Video:

Overall the video is great, some minor flicker which is why I gave it a 4.5 instead of a 5

Audio:

As far as clearness this title is great, French and Japanese dubs are great. The English dub is very so-so its not totally unwatchable but it just really doesnt compair to the other two dubs of the film. Hopefully MAC will re-release this title with the new english dub thats coming out later this year.

Subtitle:

Perfect as far as I could tell, right on time to.

Comment:

This is a good movie and worth a purchase, but the English dub wont suit most anime fans.

Video:

Let me start of by saying that this video is probably the best you can get of this movie. The movie is aged 1992, so we should take that in account when rating the video quality. So considering this, I'd say it's great ! This is a widescreen release however (atleast that's what I read), and this caused some minor trouble for me when I tried to watch it on PC. I watched this first on my dad's TV set, where the image seemed to be adjusted perfectly so that all of the screen gets filled and that's about as good as it gets. So that's great. When I tried to play this on my PC monitor however, there where black borders on all sides of the movie (not only on top and bottom, but also on the left and right side). When you put this in full screen, it's like watching on a 13" screen... I've been fooling around however, and if you happen to run Linux I can tell you that you can get around this limitation by using mplayer like this: mplayer -dvd 1 -vop crop=667:449:27:13 pp=0x20000 This will crop the black borders and take care of deinterlacing. I don't know how other people take care of this when they watch it on their PC, but this seems to work best for me. This also works for other Ghibli releases I have from MAC.

Audio:

Japanese, English and French audio tracks, all Dolby Surround stereo (2.0). I only listened to the original Japanese one and it sounded very good & clear. No problems at all. French audio track seems ok, but I only listened to it for some minutes. I didn't bother checking out the english audio track, but I suspect it's decent aswell (quality wise). I also liked the soundtrack, it just fits :)

Subtitle:

English, Japanese, French & Chinese subtitles. I only checked the English and French ones, they look rather perfect :) They seem like excellent rips from the R{1,2} DVD. Check the screenshots I posted, you'll see what I mean.

Comment:

Packaging is ok. Nothing special but decent anyway. No extra's included, but considering the price you pay for this, who cares? I can't see any way you'd regret buying this... unless you have an extra-ordinary dislike for Studio Ghibli movies, which I find hard to imagine.

Video:

There was no color bleeding on this DVD. The video is truely magnificent. Without any pixelation. The picture was sharp and clean.

Audio:

Audio (Japanese) is everything you could hope for, very clean and clear. There are French and English dubs, but I didn't bother with those.

Subtitle:

Subs come in a variety of languages but I am only fluent with English and Manderian. (Only watch english subs though) The subs were well done, but there were 1-2 lines that didn't make it here.

Comment:

This is by far the best Studio Ghibli HK Dvd in my possession (in terms of quality) its a good buy and it has a nice reversable cover too.

Video:

5/5 Great quality, didn't really notice any red tint on this dvd.

Audio:

5/5 Excellent in Japanese, and the English isn't bad either, but the english dub has kind of a hum on it though you don't notice it after a few minutes.

Subtitle:

4.5/5 Really good, was missing 2 or maybe 3 lines. The rest of the subs were great and well-timed, and I didn't notice and spelling errors either.

Comment:

I love this movie. It's so cool. Very entertaining and funny, and has the typical fantastic Ghibli qualities. One thing I must quote a friend of mine on, they make it a point to show that he is a pig and not a man, and will not be treated as a man by anyone. They make this evident in some of the scenese in the town. Really great stuff, go buy this if you like - pretty much anything from Ghibli.

Video:

Great video, this is certanly ripped from the Gilbhi's DVD set. Widescreen , Great , vibrant Colours.

Audio:

Everything Sounded great with no problems. Contains also an English Dub.

Subtitle:

Perfect or Close to it Subs, well timed and no spelling erros that i remember.

Comment:

This is obviosulsly ripped from the Gilbhi Set, even the menus are the same. I found no problems with it whatsoever.Deffinettly Reccomended. Includes no Extras (i think that in the Gilbhi set these came in a separate DVD that is not included in this release).

Comment:

This is a GREAT release. Video -4.75/5- The video's great. There was a little color bleeding as far as red was concerned, and the colors sometimes seemed a tiny bit washed out, but that's to be expected in an older movie. Definitely DVD-quality video. Audio -5/5- Good audio. Includes Japanese, English, and French. All are 2.0, but it's an R2 rip, so that's the norm (people in Japan just don't seem to be audiophiles). The English dub was lame, but then, that's to be expected. Package -4.5/5- Damn nice clear clamshell. Could have had some of their own stuff on the cover (like "Porco Rosso" in Romanji), instead of just ripping it, but who knows... they might have screwed it up. Looks nice as it is. Content -5/5- Badass movie. Sad ending, semi-mysterious plotline and hazy resolution at end, and yet... so very fulfilling. In a word, Miyazaki. Overall -4.9/9- Rediculously specific rating? Yes. It's an awesome release, with only VERY minor... detractions from its goodness. Very well worth the money. I suggest you buy it now if you like Ghibli. If not, buy it anyway and try to gain that aqcuired taste... it's very rewarding in the end. edited by ragnorokk on 01 Nov 2002 10:12 am

Comment:

This is a fantastic release... The video is flawless widescreen and looks great. The audio sounds perfect on my set up. The english subs are solid as is the ENGLISH DUB for those that are too lazy to read! It also has subs in several other languages including french. These are way freaking better than the quality of the ghibli sets. Forget those and get these releases now!