Like many of you, I'm greatly looking forward to seeing Grave of the Fireflies on Blu-Ray. The US Blu-Ray will be released on November 20, just in time for the holiday season...oh, and the Studio Ghibli Film Retrospective here in Minneapolis. Good timing.
Sentai Filmworks will not only deliver Isao Takahata's 1988 masterpiece directly from Japan (Fireflies and My Neighbor Totoro was released in Japan earlier this year), they have also created a new English-language dubbed soundtrack. The previous dub dates back to Central Park Media's home video releases from the 1990s, so this will be an event to watch. As always, the option.to play Japanese and English soundtracks is available.
However, when it comes to extras, you might wish to keep your existing DVD release. Storyboards, deleted scenes, and original trailers are the only extras on the Blu-Ray. That's slim pickings compared to CPM's excellent 2002 "Special Edition," which included an interview with Roger Ebert and a compelling discussion on the firebombing campaign in World War II.
Obviously, I strongly recommend buying the new Fireflies BD. The picture quality will be spectacular, and the audio quality will be a clear improvement over the (lossy) DVD. We Americans are falling far behind the rest of the world on Studio Ghibli Blu-Rays - here's a rare chance to catch up. Please do what you can to support Sentai Filmworks, and encourage them to support the scene in the future.
1 comment:
StudioCanal had Fireflies down for a British BluRay release alongside Totoro in early November, then suddenly changed their minds and switched it for Castle of Cagliostro. If Sentai have created a new english dub that would explain their decision. It is presumably being held back for a UK release, with the new dub bolted on, alongside Poppy Hill (StudioCanal seem to like releasing Ghibli BluRay's in pairs) hopefully around summer 2013.
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