Anime - Coming to BRD and HD-DVD

MitchyD

I wrote up a thing on a site I work for about this, but it primarily came from IGN. I'm excited about it as an owner of a PS3, though I really hope Bandai comes to Blu-Ray more than it sounds like they intend to.
I'm pissed that I just bought all of FullMetal Alchemist, though nothing's been announced it sure would be nice to have it on HD-DVD or BRD... Is anyone else really excited about this? I know Rym and Scott don't have an HDTV or a player of sorts, but I'm interested on your standpoint on this... Everyone else too, what do you think about it? Steamboy is already on Blu-Ray, so that was a great start... I want more, though. Akira in HD would be INSANE.

Apreche

Considering the fact that about half the anime I watch is in digital fansubs, I really don't care about HD. Most anime aren't made in HD anyway, so you don't gain anything. I can imagine that sometimes it could even make imperfections in the animation more noticeable, and actually make the viewing experience worse in some cases. HD is awesome for sports and for modern blockbuster movies like LotR or Transformers, but for anime? Maybe for the newer Appleseed or GitS but that's about all I can think of. I can't imagine Akira in HD looking that much better. I've seen cells from Akira in person, and HD just isn't going to make them any better.

Jason

It would be different if an anime was created to take advantage of the higher-resolution experience. Remember the zooming picture with the hundreds of levels of detail that was on Digg about a month ago? An anime with incredible detail done in 1080 or higher could really make the most of a big-screen, hi-def format.

Of course, we'll never see one, because the animation budget for such an endeavor would be through the proverbial roof.

But think of the levels of detail and symbolism you could crush into a really in-depth anime. Think how much more symbolism could have been drawn into something like Eva if the canvas was that much bigger.

Thaed

Upconverted Animes look good on my Samsung, so I suspect that BRDs wouldn't suck.

Omnutia

Anyone who watches anime on a computer can already watch it in HD (though only those with gaming computers will manage 1080p, I can do 720 with a 1.8GHz) so it doesn't appeal to me that much to get a lot of expensive bits of equipment just to enjoy better copy protection.
When they crack BRD encryption to run on linux I'll probably just get a HDDVD and BRD combo USB drive and carry on as always. Anyway, what would you really want to see in HD? Gankutsuo?

MitchyD

Yeah, but digital restoration could make some older anime look even more hot. Granted, yeah some imperfections might be exposed, but for me this is great... I don't have the chance to watch many new anime, but I do get a lot of DVD's. I'd LIKE to download fansubs, but a lot of the time I can't (horrible wireless connection murders my torrenting)
As excited as I am, I paid 15 bucks for the first 6 FMA DVD's... I'd never have gotten that on Blu-Ray, and the PS3's DVD upscaling is really nice looking.

Omnutia

Please, for the sake of the internets. Get some wires!
If your worried about them getting in the way get the flat ones, You will appreciate the difference like [bad analogy]!

omegafinal

I can only say show me an anime with such style that it justifies the high 1080 resolution. Gankutsuo is a nice choice though, the textures in that anime are...unique, and 1080 will bring out the details (One dude's clothes has a Motorola circuit board!) .

Erwin

I want to see Nausica in High Definition :P

Cramit

Moonlight Mile is available in 1280x720 and it looks gorgeous. I watch it on my laptop (native resolution 1280x800) and it makes other video look awful in comparison.