http://crystalcomparisons.com/madmanrefusesviz/

This is some news to share, but Australian Anime Distributor, Madman Entertainment, addressed the situation, involving releasing the remastering of the classic 90s Sailor Moon. Here’s what they have to say…

Greetings! Many of you have been asking about our release plans for Sailor Moon, when it will be available to buy, what masters we are using, etc… well, on the first point, we can now confirm that the first collection – consisting of 24 episodes – is currently planned for a DVD and paid digital platforms release on April 15, 2015. The first print run of the DVD will also include bonus materials, to be confirmed at a later date. In an effort to deliver the best possible product we can – and in consideration of your feedback on the quality of other versions of the series available internationally – we have created our own release from scratch using high quality, remastered standard definition materials. At this stage there are no true HD (high definition) materials available for Sailor Moon and we cannot confidently create a Blu-ray release that we feel would measure up to the high standards that fans of the show deserve. Hopefully this will be addressed in the not too distant future. We are looking forward to finally bringing fans in Australia and New Zealand a remastered Sailor Moon release!

What this means is that Madman will be remastering the series themselves, instead of using Viz’s “remasters”. To Viz, it’s not only embarrassing that how their remastering is done got so many complaints, but makes Viz look bad for even not taking those complaints into consideration to even double check and fix. Sure, Viz is addressing one area, which is “letterboxing”, but the video quality, the number of episode per set, and no re-releasing the set with everything fixed, are raising plenty of eyebrows.

I dunno if this is the first time Madman Entertainment refused any North American remastering of an anime, but this says it all.

This also leaves the door open for HOW Madman fares on their remastering. We’ll have to see, come April.

To Viz: This is not very good, when even international distributors wouldn’t accept your remasters. My advice to you is to work out the kinks and listen to the fans. I know you stated that you are giving us, the fans, what we want. But if there’s complaints in how you remaster them–and there’s plenty, just check around Amazon–then don’t ignore us. If you’re doing it for us, make sure to keep that statement true and work that out. Australia is an example of what you need to work on.

Another thing, Viz…label your home video releases as PART ONE or something on the box. 99.9% of series releases have that labeled, so what’s wrong about labeling it on the font of the box, instead of relying us to look at the back or side of the case, for the answer? You did it to Ranma 1/2 and plenty of others, but why not Sailor Moon?

SOURCE OF MADMAN’S STATEMENT: http://www.madman.com.au/news/an-update-on-our-sailor-moon-release/