Battle Girls: Time Paradox (Sengoku Otome-Momoiro Paradox) (2013)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	More…-Textless Opening & Closing Songs Trailer-x 4 for other anime titles
Rating
Year Of Production	2013
Running Time	305:26
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Hideki Okamoto
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Rina Hidaka Brittney Karbowski Megumi Toyogushi Shelly Calene-Black Eri Kitamura Emily Neves Hillary Haag Satomi Akesaka
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	?	Music	Eishi Segawa

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Yoshino Hide, nicknamed Hideyoshi (voiced by Rina Hidaka / Brittney Karbowski) is a schoolgirl far more interested in her mobile phone, food, fashion and texting than schoolwork. When it looks as if she will fail the next history test, again, and be forced to catch up during the summer, she visits a local shrine to pray for intervention. Then, in a flash of blue light, she is transported back to a world that looks like the Sengaku period of Japanese history in the 16th century and she meets fabled general Oda Nobunaga (Megumi Toyogushi / Shelly Calene-Black). However, in this world Oda is a big breasted woman in skimpy armour; indeed, everyone in this world is female, including Oda’s companion Mitsuhide Akechi (Eri Kitamura / Emily Neves) who bears a close resemblance, including glasses, to Yoshino’s school friend Akerin! Indeed, the only male in this world is the talking dog Shiro, who it a bit of a pervert but helps Yoshino.

     Oda is searching for the pieces of the Crimson Armour, the possession of which will give the wearer the power to conquer Japan, and Yoshino is drawn into the quest over the objections of Mitsuhide. During the course of the series, Yoshino tags along as Oda and Mitsuhide collect various pieces of the Crimson Armour from other Japanese historical names, including Yoshimoto Imagawa, Shingen Takeda and Kenshin Uesugi, and run up against the devious Ieyasu Tokugawa (Satomi Akesaka / Hillary Haag) who has her own plans to conquer Japan. And it seems that Yoshino / Hideyoshi is not the only one to have been transported to this world.

     Battle Girls: Time Paradox (original title Sengoku Otome – Momoiro Paradox) is an intriguing idea, indifferently executed. There is nothing wrong with creating an alternate history as Battle Girls does, taking names and known incidents from the Japanese Sengaku period and changing them and the fate of individuals: it is an alternative world after all! This can be quite fun, and the series is also humorous where Yoshino, a totally self-centred teen, has issues with the world she has been thrust into including the lack of amenities such as flush toilets, electricity and the fact that she cannot get a mobile phone signal or a hamburger! This is amusing and light hearted, however, Yoshino is also very whiney and annoying, which grates. Thus far this anime seems to be for a juvenile audience, but the implied lesbianism, the concentration on bobbing breasts, nudity and bottoms and an abrupt change of tone about two thirds of the way through is at odds with the light, humorous tone.

     Who is the target audience? There is nothing complex about the ideas in the anime, other than the alternate world. Teen males might enjoy the nudity and breasts but there is no male figure to relate too. Teenage girls may well relate to Yoshino’s plight, facing life without a mobile phone signal, yet she is annoyingly whingey. As well, the suggestions of female gay sexuality, such as the women bathing together, Mitsuhide’s jealousy, or the “play” episode, may be for another audience entirely except that while they are overt they are not explicit, given the age of the schoolgirl hero. Once the armour is obtained, the series then becomes far more dramatic and lays on a heavy message about the corruption of power and doing the right thing. Then it spends the last two episodes trying to explain just what was happening; sometimes, things are better if unexplained. At least Battle Girls: Time Paradox ends its story arc, although in the post credit sequence of episode 13 further adventures for Yoshino are left open.

     Battle Girls: Time Paradox is colourful and amusing in parts, but the uneven tone and content makes it a little difficult to pinpoint just who it is intended for.

     This two DVD set has episodes 1-7 on disc 1, episodes 8-13 plus the extras on disc 2.

Video

     Battle Girls is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, the original broadcast ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced.

     This is an anime that looks beautiful. It is mostly sharp with clean lines although it can look hazy on occasion. The print has the usual lovely anime pastel colours in wide shots, with the countryside looking green and lush, and it adds colourful interiors and fire and explosion scenes in which the colours such as reds and yellows are deep and vibrant. Blacks and shadow detail are fine.

     There is no issue with artefacts except for a little ghosting with the end titles.

     It is anime so lip synchronisation is very approximate in either audio track.

     The American English subtitles are in a combination of white and yellow text and I noticed no obvious spelling or grammatical errors. From the set up menu you can either select English audio or Japanese audio with English subtitles, but the remote can be used to switch between languages and turn the English subtitles off and on. So you can watch the English dub with subtitles or the Japanese without them.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is a choice of Japanese or English Dolby 2.0 both at 224 Kbps, surround encoded. I sampled both tracks, but as usual preferred the Japanese which seems to have more intensity to the voice acting. However, Yoshino is annoying in either language.

     The level of recording and effects seemed similar in both audio tracks. The dialogue is clear and easy to understand. The surrounds were used for music, weather effects such as rain and some noise during the battles. I noticed some only slight sub-woofer use during explosions.

     The original music by Eishi Segawa was bright and breezy, with catchy opening and closing catchy songs by Tomotaka Osumi.

     The audio track did what is required.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     The extras are on disc 2.

Textless Opening (1:29)

     Opening song without the credits.

Textless Closing (1:29)

     Closing song without the credits.

Trailers

     Trailers for other anime releases: Tales of Vesperia The First Strike (1:37), Persona 4: The Animation Collection 1 (1:42), Bleach The Movie 4: Hell Verse (1:13) and Puella Magi Madoka Magica Vol. 1 (1:25).

     The Region 1 US release of Battle Girls: Time Paradox has the same limited extras, but is listed as being in a 4x3 ratio although I cannot confirm this. There is no Region 2 UK version listed. In Japan their Region 2 releases are split into 6 volumes, each with a couple of episodes but they are not English friendly. For English speakers, Region 4 is the pick.

     Battle Girls: Time Paradox has a very interesting premise and alternative history is always fun. It is colourful and amusing in parts yet is uneven in tone and content and does not seem to make up its mind about the target audience.

     The video and audio are fine. Extras are minor.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall