### Thanks!:
First off, credit goes to https://ny.iss.one/view/1443964 for the 4K Remuxes! Trunks9us's remux saved me lots of editing work, as the subs are already a revised combination of EG and OZC subs. This not only saved me time, but probably improves quite a bit on any QC errors I missed years ago. Anyway...
### Video:
Much like with Char's Counterattack, the UHD master here has a strangely dark grade. You can see this in both native HDR playback, and in SDR tonemapped playback. It's an odd look that begs the question as to what their color management and monitoring setups are, because it's not like they've crushed any shadow detail in the process. I took the remuxed video into DaVinci Resolve and found that CCA's grade worked pretty well as a baseline. I also referenced the previous BD for a general idea of how bright things should be, and graded it on an LG CX OLED.
The strangest result came from some color space transforms I was doing out of curiosity. I did a simple Rec.2020 to Rec.709 transform, and this was not too different from MPC's tonemapped output, but then just for the hell of it, I tried an HLG to 709 conversion and found it surprisingly close to a normal grade. Not perfect, but not far off either, which again, really makes me wonder what's going on with Bandai's 4K mastering.
Fortunately, the video quality itself is excellent. The linework is sharper than you'd ever expect from a mix of 35mm and 16mm footage, and the grain is seemingly untouched. I've done nothing here beyond the color grading, and the subtlety of some of the shading (on airbrushed effects for example) really comes through here unlike ever before. Overall, the picture just looks more stable and crisp, the colors more consistent, and the artwork more natural.
**HDR 2160p HEVC 10-bit 4:2:0**
### Audio: (UPDATED FROM STANDALONE RELEASE!)
This one caught me by surprise. I had heard that the 4K release included a new Dolby Atmos track, and I had assumed that it would be a new mix of the 2001 5.1 mix. After all, Sunrise re-recorded all the dialogue, rearranged the music, and used entirely new sound effects for that version, presumably because the original recordings were either unavailable or simply too bad to be used in a modern surround mix. When they released the BDs around 2014, the surround mix was again used (with the mono version separately available on a limited pressing), so it only made sense that would continue here.
But it's actually something else entirely.
The UHD BD contains two new mixes. The Dolby Atmos mix is, apparently, a complete reconstruction of the original music and effects bed with the **_original_** dialogue recordings. It is NOT identical to the 1981 version, as it does contain additional flourishes and effects (the bird flying over Side 7 in the opening narration is silent in the original, but has a different stock sound effect for every other version out there, even the dub), but it's largely the same, and it's kind of insane that they went through the trouble of reconstructing it. The 5.1 mix on the UHD BD is a mixdown of the Atmos mix, so it's essentially the same thing music and effects-wise, but obviously targeted for 5.1 setups. The theatrical track comes from the UHD BD's PCM audio, so it does use the latest source, and as usual, I've placed it as the default audio track.
Also included here is the 2001 5.1 Remix, simply remuxed from the EG BD rip, which I didn't really want to exclude for posterity's sake at least. I know some will probably find it pointless since the new remixes are more faithful to the original, but I do find myself preferring some of the musical cues in the remix versus the original.
Lastly, how could I forget the dub! I actually did try to track down a better source for this since the basis for the EG version for years now has been an ancient VHS rip that I poorly time-adjusted and edited to fit the DVD remaster many, many years ago. Archive.org has a few different versions available, but they're all mono recordings, which is a shame because the dub track is indeed a true stereo mix (which also implies that Sunrise had a separate, surviving M&E track years ago and didn't have to re-record shit in 2001). ~~I even briefly contemplated buying my own VHS copies and making fresh transfers, but I couldn't be bothered with the time or expense.~~
**Fuck that, I went and did the damn thing!** I recently bought myself a CRT and VCR, so naturally it made it sense to just go through with it and buy my own copies of the dubbed trilogy. The audio off the tapes is honestly pretty damn good, and I have manually resynced each movie much better than I did so many years ago. This release now features completely fresh transfers of the VHS dub audio, done at 48k/24bit, loudness matched to the 1981 UHD BD track, and given a SLIGHT noise reduction and declick process. The resulting tracks were then put into Izotope Ozone to give them a little spectral processing and master them to reduce harshness in some areas. This new version has been exported to 160k Opus, so it should be a much more transparent encode, with no more missing segments, harshly overmodulated audio, phasing issues, and fewer distortions than any other copy out there. As for Movie I, this batch torrent includes a new V2 of with the new dub track, but sorry, no patch here.
For the sake of archival, and in the extreme off-chance that some legit sources want to ever take a stab at it, I will eventually make a separate batch torrent of the raw, unprocessed VHS captures (only loudness matched and trimmed to remove trailers, but no filtering or resyncing of any kind). I think the sync job is pretty solid most of the time, and should never drift more than a few milliseconds.
I hope you enjoy:
1. **1981 Original Japanese Theatrical Mono** (2ch Opus @ 160k)
2. **2020 Japanese 7.1 Atmos Mix** (Reconstructed M&E, Remuxed TrueHD)
3. **2020 Japanese 5.1 Surround Mix** (Reconstructed M&E, Remuxed E-AC3)
4. **2001 Japanese 5.1 Remix** (Re-Recorded Vocals and Revised M&E, Remuxed AAC from previous EG release; originally from US R1 DVD)
5. **1998 English Dub** (2ch Opus @ 160k, **Fresh Transfer from VHS!**)
(English)
#### Subs:
1. **_English ASS [Kulot99/EG-OZC edit]_** (Original M&E)
2. **_English ASS [Kulot99/EG-OZC edit]_** (Remixed M&E)
3. **_Signs/Songs ASS [Kulot99/EG-OZC edit]_**
4. **_English SRT [Kulot99/EG-OZC edit]_** (Original M&E, intended to assist H/W playback)
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