Steady

I wonder how many orders they are getting from North America.

Yeah, I think CDJapan got the shaft. LoL I would've rather had either of the other two.

True. Directors need to realize that once its out in the wild, fans attach themselves to the movie and it becomes part of their memories. Directors may want to change something (sometimes for the better, sometimes for worse), but fans are used to it being a certain way. I like how Ridley Scott handled Blade Runner. He made his Final Cut, but he also kept the other versions available for people who liked those too.

I can see both sides. The cels would not have the grain and all the artifacts that film has until they were photographed. But they are trying to sharpen what has already been photographed. And where do you draw the line? In a few years, They may think, "Hey, now we can make it even more clean looking." Its a slippery slope for sure. I read an article that they started with a new 5K scan of the film elements. I would really like to see how that 5k scan looked before they ran it through their AI program.

It looks like something was blurry and they tried to sharpen it...if that makes any sense. All things considered, I think the 2016 version looks the best. I'll always prefer the photo-chemical film look. It feels more alive to me. The new version feels cold and static. Its difficult to explain. The main problem I have in general with a lot of recent 4K releases, is that they want to make analog look digital. It would be better to me if they just followed this simple rule: If it was originated in the analog world, then do your best to make sure it retains that organic look. If it was created digitally, then work hard to maintain the digital appearance. Just my opinion.

Yeah, but sometimes it doesn't work out like we want, like Predator (1987). They finally got the image quality looking great with the 4K version, but the blu-ray included in that release was the old version with the heavy DNR that made all the people look like wax. So unfortunately, you never really know.

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but I found this article dated Jan 22, 2025. Kawamori talks about how they created the 4K version. Pretty much what I expected--lots of AI. 😩 https://www.cbr.com/macross-do-you-remember-love-remaster-release/

I hope they find that footage someday. I would love to see those brief shots of the VF-4 flying and the SDF-2 launching in 4K. The detail level in that sequence is crazy. I think the animation in that short video is better than DYRL.

Hey, that's a nice touch. But I like the classic cover. I'm just not much of a fan of Mikimoto's current style.

Cool. Yeah, some sequences look better than others. I'll have to take a closer look later. I used to own the official Japanese VHS (actually it might be at my parent's house) release and the Dolby Surround on that was really good. I remember the opening battle scene sounding great on that.

Aw man. I didn't know that--really sad. That sequence contains some incredible animation.

There's only one version of the film on the disc--the new 4K version. I have not watched the blu-ray that came with this set yet. So I cannot comment on what it looks like. I'm assuming that its a downscaled version of the new 4K master. But I'll give it a look. There are 3 audio tracks: 2 are from 2016 (DTS-HD- 5.1 and a Linear PCM Surround). The other track is from 1984 (Linear PCM Mono I think) The footage at the end of the film during the credits when Minmay sings Angel's Paints, unfortunalely, does not look as good as the movie. Not sure what happened there. Its feels like its from a different print or they used a different method to try and clean it up. I know this sequence was done after the movie was completed. Maybe that is part of it. But just about all detail has been smeared away. Also included is the video of Angel's Paints from Flashback 2012. It does not look good either.

I just received mine. Here are my initial impressions. Image--First off, I never owned this on HD 1080 blu-ray, so I can't compare this with that. For this 4K version, to my eyes, any and all grain has been completely wiped away. It does not look like film. The picture is clear and stable, but a lot of the painted background details look kind of smeared. Some shots, and even some parts of the image look out of focus which could be from the original film source. This is a 41 year old film. There seems to be less detail on the characters. It looks softer to me. I would've liked to have the film grain, because I think overall detail was lost when the grain was removed. In my opinion, I think this could've looked a lot better, but I doubt they are going to revisit this. So I have to be happy with what I got. Beggars can't be choosers. I've owned this movie in so many different formats, and this is probably going to be the last physical version of the movie. Its not perfect, and I paid a lot for it, but I'm glad I finally have it. Oh, and the bloody gore is intact. Sound--The DTS-HD 5.1 sounds great. No complaints. Subtitles--Available in Japanese and English. They can be turned off completely. They look nice. The songs have also been subtitled and appear at the top of the screen. The songs being subtitled is a pet peeve of mine, but at least I can turn them off whenever I want. I have mixed feelings about the image quality, but I never ever thought this would be released with English subtitles. So I'm counting this as a win. Again just my thoughts.

How are the subtitles? Ha ha

I just had to paid the duty on it. It's on track for Wednesday... 🤞

I had the original Animeigo set with the lenticular insert. After a few years, the center of the discs where the hole is, began to crack. It was odd because I didn't play them that much. I contacted Harmony Gold and they told me to send the original discs to them, then they would send me some new discs--for free. So they sent me another complete set, but it was the 3 volume sets. I did keep the original slipcase box and lenticular insert though. This was all way after the set was released, so I thought it was cool that they did that for me. I guess they had a bunch of extra sets laying around, I don't know.

I just got an e-mail from DHL notifying me that it is on track to be delivered this upcoming Wednesday (Jan 29th). I'm really looking forward to this.

Macross is such a messed up franchise with all the licensing problems. The locked subtitles are frustrating, but I guess I can live with them. But what I find completely unforgivable are the additional subtitles for the songs at the top of the screen. The more I think about it, the more I get upset about how this boxset was done. I do not care at all what the lyrics to a song are when I'm watching a movie. Its ridiculous. I haven't watched this nearly as much as I thought I would and its because of the forced song subtitles. Its very distracting to have subtitles all over the screen. If I had know about this before hand, I'm not so sure I would have bought the set. I'm worried that the 4K release of Do You Remember Love (already pre-ordered) will also have subtitles for the songs. Ugh...I hope I'm wrong.

Yes. "Elvish". That is exactly how I would describe his style now.

I don't know, I think he draws faces completely different now.

Why did Mikimoto change his drawing style? If you look at his character renderings from the 80s and compare them to his work from the 90s all the way to present day, there is quite a difference. His change seems to have happened around the Macross 2 era. I think his best stuff is from Macross, Macross the Movie, and Gunbuster. I realize artists often change their styles, but many of his characters don't even look like the same people.

Yeah, maybe I'll look for the poster at some point down the line. A book cover would be ok I guess, but what I'm really looking for is a bag similar to the ones used for comics, but one that would fit thick books. I want to keep this book pristine.

I finally received my Macross Perfect Memory book. The seller told me it was in excellent condition, and wow, he wasn't joking. It looks like he went back in time and bought it back in 1982. The only thing it doesn't have is the poster. But overall, I am happy that I finally own this book. Are there any plastic bags/sleeves that fit books of this size? All I can find online are bags for comic books.

Ok. Here's the jpg if you or anyone else would like to use it.

Hey thanks Shade. Is it ok to just post it in here? Its kind of a large file.