Funimation comes out swinging with a big film release, arguably the biggest film they’ve released since the first Evangelion Rebuild film (and based on who you ask, possibly bigger.)
 

 
A big push is being given to Summer Wars: theatrical screenings, larger than normal advertising, even an attempt to get it nominated for an Academy Award.  Is all the extra push worth it?
 
As a fun little experiment, Alex and I are reviewing this film together, since we both had things we wanted to say about it.
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It appears Seifer misread.  Thanks to A PR rep from Funimation who checked the trailer frame by frame Digimon Frontier definately does not appear in it.  Fanboy Review regrets the error, and Seifer is currently getting his 12 lashings.
 
It appears when ShoDojo launches it will launch with a few new shows (or it’s possible they will show up slightly after launch.)
 

 
A recent convention apparently had a new ShoDojo trailer that showed Digimon Frontier as one of these new series (Digimon Frontier was the only show that was recognized.)  There had previously been no news from either Toei USA or Funimation about Digimon Frontier streaming.  It’s also possible this may be the beginning of a new wave of Toei On-Demand titles.  No news on Digimon Adventure or Digimon Tamers. Hopefully the trailer will be put online and we will find out more about this soon.
 
ShoDojo is Funimation’s new Anime video and community website that will be launching soon.
 
Thanks to Seifer for seeing the trailer and bringing it to my attention (at least I can thank him for something, he’s supposed to be staff…. get to work lazy!)
 

 

Digimon in the USA has always had an odd history.  Never quite getting a real release for any of it’s seasons on DVD (minus a single DVD for the first season released nearly a decade ago that had over 10 episodes stuffed onto it and the first three films in their ‘edited into one film for the USA’ version on a different DVD) Well Go USA has teamed up with Toei USA to bring boxsets of the newest season to the USA.
 

 
After some lackluster online streaming and video on demand offerings recently, let’s see if this is finally a Digimon release fans can get behind and enjoy.
 
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As everyone knows Toei started doing stuff OnDemand via Direct2Drive.

After getting a few of these, and being underwhelmed by the horrid video quality, I now need to ask this very serious question.

Is Toei USA committing fraud?

I show you this screenshot that is on the Pretty Cure sales page.  This is supposed to be a screenshot from the show, to be used as a gauge on the video quality, to help you decide if you want to buy it or not.

Relatively nice picture quality isn’t it?

So what is the problem?

Well… here is the same picture, taken by me, from the first episode of the series, as it is available to buy.

Ignore the credits, afterall, it would be fair for them to use a scene from the opening, but remove the credits to help people gauge the video quality.

Compare the actual picture quality.  The resolution is bigger, but let’s ignore that.  The screenshot they have as an example has bright vivid colors and is very clean.  The episode itself has rainbowing, artifacing issues, is pixelated, and may have very well been copied from a VHS tape.  Compare stuff like the girls’ hair, the sunlight, the pipe in the bottom left.

This is dishonest advertising at it’s worst.  This is an unacceptable way to do business, especially when you are trying to sell a show with an extremely niche audience anyways.  The video quality for Toei OnDemand’s other three shows: Digimon Adventure 02, Slam Dunk, and Fist of the North Star, is also very poor, but the screenshots from those shows are at least accurate in showing that.

I suggest fans of Pretty Cure and anime in general vote with their wallets and not purchase episodes of the series to show this isn’t acceptable.

So what do you think?  Is Toei USA committing fraud by being dishonest like this?