Witch Hunter Robin-Volume 1 (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	Main Menu Audio & Animation Alternative Version-Textless Opening And Closing Gallery-Production Art (36) Gallery-Stills (20) Trailer-Geneshaft, Last Exile, Final Fantasy: Unlimited, Heat Guy J Trailer-S-Cry-Ed, Grave Of The Fireflies, Argentosoma Reversible Cover DVD Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	123:20 (Case: 125)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (73:05)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Shuko Murase
Studio Distributor	Sunrise, Inc. Madman Entertainment	Starring	Akeno Watanabe Kari Wahlgren Takuma Takewaka Crispin Freeman Jun Fukuyama Johnny Young Bosch Kaho Kouda Wendee Lee Kyoko Hikami Michelle Ruff Hiro Yuuki Dave Wittenberg
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Taku Iwasaki

    Witch Hunter Robin is a new anime series that is a bit different from its peers.

    This series is set in an alternate current day, in Japan. Unbeknownst to the general public, there's been a upswing in the number of people displaying psychic powers (they are referred to as "witches" in this series, despite the lack of Wiccan ritual, or spell-casting paraphernalia). These witches are being tracked by a multi-national organisation called STN, and we watch the activities of one group in the Japanese branch: STN-J. One of the things they have at their disposal is a huge database of genetic records, going back generations (their "witch" traits are genetic, another reason for questioning the term).

    The STN-J hunter group is fairly small. The boss (Administrator) is a man called Takuma Zaizen, who is calm and serious. He has a 2IC who is, I guess, a "chief of staff" — everyone refers to him as "chief", but no one respects him (with cause: he's a bit of a fool, and obsessed with procedure over substance). The hunters are led by Amon, a quiet, mysterious man who is quite good at the job. Then there's Yurika Dojima, who doesn't take the job seriously (she was pushed into it by her parents) — she shows up late, takes off early, and thinks nothing of ducking out to go shopping. More serious is Miho Karasuma, who has considerable psychic power (she can read emotional impression by touching people or things). And Haruto Sakaki, a young man who tries hard, but isn't the most successful member of the team. Their back-at-the-office hacker help is provided by Michael Lee.

    The new addition to the hunter team is Robin. She is a 15 year-old girl with considerable psychic power (lots of power, but not so much aim; given that she specialises in fire, this is dangerous!). She is a Craft User, a fact that unsettles Zaizen and Amon, although we don't yet know why. This team is using a new technique to get the job done, based on a thing called Orbo. We don't know what this is yet, but Robin describes it as "disgusting"... It functions both offensively (in the form of bullets from gas-powered pistols) and defensively (in a form the hunters wear as pendants).

    Robin was raised in an Italian monastery, and wears a floor-length dress that covers all but her hands and head (except in bed!). She goes to a (Christian) church to pray every day. She is living with a woman called Touko (or Toko) Masaki — we know little about her, but she appears to have some unspoken connection with Amon. Robin wears her hair in an unusual way, in two sort-of ponytails that stick out of the sides of her head (you'll see).

    Robin is assigned to be Amon's partner, but he goes off without her all the time, and treats her with little or no respect. Robin tries to cope, but this upsets her, understandably. She gets along better with the other members of the team.

    There are other elements at work, too. When the hunter team incapacitate a witch, a team from Factory collect him or her — we don't yet know what they do with them, though. There's also a place or team called Solomon, with some kind of authority. Lots of mysteries, which may, or may not, be uncovered.

    The episodes on this disc are:

    These are introductory episodes, concentrating on establishing the characters and the work they do, so we get nothing but hints at larger story elements. We have yet to see much that illuminates Robin's depths, but I'm guessing they will be revealed slowly. The most noticeable, and irritating, thing about her is that strand of hair that so often appears across her face. But she is a sufficiently sympathetic character that I want to know more.

    I've read hints that this series takes its time, but builds up to an impressive story — I guess we'll see. So far it's a nicely dark and mysterious show, with some characters that are more than cardboard cutouts.

    We don't exactly get a preview of the next episode at the end of each one. What we get is a short and mysterious passage (read by Robin) that hints at the subject of the next episode. Each of these passages starts with: "320 years have passed since the coven sank in the dark." — that's an ominous beginning!

    I'm not sure, yet, that I'll be really drawn in by the show, but I'm certainly willing to watch more. It's nicely drawn, and a pleasure to look at.

Video

    This DVD transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced. That's the original aspect ratio, so we can't complain.

    The image is clear and sharp. There is no significant film grain, and no low-level noise. There's no visible edge enhancement.

    Colour is superb, with a wide palette of lovely colours, all well-rendered. There are few really bright colours, but there are plenty of rich colours. There are no colour-related artefacts.

    There are no film artefacts.

    There is surprisingly little aliasing, no moiré, and next to no shimmer. This is a clean transfer, which gives me very little to talk about!

    There are two sets of subtitles on this disc, both English. The first subtitles only songs and signs, while the second is a set of full subtitles of the dialogue; the Japanese dialogue, that is. The subtitles are easy to read, seem to be well-timed, and the English dialogue matches them surprisingly well. They are often quite long, suggesting that they've made an extra effort to be accurate. I did see one glitch, but only on one player, and only on one line — all that happened was that the subtitle appeared and disappeared in the one frame. It wasn't an important line, anyway.

    The credits are shown in Japanese on each episode. After we've seen all five episodes we get one set of closing credits in English. They are quite complete, including a cast listing for both Japanese language and English language voice actors, which I like.

    The disc is single-sided, dual layered, formatted RSDL. The layer change is placed between episode 3 and episode 4, at 73:05, making it essentially invisible.

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, both in Dolby Digital 2.0, 224kbps. I watched every episode in both languages.

    The English dialogue is clear and readily understood, even the lines spoken quietly. The Japanese dialogue sounds clear enough too.

    The score is modern, using a mixture of styles and instruments, and very well-suited to the show. It's credited to Taku Iwasaki.

    These are pure 2.0 stereo soundtracks. They are full-range, but there's nothing for the surrounds or subwoofer to do.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu is subtly animated (watch closely!) with music. The menus are quite pretty, and they are easy to use.

Reversible Slick

    The slick can be slid out of the case and reversed. The cover as shipped shows Robin on the front. The reverse shows the other two women in her team: Dojima and Karasuma. There is not a lot of difference between the two sides when it comes to the back.

DVD Credits

    A different style from usual, but still a single page listing the Madman people associated with the disc.

Textless Opening (1:33)

    This is interesting to watch, because the opening to this show is intriguing.

Textless Ending (1:31)

    Not as interesting as the opening, because little happens. There are things in the background, in black on dark red, but they are more hinted at than visible.

Gallery: Production Art (36 pages)

    This is mostly pencil sketches, although there are occasional pages in full colour.

Gallery: Stills (20 pages)

    All these are full-colour pages.

Trailers (11:33)

    This is a series of trailers, shown one after another, rather than individually selectable as is more common from Madman.

• Geneshaft
• Last Exile
• Final Fantasy Unlimited
• Heat Guy J
• S-Cry-ed
• Grave of the Fireflies
• Argentosoma

    The Region 1 version of this disc wasn't released very long ago (not too surprising, given that the show only screened in 2002). It is fairly similar to this one, except for a few differences in extras, and different menus (I think our menus sound better).

    The Region 4 disc is missing:

• STN-J Personnel Files — basically descriptions of the various characters
• Insert

    The Region 1 disc is missing:

• Production Art gallery
• Stills gallery

    By reports, the R1 transfer is as good as this one, so there's really nothing to choose between them. I'm quite pleased with the Region 4.

    The first volume of a new series that's both interesting and beautifully drawn. It's presented very well on DVD.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The extras are fairly basic, but the art galleries are nice.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall