More New AnimEigo Licenses for 2007 Release on R1 USA DVD.

I'm very interested in 'The Wolves'. I don't think there's a R2J available (haven't checked, though). Wild Side Video may also have it. If they do, I'd expect them to release it sometime soon.

But it's good to know there's gonna be a R1 release in case everything else fails.

I'm interested in the Shinsengumi DVD. Who has seen it? I loved "When The Last Sword is Drawn" but I wonder if its as historically accurate.

Let me know guys!

Can someone tell me how "The Trail of Blood" dvd is sub-par? Is it the video quality?

Animeigo is certainly a hit and miss. Their release of Japan's Longest Day dvd is just impressive but their Samurai Assassin dvd is atrocious!!!

Gosha's THE WOLVES is already available on DVD in England.

Interesting titles. Not sure if I'll end up getting any of those though, it's looking like an expensive year with the all the MoC Mizoguchi coming out and Criterion's just announced, delicious Yojimbo/Sanjuro-set for January.

derek - the 'trail of blood' video transfer looks a little like either a poor laserdisc transfer or more appropriately described as being like something mastered from an old VHS tape. i've been thinking today, since everything else on the release is relatively in place (subs are great, artworks there and to the usual familiar style) that perhaps they work on the timing for the subs on one transfer and try to arrange a print for a decent master - then fall flat sometimes on actually locating one for a pre-arranged date, or some similar situation that prevents getting it all together properly. either way, as it's the first in the trilogy, and since its far worse than 'samurai assasin' (which isnt so obviously bad, because of the lack of colour) the whole series goes out the window; the first one almost literally in my case...

One poor release and a company that has been releasing top quality goods for over a decade is down the drain? Get a grip people. Animeigo was out there providing you with anime titles and samurai genre titles that no one else would touch long ago , and they were treating them with more love and care than most would. Yes their Trail of Blood dvd was a mess, but consider their past history of good relations: on several occasions that have done expensive dvd recalls for small glitches, things that would be considered "normal" for any other genre video company. They offer trade ins when they release an updated edition of one their films usually! These guys put more work into their linear notes than most companies put into their entire release of a film!

Animeigo needs to emplain what the hell happened with that release, but that isn't any reason to believe that they are suddenly throwing out all standards of the love and care for the wonderful films that they have been releasing for so many years now.

i dont think anyone is saying animeigo is down the drain, particularly me, but what i am saying is the faith and reputation is shattered or damaged. lots of people now touch the samurai movies of old, one in particular that's doing great guns isn't even a legal official business which many will be familiar with and this makes an official companies poor efforts look even more shocking. a completely dodgy transfer, knowingly released as such on more than one occasion is hardly a 'glitch' either and it's not triggered (for 'samurai assasin' or 'trail of blood' a recall), it's a major mistake repeated and that's both irresponsible and disrespectful to the customers - and i dont say theyre alone in that respect - but from some of the best dvd presentations ive ever seen to easily a few of the absolute worst, it would be easy to see why some would (and indeed they seem to have been reacting like this) walk away in disgust because they know the company can and has done so much better... the reaction to the reconstructed / remastered 'shoguns samurai' is hardly good either. i think the first time i bought an animeigo release the company had a UK base in Wales, some 10 - 15 years ago, and theyve always been a slow-working company, so that should translate to something a little better than theyve given on some of their DVD stuff.

"These guys put more work into their linear notes than most companies put into their entire release of a film!"

True. But it doesn't make it any more acceptable to release weak transfers. Especially in cases when some other company has already released the same film with far superior transfer at the same time (like Lady Snowblood).

However, I'm still grateful to Animeigo because they've given us some really great rare stuff. And of course some of their transfers have been really good.