• An inability to let go of the past

Exper Zenon

Plot synopsis:

Zenno, a master gamer, has been offered a chance to play the newly-released game, “Expers.”  But when a naked girl appears in his classroom to give him his Expers Suit, complete with real superpowers, he learns that “Expers” is not just a simple computer game – its a real-life kill-or-be-killed PvP game.  Only the “main character” of the game can survive until the end – but who is the main character?  And, perhaps more importantly, who is controlling the game?

Project notes:

I captured the video from my laserdisc (see scans below).  This was my first “serious” attempt at video cleanup, and it turned out to be unusually difficult.  My “usual” methods that I developed only later really didn’t work well here.  I had a lot of trouble with artifacts, but I got most of them cleaned up.  There is still a problem with anti-aliasing in some scenes, which was introduced during the (imperfect) deinterlace.  But I swear, this is cleaned up as much as I am able with my current level of experience.  Perhaps I need to defeat some AV Expers.

The script was timed by “inactive,” who also arranged for the translation, and I did a lot of script editing.  Unfortunately, I lost contact with inactive, so I am now proceeding on my own.

I do not currently consider the script to be 100%.  There are some segments that are a bit weird, and the ending song is not translated or even romanized, which I strongly prefer.  But I never had any direct access to the translator who worked on this, and my contact who I was originally working with on this has vanished for now.  I hope someday I can get somebody to help me correct these faults.

Availability:

v1.0 available for download

Laserdisc scans:

AVISynth script (video 4.0):

AVISource(“ZenonRECAP-LAGARITH.avi”)
TDeint(mode=2, mtnmode=1, blim=100, type=1, sharp=true, denoise=true, tryWeave=true, slow=2)
crop(6,0,-12,0)
Spline64Resize(640,480)
FFT3DFilter(sigma=3.0, plane=4, bw=48, bh=48, bt=4, ow=16, oh=16, sharpen=0, interlaced=false)
vmToon()

7 Responses to “Exper Zenon”

  • pukidesu says:

    I downloaded the scans from your website and waiting when you make a release with your Lds. Thank you for the rare old anime. I look forward to future releases.

  • raquiel says:

    thanks for that release!
    and great work on the video cleaning, I was really impressed with the quality

    • erik says:

      Thank you raquiel – but once I get the ending theme translated and subtitled, I will actually be re-cleaning the video as part of a 2.0 release. I have since learned a superior way to deinterlace (replacing TDeint for AnimeIVTC), which in turn seems to require less denoising with FFT3D, which I have also leanred how to use more effectively).

  • Jay says:

    Thanks for this! Downloaded on a whim, and really enjoyed it, fun film! Great quality :)

  • Jon says:

    Just wondering if the DOMO-PPP release is actually a v3 or is just something he named as such.

    • erik says:

      Eh. That’s inactive’s doing. We were allegedly working together, but with that release I’ve given up on that. The script may be different – I gather it is, but I haven’t checked yet, and he didn’t bother to let me know there was an updated script (if, in fact, it is). In the end, joke’s on him – I have the original video source, not him, and if I decide to rerelease it will be with a cleaner video. I’ve actually made some strides in that regard, but Exper Zenon is actually unusually difficult footage to work with.

  • djmasturbeat says:

    wow, i remember hearing about this one, but never saw it
    thanks for another rarity.
    i hope you stick around, since so many classic anime groups have packed it in.

    time to dl this classic

  • Leave a Reply