Sangokushi Daiichibu Eiyuu-tachi no Yoake (HD)

This has been in the works for a while. High-definition versions of the Sangokushi movies appeared on Japanese streaming sites in the spring of 2019. It has taken more than two years to move Orphan's standard-definition scripts to these raws. Our fans (all seven of them) might rightly ask, "What took so long?" Well, a couple of things:

1. The web streams were at the wrong frame rate - 29.97 fps instead of 23.976 fps. This normally wouldn't matter much, but it wrecked the extensive frame-by-frame typesetting in the originals. It took 16 months to persuade an encoder to transcode the original streams down to the right frame rate.
2. The typesetting had to be redone more or less completely. The original encode was anamorphic; the high-definition raws are not. The caused any sign set at an angle to be askew when scaled. (I don't know why.) In addition, the original encode had less visible jitter than the high-definitions streams; that required more frame-by-frame typesetting.
   
3. Fatigue. I had watched these movies multiple times in the original project and more times while scaling to the high-definitions raws. I just couldn't bear to watch them again for the final release check.
   

So, not reasons exactly, but at least some excuses.

Here's an example of what went wrong when the typesetting was simply scaled. With no rework, the sign at 1:02:59 looked like this:

It should have looked like this:

The scaled sign is at the wrong angle; it's not parallel to the stonework.

The original blog post covers Sangokushi Daiichibu Eiyuu-tachi no Yoake (Sangokushi: Dawn of the Heroes) in great detail; I see no need to repeat it. This first movie in the series is probably the best. It has some great set pieces, such as Liu Bei's initial encounter with and escape from the Yellow Turbans. The cast is relatively small at this stage, so the action is easy to follow. It has compelling villains in Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu. And it keeps the moralizing to a minimum.

Iri translated all three movies, which are the equivalent of a two-cour TV series. Sunachan, who has since left the team, checked all the names. Yogicat timed the originals and tweaked the timing for the new raws. I edited and typeset (twice). BeeBee and Topper3000 QCed the original release; TougeWolf did a thorough check of this one. The encoder asked to remain anonymous. He's holding out for real Blu-rays.

So if you're ready for another stroll through the Three Kingdoms era, this time in high-definition, you can get Sangokushi Daiichibu Eiyuu-tachi no Yoake from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.