Cool! happy new year! I would love to hear impressions as well as see some scrennshots and shots the packing and the collectibel cards!

i cant remember the exact persons name, but i happened across a name specifically associated (according to one site) with the film itself who was / is working for dreamworks. the address though, i do remember, is the one at thedigitalbits.com page and is as follows :

DreamWorks SKG
1000 Flower Street
Glendale, CA 91201

telephone :
(818) 777-4600

I ordered both the GITS: SE and GITS 2 from Amazon.com and I don't think they have shipped yet.

This is bummer news for me, and not the first place I've read about it. :(
I don't mind subtitles at all, but I hate captions, and the typeface used IS really large, IMO.

It would have been so sweet if they could have used the same voice actors from the Stand Alone Complex/GITS. (I haven't seen GITS 2 yet so that may not work)

They did...

I e-mailed Dreamworks/Universal about this and got a response. Here is what they have to say:

Thank you for contacting us. Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Dreamworks Home Entertainment strive to provide the highest standard of product and customer care.

The 'Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence' DVD contains two English captions/subtitle tracks. The first translates the Japanese dialogue, which is heard on the main audio track. The second track is a transcription of the optional audio commentary by Director Mamoru Oshii and Animation Director Toshihko Nishikubo.

Our DVD products are captioned in English using Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired, (SDH). This ensures compatibility with all DVD players and TVs. Many older model DVD players are unable to output the Closed Captioning signal, and the majority of TVs manufactured before 1994 did not have Closed Captioning decoders built-in.

We appreciate your patronage and hope that you will continue to enjoy Dreamworks and Universal products.



Sincerely,

Universal Studios Home Entertainment

Say what? This makes no sense. What does CC have to do with subtitles? Why not just put two seperate tracks on there?

You think they actually read their complaint letters? I've emailed places complimenting them on something, and I get a letter back saying how sorry they are for doing, and explaining their reasons.

well do what miramax did on city of god then (one sub track is for closed captioning for the hearing impaired, and the other track is regular subtitles.

WWwwhhhhaaaaaaa!?!?!

This lame canned excuse is totally a spin. How many deaf people with old TVs represented their demographic? This is a movie set in 2032 for Chrissake! You can get a newer TV than that for under $300 here in 2004. This is a technophile movie. People that are watching this on sets with woodgrain cabinets aren't going to enjoy it.

Dreamworks has made me officially consider hate crimes against the deaf.

That was a joke, but do you think that might get them off their slimey asses?

I don't. We have to live with this.

Anyone know if their is a Hong Kong regionless version of the disc?

I will never buy another foreign release from this studio.

Bought mine last weekend. All the Targets in my area had it out already at a somewhat high 22.99

Could you tell if the newer version had better picture quality than the original? How are the new Japanese tracks? Details, man!

Dreamworks' response is bullshit because this method of "subtitling" was not used on their Millennium Actress disc. It sounds like they're trying to sweep it under the rug with that canned response.

Instead of trying to fix the problem. -ohbfrank-

Yes, the original Japanese track was kind of... weird.. for lack of a better word. The picture was also way less than steller. I'm waiting for a good review on this disc before I try and pick it up.

$22.99 is pretty reasonable since the GotS:SE has a SRP of $34.98.

Did you get this? How is picture compared to the old release? could you post some screenshots maybe?

Saw it last night and loved it! Very good, almost if not as good as the first. The CC for the hearing impaired didn't bother me at all. A very thought provoking film witch sort continues on the themes of life and artificiallity.
The visuals are stunning, with a incredible depth in the pictures and backgrounds. I want to see it again! Highly recommended and don't worry about the CC ( well that's what I think anyway. )
4.5 out of 5! Dancing

Spoilers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!
I think it is called Innocence because children, animals and things ( dolls ) aren't self-aware or conscious and hence can't question there own existence then....They are innocent ( Very simplified! )
Spoilers End:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Does any site have info on it yet?

got this from Keith I on htf
"This is not quite a continuation of the first post but seeing as it changed into talk about the SE of the movie, I'll use this thread since it could be considered the "Sonic" edition.

I received the Special Edition of the movie and have a few observations to make:

1. The Japanese language track is now available in DD5.1EX and DTS6.1. It's not overly dynamic but it is much better than the 2.0 track on the original release. The music benefits the most from the surround sound.

2. The box says it's a newly remastered anamorphic widescreen transfer. The original already looked really good and the SE is just a slight improvement in the clarity and color.

3. The end credits is STILL only the English version. The cast list is the English language cast with none of the Japanese voice actors' names listed. It should have been like Princess Mononoke: If you choose Japanese, you get the Japanese credits (or list the Japanese actors/crew in English). If you choose English, you get the English credits.

4. The 30-minute Making Of documentary on the original is carried over to this version. The other extras are not that extensive: Production Report, Digital Works, Character Dossiers, Creator Bio, Director Bio, Trailers, and Manga/Bandai stuff. But they are all on Disc 2.

5. The packaging is nice. Glossy silver digipak (clean your fingers!) housed in a clear plastic slipcover. Comes with a dual-sided foldout poster promoting the Special Edition, a GitS:SE postcard, and a Manga Video Merchandise booklet.

Just thought I'd post this from over at the ANN forums. This was posted by the Editor-in-Chief Tempest.

Looks like they might be backtreading in their own sewage over this. Maybe we actually will get a fixed release.

sounds like he managed to get in touch directly with DW rather than just their marketing people (like the earlier email / reply)... perhaps they can claw back some reputation from this cackness...

not only is there masses of discussion on this at the official sites forum, but also at IGs official site... no one is that impressed, particularly as (at this point in time) it looks like a sweeping of the issue under the carpet is happening...

I agree with all that. But...

If it was just the CC, maybe. But the size of the subtitles, the placement, and the CC, all combine for one long distraction. It hurts to shy people away from this DVD, because the movie itself is wonderful. But what Dreamworks did was not fair to domestic anime fans....frankly, it was inconsiderate. It would be great if they said it was a mistake, and offered a better DVD. But the bottom line rules, and I'm not sure enough people will pass on the DVD to hurt it.

Don't hold your breath.

Sounds like the GitS SE is just going to be good for slight picture improvment, and sound quality. I'll probably skip it then.

Not only do I want them to remove the text in [brackets], but I DEMAND the same dialog from the theatrical release! I've heard several reports that, on top of this fiasco, the dialog has been dumbed down as well, and some of the complexity has been completely removed from the incredible movie I watched in September!

This masterpiece is the one DVD I've been looking forward to the most over the past 6 months. How could DW treat it so poorly!!!? I'm guessing the first reply from them was by the management in charge of the error, trying to cover it up. The second reply, from the ANN editor, was probably from someone more internal/higher up the chain.

My copy is already in the mail and I can't return it. I should have gone with my instincts when I first saw the generic-1980's-action-movie cover art several months back, and waited for a future release/special edition.

Is there anything legal we can do, (like the Japanese legal system when their Spirited Away had a red tint), to get them to deliver on their promise from the back of the box? ...that is, if Dreamworks are going to be mean and not issue a recall/reprint like they should...

You can always sue for just about anything. Look at the class action widescreen lawsuit.

I'd wait on gathering your team of lawyers until you give Dreamworks a chance to make things right. Write letters, emails and make phone calls. Even an online petition might work. Also maybe write to some of the entertainment magazines to write a little blurb about the snafu. That might get the attention to the right people.

I've decided not to buy it and writing to DW to let them know why. Just trying to do my little part -smile-

I watched this last night, and the close-caption subs are annoying to the point of serious distraction. They do seem to get somewhat less frequent toward the end (or maybe I just came to accept them more), but here's my favorite unnecessary caption:

"[silence]"

I have a 57 inch sony widescreen television with a progressive scan dvd player. This is the set up I just finished watching this movie with and i must say early on the subtitles were distracting but throughout the film things got better. I rented this title first and now i am looking to buy it. Just my dos centavos.

Are the people who are bothered by the captions, people who normally watch anime dubbed? Just a question. It seems to me that I've watched a lot of anime with captions...

I normally watch anime subbed (though I enjoy dubs a lot too), and I don't ever recall watching a DVD with captions like this. I can think of a few odd examples, but it's not common by any stretch of the imagination - as shown by the people at Anime on DVD getting up in arms about the subtitles on this DVD.

I saw this movie at a film festival a couple of months ago, and really enjoyed it, but I won't be getting the R1 DVD. I hope an R2 release comes out with proper subtitles.

From what I remember, I think all Universal DVDs have the [crappy] subtitles, which sorta explains the email they sent back

Hmm, interesting.

Heck, I'll ALWAYS choose Japanese language with captions, and, what, 90 percent of the time the captions are on the picture, so that's not the problem I had. The problem was how freakin' HUGE the subtitles were, and how high they were. That combined with the CC was what made it bad.

Here, animeonDVD, ghost2.com, Dreamworks' Go Fish forum.....everyone and their mother is complaining about this.

Whenever given the option, I will watch original language. I was in on the whole Mononoke debacle and have sent a written letter to DW.
The issue here isn't the choice between dub and sub, it's the non-choice between sub and CC. Read back in the thread a bit. The text obscures the picture at crucial points in the story.

If this movie means as much to you as "You've Got Mail" or some other piece of fluff, that shouldn't raise your ire.

Problem with me is: This was my favorite movie in a long, long time and this is the only treatment available to region one. I think it's a pretty big deal.

(had to add) They already had bitchin' reddish orange subs done for the theatrical release. What the fuck happened to those?

I have read the whole thread. This was my favourite movie in a long time too. However, the captions just don't bother me that much, and I could swear I have seen them on other titles. While I dislike them, I am not greatly affected by them...

I was just curious if perhaps the captions were bugging people who prefered dubs anyways, because they find reading the subtitles distracting (this is something I hear often from people who want to watch dubs.) This would make the CC subtiles very distracting to them.

Looks like I was probably wrong though. I've actually rewatched a few older titles to see if they had CC subtitles, and they didn't, so I don't know where I got the idea that lots of anime has captions.

having now watched the disc and having continued to follow discussion online, the major issue for me now is the talk that the subtitles have been dumbed down and obviously dont match those used at the cinema screenings of the film in the USA recently...

My roommate told me he heard there's going to be a 2 disc SE of GITS2 - no idea where he got this info, but has anyone else heard anything? Apologies if it's been mentioned - I didn't read the entire thread.

so has anyone found a better copy of this disc yet?? i dont care what region it is .... judt need english 5.1 track or a NON cc subs in english ??

china??
uk??
hk??
anywhere ?????

IGN Review indicates that GoFish acknowledged the problem and apparently there were check discs with the proper subtitles -eek-

Maybe GoFish would correct the problem after all.

I got mine today and of course I immediatly checked out the french sub(sorry I'm french..) and It's not as bad as I thought.They just could have been a little bit lower on the screen...
My disappointment comes from the DD5.1 soundtrack which seems clearly less "heavy" than in theater...Did anybody notice this lack of bass(.1 LFE)? Usualy, I don't change the level of this channel, but I'll try to put it 2 or 3 dB higher...

PS:Hope my english is "readable".

^ don't worry eric, your english is light-years beyond my french.

And, yeah, the .1 seemed lacking on the dvd, since I remember it thumping in the theater. But that could just be due to the theater's settings.