Shin Eva - Official Blu-ray Release 2022!

[kuribo-04]

So, I’m comparing the Japanese and GKIDS HD Blu-ray releases, and it looks like the GKIDS release has some really bad color banding issues.

This is a pretty big deal, isn't it.
Did you notice this in 4k too?

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

The 4K edition hasn’t shipped out from RightStuf or Crunchyroll or wherever my order’s being kept. I’ve heard that the 4K edition is on back order at Crunchyroll’s warehouse, but I don’t have an order with them, so I can’t presently confirm that.

[The Killer of Heroes]

I don't know how to take an actually like nice screengrab, but I hooked my capture card to my PS5 to grab a screen from my 4k which came in today.

SPOILER: Show

Someone with a better setup than mine should follow up on this, but it looks like same issues are present on 4K to me.

[kuribo-04]

The 4K edition hasn’t shipped out from RightStuf or Crunchyroll or wherever my order’s being kept. I’ve heard that the 4K edition is on back order at Crunchyroll’s warehouse, but I don’t have an order with them, so I can’t presently confirm that.

Forum member TheKillerofHeroes seems to have the 4k disc and looks like it has banding issues as well. He looked at the same shot and I saw a pic.
Damn...

EDIT:
Did we post at the exact same time lol

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

I don't know how to take an actually like nice screengrab, but I hooked my capture card to my PS5 to grab a screen from my 4k which came in today.

SPOILER: Show

Someone with a better setup than mine should follow up on this, but it looks like same issues are present on 4K to me.

There's a whole host of technical complications when it comes to 4K screen grabs, and I don't know how to master all of them. For one, 4K BDs (Shin Eva included) tend to have a 10-bit color format, as opposed to HD BDs 8-bit colors, and I'm never sure how well different screens or image capturing devices can navigate that.

All that being said, I screen capped the same shot from the rip of the Japanese 4K disc I made earlier this year. It's shrunk down to a 1080p resolution, but the colors still look marginally better, imo.

SPOILER: Show

[kuribo-04]

Yeah I see a clear difference there.
The only way to notice the GKIDS bands on my part is by having screen clarity very low. Otherwise I immediately notice them.

I feel sorry for American fans. Obviously some people might not mind, but others will.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

I spent $2,000+ on a 65" 4K OLED TV, I care very much.

[kuribo-04]

I spent $2,000+ on a 65" 4K OLED TV, I care very much.

Do you own the Japanese bluray?
I think for people who want max quality that's the best option. It has no subs but Ive had it on without them just to enjoy the visuals (I've seen the film often enough that I approximately know what's being said anyway lol).

Some people could probsbly also rip and add their own subs, but you probably need a pretty good pc to do that with a 4k bd.

Obviously buying any edition of the film should be enough, but it seems internationally the standard for anime is still not as high as it should be.

[BernardoCairo]

Do you own the Japanese bluray?

What's good is that Japanese discs actually work on American players... So we're safe.
Region A: Americas, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Indochina and Indonesia
Region B: Europe, Africa, Middle East and Oceania
Region C: Russia, China, India and Central Asia countries

[kuribo-04]

Even better, 4k discs are usually region free. I can play all three Shin Eva discs (bonus features are standard bds, which aren't a guarantee).

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

I spent $2,000+ on a 65" 4K OLED TV, I care very much.

Do you own the Japanese bluray?
I think for people who want max quality that's the best option. It has no subs but Ive had it on without them just to enjoy the visuals (I've seen the film often enough that I approximately know what's being said anyway lol).

Some people could probsbly also rip and add their own subs, but you probably need a pretty good pc to do that with a 4k bd.

I do have the Japanese 4K disc, I have ripped it, and I will be ripping the GKIDS subs to put on the rip. It just sucks that I have to do that, and I honestly think this is one of the worst looking BD/4K releases GKIDS has put out.

I mean, Funimation’s Eva BDs, while not perfect, look far better than GKIDS’ BD release of Shin Eva. Other GKIDS titles look better than their release Shin Eva. This is far from the standards set by the rest of the US anime industry, and far below the standards set by GKIDS themselves in their other anime releases. I truly don’t know how this ugly transfer came about.

[The Killer of Heroes]

Wasn’t Gkids’ Nadia release kinda botched too? I seem to remember complaints about that one.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Nadia is a whole different story, apparently. Sentai Filmworks was the first distributor to release the film on BD in the US, and NHK had only sourced a 2K restoration of the series at the time. When GKIDS licensed the show, NHK had done a 4K restoration, which removed all of the film grain elements from the picture using a process called "DNR." ("Digital Noise Removal.")

NHK's 2K restoration released by Sentai  SPOILER: Show

NHK's DNR 4K restoration released by GKIDS  SPOILER: Show

I personally don't mind DNR if done well, though it can certainly be argued that the 4K restoration of Nadia went overboard with it. (I personally like the "punchier" colors of the 4K restoration, but I do think the film grain would have looked good if left intact.) Either way, this is less an issue with the US distributor and more of an issue with NHK's general approach to the 4K film restorations any US distributor would be able to access.

[nerv bae]

I truly don’t know how this ugly transfer came about.

Does anybody on the forum know how or why something like this happens? I don't know anything about how physical media is produced; why aren't the US release discs exactly as good looking as the Japanese release discs?

[Jinroh]

So I wasted money on that crap... It reminds me of the 3.33 bluray. From what I remember the french version was the same as the spanish bluray and it was single layered; the compression was really bad and every time there was red on screen the picture looked awful.

For some reason this crap keeps happening to Evangelion blurays.

[kuribo-04]

From what I remember the french version was the same as the spanish bluray and it was single layered; the compression was really bad and every time there was red on screen the picture looked awful.

Yep, can confirm. It was horrible. At least the booklet was good...
Well, now I have 3.333

[Axx°N N.]

Does anybody on the forum know how or why something like this happens? I don't know anything about how physical media is produced; why aren't the US release discs exactly as good looking as the Japanese release discs?

I've read a few things here and there over the years about transfers and how BD distributors operate ... my understanding is that it's a byproduct of the know-how and means of the release studio and associated partners. So it has to do with institutional knowledge, the thoroughness of quality control, and budget. So, same reason quality differs between any version of the same product. Whoever owns the rights over in Japan does their own version, and the filmmaking studio, in this case Khara, sends a copy of the film over to anyone who wants to do a domestic release; that studio ultimately is to blame for how they decide to encode the transfer onto a disc. In other words, it's very unlikely anything is wrong with the reference copy of the film if the Japanese BD didn't have the same issues. Gkids and whoever they partner with did something subpar in the engineering. There's any number of things it could be; regardless, any quality less than perfect is the result of something that went unnoticed, or a deliberate gamble--something minor that most people won't notice unless doing a direct comparison with a foreign BD can easily be dismissed as "who cares, who will notice?" Fixing a color banding issue can be written off as not worth the time and cost, depending on release windows or how much of both was already poured into the project, if it might end up looking good enough to the vast majority of consumers. For instance, I just perused a couple forum threads and reviews, and nothing bad has been said about the video; zero mention of color banding. One review gave the video an A+. Unfortunately, many people who spend a lot of time on home media or even write about it professionally don't actually have technical insight at all.

[bulwhark]

This release isn't looking too hot for GKIDS. Got an email last night that the art cards had been mis-printed so they'd be sending out new ones. I hadn't looked closely before at them but now, hoo boy. Artifacting galore by every black line on those things.

[Axx°N N.]

Yeah, when I trawled through reviews I saw a lot of people point out the low quality of the art cards.

Gkids had to do replacements for the NGE boxsets, too, after enough people brought it to their attention that the EoE live-action deleted scenes were missing subtitles. I still get a pit in my stomach thinking about how many people might own this super expensive boxset but never thought to check if there were even supposed to be subtitles there, much less request for a replacement disc to be couriered...

[The Killer of Heroes]

Is there any kind of replacement plan webpage for the art cards at least yet? I got mine set through Amazon so I'm wondering what to do here.