I had a discussion with a friend today about anime in Blu-ray. He argued that anime in Blu-ray is totally not worth it. I mean, it’s just color and lines right? There is only so much absolute detail in anime. No matter what, an animated image will never have the absolute detail of Matt Damon blowing things up. While this may be true, anime in Blu-ray provides quality in another field. TV stations compress and recode anime in various ways to put on air. As raws come out, fansubbing groups, what you guys usually watch, take the raws and encode them again. If the group is competent the loss is usually not noticeable, however Blu-ray discs offer anime in a quality and resolution that simply cannot be matched. (All images in this post can be clicked on for awesome 1920×1080 full size)

"Sure I don't mind"

I recently checked out episode 7 from the new K-ON! Blu-ray release. Besides the quality and stuff, there is seiyuu commentary on the alternate audio track. I liked episode 7 (it’s the one where they have Christmas as Yui’s house) and to see it in eye candy 1080p was a great treat. From what I infer the seiyuu basically just say things like “awww…. Chibi Yui-chan is sew kawaiii” but I’m sure enthusiasts will find it really interesting. The rest is basically them having a conversation about random stuff.

This looks so amazing animated Blu-ray

Besides 1080p Blu-ray goodness, there is lossless sound, making the ED both eargasm and eyegasm. My laptop cost $1,000 and I bought it this autumn, but when I doubleclick to open this video the fan immediately goes off on max speed. Some parts of the ending theme, like when it zooms out from Mio and does that alpha motion blur effect, my video decoder just goes “nope, not today, kevo” and drops all those frames. Occasionally the video desyncs with the audio and subs because it’s just too much to handle. Technology evolving will make Blu-ray more accessible to everyone eventually. My old laptop (which would have been 2 years old) would not have been able to play this video correctly. For now it’s a luxury for most people to decode Blu-ray.

Alpha blending, color glow, lighting effects yummm. My CPU is on the verge of collapse.

I pay attention to the soft glow and little tiny details about color and line quality. For people who are not enthusiasts like me, well maybe this is not worth your time. For me, however, this was a super fun watch. It’s just around 2,421,772,331.22 MB but I recommend checking out some Blu-ray releases if you have not already. It’s a fun, novel way to watch your anime.

Enjoy screencaps.

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