Neon Genesis Evangelion-Collection 0:5 (Episodes 15-17) (1997)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	Menu Animation & Audio Biographies-Character Trailer-(5) DVD Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	1997
Running Time	75:45
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Hideaki Anno
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	DV-4
RPI	$29.95	Music	Shiroh Sagisu

    Moving right along with some more mindless entertainment thrown in between some highbrow culture, I finally get to Neon Genesis Evangelion Collection 0:5.

Episode 15 - Lie And Silence:

    The Angels are having a bit of a break from destroying Tokyo-3 and so we get to fill in a bit more of the characters' stories. This time, it is Kaji's turn under the microscope. It would seem that Kaji, aside from being the crush interest of Asuka, is a bit of an espionage agent and his allegiances are not entirely to NERV. Moreover, Misato's increasing attractions to Kaji, harking back to their days as an item, are starting to become obvious - even through a night's worth of booze.

Episode 16 - Sickness Unto Death, and...:

    The break from Angels is broken with a surprise arrival - Angel #12, Leliel. Leliel is like no Angel yet seen, as it appeared completely undetected and not even the MAGI are sure of its status. Nonetheless, the EVA units are sent out to shepherd it away from Tokyo-3. But this unusual Angel has a surprise in store, and it results in the disappearance of Shinji and EVA-01. As he lies trapped in the reverse AT field of the Angel, with the life support of the EVA unit running out, Shinji suffers from hallucinations that threaten his very life, and discovers in part an awful truth about the true nature of the EVAs.

Episode 17 - The Fourth Child:

    NERV is rocked by the disappearance of the second branch - NERV 2 in Nevada - along with the Evangelion unit number 4 being built there. But it is business as usual as the third unit EVA-03 is on its way from the United States. Now all NERV requires is a pilot for the machine. Whilst a dummy plug may well be the answer, an actual real live pilot is required for the tests, and the choice of the Fourth Child is a surprise. So much of a surprise that Misato questions how she can possibly tell Shinji.

Video

    The transfer is presented in a Full Frame format (1.33:1) and is not 16x9 enhanced.

    This is a good transfer in most respects. Sharpness is good and in general continues the improved solidity shown over the last couple of releases in the series. There are just a few instances where the black line detail could perhaps have been a bit more solid, but nothing too disappointing at all. Detail remains about as good as you can expect from this sort of source material. Shadow detail is obviously a non-issue in this sort of animation. There was nothing in the way of serious grain in the transfer and this results in a generally very clear looking transfer. There did not appear to be any low level noise issues at all.

    The quality of the colours here carries over from Collection 0:4. They are nice and steady, well saturated and rather vibrant. There was nothing in the way of oversaturation here at all, and colour bleed was barely an issue at all. There was a little indication of colour bleed during Episode 15, notably in Misato's sleeve at about 14:59, but that was not really a big deal. The colour looks good and true to the original content.

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer, although there was something of a lack of solidity of resolution in pan shots, most notably at about 9:00 in Episode 16. As previously indicated, this is possibly source-related and not mastering related. Film-to-video artefacts are pretty much confined to some minor aliasing here and there, which is hardly any sort of distraction at all, and the obligatory minor telecine wobble that seems to plague the series. There are no really noticeable film artefacts in the transfer.

    Each episode on the DVD has the original Japanese credits with the English credits all being shown after the end of Episode 17. This is despite it being mentioned after two episodes on the DVD as following after episode 16 and episode 18! After the lack of time information encoding on the previous DVD, this time we have such information encoded.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are two soundtracks on the DVD, being the original Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and a dubbed English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. I listened predominantly to the English soundtrack, and sampled the Japanese soundtrack. It is interesting to note that after the higher 224 Kb/s bit rate soundtrack on Collection 0:4 this one reverts to the lower bit rate of 192 Kb/s.

    The dialogue was clear and easy to understand throughout the episodes, whichever soundtrack you listened to. Naturally, since we are talking about animation, the usual sync issues are on display. Naturally, the English dub has a slightly more noticeable sync problem than the original Japanese soundtrack.

    The original music for the series comes from Shiroh Sagisu, and continues in its fairly ordinary mode.

    Both soundtracks are perfectly acceptable efforts, free of any apparent distortions or problems. Despite the lower bit rate used in these soundtracks, there is still ample enough space in the sound and it is not congested at all. The front surround channels are reasonably well-used to give some decent presence to the sound but as usual there is nothing out of the rear channels at all. The bass channel does not get any work here at all.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    Whilst not exactly a great package of extras on offer, at least it is a consistent one.

Menu

    Whilst they look quite decent, there is nothing really special about the menus. There is some audio and animation but that is the extent of the enhancement here.

Biographies - Characters

    Going by the title of MAGI Data Files, this is actually just five rather shortish pages of text on the characters Toji, Hikari, Kouzou, Angel #11 Leliel and NERV 02.

Trailers (5)

    The obligatory collection of promotional trailers for other anime titles both available and coming soon. The package this time offers Bubblegum Crisis 2040, Sin - The Movie, Martian Successor Nadesico, Spriggan and Gasaraki. All are presented in a Full Frame format apart from Spriggan, which is an approximate aspect ratio of 1.78:1. They uniformly come with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound and are not 16x9 enhanced. There is no time information encoded in the trailers, which is annoying, as is the fact that they are mastered in a looping manner. The technical quality is good enough although all suffer somewhat from grain and Gasaraki suffers somewhat from aliasing, especially in the closing titles.

Notes - DVD Credits

    A single page of text to let us know who was responsible for the DVD.

    As far as we can ascertain, the only difference between the Region 1 and Region 4 releases is some additional soundtrack options on the Region 1 release.

    Neon Genesis Evangelion Collection 0:5 is again not the strongest collection of episodes on offer, but still worthwhile considering. The DVD has been afforded a good transfer in most respects, although again owners of larger screens might find the minor telecine wobble a little more off-putting than I do. The lack of a decent extras package continues to disappoint.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall