Castle of Cagliostro news bomb! Discotek BD license, Japanese rerelease!

Post date: Mar 31, 2014 7:13:41 AM

A few short days ago, Discotek Media posted the announcement to their Facebook page that they will be releasing Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in North America. The DVD is scheduled "probably in August" and the Blu-ray as soon as December 2014 and as late as early 2015. No reason was cited for why the BD would arrive later. Both releases will include both Streamline Pictures and Manga Entertainment US English dubs, the Japanese original audio, and English subtitles.

Besides an already recorded commentary track by Reed Nelson, extras were not announced in detail. The people working on the project have a few ideas in mind, including an entirely optional edited-for-cursing version of the Manga Entertainment dub, some unused storyboards put into animatic form, preproduction art, multiple subtitle tracks, or even Cliff Hanger footage and audio. However, because special features need licensor approval, these are only possibilities and not guarantees of inclusion.

On an eerily similar note, Studio Ghibli today revealed a new Japanese megaset of Hayao Miyazaki's theatrical films, as far back as The Castle of Cagliostro all the way up to The Wind Rises, including a previously unreleased TV pilot film. It's roughly $600 for the Blu-ray version of this set, which lands in mid-July, but if you can wait a while, the standalone Blu-ray will be out August 6th. This marks the first time that Cagliostro has been inducted as part of the Ghibli ga Ippai collection proper (the 2001 DVD release called it a Ghibli ga Ippai "Special"). No announcements on extras or language features yet, but the listing mentions that the BD will be "remastered from the latest HD master," which seems to imply that it is not using a fresh HD transfer, rather maximizing the existing HD one seen on VAP's previous release in 2008 and other international releases. Only time will tell how the picture quality differs. And of course, that makes one wonder which transfer Discotek will use for the North American release, and the answer is: we don't know yet! Stay tuned.