Likewise...I'll get some sort of little review up here when I've had more time with it. I just got my set in today.
This was many years in the making, that's for sure. The pleading, the e-mails, the petitions...not sure what those did in the efforts, but it probably just came down to patience, a resurgence in the wanting of current and past generations to see '90s-era material (nostalgia is a strong selling point), and a company who listens to the fanbase of niche entertainment media (which SPC and anime in general, are in the grand scope), to get all the pieces in place for this to happen.
Let's enjoy it to the fullest.
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Edit/Addition:I had a little time to poke around the first episode in whole. Since we know the show already, I'd prefer to put the episode reviews board to use for episode-by-episode things. This review is more for those who are tech-geek and have a somewhat decent A/V setup.
Video Quality: As Violet pointed out, this is a 1990-1991'era anime....about on par with the KNT set, if just a slight bit less-sharp. These are obviously 1st-gen masters straight from Saban, as they carry the 'Saban International' logo at the end (When aired in the U.S. in 1996, their
new-at-the-time trademark / logo was put into use). This is a good thing that they went back to find the cleanest masters possible.* No ad-bumpers, no previews after the first couple dozen episodes, no 'remastered / horribly upscaled/cropped for HD' hoopla....this is exactly as you remember it back in (1992 in Canada) 1996-1997. Just without the snow or noise you would have seen like myself stuck watching it on the UHF side of the dial.
( * = I still have faith that these 'were' the best possible masters that could be found, as I have since went straight to the twelve episodes that were never aired in SPC's U.S. airing. Again, most of the episodes (the 40 we did get) look about on par with the KNT set, but there are at least two on which I did a little A/B comparison.....first with component / HDMI on my TV (SPC only, then SPC/KNT), and then against the KNT set using my PC's two optical drives....did this with a few episodes, aired and un-aired. Sure enough, "Gender Bender Butterflies!" and "Gone With the Ginzu" are sourced otherwise compared to other episodes... PAL-to-NTSC digital conversion or some videotape source. Colors are over-saturated (sometimes bleedingly so), a bit TOO warm, and the animation blurs up more. Reminds me of how anime used to be sourced in DVD's infancy, and it was almost always from a videotape source.
HDMI only seemed to improve this marginally...if at all. Bears repeating that
they still look cleaner/clearer than what we've had for years, but I felt this had to be pointed out for those with good A/V setups. They may look better on a CRT TV, but I have none to test on. ) While it will probably disappoint those with the highest-end setups, there's only so much that can be done with animation that's 20+ years old.
Audio: Crank up those volume knobs, and turn on the auto-volume level settings if you have them. This is probably the only weakness, if just a very minor one. In retrospect, I'd consider when it was recorded....basically in a time where audio wasn't compressed and you were blasted from here to Mars with ear-deafening volumes. Saying that, it becomes really just a minor quibble. Just take care when switching back to another source that is louder, be it the game console, satellite/cable box, etc.
Understandably it's mixed down in mono (the cover says 2.0 sound, but it's 1.0), seeing as all the sound effects (MANY holdovers from KNT in here) were mono elements originally, so Saban just put the whole thing (SFX, music, voices) to one-channel, just as KNT is. Then again, this is a moot thing as most syndication / independent channels back in the 1990s were still in mono until they were turned over to the MY (UPN) and CW (WB) Networks. You're hearing SPC just as you did in the 90s....sounding the same through one or two speakers.
Packaging / Overall Presentation: I'll be first to admit, when I first saw the cover art on Discotek's Facebook posts for SPC/KNT, I was indifferent, but it's since grown on me. I like how each of the discs, ie: Disc #, Episodes: # - # and the "One Special Express Delivery....." spiel carries over the show title's font style. Colorful and crazy, as the show is. Menus are just like KNT, just done in the SPC setup, and that memorable theme song plays while choosing which episode to start with.
While there are no extras (a shame, but understandable), for those like me in the U.S., the 12 'skipped episodes' are a HUGE extra. We can finally kiss those less-than-average RealVideo rips that have been floating around on YouTube and other various sites (SPC fansite and non-fansite alike) 'Sayonara'. To have those alone, in the clear for the first time are worth the cost of the set alone. Those episodes aside (which are going to give us U.S. fans all the more zany one-liners to turn into the latest Internet memes), for someone like me who hasn't seen SPC since its original airing in 1996-1997, the various jokes, puns, culture references (albeit showing their age by now), still coax out the chuckles. At least for me they did with the first episode alone......and I got 51 to go yet.
Overall, this is about as solid of a presentation of SPC as I was expecting, all points considered. While Discotek or Saban could have nudged that 'master volume' slider up a couple notches and given us long-time fans a little something to bite into in the extras department, I'm going to give them a 9/10 for this one.
Now go order your favorite pizza, have some ice cold beverage on the side, and enjoy.
(Edit 2: Had to further comment on video, having gone deeper into this set.)
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