I acquired the Japanese laserdisc boxset. Is there still a need for capturing these episodes?
I would hope there is. From the various pieces that have been posted above, the French version has pretty clear picture. The Japanese LD has burned in subtitles, but good picture and sound. They key part that needs restoration is the old Indy segments. That any any changes made to the body of the episodes.
I am a fan, but I have not watched it because they cut out old Indy - one of the things I enjoyed. The way I would go about this is to get the French and Japanese versions to color match and use the French version to restore what is covered by the burned in Japanese subtitles. But someone with access to both of those would have to let us know if that would work. I just found out season 1 was done and probably will check it out to see the quality.