The epic quest for fansubs

Talk about all things Astro Boy!
sgupta
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Postby sgupta » 14 years ago

While I'm sure there are some copies floating around that surface occasionally (I know there were a few individual disc copies possibly available on the TezukainEnglish forums), it's pretty unreasonable to expect many people to be able to find/afford these IMO.

I eventually was able to find part of the set on eBay and the other part through messages to that same distributor [their last set AFAIK]), it just took a lot of work to find and I don't know of any other copies available. Part of the reason frankly I was willing to pay a good premium for it was I figured I could share it before it was completely gone and it might help with this project... It's something that just shouldn't die.

Once again, even though I've already bought the US release as is (and I encourage others to do so even though the US release does have its limitations), I seriously would buy the series again if rereleased properly (widescreen, uncompromised 5.1 audio, and proper subtitles), but there's no indication that's coming (ditto for the 2003 movies). So yes, as much as I wish there was a proper complete version out there for English-speaking markets, I do support a freely available fansub in lieu of that and until that's a reality.

While in theory your idea of subtitle scripts is a good one, there are just two many barriers - importing the DVD's at a high cost, removing the region restrictions, incorporating the scripts onto the DVD's (I'm not even sure how to do that and I'm decently versed in this stuff), etc. to make it practical, in my opinion.

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jeffbert
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Postby jeffbert » 14 years ago

I personally think that this forum should not be the place for the activity in this thread; however, the owner disagrees with me, so as a mod, I must abide by his wishes. :D

While the copyright owners must discourage this activity, after reading Fred Patten's book, I think this process might actually help in the creation of licensed DVDs by making fans aware of the series and making it clear that there is a market. BTW, Crunchyroll is looking for translators, & intends to legally offer subtitled Tezuka anime. I created a thread, Crunchyroll seeking fansubbers for Wonderbeat Scramble, but nobody even responded. :cry:
Last edited by jeffbert on Sun Jan 03, 2010 5:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Dragonrider1227
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Postby Dragonrider1227 » 14 years ago

"Kirben" wrote:[QUOTE=Dragonrider1227;95342]Sorry, but some of us have no ways of getting these legally.


You could try to locate the Korean DVD releases in second hand market online, just a matter of finding the items, at a price you are willing to pay.

Although I wonder why older members of the forums, didn't import the Korean DVD sets, if they really wanted these. Since the Korean DVD releases were available for a long time in the past, and mentioned in these forums many times.

So far this project seems more about making an uncut version available for free, using the existing copyrighted works. While I offered alternative idea of original subtitle scripts only, so producers could still be supported, by people buying the Japanese DVDs.[/QUOTE]
I possibly could buy them second hand, but technically, in doing that the producers still don't get supported so it's kinda mute all in all. Technically the same deal getting the Japanese sets. We would most likely have to get them second hand from Ebay or some place like that unless someone here finds a Japanese online shopping site willing to ship to America (which is highly unlikely) or someone would have to fly all the way to Japan to find these DVDs. I'm all for supporting the Producers but going through all that seems a little impractical to me

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jeffbert
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Postby jeffbert » 14 years ago

"Dragonrider1227" wrote:I possibly could buy them second hand, but technically, in doing that the producers still don't get supported so it's kinda mute all in all. Technically the same deal getting the Japanese sets. We would most likely have to get them second hand from Ebay or some place like that unless someone here finds a Japanese online shopping site willing to ship to America (which is highly unlikely) or someone would have to fly all the way to Japan to find these DVDs. I'm all for supporting the Producers but going through all that seems a little impractical to me

I am considering buying an Italian version of Melmo through an agent, that is a member of T in E who has offered the service. Yet, we have not even begun discussing the details of the thing, & I am hesitant because it involves trusting someone I barely know. :D But, as the price is only a fraction of the J version (which is out of print, anyway), & the thing includes Japanese audio, I am just about decided to do it.

About suporting the producers, buying used copies may not do so, but it at least does not pay those who bootleg.
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Dragonrider1227
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Postby Dragonrider1227 » 14 years ago

LOL A good point. I rarely right out buy bootlegs myself. I just download ;p
But if I was capable of buying imports, I would. A I said before I can barely buy local DVDs. I have every intention of buying the 80s series on DVD because the american one has the episodes in Japanese

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Kirben
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Postby Kirben » 14 years ago

"sgupta" wrote:While in theory your idea of subtitle scripts is a good one, there are just two many barriers - importing the DVD's at a high cost, removing the region restrictions, incorporating the scripts onto the DVD's (I'm not even sure how to do that and I'm decently versed in this stuff), etc. to make it practical, in my opinion.


The Japanese DVDs aren't that high cost, they are currently been offered at $36.41 US per volume at CDJapan. There are still many animated titles released on DVD in the USA, which offer about the same amount of content (time wise), for a similar price.

Making DVD-ROMs region free is much easier, with software available (ie AnyDVD), that can handle the complete process.

Subtitles scripts, only require the use of DVD player software that includes support. You don't need to re-create and burn/use a DVD image at all.

"jeffbert" wrote:While the copyright owners must discourage this activity, after reading Fred Patten's book, I think this process might actually help in the creation of licensed DVDs by making fans aware of the series and making it clear that there is a market.


Unfortunately the Tezuka anime offered on Crunchyroll is region restricted, so I expect only available to the USA. Personally I have found Cruncyroll unusable (for high quality episodes), since they started severely limiting pre-buffering of episodes too.

I really wonder if free access to anime (whether legal or not) really helps the distributor and producers, especially when complete series are offered. Funimation recently commented they have less interest, in anime titles already shown online via other services (ie Crunchyroll). If people have already seen an anime title for free, where is the incentive to buy at all?

"Dragonrider1227" wrote:[QUOTE=Kirben;95348][QUOTE=Dragonrider1227;95342]Sorry, but some of us have no ways of getting these legally.


You could try to locate the Korean DVD releases in second hand market online, just a matter of finding the items, at a price you are willing to pay.

Although I wonder why older members of the forums, didn't import the Korean DVD sets, if they really wanted these. Since the Korean DVD releases were available for a long time in the past, and mentioned in these forums many times.

So far this project seems more about making an uncut version available for free, using the existing copyrighted works. While I offered alternative idea of original subtitle scripts only, so producers could still be supported, by people buying the Japanese DVDs.[/QUOTE]
I possibly could buy them second hand, but technically, in doing that the producers still don't get supported so it's kinda mute all in all. Technically the same deal getting the Japanese sets. We would most likely have to get them second hand from Ebay or some place like that unless someone here finds a Japanese online shopping site willing to ship to America (which is highly unlikely) or someone would have to fly all the way to Japan to find these DVDs. I'm all for supporting the Producers but going through all that seems a little impractical to me[/QUOTE]

Just because a title is out of print, still doesn't mean you are entitled to it for free. If you wait too long to buy a title or find out too late, you are limited to second hand market (online or otherwise).

The Japanese DVDs are still available from CDJapan, which ships internationally. The later volumes of Japanese DVDs even offer a few extras, with English audio included too.

sgupta
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Postby sgupta » 14 years ago

"Kirben" wrote:
The Japanese DVDs aren't that high cost, they are currently been offered at $36.41 US per volume at CDJapan. There are still many animated titles released on DVD in the USA, which offer about the same amount of content (time wise), for a similar price.


That's nearly $500.00 for all 13 volumes. Yes, it's a nice set, but consider the entire US series is less than the cost of 1 DVD, and also that until there ARE sub files of some sort out there, this is useless, it doesn't make a lot of sense to do. Then if you want to use software to remove the region encoding, cost goes up further.

Subtitles scripts, only require the use of DVD player software that includes support. You don't need to re-create and burn/use a DVD image at all.


Which, if I understand you correctly, restricts me to playing them on my PC, which is also an unacceptable solution.

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jeffbert
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Postby jeffbert » 14 years ago

"Kirben" wrote:The Japanese DVDs are still available from CDJapan, which ships internationally. The later volumes of Japanese DVDs even offer a few extras, with English audio included too.

To clarify: What is offered is episode 1 with English audio & Japanese subtitles (vol 12); "pilot edition (Japanese audio track / English audio track with Japanese subtitles), TV commercial(s), and more
a trading card" (vol 13). Vol 14 is no longer listed in the search, so I know not what ELV extras it offered.

However, let me state that I own more than a few series in Japanese w/o any subtitles. While it is true that certain things are beyond my understanding because I know very few words of J--, I am able to follow the stories, as they are primarily told visually.
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Kirben
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Postby Kirben » 14 years ago

"sgupta" wrote:[QUOTE=Kirben;95408]
The Japanese DVDs aren't that high cost, they are currently been offered at $36.41 US per volume at CDJapan. There are still many animated titles released on DVD in the USA, which offer about the same amount of content (time wise), for a similar price.


That's nearly $500.00 for all 13 volumes. Yes, it's a nice set, but consider the entire US series is less than the cost of 1 DVD, and also that until there ARE sub files of some sort out there, this is useless, it doesn't make a lot of sense to do. Then if you want to use software to remove the region encoding, cost goes up further.[/quote]

Well there are still anime series been released on DVD in the USA, which are been spread over several volumes, with similar pricing per volume. The English DVD release doesn't make a good comparison, considering how much was changed in the English version.

The Japanese DVDs are still a way to support the producers, if you watch the uncut episodes via fansubs too.

"sgupta" wrote:[QUOTE=Kirben;95408]
Subtitles scripts, only require the use of DVD player software that includes support. You don't need to re-create and burn/use a DVD image at all.


Which, if I understand you correctly, restricts me to playing them on my PC, which is also an unacceptable solution.[/QUOTE]

How were you planing to watch? fansubs are usually limited to computer systems too, although modern DVD players offer support for playing some video files, depending on the codecs used.

"jeffbert" wrote:Vol 14 is no longer listed in the search, so I know not what ELV extras it offered.


There are only 13 volumes of the Japanese DVDs of the Astro Boy 2003 series.

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Postby Astro Forever » 14 years ago

Ironically, I bought Madman's 1980 set after having downloaded episodes that had been made available through this forum at a time where the 1980 series couldn't be found legally anywhere. It made me realize I was still a huge fan. After having been Astro-deprived for so long, I wasn't aware of that! :p

I don't know how it goes for the average fan though. :confused: There are other series from my childhood that I bought. I went with the reviews and when it was said a series was still enjoyable and I had really good memories, I bought it, otherwise I didn't. A few of the series I haven't bought have been available on YouTube since then and I watched a few episodes, and thought I made the right decisions.


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