Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040-Volume 5: Blood & Steel (1998)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	Main Menu Audio & Animation Biographies-Character DVD Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	122:06
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Hiroki Hayashi
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	Click
RPI	$29.95	Music	Kouichi Korenaga

    The first four volumes each contained four episodes. The last two hold five, to bring the total to 26 episodes, so there's a little bonus.

    The five episodes on this disc are:

• Moving Waves - rescuing Nene and the three AD Police trapped in the AD Police building looks impossible for the Knight Sabers without their hard suits
• We Built This City - Priss and Leon reach Nene, but their escape is blocked by more rogue boomers; Daley pilots Sylia, Linna, and Mackey to attempt a rescue from above
• Are You Experienced? - Leon broadcasts the truth about the boomers - we learn more about their origins, and Mason's motivations.
• One of These Nights - building new, much more powerful, hard suits - requiring a bond between the mind and the suit
• Close to the Edge - Priss can get really close to her new motorcycle: the "motoslave".

    This is absolutely a serial by now - every episode continues where the previous one left off, and the tension is building. There are few secrets left - Leon and Daley know who the Knight Sabers are, but that's of little consequence now, because the real threat is Galatea, Mason, Rosencroitz, and the Genom Corporation. It's not a case of fighting an occasional rogue boomer any more - the stakes are getting higher.

    The new hard suits are very sexy. I find it quite amusing that a battle suit which provides heavy armour for head and shoulders can have a transparent panel which lets us see the wearer's navel. But, heck, we are talking about battle suits that have high heels, after all.

    I am fortunate. Remember how I mentioned how much I was looking forward to volume 5 when I finished volume 4? I received both volumes 5 and 6 together - I would have been quite distressed had I been forced to wait long between volume 5 and volume 6. Don't think of getting one without the other!

Video

    Volumes 3 and 4 offered reasonable detail, and an adequate transfer, but not quite up to the first two volumes. Well, we get another bonus in this volume. As well as an extra episode, we get an excellent transfer.

    This series is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced. That's the original ratio. Can't ask for better than that.

    The image is sharp and clear, especially on still frames. There is the appearance of some low level noise on a few "night-time sky" backgrounds - it could be light film grain.

    There are no film artefacts. There is some aliasing on panning shots, but it is considerably reduced from volumes 3 and 4 and barely noticeable. The first episode is the best in this regard. There are no MPEG artefacts, and no other film-to-video artefacts.

    The subtitles are presented in yellow, in a nice sans serif font. The subtitles for the opening and closing songs are burned into the picture, and exhibit some dot crawl, but it is reasonably minor. Shame we can't turn them off. The subtitles for the rest of the show are optional, but show no artefacts at all. Unfortunately, their content remains annoying - I strongly urge you to watch this particular show with the English dub instead. This is unusual, but I think it is a sensible choice (unless you are hearing-impaired, or understand Japanese).

    The disc is single-sided single-layer. No layer change; no worries!

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    This disc offers soundtracks in English and Japanese. Both soundtracks are Dolby Digital 2.0, not surround encoded, at a rate of 192 kbps.

    English dialogue is clear and easy to understand, and there are no visible sync issues (ratings are for the English soundtrack). The Japanese dialogue sounded generally fine, but I heard a couple of tiny dropouts, and it seems to be less synchronised to the animation (I'm sure this is a source material problem, not a production problem). The music and sound effects are identical in both soundtracks.

    The score is good stuff - loud rock during combat scenes, suitable atmospherics for emotional confrontations.

    The surrounds and subwoofers are not included in the soundtrack - it is a straight 2.0 mix.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    The extras are reduced to allow room for the extra episode - no trailers - this is a compromise I am more than happy with.

Menu

    The main menu is animated, with sound appropriate to the theme of the disc. There's no aliasing on this animation, unlike the previous volume.

Character Profiles and Hardsuit Descriptions

    There are some extra profiles on this disc; profiles for the voice actors playing the Knight Sabers. The hardsuit descriptions are unchanged, despite the fact that the hard suits are replaced.

    The Region 4 disc misses out on:

• 4 pieces of concept art

    The Region 1 disc misses out on:

• character profiles

    I can't imagine that the R1 disc has a better transfer than this. I recommend the R4 version.

    This is the penultimate disc in a great series. If you have enjoyed any of the previous volumes I can definitely recommend this one.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is good.

    The extras are basic.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall