Topic: Ghibli Blu's

[Najemikon]

Did you hear about this?     http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=38599

[dfmorgan]

Did you hear about this?     http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=38599

No I hadn't. I can't see that he will let go fully though but maybe just take more of a background role as in he has retired a couple of times already. However I do wonder if it's to do with the Japanese reaction to his latest film Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises) where whilst the film fared well in the cinemas it wasn't too well received with many reviewers.

[Eommen]

Anyone on the logic the distributor has for the sequence number on the sleeves? No 5 is printed both on "Kiki's..." and on "Whisper...", while the early "Totoro..."has the relatively high number of 9. Sigh...

Sorry to come back so late but this has been discussed on the blu-ray.com forums where a couple of people wrote to Optimum and StudioCanal. The answers forthcoming from them made the matter even more confusing with the 1st reply saying that they were numbered in blu-ray release order until it was pointed out that Ponyo, the 1st release, had number 17 on it (the same as the DVD). Optimum came back and stated that future copies of this and Laputa would be renumbered. A later attempt at clarification from StudioCanal intimated that they were following Studio Ghibli guidelines on the numbering. Full details in this thread http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=166042. So my guess is that the logic used by the distributors is illogical.

As found in those threads I requested a renumbered print on the Facebook page of studio canal. Yesterday a reprint of the slipcover arrived. "Whisper of the Heart" now has number 11. Looks great as Studio Canal (Facebook: Studio Ghibli UK) really made a packaging effort to make sure the cover wasn't to be damaged during the postal trajectory.

[dfmorgan]

Pom Poko gets its UK Blu-ray release on 14th April 2014.

[dfmorgan]

Princess Mononoke has a UK Blu-ray release date of 19th May 2014 with The Cat Returns shown as being released on 29th May 2014.

I'm thinking one of those dates as being wrong and would expect that they should both be the 19th as that is a Monday the usual release day in the UK.

[dfmorgan]

Princess Mononoke has a UK Blu-ray release date of 19th May 2014 with The Cat Returns shown as being released on 29th May 2014.

I'm thinking one of those dates as being wrong and would expect that they should both be the 19th as that is a Monday the usual release day in the UK.

Orders placed at amazon for these and they are showing the 19th May for both titles.

[dfmorgan]

Latest release information from Japan:-

The Wind Rises (Kaze Tachinu) - Release Date: 18-Jun-2014

Miyazaki Hayao Complete Box/Works - Release Date: 18-Jun-2014
Description:Blu-ray box "Ghibli ga Ippai Collection" release featuring the complete theatrical anime (11 films) of director Hayao Miyazaki! Includes masterpieces from "Lupin The Castle of Cagliostro" (in HD remastered version) to "Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises)" on 11 discs. Also comes two bonus discs containing "Yuki no Taiyo" pilot film (5mn), "Akado Susu no Suke" (episodes 26,27, 41 for a total of 30mn), "On Your Mark" video clip, and Hayao Miyazaki press conference on his retirement (90mn). Discs come in digipak with illustrated jacket. Also includes booklet. As bonus of individual release are not included, transfer rate is slightly better. In some of the Blu-rays included in this Box, additional languages such as Russian and Finnish may be included, but details are not fully confirmed at this point. * "Lupin The Castle of Cagliostro" comes ONLY in Japanese.

Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) - Release Date: 16-Jul-2014

Both The Wind Rises and Spirited Away have English listed amongst both the subtitles and audio.

No UK or ROW dates yet but UK are usually 3 to 4 months after Japanese release with the ROW following a few months later.

[dfmorgan]

The Wind Rises now has a UK release date of 29th September 2014.

Still no date for the UK release of Spirited Away though. No UK date either for Only Yesterday but I would imagine that StudioCanal aren't going to release this as there wasn't a Disney dub for it and my understanding is that the UK sales of the DVD were a bit disappointing.

Ocean Waves still has no date in Japan so it looks like that is being passed over, maybe not hi-defable as it was a TV movie.

[Eommen]

"From Up On Poppy Hill" is now listed on amazon.co.uk for release on Sept. 23, 2013. See here .
"Kiki's delivery service" has been released yesterday (July 1). See here for amazon, there are of course more vendors.. Same is true for "Grave of the Fireflies".

It still leaves a massive mount of ghibli titles not on bluray (I mean, region B or region free with Japanese OV and at least English subtitles), at least:
Pom Poko
Porco Rosso
Only Yesterday
The Cat Returns
Mononoke Hime
Spirited Away (*)

(*) released in NL as BR but the distributor admitted soon that it was just an upscaled DVD put to a BR disk...

Anyone has corrections on that list?

So with the now reported, promised releases, I guess only Spirited Away and Only Yesterday are awaiting an announced publication in a region B with (at least) English subtitles?

For the record, I've seen Only Yesterday already a year out in France, but it sadly has only French subtitles. French isn't my strongpoint...
The question is, would it need an English dub? Isn't there some way to re-use from the DVD -- either subtitles or perhaps even the dubbing?
After all, it isn't a children or family movie. Nothing scary (unless one considers the female lead falling back on awkward memories at sometimes bad moments scary...), but not easy to understand or follow unless you've grown-up a bit I think.

BTW Am I missing a title perhaps?

[dfmorgan]

So with the now reported, promised releases, I guess only Spirited Away and Only Yesterday are awaiting an announced publication in a region B with (at least) English subtitles?

For full blown cinema films yes so far as I am aware.

For the record, I've seen Only Yesterday already a year out in France, but it sadly has only French subtitles. French isn't my strongpoint...
The question is, would it need an English dub? Isn't there some way to re-use from the DVD -- either subtitles or perhaps even the dubbing?
After all, it isn't a children or family movie. Nothing scary (unless one considers the female lead falling back on awkward memories at sometimes bad moments scary...), but not easy to understand or follow unless you've grown-up a bit I think.

Only Yesterday has a tortured history which I detailed in my review here.

Does it need a dub? No not for me as I prefer to watch in original language and am happy to read the screen but I do realise that not all people are like minded. The Blu-ray is available in Japan and it does have English subtitles which why I was happy to buy it from there. I have purchased all my Japanese discs from cdjapan however the price is relatively high. Of course there may be cheaper alternatives or cheaper sites but I haven't bothered to investigate them.

As the original Western DVD release was a joint effort between Madman Australia and Optimum UK I did wonder if Australia had a release of it but the only listing I could find on Australian websites was for the DVD, none for the Blu-ray

BTW Am I missing a title perhaps?

Apart from Ocean Waves, which was a TV film and hasn't been Blu-rayed yet in Japan, there are none that I am aware of unless you start to count some of the various shorts and documentaries, most of which have never seen the light of day outside Japan, and of course non-Ghibli titles like Panda! Go Panda!. Of course there will be future films and I am willing to be corrected if I have missed any titles here and now.

[dfmorgan]

So with the now reported, promised releases, I guess only Spirited Away and Only Yesterday are awaiting an announced publication in a region B with (at least) English subtitles?

For full blown cinema films yes so far as I am aware.

BTW Am I missing a title perhaps?

Of course there will be future films and I am willing to be corrected if I have missed any titles here and now.

I found some details of a Studio Ghibli film which totally passed me by The Tale of the Princess Kaguya directed by Isao Takahata. This was released to Japanese cinemas in November 2013 so maybe a Japanese Blu-ray later this year. Apparently GKIDS have picked this up for a US cinema release. Dates for that or any UK/ROW releases don't seem to be available.

[dfmorgan]

The Spirited Away Blu-ray now has a UK release date of the 3rd November 2014 according to Blu-ray.com.

[dfmorgan]

Delving around a bit more and found that the Hayao Miyazaki box set will also be released on 3rd November 2014. No details of contents at the moment but the Japanese one is detailed in my earlier post on April 1st. here.  Hopefully the UK set will mirror the Japanese set.

[Achim]

Well, the news seems not final (translation issues and such), but I just found this on IGN:

STUDIO GHIBLI MAY NO LONGER BE MAKING FEATURE FILMS

In the update of the story it says, they may just want to restructure or do some "housecleaning"...

[dfmorgan]

Well, the news seems not final (translation issues and such), but I just found this on IGN:

STUDIO GHIBLI MAY NO LONGER BE MAKING FEATURE FILMS

In the update of the story it says, they may just want to restructure or do some "housecleaning"...

Thanks. I guess we'll have to wait a see what the final outcome is for Studio Ghibli presuming that a formal announcement will be made in the fullness of time. I hope they find a way forward as they do have animation directors who have acheived some success although admittedly not to the level of Miyazaki.