The random use of early '90s references like "Catabunga!" combined with the simplification/toning down of some jokes, kind of makes you wonder how the English dub would have turned out if the original dialog was kept.

Glad to know things are coming along and we're getting more info on release dates.

It will be interesting to compare the differences in video quality when the sets come out, because the Japanese version was remastered while the English version was not.

update from Discotek's Facebook page:

There's been positive movement on the dub masters. We hope to have them by January. As soon as we get them and verify that everything is in order we will set the date. The Japanese language set might come out first.

According to Discotek's Facebook page (LINK), they are working on the subtitled sets now and those will be released before the dubbed ones. This due to a delay in receiving the dubbed masters from Japan.

The puns and references and such might not translate well, but the character humor and such should come through fine. It will be interesting to see how Discotek's subbing job turns out.

Usually their subs are good, but they haven't before licensed a series this long that had to be translated from scratch. It will be interesting. A lot of their recent releases have prior existing translations.

For people who have seen much of the Japanese series, do you think the humor would translate well for a non-Japanese audience?

I'm asking this because the series' humor tends to rely a lot on word-puns and a familiarity with Japanese culture, that I'm not sure if it would resonate well with American audiences. This question comes in light of Discotek's recent acquisition of the series and their plan to release subtitled DVD sets for the US.

According sources of various animation websites, all rights to the show apparently reverted back to Japan in the last year or so. Discotek licensed both the Japanese and English versions directly from Tatsunoko. Tatsunoko has been known to hold on to tapes of '80s dubbed Tekkaman, so it's not surprising they'd hold on to Saban's dub of SPC as well.

Nobody would know what state the original KNT masters are in but the original production company, though aren't there rips of the entire series floating around that were capped directly from a recent Japanese TV airing? One that occurred in the last 10 years? Most of them looked too good to be off something like VHS.

First post!