I kind of noticed some blu-ray releases since the 2000s had them go digital, it was a lot tougher to get a proper remaster, like Rayearth, Outlaw Star, got a proper remaster, while Azumanga, and I think Lucky Star was upscaled I believed.
Some like Big O and Revolutionaly Girl Utena’s 3rd half had used both cels and digital animation, mainly in its second ending.
A lot of stuff just goes to disc without any menus compressed to hell and they don’t even dub most shows. Japanese releases except for the fact they almost never have dubs or subtitles are always superior on compression and quality.
The problem is far too many upscale old composite or component videotape and even if they made the effort to scan a negative at 4k or higher they hit it with DNR. And Q-Tec always filters releases scrubbed grain they even got a newish AI process that was used on Macross do you remember love. I even said what was the point of a 5k scan just to do what they did sharpen the image and degrain it.
I’m quite tired of them doing these film grain noise busting, it’s usually bad when they manage grain.
It was also done on Space Battleship Yamato to bring it into 4K for the 1977 film and for Farewell to Yamato from 78. You know there is a problem when the 4K has better color definition, but the blu-ray has more detail and filmgrain.
It has even happened with Akira.
Never mind they used a digital source for Ghost in the Shell a filmout tape and hit it with DNR. Why didn’t they just scan the interpositive used to make release prints. Sure, its further down than the filmout tape but its looks more organic.
Its revisionism.
Even when they do it right like with the Tenchi Muyo OVA or some older HD scans that scan never gets updated and its becomes the only master for decades in some cases like with Bubblegum Crisis which will probably never get a new 4K scan.
You even have Funi be the only ones to bother to do scans of Dragon Ball from film 16mm in fact in the level sets and then stop. Toei is a huge issue they just remaster old tapes. I’ve been asking for years where the HD scans for Transformers season 1 and 2 for instance, why can’t Toei and Sony BMI resolve their differences or whatever Hasbro has to do to get new masters made. Rhino had workprint 35mm negatives and somehow or another they’ve been lost since.
There is DNR on Sunrise shows like Outlaw Star and Dirty Fair but for the most part it’s not ruinous. Nor is it on Cowboy Bebop, though I would prefer none at all was applied.
I mentioned it with Utena later half and Big O but it’s absurd when anime used digital openings or endings, but the main episode is still cel, that is a common practice I noticed with these late 90s and early 2000s anime
I forgot to mention it, but one that could have benefit was Kare Kano (His or Her Circumstances) as this anime feels very rough, as it was transfered from tape. (like how Carranger to Timeranger were done on D-2 Cassette tapes or the Laserdisc mess of Star Wars that was the offical GOUT)
Keep in mind, Japan tends to use 16mm or at least some cheap film.
https://youtu.be/BEAElIH7Epk
This one I found, that someone used a filtered DVD rip as a base, and upscaled it twice and did some color correction.
there are shows that there were made on film the film material destroyed in favor of the tape because film storage is expensive, and they never intended to have HD anything back in the days of SD video.
Sometimes a reel of film gets lost for some reason or an entire episode goes missing.
Some of the studios even junked original audio tape master’s and original audio for shows.
Have to rely on fans that taped or recording the audio.
And you also have the case of film-based aka cel shows edited on tape. And redoing them for HD is expensive, it’s basically the process Star Trek TNG had to do as that final cut negative was broadcast masters.
What they do is go back to raw camera negative as if they are doing the show from scratch, this makes no sense for low budget anime OVA or tv shows.
It depends on the show and movie and whether the physical blu-ray or DVD sales or 4K sales warrant such a thing, if not streaming them.
Even Studio Ghibli except for Miyazaki’s latest film has not made the transition to 4K.
Then you have upscales like the upcoming Girl Who leapt through time and the recently released Wolf Children and Summer Wars. Mamoru Hosoda.
I also think Perfect Blue and Paprika were DNR, i’m not sure if those were 4k scans or 2k upscales.
I hope the rest of Artmic works show up or get new HD scans. Its a shame only Bubblegum Crisis has been done. Gall Force i have the laserdisc set and i waited forever for a HD version, i don’t even know if the film still exists or just another tape show.
Like i wish Evangelion episode 16 would show up in its original form on film.
Yeah, I forget that some remasters, have to rely on SD material as in the case of Cowboy Bebop, they only had the CGI stuff in SD, while the main anime is in HD.
https://imgur.com/a/23Iiiej
This shot feels like it was a digital animation, rather then done on cel.
Often times, I feel like they still need to DNR which makes it look like it has less detail in them.
DNR tends to be a bit of a talking point, when it comes to using them on animation.
I even learned in Sentai like Kakuranger, despite being finalized on film, some effects like green screens are done in SD, or on tape. I question how was that even possible to transfer on film.
Also not going to lie, the digital openings and eds in conjunction with the actual episodes being in cel like Pokemon Johto was bizzare, especially when they didn’t wait to go all digital when it was about to end.
This also made me question, who is destroying the film after it was being finalized to sd/tape, because that could screw archivist.
Like, I’m pretty sure, almost every show recorded on film was archived at some sort.