Sin - The Movie


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Details At A Glance

General
Extras
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
Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region 2,4 Director Yasunori Urata
Studio
Distributor
ADV Films
Madman Entertainment
Starring  
Case Transparent Brackley
RPI $34.95 Music Masamichi Amano

 
 
Video
Audio
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
Miscellaneous
Macrovision ?Yes Smoking Yes
Subtitles English
English
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

Plot Synopsis

    After another of those little breaks, a few more anime titles have been released by Madman Entertainment to titillate the Region 4 anime fan. The two most recent efforts that have arrived for review are both PAL-formatted efforts authored in Melbourne. It has to be said that this sort of commitment by the enthusiastic team at Madman Entertainment has to be admired and it is a pity that a few other, more mainstream, distributors do not show the same commitment. At least it means that the Anime fan in Region 4 can get hold of DVDs at a price that is somewhat better than importing from either Japan or the United States, with the added bonus of PAL formatting. Sin - The Movie is something of a rarity in anime, as it is an adaptation from a game (no, that's not the rarity - there are plenty of those around) that is from the United States (that's the rarity).

   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.

Transfer Quality

Video

    This is something of an inconsistent video transfer, although I would suggest that the issue is more source related than mastering related. The transfer is presented in Full Frame format, and it is not 16x9 enhanced.

    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.
 
 

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain
Film-to-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Much to the joy of the anime aficionado, there are two soundtracks on this DVD, being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and a Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. It should be noted that English is the native language for this film, with Japanese being the dubbed language, and this is fairly clear by the way the English matches much better to the animation. I listened to the default English soundtrack whilst making only a relatively brief sampling of the Japanese soundtrack.

    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.
 
 

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

Extras

    A reasonable extras package is on offer here, and at least Madman Entertainment do try and do the right thing. However, I would have hoped that a little more could be offered, in view of the additional material on the Region 1 DVD. Curse the vagaries of licensing!

Menu

    Rather attractive in its presentation but let down a little by a rather indistinguishable selection highlight. I had a bit of trouble working out what selection I had highlighted at times.

Gallery

    Rather underwhelming in its scope, there are six drawings of technology from the film, plus an advert for the official website for the film. A pity a few more drawings could not be included.

Biographies - Characters

    Continuing the inclusion of such items on their DVDs, I am warming all the time to the concept. All the main characters are covered and it helps to fill in the back story a little, especially for these shortish films that do not provide a whole heap of time for character development.

Theatrical Trailer (2:08)

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, this is not 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. A decent enough effort but somewhat afflicted with mild aliasing like the main feature.

ADV Trailers (4)

    Promotional trailers for current and future releases, these comprise Samurai X (1:37), Spriggan (1:17), Neon Genesis Evangelion (1:08) and Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 (1:27). Apart from that for Spriggan, which is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, all are presented in a Full Frame format, are not 16x9 enhanced and come with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. Thankfully, they do come with time information encoded in them, but unusually are mastered to play continuously - so get onto the menu button real quick after the end of Bubblegum Crisis! They suffer a little from some very minor aliasing, but otherwise the quality is more than acceptable.

Notes - DVD Credits

    Tells you who was responsible for the DVD locally.

R4 vs R1

    The Region 4 release appears to miss out on:     Reviews of the Region 1 DVD indicate that this is quite a lengthy, and interesting, collection of interview materials, and thus would tip the balance in favour of the Region 1 release.

Summary

    Sin - The Movie is certainly not the most essential piece of anime I have ever seen, but it is nonetheless an entertaining enough diversion for an hour. It could perhaps have benefited from a little more beef in the story to overcome a couple of sequences that drag a little. No serious complaints about the technical quality and overall another decent anime release from Madman Entertainment that is worth at least one view.
 
 

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ian Morris (have a laugh, check out the bio)
12th December 2000

Review Equipment
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