Got word that mine shipped but I have not got it yet.

Just wondering if any of our good friends in Japan have some reviews.

I am getting the 3 DVD Birth of Mononoke set (I already have the Reg 1 Princess Mononoke which is good enough for me), but I have no idea how long it will take to make it to Australia - generally the Japanese postal service has been very good to me when it comes to shipping large parcels (taking on average, less than a week to Sydney not couriered) and standard mail, so I am hopeful that it may make it here in the next week or so.

Once I get it, I will be sure to post my first impressions here. I am also getting Party 7 (by the director of Shark Skin Man, Peach Hip Girl)... I will also post on that after I have had a chance to view it.

As this was my first order from Amazon JP, I was surprised that no shipping notice email has been sent despite the fact that on their website the order does appear to have been shipped... is this regular practice with this particular Amazon outlet?

regards, Tim...

Bought mine yesterday. The video quality looks better than R1, and comes with literal English subtitle, the same one as in R1. Definitely a must buy for Mononoke fans.

How much did you guys pay for the set? Could you repeat the special features here?

Just for those planning to get the Birth of Mononoke--it does NOT have subtitles, either in Japanese or English. So unless you can understand Japanese, you might be disappointed.

No major dramas there... I have some Japanese and my wife being Japanese can fill in the gaps.

Expensive! I love the R1 disc. Looks and sound outstanding on my HDTV.

Ok I've had this set now for a few days
I need help with something.

Disc one is the jaw dropping transfer Digital sound etc
Disc two is the storyboard to film disc.
Disc three is the supplements and the 2nd cut of the film.

I saw no differance in this cut "scene wise"
what did I miss? The origianal specs reported two cuts of the film.
The running times for disc 1 and 3 (not including trailers etc) are the same.

Run don't walk to get this pressing.

My speakers asked me for an apology after for hurting them so.

Can anyone recommend any good dependable websites other than CDJapan that I can order this from?

I believe the third disc has the "international" version, in other words the one we got here, which replaces the Japanese opening and credits with English text. The movie is no different, as Ghibli flatly refused to let Harvey Scissorhands butcher it.

My roommate got his last week, it's pretty cool. I haven't checked out "Mononoke wa Kou Shite Umareta" (the documentary) but the actual 3 disc movie set is impressive.
Disc 1: The movie (english subs, dub)
Disc 2: The storyboards and the movie (stored as 2 alternate angles, you can switch anytime)
Disc 3: The international version (dubbed into 7 additional languages), supplements (half an hour back to back trailers)

Shiv Shankly a big thanks to ya!
That makes sense cause the 3rd disc is silk screened
Princess Mononoke and the other two have the Japanese text.

Did not notice the opening credits.

Any one else get a poster with thiers?

I recieved my copy of this set yesterday and watched part of the first disc last night (at almost 7 hours I wasn't going to sit through it until the end ).

For those of you with no Japanese language skills, you really should not worry too much as it is still fascinating to watch and it is is fairly easy to get the gist of what is being discussed. To see Miyazaki sketching out his ideas onto storyboards and to watch the work being done on the cells for the animation is simply entrancing.

For me, it was worth every cent I paid.

regards, Tim...

PS. In my order I also got a film called Party7 which is by the same director as Shark Skin Man, Peach Hip Girl - after a quick glance, this also looks like a superb film almost in the vein of Run Lola Run (not the story, but the presentation) and one I would not hesitate in recommending.

hey has anyone got pics of this set to post??
also it does include English Subtitles right??
and one last thing is this still available and in print??

Anyone got a link for this? I can't seem to find it at Amazon or cdjapan.

Here is another Korean new released version available.

http://www.dvdasian.com/cgi-bin/dvdasian/16044.html

Seems like this 3disc set could have easily been a 2disc set if they used seamless branching correctly to combine discs 1 and 3...

Seamless branching has nothing to do with it. If they wanted to put both sets of credits on one DVD, they could use alternate angles, like on most Disney DVDs.

The real reason for the 3rd disc is the 8 language tracks and corresponding trailers. To fit all of those tracks and the trailers onto the first disc would've caused a compromise in video quality. I'm guessing all the tracks on the 3rd disc are DD2.0, right?

Here's a link to it on CDJapan:
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=VWDZ-8010

So is this the best version there is?? there isn't a DTS version or something??