Toon Zone Talkback - Best Anime Import of 2009: "Samurai Champloo"

Why are some of these series even on this list? They received a complete series box set release years ago.

Samurai Champloo is a good show, but maybe this would be better given to a series that, I don't know, actually received a box set release for the first time this year instead of a re-release.

First complete series set release year:
2009 - Air [TV]
2009 - Aquarion
2008 - Black [Blood] Brothers
2008 - Comic Party Revolution
2009 - Gakuen Alice
2007 - Gankutsuou
2005 - Gungrave
2000 (TV), 2001 (OAV), 2005 (TV & OAV Remastered) - The Irresponsible Captain Tylor
2009 - Kanon
2009 - Kurau: Phantom Memory
2004 - Love Hina
2009 - Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A
2009 - Murder Princess
2005 - Ikki Tousen
2009 - Magikano
2008 - Moeyo Ken
2008 - Nerima Daikon Brothers
2009 - Pani Poni Dash
2009 - Pumpkin Scissors
2009 - Ragnarok
2009 - Project Blue Earth SOS
2009 - Red Garden
2006 - Samurai Champloo
2008 - Save Me! Lollipop
2009 - Shigurui
2009 - Shonen Onmyouji
2009 - Utawarerumono
2009 - Venus Versus Virus
2009 - The Wallflower
2009 - Welcome to the NHK
2009 - When They Cry
2008 - Xenosaga
 
The criteria, as was explicitly stated in the review preface, was for a "Complete" release, not a "box set" release or any other release format. We chose this criteria because it gave us a very clear "bright line" between what was eligible and what wasn't. Otherwise we would have gotten tangled up in a lot of Jesuitical disputations.

For instance, you list Pumpkin Scissors as a 2009 release, even though all of its episodes got a 2008 release in two "Season 1" sets. So is Pumpkin Scissors a 2009 release or a 2008 release? Or is it a 2007 release, because that's when the first DVD volume came out? Similarly, why should the Samurai Champloo box set count as a 2006 release if it does nothing but package individual DVRAB that first started appearing in 2005? (In fact, all but three of those episodes were on DVD before Deceraber 31, 2005; SC missed having all of its episodes on DVD by the end of 2005 by only 17 days.)

DVD release patterns are so complex that any criteria can be argued over. The standard we chose ("received a 'Complete' DVD release during 2009, regardless of any previous releases of the same material") meets a minimal threshold of plausibility while avoiding difficult and possibly unanswerable challenges like those I've rehearsed above.
 
I love Champloo but I agree that the #1 import of the year ought to have been something that got released for the first time this year. Either the first time it got a full series release in one set or a few sets or even the first time it had a DVD released here period (yes that includes singles). So Samurai Champloo which has been released in singles and a boxset at least twice now is waaaaaay old news by now. I wouldn't be surprised if ya'll felt it was the best show to get a full series release this year so I guess we should all be rather dissappointed that a show from 2005 wooped all the new stuff in 2009 but it kind of speaks toward the lack of quality lately.
 
SC is still iffy if you go by this criteria. The Samurai Champloo collection released this year is almost like stuffing the individual DVRAB into 7 thinpak case versions which look almost EXACTLY LIKE the 7 ORIGINAL singles cases. So is it a 2005, 2006 or 2009 release? They all look very similar as well.

I have to agree with the rest of the people here. The criteria should come down to the FIRST collected release of the series. It doesn't matter if the 2006 release is simply 7 singles stuffed into a box. It counts as a collected release.

As much as I like SC, it just seems like a boring choice borne out of diehard SC fandom.

I almost think I would prefer *choke* the "Dragon Box Z" (!) winning because even though that is like the 2000000 release of those episodes, at least they're the 1st "proper" release of the show. The SC dvRAB Funi put out are just simply re-issues of the 2005 Geneon DVRAB.



Well, yeah, but there were a couple of noteworthy shows that got complete collection releases this year. Black Lagoon is one of them. In fact, if pressed, I'd say BL is my choice off the top of my head, as 2009 was the year we finally got the 2nd season out and the whole series collected into one set. If we're going strictly by the "collected sets" criteria of course.

But I do ultimate prefer the idea of an anime that either saw first light in the U.S. on DVD (either singles of half-seasons or whatever) or shows that just finished this year on DVD (either singles or half-seasons of whatever)
 
I've never had any experience with Champloo, but it's a shame FUNimation's Blu-ray release sucks.

'Suppose I should use this as an excuse to take a look at this here fan-favorite.
 
Champloo is a worthy choice as one of the highest quality shows of the decade. For new 2009 releases specifically, I'd definitely recommend Romeo X Juliet (read Speedy's reviews!). Out of the "complete collection" crop I see listed above it is honestly hard to argue against Champloo, though recent events and discussions have made me very interested in Gungrave, Gankutsuou, and perhaps Red Garden.
 
I found nothing wrong with it.
There's been talk of a loss of detail, discoloration and that's it's just upscaled.
I found all to be false, it's quite the same if you watch a lot of stuff on SDTV; you won't tell much difference.
But on a HDTV you can, there is a lot more clearity to the picture, I haven't seen a loss of detail as far as I'm concerned, and in especially the characters, it is definately HD.
Only thing I'm PO'd about is they didn't include the staff interviews.
 
I'm not sure the original releases had staff interviews on video. The interviews that I know of were all printed text on the back of the slipcases.

That said, either way, you can't go wrong with SC whether it's BD or DVD. It's simply a good show, slightly clearer or not.
 
I'm going to have completely disagree with this. First off, it is definitely an upscale which isn't a problem though. The show was produced in 2004 when very few shows were made in HD. Funimation themselves confirmed it was an upscale before it was even released. The comparison screenshots in this post make that obvious.

The problems with the Blu-ray stems from the "digital remastering" Funimation does with all of their upscaled Blu-rays. All of their upscaled Blu-rays have problems and look terrible because of it. They apply things like DNR (digital noise reduction) and edge enhancement which removes detail, makes things look smeared, causes discoloration, etc. Since a lot of Funi's Blu-rays they've released lately have been upscales, they've been earning themselves a bad reputation because of the poor quality of them.

I'm going to copy and paste a post I made on another forum explaining the main problems with the Samurai Champloo Blu-ray:

Comparison screenshots between the Geneon DVRAB and Funi Blu-ray: http://comparescreenshots.slicx.com/comparison/24906/

Those screenshots for Samurai Champloo show both loss of detail and the intentional grain has been removed. It's basically been DNR'ed through the filtering that Funimation applies to their upscaled Blu-rays.

First off, the grain being scrubbed out is ridiculous. Samurai Champloo was animated digitally, which means any grain would have been purposely added by the animators. Funimation had no good reason at all to remove it.

As for loss of detail, look at these few screenshots for examples:

#4 - If you look at the small house, on the dvd you can see detail on both the roof and side of the house. On the Blu-ray, that detail is blurred out. Also look at the wood roof of the gate and walls up front which also has detail blurred out on the Blu-ray.

#8 - Look at the wood panels across the bottom. On the dvd, you can see detail within them but on the Blu-ray that detail is blurred out.

#11 - The wooden beam, stairs, wood trim near the top, etc. all have detail blurred out on the Blu-ray.

There is zero reason for there to be any loss of detail like that on a Blu-ray. Funimation really just neeRAB to stop adding that filtering to their upscaled Blu-rays and just do a straight upscale instead. It does more harm than good.
 
There appears to be somewhat mixed reports, but it does appear DVNR was applied (at least, as far as my go-to guy for this sort of thing can tell)...which baffles me because the grain in the show is supposed to be there.
 
@chronoclast
Okay, look I'm a fan of Champloo as people are of DBZ.
This is FAR from that so-called "remaster" they did.
A slight loss of detail... in wood panels?
Boo-Hoo, the picture still looks a heck of a lot better though that's my opinion though.
As said, the character models look a whole lot better, and the wood panels if anything seem blurred, which to me look okay.

I still think the show looks a a lot better, like I said-this isn't a DBZ Remaster job.

Oh and @ Leaping Larry Jojo-
Yeah, I meant the slipcase interviews, as they were also included in FUNi's DVD release.
 
'Better' isn't a matter of opinion in this case. The picture is altered by a licensor, pointlessly I might add, therefore it does no longer represent the best quality of a show made digitally. This practice has quickly become as archaic as dubbing practices of old.
 
Grain cannot naturally exist on a show done digitally. Shows like Dragon Ball were created and printed on film, a physical media. SC exists only as data.

Better, the best, exist solely as a measure of whether or not the product looks as it is suppose to be, or as close as possible. By comparison, the DVRAB look better than the Blu-ray.
 
What is the alleged loss of detail being based on, picture #4? Because that seems like an exceedingly minor and isolated situation whereas all other photos I've looked at so far are showing off brighter or more distinct colors and a clearer picture. Picture #9 also has roof tiles and seems none the worse off.

Something I'd seen said is that there are alleged color "splotches" that you can notice if you're watching on a big TV, but since I started researching Blu-Ray a handful of days ago it's been tough to separate claims from fact. In some cases it's apparently a struggle just to determine what's an upscale and what shows have a HD master in the first place, even over at the Mania (AnimeonDVD) forums...very annoying since I was contemplating Blu-Ray purchases and I'm currently not sure what to do. If anything though, that gallery actually leans pretty strongly in favor of Blu-Ray...
 
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