Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

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Re: Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

Post by o.supreme »

StreamOfKaijuness wrote: Wed Dec 29, 2021 5:13 amYes, all 16 of the Heisei-Era UltraSeven specials have been fansubbed. I watched them all about a year ago. On a totally unrelated note, the world's most popular video website sure is swell. ;)
Awesome!. Wow...I forgot they were 45 mins-1 hour each! Well Now I have something to watch once I finish Gaia to fill in time until March when 7X and the Superior 8 movie are released.

Hopefully if TPC and MC negotiate a new contract at the end of 2022 or early 2023, Heisei Ultraseven will be included. a Box set of all 16 specials would be great!
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Re: Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

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o.supreme wrote: Tue Dec 28, 2021 11:46 am Yes, the first 7 series (Q, Man, Seven, Return, Ace, Taro, Leo), were released as BRD only. They had both the standard release which makes the mural, and the Steelbook releases. Some fans have expressed concern however as the steelbook releases stack the discs on top of one another.

I got the standard releases of all 7. I've seen the Steelbook of Ultraman at some Walmarts as well. I think it was just a test to see how popular it was. Walmart has had some Blu Ray Ultraman movies packaged differently as well. But they are very inconsistent. Not every Walmart has every release. Many don't have any. Ultraman itself is the only steelbook I've ever seen at a Walmart.

...meanwhile I'm patiently waiting for Amazon to put up its preorder for Superior 8 Ultraman Brothers BRD
eabaker wrote: Mon Dec 20, 2021 7:00 pmYou missed Heisei Ultraseven on this list.
:oops: you are right. I have books, but those have almost faded from memory completely. I had a friend who had the very first "episode" with Eleking on VHS when it was brand new. I don't even know if these or fandubbed or available to watch online anywhere.
Oh, I don't mind the stacked discs. I've got a few DVD sets like that and I know how to deal with them. Thanks for the tip, though!

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Re: Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

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Looks like March releases of Ultraseven X and Superior 8 Ultraman Bros got delayed 2 weeks from March 1 to March 15.
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Re: Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

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Oh I heard of Ultraseven X being up for preorder but didn't see this Superior 8 yet. Nothing is coming up for me to pre-order.

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Re: Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

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Last edited by o.supreme on Sun Jan 09, 2022 12:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

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Image of Mill Creeks upcoming Blu Ray for Superior 8 Ultra Brothers. I was hoping of more of a "splash" of the various Ultra's & Monster's similar to what was on the covers of the New Age BRD sets, but oh well. The Movie is fantastic. I can't wait to finally have a legit copy of this, and can toss my decade+ old DVD bootleg.


Image
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Re: Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

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Even though it's just stock shots of the characters I adore that cover. I love leaning into more graphical designs.

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Re: Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

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This cover definitely sticks out among all the other MC releases. I like it.
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Re: Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

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o.supreme wrote: Sun Jan 09, 2022 8:24 am Looks like March releases of Ultraseven X and Superior 8 Ultraman Bros got delayed 2 weeks from March 1 to March 15.
Delayed yet again to March 22nd.... :roll:
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Re: Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

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so the blu rays have been out for a good long while now and the main showa shows are out, I'm rly interested in picking them up, so how good is the remastering? Ive seen some complaints about the compression.
Last edited by GojiBerries on Mon Jan 24, 2022 10:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

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If anyone else wishes to chime in on the technical aspects of the Ultraman Showa Blu Ray releases, please feel free, as I am definitely NOT an expert. I have heard some people say that some series (specifically Q and Man are really good), others like Ace and Taro I've heard still aren't the best, but passable in terms of audio/visual presentation.

As for me, I look at it more from a point of view of just appreciating the ability to own these legally, and inexpensively. Even as far back as the early 90's to get a full set of ANY Ultraman series on VHS from your typical bootlegger would cot you upwards of $250, and that was with No subtitles. While it's true that pirated DVD's did come down in price, legit one's from TPC still were in the hundreds of dollars, same as BRD, all again, with no subtitles.

Now however, thanks to Mill Creek, someone can own the entirety of the showa era (7 series on BRD, and the last 2 on DVD) for a Total of about $200, all WITH subs. That to me is Amazing!. Yes the quality could probably be a bit better, but I'm more than happy to have all of these in my collection now, after waiting 30+ years, its nice to finally have them all.

Ideally it would be nice to get all of the original Ultraman English Dub in HD (it's being worked on as we have had 2 special releases in the past 2 years), but until that time, I still hold on to my BCI DVD set from 15 years ago. Also, it would be nice to have the CINAR and/or Hawaiian English dubs of Ultraseven, but I seriously doubt those will ever see the light of day ever again, (*its nice to have those backed up in the archive though).
Last edited by o.supreme on Tue Jan 25, 2022 8:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

Post by omgitsgodzilla »

Ultra Q looks pretty solid; being 35mm does give it a boost. Ultraman's HD master is terrible. The HD masters of the rest of the Showa series, as far as I've seen, are pretty good. Mill Creek's compression isn't great, which isn't a big problem for the digitally-shot New Gen shows, but does cause some trouble with the chunkier grain in the Showa shows. It's not quite what you'd hope for from a typical Blu-ray release, but it's watchable.

The big problem is the audio, really. They use these crappy stereo remixes that basically amount to the mono tracks with some added digital sound effects in stereo, and no real effort made to make them blend in. I think Ultra Q is the worst offender so far in this regard, but they're all affected to some degree.
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Re: Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

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Question: does The Birth of Ultraman have a Steelbook release as well as a regular one?

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Re: Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

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omgitsgodzilla sums it up well. Most look decent to very good, sans the original Ultraman, which looks super waxy and artificial. This plagues the Japanese release too, of course. Bandai Visual actually released a new boxset last year that (At least from what I've seen) manages to look even worse, with more unwarranted noise reduction. Maybe we'll get a better remaster when 2026 rolls around.

But yeah, the audio quality is super inconsistent. I'm admittedly even less an audiophile than a videophile, but the added surround sound SFX are very distracting when played alongside the rather muffled audio. I remember back with the BCI/Mill Creek and Shout! sets, people assuming the added SFX were additions from Chaiyo made to "differentiate" their masters from TsuPro's...but that's obviously not the case.

But the Blu-Ray sets are still very much worth buying, in part because they're dirt-cheap, but also because these shows are all fantastic. The more recent DVD sets...I still haven't picked up.
mikelcho wrote: Tue Jan 25, 2022 9:46 am Question: does The Birth of Ultraman have a Steelbook release as well as a regular one?
Nah, it's a standard slip-cover release. Ditto it's "sequel" release, The Rise of Ultraman.
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Re: Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

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MaxRebo320 wrote: Tue Jan 25, 2022 10:44 am omgitsgodzilla sums it up well. Most look decent to very good, sans the original Ultraman, which looks super waxy and artificial. This plagues the Japanese release too, of course. Bandai Visual actually released a new boxset last year that (At least from what I've seen) manages to look even worse, with more unwarranted noise reduction. Maybe we'll get a better remaster when 2026 rolls around.

But yeah, the audio quality is super inconsistent. I'm admittedly even less an audiophile than a videophile, but the added surround sound SFX are very distracting when played alongside the rather muffled audio. I remember back with the BCI/Mill Creek and Shout! sets, people assuming the added SFX were additions from Chaiyo made to "differentiate" their masters from TsuPro's...but that's obviously not the case.

But the Blu-Ray sets are still very much worth buying, in part because they're dirt-cheap, but also because these shows are all fantastic. The more recent DVD sets...I still haven't picked up.
mikelcho wrote: Tue Jan 25, 2022 9:46 am Question: does The Birth of Ultraman have a Steelbook release as well as a regular one?
Nah, it's a standard slip-cover release. Ditto it's "sequel" release, The Rise of Ultraman.
Okay, I'll get both of them with the two series I'm going to get on Steelbook Blu-ray later.

Btw, it's called Secrets of the Rise of Ultraman according to Amazon and it's listed as "Currently unavailable" on that website. EBay, however, has them for good prices, so I'll most likely get them there and get Ultra Q and UltraSeven from my local Barnes & Noble if Walmart doesn't get them soon.
Last edited by mikelcho on Tue Jan 25, 2022 1:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

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mikelcho wrote: Tue Jan 25, 2022 11:42 amBtw, it's called Secrets of the Rise of Ultraman according to Amazon and it's listed as "Currently unavailable" on that website.
That's 'cuz it's a Deep Discount exclusive.
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Re: Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

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MaxRebo320 wrote: Tue Jan 25, 2022 11:52 am
mikelcho wrote: Tue Jan 25, 2022 11:42 amBtw, it's called Secrets of the Rise of Ultraman according to Amazon and it's listed as "Currently unavailable" on that website.
That's 'cuz it's a Deep Discount exclusive.
It was released FOR DD, but other sites did manage to get copies to sell, including Amazon, they just sold out of their limited supply. Still DD is the easiest way to obtain them BOTH. In fact, out of sheer boredom of waiting another 2 months for U7X and Superior 8 Bros to get released, I decided to order BOTH "Birth" and "Rise" from DD, because they were cheap, and why not...

Of course knowing my past experience, MC will announce this year for Ultraman Day in July, a complete BRD set with all the English dub episodes... we shall see.
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Re: Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

Post by Lecontinentperdu »

As for the classis series, the MC releases are quite good for the price. As for the anime.... Nope, it's ugly.

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Re: Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

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As we all know, the original article boasted "over 1,100 episodes and 20 films to be released", as we begin the 3rd year of these releases, lets evaluate what has been released, and what we know is eventually coming to see how that claim stacks up:

Lets do films first, because that will be a relatively short list:

1. Ultraman Zearth (1996) (To Be released)
2. Ultraman Zearth 2: Superman Big Battle - Light and Shadow (1997) (TBR)

3. Ultraman Tiga & Ultraman Dyna: Warriors of the Star of Light (1998) (Released)
4. Ultraman Gaia: The Battle in Hyperspace (1999) (R)
5. Ultraman Cosmos: The First Contact (2001) (TBR)
6. Ultraman Cosmos 2: The Blue Planet (2002) TBR)
7. Ultraman Cosmos vs. Ultraman Justice: The Final Battle (2003) (TBR)
8. Ultraman: The Next (2004) (TBR)
9. Ultraman Mebius & Ultraman Brothers (2006) (TBR)
10. Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers (2008) (TBR)

11. Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends (2009) (R)
12. Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial (2010) (R)
13. Ultraman Saga (2012) (R)
14. Ultraman Ginga S The Movie (2015) (R)
15. Ultraman X The Movie (2016) (R)
16. Ultraman Orb The Movie (2017) (R)
17. Ultraman Geed The Movie (2018) (R)
18. Ultraman R/B The Movie (2019) (R)

A couple short by my count, unless MC considers the OVA specials that came with T/D/G/ as "films", then we are at 21. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on that one.

How about TV Episodes:

All 9 Showa Era TV Series (7 on BRD and 2 on DVD) have been released totaling 423 episodes
Gridman is out 39 episodes
T/D/G are all out adding 154 episodes

Ultraman Neos (2000–2001) (TBR) 12 episodes
Ultraman Cosmos (2001–2002) (TBR) 65 episodes
Ultraman Nexus (2004–2005) (TBR) 37 episodes
Ultraman Max (2005–2006) (TBR) 39 episodes
Ultraman Mebius (2006–2007) (TBR) 50 episodes
Ultraseven X (October 2007–December 2007) (TBR) 12 episodes

Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle (2007–2008) (Released) 13 episodes
Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle: Never Ending Odyssey (2008-2009) (R) 13 episodes
Neo Ultra Q (January 2013–March 2013) (R) 12 episodes
Ultraman Ginga (July 2013–December 2013) (R) 12 episodes
Ultraman Ginga S (July 2014–December 2014) (R) 16 episodes
Ultraman X (2015–2016) (R) 25 episodes
Ultraman Orb (July 2016–December 2016) (R) 25 episodes
Ultraman Orb Origin (R) 12 episodes
Ultraman Zero: The Chronicle (January 2017–June 2017) (TBR) 25 episodes
Ultraman Geed (July 2017–December 2017) (R) 26 episodes
Ultraman R/B (July 2018–December 2018) (R) 25 episodes

The total of episodes from Neos-R/B (that only include series as part of the release schedule) is 419

So... that brings our Grand Total to 1035... there are maybe a dozen or so "specials" in all of these series, however I will be generous and make that number 1050...

The last *unknown* is the the animated series: Ultraman Kids: 30 Million Light Years Looking for Mama (1991–1992). I am not familiar with this series at all, and I couldn't really find much about it online. Historically, Ultraman kids anime segments are pretty short. But if there are in fact 50 or so half-hours of this, then the 1100 number is pretty much spot on.

All of this is not to say I am not extremely glad for what we have been getting/will be getting before it is all said and done, and you can be sure I'd love for MC to make a new updated contract with TPC to get the newer series, and fill in some of the missing gaps of older series. I just thought a breakdown would be nice to see. 8-)
Last edited by o.supreme on Fri Jan 28, 2022 10:51 am, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Mill Creek releasing ULTRA SERIES on Bluray!!

Post by o.supreme »

Youtube channel Cereal At Midnight just posted a weekly update of media releases, including a few comments on Ultraman Zero Chronicle which comes out tomorrow. While I personally am skipping this, He did open the blu ray and it is 4 disks with 2 on each side of the case stacked.

While Superior 8 brothers is a single film, and Ultraseven X should only be 2 disks. this raises concerns for me for future longer series such as Cosmos, Nexus, Max & Mebius. I figured they would each have their own tray like T/D/G, but budget constraints may cause them to be stacked...I hope not, I avoided the steelbooks for several reasons, but that was certainly one of them.
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