Amon Saga (1986)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	Main Menu Audio & Animation Biographies-Character Trailer-Akira; Perfect Blue; Ghost In The Shell Trailer-Blood: The Last Vampire; Street Fighter Alpha DVD Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	1986
Running Time	74:35 (Case: 90)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Shunji Oga
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Kenyu Horiuchi Yoshino Takamori Mugihito Tenchi Koji Mori Kiyoshi Kobayashi Ichiro Nagai Tamio Ooki Shunsuke Shima Banjo Ginga Koji Toya Naoki Tatsuta
Case	Click
RPI	$29.95	Music	Shigeaki Saeguse

    Amon Saga is a Japanese animated fantasy adventure about a warrior who is seeking revenge for the death of his mother.

    When he was a young child, Amon's mother was killed in front of him and he makes it his life's work to find the person responsible and seek revenge. Having grown into a deadly and agile warrior, Amon tracks down the man responsible, the Emperor Valhiss. To get close to the Emperor, Amon moves to his city, located on the back of a massive turtle, and joins his imperial army. While in the city planning his revenge, he meets Princess Lichia who has been kidnapped by the Emperor. The princess is being held hostage until her father provides a map to the Valley of Gold. Amon decides to help rescue the Princess while still fulfilling his initial plans.

    This familiar storyline holds no real surprises for viewers but should be enjoyed by fans of the fantasy genre.

Video

    The full frame transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

    The transfer is consistently soft throughout but luckily this does not pose a significant problem for the viewer due to the style of animation employed. The shadow detail displayed during the transfer is always quite poor with little detail visible in the numerous dark sections of the transfer. It is not clear if this problem is due to the transfer or is inherent in the source material.

    The colour palette displayed during the transfer is typical of animation of this age and always appears to be slightly muted.

    No MPEG artefacts were detected at any time during the transfer. No instances of aliasing were detected at any stage during the transfer.

    A number of film artefacts may be seen during the transfer. Some examples of these artefacts may be seen at 1:50, 4:30, 10:11, 14:32, 15:04 and 15:26. All of these artefacts are quite minor but due to their frequency they are slightly annoying to the viewer.

    A small amount of telecine wobble may be seen at 2:57 and 21:50 but due to its short duration this is only minimally distracting.

    During the majority of the transfer, an unusual artefact may be seen on the outlines used in the animation resulting in an uneven jagged edge. Some examples of this artefact may be seen at 0:58, 2:27, 3:56, 7:07, 19:28 and 20:22. This artefact may be due to a sampling error created during the NTSC to PAL conversion or may be present in the original NTSC transfer. Due to the frequency of this artefact, it is quite distracting.

    A single set of yellow English subtitles is provided on this disc and they are clear and easy to read at all times. A single line at 23:24 does not have a subtitle translation provided.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times.

    As this is an animated feature, there are the expected obvious problems with audio sync for each soundtrack. At no stage during the transfer were any audio dropouts detected.

    The original music by Shigeaki Saeguse is very effective and works well with the action on screen. This music score is used during both the Japanese and English soundtracks.

    The surround and subwoofer channels were used throughout the English 5.1 mix for both effects and the musical score and this creates an effective enveloping soundstage when compared to the 2.0 mix.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The minimally animated menu is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1

Character Profiles

    Single page profiles are included for the following characters: Amon, Darai Sem, Princess Lichia, Ekuna, Emperor Valhiss, Ho, Alcan, Mabo and Denon.

Trailer: Akira (1:15)

    This trailer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.66:1 with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and is not 16x9 enhanced.

Trailer: Perfect Blue (1:38)

    This trailer is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.

Trailer: Ghost In The Shell (1:34)

    This trailer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Trailer: Blood The Last Vampire (1:40)

    This trailer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and is not 16x9 enhanced.

Trailer: Street Fighter Alpha The Movie (1:06)

    This trailer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Photo Gallery

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• Character Profiles

    The versions appear to be very similar and as the R1 edition reportedly has a similar quality video transfer I would have no preference for either version.

    Amon Saga is a slightly disappointing animated fantasy adventure that holds no real surprises for viewers.

    The video transfer is very disappointing and shows a significant number of artefacts throughout.

    The inclusion of both the original Japanese and English dub tracks should satisfy all fans.

    The very minimal extras provide no additional information for viewers and are of little use.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall