Dimension W has been out for over a year, so where's the blu-ray release? The extra ova episode included being the most important point in the matter, but blu-ray makes everything better so archive copies for rewatching purposes should always be in blu-ray.
Well, here's your answer: https://www.funimation.com/shop/home-video/season-one-bld-00505/
So at the end of May, you can pay fifty bucks to watch Dimension W in blu-ray, without even the new episode included. But is watching a series you can watch for free so long as it's not in blu-ray, in blu-ray, really worth fifty bucks? Blu-ray is great and all, but come on. Really? Plus, wouldn't a digital download be better than a blu-ray disk anyway, because it's more portable as a computer file that can be played anywhere than as a disk that requires a special blu-ray player?
Because Funimation has this crappy English release no one wants at this price, which doesn't even include the bonus ova episode that Japanese blu-ray purchasers got, the pirating world is too afraid to post their own free releases of the material. The end result is that no one gets to watch Dimension W in blu-ray, because no one is going to buy a tiny graphical upgrade to a series for fifty bucks.
The same is probably true of other notoriously missing blu-ray fansubs of other series -- like Utawarerumono 2, Sailor Moon Crystal, Love Live! Sunshine, Fate/Kaleid Liner 3rei and Kuromukuro. They were probably licensed by US companies and pirates fled like rats from a ship to avoid the threat of lawsuits.
The reason Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls never got a blu-ray release is probably because everyone assumed Doki would do it, so didn't bother, and then Doki never got around to doing it. Doki hasn't been very timely as of late, putting projects on the backburner for years or decades at a time.
The reason why Ranma 1/2's oavs and movies never got a blu-ray release is because no one appreciates how awesome Ranma is so no one even noticed when the blu-ray versions of these episodes were released in Japan years ago. *sigh*
After waiting years for movement on these various shows' blu-ray versions, it may be time to retire the very concept that every show will get a fansubbed blu-ray release. While Coalgirls, Thora and others were at the top of their game, this was just a matter of course, but the environment has changed and thus so have the outcomes.
If a couple years pass and there's still no sign of blu-ray anything, my only choice is to just rewatch the original as-aired tv series. Sailor Moon Crystal season 1 came out in 2014. Only the first seven episodes were ever released, fansubbed, in blu-ray. After three years of waiting, it doesn't look like any of the rest of the series is going to happen. Since it's both fun and my sworn duty to not only watch but also rewatch all shows I label great anime, I have to watch what's on hand to watch and just give up on the dream of anything better.
Having finished my rewatch of Naruto (aside from the final two episodes which haven't even aired yet, so I haven't even watched them yet much less had the opportunity to rewatch them), this is a golden opportunity to catch up on my sadly-not-blu-ray-but-still-in-need-of-a-rewatch-great-anime backlog.
This includes shows like Sailor Moon Crystal, Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls, and Utawarerumono 2. (technically there is a blu-ray version of Uta 2 fansubbed but at 100mb per file it's worse quality than even the tv version so what's the point?)
It does not include Ojamajo, since Doremi is still working on an HD release of that series. However slow the progress, it's still steady, and the project hasn't been abandoned, so waiting will eventually be rewarded in this case.
It does not include Dimension W, because who knows, maybe someone will pirate the blu-ray version released by funimation in late May. But if nothing happens for yet another year it will certainly become a priority.
The rule of thumb will be that, if no progress is being seen on the HD front, I'll rewatch any anime labelled as 'great' in my top anime rankings before three years have passed starting from the date of its last released episode. It's a little stricter standard than before's ('I'll rewatch a show whenever it comes out in blu-ray'), but I'll manage.
Meanwhile, March Madness has begun. Whee!
Meanwhile, I finished volume 8 of Baccano and have moved on to volume 9. There are 20 translated volumes in all so this is going to take a while.
Meanwhile, I'm 3/4 of the way through Berseria's listening project. Just a little longer and, like Naruto's rewatch, a multi-year project will finally be complete.
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