I assume they mean the scan is from the negative (i.e original elements) and not an upscale.
powerhcm82026-01-09 07:18
Before moving to digital, anime used to be hand-painted to several layers of plastic sheets (commonly known as cels), like background and characters, and to make a frame they would photograph all the cel together to a negative film. The negative part means that the colors in the film are inverted.
And Negative scan means that taking the film for the whole show and scanning frame by frame, then inverting colors, probably doing some clean up, alignment, cropping and whatever more is necessary.
Star Trek TOS and Star Trek TNG were remastered like this, but the post-processing was probably more involved than for an anime.
I think Sakura Card Captors bluray remaster was also a negative scan. Any anime remastered from before the turn of the century is probably a negative scan remaster.
Negative scan like this can lead to extremely high-quality remasters. This is also why you can find remaster of stuff from the 90 or decades before in 4k, but not for 2000, because in 2000 most production for movies and tv shows was mastered in digital, sometimes they have the negative films, but they are unedited, sometimes they don't even have that because it was recorded with digital cameras.
paperiveitsi2026-01-09 12:27
post-2000 anime still on cels from the top of my head:
- Sazae-san (went digital in 2013 (yes, crazy))
- Inuyasha (went digital in 2003; ep 99)
- Detective Conan (went digital in 2002; ep 284)
- Detective Conan 6th Movie (2002)
- Patlabor 3rd Movie (2002)
- Hajime no Ippo (2000-2002)
- Mahoromatic (2001)
- Noir (2001)
- Gakuen Senki Muryou (2001)
- Detective Conan 5th Movie (2001)
- Millenium Actress (2001)
- Cowboy Bebop Movie (2001)
Mahoromatic and Noir are the only TV anime here that are also widescreen, which is interesting. Betterman was also widescreen, but that was in 1999. As far as I know, these three are the only TV anime that are both on cels and not in 4:3.
Silcaria2026-01-09 05:37
Hopefully, **Desert Rose** next.
ReddiTrawler20212026-01-09 09:36
I'm happy to have seen this OAV, and I hope more people will see and enjoy it.
IKeepDoingItForFree2026-01-09 10:31
Heres hoping someone like Discotek or MediaOCD decides to picks it up and releases it here - or the JP release has EN subs like a few titles recently have been doing so importing is viable despite the higher costs.
Commentaires
And Negative scan means that taking the film for the whole show and scanning frame by frame, then inverting colors, probably doing some clean up, alignment, cropping and whatever more is necessary.
Star Trek TOS and Star Trek TNG were remastered like this, but the post-processing was probably more involved than for an anime.
I think Sakura Card Captors bluray remaster was also a negative scan. Any anime remastered from before the turn of the century is probably a negative scan remaster.
Negative scan like this can lead to extremely high-quality remasters. This is also why you can find remaster of stuff from the 90 or decades before in 4k, but not for 2000, because in 2000 most production for movies and tv shows was mastered in digital, sometimes they have the negative films, but they are unedited, sometimes they don't even have that because it was recorded with digital cameras.
- Sazae-san (went digital in 2013 (yes, crazy))
- Inuyasha (went digital in 2003; ep 99)
- Detective Conan (went digital in 2002; ep 284)
- Detective Conan 6th Movie (2002)
- Patlabor 3rd Movie (2002)
- Hajime no Ippo (2000-2002)
- Mahoromatic (2001)
- Noir (2001)
- Gakuen Senki Muryou (2001)
- Detective Conan 5th Movie (2001)
- Millenium Actress (2001)
- Cowboy Bebop Movie (2001)
Mahoromatic and Noir are the only TV anime here that are also widescreen, which is interesting. Betterman was also widescreen, but that was in 1999. As far as I know, these three are the only TV anime that are both on cels and not in 4:3.