"Giant Robo The Animation - The Day The Earth Stood Still"
as limited "Ultimate Blu-ray Box" in Japan.
[Added Dec. 23, 2012: Publisher's website: Media Factory]
Basic disc specs
Number of discs: 4 (Single-Sided Dual-Layered x3 + Single-Sided Single-Layered x1)
Video: 4:3 1080p
Audio: Japanese LPCM 2.0 / English DD [*1]
Subtitles: None
Running time: 512 mins (Main feature: 339, Special features: 173)
*1: To my understanding, there are 2 versions of English dubbs with different cast. But I can't tell which version is included here.
Notes:
- Remastered and restored from the original negatives scanned in 4K
- Contains all the special features in the dvd releases in the past (upconverted from SD)
The Package
Newly drawn box cover art by Akihiko Yamashita (character design).
Digipack
Booklet
Approx. 100-page booklet is entitled "Project GR".Includes design works, interviews, text data
Disc Contents
Disc 1
Special features:
- Audio commentary on Ep 1: Kappei Yamaguchi, Sumi Shimamoto
- Audio commentary on Ep.3: Akihiko Yamashita, Kazuyoshi Katayama
Disc 2
Main feature: Episodes 4-6
Special features:
- Audio commentary on Ep.5: Masamichi Amano, Yôta Tsuruoka
Disc 3
Special features:
- Audio commentary on Ep 7: Akihiko Yamashita, Masami Ozone, Kenji Hayama, Kazuyoshi Katayama
Special features menu page 1
"G-Robo Battle Talk - 'G' by maestros" (30:22)
is a discussion by Yasuhiro Imagawa, Shinji Higuchi, Federico Colpi (and the host whose name escaped me).
Interviews with cast and crew (36:27) includes:
- Kappei Yamaguchi (voice actor, Daisaku)
- Sumi Shimamoto (voice actress, Ginrei)
- Kazuyoshi Katayama (animation director)
- Masami Ozone (drawing director, storyboards) [who also did the manga version]
- Kenji Hayama (drawing director, storyboards)
- Masamichi Amano (composer)
- Yôta Tsuruoka (music design, sound director)
 |
| Sumi Shimamoto |
PV/CM
- Episode 0 (Ver.1): Ep.1 teaser
- Episode 0 (Ver.2): Ep.1 trailer
- Ep.2 TV spot
- Ep.7 promo video
- Ep.7 TV spot
- 1999 promo video for website (for DVD release)
- 2 promo videos and 4 TV spots for BD boxset release
International PV
- US promo video
- 3 promo videos for Italy
Special features menu page 2
Recording sessions by the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra
for Ep.1,2,3,6,7 (09:52, 10:56, 14:59, 18:52, 22:44 respectively)
This appears to be a bunch of home videos of the recording sessions.
So, don't expect the quality of concert video.
The videos occasionally show noises which must be in the source.
Most performances are not complete.
There's no narration, but sometimes Japanese text explains the date, the title of the music being played.
Some tunes are shown with the accompanying scenes in a small window.
Mostly it's just the musicians performing, Amano conducting. No interviews with anyone.
But occasionally you see interactions between Amano and musicians, engineers at work, and a little bit of views of Warsaw.
Working videos for sound mixing
of Ep. 2, 6 (11:42, 16:11 respectively)
Unfinished anime (some portions of which are rough drawings, storyboards cutouts, and memos) is shown with finished audio.
Giant Robo in videogames
- GR in "Super Robot Taisen Alpha 64" (00:34)
- Promo video for PS2 game (06:25)
DVD Premium Re-Master Edition opening movies: GR-1 to GR-4
The opening movies of discs in the previous 4-disc DVD boxset entitled "Premium Re-Master Edition".
Disc 4
Contains entire original soundtracks albums of Ep.1-7.Audio: LPCM 2.0 96kHz/24bit
While playing the music, the album cover art is shown with zooming and panning.
Popup menu has tracklist, and indicates what tune is now being played.
However, being a popup menu, it disappears after a while. I find it rather inconvenient.
IMO, this is the greatest new special feature in this set,
because all 7 CDs are long time OOP. (I own them all, though)
While Phoenix Entertainment (the company which controls the copyright of the GR music) offers most of them as remastered editions with bonus tracks (mostly from "Ginrei" series) on their website, they are limited to Japanese residents.
So, in some cases they are priced very high in used disc market.
Or you have to go to places like YouTube to listen to the music, violating copyright.
But now we can hear the music in 96kHz/24bit audio.
My thoughts on the product
Overall I'm happy with this boxset (except for its price, as always).
Inclusion of the entire soundtrack in HD audio is especially welcome.
Of course I can complain about other extras. I wish they included:
- A new interview with Imagawa, especially on the possibility of other episodes. (Imagawa is absent in new extras. Maybe he was too busy.)
- Uncut "funeral speech" by Iemasa Kayumi,. (Imagawa mentioned it was actually recorded.)
- Interviews with the musicians and the staff of the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra.
- Interviews with more voice cast.
- Details of English dubb. (director, cast, translator, etc)
- Subtitles: Both English for Japanese audio and Japanese for English audio.
- While all the special features in the previous DVD editions are ported over, some information (i.e. comments from voice cast) in the DVD's booklets are missing.
One more nitpicking - to contain 7 episodes in 3 discs, they chose to have them as 3-3-1.
But I'd rather want them to be 2-3-2.
I mean, there are notable "breaks" between Ep.2 & 3, and 5 & 6. They are much appropriate points to change the discs. For me it's especially distracting to change the discs between Ep.3 & 4.
And who cares if some extras are scattered onto multiple discs? They are fillers to begin with. There really is no need to have them together in one disc.
Lastly... considering its price, I'm not sure if this boxset is worth your money if you have previous DVD boxset(s).
Video/audio quality is technically better, but not so many people (including myself) have A/V system good enough to fully appreciate the differences.
And this anime was made for smaller TV screen to begin with.
In the booklet, technical crew mentioned today's larger screen revealed blemishes and flaws in the original materials they didn't notice (or could tolerate) in the past.
But, being a big fan of this anime since its original LD release, this set was hard to resist.
