Region 4 Winners and Losers

    The Region 1 disc was released at the beginning of the year. The Region 1 and the Region 4 discs are quite similar. The art on both sides of the cover slick is almost identical. The extras are similar (they get different trailers — six of them — and they miss out on the character profiles).

    The R1 has a more complex menu that's quite pretty.

    The R1 includes a postcard, showing the cover image (Yume and Angela).

    The R1 disc includes a folded insert that lists the chapter stops for each episode, and has an mini poster. It's a larger version of the image on the reverse side of the cover slick.

    The Region 1 transfer is quite similar to the R4, except that it is NTSC. It is a teeny-weeny bit darker, and an eensy bit more saturated, but the difference is slight. The more noticeable difference is that the R1 doesn't have as much over-brightness — it looks like the R4 transfer may have been set too bright, unfortunately.

    I think you can be equally happy with either version, but if pushed to it, I'd have to rate the R1 as slightly better due to that over-brightness.