[PPP-RAW] To-Y (DVD)

Piyo Piyo Productions presents: To-Y 7/11/2015

Project notes: I am defeated.

To-Y is one of my all-time favorites. I am the proud owner of a To-Y laserdisc – one of the rarest and most valuable laserdiscs ever made. Back in the 1990s, a To-Y laserdisc would fetch over $600 on the open market. My To-Y laserdisc has been autographed by storyboardist Yuzo Sato, and as such I have no idea what it is worth. And I never intend to find out, as my autographed To-Y laserdisc will only be pried from my cold dead fingers. It currently hangs, framed, in my dining room, along with a number of other autographed LDs.

Being that this title is so rare, I wanted to do my bit towards preserving it. I wanted to compress it in x265 and make a softsub version of it, with switchable music subtitles, similar to how I did Love Live Alive.

Alas, it was not to be. To-Y is exceptionally difficult footage to work with. It has the worst case of the rainbows I have ever seen, and is full of very fine lines and very bright washed-out scenes – intentional, unlike the rainbowing issue. I managed to clean up most, but not all, of the rainbows, but the end results... eh. I just could not make a version that looks anything near as good as what the To-Y Restoration Committee did many years ago. Their version is compressed in x263, and it looks marvelous. Its hardsubbed, and they made some choices with the script I would not have made, but so it goes.

You win, To-Y RC. Good job, and thank you.

As such, I am just releasing this in straight DVD format – hopefully somebody more talented than I can take a crack at this someday.