Just wondering if anyone has any comments on whether importing this disc is worth the $?

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=WBHA-86855

Also are there any English subs? This site says no...

I imported the Blu-Ray which was one of those crazy 40Mbit/s MPEG2 encodes (like GitS2) and it was pretty soft. The movie itself it pretty blah too. Not really worth it TBH.

I completely disagree with House, although it's interesting that he says the BD version is pretty soft. The only thing I can think is that the MPEG2 encoding for BD looks wildly different, and much worse than the HD-DVD version. Because the HD-DVD version, encoded in VC-1 is easily among the best looking HD-DVDs I own. Certainly the most beautiful. You might want to check out this review of the BD version, instead of taking Houses word on it: http://www.animeondvd.com/reviews2/disc_reviews/5896.php. With all do respect, I really have no idea wth he's talking about.

Anyways wrt Brave Story. No English subs. The movie has a simple story, so you can understand it well enough just by watching it, but for some people that might not even be worth contemplating. Personally, I watched the DVD version, which annoyingly does have English subs even though it's R2J as well, prior to watching the HD-DVD version, so for me understanding the story wasn't a problem, but I think I could have dove straight into the movie subless and been ok. That could be a deal breaker though.

Regardless of what House say, the PQ on this disk is stunning. There is a huge difference between this and the SD version. The blacks are rich and rock solid. There is zero banding or other artifacts. Consistency is perfect throughout. It's sharp as a tack, and the fluidity that the 1080p24 transfer lends the animation, it's really a sight to behold. If you put any stock in the tier list, compared to the other titles it belongs in tier 0, and is my personal #1 disk. There are several scenes that rank with the best of anything on the format, for instance the Down the Rabbit Hole and Flight of the Dragons scenes.

The AQ is great as well. The DD+ track evidences a noticeable improvement over the DD track on the SD DVD. Pleasing tight bass and a better than average sound track allow the audio to keep up with the stellar video. Dialog is well placed and clear through out.

As for the movie. It is fairly simple. A boy's home life gets wrecked completely without any warning, and he ends up following a strange new friend to another world, where if he completes a series of trials, he can go back to his own world with the power to save his mother, who has fallen ill under unfortunate circumstances. It's not a movie that tries to challenge or redefine genre conventions, but it certainly is competent in what it does try to do, which is tell a sweet coming of age story about a boy forced to grow up quickly, in a fantasy setting. There are some poignant moments, some good comedy and action sequences, and the more I watch the movie the more I enjoy it for what it is, as opposed to what it doesn't try to be.

As to whether it's worth the price of admission, I can't answer that. It was more than worth it for me, it's easily my favorite disk out of the ~60 I own. I'd say if you're a big fan of anime and are really excited to see what anime looks like on HD-DVD than this is without a doubt the best disk to buy right now to get your first taste. If you're just looking to buy another HD-DVD and PQ plays a big role in the titles you buy, and $40 won't break the bank, I'd say it would be worth it as well, simply because hand drawn animation on HD-DVD is pretty much non-existent outside of a couple of Bugs Bunny cartoons, and it looks so great with this title that this disk would be a welcome addition to one's selection of demo disks.

But I don't want to tell you to rush out and order the disk. Hopefully I gave you enough information to make your own decision. Lord knows I prattled on long enough. ;)

Compared to other HD anime (even re-encodes) it is throughly unimpressive. I think AoDVD simply got taken in by "HD anime" and the fact it was one of the first discs (I don't agree with many of their DVD reviews either - that Blu-Ray review which I just read again since you linked it is honestly one of the most ridiculous reviews I've ever read). When you have nothing else at retail to compare it to, of course it's going to look good. Compared to numerous episodes and movies in HD on the internets, it's nothing special at all. The AQ was pretty decent as far as anime goes I guess.

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/9370/brave1za1.th.jpg (http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=brave1za1.jpg)
http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/5315/brave2ma3.th.jpg (http://img103.imageshack.us/my.php?image=brave2ma3.jpg)
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/1625/brave3af7.th.jpg (http://img510.imageshack.us/my.php?image=brave3af7.jpg)

The edges are soft, the background has restrained detail and just doesn't really "pop", it could have been a bit more saturated too. When compared to the R2J DVD (although it had some EE) there is an improvement, but not as big as I'd hoped. Stuff like xxxHolic or Howl's Moving Castle blows this out of the water. Even older material like Ghost in the Shell and the Bebop movie (even with it's dust and specs included in the transfer) look more visually impressive than this. Like you said, there's no noise, no banding, no blocking (I mean, geez, at 40Mbit/s MPEG2...), I think it's just the source material. I highly, highly doubt the VC1 version is that much better.

It's a pretty mediocre disc all around to be honest.

Screen shots are even more meaningless here than they are with other motion pictures. The strength of the visuals of this title is the fluidity of the animation. That alone makes it an impressive upgrade over the SD DVD. And I disagree that there is no pop. The cleanness and clarity that the added resolution gives the foreground animated cells gives the image a pleasing amount of pop. Maybe your expectations of just how much pop 2D animation is capable of producing are unrealistic? Watching the 10' wide projected imagine my home theater, the PQ went from great to spectacular, with there really being only one scene that dipped to just good, but it was really just a shot as opposed to a whole scene, one shot in the jail house after the boy escapes. It lasted a couple seconds, and it was the only time I couldn't tell that this was obviously HD, and great HD at that.

Now don't get me wrong, I could name dozens of other titles that I'd rather have on HD-DVD because I think they'd look even more spectacular (Hellsing Ultimate comes to mind). But that doesn't change the fact that this is a great looking disk.

I've watched the full movie on my projector. The detail doesn't jump or increase in motion or because of the screen size all of a sudden. It's just soft, no matter how you look at it.

Maybe your expectations of just how much pop 2D animation is capable of producing are unrealistic?

Like I said, compared to other HD anime, this is disappointing. I already mentioned two recent productions as examples which set the standard (you can add Beyond the Clouds to the pile if you want, there's some HD eye candy). I would not show this to anyone to impress them (or show it to them at all, actually).

I'm glad you enjoyed the disc but as you've already gathered I can't recommend it.

Well Miles, this was pretty much no help to you was it? lol

:)

Some discussion is better than none... that said, I don't think I'll buy any HD anime unless I can get english subs. That's my not-so brave story...