ADV gives the thumbs up, goes Blu-ray

by Nick Doerr { Feb 2nd 2008 at 12:45PM }

Anime fans, rejoice! It would appear that one of the big anime distributors in the US, ADV, have decided to back the Blu-ray format with their upcoming releases. This announcement will go into action sometime this Spring. Don't expect any old ADV titles right away, though. They plan to release their newest items on Blu-ray first, and any important backlog films later on. Anyone who watched Sony's release of Paprika on Blu-ray knows that even animation can benefit greatly with high-definition, so we gladly welcome this change with ADV. Hopefully they'll keep prices only marginally higher than DVD -- everyone knows anime DVDs are insanely overpriced.

Tags: adv, adv-films, anime

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

wocyob @ Feb 2nd 2008 12:48PM

sweet

GamerGuyX @ Feb 2nd 2008 12:58PM

This is great news!

Hostile @ Feb 2nd 2008 2:25PM

I'm already downloading my HD anime but it does look awesome. Haven't been keeping up with new licenses so I should find out what they got.

Binaryfiend @ Feb 2nd 2008 2:30PM

I 2nd that, this is great news!!!

ClarkyCat @ Feb 2nd 2008 2:45PM

I don't really care, seeing as the re-regioning that happened from DVD - Blu-Ray changed Japan from being Region 2 along with Europe into Region 1. Most anime never gets a decent European release, if it even gets a release at all, so importing was always an option. A lot of anime already got Region 1 releases, however. As usual, America gets everything, rejoice!

Dehshizknight @ Feb 2nd 2008 3:27PM

Uh, PS3 is region free.

linebeginstoblur @ Feb 2nd 2008 3:28PM

@Dehshizknight

The PS3 can play any Blu-ray game, regardless of region.
However, it can only play Blu-ray movies in its specific region.

dave @ Feb 3rd 2008 10:15PM

All BluRay titles _must_ be released as region free, a year after their initial release date. It's BluRay policy.

So you may have to wait a year, but you should be able to pick it up region free.

ClarkyCat @ Feb 3rd 2008 10:28PM

Where did you hear that? I know a lot of discs have been released region free, but Blu Ray has been out as a movie format for well over a year and there are still many Region 1 titles still locked. It seems a bit of a stupid policy, are you sure? I can't see every locked title getting an annual re-release.

xeleion @ Feb 2nd 2008 2:56PM

How much is their already overly priced (imo) anime going to cost on Blu-Ray?

F-Man @ Feb 2nd 2008 3:13PM

I've been looking forward to this because I'd sure love to have the old Sonic the Hedgehog OVA on Blu-ray on my shelf. Probably won't ever happen due to the source material they had for it in the first place though.

Other than that, that's awesome in every way. Do they always include the original languages? I wanted to import Air, but if I can get it with subtitles later on I'll definitely wait.

boxmyth @ Feb 2nd 2008 3:18PM

Although they've repackaged it more times than I could ever afford, I'd love to own a definative hi-def version of Evangelion.

Julio @ Feb 2nd 2008 3:30PM

I watched Tekkonkinkreet in Bluray and it looks awesome... I hope Netflix gets those ASAP

SpiderMike @ Feb 2nd 2008 3:45PM

@linebeginstoblur

Not true. I live in the UK and I import a lot of BD's from the States and Asian Territories and they play fine on my PS3. Certain publishing houses make their disks region free.

There's a website called movietyme that sells UK playable region 1 BD's.

Check it out.

linebeginstoblur @ Feb 2nd 2008 5:22PM

Ah, okay. I'm just going by what I've heard. Region-locked Blu-ray Discs are, well, region-locked, but yeah, I thought most people made it standard to region-lock them and I didn't think there were many region-free discs out there. Thanks, mate.

TheEnd187 @ Feb 2nd 2008 3:57PM

I have the Brolly Double Feature on Blu-ray, it looks incredible much better than the DVD. And it includes English DD 5.1 and Original Japanese. I like the Jap intro music better

Jack @ Feb 2nd 2008 4:27PM

I love Paprika. Anyone who remotely likes anime and owns a PS3 should do them self the favor of picking it up for some HDTV goodness.

Miraito @ Feb 3rd 2008 4:35AM

Overpriced anime? Did you guys know that in Japan they pay about double the price for half the amount of episodes we get on DVD here? Yes! That is about $50 for two episodes!
Also on topic: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-01-30/bandai-visual-usa-gets-shigofumi-true-tears-anime

Marco Cano Jr @ Feb 3rd 2008 10:30AM

Oh god, I hope its ether Gurren Lagen and/or Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (The remake movie). I'm 87% sure the Evangelion will be on Blu-Ray simply because its a movie. TV shows I'm sure about but heres hoping Gurren goes blu.

Anticrawl @ Feb 3rd 2008 2:33PM

Looks like I may buy a Blu-ray movie yet! Was trying to hold off from supporting either format as I find both of them wasteful and inferior as a blue laser disc.

Bucket @ Feb 4th 2008 2:41PM

How about we get an entire series on one disc? You know, something that takes advantage of the storage space, not just the bigger resolution. Something that would help bring production costs down, passing the savings along to the consumer.

No? I'll shut up then.