This is a static copy of In the Rose Garden, which existed as the center of the western Utena fandom for years. Enjoy. :)

#1 | Back to Top12-14-2007 10:54:00 PM

atolm
Miki Molester
From: Tsukuba, Ibaraki
Registered: 06-12-2007
Posts: 38
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Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

I saw this a while ago posted on mixi, but since I haven't seen any topics about it posted here, I thought I'd pass the news along.

It would seem, according to Ikuhara's blog, that there is a remastered version of the Utena TV series in the works; an earlier post from the beginning of this past year seemed to be doing its best only to give vague hints as to the show's identity (colour of the hair of certain characters, etc.), but a more recent entry from the second of this month more or less gives things away -- there's even a photo accompanying it, straight from the studio! No word (to my knowledge) as to a release date, but the whole process seems to be taking quite a bit of time. If they're going through the episodes in order, though, we may have another good six or seven months of waiting time before things become any clearer.

Forgive the literalness of the translation, please. Ikuhara doesn't like full sentences, it seems.


http://www2.jrt.co.jp/cgi-bin3/ikuniweb … e=20071202

The other day, in a certain video studio in  Kouenji, I did work, seemingly with no end, until the last train.


Just as I suspected, everyone in the studio has been reading this blog (lol).
The contents of my posts have been compromised....
Fine! "If that's the case..." -- with that change in attitude, I went so far as to take some pictures.


Talked about the "Blade Runner" DLP that I saw the other day.
About how I was surprised at how beautiful the screen was. That everybody should watch it for reference...etc.


The episodes worked on.

Episode 21  Bugs (midway through to the end)
Episode 22  Memorial Hall.
Episode 23  Conditions.

Episode 22.
The screens were brighter than I had remembered. I thought the work was going to be wind up being very hard, but things progressed more smoothly than I had expected.
K-bayashi's artwork is very clear and bright. Just because it's a dark episode, that doesn't mean the artwork must be dark, too.
It's not... just a mere recollection; the coloring captures the sense that time has completely stopped, that you're in a dream.
The visual image is [inspired by?] a production of Kitamura Sou's "The Night of the Blue Comet." When I was a student, I encountered this work while going around watching lots of theatrical productions, in search of the "Post-Terayama." A greenhouse built of glass. Researchers clad in white scuttling about the Sanitarium adjacent to it. What is their research? Is "That Night" the eve of the world's destruction? At last, when they look up, what meets their gaze is the comet, trailing through the sky. Is that the flash of the world's destruction...? That was the gist of it (at least I think so; I could be wrong). The visuals made an impression on me, and might have had an effect on the episodes in question.
The card that appears repeatedly, on the edge of one's range of sight, is an ever-present icon of "death." The many coffins in the underground room. The atmosphere is akin to that of "Jacob's Ladder." During a meeting with Continuity [director? supervisor?] M-moto, I have the feeling we talked about that. Some people take having their work revised negatively, and lose motivation. If we made the revisions on this side, M-moto might have quite the project. "Fix them" "I won't" -- we argued back and forth like this for a while. It was quite a hard conversation. In the end, I said "okay, fine," and took back the continuity plans.

However.

When we did retakes of the finished continuity, M-moto was furious. "That's not at all like what we planned for in the meeting!"
I'm sorry, it was bad of me to change things after the fact, but I really wanted acrobatics that were a little more refined. It depends on the person, but there are cases where we revise the continuity on our side, and their are cases where we do a retake and have the continuity director himself make the revisions.
M-moto stayed on with the project, but when I remember that time, even now my heart hurts.
I'm often asked what the "pointing finger-markers" mean, but of course I can't write that here.


Episode 23.

Here too the screens were brighter than I had remembered. Work too progressed relatively smoothly.
H-moto-kun from Continuity had seen "Jacob's Ladder" (or I had lend him the LD, perhaps), so things were settled quickly.
However, in the finished continuity, the horror color was too strong (well, yes!), and we did a retake. "You told me to do it this way!" -- just as I expected, I met with resistance (par for the course). "Romantic colours, like being dumped by a girl, that sort of thing..." -- that's the sort of conversation I think we had. When talking about girls, H-moto-kun suddenly leans forward, gets in your face, intent. So, with H-moto-kun, I have the feeling that we always talked about girls. The pictures inside the frames on the walls of the Memorial Hall, this time round, are clear and bright in HD. The scene of the party of the people sleeping in the Memorial Hall. Very "The Shining." But, also the scenery of one of our staff drinking parties (lol). M-kura-P [?]'s passionately singing karaoke, holding the mic in one hand, now reproduced in high quality (well now). But, HD [i]is[/is] pretty impressive. To think you can see so well.
This episode isn't just the end of the second arc, it also sets the stage for the final episode.
The most cruel thing is perhaps "being forgotten".... I had been thinking a bit about that.
A Prince who has forgotten an important thing. The princess, who had always been praying, at last her heart freezes over....
With those as my keywords, I turned to thinking about the development in the third arc.

Last edited by atolm (12-15-2007 08:36:47 PM)

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#2 | Back to Top12-15-2007 01:45:56 AM

Giovanna
Ends of the Fandom
From: Edmonton, AB
Registered: 10-12-2006
Posts: 8797
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Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

Tomorrow I will post coherently. For now I will just go emot-aaa.


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#3 | Back to Top12-15-2007 01:19:34 PM

MissMocha
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From: Tallahassee, Fl
Registered: 10-19-2006
Posts: 4632

Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

Hm. Well. It seems I will be selling my box sets shortly. etc-love etc-love emot-aaa emot-aaa


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#4 | Back to Top12-15-2007 01:34:30 PM

Nilamarthiel
The Icon Icon
From: Northern Michigan
Registered: 02-05-2007
Posts: 3972
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Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

Looks I just got Kat her Yule present. Wow. *scuttles over her old discs to Kat while pining for the new set*

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#5 | Back to Top12-15-2007 03:49:39 PM

SleepDebtFairy
Revolutionary
From: Washington DC
Registered: 10-16-2006
Posts: 2096
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Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

emot-aaa Wow. And just when I started to finally buy the regular dvds.. emot-gonk

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#6 | Back to Top12-15-2007 04:07:00 PM

NajiMinkin
Hacker Ringleader
From: The Incredible Edible Egg
Registered: 06-23-2007
Posts: 2537

Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

They'd better translate it without the stupid song subtitles this time. emot-mad

But holy crap YAY! emot-dance


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#7 | Back to Top12-15-2007 04:33:10 PM

Arki
Dark Whisperer
From: Croatia
Registered: 10-28-2006
Posts: 1123

Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

*joins the bandwagon*

Yay for believing that some sort of alternative release would eventually happen. emot-biggrin

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#8 | Back to Top12-15-2007 04:37:00 PM

Raven Nightshade
Someday Shiner
From: Louisiana
Registered: 12-17-2006
Posts: 2925

Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

Oh....

My....

Gawd......

emot-aaa emot-aaa emot-aaa emot-aaa


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#9 | Back to Top12-15-2007 04:52:46 PM

Razara
Marionette Mistress
From: Wuzzy Happy Akio Town (What?)
Registered: 10-17-2006
Posts: 4694

Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

It seems as though the day of revolution is nearing. emot-dance

By Remastering, does this mean that they'll be spiffing up the artwork so that there isn't a ton of art errors, and so that Touga never looks like an alien?

Either way, a second release of Utena will cause a very drastic increase in the number of fans, since it will seem new to most people, rather than 10-years-old.

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#10 | Back to Top12-15-2007 07:20:29 PM

BioKraze
Faceless Master
From: Yuma, Arizona (USA)
Registered: 11-26-2006
Posts: 8282

Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

Well, I hope they keep the old versions on the shelves for some time still, because I'm going to be royally miffed if I can't get my hands on the CPM releases.

But as far as a remastering goes...more power to you! emot-keke


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#11 | Back to Top12-15-2007 07:21:41 PM

Imaginary Bad Bug
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From: Connecticut, USA
Registered: 10-16-2006
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Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

This would be amazing if it's really going to happen!

My only concern is that Utena's North American licensor, Central Park Media, is only slightly more alive than, say, Geneon at the moment. (Got that phrase from AnimeonDVD's message boards.)  If they are remastering Utena, I don't know what the chances are that it'll make it into R1-land.   I don't have an all-region DVD player either, which would allow me to watch Japanese R2s... emot-frown

And before anyone may wonder, I don't do the 'download torrents of DVD-rips then burn them to disc' thing either.  I don't do the whole fansub/download thing when it comes to my anime, and I won't be changing my ways even for SKU.


To Razara... remastering means taking the original video masters, cleaning them up by removing scratches and dust, correcting color balance and contrast etc, and reauthoring the discs.  The next step up from that would involve reanimating some scenes, kind of like what GAINAX did for Evangelion Platinum.  That was a remastering with some scenes reanimated.  So, strict remastering = no spiffing up of artwork, to use your words. If they spiff it up, that's going an extra step beyond just remastering and would result in SKU Platinum, to use the Evangelion analogy.  Which I would love to see!  But unless Ikuni says they're reanimating, I'd err on the side of that not happening unless anything else is said.

I just hope more than anything else that this will get an R1 release, even if it means having to wait for CPM's license to expire and someone else to pick it up... and realistically, that may be a long shot.  It would seem that most US anime companies just don't license decade old surreal shoujo...

Last edited by Imaginary Bad Bug (12-15-2007 07:26:21 PM)


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#12 | Back to Top12-15-2007 07:33:45 PM

Razara
Marionette Mistress
From: Wuzzy Happy Akio Town (What?)
Registered: 10-17-2006
Posts: 4694

Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

Imaginary Bad Bug wrote:

To Razara...

Good enough, just as long as they remove the single frames that either change color completely or look like someone accidentally spilled water on it. (They'll at least do that, right?)

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#13 | Back to Top12-15-2007 07:43:24 PM

atolm
Miki Molester
From: Tsukuba, Ibaraki
Registered: 06-12-2007
Posts: 38
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Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

Also, let us not forget that everything will all be in glorious high definition!
(Or so Ikuhara would have us believe)

If Ikuhara writes anymore about the status of the project, I'll try to keep everyone abreast!

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#14 | Back to Top12-15-2007 08:32:01 PM

Imaginary Bad Bug
Revolutionary
From: Connecticut, USA
Registered: 10-16-2006
Posts: 2171
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Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

atolm wrote:

Also, let us not forget that everything will all be in glorious high definition!
(Or so Ikuhara would have us believe)

If Ikuhara writes anymore about the status of the project, I'll try to keep everyone abreast!

SKU on Blu-Ray??? emot-aaa :dies:  The USA is in the same region as Japan for Blu-Ray... I could totally swing that!


Please, continue to be our bearer of good news, atolm! emot-dance

Last edited by Imaginary Bad Bug (12-15-2007 08:32:47 PM)


http://lh5.ggpht.com/_HERdW38xV_c/S5xZ2QVrIwI/AAAAAAAAApg/uNpckSbLgUw/s800/utenaban.jpg

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#15 | Back to Top12-15-2007 08:54:28 PM

Razara
Marionette Mistress
From: Wuzzy Happy Akio Town (What?)
Registered: 10-17-2006
Posts: 4694

Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

Mmm... Shiori, Kozue, Kanae, and whoever my other favorite characters are in glorious high definition... etc-love *Drools a little*


Also, thank you very much for posting this! It would be wonderful if you could keep us informed. emot-dance

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#16 | Back to Top12-15-2007 11:14:35 PM

Stormcrow
Magical Flying Moron
From: Los Angeles
Registered: 04-24-2007
Posts: 5971
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Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

Imaginary Bad Bug wrote:

And before anyone may wonder, I don't do the 'download torrents of DVD-rips then burn them to disc' thing either.  I don't do the whole fansub/download thing when it comes to my anime, and I won't be changing my ways even for SKU.

Buy the R2 version then use DVDshrink to make your own region free copies? The MPAA would still call it unlawful, but it's hard to see it as unethical. Just a suggestion.

Last edited by Stormcrow (12-15-2007 11:14:47 PM)


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#17 | Back to Top12-15-2007 11:52:24 PM

ShatteredMirror
Yaoi Pet #1
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: 10-22-2006
Posts: 8858

Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

Is it bad that the first thing I noticed was that the website is called "ikuniweb"?

But in all seriousness this looks very cool.


Pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source.

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#18 | Back to Top12-16-2007 10:42:22 AM

IceQueenChigusa
Tenjou Tilter
From: A place not so amazing.
Registered: 11-12-2007
Posts: 88

Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

wow im really excited about this. I mean i still hope the originals are still available but it would be fun to see what they do. Either way im sure it will be amazing.

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#19 | Back to Top12-16-2007 12:06:07 PM

st0dad
Ohtori Paramouri
From: Andover, MA
Registered: 09-20-2007
Posts: 91
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Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

So they're remastering it to HD? Does that mean they'll be adding/deleting scenes or anything of the like?


....emot-aaa will they re-dub it?


http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/1797/utenasiglf5.jpg


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#20 | Back to Top12-16-2007 01:02:05 PM

Mylene
Fighting Evil By Moonlight
From: Next to Paradox
Registered: 10-19-2006
Posts: 3704

Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

Imaginary Bad Bug wrote:

I don't have an all-region DVD player either, which would allow me to watch Japanese R2s... emot-frown

VLC player is your friend, assuming your computer can play DVDs.  If not, you still don't need a region-free player to play various regions.  Just go here, look up your player, and it's likely as simple as going into your DVD player's menu to set it to play a given region.

As for CPM, they're still alive, they're just trying to slow work their way out of the hole they fell into during the Musicland debacle.  They pulled an interesting publicity stunt at NYAF, as well.

Last edited by Cerise (12-16-2007 01:04:38 PM)

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#21 | Back to Top12-16-2007 02:30:18 PM

Lightice
Azure Paleontologist
From: Finland
Registered: 10-21-2006
Posts: 1255

Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

Imaginary Bad Bug wrote:

don't have an all-region DVD player either, which would allow me to watch Japanese R2s... emot-frown

Code-free players are cheap and most players can actually be converted into code-free. Look the Internet for instructions.

VLC player is your friend, assuming your computer can play DVDs.

That alone won't work. You still need a code-free drive. You can only get that by getting hacked firmware for your DVD-drive. It's a bit of a hassle, but worth it - assuming your drive model's 'ware can be found from the database...

As for the topic itself, sounds like an extra Christmas present, even though we probably won't get it until the next year's Christmas, earliest! This is a must-buy, as soon as I can get my hands on it. emot-dance


Hei! Aa-Shanta 'Nygh!

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#22 | Back to Top12-16-2007 03:33:00 PM

Mylene
Fighting Evil By Moonlight
From: Next to Paradox
Registered: 10-19-2006
Posts: 3704

Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

Lightice wrote:

VLC player is your friend, assuming your computer can play DVDs.

That alone won't work. You still need a code-free drive. You can only get that by getting hacked firmware for your DVD-drive. It's a bit of a hassle, but worth it - assuming your drive model's 'ware can be found from the database...

That alone worked for me, and many, many other people.  No hacks, just using VLC.

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#23 | Back to Top12-16-2007 03:36:05 PM

BalamiyaVardihi
High Tripper
From: New Jersey
Registered: 12-16-2007
Posts: 243

Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

OMGOMGOMGOMG YESYESYES!

Thought I really wanted the movie's animaton.


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Spinning, weaving round each new experience.
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#24 | Back to Top12-16-2007 05:18:57 PM

Lightice
Azure Paleontologist
From: Finland
Registered: 10-21-2006
Posts: 1255

Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

Cerise wrote:

That alone worked for me, and many, many other people.  No hacks, just using VLC.

Sure about it? How many times you've watched differently coded disks afterwards? Most drives give you a handful of automatic changes, after which it locks permanently on the last one. VLC should only bypass the program-level of area-code. The last time I checked it didn't affect the firmware-side of things.

I use PowerDVD with a hacked drive and DVD-Genie, in any case.


Hei! Aa-Shanta 'Nygh!

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#25 | Back to Top12-16-2007 05:51:48 PM

Mylene
Fighting Evil By Moonlight
From: Next to Paradox
Registered: 10-19-2006
Posts: 3704

Re: Utena: Remastered Release in the works?

Lightice wrote:

Cerise wrote:

That alone worked for me, and many, many other people.  No hacks, just using VLC.

Sure about it? How many times you've watched differently coded disks afterwards? Most drives give you a handful of automatic changes, after which it locks permanently on the last one. VLC should only bypass the program-level of area-code. The last time I checked it didn't affect the firmware-side of things.

Yes, I'm sure that I did not install anything beyond VLC (and maybe some codecs, but that was for formats, not region coding).  It does not seem to find any difference between my switches between R1 and R2 discs.  Moreover, everyone I've seen talk about VLC has also stated it's downloading the player, no additional hacks or modifications necessary.

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