foreword

Anime movies in 4:3 cropped to 16:9


Before the mid 2000's traditional animation was often drawn in the 4:3 format.
Today, a lot of the old movies in 4:3 are remastered in 16:9 fullscreen.
To fill the display, the image is zoomed in and cropped vertically.
This represents a destruction of roughly 25% of the picture.

Here I will try to present the evidence for each movie I suspect to have been cropped and rest my case for the superiority of the original format.



2018-07-04

Genma Taisen (1983)


Directed by Rintaro with character design by Katsuhiro Otomo, Genma Taisen (a.k.a. Harmagedon), while having an admittedly flawed script, features stunning animation and cinematography, and some of the most impressive visuals of its time. In particular, the flames and lava effects are a must see for any animation enthusiast.






Bluray :

The 2009 bluray is presented in 1.85:1 format, letterboxed on a 16:9 display.
Here's a screenshot :






DVD :

Looking at the same image from a previous DVD edition we can see that the bluray has been cropped both vertically and horizontally since the frame here is visibly bigger in height and width (extract found online) :






Trailer :

The original trailer (also found online) shows the full height of the frame, demonstrating that the movie has not been produced in widescreen originally.






Full frame :

Combining the width of the DVD with the height of the trailer, we can reconstruct what would be the full frame of the movie (bluray frame in yellow) :






Conclusion :

Genma Taisen is not a widescreen movie
Its original aspect ratio is probably close to 1.41:1.
Here we have an extreme case of cropping where almost 30% of the image is missing from the bluray edition.



Other comparison screenshots :





2018-06-06

Robot Carnival (1987)


Robot Carnival is a 1987 OVA (also released in theatres) composed of several shorts of varied aesthetics featuring some of the most detailed and smooth animation ever created.






Bluray :

The 2018 remastered Bluray is presented in 1.85:1 format, letterboxed on a 16:9 display.
In this screenshot from "Presence" (by Yasuomi UMETSU), the closeup seems a bit too extreme :






Japanese Trailer :

The original japanese trailer (a bluray bonus) reveals that Robot Carnival was originally produced for the 4:3 video format and then cropped vertically for widescreen theatrical release.
Here we can see the full frame of the same shot :





Production documents :

The layouts and key animation drawings (found online or in the extras) were apparently drawn in a 1.37:1 rectangle (the standard aspect ratio for 35mm film), but with thin lines delimiting the 1.85:1 ratio within the frame.




The original storyboards themselves seem to have been drawn with the widescreen ratio in mind.





Conclusion :

Robot Carnival is originally a non-widescreen OVA, probably produced in the standard 1.37:1 aspect ratio and released in 4:3 on video.

It has also been released as a widescreen 1.85:1 movie, cropped vertically (except for "Cloud" which was kept full frame). The bluray version is a remaster of an american widescreen copy of the film.

The short documentary on the bluray states that "according to Kazufumi Nomura (the producer), widescreen is the prefered format for the film".
On the contrary, I think the full untrimmed frame should be the preferred format to fully appreciate the unmatched quality of animation of these painstakingly well-crafted shorts.



Here's a few comparison screenshots :





2018-06-04

Sirius no Densetsu (1981)


Sirius no Densetsu (Sea Prince & The Fire Child) is a 1981 anime movie produced by Sanrio and one of the highest achievements of japanese animation, clearly paying hommage, in the most tasteful way, to Disney's Fantasia (especially the "Nutcracker suite" and the "Night On Bald Mountain" segments).






Bluray :

The 2013 remastered Bluray is presented in fullscreen 16:9, cropped vertically.
In this screenshot, Malta (the fire child) has the light on her head missing due to the vertical trimming :






DVD :

The 2010 american DVD is in 4:3 which clearly seems to be closer to the original format.
Looking at the same frame, here we can actually see the little light on her head.





Full frame :

The original japanese trailer presented on the 2010 american DVD shows an even slightly bigger frame than the DVD image.




Looking at this particular image from the trailer, if we add the DVD and the bluray we have a global aspect ratio of 1.39:1 which is probably close to the original format.





Conclusion :

Sirius no Densetsu is not a widescreen movie, its original aspect ratio is probably close to 1.39:1.







2018-03-28

Roujin Z (1991)


Roujin Z is a 1991 anime movie with a screenplay by Katsuhiro Otomo of Akira fame.
The main draw of the movie is the incredible biomechanical design of the futuristic hospital bed for elderly people, which is the pretext for many bravura pieces of traditional animation.






Bluray :

The 2012 remastered Bluray is presented in fullscreen 16:9, cropped vertically.
In this screenshot, the left character's head is severely cut off :







Original Trailer :

Luckily the first DVD from Manga Video featured an original japanese trailer in 4:3 which reveals a noticeably bigger image.
We can actually see the left character's face : the composition is balanced, the image makes sense.




(the characters' proportions seem slightly stretched in height compared to the bluray)




Full frame :

When stretched back a little to make the lines match, the original trailer and the bluray assembled together have a global aspect ratio of 1.34:1 which is probably very close to the original format.






Conclusion :

Roujin Z is not a widescreen movie, its original aspect ratio is probably close to 1.34:1.







Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)