison screen caps. Top image is R2 followed by the R1 of the same spot unless noted.

Cap 1 R2
Cap 1 R1

Cap 2 R2
Cap 2 R1

Cap 3 R2
Cap 3 R1

Cap 4 R2
Cap 4 R1 (notice some compression issues) (and it looks like I didn't get the exact same spots, sorry. The image is fading IN so I believe that's the difference in the color of the moon. My apologies)

Cap 5 R2
Cap 5 R1

Cap 6 R2
Cap 6 R1

Cap 7 R2
Cap 7 R1
Cap 8 R2
Cap 8 R1

Cap 9 R2
Cap 9 R1

Cap 10 R2
Cap 10 R1

Cap 11 R2
Cap 11 R1

Cap 12 R2
Cap 12 R1


And for some R1 specific caps:

English Logo
Sample of English language credit font

Japanese angle Eps 3 opening
Eps 3 English Angle opening


HOW I obtained images:

Rip DVDs (first 2 R2s and the R1)
Opened VOBs in Virtual Dub Mod
Captured PNG images
Bulk converted images to JPGs (may add some "errors" but shouldn't really change enough to matter)

So the images are directly from their respective sources, not "as displayed by a software DVD decoder."

I'm off to bed, so post any questions and I'll answer them tomorrow morning-ish.

[treatment]

hmmm.

Besides the various aliasing and the one compression issue in the OP-animation, the R1 seems to be ok enough. At least from your scene-captures.

I'm not sure how much of an irritant the suspicious audio-glitch will be. It's also a bummer that Funi decided for whatever reason to eliminate the ~Tsukuyomi~ monicker from their R1-version.

Guess I can't wait for my own copy to get shipped to watch and listen to Funi's product for myself.

It's a bit minor, but am I correct that they retained the french-version of the ED as well?

[something]

[ QUOTE ]
slerch666 said:
On the Japanese angle the openings are intact and are the proper endings. The problem comes in on the English language angle. Some of the episodes have duplicated openings, so they aren't the "proper" openings. Here's the run down for ENGLISH openings ONLY, ALL JAPANESE OPENINGS ARE CORRECT

[/ QUOTE ]
That's such a strange problem to let slip through. It won't affect me when I watch, as I'll watch subbed, but... weird.

[something]

[ QUOTE ]
treatment said:
It's also a bummer that Funi decided for whatever reason to eliminate the ~Tsukuyomi~ monicker from their R1-version.

[/ QUOTE ]
Indeed. I'm fine with them marketing it as "Moon Phase" and all, but what happened to Tsukuyomi? I'm not even entirely sure what it means, but what was the point of wiping away all traces of it? It's the primary way I refer to the show.

[treatment]

[ QUOTE ]
disarm said:
[ QUOTE ]
slerch666 said:
On the Japanese angle the openings are intact and are the proper endings. The problem comes in on the English language angle. Some of the episodes have duplicated openings, so they aren't the "proper" openings. Here's the run down for ENGLISH openings ONLY, ALL JAPANESE OPENINGS ARE CORRECT

[/ QUOTE ]
That's such a strange problem to let slip through. It won't affect me when I watch, as I'll watch subbed, but... weird.

[/ QUOTE ]

Slerch666 also reported:
[ QUOTE ]
slerch666 said:

In terms of extras we get ONE creditless opening, not all 5 that are on these 5 eps.

[/ QUOTE ]

The various creditless op's/ed's were one of the sweet perks of the R2-version. Providing only one creditless OP in the R1-version is really quite unfortunate.

[something]

[ QUOTE ]
treatment said:
Slerch666 also reported:[ QUOTE ]
slerch666 said:In terms of extras we get ONE creditless opening, not all 5 that are on these 5 eps.

[/ QUOTE ]The various creditless op's/ed's were one of the sweet perks of the R2-version. Providing only one creditless OP in the R1-version is really quite unfortunate.

[/ QUOTE ]
True, although I can't complain too seriously about that because I never ever watch clean OP/EDs [img]/images/graemlins/sweat000.gif[/img] Still, seems like they could have added it. It would be, what, an extra 6 minutes of video/sound to include?

[relentlessflame]

[ QUOTE ]
disarm said:
[ QUOTE ]
treatment said:
Slerch666 also reported:[ QUOTE ]
slerch666 said:In terms of extras we get ONE creditless opening, not all 5 that are on these 5 eps.

[/ QUOTE ]The various creditless op's/ed's were one of the sweet perks of the R2-version. Providing only one creditless OP in the R1-version is really quite unfortunate.

[/ QUOTE ]
True, although I can't complain too seriously about that because I never ever watch clean OP/EDs [img]/images/graemlins/sweat000.gif[/img] Still, seems like they could have added it. It would be, what, an extra 6 minutes of video/sound to include?

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, it sure sounds like they weren't provided with all the clean OPs by the companies in Japan, which'd explain both why they're not on the disc as extras and why the English OP angle during the episodes themselves have to use the standard version. It just wouldn't make sense to have them and not at least provide them as extras on the disc. Perhaps it wasn't something they thought about at first, or maybe it was something the Japanese companies weren't willing to give up... who knows. Oh well...

[hikaru004]

Totally confused.

Did we get all the openings on the R1 DVDs that were available to R2 DVD?

Are the OP and ED songs intact? On the Newtype USA disc, the OP and ED songs were instrumental only.

[slerch666]

[ QUOTE ]
treatment said:
It's a bit minor, but am I correct that they retained the french-version of the ED as well?

[/ QUOTE ]
The endings change as well as the openings. I'm trying to remember but I know there is at least one Japanese language version of the ending. I'll double check it when I get a chance.

[slerch666]

[ QUOTE ]
relentlessflame said:
Yeah, it sure sounds like they weren't provided with all the clean OPs by the companies in Japan, which'd explain both why they're not on the disc as extras and why the English OP angle during the episodes themselves have to use the standard version. It just wouldn't make sense to have them and not at least provide them as extras on the disc. Perhaps it wasn't something they thought about at first, or maybe it was something the Japanese companies weren't willing to give up... who knows. Oh well...

[/ QUOTE ]
No, there are 2 correct episodes for the openings, so they were provided, at the very least, with creditless openings for eps 1 and 3. The others we don't know for fact either way.