|
|
|
||
Category | Anime | Gallery
Biographies - Characters Theatrical Trailer ADV Trailers Notes - DVD credits |
|
Rating | |||
Year Released | 1999 | ||
Running Time | 57:12 minutes | ||
RSDL/Flipper | No/No |
|
|
Start Up | Menu | ||
Region | 2,4 | Director | Yasunori Urata |
Distributor |
Madman Entertainment |
Starring | |
Case | Transparent Brackley | ||
RPI | $34.95 | Music | Masamichi Amano |
|
|
||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Full Frame | English (Dolby Digital 2.0, 224
Kb/s)
Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0, 224 Kb/s) |
|
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | None | ||
16x9 Enhancement | No | ||
Theatrical Aspect Ratio | 1.33:1 |
|
|
Macrovision | ?Yes | Smoking | Yes |
Subtitles | English
English |
Annoying Product Placement | No |
Action In or After Credits | No |
The story is set in the year 2070 and broadly revolves around one John Blade of an elite police force unit called Hardcorps. Hardcorps is investigating a series of kidnapping of young girls, with little success, until they corner an offender in the sewers. Turns out that the perpetrator is a genetically enhanced mutant that can take over another body and completely subvert the soul if you like. This has dire consequences for Blade's partner JC (John Christopher Armack) who in rescuing a young girl from the mutant becomes the mutant, forcing Blade to kill JC. The mutants are being created by a company called SinTEK headed by Elexis Sinclaire, the daughter of the man who developed the theories on creating them. The girl they are trying to capture is Elyse who is the sole perfect creation who within her body holds a rare substance that will make the mutants indestructible. And so Blade is on the case to locate the girl and bring down Sinclaire - all whilst trying to avoid the wrath of JC (Jennifer Christina Armack) who has something of a vendetta going against Blade over the death of her brother.
To be honest the story is pretty run-of-the-mill for anime and there really is nothing much in the way of originality on display here at all. Sixty minutes of enough weaponry to keep Johnny Woo happy, enough flowing blood to keep the BBFC disgusted and all sorts of nubile women in various states of undress to keep the interest high. I don't suppose the word cliché means too much here? The animation style is pretty much run of the mill too as far as anime goes with nothing much original either. At the end of the day, this is a typical enough piece of anime without too much to differentiate it from the crowd. Hardly essential anime then, but for the DVD starved Region 4 devotee, I suppose anything is better than nothing and this is an enjoyable film even if it drags a little in places.
The inconsistent look to the transfer is the result of some scenes appearing to be a little diffuse, although this is probably the way that this was intended to look. However, apart from those scenes, this is broadly speaking a decently sharp transfer that is quite well detailed. Shadow detail is good throughout the animation and the overall effect is very decent. There is nothing in the way of problems with grain here, and this is overall a very clear transfer. There did not appear to be any problem with low level noise here.
There is the obligatory display of bright, vibrant colours here that makes anime such a pleasure to watch. Tonal depth could perhaps have been a little stronger and more consistent, but this is again a reflection on the way the film was intended to look. There is certainly no indication of any oversaturation problems here and there did not appear to be any issue with colour bleed.
There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. As seems to be a little common with anime DVDs, there is something of a consistent problem with aliasing, especially in any pan shot, which does get just a little too noticeable at times. Apart from that issue, there are no other problems with film-to-video artefacts in the transfer. There did not seem to be any issue with film artefacts here at all.
There are two distinctly different subtitle options
on this DVD, reflecting the intent of the producers. The English subtitle
option to accompany the English soundtrack is a very literal job, with
only minor differences to the spoken dialogue. The English subtitle option
to accompany the Japanese soundtrack is quite different and reflects the
slightly different intent of the Japanese soundtrack. There is a very slight
delay in the English subtitles to the English soundtrack around 31:20
but otherwise I found nothing at fault here.
Sharpness | |
Shadow Detail | |
Colour | |
Grain | |
Film-to-Video Artefacts | |
Film Artefacts | |
Overall |
The dialogue is easy to understand and clear throughout the transfer. As mentioned, the film was produced with English as the native language and for once the animation sync is not so bad in the transfer.
The original music score comes from Masamichi Amano and a surprisingly good effort it is too. A very supportive soundtrack, this is a very well-presented effort with the playing coming from the Warsaw Symphony Orchestra.
The well-presented soundtrack offers plenty of natural
enough sounding dialogue, but does not convey as well as perhaps the film
needed the more explosive portions of the transfer. There were just the
few odd occasions when I wished for something to emanate from the otherwise
unused bass channel here. There was not much in the way of surround channel
usage either, but the overall soundtrack is open, free of any significant
distortion and more than serviceable.
Dialogue | |
Audio Sync | |
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
Surround Channel Use | |
Subwoofer | |
Overall |
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
© Ian Morris (have
a laugh, check out the bio)
12th December 2000
|
|
DVD | Pioneer DV-515; S-video output |
Display | Sony Trinitron Wega 80cm. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials. |
Audio Decoder | Built in |
Amplification | Yamaha RXV-795. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials. |
Speakers | Energy Speakers: centre EXLC; left and right C-2; rears EXLR; and subwoofer ES-12XL |