Since I'm mentioning Jarinko Chie, I should also mention this Blu-Ray DVD which should be released on the same day, July 25. Sherlock Hound is a personal favorite of mine, one of the best examples of Hayao Miyazaki's classic adventure serial style. That only six episodes were created is such a shame, a lost opportunity, but what a great run.
I should point out, however, that this BR release contains only two episodes. Baffling, to say the least. But these two episodes were shown as the opening shorts to Nausicaa in 1984; in fact, this was the first time that Sherlock Hound (or "Meitantei Holmes" - "Famous Detective Holmes" - in Japanese) was ever shown. Of course, the wise decision would be to include all six original Miyazaki-directed episodes. Heaven knows this isn't breaking the bank on the BR format. Who in their right mind would shell out money for one measely hour? What cheapskate genius made that decision? Is it just me, or does it seem like corporate executives everywhere are melting down? This isn't as bad as selling SUV's while peak oil strikes, but it's pretty lame.
Given this, I really couldn't recommend this for a purchase. If we had all six episodes, then I'd definitely give the green light. Perhaps someone will import this series for the North American market and fix this problem. Considering that Pioneer's Sherlock Hound DVD's are now out-of-print, there's a large Miyazaki-sized hole that needs to be filled.
For everyone else, my best advice is to scour the internet merchants or ebay for the old Pioneer discs. You'll only need volumes 1-3; those contain the original six shows, and the rest are from the revived series later. Those later episodes are.....ehhh, no thanks. Don't bother. Just stick with the Miyazaki's.
1 comment:
Bothering to post to an old post, just thought it was interesting they would put out only those two episodes on BD at all. Would be nice if they had released that over here, of course getting all 6 episodes would've been better off, especially if they could somehow put the English audio on there as well despite the time lengths being different between both (they'd have to re-edit the audio to fit the Japanese episodes obviously if that's the best we could hope for).
At least now people can watch those 6 episodes care of YouTube these days.
Post a Comment