Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . . - Page 5

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

First, for everyone who purchased the Ultraman Volume 1 set at Borders for $14.99 consider yourselves lucky, I know I do. I had to recently take my defective copy back for an exchange, they have to specially order a copy, and it appears that there was a huge mistake with their pricing. Their brick and mortar stores were selling copies of the DVD set for $14.99 and they recently changed the pricing on the set to $39.99 in their stores and on their online website at bordersstores.com.

I'm getting an exchange for my damaged set at the $14.99 because that's what I was originally charged but it looks like many fans got the jump on this before their prices were switched.

Lastly, the second volume of the series has been announced at TVShowsonDVD.com as being delayed just a bit.

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

The list price has always been $39.99. When I first bought the set, it was $20.89 and that price is still in the $20-$21 for most online retailers.


Paul

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

This is not true. I have the copies of all of the original United Artists Television versions of ULTRAMAN, and the only things that were cut from the original Japanese version of the episodes themselves were literally a second or two of blood-letting in Episode 8 (where Chandora bites Red King in the arm) and when Ultraman rips off the frill of Jirass in Episode 10. No dialogue scenes were cut in the original UA-TV versions.

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

I have seen the document. The document is in both Japanese and English, one page each, and there are mistakes in the Japanese page which belie it's true nature. Officials from Tsuburaya Productions, let alone the late CEO, who was the second son of the man who founded the company, wouldn't refer to ULTRA SEVEN as "Ultraman Seven" in both languages. This forgery wouldn't stand up in a US court. The only thing that sold the document to the Tokyo Court was the Hanko -- or Japanese signature stamp -- which are the brunt of an outbreak of similar forgeries in Japan, and there is a call for the Hanko to be retired as a legal signature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkan#Japanese_usage

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

Same here. I just got this DVD set for myself for my b-day, and I'm tickled to death to finally see this for the first time since the early 70's.

It's a great DVD set, and I'm sure it looks and sounds as good as they could make it for now.

There is imagery in this show that immediately took me back to the age of 5 when I first saw it on TV. For its age and the fact that it has been unavailable for so long, this Ultraman DVD release looks damn fantastic!

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

GAWD, and how many of guys sing along to that annoying Ultraman theme song ... in the English language ... it's really annoying but you get SUCKED RIGHT IN.

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

So, anyone anticipating the second half of the series? I was so impressed by the video transfer that I'm glad to have purchased the set that I bought. Here's hoping that BCI releases the following shows as well ...

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

I bought the first half of Ultraman as a blind buy and I thought the show was excellent so I'm eagerly awaiting getting the second half of the series from DeepDiscount in the mail. How do the follow ups compare in the quality of the show to the first series?


Paul

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

Interesting. I was planning to buy this today. I hate to keep watching my bootlegs when there's something of better picture quality out there. Hum....... what to do? Well, it may be a trip to see it in this version. The nostalgia will still be there and I've got those bootleg... I'm geting it!! :p

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

There was a recent interview with Cliff MacMillan of BCI/Eclipse with Ian Friedman (I don't have enough posts to be able to include links here) where he states that BCI is not going to release any of other Ultraman series which had been claimed to be under the ownership of Chiayo Productions (which recently lost a huge law suit in China lobbed by Tsuburaya Productions for producing an all-new Chinese 52-episode series called "Project Ultraman," which has been halted).

Perhaps, one day, we'll get an truly stellar release of ULTRAMAN...

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

I'd buy it yet again if that happened. Although I don't think I'd buy it a 3rd time if there was a Superduper truly stellar edition of Ultraman.

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

It's been a few weeks ago, but just in case nobody has heard about it, I thought I'd pass along the great news:

Bangkok's Independent Newspaper

Final ruling in Ultraman case
Published on Feb 6, 2008

The Supreme Court yesterday ruled in favour of Tsuburaya Productions of Japan by finding Sompote Saengduenchai was not a co-inventor of Ultraman as he had claimed in a legal battle that started in 1997, said a lawyer for the Japanese firm.

Manu Rakwattanakul, a Baker and McKenzie Thai-land partner representing Tsuburaya Productions, said the Central Intellectual Property Court yesterday read a Supreme Court ruling that said there was no cir-

cumstantial evidence to support claims that Sompote Saengduenchai co-invented the popular television superhero.

The ruling means Sompote and his company, Tsubu-raya Chaiyo, must stop profiteering from Ultraman. Sompote had for many years earned significant revenue from producing Ultraman television shows, colouring books and T-shirts, as well as other merchandise using the character.

However, the Supreme Court told Sompote to end such activities within 30 days from the date of ruling.

The case started in 1997, when Tsuburaya Productions filed a lawsuit against Sompote. He had earlier said that as co-inventor, he was entitled to sell Ultraman products.

The court also ruled the transfer of Ultraman rights to Sompote was invalid, and the decision ends Sompote's bid to continue his enterprise.

Tsuburaya Production lost its case earlier in the First Instance Court but made an appeal and finally won in yesterday's ruling.

Manu said, "It was a long case, involving many documents and witnesses."

He said the decision meant Tsuburaya Productions was the sole copyright owner.

Sompote was ordered to pay Bt10.7 million plus interest at the rate of 7.5 per cent a year starting from December 16, 1997, when the original lawsuit was filed.

The Nation

More news items:
Tsuburaya wins "Ultraman" battle - Asia entertainment news from Variety - varietyasiaonline.com
AFP: Top court rules Ultraman is not Thai

For those who are unaware of the whole story behind the legal quagmire over the Ultraman franchise, SciFiJapan.com has the whole story:
SciFi Japan » Legal Victories for Tsuburaya Productions

The SFJ article has also said that BCI has confirmed that they will no longer license any Ultraman shows from Chaiyo. As I understand it, the DVDs they did have been discontinued.

Although Tsuburaya Productions won the case, they won't market the shows outside Japan just yet (possibly late this year, the earliest), as they have sold the company to Japanese multimedia giant TYO, and as a result, Tsuburaya is making plans for better facilities. Because of this, they are moving out of their old studio (dubbed the "Kaiju Warehouse" by fans; It's also not too far from Toho Studios), which will soon be demolished and the land sold. Fans consider this to be the end of an era, but the studio will still be run by the Tsuburaya family.

If only 'Ultraman' was here to stop the wrecking ball (click on the top link once you enter this page)

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

Thanks for posting all this John.

I reconsidered and didn't buy them as stated in a previous post a year and a half ago, but I may have to now before the current ones go oop. If there was a definite date of a better release of this I'd wait...but hell, they can't even give us that.

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

If they do, I really hope they release a box set edition with art by Alex Ross! (Ross really did do box art for special edition DVD sets of Ultra Q, Ultraman, Ultra Seven and Return of Ultraman in Japan.)

I'm sure we'll get decent releases in the future. August Ragone has said that there are still at least two major labels still interested in purchasing the rights to all of the Ultra Series.

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

I'd love to see an offical ULTRA-SEVEN release - there was an English dubbed version PRIOR to the "Turner" done one that aired in Hawaii in the 1970's - maybe that version would be released.

An offical top-flight release of ULTRAMAN from master-prints with the top-quality complete ENGLISH (and perhaps Spanish and French) dubs along with subs would be great.

ULTRAMAN (and ULTRA-SEVEN) deserve a proper respectful release in the U.S.

I wonder if any English-Dubbed ULTRA-Q episodes exists besides that one episode that had been going around for years.

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

Thanks. That is something to consider. I think I'll get them and replace them with any better set later. I have mediocre fan versions that I could probably live with. A tough choice! I've seen screen shots of the BCI at Twitchfilm.net and they really look good to me. There's one shot of that blue alien ball thing that appears in the first (or one of the first) episode, and it's so colorful and clear I really need something besides what I have right now, which is rather fuzzy and short on color. This shot sells it to me...



Put me on the list for other shows like this as well. Space Giants and Spectre Man included. I really love these old japanese shows. I'm glad major labels are noticing what fans have been buying and rebuying over the years just to have it to watch. We'll spend what it takes to keep upgrading.

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

The Japanese Region 2 discs are of waaaay superior quality, trust me. Tsuburaya spent a lot of time digitally erasing scratches, speckles and whatnot. The discs look beautiful. Whatever Tsuburaya has could even be suited to a Blu-Ray release.

For the BCI discs, Chaiyo provided them with compressed copies of the R2 discs. Compared to the R2 release, there was just something with the picture that was still way off (including slight red tinting).

Currently, Tsuburaya's non-Ultra TV series, Mighty Jack (which was, reportedly, Eiji Tsuburaya's favorite show to work on, and the Mighty Jack symbol from that series ultimately became the "arrow" on the Tsuburaya logo), was the most recent series to get a restoration for DVD. The video preview I saw looked incredible!

Bandai now has the DVD rights to all of Tsuburaya's shows in Japan. Aside from more planned rereleases, the next restoration job (and the first under the Bandai banner) will be the 1979 anime series, The Ultraman (the first animated entry in the Ultra Series, and was co-produced by [Nippon] Sunrise)!

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

Unfortunately, the Hawaiian version of Ultra Seven is lost. As I understand it, only two episodes actually remain. One of the Ultra Seven DVD releases in Japan has the Hawaiian OP credit sequences (different versions of them!).

The Turner version of Ultra Seven was actually dubbed by Cinar in Canada in 1985. It first aired on TNT in February of 1994 (I remember that well). The Canadian prints were actually uncut! It was Turner that did the cutting for TV. Rights to the Cinar dub reverted to Tsuburaya in 1999, when TNT's rights ran out.

BTW, Ultra Seven is my personal favorite Ultra Series! Seven himself is also my favorite superhero.

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

You, and me both brother! If Spectreman, and Space Giants are released in like fashion of the Ultraman sets from BCI, I will be about the happiest person on the planet! There is nostalgia, then there are the giant robo shows from Japan that my brother and I used to watch after school.
Watching them again would be like heaven on earth!

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

Since BCI couldn't release any more Ultra-stuff, they are doing the alternative, by releasing some neat tokusatsu shows not seen in the US until now! These are from the Japanese company Senkosha (now Senko Planning), produced in the early 70s, and yes, these are *legit* releases from BCI!

Out now on DVD is their first release, Iron King, a very offbeat and sometimes comical Ultraman-type action show from 1972! I highly recommend it! The show is about two secret agents, a handsome action type (Gentarou Shizuka) and his bumbling nerdy sidekick (Gorou Kirishima), the latter secretly becomes the Ultra Seven-looking giant cyborg Iron King! The 26-episode series (all included in the set!) has three different segments, with three different villains (the first 10 eps, the Shiranui Ninja Tribe, being the best one, IMHO).

Coming soon on DVD in March (IIRC) is Super Robot Red Baron, basically a very wild live-action variant of Mazinger Z from 1973! If all goes well, the release after that will be Silver Mask from 1971 (a superhero action series, heavier on the talky sci-fi side for the first 10 episodes, before it becomes all Ultra-like for the remaining episodes, but it's still quite recommendable)!

The people who worked on these shows were Ultra Series vets, BTW! I highly recommend these shows.

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

Super Robot Red Baron is a terrific show. It's full of all kinds of crazy ideas and character. I actually enjoyed it much more than Ultraman and found it a lot less repetitive. The first episode will just suck you in.

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There's something about Spectreman that I just loved. I still don't know what it is. I think I like it the best out of all the good ones. Space Giants would be next in line. Johnny Sokko is also quite fun.

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

Spectreman is my favorite too, and not just because of the catchy theme song(and that awesome bass line whenever he goes into battle) but the whole concept of fighting Dr. Gory the far out planet of the apes reject who is also a mad scientist that loves pollution.

Space Giants is also great. I remember having the biggest crush on Silvarr(apparently two different Japanese actresses portrayed the character) when I used to watch it as a kid! Blow the whistle once for Goldarr, twice for Silvarr, and three times for Gam!

Johnny Sokko I don't remember as well, but I'm sure it's great.

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

I love the whole pollution theme they cover in SM. That alone just takes me back to my childhood. I adore that song! Hopefully no one will get mad if I say I blind bought the bootleg version of the show for about $55 the same time I bought Ultraman (back when there was no official in the US), Ultraseven, Johnny Sokko, and Space Giants. I have yet to complete watching all those others once, but I'm ready to start watching Spectre Man through for a second time.

I watched Space giants as well. Im 40 now but I still live near the apartment complex I used to live at age 10+ when Space Giants was airing. I can ride through there and think of my old friends and how we used to talk about the show everyday. The one thing I remembered about it (and it's how I found out what it was called later so I could acquire it) was how the lugo men would turn into what looked like oatmeal when they were killed. The guy Angel who says he's the owner of the english version has some nice sets on his web site. I thought about replacing what I have with it. Mine are compressed too much. If they would work out that copyright problem, an official set would be something I'd buy at the drop of a hat.

I just remembered the robot from Johnny Sokko. I know I watched and loved the show years ago. When I was 5 or so I began watching Ultraman along with Speed racer. Definitely my favorite shows back then. I plan to buy the BCI Ultraman Vols tomorrow. When my bootleg verison arrived (5 or so years ago) I started one up and as soon as the title tune began I was able to sing along even though I hadn't seen it in probably 30+ years. The song alone made me euphoric for the rest of the day.

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

I'm buying everyone of these sets.
John, Is Spectreman, and Space Giants caught in some weird rights issue deal like Ultra was, or are they public domain?

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

SOLD!!

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

Yup, Good times. I just picked up vol. 2 of Ultraman last week. I'm really happy with the series. BCI has done a great job. Although I don't remember too much of it originally(vague memories at best) It's got the same vibe as Spectre, and Space Giants, so I feel like I feel like I'm 6 years old again when watching.
Seriously, I don't know if it's because these shows were so "out there" that they left a huge impression on our young minds, but they certainly drum up the feeling of being young again, and that is priceless.

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

The Space Giants (based on Osamu Tezuka's Ambassador Magma) was held up in a legal entanglement between Lakeside (the US distributor) and a small-time company called Powerslam Entertainment (which distributed illegal DVDs of the show). Sort of like the Tsuburaya vs. Chaiyo struggle. Sci-Fi Japan did an excellent guide, which brings up the subject:

SciFi Japan » THE SPACE GIANTS Series Guide

Apparently, Lakeside seems to be sitting on the show (even though they keep claiming to find a DVD label!). As is Richard Rosenfeld sitting on Spectreman (though I'm not sure about this; I'll have to ask my expert buddies if they know anything). At this rate, if there are no strings attached, bringing the Japanese versions of the shows here may be a major option. I hope SOMETHING happens!

Incidentally, both shows were produced by P Productions in Japan. P Productions did some of my favorite shows!

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

Same here. Nicely said. The old Kroffts show have the same effect for me. I picked up Land of the lost and...erm, Bugaloos, heh heh! just the other day. Still waiting for those to arrive.

Re: Upcoming BCI Ultraman DVD is pretty suspicious . . .

Dunno about Spectreman, but I thought that Space Giants may have been (still are?) public domain at one point, since plenty of "bootleg" copies (probably episodes taped from cable or something) can be found on Ebay. I'm sure if it wasn't, then Ebay would have taken down all those Space Giants auctions a long time ago...

Then again, I don't proclaim to know everything about public domain rights of television programs so I could be way off w/ my comments...