This is an R1 rip. I own the R1 set and any problems that are in the video quality here, are also in the R1 version. So basically it is as good as it can get.

Japanese is perfect. I didn't watch the English.

Japanese is perfect. I didn't watch the English.

The set is very well done and the show is just amazing. This is my second favorite anime behind Berserk. It is a serious show but not to the point where it should bother anyone. The only thing I did not like was the ending. I didn't hate it, but it wasn't anything special.

The video was good but in some episodes you can really see the pixelation, but just a few times, mostly in the second disc. It should have been better because this is a 13 eps. series made in 3 discs and with no extras so there should not had been any problems with the video.

The audio was perfect, it includes 2 english track, one dolby and one 5.1 stereo. The japanese track was flawless just as the english was with 2CH sound, very good

The audio was perfect, it includes 2 english track, one dolby and one 5.1 stereo. The japanese track was flawless just as the english was with 2CH sound, very good

Really great series, definetly not expecting this series to be so good, kind of sad but since the episodes always starts where the last one finished it leaves you wanting more. This set has no extras, 6 chapter break per episodes (prologue, partA, partB, partC, ending, preview). It has 13eps., 3 discs, eps. distribution: 5-4-4. Highly recomend this series and box set.

the video looks pretty good, I have 2 episodes on an anime test drive dvd to compare , I haven't done that side by side yet but from seeing that before I would say it looks quite good. update---I am on the 2nd disc, the scenes in the desert on chapter 6 looked less detailed in the faces of the characters but to be honest I don't know if that is the way the anime is drawn or has something to do with rips....still again not a huge deal esp. when you are not doing a side to side comparison of a R1 release and an import. update..ok second disc....I had some stalling, not sure the technical term...don't know why but it would stall a bit at certain scenes and one episode at the end was playing then it just went to the end...now it's not really a problem because when it stalled (stopped) in a scene I either just rew. it back a bit and then it was fine or just pressed play on my remote and it was fine again...as to the skipping to the end on one of the episodes on the second disk...I just did the same thing and then it played through again fine....I'm pretty sure it was the disc since it's fine with my other dvds...and it may be the set I got so who knows if that is the way it will be on other sets.... side note: I was a bit confused with the packaging, the back has an FX logo but I have a few other FX imports that I recently got too and the disks are very consistant as to what they look like, these have the email addy on them, the print isn't consistant in all three....I almost was wondering if this is an FX or not...just wondering as I am not familiar yet with other imports and so far I have been very pleased with those coming from FX.

update----I placed disc one back in my puter and it worked fine, no fluttering sound....then I put it back in my dvd player and it was slightly there but totally not like before....I don't know why that happened but prob. would not occur overall on the dvds ....might be just that one dvd and apparently it's working fine now....but I'll leave my comments on that here in case someone else experiences it too. So I"m raising it to a 4.5 because they give you a choice of surround 5.1 or dolby and the sound was quite good other then that one little thing on disc one that occured, it's mystery though....... I had a slight problem....I got these and put dvd 1 in my computer drive...it played fine, everything sounded good....then the other night I put it in to watch on my dvd player connected to my tv...it had a terrible flutter sound, like a brrrrrrr.....I had to scroll through to the 3rd espisode before it stopped..I could watch the rest without a prob. and it's not my dvd player because I checked with other dvds.....I don't know why it's not doing that in my puter..so I can watch the first two episodes in my puter if I want to but not in mydvd player...I tested the other 2 disks briefly putting them in...so far that doesn't seem to be the case with the other 2....so because of this wierd thing that I don't know what it is I took off points for the audio but all in all the audio is good too.

update----I placed disc one back in my puter and it worked fine, no fluttering sound....then I put it back in my dvd player and it was slightly there but totally not like before....I don't know why that happened but prob. would not occur overall on the dvds ....might be just that one dvd and apparently it's working fine now....but I'll leave my comments on that here in case someone else experiences it too. So I"m raising it to a 4.5 because they give you a choice of surround 5.1 or dolby and the sound was quite good other then that one little thing on disc one that occured, it's mystery though....... I had a slight problem....I got these and put dvd 1 in my computer drive...it played fine, everything sounded good....then the other night I put it in to watch on my dvd player connected to my tv...it had a terrible flutter sound, like a brrrrrrr.....I had to scroll through to the 3rd espisode before it stopped..I could watch the rest without a prob. and it's not my dvd player because I checked with other dvds.....I don't know why it's not doing that in my puter..so I can watch the first two episodes in my puter if I want to but not in mydvd player...I tested the other 2 disks briefly putting them in...so far that doesn't seem to be the case with the other 2....so because of this wierd thing that I don't know what it is I took off points for the audio but all in all the audio is good too.

I haven't watched the whole thing yet but since it's only 13 episodes like Lain it won't take me long as I like to watch the serious anime late at night. So far ......the first episode is prob. going to be the happiest part..it has some humor, I don't want to give anything away..but then so far and since I know a bit about it, it does get darker, sadder and that's one of the good aspects, it's a serious anime and I like that, it's nice to be able to have the range of genres.....I am getting to be a big fan of stories with depth, the more serious ones and slightly on the dark side.....whats great about it so far is the suspense that Shu doesn't realize where he actually is yet.....I can't wait to find out if that is revealed to him...and if Sarah becomes part of this more.....but I love it so far....

Great. No probs

Watched in english and japanese. No probs.

Watched in english and japanese. No probs.

Really good series. A must buy; very sentimental. Very good character development. Case doesn't have designs on the inside.

Very nice video, no macroblocking that I could see. The video could be a bit grainy in dark scenes , but I'm guessing that was an R1 problem as well as otherwise the video is flawless.

Great audio. No de-synching or popping here. Three audio tracks to choose from, Japanese 2.0, English 2.0, and English 5.1.

Great audio. No de-synching or popping here. Three audio tracks to choose from, Japanese 2.0, English 2.0, and English 5.1.

One would never guess where this series was going just by looking at, say, the first half of the first episode. Everything is so happy and day-to-day and the characters are so jolly looking... and then the sun goes down, Shu meets Lala Ru, and the world goes to hell. An amazing series, but not something to show to little kids despite the childish looking characters. Characters are beaten, enslaved, raped, and murdered. The fact that it's small children doing the beating, enslaving, and murdering (not the raping, as far as I could see) makes it that much more painful at times. Despite all this, it's not something to miss. Personal comment: The series really should have been called "Shu and his amazing stick", as he always seems lost until he gets his stick, and then ass kicking commences.

Nice R1 rip, although the video looks a little bit grainy.

Nothing to complain about on my simple stereo TV.

Nothing to complain about on my simple stereo TV.

This is totallly unfunny stuff. And the character design is very simplistic (reminded me of "Green Legend Ran"). Still it's a top notch series. One of those that you can present to the people who think that anime is all silly kids' stuff. Highly recommended!

perfect, no pixelation or any kind of compression. mac did a great job with this one. the animation for this anime is really good. the character design is kind of simple, but very appealing none the less.

it has 5.1 stereo and 5.1 sorrownd. both really good. nothing wrong with them. i like the music when it was used.

it has 5.1 stereo and 5.1 sorrownd. both really good. nothing wrong with them. i like the music when it was used.

really good anime. sometimes it reminded me of grave of the fireflies and other times it reminded me of escaflowne. really really really really really really really good.

perfect video quality, except the opening, which shows a lot of compression. really cannot understand why. the rest is great, and u won't be troubled by that. that's why it deserves top score in my humble ( ;P) opinion.

very nice gatefold packaging, illustrated with a more serious and adult style than the serie itself. you know what this anime is about. you'll prolly get depressed and saddened and traumatized for the rest of your miserable otaku existence like me. don't expect anything you've seen before. sometimes I wished I never bought it, sigh. but it's a masterpiece, indeed. so buy it and watch it for yourself, with a bottle of prozac ready on the desk.

Everything looks very crisp though some of the heavy whites tend to saturate the frame. Not sure if this is intentional but it's not a serious problem. Excellent none the less!

Crystal clear. Sounds great!

Crystal clear. Sounds great!

What a great series! Shocking in it's subject matter and beautiful in it's execution. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys more meaningful and thought-provoking stories. You'll be shocked, sickened, have a laugh, and ultimately touched by the story of a world gone terribly off track...where children are forced to grow up far too soon and in the worst of human circumstance. Truly great stuff here. The packaging is also excellent. Nice graphical gatefolds that retain the color schemes of the animation perfectly. A very nice package all around. Do yourself a favor and pick this series up!

Perfect R1 rips, Ive got the original R1 volume 1 and this set was perfect.

Once again a perfect rip. The English dialogue may I add is phenomenal.

Once again a perfect rip. The English dialogue may I add is phenomenal.

This was probably my favorite anime I saw last year, its depressing as hell and its got lots of action and great character development. Do yourself a favor and go and buy this set right now!!!

An R1 DVD rip, but it's got a lot of noise in it. Just like Boogie Pop Phantom. Meaning, it's better than TV rips, but not a crystal clear DVD rip. I honestly don't know how they could mess this up.

Pretty good. I listened to both Eng and Japanese audio tracks and both were good.

Pretty good. I listened to both Eng and Japanese audio tracks and both were good.

This series is not meant for those looking for the next "feel good" adventure show coming down the road. It is bleak, dark and depressing. Despite the main character's upbeat attitude. Lots of shiznit happens to these poor kids, and we get to see every punch, kick and attempted rape. Not for the little ones. Good show. I enjoyed it, but not everybody will.

Perfect, looks exactly like what you would expect a region-1 DVD to look like.

Good audio, a very good dub, even!

Good audio, a very good dub, even!

An excellent set, I was surprised at how serious and dark the series got by the end. N&T,H&T muses whether killing can ever be justified, whether it is better to launch a pre-emptive war or to deal with the consequences of inaction, how to deal with pregnancies that result from rape, and the danger of always following the orders of your leaders no matter how extreme they are. VERY interesting, and although it wraps things up pretty quickly in the last episode I would definitely recommend this series!

This is just like the Region 1 version. Except that one comes in a mall 3-DVD boxset and costs around $70. This series was an interesting series. The one drawback I had was that the characters were drawn too cartoonish to properly convey the feeling of the story (war, oppression) .

Excellent video, ripped from the R1s. 13 episodes spread out over 3 DVDs. 5/4/4 episodes in each DVD respectively. No complaints whatsoever. The visuals in the series weren't to great, I found there was a general lack of details, especially in the characters. The animation was smooth and generally good though

Had 3 different audio tracks, English DD5.1, English DD2.0 and Japanese DD2.0. I watched most of the series in Japanese and the 2.0 track was very good, clear and good seperation. The english 5.1 track is excellent, you can really notice the seperation between the 5.1 audio track and the 2.0 one and sounded great through my HTS. Too bad I'm not a big fan of the english dub. The series had great music, nice melodic themes. The ending theme song is very melancholy, sad and beautiful.

Had 3 different audio tracks, English DD5.1, English DD2.0 and Japanese DD2.0. I watched most of the series in Japanese and the 2.0 track was very good, clear and good seperation. The english 5.1 track is excellent, you can really notice the seperation between the 5.1 audio track and the 2.0 one and sounded great through my HTS. Too bad I'm not a big fan of the english dub. The series had great music, nice melodic themes. The ending theme song is very melancholy, sad and beautiful.

I really liked this show. It's very serious and gets pretty sad and depressing especially towards the end. Its about a kid, Shu who gets transported to another world where he is forced to become a soldier for an evil ruler. Overall, an excellent release by MAC.

5/5. perfect R1.

5/5. true 5.1 surround with no backgrond hum.

5/5. true 5.1 surround with no backgrond hum.

THIS, is a MUST HAVE! Brilliant, brutal, and very moral.And, unlike a lot of recent anime, this one resolves quite nicely. BUY THIS NOW!

The story is sad, but worthy of my time! A must have!

nothing to add, really. I hear that when it was originally produced, it came in a boxset much like the US, however, the new box-set is your usual MAC gatefold. Sad, really.

I've seen the US Version of it before and this is a perfect rip of the R1 DVD's. Video/Audio/Subs = 5/5/5 Chapter breaks at opening, middle, ending and preview... Also perfect! A truly amazing show... Definitely worth buying it! Btw., the english soundtrack is 5.1, the japanese is 2.0 and the subs are in white color and black outline.