Mike Lowrey

From DVDAnswers

EDIT: 4-disc set? Well, I can almost guarantee that they'll be double-sided, with probably at least a campaign and a half, maybe two put on each side of the disc. Theorectically there were 8 campaigns so yeah, 2 campaigns per side...also read on:

Hmm...778 minutes. There were originally supposed to be 40 episodes. 36 were actually made, plus a few clip-shows. Each individual volume shows a runtime of 96 minutes. I think there were 5 episodes per disc. That's a runtime of 19.2 minutes per episode which have been editted together as they each lack the opening and ending credit sequence, so that would account for the less than ~22 minute runtime typical of a half-hour show. Anyway, the total run time for the 7 main volumes (sans the "Trackers" disc) is 672 minutes which leaves 106 minutes unaccounted for. Add in the Trackers episode and we get 691.2 minutes. So that still leaves 86.8 minutes, which would be enough time for at least 4 more episodes.

So that begs the question. Could this release actually include the more never produced episodes? Could the production team have actually gotten together and completed this series? If so, I may have to get this set. Until there's more details about this release, I just don't know, but it sounds promising. The fact that it's called the "complete campaigns" has me thinking that they finished the few remaining episodes. There was earlier rumors that portions of those episodes were completed and that the team did want to finish the series, so this could be great news for fans of the show.

Maxflier

I don't know if it's the same case with this show,but i have noticed that lots of anime releases list runtimes that are longer than they actually are.

nemein

Including never produced eps would be quite a feat Now if they include never released esp that would be something. I'll definately keep an eye out for this one, thanks for the head's up.

Honestly I wouldn't get my hopes up too high as although Trackers is technically the only eps on that DVD it also includes the 4 "clip shows" that were done. All in all on an avg of 97 mins/DVD it comes out to be 776 min so I suspect the only "bonus" we'll get is the fact the eps will be in order.

Mike Lowrey

Well, like I said, that in at least one of the commentaries on the current releases, the crew expresses extreme interest in finishing the series.

Oh, I just though of this...another reason to upgrade to this release will be if there'll be a 5.1 track on the Tesca campaign, of which it only had a 2.0 track on the original release.

Looks like I'll be double-dipping on this if my speculations are true.

BuddyRevell

I'm so glad I didn't buy the individuals. I've been browsing amazon for the series for awhile and each dvd goes for over 20 each. Had no idea this set was coming out so I'm pretty stoked.

Mike Lowrey

Oh, OK. There *were* four clip shows. I wasn't sure on how many there were. But the reason why I'm giving some hope that the extra 4 episode runtime allotment is that the package does say the "complete" campaigns. I can't imagine that this would mean the clip shows. In anycase, if the Tesca Campaign is remastered in 5.1 as are all the rest, it'd be worth grabbing this set for that and having "Trackers" in its proper location.

shizawn

Same here. I was hoping they'd eventually put out a box set.

Mike Lowrey

Wow! Amazon already has this up for pre-order for just $34.97!!! That's not even the cost of two individual volumes.

Josh Z

Why does that cover artwork have Japanese text on it? Is this an R1 release?

Joe Molotov

That's in case you missed the giant robot.

RyoHazuki

Glad I held out on these.

buckee1

Ditto Definately getting this.

Zodo

Glad i never bought the individual releases...knew they'd eventually release a box set.

Mike Lowrey

Actually the robot isn't all that big. Maybe 8' tall at most judging by the size comparison of the MI troopers.

Why this box has Japanese lettering is your guess is good as mine, as this was a fully American-made 'toon.

Wait a minute fellas, *is* that Japanese lettering? I'm thinking it may be the Roughneck equivalent of [Star Wars] Imperial eruebesh (sp?)

Liquid Death

I hope that isn't the final artwork. I don't remember the robot trooper being in *that* many episodes (but its been awhile) and certainly, he wasn't the main star.

Josh Z

I don't speak the language, but I have a number of Japanese DVDs, and that text certainly looks Japanese to me. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can chime in?

Maxflier

Looks like Predator writing to me.

Brooklyn

It's Japanese.
It reads: Starship Troopers Chronicles

Spamcola

For a minute I thought this was some secret anime version of the show.

nemein

I can't imagine it would mean anything else myself. The term "complete" probably refers to the fact all the eps that were produced/released are included. I mean it would be nice if they did finish the series and I know the people who were involved would have liked to finish the series but if this was done they are being very hush hush about it. There are no references to recent additions/work on anyone's IMDB page, there's no info on the Roughneck fan sites (although most are hopelessly out of date) and there's no official info on it (which if the studio dumped the money into doing it I would suspect they would make a big deal out of it to make up the costs). Personally I file the final eps of Roughnecks into the same dream category as a spliced version of the last two Matrix movies into a single movie that retains all the action and dumps all the trite philosophy and psychobabble


IIRC he was the focus of 1 eps and the model was used in the background in a couple of other ones. Wouldn't be my first choice either but it wouldn't surprise me if that's the final artwork.

milo bloom

So... how is this show? I was never able to get into on TV, and I heard the current DVDs were scattershot best-ofs.

Mike Lowrey

Well, that's entirely possible, but the latest info I heard about the unproduced episodes was that the audio was done for them, they just lacked the animation. So whether or not they actually did finish them, one would wonder if they did them using the same level of CGI tech they used in '99 or if it's updated.

IIRC, in the commentary for the Tophet campaign, that that's the one they actually rendered first and they at that point hadn't gotten their motion blur technique or special effect down yet and the movements of the character was a bit rough when you looked closely.

Yeah, in fact, that robot was the focus of a Tophet campaign episode and then was used later on in several episodes as a supporting unit. I recently watched the Klendathu campaign and I think they had a few in those episodes.

Mike Lowrey

1. The show basically throws out all the goofiness and fascist aspects from the film and makes a ~40 episode WWII-style action drama in space. ie. You have definate good guys and definate bad guys. The show revolves around "campaigns". Each campaign typically lasted 5 episodes, one lasted 6 and the unfinished last one was supposed to last 4.

2. The current DVDs are NOT "Best ofs". They were in fact complete campaigns, except the Klendathu one where the 6th episode "Trackers" was put on its own DVD along with the 4 clip shows.

The campaigns are as follows:

• The Pluto Campaign (took place on Pluto...obviously)
• The Hydora Campaign (took place on a water planet)
• The Tophet Campaign (took place on a kind of volcanic desert type planet, first appearance of the Skinnies)
• The Tesca Campaign (took place on a jungle planet)
• The Zephyr Campaign (took place on an Ice Asteroid)
• The Klendathu Campaign (took place on the bug's home planet which was just a typical alien looking planet)
• The Homefront Campaign (took place on Earth)
• The last campaign would have probably been called something like Dante's Inferno or something. Took place underground under Hawaii.

adamblast

I vaguely remember watching on TV and thinking that it *wanted* to be like a WWII combat action series, but without really killing people much, just bugs... Kinda like SWep1 only killing droids... Am I remembering right? Isn't the violence way toned down for kids? I'm still really interested in this, but I'm wondering if the kids TV aspect isn't going to water it down too much...

nemein

It's certainly not to the level of some "japanimation" (aka you won't see any blood, that I recall) but...



Overall it is definately meant more as a kid/young teen thing but I still thought it was interesting (more from a technical aspect than screenwriting though).