Video:

I am torn on grading the video -- the quality was, for the most part, pretty good. The colors were a little over-saturated and everything was a lot softer-looking than you would expect from a new DVD, but it wasn't terrible. HOWEVER, the DVD I have has some sort of a defect in it that causes the whole video to chunk out in the middle, and only by skipping forward in chapters and rewinding right up to before the skipping begins could I watch the entire video (and I still missed out on about 2 minutes of video due to the defect). This is probably a risk you know you are taking when buying HK DVDs, but it's still a bummer to get a bum disc.

Audio:

The sound was good, I'm not an audiophile so it worked out fine by me.

Subtitle:

So: the subtitles would have been great for any series other than Ghost in the Shell. There was no engrish and there were only occaisional timing problems, but there was a big comprehension problem: the translation wasn't really all that clear. I could puzzle my way through most of the tape, but GITS tends to be a bit obtuse if translated perfectly and the occaisional unclear translation just compounded that problem.

Comment:

I loved the GITS manga and movie and was really looking forward to this show. The animation quality ranges from amazing to really pathetic -- in one notable scene three characters look at a computer for about a minute with only slight lip-movement to indicate they are talking. The second DVD has a more compelling plot-line, but this is overall a great start to the TV series. This show looks really interesting - I will probably buy it again once it gets an R1 release just so I can watch it with a LITTLE less puzzlement...

Video:

Being a TV rip (the TV station logo often appears in the top right hand corner), the Video quality of this release was never going to be excellent. With that said there are no major problems just a fair few minor imperfections. The video, especially on the introduction appears to be quite fuzzy, certainly more so than some digital fansubs that i've seen. This in itself I find quite perplexing since if I was MI I would have waited until the R2 DVD's hit the market (not long at all, I think one volume is out already) and ripped the video straight from those. One thing that should mentioned is the menu that appears when you load up the DVD. I would have preferred something a lot simpler since this menu is so damn slow I wasalmost pulling my hair in frustration trying to get the thing started on episode one. On the whole besides the fuzzyness issue, the video suffers from minor macroblocking and a few artificing issues but apart from that everything else seems acceptable. As it stands the video is certainly serviceable but is ostensibly nowhere close to what a DVD rip whould be like. Good but a somewhat missed opportunity.

Audio:

The audio also suffers slightly from being a TV rip, since some scenes appeared slightly drowned or muffled. It's nothing too bad as on the whole the sound is fine and has no major problems, but it just serves to underline the fact MI should have waited for the offical R2's to come out.

Subtitle:

With all the decent fansubs currently doing the rounds, i'm mystified as to why MI used only a few lines from a couple fansubs and decided to HK original the rest of it. Sure there's precious little engrish or timing problems, but the word substitution and grammar problems make it hard at times to understand what is going on. This is made worse by the fact that GiTS:SAC is a somewhat cerebal work with each episode containing a complex and convoluted storyline. To be fair, the subs aren't tremendously bad, but they're not excatly good either. In conclusion I feel they should have gone completely fansub, since the current set of subs often tends to confuse rather than aid the viewer in understanding whats going on.

Comment:

A missed opportunity all round, this should have (and could have) been one of the best HK DVD's yet, but instead it falls WAY short of greatness. Only worth the cash if you're a hardcore GiTS fan and you just have to see what this newest installment in the GiTS universe is like. Average at best.