Music Placement - Kei17
Editing - TeeHallums
Direction & QC - Ajay
Replacing music is a touchy subject, and as someone who wholeheartedly disagrees with the practise, I'm a big ol' hypocrite for making this thing happen. I'd like to make it clear, however, that the intention is not to improve the film, but instead to offer up a fun, nostalgia-driven alternative for fans of Kikuchi to enjoy. The experience is very different, and admittedly less grandiose than Sumitomo's truly 'epic' score, but it brings a familiar flavour to the film that I hope fans enjoy. I love both interpretations, so I hope you all do, too!
On to the nitty-gritty: we're using the theatrical cut of the film as unfortunately Kei lost all of his progress on the extended edition due to hardware failure. We're sticking with the original Japanese cast, and although there are currently no plans to produce an English-dub version, the idea hasn't been ruled out. The original 5.1 mix has been maintained, so fans with surround sound can get the most out of their systems. As there slightly different timings between regions, we will be releasing two versions (audio only, of course): one that will sync to the Japanese release, and one for the US release. I'll put together a tutorial on how to mux together the streams for those who don't know. It's pretty simple, I promise!
[spoiler][/spoiler]
And we are go!
US Synced Tracks - Stereo // 5.1 Surround
JP Synced Tracked - Stereo // 5.1 Surround
Again, if you don't have a 5.1 system, we do recommend the stereo mixdown. Although your media player may downmix 5.1 automatically, it's probably not going to be as accurate as our manual effort.
If you notice any issues, let us know, and we'll release a v2 if necessary. Hope you enjoy!
Here's two trailers myself and Tee put together. Nothing serious or really representative of the product, but they're fun all the same!
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Muxing Guide:
Rip your Blu-ray to PC with something like MakeMKV. You can either use the trial or find a free beta code on their forums. It's pretty self explanatory, but feel free to ask any questions.
First up, download MKVToolNix GUI. MKVMerge will also work, but it's essentially been discontinued at this point. Open it up!
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Drag the MKV that MakeMKV created from your Blu-ray disc into the input section (top blank box). It'll show the components that the MKV is made up of in the bottom box. Be sure to deselect the audio tracks, leaving only your video and subtitles selected.
If you're using the US release, you may want to leave your dub audio and forced subtitles selected, but that's up to you. We'll uncheck them for this tutorial.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Next, drag in the Kikuchi audio you downloaded from us! It should automatically check itself, but it's worth double-checking (oh god, the puns!) that it's enabled.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
At the bottom of the program, you can select where you want to save the file. Pick a location and hit 'Start muxing'.
All done. Easy!