Collecting Miyazaki DVDs For Dummies..
 

So...recently I was forced against my will to travel to California for two long weeks with the in-laws.

While I was there, my sis-in-law had the Disney Channel on and they were showing Kiki's Delivery Service. Being bored out my mind, I decided to stick around and watch it [doing my best to ignore the screaming kids that would run in front of me]. Needless to say, it caught my interest. Two days later, when I was able to get out of the house, we went to Amoeba where I scored Kiki & Princess Mononoke. Before we left Cali, I bought Spirited Away at Target [there're no Targets near me].

So basically, i'm asking Miyazaki fans on this forum...what's next? Are there other region discs that are better than these? Kiki & Spirted Away are Disney discs and Mononoke is Miramax.

Fox currently has the rights to My Neighbor Totoro, but that should be up by now or soon enough. Disney will get it and hopefully release a dvd of it.

Don't get a bootleg. I have seen at Amoeba a pirated bundle pack. be careful with that.

Get Castle in the sky.

Well, you can't really go wrong with a Miyazaki film. I do strongly recommend NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND, Castle in the Sky and My Neighbor Totoro. Castle in the Sky is also available now by Disney for Region 1, which is one of the three wave 1s released a while ago along with KiKi and Spirited Away. My Neighbor Totoro was originally scheduled to be released for Region 1 Wave 2 from Disney but they somehow :rolleyes: decided to replaced that with The Cat Returns. There's another R1 release of Totoro by Fox which you should avoid at all cost and go for a R2 or R3 release instead. Watch for the Disney Miyazaki Wave 2 release which now includes NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND, PORCO ROSSO, and THE CAT RETURNS. The Cat Returns is nice but not in the same league as some of the ones I metioned IMHO.

If you are really keen, there are also Only Yesterday (Omohide poro poro), which Miyazaki is the producer of, and Grave of the FireFlies by Studio Ghibli [jp] which is the company that releases films made by Miyazaki. Both are really good films. Only yesterday is more on the culture and romance side where as Grave of the Fireflies is a war time drama and considered one of the best war movies made by some.

WTF?! why did they cancel My Neighbor Totoro ?!!

Aaaaaah. I've been waiting for Totoro and now they cancel it? Hope they reconsider.

I seriously doubt they cancelled it. They're just sitting on it for marketing purposes (just like they delayed the rest of Wave 2 to cross promote the U.S. release of Howl's Moving Castle).

But they've pushed all of them back so many times now, I honestly have no idea what they're thinking.

i asked this in other thread but nobody replied....do u guys think there will be a price drop on the first wave?

It's really hard to say since the two waves contain different films. You might get some promotions to get you to buy all of them. Other than that to my recollection I don't recall any instances where a Disney collectable had a price drop. Whether or not these Disney Miyazaki releases are considered collectables, I have no clue.

Check used DVD shops for cheap prices on Wave 1 or if you don't mind stickers on the disc and light scratches try Rental stores, I picked up Kiki for $7.99 and Spirited Away for $12.99, I got Mononoke in a trade so can't say what it's going for, I think it's around $15, but it's not a 2-Disc SE like the others

The ones currently available in R1 through Buena Vista are Kiki, Mononoke, Spirited Away and Castle in the Sky. Also available is the pre-Ghibli Castle of Cagliostro (which is excellent, by the way) and Fox has a dub-only/fullframe release of My Neighbor Totoro.

Nausicaa, Porco Rosso, and a new release of Totoro are coming from Disney sometime next year. They were originally scheduled for release this August, then they were pushed back and breifly given a date next February, then pushed back again to an unspecified time, but they're most likely still coming.

*Edit* Seems I should of checked the news today - Nausicaa and Porco are back on track for February with The Cat Returns (not directed by Miyazaki, but from Ghibli) replacing Totoro in the lineup.

Information of international releases of Miyazaki and Ghibli's work can be founf here: http://www.btinternet.com/~lawrencium2/ghibli.html

its worth getting the USA disc of "cagliostro" and also "spirited away" and "mononoke". wait til feb for "porco rosso" and "nausicaa" in the USA. the reissue of "gravestone for the fireflies" is remastered and cheap. apart from that : japanese discs are expensive but good (faultless infact), and they should be the same on the korean discs (dvdfromkorea.com / koreandvds.com bot good sites : see "laputa" there)...

Well, except for that tint issue with SPIRITED AWAY. ;)

There is also a TV series, Sherlock Hound," and a great kids show called Panda, Go Panda!

Castle of Cagliostro is a great introduction to Lupin III, who is the grandson of a turn of the century literary character.

If you check the movie forum, there might possibly be trailers for Howl's Moving Castle, which is Miyazaki's next work, based on the book by Diana Wynn Jones.

Princess Mononoke was released first, by Buena Vista, then Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service and Spirited Away were released under the current Disney agreement.

Avoid the Fox version of Totoro at all costs, as it is dub only (poor quality from what I've heard,) edited by about 10 minutes or more, and Pan & Scan.

http://www.nausicaa.net/ is one of the best places on the web for information about Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli, and the Disney licensing agreement.

yay! ign report that the price will be 19.98 for each...



here

I've never seen any version other than the Fox release, but My Neighbor Totoro is such a good film that I would recommend getting the Fox DVD anyway, since its Disney release has been pushed back and the disc is available for about $7 online.

I'm in the same boat. My 4yo watches the fox disc about once a week.

Are you sure about the cut? From Nausticaa.net:

I'm pretty sure the Fox DVD isn't cut at all - Nausicaa.net even lists the runtime as the same as all the other releases (http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/video/totoro/).

Minor nit, It's "Grave of the Fireflies", just in case the OP is searching an e-tailor.

I used to have the My Neighbor Totoro dubbed disc from Fox, but I was never able to bring myself to watch it and I finally sold it. Now that the SE is delayed again, I'm considering looking into copies from other regions. Anyone know which version is best? I mostly want something that's OAR with decent subtitles.

Make sure it's the 2-disc Collector's Edition. Target has the 1-disc old version in their anime section.

its been called either at various points and in various countries.

anyhow : also not that "conan : boy in the future" ahem, aka "future boy conan" gets a korean (with english subtitles) boxset release on the 15th for $60.

wow! iam a big fan of future boy conan...do u think the quality will be awsome in this set? is it remasterd?

Didn't know about the Fireflies name thing. I guess it's a hazard of translating Japanese to latin based languages.

That future boy Conan, is that the series Cartoon Network sometimes runs late at night about the teenager turned into a little boy that's a brilliant detective?

i cant find out. though looking at the specs it has the italian subtitles and could therefore be from the italian boxset... so if anyones seen that one.

on the other hand, there was a boxset in korea early last year without english subtitles... and the price is cheap (still not heard from anyone who bought the cheapo recent korean "bebop" boxset)...

anyone?