Chobits-Volume 2: The Empty City (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	Main Menu Audio Credits-credit-free opening (1:31) Gallery-art (15) Trailer-Madman Propaganda (6:17) DVD Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	98:39 (Case: 100)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Morio Asaka
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Rie Tanaka Tomokazu Sugita Crispin Freeman Tomokazu Seki Tony Oliver Motoko Kumai Sandy Fox Kikuko Inoue Ruby Marlowe Fumiko Orikasa Julie Maddalena
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Keitaro Takanami

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) Japanese 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	Yes
Subtitles	English English Titling	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, next episode teaser after closing credits

    This is the second volume of an attractive and interesting series. If you haven't read it, you'll find my review of the first volume here — it provides some background material that I won't repeat.

    Hideki is dealing, in his usual less-than-completely-competent way, with life. He has exams at his prep school, work at the My Pleasure bar, and general living expenses. He is not coping too well, but he is a nice guy. When he goes to a bookstore to buy a Japanese/English dictionary, and takes Chi, he ends up buying a picture book for Chi instead of the dictionary. (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) That picture book is interesting, because the central character in the book is that mysterious flop-eyed creature we see in the closing credits. It is also the source of the title for this volume. Interestingly, Chi can already read (another mystery about her...).

    The episodes on this disc are:

    Hideki over-reacts a lot, but it's rather amusing. It makes me smile to watch Chi imitating him when he has a bout of histrionics. He also blushes easily, and even gets the occasional blood nose (anime males seem so prone to those...).

    Chi is starting to talk more, but she doesn't seem to be understanding everything yet. She is something like a small child in that, but she's like a small adult in stature. She is so very sweet as she cheers Hideki on with his studying. I am completely convinced, however, that Hideki doesn't deserve her (I'm sure I do...).

    There are some suggestions that Chi is even more than we comprehend. I suspect that as we get further into the series we'll be able to look back and see hints that we can't recognise at the moment. This is definitely getting interesting, and still entertaining.

    I feel obliged to point out that Chi's charging cable looks rather like a USB cable — maybe that was the inspiration for the animator. Given the amount of current Chi is drawing, I suspect that a real USB cable would vanish in a puff of magic smoke.

    Although almost everything that happens is quite innocent, there's enough in the way of sexual references that the M rating is justified — this is definitely not one for children.

    It will be no pain to keep buying this series — I'm enjoying it.

Video

    This DVD transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. It is 16x9 enhanced. I enjoy widescreen anime, and this series is drawn to use the whole frame.

    The image is clear and sharp. There's no film grain and no low-level noise.

    Colour is well rendered; this series uses a beautiful pastel palette. There are a few scenes that come across as a little too bright, yielding whites that bloom a little, but this is much easier on the eyes than Kai Doh Maru. The majority of this transfer shows very well-balanced colour.

    There are no film artefacts. It is possible that this was a direct digital transfer to NTSC that was then converted to PAL.

    There is some aliasing, particularly on pans, and most especially on vertical pans — it's not too troubling, but it's there, although it seems a bit less than on the first disc. There are no MPEG artefacts. This is an attractive transfer, and would look stunning if only they could control the aliasing a little better.

    The usual two subtitle tracks appear, both in English, with the first being a "signs only" track, and the second a full subtitle track.

    The disc is single-sided and single layered. There is no layer change, which is good.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The soundtrack is provided in English and Japanese. The English is Dolby Digital 2.0, not surround encoded, at 224kbps. The Japanese is Dolby Digital 2.0, not surround-encoded, at 224 kbps. I watched all the episodes with English sound and then again with the Japanese soundtrack.

    The English dialogue is easy to understand, and synced well between the animation and dialogue. The Japanese dialogue sounds clear enough, but is less well synchronised. Interestingly, Miss Hibiya sounds breathy in both English and Japanese.

    The score is really good. Keitaro Takanami gets the credit for this.

    This disc makes no use of the surrounds or subwoofer.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There's not much in the way of extras on this disc.

Menu

    The menus are animated with music. They are themed to look something like Mac menus, but they don't work that way — you don't click on the menu bar, but rather on the more standard menu in the middle of the screen. There are nice transitions between menus.

Non-credits Opening (1:31)

    Exactly as on the first disc: the opening sequence without credits over it.

Gallery — Art

    Another fifteen images from the series, shown in a frame. Nothing very exciting, but at least they are different images to those found on the first disc.

Madman Propaganda (6:17)

    Four trailers that run one after another (not the usual Madman Propaganda format):

• .hack // SIGN
• Argento Soma
• Jubei-Chan Ninja Girl
• Tenchi Muyo

DVD Credits

    A single page that shows credits for the folks at Madman who worked on this disc.

    The Region 1 version of this disc is again very similar to the Region 4 version. The only extras it has are the closing sequence (we get the opening, again) and an art gallery (with different content and fewer pages). By reports, it has a very good transfer. They don't get the Madman Propaganda — their loss...

    Again, it's a draw between the two versions, but I'd suggest buying the R4 to support the local industry.

    A new anime series gets a strong addition. It is presented well on DVD.

    The video quality is very good, but there's aliasing that may annoy a few people.

    The audio quality is very good for a stereo soundtrack.

    The extras are scant.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall