R2 DVD Questions

[retrosofa]

Here's another thread I've been meaning to make for awhile. Tenchi has had a number of video releases, with the latest one being a huge reissue from Funimation. I was kind of bummed by Funi's release, since both TV series weren't remastered at all, but rather just repackaged from Pioneer's old release. That means cloudy video quality, but also edited title cards as well. Their release for the OVA was surprisingly barebone, even missing the Mihoshi Special and the English audio from "Here Comes Jurai 2".

Now for the hard hitting questions!

1. What all is missing from the Japanese BD/DVD OVA release? It's my understanding the Japanese release has the Mihoshi Special, The Original Sound File, and the English dub! I did hear a rumor awhile ago that the Mihoshi Special is mysteriously missing it's dub.

2. How does the video quality for the TV series compare to Funi's reissue? And other than the Shin Tenchi Muyo Omake, are there any extras we're missing out on?

[جبريل 無道]

Shades will know more about this than I, but I recall the Funimation DVDs for OAV3 already looking "soft"/blurry compared to the Japanese release.  And that was their reputation for a while, to reduce the number of discs they needed to make.

I have no clue if that carries over to the modern day and this release though.

[retrosofa]

I bought Funimation's release for Universe because it was cheap, and easily accessible. For the OVAs, I just went and tracked down the single releases from Pioneer. I feel like they really cut corners with it, especially by reusing Pioneer's old subs, which are a bit questionable at times.

[shades of blue]

Funimation OVA3 dvd release - The original R2 releases each came with a 2nd disc, which was not ripped by anyone. R1 release comes with Himitsi Nabe (live Q&A by Ryo-ohki & Fuku VA), radio drama & tour of Okayama Prefecture extras. The video encode of R1 release is pure ASS. Imagine the Vaseline smeared on George Lucas' camera to hide the bicycle behind Luke's landspeeder smeared over the ENTIRE screen... THAT's Funimation's encode of OVA3.

Funimation OVA bluray release - missing Soundfile, Mihoshi Special & English dub for "Here Comes Jurai II". Japanese release includes all of that, but does NOT come with subtitles. Even the DVD picture quality is superior to the old R1 Platinum Edition release. Both encodes use Signature Series subtitles.

Funimation bluray movie pack - just the three movies bundled together on two bluray discs.

Funimation Isekai bluray release - missing radio interview with Kajishima & Yoshikawa and commentary tracks with Japanese cast.

NOTE: ALL Funimation encodes above have a 50% reduction in filesize vs their Japanese counterparts.
Seriously, I'm not making that up, nor am I doing to waste my time gathering 'proof'. You can take my word for it or do the math yourself by adding up ISO filesizes posted on asiandvdclub.

Funimation Universe & Tokyo DVD releases - EXACT encodes of OLD R1 Pioneer releases, which ARE inferior to R2 discs. Only changes are that the subtitle font & color were altered from OLD R1 encodes and the number of discs was halved by creating new menus & going from DVD5 to DVD9. It does NOT include Tokyo's bullet train episode, which was only included with 10th anniversary R2 DVD box set, due to this shitty release being nothing more than an R1 reissued release.

So in review, what have we learned today? Funimation A SHIT

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Also of note, Japanese releases of Tenchi tend to come with a ton of cool print extras & trinkets, especially the Laserdisc releases. If you're interested in collecting Tenchi memorabilia, the Japanese Laserdiscs should be on your radar.

[retrosofa]

Funimation OVA bluray release - missing Soundfile, Mihoshi Special & English dub for "Here Comes Jurai II". Japanese release includes all of that, but does NOT come with subtitles. Even the DVD picture quality is superior to the old R1 Platinum Edition release. Both encodes use Signature Series subtitles.

But does the Mihoshi Special include the dub in the Japanese release? I remember a big fuss back in the day on Animeondvd that it wasn't included. And weren't some of the subtitles redone for Funimation's release? I saw on another forum the exchange between Katsuhito and Ayeka in episode 3 was slightly re-translated.

[shades of blue]

Funimation OVA bluray release - missing Soundfile, Mihoshi Special & English dub for "Here Comes Jurai II". Japanese release includes all of that, but does NOT come with subtitles. Even the DVD picture quality is superior to the old R1 Platinum Edition release. Both encodes use Signature Series subtitles.

But does the Mihoshi Special include the dub in the Japanese release? I remember a big fuss back in the day on Animeondvd that it wasn't included. And weren't some of the subtitles redone for Funimation's release? I saw on another forum the exchange between Katsuhito and Ayeka in episode 3 was slightly re-translated.

The Japanese release does include the Mihoshi Special English dub track. Nobuyuki said so. And no, to the best of my knowledge, Funimation made no additional edits to the scripts. Any changes are due to Pioneer making those corrections when they released the Signature Series editions. As those are the scripts Funimation used.