.hack//SIGN-Volume 2: Outcast (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	Main Menu Audio Trailer-Commercial Collection Theatrical Trailer Gallery-Character Artwork Biographies-Character Trailer-Propaganda (5)
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	120:09 (Case: 125)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (71:09)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Kτichi Mashimo
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Mitsuki Saiga Megumi Toyoguchi Kazuhiro Nakata Akiko Hiramatsu Kaori Nazuka Isshin Chiba Brianne Siddal Amanda Winn Lee Paul Mercier Donna Rawlins Kim Mai Guest Doug Rye
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Yuki Kajiura

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 Titling English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Volume 2 of .hack//SIGN, in anime form, at least. This series is part of an intriguing concept, in that it interlocks with pieces in other media, but I'm sticking with the anime releases. If you haven't read it already, I urge you to read my review of .hack//SIGN volume 1 before reading this one.

    The five episodes on this disc are:

6. Encounter — Tsukasa is being held by the Crimson Knights, but he doesn't have to be rescued
7. Reason — Mimiru makes a new acquaintance, and learns something about herself
8. Promise — Mimiru promises to wait for Tsukasa, and waits, and waits...
9. Epitaph — Tsukasa unwillingly takes on a responsibility, and is upset by events
10. Compensation — Bear is forced to admit why he plays the game, and how he uses it

    OK, I was wrong — I thought Volume 1 would be the only disc with five episodes. I'm glad there are five on this one, because it feels like very little happens in each one. There's a lot of talking, some of it fairly repetitious, and some silent sitting around — did I say not a lot happens?

    The characters we met in the first volume occupy almost all our time. We do meet a new character, called A-20, who seems to be a newbie, but there are hints that she's not quite what she seems. We also meet a new girl in episode 9, but I doubt she's a regular. Mostly we concentrate on Tsukasa, Mimiru, BT, and Bear, but we do watch Subaru at times, and even Sora, Crim, and the Silver Knight every so often. We see a bit more of other characters, possibly because they think we're less likely to be confused now that we know the regulars.

    This series may be a lot richer if you are following some of the other streams (the manga, the game/s, and so on). Without those, it's not all that involving, and I'm not sure it will continue to hold my interest. I'm willing to give it one more volume, at least, so it's not too bad.

Video

    This DVD transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. It is 16x9 enhanced. That is the original aspect ratio. This is definitely designed for the wide screen from the beginning.

    The image is sharp and clear, with no film grain, and no low-level noise. The character animation is attractive, but quite basic, with the backgrounds showing more detail at times (and being quite simple at other times). The only time we see anything like noise in the image is when we're seeing a flashback or the outside world — these shots are mostly drained of colour, and have static added to them (rather heavy-handedly) so that we know we're seeing something outside the World.

    Colour is vivid and well-saturated, with plenty of variety. There are no colour-related artefacts — even the over-brightness that was a bit too common on the first disc has disappeared. The deliberate desaturation during flashbacks and shots of the outside world is no artefact — it's deliberate.

    There are no film artefacts. The apparent artefacts on flashbacks are deliberate.

    Aliasing is visible on pans, and it's light when it does appear. There is no moirι, because most objects are solid colours, rather than patterns. There is no background shimmer of any significance. There are no other MPEG artefacts.

    There are two subtitle tracks. The first subtitles only signs and songs. The second provides full subtitles for the dialogue, plus the signs and songs. The dialogue subtitles seem to be accurate, well-timed to the dialogue, and easy to read. There are a couple of occasions where the subtitles are significantly rearranged from the dub, enough so that watching both at once gets a little disorienting. The total information conveyed is the same in the end, it's just that the order may vary.

    The disc is single-sided and dual-layered, formatted RSDL. The layer change is at 71:09, exactly between episodes 8 and 9, making it pretty much invisible.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The soundtrack is provided in both English and Japanese, as we'd expect. Both soundtracks are Dolby Digital 2.0, not surround encoded. I listened to both soundtracks in full.

    The English dialogue is clear and readily understood. The Japanese dialogue sounds clear enough. Neither dub is a perfect match for the animated mouth movements, but the discrepancies are small — the Japanese has a few more discrepancies than the English, a phenomenon not limited to this series. There are one or two moments of very minor distortion in the soundtrack, but you have to listen very hard to notice them.

    Yuki Kajiura has given us a good score again (and themes), including some good bass. A strange touch is the songs in English, or partly in English, even in the Japanese soundtrack.

    Although this is a straight stereo signal, it doesn't hurt to have Prologic decoding enabled — it will place most of the dialogue into the centre channel, and spread the music across the front. The surrounds won't be used to any significant extent. The subwoofer will get nothing to do unless your amp's bass management directs some of the plentiful bass into it.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu has music and transitions. It is constructed on an isometric representation of a cube — unusual, but neat. There's no problem in operating it.

Commercial Collection (0:47)

    A series of TV spots in Japanese.

.hack // SIGN Trailer (1:39)

    Not 16x9 enhanced.

Gallery: Character Art (4pp)

    Artwork pages for BT, Crim, and Sora.

Character Profiles

    Four pages, giving some brief background to some of the characters:

• BT
• Sora
• Crim
• The Crimson Knights

Propaganda

    Trailers, in standard Madman Propaganda form:

• Argentosoma (1:36)
• Geneshaft (1:16)
• Haibane-Renmei (1:12)
• Last Exile (1:33)
• Initial D (0:31)

DVD Credits

    A credits panel showing the DVD authors at Madman.

    The Region 1 disc was released early in 2003. It was released in both single-disc and limited edition forms, like the first disc, but the limited edition is not as different from the single-disc this time. The big extra in the limited edition is a soundtrack CD (the music) - I am unsure as to whether this soundtrack CD is available separately. The anime disc is the same in both. There's no limited edition version in Region 4.

    The Region 1 and Region 4 content is quite similar — the Region 1 gets a "timeline" that's not on the Region 4 disc, but that's about it. The cover artwork on both has the same characters in the same poses, but completely different backgrounds, for no obvious reason.

    The transfer of the R1 is reported as being as good as the first disc, which would make it top-class. The Region 4's transfer is excellent, save for the occasional scene that looks a little over-bright. I'd put the two as being about equivalent.

    If you want the soundtrack CD (which does sound rather good — the music in these episodes is good stuff) then you might try to find a copy of the limited edition R1. Otherwise I'd say you could get either version — I'm going to collect the R4 discs.

    The second disc of an anime series that is part of an experimental new form. This series is presented well on DVD.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The extras are fairly average.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall