Well well well… Look what we have here! My last comparison simultaneously feels like yesterday and a hundred years ago - but time has inexorably marched on, and it’s now two years later… but look at the calendar! No, it’s 2012 - and we’re in Florida! As I make these comparisons I truly get a feeling so complicated: as you might have heard, David Production significantly cut down on the Blu-Ray redraws and fixes this time around, which is honestly a real big bummer. In my opinion this part would have truly shone with a little more love and care, but what can you do?

As we speak I’ve only taken a look at episode 01 so far, but I see no reason to doubt the people who already did a surface-level comparison of the rest of cour 1 - so far (as you’ll soon see for yourself), the quantity - and quality - of changes seems to have taken a real hit. Maybe we’ll be luckier with the other two cours, but for the moment we got no choice but to take what we’ve been given.

As a little aside, since for this part David Production has decided to release the episodes for Netflix first, then for TV and then for the Blu-Rays, we basically have three different versions - that said, some of the changes introduced in the TV version have been retroactively applied to the Netflix version as well, in what is functionally a “patch”. In the interest of having the most things to talk about (and, as you’ll see, even with this caveat we’ll have scant little to analyze), I’ve decided to use the Netflix “1.0” version, although I’ll endeavour to make a note when a difference was already present in the TV version. If I don’t specify anything, you can assume that the difference is new and has been made specifically for the Blu-rays. However, as of today the image on the left of the slider will still say “TV” - this is only because I’m being a little stupid and I can’t figure out how to change it to say “NETFLIX” - it would probably take me a while to figure out a solution and I don’t want to delay this comparison any more, so for the moment I’ll leave it at that. If/when I figure it out I’ll come back and remove this line from this post!

Additionally, you might notice that I have redone all header images from scratch - the previous ones honestly looked like complete ass, and I decided they were long due a rehaul. Hopefully y’all like them! Without further ado, then, it’s finally time to take a look at Stone Ocean #01, aptly titled “Stone Ocean”!

Let’s dive right into this titular ocean of stone, shall we?

• This part’s very first difference is a rather underwhelming one - this section here has just been made a little brighter:

• Here, the date has been changed from the 11th of November to the 6th of November, to reflect the way it was in the original manga. This change was already present in the TV version, and was also added to the Netflix version at a later date:

• In this shot, the time in the top-right has been corrected from 11 PM to 11 AM and most strokes in that overlay are now much thicker. Interestingly, this change is not present in the TV version… but it was apparently “patched” into the Netflix version at some unknown time - if you watch the episode today, you’ll indeed see the corrected version. Intriguing… and puzzling:

• This scene is also slightly brighter:

• In these particular frames, Jolyne’s hands and midriff area have been retouched - her missing thumbnail has been drawn in and bits of her clothes have been recoloured here and there. As a little addendum, this is strictly speaking not a “redraw”, as those corrections were already present in other frames:

• Here we have our first brighter and sharper animation for this part, folks! Check it out:

• It’s time for a couple of credit differences, both of which were already present in the TV version, but for some reason were not retroactively added to the Netflix version! Here at the bottom, 田畑孝之 (Tabata Takayuki) was substituted with 髙松希 (Takamatsu Nozomi):

• And here, 小林大介 (Kobayashi Daisuke) was added to the credits:

• To conclude it all, the TV and Blu-ray versions both introduce a new “next time” animation, which is obviously absent from the Netflix version:

Aaand this concludes the comparison for the first episode of Stone Ocean! We’ve had Blu-ray-exclusive changes, differences that were introduced to the TV version and reflected in the Netflix episodes as well, changes that were added to Netflix but not to the TV broadcast… The only thing I’m sad about is that it was all extremely minor. Hopefully the next episodes will have something a little meatier to analyze, and if not maybe cours 2 and 3! For now I’ll be saying goodbye, and…