Not even after a full year from the release of the Godzilla Showa Era Criterion set, we are treated to a collection that not only contains one entire era of the series, but the full series to date. While there are less films here than the entirety of the Godzilla Showa era, with those films having their U.S. rights owned by many different companies that kept a release like that happening for sometime, the Gamera series itself has been through quite a few owners in the U.S. as well, many of which that have come close to releasing the complete series on a single format. But of course it wasn't until this set that they were finally available in one complete package.
Can't say for certain if there has ever been a more comprehensive release of any series of films in one set like this before though, as while there are quite a few issues/things missing that I will get to later on in the full review, the amount of extras is just impressive with all that has been included from past releases. Arrow also did an impressive job going out of their way to include as many audio options as they could for these films, which nowadays is such a feat in this genre with so many releases that are missing dubs or alternate cuts, not to mention including the Lake Texarkana dub and the Comedic Commentary for Gamera 3, two things I never imagined Arrow would've been able to get the approval for nowadays.
With how complete this set really is, it's a shame to not see anything related to Mystery Science Theater 3000 in the set, especially as it's the way so many fans were introduced to the Gamera series. I do understand that with everything already included on the discs adding the Mystery Science Theater episodes might have been a bit too much to put onto some of the discs with how compressed a few of the films are. Still, it would've been really nice to see an inclusion of any kind.
With the nature of how many films/content included in this set, it must be said that it may not be as in-depth as it may have been if it were just a single release of a film.
| Video: |
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It goes without saying that as far as releases outside of Japan, this is definitely the best the films have ever looked so far. It is a shame though that a majority of the films included are using the same video masters that have been featured on past U.S. releases, going back to the Shout Factory DVD releases from ten years ago. And they certainly could've used an upgrade as the masters used are at least a decade old at this point. They certainly aren't horrible transfers, but they certainly are showing their age, especially given the fact that I believe the transfers weren't even originally progressive but interlaced. The Heisei trilogy and single Millennium Gamera film however were thankfully sourced from Kadokawa's more recent 4k masters of the films.
Gamera/Gammera the Invincible 3.5/3.0
This film while still looking great given the age of its transfer, the transfer unfortunately features a somewhat soft presentation. But with a newer transfer I'm sure a lot more detail would show, though I will state the softness is not mainly due to the fact the film is over half a century old at this point, or that it features quite a bit of optical work, as too often I see other reviewers just crediting the softness or look of film like these to its use of opticals, as the softness present here on this film and the other Showa films is obviously due to the age of the transfers. While the film is definitely capable of looking better, the presentation is still overall good. And thankfully the print used for the transfer appears to be in great shape as the film doesn't seem to suffer from any bad print damage. It's also worth noting of course that the video glitch that appeared on the last two releases of the film has finally been corrected.
Another aspect though where the film could use a newer or at least better transfer is just how heavy the grain is at times in the film. Not that grain is ever a bad thing when it comes to movies shot on film. So don't take this as a grain hating statement, as heavy grain is always better than the alternative of a film that has had digital noise reduction used on it, as the grain is inherent to the print and film. But on some older HD transfers you do tend to see thicker grain or noise present at times. But it of course also depends on the kind of film used to shoot the film, and removing that takes away detail, so Arrow did a great job at not messing with that aspect of the presentation of the films. Personally, it's not really even an issue I have with the transfer, aside from some night scenes where it becomes more noticeable. The film just overall needs a new transfer.
Last thing in regard to the Japanese cut that is just how dark the film can look at times, which affects the film perhaps even more so given the fact it’s a black and white film. And that the film features quite a few sequences that take place at night and appear darker than they probably should. This is one aspect that I'm not sure if it's more to do with the transfer or what Arrow did with their release, as they did adjust the contrast levels, so thankfully the film doesn't look as washed out or faded like on older releases. All that said the first Gamera film still looks pretty good on this release given its issues.
Now the U.S. cut of the film is a bit of a different story. While unfortunately Arrow was not able to do a new 2k scan of this version of the film, they were however able to utilize the existing HD master of the film that has been available digitally, as well as being used in Rifftrax's recent riff on the film. The print while looking overall pretty good, is a bit rough in spots and is sadly missing pieces of the film. Arrow did see fit to fill in those gaps with footage from the Japanese cut, which unfortunately does at times feature burnt in Japanese subtitles. Doesn't really ruin the presentation of the film. but it may be seen as an eyesore to some.
This cut of the film also features a nice filmic look to it as well. But its noticeably less grainy/noisy compared to the Japanese cut. Unfortunately while the film still looks good, it however does appear to be even softer than the Japanese cut. Not by a huge amount, but was noticeable upon viewing them both. One area that I see as an improvement for this cut is that the film doesn't appear to be as dark at times as the Japanese cut. Overall, not a perfect release of the American cut, but it’s most certainly the best the film has ever looked on a physical release, which is a plus as it was really my first time seeing it in full.
Gamera vs. Barugon/Gamera vs. Gyaos 2.5
For these and a couple of the other films in this set, Arrow unfortunately chose to place three films to a disc, which certainly isn't as bad as the previous Millcreek sets that had four films sharing a disc, as the films don't have such obvious signs of compression throughout the runtime as that release. But they do still suffer from the fact that they are sharing a disc with two other films, along with all the bonus features housed on the disc, as the films are already not the most sharp with these transfers, and the compression seems to soften the films even more so at times. Sure, it's something plenty of viewers may not notice. But you can definitely see how in some scenes fine details appear more present, yet things can soften up a bit and not show as much detail at times, most notably fine details on the actors' faces. Thankfully though the artifacting and macro blocking isn't as bad as the Millcreek discs, though it can still be noticeable at times while watching the films that suffer from compression, especially with how low the bitrates tend to dip on these films sharing space with two others.
That aside, both films still look pretty good and are most certainly watchable as the films still have a decent amount of detail that shows through on the disc. Even though it may not seem like much, the fact Arrow adjusted the contrast and black levels really does help these films look as good as possible given the circumstances. Not to mention the colors generally look pretty good on both films, especially Barugon at times given it's a more colorful looking film at times. Gyaos still looks really good, though. Speaking of colors, it does look that unfortunately these films do suffer from from a tint that gives the sky and colors an unnatural look, though to my eyes it doesn’t appear to be as bad as some of the later Showa films. It’s possible that Arrow may not have been allowed to change the video presentation like that. But some color correction could've really benefitted the Showa films on this set, as it would’ve made the most out of the transfers Arrow was given.
Where the details really pop and look their best though is thankfully during a lot of the monster scenes. In both films you really get to see so much more detail than you could on past releases, at least in my opinion, since you can see the nice texture work of the Barugon and Gyaos suits. Gamera always tended to look good to my eyes on previous releases. But his foes sometimes tended appear like they had little texture and honestly a bit cheap. But here, for the first time I think you can really start to see some of the craftsmanship that went into a lot of the older Showa Gamera films and their suits.
Lastly, in regards to this disc, the reconstruction of War of the Monsters looks pretty good considering the compression featured on the disc. But out of the three films on this disc, this cut definitely suffers the most in terms of its visual presentation, as the film is the most compressed out of the three, and it does look a bit more soft at times, with the bitrate dropping down to DVD levels at times more than the Japanese cut. And the inclusion of the AI-TV credits look pretty good too, but there is noticeable damage present during them, most noticeably the end credits.
Gamera vs. Viras/Gamera vs. Guiron 3.0
For these two films it was thankfully back to only two films sharing one disc instead of three, though there are three versions of Viras contained on this disc via seamless branching, all of which are easily accessible from the menu. All versions look good and there isn't any real differences between them in terms of quality thankfully, while the added cuts may be a bit unnecessary to some, as the difference in the cuts is mainly the amount of stock footage included at one point in the film. And quite frankly I understand that point of view, but I do love for completionist’s sake that Arrow saw fit to include the alternate cuts, as it's always great to have as many options as possible when it comes to home video releases.
While the films are still fairly soft due to the age of the transfers from Kadokawa, they like every other film sourced from the Kadokawa masters are in great shape and free of damage. But these Showa transfers also seem to unfortunately suffer from a weird yellowish tint over the films. While it didn't seem to be as apparent at times on the previous two films, it seems to be more noticeable on these and the later films as they feature more scenes during the day than Barugon and Gyaos. While it may not be as bad as on the recent release of the Godzilla Showa films, the Showa Gamera films still have a really noticeable yellowing to their image. I really am curious as to why the Japanese studios have their films colored this way, as it's definitely not how they should naturally look. And if they were going to have their transfers this way, it would be nice if the studios releasing them could at least be allowed to color correct them to remove that tint, assuming they weren’t able to that is, as the films wouldn't gain any added detail, but they would look so much better without that yellow tint. I'll leave the focus of that issue here as it really plagues the rest of Showa era films.
Overall aside from the yellow tint covering the films, they do look quite nice. Not as sharp as they could be, but they still have a decent amount of detail throughout the film. And the colors tend to look decent even with the yellowish tint. Plus, again, they really do benefit from the adjusted contrast given to them by Arrow.
Gamera vs. Jiger/Gamera vs. Zigra/Gamera: Super Monster 2.5/2.5/2.0
This disc is most certainly the most mixed bag out of all the discs, partially due to the compression of the films. But it's also due to how one of the films was shot and completed. While the films continue to benefit from the adjusted contrast and black levels like the rest of the films in the set, and don't suffer from any real print damage, the main issues with the films on this disc is of course the compression, as they like Barugon and Gyaos seem to have bit of a softer look to them. Details are still decent considering that, but it could definitely be better. Colors aren't the worst either given the unnatural tint present on the films, though it seems that Super Monster isn't as affected as the other two films on this disc.
Really the weakest film on this disc is Super Monster. And that doesn't really have so much to do with the transfers Kadokawa did, but more so due to the fact that Super Monster was done on the cheap, even for a Showa Gamera film, as for whatever reason they decided to use a video to film process for a lot of the effects sequences new to the film, which have such an incredibly noisy and soft look to them. And it doesn't help how jarring it can be when it goes from the stock footage from previous films to the stuff shot for the film.
Thankfully, the compression issues on this and the second disc don't affect the remaining discs in this set. But I do want to again bring up the fact that all the Showa films suffer from a heavy amount of grain (aside from Gammera, the Invincible that is). They still generally look pretty good given that fact, but the transfers are fairly old and could use a proper and more modern restoration, as grain is never a bad thing for movies shot on film. But this amount of grain/noise is most likely due to the age of the transfers and the process used to create the masters used in the set.
Gamera: Guardian of the Universe/Gamera 2: Advent of Legion/Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris 4.0
This is the beginning of where this set really shines when it comes to the transfers of these films. Now, the films in this set have certainly never looked as good on home video, but the look of the transfers for the Heisei trilogy is just amazing. While not entirely perfect, the 4k transfers Kadokawa are one of the main reasons to own this set. While like the other films feature transfers we've seen before, this is the first time we have gotten a release of these newer transfers outside of Japan, and it really is a night and day difference compared to the previous release from Millcreek.
The films are so filmic and filled with sharp detail, I just can't stress how great these three look. Each feature a really nice and fine layer of grain present throughout all three of the films in the trilogy, too. Definitely shows the benefits of the new transfers given to these films. Though that's not to say there aren't moments where the image is less than stellar, mainly not a fault of the transfer though and more due to how the film was shot, as the film utilizes a lot of sequences shot on video or made to look as such and that's how it was meant to be. Another area where it's lacking but again not a fault of the transfer is the CG in the films along with the compositing in the first film at times during the climax. The worst instance of CG though has to be the scene in Gamera 2 where the Legion swarm is crawling all over Gamera. Never looked good and only looks worse here. The CG certainly fares a lot better in the third film, but overall the CG can't even hold a candle to the practical effects featured in the trilogy. And the fact the CG tends to not be really that great, even for its time may be a bit jarring for some given how great the practical effects look and hold up, which is only highlighted by the 4k transfers utilized for these three films.
One area that I'm not sure is the intended look of the films or not is how overly saturated the picture can be at times. There are just a few too many moments where the characters on screen have almost an orange look to their skin. Happens quite a few times during the first and third film I noticed, and didn’t seem to occur much if at all during Legion. But it is still quite distracting how the color can shift during a scene at times. The most noticeable moments I saw it be an issue was during the scene where Yonemori shows up to the Kusanagi residence, and various moments during the climax featuring the human characters, along with the opening of Gamera 3 where Nagamine visits the village, and the final fight between Gamera and Iris. Not to say it doesn’t happen at other times in these films. These are just some of the instances that really stuck out while out to me. So I may be wrong, but I doubt that it's how these three films should look, which regardless is a real shame as it brings down the otherwise great transfers with how some scenes look. That aside, the films do still look quite stunning, and I just hope we can get a future release of these films on 4k to see even more details evident on this great transfer, hopefully with some proper color correction given to these three films.
Gamera the Brave 3.5
Just like with the Heisei trilogy, Arrow was also supplied with the 4k transfer of Brave. Although, whereas the trilogy was shot on film and could really benefit from a 4k transfer, Brave was shot digitally. So the 4k transfer of the film was simply an upscale of the film which was then downscaled to 1080p, and unfortunately I'm not able to really compare it to the original Media Blasters release of the film and see how much of a difference there is. The film still looks fairly good considering it was shot digitally when it was still new and not so commonplace like it is today.
That's not to say the film looks bad as it looks pretty good overall, and you still get quite a bit of detail and clarity to the image, though it does appear to have some video noise present throughout the film, most noticeably during dimly lit or dark scenes. Doesn't ruin the image, but it is still worth noting, given that the movie wasn't shot on film. The colors do look great overall, though, with them looking nice and vibrant when they need to, most notably the beginning scene with Gamera and the use of red in that scene.
Overall, the film looks pretty good, even if it’s a bit soft at times. Plus, it's great to finally have a chance for fans to own this film again, as it has become quite an expensive title to get as the original Blu-ray has been out of print for quite a long time now.
| Audio: |
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Quite frankly this perhaps one of, if not the most impressive aspects of the entire set. Arrow thankfully saw to include as many audio options as possible when it came to all of Gamera films, something that is always a concern if it's even possible nowadays, especially after the Showa Godzilla set having so few options in that regard. It's truly spectacular that Kadokawa approved all that they did in this regard, especially seeing as the past two releases have been a bit all over the place in regards to what audio options were carried over or made available on the discs. Most notably that the Millcreek Blu-rays had no dubs for any of the Showa films, but the Heisei releases meanwhile did.
For discs one through three, all the films of course have their Japanese audio tracks, all of which are presented in mono here, and sound as great as they ever have before to my ears, as do the included "International" dubs, or as they are labeled sometimes on the discs as Daiei dubs. Both options typically sound good with no real major damage affecting them. Even the audio track on the American cut of Gamera sounds great, which for me is such an added bonus, as until this set I've never seen that cut in full considering the varying quality of the past releases of Gammera. Not to mention it has a vastly superior dub, which isn't much of a surprise considering it was done by Titra Studios.
Which brings us to the most awesome inclusion in this portion of the set, that being the original AI-TV dubs. Arrow did a great job with the elements they were giving as these original dubs sound fantastic. Though admittedly they are a few odd choices with what Arrow decided to do with two of them, but for some fans it may be not as much of an issue as it is to me, as most of the original English dubs and their original cuts they correspond to were for the most part not as edited when it comes to say some of the earlier Showa Godzilla films. Except for War of the Monsters that is, as they edited that film down quite a bit.
As mentioned earlier in the review, they presented that version of the dub in a reconstructed manner on disc two. But they also saw fit to have it play alongside the Japanese cut of the film. For the many gaps, Arrow chose to fill them in with the international dub, which makes sense as you wouldn't want the audio jumping back and forth to a different language. At least I personally would prefer it not to if there is another English language option, even if the voices can change from scene to scene. The fact they went that route for Barugon makes it puzzling that for Gamera vs. Guiron that they chose to have the audio cut to the Japanese language track with subtitles. Others may feel differently about this, but I find it such a weird choice to have it be like that for Guiron as it's just really mainly for one sequence when Guiron is chopping up Space Gyaos and the two kids have a little bit of dialogue. Makes no real sense to me to have it be inconsistent like that when they did it differently on a film earlier in the set, as one would think it would be less jarring to have it switch back to the International dub during Guiron.
The remainder of the three Showa films Gamera vs. Jiger, Gamera vs. Zigra, and Gamera: Super Monster only have two audio tracks each. The original Japanese and English dubs both are presented on the disc in Mono. Like the previous Showa titles, all the tracks on here sound better than they have before to my ears, so nothing really to complain about with these audio tracks either, as Arrow did a good job with the materials they were given.
Same goes for the entirety of the Heisei trilogy, though for these three and the last film in the set the audio tracks are presented in both 2.0 stereo and 5.1 surround, of which the original ADV dubs’ presentation here is an improvement over the last release by Millcreek, as fan have noted that the set seemed to feature a a bit of an audio sync issue on the dubs for the three films. Not sure what caused that to happen on that release, but they sound great on this set and don't seem to have any noticeable like that here. Both 2.0 and 5.1 tracks for the trilogy films sound just as good if not better than before than they have on previous releases, regardless of if they are dubbed or in the original language.
Two bonus dub tracks that are included on the first two Heisei films should be mentioned as well, as we get the very rare and not often heard U.K. dub of the first Gamera film in the trilogy. And while the choices made in the dub are certainly odd as most of the music is replaced with an out of place techno score, it still sounds like it's in great shape. Same goes for the famous Lake Texarkana dub ADV made for Gamera 2. Certainly sounds better than ever on here. I'm quite impressed that Arrow saw fit to include both dubs, along with the fact that Kadokawa actually approved the use of both, as these out of everything are certainly the types of things you would typically see get left off of releases nowadays. Both are though presented in 2.0 Stereo, though the Texarkana dub is only 2.0 Dolby digital, whereas the U.K. dub is 2.0 DTS-HD.
Where this set leaves a lot to be desired as far as audio options go is with Gamera the Brave. As mentioned previously, this film has both its Japanese language audio and English dub presented in both 2.0 and 5.1. Both sound really good and have great clarity to them, though no matter how many times I see the film it is incredibly odd that the Gamera roar isn't used during the film in favor of the Gamera of this film or Toto as he is named. Instead we get stock roars used, not at all a fault or flaw with the tracks themselves. Just something that still sticks out after all these years.
Now what is perhaps the most major flaw of this set aside from compression issues that affect some of the Showa films, that being that both dub options for Gamera the Brave are very noticeably out of sync during the entire runtime of the film. It's an issue that affected the original Media Blasters Blu-ray release and it is such a shame for it to no be fixed on this set. Even worse is that in one of the books included, it states that it has been fixed, when it in fact hasn't been fixed. Really seems like such a weird issue to have on this set with them going out of there way to mention it as being fixed. Even worse is the fact that after months of really no real word on what they plan to do, fans have heard from Arrow that they do not have any plans to either offer replacements of fix the dub sync for future standard releases of these films, which is something that’s quite inexcusable in my opinion, especially with the reasoning given behind it not being fixed/replaced, as they claimed to have fixed it in the book, yet they are now stating there is nothing they could do. So regardless of how you feel about the matter, we were unfortunately lied to about that no matter how you look at it. It’s a real shame, too, as the dub for me is quite frankly unwatchable with how off the dub track is. Not to mention the fact that again all the dubs being included was a real selling point for fans like myself and was exciting when they announced that all were going to not only be included, but also being remastered. Really brings this set down a lot for me given how poorly it has been handled by Arrow, even though it seems like an reasonably fixable issue from what I’ve seen.
Overall, though, the audio on this set is pretty impressive for a release like this nowadays and Arrow deserves a lot of praise for being able to accomplish including all that they have. The one aspect I know little about is the subtitles and if they were given any new translations. But they at the very least don't appear to be dubtitles, nor do they appear to be any kind of new translations either on some of the films, as pointed out by users on the forum.
| Extras: |
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While it's true the audio portion of this set might be my favorite thing for how thorough it was in all that's been included, but the same also can be said for the extras, as it is incredibly impressive as to what has been included. It's honestly quite staggering the amount that has been included in this set, especially once you get into everything included in regards to the Heisei trilogy.
Perhaps one of the most incredible inclusions and a first for any Gamera release is all that Arrow was able to dig up in relation to the original AI-TV versions of the Showa films. Even more impressive is how great they look after all these years of sitting in some vault. The extras in particular are the original credits for Gamera vs. Barugon to Gamera vs. Jiger. Even more surprising in fact was that they managed to find the old TV spots for each of those films. And while they are taken from older sources, of course, they were still done on film and were given a nice HD transfer for each of the TV spots and opening credits. Hands down one of my favorite things as it's a nice little piece of history for these films.
A lot of the other alternate English credits present, however, aren't in the best shape quality wise. Though it should be noted that isn't necessarily the fault of Arrow, as we get the original video credits for the Sandy Frank versions of the Showa films, as well as the original ADV produced credits. I'm curious what the sources were exactly for the Sandy Frank credits in particular as they are obviously VHS sourced but they look a bit worn out. Plus you get the original video promos that used the Sandy Frank versions. Though it is odd that for some reason the only video promos for those versions included are for the original Gamera, Gyaos, and Zigra, which is surprising as I believe at least a version of the Gamera vs. Barugon one exists on YouTube. Even the ADV credits and trailers they did suffer in their presentation. But again that's most likely due to their age and the fact they might have been taken from the original DVDs.
We also get some really great and informative introductions to almost each of the films included in the set. They all vary in length of time, but they are great videos to watch before viewing the films or just by themselves even. And if I'm being quite honest a lot of these are better than their respective film's commentary track. More on that in a bit, though. The only real issue I have with these is mainly that Arrow was unable to do any kind of introduction with August for Gamera the Brave, which is a real shame as it kind of sticks out that it doesn't have one. Really surprised they weren't even able to get him to just do one by audio and edit around that fact. One nitpick I do have with them is that in some of the introductions, there appears to be quite a few noticeable jumps in the edit of sequences where August is talking. Not a big deal, but was something I did notice while viewing them.
Now the other huge inclusion in this set as far as new material goes is the fact that not only were the original two commentaries for the Shout Factory DVDs of the first Gamera film and Gamera vs. Barugon. So that means an impressive ten commentaries were made for this set, all of which range in quality and information on the films. Not to say that any are particularly bad, though I feel a few too many of the commentators unfortunately resort to, in my opinion, failed attempts at comedy that is really unnecessary and at times just distracting. Another thing that is a shame is that often some of the later Showa commentaries just resort to essentially reiterating what is going in the film. And while some have a good energy while doing it, it really doesn’t add any new information and in my opinion doesn’t make it worth revisiting.
There are also a few inaccuracies that pop up in some commentaries in regards to the Godzilla franchise. Or, like I stated earlier, some feel like they weren’t as researched, as at times have they less info than the introductions. A shame, as maybe they could’ve gone into more about what August brought up, or go into stuff he didn’t get into. Though it should also be said that the Showa films have far less info on them out there than say the more modern films. Some other issues or nitpicks I have with the commentaries is for instance how it's a bit odd how the Gyaos commentary starts, but that's more of a personal preference. One thing that was a bit distracting during the commentary for Guiron was the fact that David Kalat seemed to be mispronouncing Daiei throughout the majority of the commentary. Another that the commentary for Viras comes off more like an interview than an actual commentary. Not to mention quite a bit of what is talked about or gone over in the commentary is reiterated in the extra on the corresponding disc with Carl Craig showing off some of his props from the film.
But again my main issues with some of the commentaries is just that some try too hard to have comedic moments that for me just fall flat, along with commentaries that feature too much of just describing what is going on during the film. One thing I do wish they would’ve also done commentary wise was perhaps give one to Gammera, the Invincible. Not a big issue, but it would been nice to hear more information about that cut if possible.
Aside from that, there are honestly just far too many extras to really go fully in depth in this review, but I will mention some highlights. One of the coolest to do with the original series certainly has to be the retrospective documentary from 1991 with Noriaka Yuasa and Nisan Takahashi. Some really great stuff on that extra. Not to mention the fact that fans get to see what would've been the next Gamera film after Zigra. Just wish more had been done back in Japan to cover the original films. All the other behind the scenes extras and retrospectives included are just so great, some even approaching feature length. It's frankly quite daunting the amount of extras and length of some of them are ones you get into the more modern films. Overall, the extras are incredibly impressive and that's just what's on the discs. There are still all the physical extras included in this set, the first of which being the case in which the discs are housed, which features artwork for each of the films. Art cards for each of the films and even a map of the battles from the films. The artwork is pretty great and some of artist Matt Frank's best work, though I wish the case artwork was more like the recently announced regular era sets of the films featured in this set, as I love how it is more indicative of all the films in the set, whereas the cover for this set kind of has me scratching my head with how it looks like a Gamera in the background came blasting out of the mouth of the Gamera in the foreground.
The set also features two books, each containing some great stuff, with the first one being the hardback book containing the Dark Horse comics set after Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, as well as prequel comic by Matt Frank, which was such a great addition to have in one set, as you rarely see stuff like this included in boxsets.
The last book is probably my favorite of the two, as you get some great old interviews reprinted in this book, along with tons more. Ranging from kaiju x-rays, the aforementioned old interviews, great informative synopses on all the films (which like some of the Introductions by August Ragone, feature more information than some of the commentaries), as well as last part of the book being A Guide to English Language Gamera by James Flower, which is another great informative read, though it should be mentioned that it's also where it was stated that the dub for Gamera the Brave was fixed, which again it sadly wasn’t.
| Overview: |
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Overall, I got to admit I didn’t have sky high expectations for this set, but it was one that the more we found out about it the more I was anticipating this set, which as you can see has been a bit all over the place for me in particular. That again should be mentioned a lot of the issues aren’t necessarily the fault of Arrow, as Kadokawa supplied them with the majority of the masters for the films. It’s just a big shame that the majority of them are transfers we’ve had before, even if they are the best they’ve looked so far here.
But they really could’ve benefited from at least one extra disc being included in this set. It’s always a shame when companies putting out any kind of boxset of films resort to compressing three or more films to one disc. That way, there were only two films to a disc as far as the Showa series in concerned, or at least one that just contained all the extras, so the affected films didn’t have such meager bitrates that aren’t really something that we should be seeing on any kind of release like this, as again it just comes off really cheap when companies resort to doing this. And I doubt one extra disc would’ve really made the set that much more expensive.
While it was already mentioned in the Audio section of the review, I still can’t believe the fact that Gamera the Brave's dub is in the shape that it is here. And while I’ve heard it’s better than the Media Blasters release, it’s still unwatchable with the dub for me. Not to mention beyond inexcusable that Arrow has no plans to make it right in any way at this time. Also doesn’t help that the set was so limited and the discs were housed in sleeves instead of a more traditional case, as I personally got a few discs that were scratched because of the way they were housed. Really wish companies would move away from these styles of cases as they tend to always scratch the discs, and are usually a pain at times to take the discs out.
Honestly not trying to be hard on this set but really trying to be honest as I can be, as we probably won’t see another release of these films like this again, and I still think this set overall is just impressive. But its flaws really stick out when you see all the great things they were able to do for this release, which certainly does not feel at all like a budget release thankfully. And it’s one of the few sets in recent years that truly feels epic. From all the generally great artwork, to the inclusions that were included in the books or on the discs, I only wish that it had not been as limited of a release as it turned out to be for this version, as many fans have had issues with getting their orders fulfilled. But at the very least, the content on disc will be ported over to the standard releases. Aside from the few issues I have with it, this set does not feel at all like a budget release at all. Despite its flaws (which are major for me), this set is a must own and definitely one of the best boxsets I’ve ever seen. Doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been a bit better, either. |
