Just because your favourite anime finally aired on television, that doesn’t mean you’ve seen the final product. There’s still room to get better.
When anime get DVD or Blu-ray releases, certain scenes or characters are tweaked — or even completely redrawn. There’s a variety of reasons for this, such as having more time to get everything just right or the original art not being up to snuff.
Then there are movie versions, such as Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, which can redo the original broadcast anime, but with bigger budgets, more staff, and, as with the home releases, more time.
But there are other reasons for the DVD and Blu-ray changes. The home release makes it possible to add content that might not be possible on network television, such as extreme violence or a heavy dose of adult content.
Then, there are the changes made when the shows are shown on different networks — or when they make the jump to cable.
In a way, these changes make the home video releases the final cut — which makes owning them more enticing for fans. Yes, the tweaks are a way to whip up sales. But they’re more than that: They’re a window into the process of making anime.
Below you can find an array of examples from over the years. Some of the changes are easy to spot. Others are not.
Note: The images on the left or on the top of another are typically the original broadcast ones, while the images on the right or on the bottom are the tweaked or corrected ones.
Photos: まっち部屋, 週刊ネタバレちゃんねる, Ciao, Biglobe, Komopse, Maipote, Nanohass, himarin, Teleani, Chiqjin_News, Tntakr11, Nanoha, Zakki, Yaraon, Yaraon, Youkouissen, Caviglia, Azure, Kazu Mugen, Xuite, Milky
Comments
11 responses to “Oh The Ways Anime Changes”
My eyes would constantly skip back and forth between these images until one of the pair would look completely ridiculous, but not always the same one.
Thank you Kotaku for reminding me of just how atrocious the TV version of StrikerS was. . . Strange how you didn’t use the image from the TV version, that made the main character look like she was about to kill someone for insubordination.
Why the hell are you comparing the Neon Genesis Evangelion tv series to the rebuild movies. They really don’t have anything to do with eachother quality wise.
inb4 looking up manga porn
They all look the same.
Just to play Devil’s advocate: The Rebuild series is a retelling of the original NGE anime, so to an extent it’s Gainax’s way of making a few more bucks off a popular franchise. And at times, it really is a scene by scene retelling.
It wasn’t just a retelling, 1.11 used a lot of the actual animation from the show, with some CG thrown in to bring some things like laser beams and such up to snuff on HD sets. 2.22 has a lot less of that, but still uses some of the show. The 3rd is the only one with no footage from the original.
I hope you guys realize, one of the pictures (near the bottom) is blackened as a method of TV censorship, PROBABLY not because it of lazy animators.
Most of the difference looks to be quality.
There’s some subtle design changes in some, but for the most part, to me, it looks like quality for a print release.
sorry to be a dick but “there are other reasons for the DVD and Blu-ray changes. The home release makes it possible to add content that might not be possible on network television, such as extreme violence or a heavy dose of adult content.”
Why oh why don’t they include the titles for the images in the huge compilations like this…