D. Gray-Man: Season One, Part One (a J!-ENT Anime Blu-ray Disc Review)

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An entertaining anime series with cool characters and character design plus a captivating and action-packed storyline.  The first long anime TV series on Blu-ray from FUNimation Entertainment and another series worth having in your anime on Blu-ray collection!

Images courtesy of © KATSURA HOSHINO/SHUEISHA, TV TOKYO, DENSETSU, TMS. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: D. Gray-Man: Season One, Part One

DURATION: 13 Episodes (300 Minutes)

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition 16×9, Dolby True HD English 5.1 and Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0, Subtitles: English

RATED: TV 14

COMPANY: FUNimation Entertainment

RELEASE DATE: January 5, 2010

Originally Created by Katsura Hoshino

Directed by Osamu Nabeshima

Scenario/Script: Reiko Yoshida, Tatsuhiko Urahata

Music by Kaoru Wada

Character Design by Hideyuki Morioka

Art Director by Toru Koga

Sound Director: Toru Nakano

Director of Photography by Eiji Tsuchida

Animation by TMS Entertainment

Featuring the voices of:

Sanae Kobayashi/Todd Haberkorn as Allen Walker

Shizuka Itou/Luci Christian as Lenalee Lee

Ai Shimizu/Cherami Leigh as Road Kamelot

Hiroki Touchi/Christopher R. Sabat as General Cross Marian

Hirosh Yanaka/Colleen Clinkenbeard as Daisya Barry

Hozumi Goda as Suman Dark

Junpe Takiguchi/Jason Liebricht and Todd Haberkorn as The Earl of Millenium

Katsuyuki Konishi/J. Michael Tatum as Komui Lee

Kenichi Suzumura/Jason Liebricht as Lavi

Kenta Miyake/Sonny Strait as Skin Boric

Kiyoshi Kawakubo as Kevin Yeegar

Megumi Toyoguchi/Colleen Clinkebeard as Miranda Lotto

Mitsuo Iwata/Eric Vale as Arystar Krory

Ryotaro Okiayu as Reever Wenhamm

Takahiro Sakurai/Travis Willingham as Yu Kanda

Takaya Hashi/Jerry Russell as Froi Tiedoll

Takeshi Aono/R. Bruce Elliott as Bookman

Toshiyuki Morikawa/Brad Hawkins As Tyki Mikk

Darkness is moving in, and young exorcist Allen Walker is humanity’s greatest hope against the wicked forces conspiring to bring civilization to its knees. Akuma – cruel spirits born of tragedy and lost souls – lurk in every shadow, willing and eager to do the bidding of their leader, the dread Millennium Earl. With an eye cursed to see evil in its truest form and blessed with an arm to slay soul-devouring demons, Allen stands ready to confront the gathering storm. Should he fail, Innocence will be lost forever.

In 2004, mangaka Katsura Hoshino’s “D. Gray-Man” was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump Magazine with 19 manga collected manga volumes currently released.

With the manga series popularity, in 2006, “D. Gray-Man” received its anime adaptation and in three years, a total of 103 episodes were featured in Japan on TV Tokyo and also received various video game series, soundtracks and also novels.

FUNimation Entertainment began releasing the series in the US via 13-episode volumes on DVD (with the most recent release being the season two part two) and now the first 13 episodes (season one part one) is being released on Blu-ray.

“D. Gray-Man” focuses on the 15-year-old character, Allen Walker, who is an exorcist who works for the Black Order, an organization that is trying to stop the main antagonist Millennium Earl.   Earl wants to destroy humanity by creating an army of akuma.  What Earl does is go to those who grieve for a love one that passed away and asks them if they want to see their love one alive and if they do, they just have to call out the deceased one’s name.

In this case, Earl brings up this metal skeleton in which the soul of the dead comes alive and takes over the metal skeleton that are now akuma.  Earl then urges for these akuma to kill the person that wished them back and take over their body in order to inflict more harm on humanity.

It is the job of the exorcists to stop these akuma and kill them but for Allen, unlike others who work for the Black Order, he understands their anguish of being revived to kill and having no control over what they do.  Allen knows this from experience as he was tricked by Earl when he was young and ended up bringing his dead father Mana back to life as an akuma.  And Mana cursing Allen with an eye that can detect and see the anguish of the soul that inhabits an akuma body.

Along with others in the Black Order, Allen learns through his visits to various villages of the evil of Millennium Earl but also that he has others working for him.  And a race is on for both sides to look for 109 pieces of the “Innocence” which can be turned into anti-akuma weapons that the exorcist need to fight Earl and his akuma, while Earl wants these pieces to make sure that he can destroy them.

The main characters of “D. Gray-Man: Season One Part One” are:

• Allen Walker - A 15-year-old exorcist.  Originally adopted by Mana Walker and after Mana passed away, Allen turned him into an akuma in hopes to resurrect him.  Instead, Allen was cursed and his eye was sliced.  Allen now sports a red eye which can detect disguised akuma and his left metallic arm has become an anti-akuma weapon.  Walker now works for the Black Order Headquarters.
• Lenalee Lee - A 16-year-old exorcist whose parents were killed by akuma.  She lives with her brother Komui and both serve the Black Order HQ.  Has the ability to use the innocence and her dark boots to run very quickly, walk on water and utilizing sound waves.  Her kicks from her dark boots also cause major damage.
• Yu Kanda – A cold exorcist who doesn’t like Allen’s compassionate style and thus he and Allen are always at odds with each other.  Yu is an exorcist that fights akuma and destroys them with no questions asked.
• Komui - The chief and a scientist of the Black Order who is Lenalee’s brother.
• Lavi – An exorcist who wants to become a Bookman, a person who records the history of the world.
• The Millennium Earl – The main enemy of “D. Gray-Man” and the head of the Noah family.  He tries to tell those grieving for the deceased that he can bring them back alive but his goal is to use this treachery to create an army of akuma and destroy humanity.

“D. Gray-Man: Season One Part One” features the following 13-episodes on 2 Blu-ray discs. Here is a spoilerless summary of each episode:

Disc 1:

• EPISODE 1 – The Boy Who Hunts Akuma – The introduction of Allen Walker and while on his way to the Black Order, runs into a police officer who is being attacked by an akuma.
• EPISODE 2 – The Black Order - Allen arrives at the headquarters of The Black Order and is given a tour by Lenalee Lee.
• EPISODE 3 – The Ghost of Mater – Allen’s first confrontation with the exorcist Yu Kanda.  Allen goes on his first major mission for the Black Order with Yu.
• EPISODE 4 – Old Man of the Soil and a Lonely Night’s Aria – While on his mission with Yu, an akuma has found a way to mirror Allen.
• EPISODE 5 – Let Me Hear the Lullabye - The Iga clan try to surprise the Kouga clan in their own home territory with a surprise attack.
• EPISODE 6 – That Which Calls Out Disaster -Continuing the story of Allen and Yu on their mission.  Yu also, gets to learn more about Allen’s power and limitation.
• EPISODE 7 – Tombstone of Memories – While returning back to the Black Order, Allen runs into a child named John who’s father works as a scientist for the Black Order.  John believes he can protect the town and fight the akuma.
• EPISODE 8 – The Black Order Annihilation Incident - Komui’s new robot goes haywire inside the headquarters, causing destruction and goes after Allen.
• EPISODE 9 – The Rewinding Town – Allen and Lenalee arrive in a town in which the day has repeated itself for three months straight.  Both go to the town and investigate.

DISC 2:

• EPISODE 10 – The Bad Luck Woman’s Innocence – Allen and Linalee try to help Miranda, meanwhile Road Kamelot of the Noah family continues her observation of Allen and Lenalee.
• EPISODE 11 – Miranda Lotto’s Feelings – We find out why the town has been living the same day over and over and why Miranda is immune to it.
• EPISODE 12 – And Snow Falls Over the Town – Allen and Lenalee take on Road while Miranda displays her power of the innocent.
• EPISODE 13 – With the Coat – With Allen’s injuries and not having the ability to use his akuma-detecting eye, Earl looks to create more akuma in another village.   Meanwhile, Allen meets the exorcist Lavi.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“D. Gray-Man: Season One Part One” is featured in 1080p High Definition (16×9).  Overall, picture quality varies from episode-to-episode.  The animation and character designs are well-done.  I actually like how the characters are animated and although not a vibrant anime series (since a lot of the scenes take place indoors or during the night time, especially with a foggy atmosphere), there are colors that come out from the various visual effects from the red that comes off of Allen’s eye to the green light aura around his arm, the blue of Yu’s innocence sword or the orange and red from explosions and fire.

Part of the problem that I found is that the discoloration problems that were evident on “Samurai Champloo”, “Basilisk” and several recent Blu-ray releases shows up.  During closeups of a face, you can see these green splotchiness surrounding the faces of the characters.  But it is important to note that the splotchiness and artifacting is not as evident as the two series mentioned but it does show up from time-t0-time. But because of this, I’m guessing that for this Blu-ray release, the video is an upconvert.

As for the audio, “D. Gray-Man: Season One Part One” is featured in Dolby TrueHD English 5.1.  Dialogue is clear as it comes from the center channel, music and special effects from the front channels.  During the more intense action scenes, good use of the booming effects as the bass is nice and punchy from the subwoofer and sound effects are strong coming from the surround channels. So, for the most part, lossless English track is pretty solid.  Voice acting was also very well-done on the English dub track as well.

As for the Japanese track, on the back of the package it says that the audio is Dolby TrueHD 2.0 but when you see the menu of the disc, it is Dolby Digital 2.0 and the signal coming from the player and receiver shows it as Dolby Digital, so it’s a missprint on the rear packaging.

I did enjoy the Japanese vocal track and for those who prefer watching their anime in Japanese, if you have a modern home theater receiver and a good 5.1, 7.2 or higher setup, you can have a more immersive setup by setting audio to come out on all channels.  But it is important to note that the Japanese audio track is not lossless and I’m sure that anime Blu-ray fans who were excited about a Japanese lossless soundtrack may have issue with this.

Subtitles are in English.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“D. Gray-Man: Season One, Part One” comes with the following special features:

• Episode 2 Audio Commentary – Featuring audio commentary for episode 2 by Asst. ADR Director and voice actor (for Allen Walker) Todd Haberkorn and Luci Christian (voice actress of Lenalee Lee).  Todd talks about the episode and being a voice actor trying out for a role and Luci Christian talks about being a writer and voice actress for the series.
• Textless Opening and Ending Theme – Textless themes for Abingdon Boys School’s “Innocent Sorrow” and the ending theme “Snow Kiss” by NIRGILIS.
• Trailers – Featuring FUNimation Entertainment trailers.

“D. Gray-Man” so far is an entertaining anime series.  It happens to also be the longest anime series out on Blu-ray in the US and with over a hundred episodes, it’s going to take some dedication to follow the series with each volume only containing 13-episodes.

In some way, I found “D. Gray-Man” as appealing as “Fullmetal Alchemist” but with only 13-episodes so far, it’s too early to tell how the overall season progresses.  One thing that I did enjoy about this TV series is that each episode is connected and there are not as many filler episodes.  One thing that tends to drag a series is too many stand-alone episodes and the good news about “D. Gray-Man” is that there is always an episode arc in regards to Allen’s missions, so that was quite a positive.

Character-wise, so far I’ve enjoyed the supporting characters such as Lenalee Lee, Yu Kanda, Komui and a few others.  Although, I wonder if the entire series primarily focuses on Allen (which it does so far) and if Lenalee will have her own episodes further into the series.  I also enjoyed the character designs and also the costume designs of the characters.  So, my first impression plot-wise is that for the first 13-episodes, so far, so good.

As for the Blu-ray release, I know that there are people who may be dissatisfied that there is no Japanese Dolby TrueHD soundtrack despite the package displaying a lossless soundtrack but I will say the English lossless soundtrack was very good and well-acted, also there is good use of the surround channels and the subwoofer during the action sequences.

There are not as many special features included on this Blu-ray release and it would have been good to have a few more commentary tracks instead of just the one for episode 2.

Again, it’s important to emphasize that “D. Gray-Man” is a 103-episode TV series, so it is a much longer series compared to the average 13 to 26-episode anime TV series.  I do wish there was 26-episodes included on each Blu-ray release but with this series being released not long after the DVD release in the US (and is still being released in the US at this time), I can understand.

So, before stepping into “D. Gray-Man”, you may want to make sure you are committed to staying the course of purchasing multiple volumes of this series on Blu-ray.  Overall, I found “D. Gray-Man” to be an entertaining series thus far and is another anime TV series worth adding to your anime on Blu-ray collection.

Tags: a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review, anime, Blu-Ray, D.Gray-Man, Funimation Entertainment

 

Basilisk – The Complete Series (a J!-ENT Anime Blu-ray Disc Review)

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Action-packed, well-written and overall a well-rounded anime on Blu-ray release!  A truly captivating, adrenaline pumping, action-packed anime series based on the award winning novel by Futaro Yamada and manga series by Masaki Segawa.  Definitely a title worth having in your anime on Blu-ray collection!

Images courtesy of © 2005 Futaro Yamada-Masaki Segawa-Kodansha/Gonzo. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Basilisk – The Complete Series

DURATION: 24 Episodes (600 Minutes)

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition 16×9, Dolby True HD English 5.1 and Japanese  Dolby Digital 2.0, Subtitles: English

RATED: TV MA

COMPANY: FUNimation Entertainment

RELEASE DATE: December 15, 2009

Originally Created by Futaroh Yamada

Directed by Fumitomo Kizaki

Scenario/Script: Yasuyuki Muto

Music by Kou Nakagawa

Character Design and Animation directed by Michinori Chiba

Sound Director by Yoku Shioya

Director of Photography: Kenji Fujita

Executive Producer: Koji Kajita

Producer: Hidemasa Arai, Hideyuki Nanba

Assistant Director: Yukio Nishimoto

Assisant Producer: Misato Kaneko

Anime Production by GONZO

Featuring the voices of:

Kousuke Toriumi/Troy Baker as Kouga Gennosuke

Nana Mizuki/Laura Bailey as Iga Oboro

Atsushi Imaruoka/Eric Vale as Jimushi Jyubei

Katsuhiro Kitagawa/Christopher R. Sabat as Kasumi Gyoubu

Katsui Taira/Jeremy Inman as Udono Josuke

Ken Uo/J. Paul Slavens as Amayo Jingoro

Kenji Utsumi/Jim Johnson as Nenki Mino

Misa Watanabe/Jennifer Seman as Akeginu

Ryuusaku Chidiwa/Chris Cason as Kazamachi Shogen

Sho Hayami/Mark Stoddard as Yakushiji Tenzen

Takeshi Aono/R. Bruce Elliot as Azuki Rousai

Wataru Hatano/John Burgmeier as Chikuma Koshirou

Yasushi Miyabayashi as Muroga Hyouma

Youji Ueda as Kisaragi Saemon

Feudal Japan is set to bear witness to the bloody clash of titans as two fearsome ninja tribes are unleashed, one upon the other. For wretched within the Edo Castle loyalties have been severed into warring factions, as two sons struggle to inherit the title of Shogun. If this rupture goes unresolved, the Tokugawa kingdom will be torn apart. A solution must be found, one befitting a samurai family.

The Kouga and the Iga, two ninja clans with four hundred years of hostilities between them, meet at the request of Lord Ieyasu. There they learn that the peace forced upon them is to be broken by the whim of royalty, and that the outcome of this battle will determine the next Shogun. The passions of the past quickly reignite as two scrolls are sent out into the night.

Ill-fated is this event indeed, for lovers stand with hands entwined as travesty approaches on the wings of a hawk. Reared from birth as sworn enemies, Gennosuke and Oboro, each the heir of these rival clans, seek lasting peace between their peoples. But the terms have been set, and two lists seal their destinies. Two lists from which a name can only be crossed out in blood.

No mercy will be spared to the enemy.

The popular 1958 novel “The Kouga Ninja Scrolls” by Futaro Yamada was adapted into a manga series titled “Bajirisuku ~Kōga Ninpō Chō~” (Basilisk: The Koga Ninja Scrolls) in 2004-2005 by Masaki Segawa and winning the 2004 Kodansha Manga Award.

The anime series adaptation was then produced by Gonzo Studios in 2005 and is now the complete series is now available on Blu-ray courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment.

“Basilisk” is about two ninja clans at war, the Kouga and the Iga clan who have fought each other for four hundred years but a “no hostilities” pact is made to prevent the two from going into war.

We are given a glimpse of the past when the Iga clan’s Princess Ogen and the Kouga clan’s leader Danjou.  Two people from opposing clans who were planning to get married.  With the two clans living in peace, it looked as if marriage was possible until fighting began in the Iga village and survivors from the village were killed by the Kouga clan.

Needless to say, the two lovers became hated enemies but due to a “no hostilities” pact, there would be no fighting between the two clans.

Fast forward many decades later and now Ogen is the elder of the Iga Clan and Danjou of the Kouga clan.  With the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu now retiring, their is a dispute of who will be taking over as the Third Tokugawa Shogun.  So, in order to decide, Tokugawa lifts the pact and the rules are each clan can select 10 of their best ninjas.  Whoever is the last one standing and has complete control of the scroll will be the rightful heir.

As Ogen and Danjou have been waiting for this moment, their own offspring are in a similar predicament that they were in when they were younger.  Princess Oboro of the Iga clan and Gennosuke, leader of the Kouga clan are planning to get married.  With peace in their land, the two feel that their marriage can hopefully end all hostilities.

But it is too late.  For Ogen and Danjou, they know that their offspring will now face what they faced but this time, the two clans will go to war.  With Ogen and Danjou part of their clan’s top 10 ninja, the two fight each other and are the first to go down.  The Iga clan are the first to learn about the pact being lifted and while Oboro invites Gennosuke to her village, unbeknown to him is that the Iga clan are waiting to kill him.

The war begins as now Gennosuke and Oboro, two lovers are now in opposing sides of the war.  Their job is to lead their clan to annihilate the other but with the two deeply in love, which is stronger…their love for each other or their clan’s 400-year hatred for each other.

The main characters of “Basilisk – The Complete Series” are:

The Kouga Clan

• Kouga Danjou – The grandfather of Gennosuke and the leader of the Kouga clan.  His ability to create poison needles that come from his mouth.  Once engaged to the Iga chieftess Ogen.
• Kouga Gennosuke - The leader of the Kouga clan and adopted heir of Kouga Danjou.  In love and engaged to Iga clan’s Oboru.  He looks at the rivalry between the two clans as past and he and Oboro hope for a peaceful existence.  Gennosuke has the Doujutsu ability to look at people and make them kill themselves.
• Kagerou – A warrior who is known for being attractive but her sexual arousal is her biggest weapon as she can turn poisonous.  She has feelings for Gennosuke.
• Kisaragi Saemon – Older brother of Okoi and a specialist in stealth operations.  Saemon can take on the identity of anyone and is literally a maser of disguise.
• Kasumi Gyoubu – Tall, strong and has the ability to merge to a solid surface and become one with it.  Specializes in stealth operations.
• Okoi - The younger sister of Kisaraki Saemon.  Known to be a tomboy and is quite busty, she has the ability to absorb a person’s blood if her skin touches theirs.  The more skin she touches, the quicker she can sap them of their blood.
• Udono Jousuke – The overweight and not-so-smart member of the Kouga clan.  Very agile and his ability is his body turning to rubber.
• Jimusha Jubei – A torso of a man (no arms, hands, legs or feet) who can slither like a snake. Uses his tongue to hold a sword.
• Kazamachi Shogen – A person that a body that is malformed and has an appearance of a spider.  He can excrete a sticky substance which he can use as a weapon.
• Muroga Hyouma – Has the Doujutsu technique that Gennosuke has but is not able to control it and thus, he must have his eyes closed permanently.  He is known for teaching Gennosuke his kindness to people including his rivals.

The Iga Clan

• Ogen – The adopted chieftess of the Iga clan who was once engaged to the Kouga clan’s Danjou.  When raising Oboru, she never told Oboru about the rivalry between the Iga clan and the Kouga clan.
• Oboro – The princess of the Iga clan engaged to Gennosuke of the Kouga clan.  Because of the way she was raised away from negativity, she was never told why her clan and the Kouga clan never got along.  Her special ability is the ability to neutralize anyone with abilities by looking at them.  She assumes leadership of the clan after her grandmother’s death.
• Yakushiji Tenzen – The second-in-command of the Iga clan.  Has the ability to come back to life after death.  Is interested in making sure the Iga clan is at war with the Kouga clan.
• Akeginu – The bodyguard of Oboro and known to be seductive but uses her power to secrete blood from her body and use it as a weapon.
• Chikuma Koshirou – Tenzen’s apprentice and has the ability to create whirlwinds with his breath and shred people up with it.
• Amaya Jingoro – An assassin that can turn to liquid and is very dependent on water but his weakness is salt water.
• Hotarubi – The girlfriend of Yashamaru who has the ability to call upon her pink butterflies to use as weapons or as a defensive measure.
• Mino Nenki – An assassin that has a lot of hair on him which he can control and extend.  He also can also make them become like spikes or as an extra appendage to grasp or swing on trees.
• Azuki Rousai – The second oldest of the Iga clan known for his over-sized head.  Has the ability to stretch and kill his enemies through his powerful hits or kicks.
• Yashamaru – The boyfriend of Hotarubi.  Very cocky and has the ability to create wires and control them to slice people up.

“Basilisk – The Complete Series” features the following 24-episodes on 3 Blu-ray discs. Here is a spoilerless summary of each episode:

Disc 1:

• EPISODE 1 – Destiny – The introduction of the story of Ogen and Danjou.
• EPISODE 2 – Last Rendezvous - The lifting of the pact and the story of Gennosuke and Oboro.
• EPISODE 3 – The Onslaught of War – The Iga clan are the first to make their strike against one of the members of the Kouga clan.
• EPISODE 4 – The Horned Owl – Oboro suspects that her clan is trying to kill Gennosuke and Udono.
• EPISODE 5 – The Surprise Attack - The Iga clan try to surprise the Kouga clan in their own home territory with a surprise attack.
• EPISODE 6 – Longing in the Rain -The Kouga clan’s Saemon and Gyoubu take on the Iga clan’s Yashamaru.
• EPISODE 7 – Blood-Sucking Seductress – Oiku of the Kouga clan is captured but she reveals her ability.
• EPISODE 8 – Cage of Blood - With Oiku now at the mercy of the Iga clan, will her clan be able to rescue her in time?
• EPISODE 9 – Farewell – Gennosuke finds out about the truth of the pact being lifted.
• EPISODE 10 – Divine Mandate – A runthrough of what took place from episodes 1-9.

DISC 2:

• EPISODE 11 – On Their Own – Hotarubi and Nenki of the Iga clan try to make a surprise attack against Gennosuke and the Kouga clan.
• EPISODE 12 – Remembrance – Saemon takes on Hotarubi. Meanwhile, Koshirou tries to make himself useful.
• EPISODE 13 – A Swarm of Butterflies – The final battle between Saemon and Hotarubi.
• EPISODE 14 – Fallen Flower – Gyoubu takes on members of the Kouga clan and another member of the Iga clan is lost.
• EPISODE 15 – Reckoning – Tenzen vs. Gyoubu.  Also, back story of why Gyoubu despites the Iga clan.
• EPISODE 16 – First Impressions – An episode featuring a back story about Gennosuke relationship with Oboro.
• EPISODE 17 – Wandering Hearts – Gennosuke takes on Tenzen.
• EPISODE 18 – A Dawn Without Light – An episode about Tenzen’s past.
• EPISODE 19 – Conspiracy – Koshirou takes on the the ninjas of the Kouga clan.  Meanwhile, Akeginu and Oboro join up with Lady Ofuku.
• EPISODE 20 – River of Mercy – Akigenu takes on Kagerou.

DISC 3:

• EPISODE 21 – With All Her Heart – Tenzen goes after Kagerou.
• EPISODE 22 – The Haunted – Tenzen vs. Gennosuke.  The secret of Tenzen is revealed.
• EPISODE 23 – Emancipation – The final battle between Gennosuke and Tenzen.
• EPISODE 24 – Requiem – The final battle with the last two standing….Gennosuke vs. Oboro.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“Basilisk – The Complete Series” is featured in 1080p High Definition (16×9).  The character designs by Michinori Chiba is quite awesome.  I really like the character designs of each of the characters and how the characters blend into the actual painted backgrounds.   Part of the challenge that I’m sure Gonzo had to face is the number of characters featured in this series but for the most part, the animation was solid.

As for colors, colors are not as extremely vibrant compared to a series such as “Burst Angel – The Complete Series” on Blu-ray which utilize a lot of reds and oranges but its important to emphasize that “Basilisk – The Complete Series” is a TV series and not an OVA or film.  The series takes place tends to put more emphasis on the character designs rather than the surroundings (since mostly everything is either Japanese homes, walls or trees and lush green scenery).  Also, focusing on the action sequences and the characters abilities.

Not all is perfect with this upconvert though.  There are a few times that I’ve noticed compression artifacts and also some discoloration (nowhere near the amount of colorful globs that I spotted on the Blu-ray release of “Samurai Champloo” but you do see it during the dark sequences) which is probably due to the DNR (Digital Noise Reduction) filtering.

As for audio, the lossless audio soundtrack is primarily the English audio track which is presented in Dolby TrueHD English 5.1.  Also, included is a Dolby Digital English 2.0 (for the commentary track) and Japanese 2.0 soundtrack.  I was hoping for this anime series that the audio would include a Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack but it doesn’t.  Fortunately, the English dub was very good and was able to get into the dialogue.

The lossless soundtrack features clear dialogue coming from the center channel as the front channels features the music and sound effects.  The surround channels also feature the sound effects of swords clanging, abilities that are explosive, thunder and rainstorms, you name it…there is a good use of the surround channels in this series.  As well as the use of LFE through the subwoofer for large and short rumbles.

Subtitles are in English.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Basilisk – The Complete Series” comes with the following special features spread out onto three Blu-ray discs:

Disc 1:

• “The Onslaught of War” Audio Commentary – Featuring audio commentary by ADR Director Tyler Walker, Mark Stoddard (voice actor of Tenzen) and discussion about Tenzen’s character.

Disc 3:

• Behind the Scenes of Basilisk: Japanese Original First Press Extra Features #3 – (31:54) Featuring voice talents Kousuke Toriumi (Gennosuke), Risa Hayamizu (Kagero), Youji Ueda (Saemon) and Haruka Kimura (Okoi) discussing the figures that come with the special edition DVD releases in Japan, discussion about their characters, reading letters from fans and more.
• Behind the Scenes of Basilisk: Japanese Original Extra Features #4 – (31:22) Featuring voice talents Kousuke Toriumi (Gennosuke), Risa Hayamizu (Kagero), Youji Ueda (Saemon) and Haruka Kimura (Okoi) discussing their favorite scenes in the episode of that DVD volume and reading letters from fans.
• Behind the Scenes of Basilisk: Japanese Original Extra Features #5 - (31:22) Featuring voice talents Kousuke Toriumi (Gennosuke), Risa Hayamizu (Kagero), Tomokazu Sugita (Hattori Kyohachiro) and Fumihiko Tachiki (Hattori Hanzo) discussing their characters, the Hattori family, favorite scenes in the episode of that DVD volume and reading letters from fans.
• Behind the Scenes of Basilisk: Japanese Original Extra Features #6 - (32:39) Featuring voice talents Kousuke Toriumi (Gennosuke), Risa Hayamizu (Kagero), Tomokazu Sugita (Hattori Kyohachiro) and Fumihiko Tachiki (Hattori Hanzo) discussing their favorite scenes in the episode of that DVD volume and reading letters from fans.
• Behind the Scenes of Basilisk: Japanese Original Extra Features #7 - (33:07) Featuring voice talents Kousuke Toriumi (Gennosuke), Risa Hayamizu (Kagero), Naoki Yanagi (Yashamaru) and Miyuki Sawashiro (Hotarubi) discussing their characters, favorite scenes in the episode of that DVD volume and reading letters from fans.
• Behind the Scenes of Basilisk: Japanese Original Extra Features #8 - (32:44) Featuring voice talents Kousuke Toriumi (Gennosuke), Risa Hayamizu (Kagero), Naoki Yanagi (Yashamaru) and Miyuki Sawashiro (Hotarubi) discussing their favorite scenes in the episode of that DVD volume and reading letters from fans.
• Behind the Scenes of Basilisk: Japanese Original Extra Features #9 - (33:02) Featuring voice talents Kousuke Toriumi (Gennosuke), Risa Hayamizu (Kagero), Yasushi Miyabayashi (Hyoma) and Misa Watanabe (Akeginu) discussing their characters, favorite scenes in the episode of that DVD volume and reading letters from fans.
• History of the Ninja – A text based info. on the history of ninja.  This may be hard to read for those viewing with smaller screens.
• Cast Auditions – Audio featuring ADR director Tyler Walker who talks about the casting process and cast auditions with the American voice talent and what he was looking for.
• Textless Songs – Featuring the textles opening theme “Kouga Ninpo Cho” and the two textless closing themes “Himemurasaki” and “WILD EYES”.
• Trailers – Featuring FUNimation Entertainment trailers.

I was absolutely captivated by “Basilisk”.  Each episode had meaning… were action-packed, gripping and no filler episodes that was just making the series question myself of when certain situations were going to happen.  Each episode has its consequence and the fact that the series features so many characters with interesting capabilities, it definitely made my viewing of this series worthwhile.  I literally was watching each episode one after the other and enjoying it.

In the end, “Basilisk – The Complete Series” gets my pick for runner up for best anime TV series on Blu-ray for 2009 (behind “Fullmetal Panic! The Second Raid”).  Where “Basilisk – The Complete Series” comes up short is that the DNR filtering tends to add to the discoloration of the upconverted picture quality of the anime series and also the lack of the a lossless Japanese audio soundtrack was a bit of a bummer.  The problems that were quite evident on “Samurai Champloo” is quite visible in “Basilisk”, especially in disc 2 since most of the action take place during the night  and the color blobs become a bit more evident.

Aside from the PQ shortcoming, fortunately, the English dub was pretty solid.  For a period-based anime series, I was hoping for a lossless Japanese soundtrack but with a modern receiver, I suppose we can compensate by selecting audio on all channels.

But truthfully, the storyline of “Basilisk” is just too captivating to pass up on Blu-ray.  The original DVD’s didn’t have great picture quality to begin with, so things do look much better on Blu-ray.  I felt “Basilisk” had the best story plot-wise compared to the other anime TV series released on Blu-ray in 2009 thus far.  And for those who want more of Futaro Yamada’s “The Kouga Ninja Scrolls” can purchase the Blu-ray release of the live action film “Shinobi: Heart Under Blade” also available from FUNimation Entertainment.

For those wondering about the TV MA rating, the anime series is quite violent and there is quite a bit of blood and bod part dismemberment.  The violence is fitting for this anime series but if you are into violent anime, then “Basilisk – The Complete Series” may not be for you.

Overall, “Basilisk – The Complete Series” is a very good release with a few shortcomings.  Fans who have enjoyed anime series such as “Ninja Scroll” to action-based (and very bloody) ninja battles and many characters featured to watch and enjoy.  In the end, I feel that “Basilisk – The Complete Series” is just an enjoyable and a highly entertaining anime  that deserves being included in your anime on Blu-ray collection.

Tags: a J!-ENT Anime Blu-Ray Disc Review, anime, バジリスク 甲賀忍法帖, Basilisk, Blu-Ray, Futaro Yamada, Gonzo, Masaki Segawa

 

Samurai Champloo – The Complete Series (a J!-ENT Anime Blu-ray Disc Review)

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Humrous, action packed and stylishly hip!  From the director of “Cowboy Bebop” and “Macross Plus”, Shinichiro Watanabe wowed anime fans with the stylish “Samurai Champloo”.  Now the popular samurai action anime series receives its first entry to Blu-ray!

Images courtesy of © manglobe Shimoigusa Champloo. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Samurai Champloo – The Complete Series

DURATION: 26 Episodes (650 Minutes)

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition 16×9, Dolby True HD English 5.1 and Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0, Subtitles: English

RATED: TV PG

COMPANY: FUNimation Entertainment

RELEASE DATE: December 8, 2009

Originally Created by CLAMP

Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe

Script by Dai Sato, Keiko Nobumoto, Ryoto Sugi, Seiko Takagi, Shinichiro Watanabe, Shinji OBara, Touko Machida, Uwadan, Shimofuwato

Music by Fat John, Force of Nature, Nujabes, Tsutchie

Character Design by Hideto Komori, Kazuto Nakazawa

Art Director: Takeshi Waki

Mechanical Design by Mahiro Maeda

Anime Production by Studio Manglobe

Featuring the voices of:

Kazuya Nakai/Daniel Andrews as Mugen

Ayako Kawasumi/Kari Wahlgren as Fuu

Ginpei Sato/Kirk Thornton as Jin

Check it. The notorious Champloo crew is straight carving up the competition on Blu-Ray. Be the first one on your block to catch these buck willd samurais abusing their license to ill in high def!

Let’s break it down. Mugen’s a reckless sword-slinger with a style that’s more b-boy than Shaolin. He’s got a nasty streak that makes people want to stick a knife in his throat. The there’s Jin, a deadbeat ronin who speaks softly but carries a big blade. He runs game old-school style, but can make your blood spray with the quickness. When these roughnecks bring the ruckus, it ain’t good for anybody, especially them. Enter Fuu, the ditzy waitress who springs her new friends from a deadly jam. All she wants in return is help solving a riddle from her past. She and the boys are tracking the scent, but there’s ninety-nine ways to die between them and the sunflower samurai.

In 2004, Shinichiro Watanabe known for his directorial work on the anime “Cowboy Bebop” and “Macross Plus” returned with his latest anime “Samurai Champloo”.    The 26-episode anime series was no doubt highly anticipated due to Watanabe’s work with “Cowboy Bebop” and featured anime production by Studio Manglobe (“Sengoku BASARA”, “Ergo Proxy”).  The series spawned a manga series right after and also a Sony PlayStation 2 video game.

The anime series would receive rave reviews for its stylish presentation but also how it would be a samurai action series with slapstick comedy.  Also, featuring a hip-hop soundtrack courtesy of Watanabe’s friend DJ Tsutchie and the Japanese hip hop duo Forces of Nature, Fat Jon, Nujabes and other talented artists who would contribute to the series and have involvement in the various album soundtracks.

In terms of its stylish presentation, it helps when the series has talents such as veteran Kazuto Nakazawa (who worked on “Kill Bill Vol. 1″ and anime series such as “El Hazard”, “Blood+”, “Fatal Fury”, “Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko”) working on character designs and Mahiro Maeda (“Blue Submarine No. 6″, “Final Fantasy: Unlimited”, “Gunbuster”, “Gunsmith Cats”, “Last Exile”) working on the weapons (mechanical design) for the series.

In America, the series would debut a year later on the Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” featuring a censored (due to profanity) version and also eliminating any blood or nudity.    The anime series was released in the US by Geneon and on December 2009, the complete series is being re-released on Blu-ray courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment.

In the first episode of “Samurai Champloo”, Mugen goes into a tea house where a group of samurai thugs and a politician’s son try to intimidate patrons including waitress Fuu.  Mugen offers to take on the men if she will feed him 50 dumplings.  At first, Fuu resists but when she starts getting hassled by the men, she agrees to Mugen’s demands.  Mugen, meanwhile takes on the samurai thugs and easily defeats them.

Meanwhile, Jin is a ronin samurai had taken on the local magistrates men who were about to slay an innocent man who didn’t have enough money to pay them.  Jin then enters the tea house to get something to eat/drink but sees a fight between Mugen and the thugs.  Mugen thinks Jin is part of the group of thugs and attacks him but Jin is able to counter him.

Both Mugen and Jin start fighting to the death but with the tea house in shambles after the fight and burning down, the two are caught after they faint from smoke inhalation and now face execution for the murder of the magistrate’s son.  Meanwhile, Fuu who no longer has her job because the place had burned down now wants to focus on finding this samurai who smells like sunflowers and feels that she needs some help.  She decides that Mugen and Jin would be the perfect choice but to get them to join her, she must rescue them.

And because she is able to rescue them, the two must join her but also promise that they can not duel one another until they help her find the samurai who smells like sunflowers.  “Samurai Champloo” features a storyline which features the three as they travel from village to village, getting into trouble and also helping those in need.

“Samurai Champloo” is a series that focuses on three individuals who join together in order to find the sunflower samurai.  Their adventures take place during the Edo Period.  The main characters are:

Mugen: The wild hair, foul-mouthed wandering samurai who sports a metal-soled geta (traditional Japanese wooden sandals) and a samurai sword and wanders from village to village.  Wants to fight the best and so far, his biggest challenge has been Jin but knows he can’t fight him until they finish their quest.

Jin: The quiet, mild-mannered ronin  who wears eyeglasses and fights via the traditional kenjutsu style of the samurai.  Slow to anger but easily gets aggravated by Mugen.

Fuu: The 15-year-old girl who recruits both Mugen and Jin to find a samurai who smells like sunflowers.   She is accompanied by her pet flying squirrel named Momo.

Each of the three individuals tend to get themselves in trouble but in each episode which features an adventure as they go from village to village to find this sunflower-smelling samurai and try to make it to Nagasaki in order to find the sunflower samurai

“Samurai Champloo – The Complete Series” features the following 26-episodes on 3 Blu-ray discs.  Here is a spoilerless summary of each episode:

Disc 1:

• EPISODE 1 – Tempestuous Temperaments: An introduction to how Mugen, Jin and Fuu and how they united with each other.
• EPISODE 2 – Redeye Reprisal: A horrible ogre is supposedly killing people, is it true?
• EPISODE 3 – Hellhounds for Hire Part 1: Mugen and Jin ditch Fuu and somehow end up working for rival gangs.
• EPISODE 4 – Hellhounds for Hire Part 2: Part 2 of the storyline featuring Mugen and Jin working for rival gangs.
• EPISODE 5 – Artistic Anarchy: A kidnapper posing as an artist has Fuu on his list for his next victim.
• EPISODE 6 – Stranger Searching: Fuu takes part in an eating competition.
• EPISODE 7 – A Risky Racket: A thief has stolen Fuu’s money and the group tries to search for him.
• EPISODE 8 – The Art of Altercation: A man has been looking everywhere for a samurai wearing eyeglasses (Jin) and is out for revenge.
• EPISODE 9 – Beatbox Bandits: The group encounters a group of bandits that beatbox?

DISC 2:

• EPISODE 10 – Lethal Lunacy: Mugen takes on the Shaolin-trianed swordsman.
• EPISODE 11 – Gamblers and Gallantry: Jin saves a woman and ends up falling for her.
• EPISODE 12 – The Disorder Diaries - Mugen steals Fuu’s diary and reads what she has written about their adventures together.
• EPISODE 13 – Misguided Miscreants Part 1: Mugen’s past catches up to him.
• EPISODE 14 – Misguided Miscreants Part 2: Mugen gets his revenge on the pirate!
• EPISODE 15 – Bogus Booty: Mugen and Jin take on the beautiful ninja.
• EPISODE 16 – Lullabies of the Lost Verse 1: The three have an argument and end up splitting from each other.
• EPISODE 17 – Lullabies of the Lost Verse 2: Part two of the episode of where the three go on their separate ways after an argument.
• EPISODE 18 – War of the Worlds: Each of the three have their own storyline as Fuu gets a facelift, Jin keeps his promise for a friend and Mugen learns how to read.

DISC 3:

• EPISODE 19: Unholy Union – Fuu gets closer to finding the sunflower samurai.
• EPISODE 20: Elegy of Entrapment Verse 1 – What happens when the three encounter a blind musician.
• EPISODE 21: Elegy of Entrapment Verse 2 – Jin and Mugen learn new techniques.
• EPISODE 22: Cosmic Collissions – The three go on to Nagasaki and somehow ends up in a mine that may have treasure.
• EPISODE 23: Baseball Blues – What happens when the three encounter a group of American thugs…how about a game of baseball?
• EPISODE 24: Evanescent Encounter Part 1 – The three have arrived in Nagasaki and now go to look for the sunflower samurai.
• EPISODE 25: Evanescent Encounter Part 2 – Jin must take on the most powerful man in the Shogunate, Kagetoki Kariya.
• EPISODE 26: Evanescent Encounter Part 3 – The final episode as Fuu finally finds the sunflower samurai and both Mugen and Jin are put to a test.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“Samurai Champloo” is featured in 1080p High Definition 16×9.  Before I go into discussion about picture quality, I just want to emphasize that this is an upconvert of a 2004 anime TV series.  Television series in Japan are not exactly the best in quality compared to a Japanese OVA and a film.  With that being said, “Samurai Champloo” was produced by Manglobe who had a lot of time to work on this stylishly cool looking anime series.  When this anime series first came out, you can’t help but think how awesome the look of the series was courtesy of veterans Kazuto Nakazawa and Mahiro Maeda.   The series looks absolutely fresh and cool!

Here we are five years later and the Blu-ray release is out and there are positives and negatives.  The positive is that the series looks beautiful especially when you see the oranges and reds, lush green plants looking quite vibrant.  Painted backgrounds and homes look very detailed and beautiful.

The negative in terms of picture quality is that this series has its share of compression artifacts and also it has some coloration problems that is quite evident from episode-to-episode.   For example, you can see someone’s clothing that is purple or blue but then see this glob of dark green showing up and I know for HD videophiles, this is unacceptable.

As for anime fans, many see this as a problem that will happen with an older anime TV series that was meant for DVD and problems that are more evident when upconverted to Blu-ray.  Granted, those who will see the artifacting are those who watch these anime series with a larger screen.

With that being said, the series does has its share of moments where PQ is just really, nice and colorful but in terms of this coloration problem, it was evident on the “Tsubasa” Blu-ray release from FUNimation but this time around, it’s much more noticeable.

As for audio, “Samurai Champloo” is a series that is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English and Japanese.   The fact that we get the lossless Japanese audio track is actually pretty big considering the recent prior FUNimation Entertainment Blu-ray anime TV series have only featured a 2.0 track.

For both lossless audio soundtrack, the series is front and center channel driven.  Dialogue is clear and the music comes out of the front and surround channels with nice bass.  There is some surround channel usage with crowd ambiance and special effects that fill up each channel at times but it is important to note that this is a samurai action series and is mostly swordplay.  Also, there is action at the end of nearly each episode, the series is primarily front and center channel driven, especially when you reach the final episodes.

Optional subtitles are available in English.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Samurai Champloo – The Complete Series” comes with the following special features:

• “Battlecry” (Opening) Promo Video – (1:44) The opening theme promo video.
• Promo Video – (:60) A promo for the second season of “Samurai Champloo” (which was aired on television).
• Teaser Trailer – (:49) Two animated teaser trailers featuring all three characters.  Very artistic, stylish and cool!
• Conceptual Art – Using your remote, you can cycle through various conceptual art of the characters and several designs.
• Bumper Gallery - Using your remote, you can cycle through various bumper gallery artwork.
• Textless Opening and Closing Songs
• Trailers - FUNimation Entertainment trailers

“Samurai Champloo” was an anime series that really came with a lot of hype because of Shinichiro Watanabe’s involvement.  Questions many people had was how can he follow up from “Cowboy Bebop”.  Will it be a smart anime?  Will it be a stylish anime?  And similar to CB, would “Samurai Champloo” feature an awesome musical soundtrack?

When I first saw the anime series, I was very impressed with the animation and character designs.  First, for a samurai anime series, you get all the action but also this combination with slapstick comedy which was pretty awesome!  But also, this gorgeous, fresh looking anime series that was really different from any samurai-related anime that came before it (and there have been many).

The character designs were pretty cool but it’s the characters that are different than previous series.  For example, Mugen…sports a wild hair cut and steel-soled geta.  Definitely not your typical looking samurai!   And where “Cowboy Bebop” went a more jazz route, “Samurai Champloo” goes for a more Japanese hip-hop route.

But the series also had a touch of historical information such as the Shimabara Rebellion, Van Gogh’s appreciation for Ukiyo-e paintings and fictionalized versions of Mariya Enshirou and Miyamoto Musashi.

But of course, the series doesn’t take itself too seriously as a period-driven samurai series such as a “Hakkenden” or even “Rurouni Kenshin” as the group encounters bandits that beat box and blue-eyed Europeans who can pretend they are Japanese. Sure, the series is a bit farfetched if one is expecting a serious storyline but that’s what makes this series a bit unique from it’s look, music and its overall presentation.  The series although is action and comedy driven, definitely gets serious as the series approaches its final three episodes.

As for the Blu-ray release, its unfortunate that the series is not one of FUNimation Entertainments better looking anime series on Blu-ray but considering that this is a TV series and it’s an older 2004 anime series, it all comes down to if the PQ is good enough for the viewer, their setup (especially how large their monitor/screen is) and if you want to watch the series with a lossless soundtrack.

But overall, “Samurai Champloo – The Complete Series” was a fun and entertaining series which I really enjoyed even before it came out on Blu-ray.  It was a unique style of anime series (and sure enough, the hip hop and samurai style was revisted with “Afro Samurai” a few years later) at the time and although not as deep as “Hakkenden”, nor does it feature a large cast such as a “Samurai 7″ but it manages to captivate you with its quirkiness, action, its hip style and bass-driven hip hop music in the background.

Overall, for those with their original DVD’s, you’re probably good with those and may want to upgrade to Blu-ray for the lossless audio.   But If you are a fan of Shinichiro Watanabe’s work or if you are looking for an entertaining anime series to have on Blu-ray, “Samurai Champloo – The Complete Series” is worth having in your collection.

Tags: a J!-ENT Anime Blu-Ray Disc Review, anime, サムライチャンプルー, Blu-Ray, Funimation Entertainment, Geneon, Samurai Champloo

 

Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE – Season One (a J!-ENT Anime Blu-ray Disc Review)

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Quite Addictive!  CLAMP’s “Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE – Season One” is one of the better anime series available on Blu-ray.  It has all the elements of fantasy, adventure, action, science fiction incorporated to its storyline and the characters are just  fun to watch.  Definitely an anime series worth owning on Blu-ray!

Images courtesy of  © 2008 CLAMP/KODANSHA/NHK-NEP.  All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE – Season One

DURATION: 26 Episodes (640 Minutes)

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition 16×9, Dolby True HD English 5.1 and Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0, Subtitles: English

RATED: TV PG

COMPANY: FUNimation Entertainment

RELEASE DATE: November 17, 2009

Originally Created by CLAMP

Directed by Koichi Moshimo

Screenplay by Hiroyuki Kawasaki

Music by Yuki Kajiura

Character Design by Minako Shiba

Art Director: Shin Watanabe

Sound Director: Toru Nakano

Executive Producer: Hisako Matsumoto

Anime Production by Bee Train

Featuring the voices of:

Daisuke Namikawa/Vic Mignona as Fay D. Flourite

Mika Kikuchi/Carrie Savage as Mokona

Miyu Irino/Jason Liebrecht as Syaoran

Tetsu Inada/Chris Sabat as Kurogane

Yui Makino/Monica Rial as Sakura

Kouki Miyata as Yukito

Maaya Sakamoto/Amber Cotton as Tomoyo

Shinichiro Miki as Touya

Colleen Clinkenbeard as Yuko Ichihara

J. Michael Tatum as Seishiro Sakurazaka

A true and noble heart holds much power, stronger than the hardest fist and mightier than the most potent magic. Four disparate travelers begin an epic journey; their goals different, their destiny the same. Along the way, the past will meet the future in the present. Of all the paths of every life, mingling in the dimension between dimensions where a foe has the face of an ally, and an ally the face of a monster.

At the center of this heroic undertaking, Syaoran: a young man called upon to save his fated, the princess Sakura. Her memory has been shattered, the very essence of her soul sent adrift across the universe. Feather’s float down on strange lands, torn asunder if only to prove the power of love.

With fellow travelers Kurogane and Fai, a warrior and a wizard, an epic quest begins. One of danger and mystery… The possibilities are endless.

The fantasy shonen manga known as “Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE” by the well-known mangaka group CLAMP (“X”, “xxxHolic”, “Cardcaptor Sakura”, “Angelic Layer”, “Chobits”) was created in 2003 and has been featured on Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen through October 2009.  In 2005, a 52-episode anime series aired through 2006 and included five OVA’s released between 2007-2009.

The series was featured on FUNimation Entertainment’s “Funimation Channel” in 2008 and had been released on DVD previously in the US back in 2007.   Now, the popular series receives its High Definition treatment with the first season (26 episodes) released on Blu-ray in Nov. 2009.

The series is directed by Koichi Mashimo (“Sorcerer Hunters”, “.Hack” series, “”Dirty Pair: Project Eden”, “Noir”) and features a screenplay by Hiroyuki Kawasaki (“Irresponsible Captain Tylor”, “Martian Successor Nadesico”, “Sorcerer Hunters”, “Sakura Wars”, “Tekkaman Blade”).  Music for the series is courtesy of Yuki Kajiura (“Mobile Suit Gundam Seed”, “.Hack” series”, “My-HIME”, “Madlax”), character designs by Minako Shiba (“.Hack” series, “Noir”, “Kuroshitsuji”, “Darker than Black”) and art direction by Shin Watanabe (“Arc the Lad”, “Batman: Gotham Knight”, “Diamond Daydreams”).

“Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE” is about a young man named Syaoran who returns home and meets up with his friend Sakura (who really likes him).  She has wanted to confess her love to him but due to circumstances, she has to go back to the castle.  While Syaoran goes back to the ruins, he sees Sakura who seems to be levitated in light.  As he goes to rescue her, small feathers of light disappear and Sakura is left unconscious.

In order to save Sakura, Syaoran along with a unconscious Sakura, a magician named Fay D. Flourite and a ninja named Kurogane are transported to present day Japan in which they come in contact with a dimension witch (Yuuko Ichihara of the CLAMP anime series “xxxHOLIC”).  Yuuko explains that they were brought together for a reason and that in order to get home, they would need to travel to various alternate universes to find their way back home.  And in each universe, Syaoran must find these feathers which represents Sakura’s memories and are now scattered in various alternate universes, he along with his two compatriots must travel these alternate universes but must find these feathers and return them back to Sakura. After finding each feather(s) for that universe, they will then go to another universe where things are different than the last.

But in order to begin their adventure for Syaoran to revive Sakura and for each of them to return back home, Yuuko must collect payment and that is for each of them to give up something precious.  Syaoran makes the biggest sacrifice in which if he is able to revive Sakura, she will no longer have any memory of Syaoran.  So, the four embark on their trip to various worlds where familiar faces from their own world are different people from different backgrounds and occupations.

Meanwhile, as Syaoran and the others try to find the feathers, an enemy rival named Fei Wang Reed has interest in obtaining the feathers.  He will kill anyone and anybody to obtain Sakura’s feathers.

So, the first season is race to get the feather of Sakura’s memories but at the same time, confronting challenges of powerful enemies and rivals from various universes.  Will Syaoran, Fay and Kurogane survive their adventure?

The main characters of “Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE” are:

• Syaoran – The main protagonist from the Kingdom of Clow who likes a girl named Sakura.  But when Sakura’s memories are lost, he has made it his mission to find each feather of her memory and bring her back to life, even if she will no longer remember him.  Syaoran is an aspiring archaeologist and in each universe, seems to have developed certain supernatural or fighting skills.
• Sakura – The princess of Kingdom Clow who has always loved Syaoran.  On the day she was to tell him that she loves him, she loses all her memories and magical powers and left unconscious.  Only when Syaoran brings back a feather of memories and returns it back to her does she start to get better little at a time.
• Fay D. Flourite – A  magician from the country of Selece.  He has sealed King Ashura and has run away from Selece, never wanting to return back home.  He gladly accepts traveling with Syaoran and Kurogane but unlike them, he has no intention of going back home.  He gives up his treasured item, a tattoo as payment to Yuuko.
• Kurogane - A ninja who is always fighting and shows no mercy.   And because of this, Tomoyo sends Kurogane (without his approval) to where Syaoran and Fay.  But also cursing him  and that if he kills anyone, his strength will decrease.  Tomoyo’s goal is for Kurogane to learn what true strength is and let him know that it is not about his sword or killing people that brings strength.
• Mokona Modoki - Two bunny-like creatures that are given to the three by Yuuko Ichihara.  The white creature allows for teleportation to the alternate universes, while the black creature allows the three to keep in direct contact with Yuuko.  But both can also sense Sakura’s feathers of memories.

“Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE – Season One” features the following 26-episodes on 3 Blu-ray discs:

Disc 1:

• EPISODE 1: Destinies Converge – Something has gone wrong in the Kingdom of Clow, leaving Sakura unconscious.
• EPISODE 2: The Power to Fight – Syaoran (with Sakura), Fay and Kurogane are whisked to a new world.  What will be their mission?
• EPISODE 3: Sword of Demon Destruction – The first alternative universe places Syaoran and the group in the Hansin Republic where people have their own powers.
• EPISODE 4: Innocent Wandering – Sakura has gone missing.  Will Syaoran be able to find her?
• EPISODE 5: The Battle of the Mage – The gang leader Shogo challenges Syaoran in a Kudan battle.
• EPISODE 6: Unshed Tears – The fight between Syaoran and Shogo begins.
• EPISODE 7: The Broken Memento – The group travel to their next world, the Koryo Country and learn from Chun Hyang of an evil group known as Ryanban.
• EPISODE 8: God’s Beloved Daughter – Sakura is drawn to the local castle for some reason.
• EPISODE 9: Princess of Shadows – The gang encounter the Ryanban and learn about their famous weapon.

DISC 2:

• EPISODE 10: Mirror of Separation – Syaoran vs. the Ryanban leader’s son.
• EPISODE 11: The Chosen Tomorrow – The Ryanban takes control of the villagers.
• EPISODE 12: A Warm Smile – The group are whisked into another world that consists only of a large lake.
• EPISODE 13: Advocate of Illusions – The group visit a new world, the Jade Country in which the princess is supposedly has a magical feather.
• EPISODE 14: Truth in History – A ghost princess visits Sakura.
• EPISODE 15: A Heart That Believes – Sakura tries to rescue children from the castle with the help from the ghost princess.
• EPISODE 16: Strength in Kindness – The group now goes to the Storm Country in which a fight tournament is taking place.
• EPISODE 17: Demon Hunters – The group reach Oto Country in which they are attacked by oni.
• EPISODE 18: Cats and Dogs – Fay and Kurogane learn a secret of Syaoran.

DISC 3:

• EPISODE 19: Resolution to Live – Syaoran wants to learn how to use a sword and asks Kurogane to teach him.
• EPISODE 20: The Afternoon Piano – Kurogane trains Syaoran on how to use a sword.
• EPISODE 21: The Demon’s True Face – The gang encounters the oni Seishiro (from the CLAMP anime/manga series “Tokyo Babylon”).
• EPISODE 22: Indelible Memory – Syaoran and the group try to protect Seishiro from the town hall.
• EPISODE 23: The Fading Life – Seishiro starts to attack Syaoran and the others.
• EPISODE 24: Blade of a Desperate Fight – The group learn that they are in a virtual reality world leading to a battle between Kurogane and Seishiro.
• EPISODE 25: The Ultimate Game – The battle between the Oni heats up, meanwhile Syaoran tries to get the feather from Seishiro.
• EPISODE 26: The Last Wish – The group end up in a new world, Tsarastora County where the group learns that if they can reach to the top of a blessed temple, the would be granted a wish.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE – Season One” is presented in 1080p High Definition (16×9).  So, far with some of the upconverted anime series from FUNimation Entertainment really looking gorgeous on Blu-ray, “Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE – Season One” has its moments of vibrancy and sharpness with beautiful, colorful backgrounds and the noticeable CLAMP character designs but on Blu-ray, you also see compression artifacting.  There are times where you can see the artifacts quite clearly on a larger television set (I have a 52″, so it really stood out and I would imagine those with larger screens will also see it become more prevalent).  It’s not too distracting as it doesn’t happen throughout the whole episode but you do notice it from time to time.  And in terms of animation, when it comes to CLAMP animated series, there is always less emphasis on the actual look (in fact, one thing you’ll notice with certain characters in “Tsubasa” are similar to “xxxHolic” with characters sporting the long arms, long bodies, long legs, etc.) but more emphasis on the storyline and how the character design and artistic background compliments it.   So, PQ wise, “Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE – Season One” is not going to be the greatest look anime series on Blu-ray but it compliments CLAMP’s storytelling quite nicely.

But where the series does shine is its immersive soundtrack.  One thing you will notice about “Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE – Season One” from the first episode is how much utilization there is for the surround channels of the series.  You literally hear audio all around you and the series during its action sequences, really take over the soundscape all around you.  But all is not perfect.  Front channel music and surround sound good…but it’s almost a similar to the “Grease” effect (for those who have the Blu-ray of the movie “Grease”) where the front channels overpower the center channel.  The sound effects and music are much louder than the spoken dialogue when your volume is low that the only way to get things to sound right is to increase the volume of your receiver or by increasing your center channel volume. Otherwise, once fixed…you realize that “Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE – Season One” does sound awesome and it’s great to have an anime series taking advantage of actions sequences involving explosions and various sound effects.  And as always, the quality of the English dub courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment is well-done with this series.

For those who were hoping for a lossless Japanese audio soundtrack, “Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE – Season One” is presented in Dolby Digital Japanese 2.0 only.  For those who have a modern home theater receiver, this can be easily remedied by selecting stereo on all channels but I can understand for hardcore anime fans who prefer the Japanese dialogue wanting lossless Japanese audio.

Subtitles are only in English.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE – Season One” comes with the following special features:

• Cast Auditions – The cast auditions (audio only)  for those who provided the English dub for the characters Syaoran, Sakura, Kurogane, Fai, Mokona and Yuko.
• Faces in the Crowd – A text-based character bio.  Featuring a variety of characters that have appeared in other CLAMP manga/anime series.
• Character Guide – A text based bio for the main characters of “Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE – Season One”.
• World Guide – A text based guide to the various worlds featured in the anime series.
• Textless Theme Songs – Textless opening theme song “Blaze” and closing theme song “Loop”.
• Trailers – FUNimation Entertainment trailers.

Let me first say that I have been a big fan of CLAMP-related anime and manga series.  When “Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE” was originally released, I felt that the appearances of characters from various CLAMP series was just awesome.

With that being said, I’ve always felt that CLAMP series although known for their character designs, the overall enjoyment of their work is how well written the stories are and how much they focus on character development.  So, with that being said, for those looking for a series that features a well-written storyline that is quite addictive, you’re going to enjoy “Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE”.

But those who are looking for the best looking anime on Blu-ray, you may find yourself disappointed that the upconverted anime series has its share of compression artifacts from time to time and is not exactly an anime series that is known to showcase picture-quality via anime on HD especially when compared to other previous upconverted television  anime series on Blu-ray from FUNimation Entertainment such as “Full Metal Panic! – The Second Raid” and even “Burst Angel – The Complete Series”.   Also, I can see those who want lossless Japanese audio being disappointed that there is only a 2.0 Japanese audio track and last, the special features are mainly text-based special features with no major featurettes.

Personally, I feel that those who want an entertaining anime series will enjoy “Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE”.  It’s too good of a series to pass up on Blu-ray, especially with its enjoyable and addictive storyline.  Especially how the series features many characters (and alternate versions of them) plus, you also will see CLAMP cameos of characters from other anime/manga series.  Definite cool!  And for those who do enjoy English dubs, you will enjoy the lossless audio as surround channels are well utilized and overall, a pretty solid soundtrack during its action sequences (despite the front channels slightly overpowering the center channel during a lower volume setting).

I do feel that among the current offering on Blu-ray in terms of anime television series, “Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE – Season One” is definitely one of the better series out there.  It has all the elements of fantasy, adventure, action, science fiction incorporated to its storyline and the characters which are fun to watch.  Definitely a series worth owning on Blu-ray!

Tags: a J!-ENT Anime Blu-Ray Disc Review, anime, Blu-Ray, CLAMP, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, xxxHolic

 

Witchblade: The Complete Series (a J!-ENT Anime Blu-ray Disc Review)

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Based on the popular Top Cow comic book series, which means…plenty of action, scantily clothed women and a well-endowed protagonist, need I say more?  For those looking for an action-driven anime series on Blu-ray, “Witchblade: The Complete Series” is definitely for you!

Images courtesy of  © 2006 Top Cow Productions, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Witchblade – The Complete Series

DURATION: 24 Episodes (600 Minutes)

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition 16×9, Dolby True HD English 5.1 and Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0, Subtitles: English

RATED: TV MA

COMPANY: FUNimation Entertainment

RELEASE DATE: November 3, 2009

Originally Created by Michael Turner, Marc Silvestri

Directed by Yoshimitsu Ohashi

Series Composition/Script by Yasuko Kobayashi

Music by Masanori Takumi

Character Design by Makoto Uno

Art Director: Junichi Higashi

Sound Director: Jin Aketagawa

Executive Producer: Koji Kajita

Producer: Osamu Nagai, Shin Hieda, Tsuyoshi Okazaki

Anime Production by GONZO

Featuring the voices of:

Akemi Kanda/Carrie Savage as Rihoko “Rico” Amaha

Mamiko Noto/Jamie Marchi as Masane Amaha

Masaya Matsukaze/Robert McCollum as Yusuke Tozawa

Mie Sonozaki/Colleen Clinkenbeard as Reina “Lady” Shoho

Nana Mizuki/Monica Rial as Maria

Rikiya Koyama/Mark Stoddard as Reiji Takayama

Shinji Ogawa/R. Bruce Elliott as Tatsuoki Furumizu

Shizuka Itou/Trina Nishimura as Shiori Tsuzuki

Kent Williams/Kazuhiro Nakata as Masayo Wado

Jerry Russell/Shouto Kashii  as Mr. Cho

Lauri Steele/Maiko Itou as Mariko Natsuki

Sought by the greed of Men since the dawn of Humankind, but only bestowed upon the woman whose fate it forever scars – the Witchblade.

Is it the Righteous Sword of God, or the Hand of the Devil Himself? Now a new bearer has been chosen and she must discover the answers for herself. As she stands on the brink of destiny, she is forced to seek the balance between ecstasy and ruin… Masane Amaha is a woman on the fringe of society, bouncing rootless from town to town with her daughter, Rihoko. She struggles to build a life for her family, with no memory of the past and no clue as to what the future holds. But upon their arrival back in Tokyo forces conspire to separate parent from child, unleashing the fury of the Witchblade. The young mother will find herself conscripted into the service of the Doji Group and hunted down by the emissaries of the NSWF, Masane will find herself an unwilling ground zero for the swelling chaos fast approaching.

Based on the popular Top Cow comic book series, which means…plenty of action, scantily clothed women and a well-endowed protagonist, need I say more?  For those looking for an action-driven anime series on Blu-ray, “Witchblade: The Complete Series” is definitely for you!

“Witchblade” was created in 1995 by Marc Silvestri and David Wohl and was published by Top Cow Productions.  The series was quite popular as a 23-episode television series adaptation was featured on TNT in 2001 followed up by an 24-episode anime television series created by Japanese animation studio GONZO in 2004.

The series is a separate story from the original comic book series as it focuses on a character named Masane Amaha.  The series takes place six years after Tokyo was leveled by a massive earthquake.

Two people survived the epicenter known as Ground Zero: Masane Amaha and a little girl named Rihoko which Masane has raised as her own daughter. Unfortunately, with their return to Tokyo, the National Scientific Welfare Foundation have been trying to take Rihoko away from Masane because Masane shows no signs of financially taking care of her, so the NSWF wants to give Rihoko a proper home.

Meanwhile, the NSWF and the Doji Group have been after the witchblade and have kept their eye on Masane as she shown signs of wielding and become a witchblade and because of the fact that after the great earthquake, she was among the two (along with Rihoko) that survived in “Ground Zero”.  These two groups are now after the Witchblade.

As the main storyline features a good number of action as the two groups do what they can to acquire the witchblade capture Masane, the main storyline of the anime series of Witchblade is about a mother who wants to be normal and raise her daughter but also knows that  the witchblade’s power is literally destroying her body body and she is succumbing to its power.  Masane does all she can to rid of the witchblade but will she be able to before it destroys her?

The main characters of “Witchblade: The Complete Series” are as follows:

• Masane Amaha – The main protagonist who raises a young girl named Rihoko which she has accepted as her own daughter.  Quite naive, people are surprised how even the daughter sometimes calls the shots in their relationship.  Known for being well-endowed (earning the nickname “Melony”), Masane is surprised to find out that she is the bearer of the Witchblade and it is starting to consume her by destroying her body.    She and Rihoko are the main survivors at “Ground Zero”.
• Rihoko Amaha – Riko is not the blood daughter of Masane but she had looked at Riko as her mother (as she was a surviving baby along with Masane during the great earthquake).  She cares about her mother and wants to be close to her.
• Yuusuke Tozawa – A freelance photographer who helps Rihoko escape from the NSWF and eventually starts to help Masane.  He uses his connections to find out more about the Witchblade.
• Reiji Takayama – The Bureau Chief of Douji Enterprises.  Has worked with Masane and using her Witchblade powers to fight against malfunctioning “Ex-Cons”.  He has a unique bond to Rihoko which is revealed later in the series.
• Tatsuoki Furimizu - The antagonist of the series.  The head of the NSWF and the father of the Neogene daughters.  Believes his father is perfect and his mother imperfect, he seeks to create a perfect mother and through the process, he has created Neogenes (humans that wield the cloneblade) and among those female Neogenes are known as “The Cloneblade Sisters”.
• Reina Soho – A Neogene cloneblade that has a bond with Reiji Takayama and Rihoko.  Regarded as the most powerful of the Cloneblade sisters.
• Maria – A second generation version of the Neogene cloneblade but has two cloneblades.  She is mentally unstable and wants approval from her mother Reina.

“Witchblade: The Complete Series” features the following 24-episodes on 3 Blu-ray discs:

Disc 1:

• EPISODE 1: The Beginning
• EPISODE 2: Bewilderment
• EPISODE 3: Defiance
• EPISODE 4: Movement
• EPISODE 5: Search
• EPISODE 6: Change
• EPISODE 7: Past
• EPISODE 8: Reciprocity
• EPISODE 9: Sdness
• EPISODE 10: Interaction

DISC 2:

• EPISODE 11: Danger
• EPISODE 12: Prisoner
• EPISODE 13: Separation
• EPISODE 14: Family
• EPISODE 15: Bonds
• EPISODE 16: Relaxation
• EPISODE 17: Confusion
• EPISODE 18: Turn
• EPISODE 19:  Feelings
• EPISODE 20: Request

DISC 3:

• EPISODE 21: Vow
• EPISODE 22: Inform
• EPISODE 23: Chaos
• EPISODE 24: Light

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“Witchblade: The Complete Series” receives its first entry to HD.  As I tend to remind viewers, the series is a television series and in Japan, television series have less of a budget that OVA’s and animated films plus, they are typically done in a time crunch as animators tend to work on several series during the week and thus, some episodes tend to get to the television network right on the day of airing.

With that being said, “Witchblade” is featured in 1080p High Definition and before the series was released on Blu-ray, there was plenty of talk of how the series was upconverted.  So far, FUNimation Entertainment anime series on Blu-ray that have been “upconverted” have looked pretty solid and often don’t like like an upconvert.  “Witchblade” is a colorful anime series but it does look like it is upconverted and it’s no surprise as the series was created back in 2004.

Detail on artistic backgrounds are OK and the character designs by Makoto Uno utilizes simple lines and shadows but when the action begins, GONZO was able to showcase the fight scenes and battles quite well.  Also, each scene typically features the characters in a variety of locations.

I did seem to notice some combing, banding and also some artifacting, so “Witchblade” does not exactly showcase picture perfect video quality but for the most part, animation is quite solid but for those looking for great picture quality, “Witchblade” is good but not great.

As for audio quality, “Witchblade” is also a series in which the Japanese audio quality is featured in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo.  Most releases on Blu-ray from FUNimation Entertainment have had a lossless Japanese audio track (excluding the “Dragon Ball Z” films), so for purists, they may be disappointed by this.  Although if you have a receiver capable of stereo on all channels, this should make things a bit better.

English lossless soundtrack utilizes the soundscape in bringing out those explosive and destructive moments of the film.  Surrounds and subwoofer LFE usage is well-utilized as booms can be felt but also Masanori Takumi’s music as you hear the piano and strings coming nice and strong through the front channels and dialogue also coming clear and understandable through center channel.

As for the English dub track, I’m starting to enjoy Carrie Savage and Jamie Marchi’s voice acting and both do a great job with Rihoko and Masane’s vocals and as much as I’m a Japanese vocal track supporter, I was definitely content with English voice acting for the series.

Subtitles are in English only.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Witchblade – The Complete Series” comes with the following special features featured in 480i Stanrd Definition, Dolby Digital English 2.0 and Dolby Digital Japanese 2.0 with English subtitles.  Included are:

• Japanese Cast Interviews – The following cast interviews with Japanese voice talent are included:  Mamiko Noto (voice of Masane Amaha) – (9:08), Akemi Kanda (voice of Rihoko Amaha) – (7:32), Masaya Matsukaza (voice of Yusuke Tozawa) – (7:52), Reiji Takayama (voice of Rikiya Koyama) – (7:58), Mie Sonozaki (voice of Reina Sohou) – (7:53), Kenichi Suzumura (voice of  Hiroki Segawa) – (8:29), Shinji Ogawa (voice of Tatsuoki Furumizu) – (7:43), Nana Mizuki (voice of Maria) – (9:31).
• The Witchblade Forged – The creation of “Witchblade”.  Part 1 – (16:54) Interviews of David Wohl and Marc Silvestri, co-creators of “Witchblade” and the breaking away from major comic companies and going independent with Image Comics, Part 2 (17:19) – Top Cow and creating the characters for “Witchblade” and why the comic series worked well and its popularity and adaptating it from comics to screen., Part 3 (19:51) – “Witchblade” receiving its anime adaptation.
• Inside Top Cow – Featuring the following special features: A Tour of Top Cow with Marc Silvestri (14:00), How to create a comic book the Top Cow way (17:11), Top Cow studio tour outtakes (7:52), coloring a comic book page with Blond (4:33), the early days of Image Comics (3:33), The Top Cow talks about comics (6:42), Experiences in Japan/Other Top Cow franchises with Matt Hawkins, president of Top Cow (7:20) and Crossing into other media.
• Textless Theme Songs – Textless opening theme songs for “XTC” and “Dear Bob” and textless closing themes for “Ashitano-Te” and “Kutshuhimo”.
• Japanese TV Spots – (1:21) A set of Japanese TV commercials for the Japanese DVD release of “Witchblade”.
• Promotional Video – (1:55)
• Trailers – FUNimation Entertainment trailers.

“Witchblade: The Complete Series” was actually different from what I was expecting from the original comic book series but for the most part, having its own storyline that has some connection to the comics but yet featuring new characters is pretty cool.

GONZO handled the animation and art backgrounds quite well with the series, put in a lot of characters, a lot of action and destruction to the overall scenery of the “Witchblade” anime series.  I did find it interesting how the characters revolved around relationships, especially between mother and daughter.   And for the most part, despite all the action of the antagonist trying to obtain the witchblade, the central core of the anime series is the bond between mother and daughter.  The close bond and a bond that is nearly non-existent with another and how it has affected certain characters.

Overall, “Witchblade: The Complete Series” was an entertaining anime series that managed to retain an upbeat, action-packed anime series, especially with its sound effects and rock n’ roll soundtrack.   I was surprised the anime series was chosen for a Blu-ray release because it was an older anime series that was not made in HD.  But with the popular of the comic book and television series in the US, with more anime fans wanting more complete season anime series on Blu-ray, it does make sense.

As for the Blu-ray release, the upconvert is good but it’s not as vibrant or detailed as most anime HD titles that have been released on Blu-ray thus far.  Also, for those who are looking for lossless Japanese audio, unfortunately you’re not going to find it in this release as the English dub is the only choice for lossless while the Japanese track is 2.0 stereo.

Overall, I have no doubt that anime fans will flock to “Witchblade” on Blu-ray.  The name recognition of “Witchblade” is quite strong and the fact that you have a scantily clad anti-heroine that is well-endowed, it’s definitely going to catch the attention of anime on Blu-ray fans.

If you are looking for an action-packed series on Blu-ray, you can’t go wrong with “Witchblade: The Complete Series”.

Tags: a J!-ENT Anime Blu-Ray Disc Review, anime, Funimation Entertainment, Gonzo, THE COMPLETE SERIES, Witchblade

 

Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa (a J!-ENT Anime Blu-ray Disc Review)

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“Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa” receives its High Definition transfer and for the most part, the Blu-ray version features vibrant, colorful animation and an aggressive, immersive lossless audio soundtrack.  Also, includes plenty of special features as well.  Overall, a solid anime on Blu-ray release that is worth having in your collection!

Images courtesy of  © 2005/2009 Hiromu Arakawa – HAGAREN THE MOVIE.  All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa

DURATION: 104 minutes

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition 16×9, Dolby True HD English 5.1 and Japanese 5.1, Subtitles: English

RATED: TV PG

COMPANY: FUNimation Entertainment

RELEASE DATE: November 17, 2009

Originally Created by Hiromu Arakawa

Directed by Seiji Mizushima

Script by Shou Aikawa

Storyboard by Masahiro Ando, Seiji Mizushima, Shingo Kaneko, Shinji Aramaki, Soichi Masui, Yutaka Nakamura

Music by Hirohito Shinohara, Michiru Oshima, Tadahito Kimura

Opening and Ending Theme by L’Arc~en~Ciel

Character Deisgn by Yoshiyuki Ito

Art Director: Kazuo Ogura

Mechanical Design by Jin Fukuchi

3D Director: Hiroaki Matsuura

Sound Director: Masafumi Mima

Director of Photography: Susumu Fukushi

Animation by ANIPLEX

Featuring the voices of:

Rie Kugimiya/Aaron Dismuke as Alphonse Elric

Romi Paku/Vic Mignogna as Edward Elric

Hidekatsu Shibata/Ed Blaylock as Mabuse/Fritz Lang

Kazuko Katou/Kelly Manison as Dietlinde Eckart

Kenji Utsumi/Christopher R. Sabat as Alex Louis Armstrong

Masane Tsukayama/John Swasey as Karl Haushofer

Megumi Toyoguchi/Caitlin Glass as Winry Rockbell

Michiko Neya/Colleen Clinkebeard as Riza Hawkeye

Miyuu Sawai/Leah Clark as Noah

Rikiya Koyama/Jason Douglas as Rudolf Hess

Shun Oguri/Jason Liebrecht as Alphonse Heiderich

Toru Ohkawa/Travis Willingham as Roy Mustang

Houko Kuwashima/Colleen Clinkenbeard as Rose Tomas

Keiji Fujiwara/Sonny Strait as Officer Hughes

Kotono Mitsuishi/Lauren Goode as Gracia

Masao Harada/Jimmy Foronda as Denny Brosh

Masashi Ebara/Scott McNeil as Hoenheim Elric

Mayumi Yamaguchi/Wendy Powell as Envy/Dragon

Mitsuki Saiga/Meredith McCoy as Maria Ross

Miyoko Asou/Juli Erickson as Pinako Rockbell

Nana Mizuki/Luci Christian as Wrath

Naomi Wakabayashi/Gwendolyn Lau as Sheska

Seiji Sasaki/Bob Carter as Sig Curtis

Shoko Tsuda/Christine Auten as Izumi Curtis

Takehiro Murozono/Kyle Herbert as Vato Falman

Tetsu Shiratori/Kevin M. Connolly as Kain Fuery

Tomoyuki Shimura/Josh Berry as Heymans Breda

Unshou Ishizuka/John Gremillion as Huskisson

Yasuhiro Takato/Chris Cason as Gluttony

Yasunori Matsumoto/Mike McFarland as Jean Havoc

It is 1923 in Munich. Two years have passed since Edward Elric’s sacrifice ripped him out of his world and into ours, separating him from his younger brother, Alphonse. In that time, Ed’s continued research into rocketry has allied him with Alphonse Heiderich, a fellow researcher who oddly resembles Ed’s brother.

Back in his own world, Al has been unlocking new secrets of alchemy and gaining incredible powers, all in the hopes of finding Ed.

Battling the occult, ideological extremists, and monstrous Homunculi lurking in the shadows, can the brothers find a way to reunite without causing chaos and bloodshed? What will happen when the world of alchemy and the world of modern science collide?

“Fullmetal Alchemist” , the popular manga series by Hiromu Arakawa has been going strong since 2001 and is still ongoing in Japan.  With a 51-episode TV anime series, the final episode which aired on October 2004 ended with a cliffhanger in which the main characters, brothers Ed and Alphonse Elric were separated from each other.  With young Alphonce vowing to be reunited with his older brother.

In the film “Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa”, the film continues years later after the final TV episode.

We learn that Ed was whisked from his homeworld of Amestris and is now living in the planet Earth, in Munich, Germany in 1923.   He doesn’t have his alchemist powers but he lives a life learning about rocketry with Alfonse Heiderich, a young man who resembles Ed’s younger brother.  The reason why Ed wants to learn about rocketry, is that he he hopes a rocket will take him back to his own time and homeworld through the gate.

While living in Germany, he sees many of the people with similar faces of those he knows from Amestris but knows this world is quite different.  During his travels, he and Alfonse ride with a group of gypsies and one named Noa has a sight in regards to Ed as a person with no home.

Through events, Ed befriends Noa and takes her home with him (note: In real world events, especially during this time period,  Germany is shown as the beginning of the introduction of Hitler, the Germans believing they are the superior race and have a hatred towards gypsies and Jews) and we see how people despise Noa because she is a gypsy but Ed defends her no matter what.

Meanwhile, he spots a person in Germany who looks like King Bradley (a deadly homunculus that Ed had to face in his own world).  Fearing that this man may be a homunculus, Ed attacks him.  But Ed quickly learns that this man is not a monster but he is in fact, searching for a dragon that is supposedly in a castle.

The dragon ends up being the homunculus known as Envy and when Ed tries to fight it, he is captured by members of the Thule Society (a group which later became known as the Nazi party).  This is where Dietlinde Eckhart learns that Ed is from another world and thus she tries to use Ed to open the gate.

Meanwhile, Dietlinde prepares the Thule Society soldiers to go through the gate in the other world which she tells them is Shamballa (note: another historic connection between Hitler and Nazi Germany, belief in a pure-land known as Shamballa which is said to exist in Tibet).

In Amestris, we see Al who lost his memories as shown in the final episode of the TV series.  Being trained in alchemy by Izumi Curtis, Al wants to reunite with his brother but also get back his memories.  He then sees soldiers that came from Germany through the gate, dead in Amestris.  He merges his soul with the armor which then temporarily brings Al into Germany where he finds his brother Ed.  The two are reunited but temporarily in which Al is brought back to Amestris.

Now, Al is determined to reunite with his brother by opening the gate in order to bring Ed back home.  Meanwhile, Ed learns that the Thule Society wants to go to Amestris to capture the weapons in that world in order to have Hitler start a revolution in Germany and now Ed must try to stop this from happening.

Featuring an exciting, action-packed film about two brothers who have been trying to reunite with each other, we are treated to more battles between the homunculus but also what happens when the Thule Society managed to break through the gate to Amestris.

Will Ed be able to stop the Thule Society?  And will Al trying to open up the gate, end up causing problems for the people of Amestris?

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa” is presented in 1080p High Definition (16×9).  The high definition transfer features a good amount of detail especially during the darker areas which were not well seen on the DVD.

You can see the detail of the artistic backgrounds quite clearly and for the most part, animation is very good, colorful and for the most part, BONES did a great job in producing the overall animation and art backgrounds for this film.

But where this film shines is the audio.  If you have a good audio receiver and speaker setup, one thing that I really appreciated is how the action sequences come alive.  I mean front and center channel is crystal clear but you can hear good usage of the subwoofer via LFE, the booms and crashes are well heard.  Great use of surround channels and for teh most part, the audio sounds great Dolby TrueHD 5.1.

But it is important to emphasize that the English lossless soundtrack is much more pronounced, punchier and louder than the Japanese lossless soundtrack.  Similar to the “Origin” film release from FUNimation Entertainment and even the “Burst Angel” Blu-ray release, the English lossless soundtrack is much more pronounced but it’s no surprise as FUNimation Entertainment had every opportunity to improve on the sound and how the audio was distributed through the various channels.  But there is a difference between the two lossless soundtracks especially during the action sequences.

As for the vocal dub work, both English and Japanese voice acting are well done.  If anything, the Japanese counterpart has two talented female voice actresses doing the voice of Ed and Al and the US version has a guy and a younger voice actor doing the voices.  So, it’s all about your preference but FUNimation Entertainment did a great job in selecting the voice talent for the series and that same talent for the film.

As for subtitles, subtitles are in English but they are locked-in and automatically show up when you select the Japanese audio.  You can not use your remote to switch from audio channels unless you select it through your guide button via the menus.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa” comes with the following special features (in 480i Standard Definition, Dolby Digital English 2.0 with English subtitles):

• The Making of Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie – 40 Minute Documentary with Director Seiji Mizushima and Staff – (40:04) A video diary of director Seiji Mizushima and staff working on the film and seeing the challenges the BONES staff  faced throughout the making of the film and trying to complete the film before deadline.
• Talk Session with Seiji Mizushima, Romi Park, Rie Kugimiya and Toru Okawa – (54:09) A hilarious, informative but also tearful talk session with director Seiji Mizushima, Romi Park (voice actress of Ed), Rie Kugimiya (voice actress of Al), Toru Okawa (voice actor of Roy).
• Japanese Theatrical and TV Trailers – (4:41) Japanese and TV trailers for “Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa”.
• Production Art Image Gallery – (1:10) A short featurette showcasing the production art with a piano melody.
• Japanese Actor Commentary – Audio commentary by Romi Park (voice of Ed), Rie Kugimiya (voice of Al), director Seiji Mizushima and Toyoguchi Megumi (Voice of Winry Rockbell).  A hilarious commentary in which the four talk about the voice talent taking part in the film and what they wanted to accomplish.  Also, a lot of joking around with the director and the voice talent.
• Japanese Staff Commentary – Audio commentary by director Seiji Mizushima, technical director Yohei Miyahara and production Yoshihiro Oyabu who talk about the technical aspects of creating the film, the animation, storyboards and more.  Informative and humorous.
• US Actor Commentary – An enjoyable and insightful commentary with the directors and many of the voice talent of “Fullmetal Alchemist the movie” who talk about their favorite characters, what they thought about working on the series and the film and more.
• Trailers – FUNimation Entertainment trailers.

For many fans of “Fullmetal Alchemist”, many have waited for the “Conquer of Shamballa” theatrical film to see how the anime series storyline concludes.  The film did well in Japan making the film the seventh best earning film in Japan in 2005 and also becoming the seventh top grossing anime film of all time.

While in the US, the film received a limited theatrical debut but for its DVD release, many fans purchased the regular DVD as well as the limited edition version and was well-received by anime fans.

Personally, when I first watched the film, I absolutely loved it and how serious and how the storyline was complex but still easy to follow as we saw the two worlds collide.  So, the film incorporated solid animation, drama and action all in one.  With that being said, many of you may be wondering if this Blu-ray release of “Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa” is worth the upgrade.

First, if you own the limited edition, definitely keep it because you get that cool 18-page booklet and the cool box.  But truth-be-told, this Blu-ray release is fantastic in terms of picture and audio quality.

As expected, the film features vibrant colors and the colors stand out compared to its DVD counterpart.  But where this Blu-ray shines is the audio.  As mentioned in my review for the audio, the lossless audio soundtrack is awesome.  If you have a  good 5.1 or 7.x surround sound setup, you care definitely going to enjoy how this film sounds.  Granted, it’s the English dub that sounds very good with the Japanese lossless soundtrack not having the same amount of punch or loudness than its English counterpart.

Special features are pretty much the same as what you saw in the limited edition DVD.  But if you bought the single disc version on DVD years ago, you should be happy to see the 40-minute behind-the-scenes of the making of the film, the Japanese discussion, the three commentaries and more.

For those who have never watched the television series, I will say that there are some parts that may go over your head as there is some dialogue that refer to the TV series.  But for the most part, as a viewer, you can figure things out and the film tends to keep things centered on the main storyline of brothers trying to reunite and two worlds that are more or less going to clash.  So, I think that some viewers can get by without watching the TV series but I do recommend that you watch the TV series before watching the film, so you can understand certain characters and also to enjoy the film even more.

Overall, this Blu-ray release is awesome, especially if you have a solid receiver and good speaker setup.  Personally, if you own a Blu-ray player, a good home theater setup and are a “Fullmetal Alchemist” fan, this is a no-brainer, this Blu-ray is definitely worth upgrade.

“Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa” is definitely recommended!

Tags: a J!-ENT Anime Blu-Ray Disc Review, anime, Blu-Ray, Conqueror of Shamballa, Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa, Funimation Entertainment

 

Escaflowne: The Movie (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

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“The 2000 Japanese anime film ‘Escaflowne: The Movie’ receives its first High Definition treatment via Blu-ray.  Featuring vibrant visuals and an immersive Japanese and English lossless Dolby TrueHD soundtrack, this version is the definitive version of the film to own.  Definitely recommended!”

Images courtesy of  © 2000-2001 Sunrise-Bandai Visual.  All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Escaflowne: The Movie

DURATION: 120 Minutes

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p (Main Feature), 480i (Bonus Materials), English and Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1

RATED: PG-13 (Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13)

COMPANY: Bandai Entertainment

RELEASE DATE: October 20, 2009

Original Concept by Hajime Yatate, Shoji Kawamori

Directed by Kazuki Akane

Screenplay by Ryota Yamaguchi, Kazuki Akane

Character Designs/Animation Director: Nobuteru Yuki

Mechanical Design: Kimitoshi Yamane

Armor Design Consultant: Yutaka Izubichi

Music by Yoko Kanno, Hajime Mizoguchi

Executive Producer: Ken Iyadomi

Produced by Sunrise

A Production of Sunrise, Bandai Visual

Starring:

Jouji Nakata/Paul Dobson as Dune/Folken

Maaya Sakamoto/Kelly Sheridan as Hitomi Kanzaki

Tomokazu Seki/Kirby Morrow as Van of Adom

Chafurin/Terry Klassen as Mole Man

Aki Takeda/Venus Terzo as Millerna

Ikue Ohtani/Jocelyne Loewen as Merle

Juurouta Kosugi/Michael Dobson as Dryden

Mayumi Iizuka/Sylvia Zaradic as Sora

Minami Takayama/Andrew Francis as Dilandau

Shinichiro Miki/Brian Drummond as Allen

Hitomi Kanzaki, who is tired of life. Depressed and despondent, she wishes that she could just fade away, to make the pain of living stop hurting. Her pain resonates with another on the world of Gaia, and when her wish is granted, she finds herself in a strange land. She is greeted as the legendary Wing Goddess, with the power to summon the legendary Escaflowne. Hitomi’s fate is intertwined with the brash young warrior king Van, who also feels that life has lost its meaning. By summoning Escaflowne, the Wing Goddess will choose a path for Gaia’s future. But will it be salvation…or destruction?

The 2000 Japanese animation film ‘Escaflowne: The Movie’ receives its first High Definition treatment.  Featuring vibrant visuals and an immersive Japanese and English lossless Dolby TrueHD soundtrack, fans of the film will definitely want this definitive version of the film.

In 1996, the Sunrise Studios anime television series “The Vision of Escaflowne” aired on television and although not a tremendous hit in Japan, when the series was released on DVD in America, it became a big hit. Not just in the US but worldwide.

Despite being released on Saturday morning television on Fox Kids (albeit heavily edited), the series would receive appreciation and a lot of love by fans for the Escaflowne’s characters,  it’s beautiful artwork and character designs, its story but most of all, it’s enchanting music.

With the fanfare strong worldwide, in 2000, Sunrise and Studio BONES began on a reimagining the television series through a 95-minute film titled “Escaflowne: The Movie”.  The film version is very different from the television series as the film is much more darker and the protagonist, the happy and chirpy Hitomi is anything but that.  In fact, she’s a person who is depressed and contemplates suicide. While the character of Van, is more reserved and willing to slash and kill anyone in his way.

Needless to say, the film is quite different as it focuses on these two main characters but most importantly, the film is for those who are and aren’t familiar with the television series and can enjoy it in the theaters.  The film received mixed reviews with diehard fans who had a hard time seeing a different version of their characters and of course, knowing that there is only so much story from the 26-episode anime series that is going to get covered in a 95 minute film.

The film begins with Hitomi, sad and depressed, you learn that she is a person who wants to kill herself and is prepared to say goodbye to her best friend via a letter.  Fortunately, her friend discovers her and the letter and tries to convince her that suicide is not a good way to go.  But no matter how much she tries to cheer up Hitomi, Hitomi is resigned with herself and with life.

The film then switches to the character of Van.  We see Van, who is violently slashing through many soldiers in order to find the behemoth known as Escaflowne and the Winged Goddess which he wants to use towards defeating his brother Lord Folken and his army.

Meanwhile, while Hitomi is alone and wanting to end her life, she sees an image of Lord Folken who calls her the Winged Goddess and wants her to join him.  Confused and not sure what is going on, blackness starts to envelop the area and  Hitomi is immediately sucked up into darkness and  not knowing what is happening, by the time Hitomi awakes, she emerges out of Escaflowne and encounters Prince Van.

Van believes her to be the Winged Goddess but immediately Escaflowne disappears and then believes that she may be a spy and a fake.  Because of her more modern school girl clothing, many of Van’s friends believe she is the true Winged Goddess despite Van not believing in her and almost wanting to kill her.

On the other side of the battle, we learn that Lord Folken and the Black Dragons are preparing their attack Van’s crew and capture Hitomi for his goal to use the power of the Winged Goddess to destroy the world.

Because of the increased attacks and attempts to capture Hitomi, Van is ordered to protect Hitomi at all costs.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“Escaflowne: The Movie” is presented in 1080p High Definition.  It’s important to note that the film was created in late 1999 and then released in theaters in 2000.  Also, the film was produced by Sunrise but animated by Studio BONES and for the most part, a few talented animators took part in the action sequences as well as new character designs for the film.  With that being said, when I first reviewed this film when it was first released on DVD, I commented on how gorgeous the film looked.  It’s very detailed backgrounds but also the film’s awesome animation.

Here we are in 2009 and the film now making its HD debut and I still stand by that.  The film looks great and although it may not look as digital and clean like today’s modern anime, the film still looks incredible for an anime film nearly a decade old.  But what is the primary difference between the picture quality from the DVD versus the Blu-ray?  There are several segments in the film that I tested out and that was the outdoor sequence (50-54 minutes into the film) and on Blu-ray, the first thing you will notice is how vibrant the outdoor scenes look.  The green and blues just pop out, especially during sunset with the red of the sun also popping out.  Needless to say, the film looks quite vibrant during the outdoor scenes.

The print is not 100% clear of dust which I think I may have seen a few specs but overall, I didn’t see a whole lot, nor did I see any major compression problems throughout the film.  Blacks are nice and dark and there is grain present.  Again, I’m a person who supports film grain and not supportive of excessive DNR (Digital Noise Reduction), so overall…I was pretty pleased with the picture quality for a film nearly 10 years old.

As for the audio, this is where “Escaflowne: The Movie” shines.  One thing that I noticed quickly is how immersive the soundtrack was in utilizing the soundscape of each channel.  The film’s dialogue is front and center channel driven but sound effects from the whisping as Van flies in the air, the clanging of the swords during battle, the blasts that are being shot and the destruction in the city is well-captured on your surround channels, especially via LFE.  I definitely enjoy when anime uses the subwoofer quite a bit, so it was great to hear that LFE usage. And of course, one thing that the film is noted for is the music and the music comes out nice and clear through your system.

I did notice one thing with the audio though.  The Japanese lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 sounds awesome but the English DolbyTrue HD 5.1 soundtrack seems a tad lower with the English dialogue.  In fact, through the beginning of the film while watching it with the English lossless soundtrack, I felt that I had to increase the volume a little in order to hear the dialogue clearly and when I switched to the Japanese soundtrack, the dialogue was consistent and much louder.  By no means are the two lossless soundtracks like night and day (like FUNimation Entertainment’s Blu-ray release of “Origin”) but overall, sound effects seem to be consistent on both soundtracks.  But overall, “Escaflowne: The Movie” does have a wonderful and immersive soundtrack.

Subtitles are in English only.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Escaflowne: The Movie” comes with the following special features (in 480i Standard Definition):

• Trailers: The Girl Who Leaped Through Time and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Solid State Society
• Staff Interviews: (23:00) Featuring staff interviews which include: Director Kazuki Akane/Composer Yoko Anno, Kazuki Akane and Kelly Sheridan (Voice actress for Hitomi), Masahiko Minami (Producer/BONES), Maaya Sakamoto (Voice Actress/Singer), Masuo Ueda (Producer/Sunrise) and a performance by Yoko Kanno, Maaya Sakamoto, Kim Su Jin perform “The Ring”(Escaflowne Ending Song, Special Duet Version).
• Original 2000 Premiere: (7:20) Featuring the following segments: The line at Anime Expo 2000 in Anaheim, CA for the screening of “Escaflowne: The Movie”, Minoru Takanashi (Producer/Bandai Visual) speaking to the audience before the movie and the Post-Movie Panel Highlights at Anime Expo 2000.

When it comes to “Escaflowne: The Movie”, the film has received different results from fans when it first came out.  Diehard fans who were not used to the change, of course, complained.  And for those who treated the movie separately from the anime TV series found the film to be enjoyable, creative and musically wonderful.  Needless to say, I’m part of the latter.  The fact is that many anime series that get a theatrical treatment usually has a story that is not part of the TV series timeline.  And there have been quite a few anime films that have been released that either try to take parts from a long series and condense it down to two hours or try to come up with something different.

With “Escaflowne: The Movie”, you get something different and it’s a reimagining that I was open to and at the time, I was very impressed with the results.  The animation was stellar and the music, Yoko Kanno’s music and the ending theme by Maaya Sakamoto was just fantastic.

So, needless to say… I was excited to hear that “Escaflowne: The Movie: was receiving its HD treatment and for the most part, I was more curious to see how a film that was created in the late 90’s would look on Blu-ray.  Already, Bandai Entertainment has proved to us that they can make it happen as evident with the release of “Akira” earlier this year.  So, I had no doubt in my mind that Bandai Entertainment was going to release a solid product.  What I was more concerned about was the lossless soundtrack.  And fortunately, the soundtrack for the most part was immersive and great to hear via lossless.

If you are a fan who owns the Ultimate Edition of the DVD, you may be wondering if it’s worth the double dip?  Well, for one, you don’t want to get rid of that “Ultimate Edition” because you get the awesome CD soundtrack and also there are special features such as the galleries that are not included on the Blu-ray.  But to answer the question, yes…it’s worth the double dip.  This is the best looking and sounding version of the film yet.  So, if you loved the film, you will definitely want to pick up this Blu-ray.

Overall, “Escaflowne: The Movie” is a solid Blu-ray release and for those who want to add to their anime on Blu-ray collection, this title is definitely recommended!

Tags: a J!-ENT Anime Blu-ray Review, anime, Bandai Entertainment, Blu-Ray, blu-ray review, Bones, Escaflowne, Escaflowne the movie, Sunrise

 

Burst Angel – The Complete Collection (A J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

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“An anime series with high level action, guns ablazing, mecha destruction and a tremendous amount of fan service.  ‘Burst Angel – The Complete Collection’ gets the High Definition treatment and looks and sounds magnificent on Blu-ray!”

Images courtesy of  © 2003-2007 GONZO/Project BAKUTEN.

TITLE: Burst Angel – The Complete Collection

DURATION: 24 episodes +1 OAV (600 Minutes)

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (16×9),  English and Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1, English subtitles

RATED: TV 14

COMPANY: Gonzo/FUNimation Entertainment

RELEASE DATE: September 29, 2009

Directed by Koichi Ohata

Series Composition by Fumiko Shimo

Music by Masara Nishida

Character Design by Kanetoshi Kamimoto, Osamu Horiuchi

Art Direction by Aki Makoto, Toshikazu Ishiwata

Mechanical Design by Kanetake Ebikawa

Character Conceptual Design by Ugetsu Hakua

3D Director: Tomoaki Kaneko

Sound Director: Yota Tsuruoka

Director of Photography: Sei Kitaoka

Anime Production by GONZO

Starring:

Akeno Watanabe/Monica Rial as Jo

Megumi Toyuguchi/Jamie Marchi as Meg

Mikako Takahashi/Alison Retzloff as Amy

Rie Tanaka/Clarine Harp as Sei

Yuji Ueda/Greg Ayres as Kyohei Tachibana

Takayuki Sugo/Mike McFarland as Leo Jinno

Kyoko Hikami/Colleen Clinkenbeard as Maria

Susumi Chiba/David Trosko as Hayao Ichimonji

Jerry Russel as Governor Glenford

Kent Williams as Ishihara

A new law and a dark underground syndicate have delivered devastating chaos to Tokyo. The city’s only chance for survival is a fearless mercenary, her dangerously beautiful comrades and a massively armed and armored mech. In this land where war has spread like a disease, they will have to put their very existence on the line and fight to be the cure.

An anime series with high level action, guns ablazing, mecha destruction and a tremendous amount of fan service.  ‘Burst Angel – The Complete Collection’ gets the High Definition treatment and looks and sounds magnificent on Blu-ray!

In 2004, GONZO featured the 24-episode anime series “Bakuretsu Tenshi” (aka “Burst Angel”) on TV Asahi followed by an OVA titled “Burst Angel Infinity” and a manga series titled “Angel’s Adolescence” which served as a prequel and released in Japan in 2005 and a first volume released in the US in 2008.  With the DVD released in the US, this time around, FUNimation Entertainment has given the popular series its first entry to High Definition via Blu-ray.

“Burst Angel” is directed by Koichi Ohata (who directed the “Ikkitousen”series, “M.D. Geist” and “You’re Under Arrest: Full Throttle”) and features series composition by Fumihiko Shimo (“Air”, “Gravion”, “Clannad” and the “Full Metal Panic” series).  The anime series would feature character conceptual design by Ugetsu Hakua (“Tower of Druaga” TV series), character designs by Kanetoshi Kamimoto (“Mushi-Uta”, “Taisho Yakyu Musume”) and Osamu Horiuchi (“Full Metal Panic” series, “Knights of Ramune”, “New Cutey Honey”) and mechanical designs by Kanetake Ebikawa (“Blue Submarine No. 6″, “Mobile Suit Gundam 00″, “G.I. Joe Sigma 6″ and the “Full Metal Panic!” series).

“Burst Angel” takes place during a time when crime has risen to a very high rate and it’s become so bad that firearms in Japan is legalized, so that citizens can take protect themselves.  Meanwhile, the government courtesy of Tokyo Governor Ishihara and Ricky Glenford has established a group known as RAPT (Recently Armed Police Taskforce) who work to eliminate criminals and bypassing arrests.

The anime series focuses on a team who take out monsters that have mutated, mechas on the rampage or the typical bad guy criminals in the city.   The team consists of:

• Sei – The leader of the group who belongs to a Chinese group known as Bai Lan run by her grandfather who has tremendous power in city politics.  But when her grandfather stepped down from their organization, those running it have decided to partner with RAPT to preserve the clan and instantly disgusts and pushes Sei away from the organization that her family has run.  She is rebellious against Bai Lan secretly and her grandfather helps finance her secret activities.
• Jo – The mysterious white haired girl who excels as a mercenary and guns and is the primary force from the group that rises against the opposition and takes them on with guns ablazing.  Has unknown powers and she pilots the mecha known as the Django.  Jo doesn’t know too much about her past but she wants to protect the people closes to her.  She’s a no nonsense person who enjoys sleeping and watching horror films.
• Meg – Megumi is Jo’s BFF.  She found and took in Jo and also good at firearms but she’s very emotional and is often kidnapped which Jo ends up having to save her.  She is attracted to Jo and can be seen getting close t Jo quite a bit.  She is also a character that is always hungry.
• Amy – The computer hacker and genius of the group.  A young girl and often in odds with Meg.  Loves to eat and play video games.  But loves hacking into computers.
• Kyohei Tachibana – A culinary student who is hired by Sei to cook for the team.  Doesn’t understand too much about the group but tries to make their lives happier with good food.
• Leo Jinno – The mechanic who is always working on Jo’s Django and will fight with weaponry if the situation requires it.  Also, has an attraction towards Sei.

The episode listing of “Burst Angel – The Complete Collection” are as follows (spoiler-less summaries):

DISC 1:

• EPISODE 1: “Hell Comes Silently” - A culinary student named Kyouhei is nearly attacked by a monster who is then killed by a girl with white hair.  Kyouhei then gets a big job to become the cook for a group of women and finds out that one of the women he cooks for is that girl with white hair.
• EPISODE 2: “The Heartless Gunfighter” – Meg saves Kyouhei but ends up being captured.  Now the group must rescue her.
• EPISODE 3: “City Where the Beast Howls” – The group go after a drug user who gets captured by another group.  As they look for this drug user, they realize that someone else is looking for this same guy.
• EPISODE 4: “The Brothers Die at Dawn” – Continuing from the last story, Meg and the man go after the drug user.
• EPISODE 5: “Mansion Where Lurks the Demon” – Meg goes undercover at an all girls school where mysterious things are happening.
• EPISODE 6: “Wash This Garden With Blood!”- Continuing from the last story, Meg learns that the school may be harboring some monster.
• EPISODE 7: “Black Sky” – A big giant crow kidnaps Kyouhei’s friend and also Meg.
• EPISODE 8: “The Wounded Outlaw”- Jo and and Kyouhei search for the crow.
• EPISODE 9: “Party of the Dragon” – Sei decides to partake in a political marriage for the sake of Bailan.
• EPISODE 10: “Uncharted Cyberspace” – Someone has been using Amy’s face in Cyberspace and thus she and Kyouhei go to the electronic district to figure out who is responsible.

DISC 2:

• EPISODE 11: “Eastern Angel, Western Hawk” – Jo must protect the Japanese wrestler, Mega Rider.
• EPISODE 12: “Tower of Tears” – RAPT tries to take over the Osaka police.
• EPISODE 13: “Showdown in Osaka” – Takane Katsu arrives in time to save Meg and now both Takane and Joe take on a cybot.
• EPISODE 14: “Wild Kids” – A flashback episode about how Meg and Jo met.
• EPISODE 15: “Slingin’ Oil” – The group takes a break from all the action and go to the beach for some R&R.
• EPISODE 16: The Man With No Name – Jo goes after a cybot and meets up with a mute samurai.
• EPISODE 17: “Dueling Angels” – A cybot is being piloted by a woman named Maria who has similar abilities to Jo.
• EPISODE 18: “The Immortal Classmate” – Kyouhei runs into an old friend named Akio but this friend is no longer the same kind of guy he once new.
• EPISODE 19: “24-Hour Strategy” – Takane and Leo visit the filming of a drama but something happens to Takane and she goes crazy.
• EPISODE 20: “Blood Red Highway” – A RAPT police cybot goes crazy and attacks innocent people.

DISC 3:

• EPISODE 21: New Sheriff In Town – The Bailan partners up with RAPT.
• EPISODE 22: Genocide Angels – Jo is captured and we learn about her and Maria’s past.
• EPISODE 23: Red Sea Gallows – Jo and Maria fight to the death.
• EPISODE 24: Angels, Explode! – The group goes on a mission to take down RAPT.  But will it become a suicide mission?
• OAV: Burst Angel Infinity – An OVA that relates to episode 14 (“Wild Kids”) in which Meg and Jo go back to where they first met and visit their young friend Shirley and give her a birthday present.  But they learn that Shirley was attacked by a monster and is now in critical condition.  Now Meg and Jo want revenge.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“Burst Angel – The Complete Collection” is an anime series that definitely looks very good on Blu-ray despite being an upconvert.  So, far FUNimation Entertainment has shown us how anime that was not originally created for HD looks so beautiful and vibrant on Blu-ray (the last release “Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid looks phenomenal) and “Burst Angel – The Complete Collection” doesn’t disappoint at all.

In fact, one of the positives of the anime series is that for a TV series, there is high production value with the way the anime looks.  From the many scenery that are painted gorgeously to the vibrant and colorful animation, I admit that I was impressed because due to the tight schedules of anime companies (especially since they tend to work on several series at the same time), I was amazed by how much effort and detail the artists put on the actual series.  And also surprised to see how much fan service-driven the animation gets during the series midway.

As for audio, the series is presented in Dolby TrueHD English and Japanese 5.1. The lossless audio for “Burst Angel” is fantastic.  The action segments really take advantage of your soundscape as sounds can be heard from your front, center and surround channels and also a bit of LFE.  With so much action in this film, this series is one of the most immersive anime on Blu-ray TV series released in the US thus far.

The mecha battles and the zoom and clashing of metal can be heard to Jo (or Jo in her Zango) as you can hear the machine gun bullets and the action quite loud and well.  In fact, there were a few times (mainly in the English soundtrack) that I felt that perhaps the action may overshadow the actual vocals.  But everything worked out and audio is one of the strong points of this anime on Blu-ray release.

For the most part, both dubbing is well done although, I could not stand the South Western twang given to one of the supporting characters on the English dub but overall, the English voice talent is as solid as the Japanese voice dub.  A key difference is with the character of Meg in which the Japanese voice dubbing makes you feel that Meg is a young teenager, while the English dub gives the feeling that she is a young woman.

English is the only subtitled presented.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Burst Angel – The Complete Collection” comes with the following special features (in 480i Standard Definition and Dolby Digital Japanese 2.o):

DISC 1:

• The Brothers Die at Dawn Commentary – Featuring audio commentary for episode 4 by Chris Bevens (Voice Director), Nathan Harrison (Audio Mixers), Monica Rial (Joe) and Jamie Marchi (Meg).
• The Wounded Outlaw Commentary – Featuring audio commentary for episode 8 by Chris Bevens (Voice Director), Monica Rial (Jo) and Clarine Harp (Sei).
• Uncharted Cyberspace Commentary – Featuring audio commentary for episode 10 by Chris Bevens (Voice Director), Alison Retzlof (Amy) and Greg Ayres (Kyouhei).

DISC 2:

• Showdown in Osaka Commentary – Audio commentary for episode 13 by Chris Bevens (Voice Director), Monica Rial (Jo) and Caitlin Glass (Takane).
• Dueling Angels Commentary - Audio commentary for episode 17 by Monica Rial (Jo) and Colleen Clinkenbeard (Maria).

DISC 3:

• Angels, Explode! Commentary – Audio commentary for episode 24 by Chris Bevins (Voice Director), Monica Rial (Jo), Jamie Marchi (Meg), Clarine Harp (Sei) and Alison Retzlof (Amy).
• Japanese Staff and Cast Interviews: Featuring interviews with Japanese Cast (16:02) hosted by Mai Morishita who interviews the Japanese voice talent, CGI Artist (2:09) featuring behind-the-scenes footage of the CG artist working in the office and Character Designer (3:48) featuring the various painted designs but the character designer Ugetsu Hakua.  Featuring an interview with Mai Morishita and Ugetsu.
• The Lightness and Darkness of Jo – (23:21) An Anime Expo 2005 special showcasing Jo from clips from the TV series.
• Usetsu Hakua (Character Designer) Special – (2:40) – A special showcasing the art of “Burst Angel” courtesy of the character designer Usetsu Hakua.  Featuring animation of the characters a few years after the TV series with Meg as the lead fighter of the group and how the main characters look years after the series.
• Battle Record of all 24 Episodes – (1:23:52) Battle record of all episodes.  Featuring a portion of the battle sequences for each episode.
• Previews of the TV Series – (5:46) Japanese next episode previews for the “Burst Angel” TV Series.
• Previews of the OVA – (2:14) Japanese preview for the “Burst Angel Infinity” OVA.
• Japanese Trailer – (2:25) Original Japanese TV trailer.
• Textless Songs - Textless songs for “Loosey” by THE STRIPES, an alternate OP for “Loosey” by THE STRIPES, “Under the Sky” by Cloudica and an alternate version of “Under the Sky” by Cloudica.
• Outtakes – (10:30) English dub outtakes
• FUNimation Entertainment Trailers

There is no doubt that if you want a series that combines action, mecha action and fan service, “Burst Angel – The Complete Collection” is definitely for you.

If one thing can be said about “Burst Angel”, this anime series is action-packed and for a TV series, it’s probably one of the few anime television series that I have seen released in this decade with this much fan service.  It’s one thing to get your typical panty shots but “Burst Angel” is quite interesting as the show progresses, all of a sudden the series starts to feature characters (primarily Sei and Meg) in interesting situations.  Not sure if there was like experimenting with the animators during the second half of the series  because it seems like the Sei and Meg’s boobs get larger and larger. It was like “Dead or Alive” (the video game) with the jiggle. And although not as out there as Satoshi Urushihara’s OVA “Plastic Little”, somehow during mid-season the artists seem to start having a nipple fetish and it becomes more prominent during the second half of the series.  Also, to make low rise clothing more prominent and thus we see quite a bit of butt crack as well.  So, fans who enjoy fan service, will definitely get their money’s worth with this anime series.

But what about the overall series?  Is the plot any good?

When I began watching the series, I realized how “Burst Angel” almost resembled a classic anime known as “Bubblegum Crisis”, in terms of four women having to take on corruption in the city.  But throughout the 24-episodes, you start to realize how many episodes are stand-alone episodes that really don’t have a connection to a major storyline.  In fact, you can go from episode 1-2 and then to episode 12 and you wouldn’t miss much of a storyline since episodes 3-11 are more stand alone episodes of the group going on missions.  Granted, you get to see more of Kyouhei and Amy but that leads me to wondering why the character of Kyouhei is  even in the anime series.  He’s just a cook and aside from providing the group with meals, if anything, it seems like if he was created just to ensure that the series can have more filler episodes.  And by the final leg of the series, he’s hardly even shown.

So, that was my main peeve about this series is that you feel like you’re watching too many stand-alone episodes and you wonder when are we going to see something significant that contributes to the main storyline and a build-up to whatever is happening.

But as for positives, you have to give GONZO major props because this anime series looks fantastic.  A lot of detail in the background art, the series doesn’t have that waxy look like most animated television series shown, nor is the animation and background art anything but simple. This anime is quite detailed and very vibrant. Nice use of reds, yellows and blues. 

Although an upconvert, the series looks very good on Blu-ray and the lossless audio soundtrack is even more exciting as the series is full of action and you hear those action sequences become quite immersive all around you.

Also, another positive is that this series has a good number of special features including audio commentary for a complete collection.  Typically you get only the textless opening and closing themes but it’s great to have several audio commentary and also other special features on the Japanese side.  Especially the “Ugetsu Hakua (Character Designer) Special” which I’m not sure if it’s meant to be a glimpse to the future of “Burst Angel” but if it is, I definitely like what I see.

Overall, “Burst Angel – The Complete Collection” is not a great anime but there are a lot of positive things going for it that I can see a group of fans who would be happy enough for the fact that it has a lot of gun action, mecha battles, monsters but most of all, those fans wanting plenty of fan service will probably enjoy this series despite a lot of the episodes being stand-alone.  And also, it’s a pretty good looking anime series as well and definitely is much more enhanced over its DVD counterpart, especially with the lossless soundtrack.

If you are looking for an anime series on Blu-ray, “Burst Angel – The Complete Collection” may definitely be for you.

Tags: a J!-ENT Anime Blu-Ray Disc Review, anime, Blu-Ray, Burst Angel, Funimation Entertainment, Gonzo

 

Devil May Cry: The Animated Series – The Complete Collection (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

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“Full of action and Dante vs. demon battles galore! The anime series based on the popular video game series receives its first High Definition treatment.  If you are a fan of the anime series, the Blu-ray release features better picture and audio quality over the DVD release!”

TITLE: Devil May Cry: The Animated Series – The Complete Collection

DURATION: 12 episodes (300 Minutes)

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (16×9),  Dolby TrueHD English and Japanese 5.1, English subtitles

RATED: TV MA

COMPANY: Showgate/FUNimation Entertainment

RELEASE DATE: August 25, 2009

Based on the video game series from CAPCOM

Directed by Shin Itagaki

Series Composition by Toshiki Inoue

Script by Bingo Morihashi, Ichiro Sakaki, Shotaro Suga, Toshiki Inoue

Music by rungran

Character Design by Hisashi Abe

Art Director: Katsushi Aoki

Chief Animation Director: Hisashi Abe

Sound Director: Masafumi Mima, Toshihiko Nakajima

Director of Photography: Kazuyuki Oota

“Devil” Design by Yutaka Minowa

Color Design by Naoko Kodama

Prop Design by Masahiro Kimura

Anime Production by Madhouse Studios

Starring:

Toshiyuki Morikawa/Reuben Langdon as Dante

Akio Ohtsuka/Rob Mungle as Morrison

Atsuko Tanaka/Luci Christian as Trish

Fumiko Orikasa/Melissa Davis as Lady

Misato Fukuen/Hilary Haag as Patty Lowell

CURSED to live as both monster and man, Dante must spend his life fighting the demonic forces of darkness.

Brandishing his sword, Rebellion, and his always-loaded guns, Ebony and Ivory, Dante is more than happy to send the demons back to hell-especially when there’s money to be made.  The wildly popular video game is now a series, and this time, there’s no sympathy to the devil.

Since 2001, the CAPCOM video game series “Devil May Cry” has been a staple in Japanese action-based video games that have achieved popularity worldwide.  Originally created by Hideki Kamiya (known for his work on “Resident Evil 2″, “Okami” and the “Viewtiful Joe” video games) and produced by Shiji Mikami (“Killer 7″, “Resident Evil” and “Dino Crisis” video games).

The popularity of the video game eventually led to an anime adaptation directed by Shin Itagaki (“who worked on “Black Cat”, “Fullmetal Alchemsit”, “Gurren Lagann” and “Inuyasha”), series composition by Toshiki Inoue (“Dragon Ball Z”, “Fullmetal Alchemist”, “Galaxy Angel” and “Death Note”) and character designs by Hisashi Abe (“Gunslinger girl”, “Sorcerer Hunters”, “Chobits” and “Spirit Warrior”).

The anime is a 12-episode television series which aired on WOWOW TV and features animation by the popular anime studio MADHOUSE.  In order to keep the soul of the video game alive in the anime industry or at least some connection, the series also features Bingo Morihashi who worked on the “Devil May Cry” video games but to focus more on the storyline that was in the manga and novel series.

The anime revolves around Dante, the son of the demon Sparda (a demon that betrayed his fellow demons and sealing the gate between the demon world and human world) and is a mercenary for hire.  His goal is to take on demons and runs a company called “Devil May Cry”.  Known for his white hair and his red clothing, Dante is fearless when it comes to battling demons and carries a sword and dual guns which he calls “ebony” and “ivory”.

In the anime series, Dante is literally a kick ass mercenary but when he’s not fighting, he’s broke and constantly eating pizza and strawberry sundaes.  He is heavily in debt (typically from the destruction that he causes when fighting the demons) and so he is open to jobs offered to him by Morrison or by another devil hunter named Lady (both people, he owes a lot of money to).  Also, temporarily takes care of an orphan named Patty who is looking for her mother.

The episode listing of “Devil May Cry: The Animated Series” are as follows (spoiler-less summaries):

DISC 1:

• EPISODE 1: “Devil May Cry” - Dante is hired to become a bodyguard for a girl named Patty.
• EPISODE 2: “Highway Star” – Dante takes on a mission given to him by fellow devil hunter, Lady to take on a possessed, demonic motorcycle.
• EPISODE 3: “Not Love” – A daughter of a mayor starts seeing a mysterious man.   Dante is hired to kill him.
• EPISODE 4: “Rolling Thunder” – A woman with lighting abilities shows up.  But she also carries dual guns.  Who is she?
• EPISODE 5: “In Private” – Dante is being followed by a guy who is jealous that the girl he likes has an attraction to Dante.  But by following Dante around can get this guy killed.
• EPISODE 6: “Rock Queen” – Dante is hired to protect a group of treasure hunters from a female demon who may have been a rock queen.
• EPISODE 7: “Wishes Come True” - A man finds a mask that grants him a wish but accidentally murders his friend.  Now Dante is brought in to take on this demon mask.
• EPISODE 8: “Once Upon A Time” – A man shows up at Devil May Cry believing that Dante is his old friend Tony.
• EPISODE 9: “Death Poker” – A woman hires Dante to save her husband from gambling but realizes the gamblers he’s going against are demons.

DISC 2:

• EPISODE 10: “The Last Promise” - Two men who knew Sparda go up against Dante.
• EPISODE 11: “Showtime!” – Dante is hired by Patty’s mother, a sorceress that once sealed away the powerful demon named Abigail.  Now another demon wants to free the powerful demon.
• EPISODE 12: “Stylish!” – Dante, Lady Trish and Morrison try to help Patty,who has left to find her mother.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“Devil May Cry: The Animated Series – The Complete Collection” definitely improves on the original anime DVD’s.  Presented in 1080p High Definition (16×9), the animation sports a more vibrant and sharper animation.  Detail in the backgrounds are much more clearer over the DVD and I have to admit that the visuals of the Blu-ray was more appreciated via High Definition than when I first saw it on DVD. Detail on the city landscapes to Dante’s guns seem to be more apparent and sharper and you also take notice of the actual shading and the artistic backgrounds. So, this is one series which I absolutely noticed a major difference between its DVD counterpart.

Character designs by Hisashi Abe (“Gunslinger girl”, “Sorcerer Hunters”, “Chobits” and “Spirit Warrior”) were also well done and I was also amazed by the character design of the character of Patty, mainly for her eyes (her eyes are different from all the other characters) because it reminded me of old “Macross” eye designs.  But overall, character designs are well done, the artistic backgrounds capture quite a bit of detail of the city during the night and daytime and of course, the series focuses on a lot of action-based sequences.    MADHOUSE did a great job on the anime production of this series.

As for the audio, this is where I have a different opinion on things.  The good news is that both audio tracks for the English and Japanese are both presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1.  For the most part, the positive is that the series is not just front and center channel/dialogue-driven.  The series features a lot of action-based sequences that utilize your surround and rear surround channel.  That’s a major plus!  But the audio quality lacks that punchy bass that I was hoping from the LFE.  Granted, I’m a bit more biased towards audio that utilizes the subwoofer more and enjoy action sequences with more booms but for the most part, the series does utilize action-based sequences quite well.

Now, what I find different is the English and Japanese voice dub.  For the most part,  I preferred the Japanese voice dub on the series mainly for a few reasons.  For example, on episode 6, there is a scene in Japanese where the demon makes this haunting scream that literally freaks you out.  In the English voice dub, the scream is replaced with a short hiss.  Also, there are scene in which normal dialogue sounds quite low and muted in the English dub that you feel you need to increase the volume of your receiver.  In the Japanese voice dub of that same scene, audio is loud and well-balanced.   Then there are demon scenes in the English dub which are gargled and you can’t really understand what the demons are saying, moving to the Japanese voice dub and at least the demons are clearly speaking with dialogue without that gargly vocoder-like sound.  But there is a major difference from watching and hearing this series in High Definition via its lossless audio track versus the original DVD’s Digital 5.1 Surround track.

With that being said, the English voice dub is satisfactory and of course, with a TV MA rating, Dante uses more mature words during his fighting sequences.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Devil May Cry: The Animated Series – The Complete Collection” features a good number of special features but at the same time, they are video game cut scenes and if you are still playing the “Devil May Cry” video games and don’t want to be spoiled, it’s best to not watch these cut scenes.  The bonus features are featured in 480i Standard Definition with Dolby Digital Japanese 2.0 audio.

• Special Interview: Toshiyuki Morikawa (Dante) – (5:10) An interview with Japanese voice actor Toshiyuki Morikawa.  Morikawa talks about his role and the difference between the video game and animation.
• Devil May Cry: The Game – Seven cut scenes from “Devil May Cry” - These are the cut scenes from the “Devil May Cry 4″ video game.  If you haven’t beaten the game or are planning to play it, you may want to skip these cut scenes.
• E3 2007 Preview – (1:55) “Devil May Cry 4″ E3 promo.
• Tokyo Game Show 2006 Preview – (2:21) “Devil May Cry 4″ Tokyo Game Show 2006 Preview.
• Short Trailer – (1:19) The short trailer for “Devil May Cry 4″.
• Long Trailer - (3:3) The long trailer for “Devil May Cry 4″.
• Devil May Cry 4: Final 2007 Footage - (3:06) Footage from “Devil May Cry 4″.  There is a warning that if you haven’t played and are planning to play the game or haven’t beaten the game, that the trailer may have spoiler footage.
• Devil May Cry 4: First 2008 Footage – (2:57) Footage from “Devil May Cry 4″.  There is a warning that if you haven’t played and are planning to play the game or haven’t beaten the game, that the trailer may have spoiler footage.
• Clean Opening Animation – (1:31) Clean (textless) opening animation composed by rungran.
• Clean Closing Animation – (2:44) Clean (textless) closing animation sung by Rin Oikawa.
• Promo – (5:38) The “Devil May Cry: The Animated Series” promo.
• Trailers – FUNimation Entertainment trailers

When it comes to video game adaptations to anime or even a live-action film, typically a person can only hope that the adaptation is well-done since so many adaptations in the past have failed.  “Devil May Cry: The Animated Series” was quite interesting for the fact that Dante is such a popular character for video gamers and to see an adaptation, one would wonder how much of that violence and devil hunting would become a part of the animated series.  Let alone, will it have an interesting and captivating storyline.

For “Devil May Cry: The Animated Series”, with the series focusing on the novels and manga, it was more important to make the majority of the episodes, pretty much stand-alone type of episodes and featuring Dante taking on a a variety of missions.

So, this is where it comes down to the viewer and how big of a “Devil May Cry” fan you are.  Some may want a connected series and a storyline that is much more dramatic and taking Dante to a level he has not been before.  But the series chooses to focus on missions that really, a viewer can watch episode 2-9 in any order that they wish and it wouldn’t disrupt the storyline because really, the main storyline is establishing the orphaned girl Patty, Dante’s financial woes and then from episode 10-12, the storyline becomes quite connected and much more involving.

I’m a fan of the video game series and own the four games and thus have some vested interest in the character of Dante, so it was nice watching those humorous moments (especially his fascination with the strawberry sundae) and there are episodes that are quite intriguing such as “Not Love”, “Rock Queen” or “Once Upon a Time” but some storylines that you ask yourself why?  Such as the second episode “Highway Star”… a demonic motorcycle, it worked back in the 1980’s via Stephen King’s “Christine” but it just doesn’t seem right as an episode for “Devil May Cry”.

So, in a way, part of the enjoyment comes from a fan appreciation of the video game series and to see where the series will go for the anime and what kind of battles Dante will get himself into.   But along with awesome fighting visuals, there has to be a captivating, intriguing storyline.  But in the end,  you feel that the animated series was just average and although it had its potential, doesn’t reach further than that.  But if you are a very big fan of the anime series, then the Blu-ray is the definitive version to own with its much vibrant picture quality and lossless audio tracks.

Tags: a J!-ENT Anime Blu-ray Review, Devil May Cry, The Animated Series, The Complete Collection

 

Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid – The Complete Series (a J!-ENT Anime Blu-ray Disc Review)

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“Simply wonderful!  ‘Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid’ manages to keep the fun, lighthearted and hilarious moments from the previous two seasons but also is much more dramatic and action-packed series from beginning to end!  The Blu-ray release of ‘Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid – The Complete Series’ is a perfect example of an anime TV series that looks and sounds incredible via High Definition!  Highly recommended!

TITLE: Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid – The Complete Series

DURATION: 13 Episodes (300 Minutes)

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (16×9),  Dolby TrueHD English and Japanese 5.1, English subtitles

RATED: TV 14

COMPANY: Kadokawa Pictures/FUNimation Entertainment

RELEASE DATE: August 11, 2009

Originally created by Shikidouji and Shoji Gatoh

Directed by Yasuhiro Takemoto

Series Composition by Shoji Gatoh

Music by Toshihiko Sahashi

Character Designs by Osamu Horiuchi

Art Director: Jouji Unoguchi

Chief Animation Director: Osamu Horiuchi

Mechanical Design by Kanetake Ebikawa and Toshiaki Ihara

Sound Director: Yota Tsuruoka

Director of Photography: Ryuuta Nakagami

Theme song by Mikuni Shimokawa

Starring:

Satsuki Yukino/Luci Christian as Kaname Chidori

Tomokazu Seki/Chris Patton as Sousuke Sagara

Akio Ohtsuka/Mike Kleinhenz as Andrei Kalinin

Daisuke Namikawa/Blake Shepherd as Leonard Testarossa

Emi Shinohara/Christine Auten as Xia Yu Fan

Miyuki Sawashiro/Kira Vincent-Davis as Xia Yu Lan

Yukana/Hilary Haag as Teletha “Tessa” Testarossa

Tomomichi Nishimura/Andy McAvin as Richard Mardukas

Shinichiro Miki/Vic Mignogna as Kurz Weber

James Reed Faulkner/Rikiya Koyama as Belfangan Clouseau

It’s tough to keep your grades up without having to take off at a moment’s notice to save the world.  But for Sousuke Sagara, undercover high school student and member of the mercenary group Mithril, life in Tokyo seemed the same as always.

But underneath the promising exterior spin the wheels of a conspiracy that threaten to destroy the peace.  A new threat has arisen:  Amalgam.  An unknown element with advanced mech technology, this mysterious organization has been running things from behind the scenes.  As dissension spreads throughout the ranks of Mithril, Sousuke faces his own internal struggle.  Spread thin between schoolwork and war, the powers that be have decided to lighten his load…beginning with Kaname!  Life and death hang in the balance as the clash between good and evil scale new heights.  When the smoke clears, Sousuke’s path will be the one that he forges for himself.

In 1998, Shoji Gatoh wrote a light novel titled “Full Metal Panic!”.  Featuring illustrations by Shiki Douji, the stories were featured in Kadokawa Shoten’s Monthly Dragon Magazine and is still continuing and going strong in Japan.  Needless to say, by 2002, the stories were adapted into a manga and anime format and “Full Metal Panic!” not only attracted fans in Japan but also worldwide.

For the anime series, the 24-episode television series revolved around an alternative Earth during the 21st Century.   It was a time where China including Hong Kong are split in half.  North China was led by the People’s Liberation Committee and the Southern China area represented the Democratic Chinese Alliance and both are at war with each other.  Also, there was turmoil that in the Middle East with the Fifth Middle East War and the Soviet Union succesfully invading Afghanistan.

Enter the Mithril, a mercenary organization that uses mecha power suits known as AS (or “Arm Slaves”) as a way to prevent terrorists from hurting innocent people.  Within the Mithril is one of our primary characters,  Sousuke Sagara, a mercenary.

When Sousuke was a young boy (after surviving a plane crash that killed his parents), he was raised by the KGB and by the age of 8-years-old, he became a killing machine.  Now as a teenager, he is an expert fighter and also a talented member within Mithril as he is the only one that was able to control the deadly AS known as ARX-7 Arbalest.

As Mithril is a Western-based organization, they have opposition such as the Communist-allied group known as Amalgam who have been at war with each other.

These two battle over a group of teenagers who are known as “The whispered”.  A group that is known to be quite advanced in math, science, engineering and physics and are able to produce machines and technology that are futuristic compared to present modern technology. This technology The Whispered are able to create is called “Black Technology”.  In fact, it’s The Whispered who are capable of creating the AS machines and thus these organizations want the people who can produce the technology.   And the next teenager the organizations have an interest in is the Kaname Chidori.

Chidori is a popular teenager at her high school.  Highly bright but also has a hot temper.  But because she is one of The Whispered, Mithril knows that organizations will do what it takes to get her.  Because of this, Mithril has given the mercenary Sousuke Sagara an order to protect Chidori.

Unfortunately, part of the problem is that he was raised only in battle and never to be around normal people and live a normal life.  Everything around Kaname, Sousuke suspects that they may be terrorists.  So, what may seem innocent, Sousuke over reacts to anything that can be used as a weapon, may be an attack on Chidori and thus  he gets himself in trouble quite a bit.  But for the most part, the first series focuses on Sousuke and Chidori and his involvement and duties with Mithril.

A year after the release of “Full Metal Panic!” on television, a new series (12 episodes total) was developed after the success of the series and would receive the title “Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu” and unlike the first series, focused more on high school romantic comedy and not the action-based series that people were used to from the first season.

But despite the humorous, upbeat and fun episodes of “Fumoffu”, the series did introduce the plot of a somewhat love triangle between Sousuke’s Captain Teletha “Tessa” Testarossa, Sousuke and Chidori.  Tessa, although his superior officer, has such a major crush on him that she tries to explain her feelings to him.  But since Sosuke is not exactly understanding how to live around people and not in the battlefield, he sees things much differently than most guys would and thus misunderstands things quite a bit and gets him into trouble.

In 2005, “Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid” featuring 13 episodes was featured on television.  The series would take place three months after the events of the first series and Mithril finds out that there is another secret organization utilizing technology to counter Mithril’s Electronic Conceal System.

The episodes on the Blu-ray disc are as follows:

Blu-ray Disc 1:

• EPISODE 1 – The End of Day by Day
• EPISODE 2 – The Scene Below the Water
• EPISODE 3 – Labyrinth and Dragon
• EPISODE 4 – Daylight
• EPISODE 5 – Beautiful Sicily
• EPISODE 6 – Edge of Heaven
• EPISODE 7 – Left Behind
• EPISODE 8 – Jungle Groove
• EPISODE 9 – Her Problem

Blu-ray Disc 2:

• EPISODE 10 – Hong Kong in Two
• EPISODE 11 – His Problem
• EPISODE 12 – Burning Hong Kong
• EPISODE 13 – The Continuing Day by Day

For the most part, for these 13 episodes, they can be viewed in three arcs.  The first arc features the Mithril realizing they have a spy in the organization and that there is a new nemesis out there that they are unsure of.  A nemesis who possesses technology that rivals their own.  As for Sousuke, he grows frustrated because he is unable to control the Arbalest completely. Also, the challenges that Tessa must face as the Captain of the Tuatha de Danaan.

The second arc deals with Sousuke and Kaname Chidori.  The two seem they are growing closer and closer and although it has been only six months, because of the growing threat to Mithril and this other secret organization, he is taken off the mission to protect Chidori and someone else from the organization will take his place.  For Sousuke, who seems to have no emotion since he was raised on the battlefield, he starts to have emotions that he never had before and it starts to affect his performance.

The third arc deals with the final confrontation, the final reveal of who is the mystery nemesis and a battle that puts our characters in Hong Kong.

“Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid” is unlike its predecessors in that the series manages to merge the first and second series together, so you get a balance of the action and the romantic drama that fans are used to.  But “The Second Raid” is a much more intense, more serious storyline and puts the characters in a situation unlike anything they have been into before.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid” looks absolutely fabulous on High Definition.  The anime series uses a lot of vibrant colors and colors are quite solid.  I did not spot any compression artifacts, dust or blemishes although I did notice some banding.

If there is one thing that may get hardcore videophiles was the fact that FUNimation Entertainment opted to put the first nine episodes on one disc and not put four or five in order to give a stronger bitrate for the video and audio.  But nevertheless, it’s hard not to like the picture quality.   The artists really did a spectacular job of incorporating sunlight and various lighting sources for the anime.  Even when the characters are inside their AS, it was cool to see the shimmering of light inside the cockpit.

It’s also important to note that many fans have said that because the series was created back in 2005, that the series must be an upconvert to Blu-ray.  If it is, it doesn’t look like it because the series looks absolutely wonderful on Blu-ray.

As for audio, “Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid” is provided in English and Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1.   Both are solid, lossless tracks but there are some differences.  For the most part, FUNimation Entertainment improved on the audio by making sure the battlescenes especially in the first and last episode, sound quite immersive.  All channels are utilized in an exciting manner.  Multiple gunshots whizzing and explosions utilizing LFE as the rumbles of the explosions linger.  I was absolutely impressed by the audio.

I watch the episode both in Japanese and English and again, both are solid soundtracks but you will notice the English have a little more pronounced audio, especially during communication scenes, from cockpit to headquarters, there is a hint of the English dub track being a bit louder.  It’s important to note that by saying that, this is not like the “ORIGIN” Blu-ray release in which the English lossless track was at a higher bitrate than the Japanese soundtrack.   I felt that FUNimation Entertainment wanted to step up the sounds of the series and make it more immersive during the action sequences over the Japanese track.

As for dialogue, there is also a difference where the English dub track uses quite a bit of profanity while the Japanese doesn’t.  English dub fans will most likely appreciate the use of profanity because it gives certain characters their own style of abrasiveness during battle.  So, you’ll see a scene during battle where in the Japanese dub dialogue such as “You’re nothing but a piece of junk” becomes “You’re a piece of shit!” in the English dub.  For the most part, dialogue is nice and clear even during the intense battle sequences.

For the most part, both picture quality and audio quality for “Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid” is quite solid!

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid” comes with the following special features in 480p Standard Definition (with the exception of the OVA):

• Bonus Episode 000 - (5:52) A short episode leading up to the first episode featuring Mithril on a mission.  Mainly a short clip of the main characters of “Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid”.  Featured in 480p and Dolby TrueHD 5.1.
• Bonus OVA – A Relatively Leisurely Day in the Life of a Fleet Captain - (29:26) This OVA takes place after the events of the final episode of “Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid”.  The OVA focuses on the Captain Tessa Testarossa.  Tessa who is in love with Sousuke has a dream about him and only wearing her panties and bra (and a shirt), she accidentally sleep walks to his room and by the time she wakes up and realizes what she has done, she is shocked at herself.  But she tries to find out why her stuffed animal is missing and thus the series is about Tessa trying to piece together of what she did late last night and what may have happened to her stuffed animal.  Featured in 1080p and Dolby TrueHD 5.1.
• Dawn of the Light Novel – (26:02) This featurette is very entertaining.  Hosted by Mikuni Shinokawa, the person who sung the music for the series, we learn about how “Full Metal Panic!” was a light novel and how it was adapted to an anime series.  Director Yasuhiro Takemoto takes FMP creator Shoji Gatou for a tour of the animation studio and learns about the various jobs of various staff members and what they do for the anime.  I really enjoy series that dwelve into the creation of an anime series.  Very cool!  Featured in Japanese with English subtitles.
• Location Scouting in Hong Kong – (2:26:22) This was very fun to watch and most amazing is that it’s over 2 hours long!  Mainly it’s the crew going through Hong Kong and looking at the various buildings, markets and areas where they can use for the final half of the anime series.  Both FMP creator Shoji Gatou and Director Yasuhiro Takemoto do commentary on this and for the most part, the guys tell a lot of jokes and talk about their experiences.  Takemoto talks about how he was asked to do one of these location scouting videos before but didn’t want it to be like a person forced to watch videos of someone else’s kids or family films.   But there is quite a bit of tongue and cheek humor and for the most part, for those who have never been to Hong Kong can definitely feel as if they are being taken on a tour throughout the area.  Featured in Japanese with English subtitles.
• Textless Songs - Opening and ending themes without the text
• Trailers – FUNimation Entertainment trailers for upcoming or currently released series or films.

Those who own the DVD box set may not want to get rid of it so quickly.  The main special features missing on the Blu-ray release from the 2008 DVD box set release are the Japanese commentary tracks for the episodes (with English subtitles). I would assume the main reason for the omission of the commentary track is because nine episodes are featured on the first disc and there was not enough room for the commentary track.  Also, the DVD box sets do come with the four full color booklets.

“Full Metal Panic!” has been of those series which manages to capture the mecha genre but also managing to balance humor and the romantic drama all together in one.  With “The Second Raid”, the series manages to take things up a notch with a more serious storyline and continually bringing in new life to the series with an awesome storyline thus far!

The series really does a great job in bringing out the character of Sousuke and we eventually to see a growth as a human being rather than just an employee of Mithril and I really enjoy where the love triangle is going with Sousuke, Chidori and Tessa.  There is no filler episodes, pacing was just right and the storyline is getting quite intense and after watching this series, I wanted more!

Again, the DVD box set release did come with the commentary tracks and the booklets.  I wish the series was spread out onto three discs and so the commentary tracks could have been incorporated or at least a higher bitrate for the video.  But I was absolutely surprised by how beautiful this Blu-ray release looked and how awesome the lossless audio tracks were.  It’s one thing to get the Japanese audio track in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 which is awesome but to see improvements made for the sound effects in the English dub track.  With many Blu-ray releases planned for release from FUNimation Entertainment, I hope the Japanese soundtracks continue to receive the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 treatment.

Overall, “Full Metal Panic!”: The Second Raid – The Complete Series” was overall magnificent!  All-out action, humor and dramatic moments make this title a definite must-own anime title on Blu-ray!  You won’t be disappointed!

Tags: a J!-ENT Anime Blu-Ray Disc Review, Full Metal Panic!, Funimation Entertainment, The Second Raid

 

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