Video:
The video in this set was so inconsistent, it's amazing. At time it is sharp and clear but other times, there is just so much graininess. Pixelization, thankfully, is minimal. It crops up here and there but isn't that big a deal. Jagged Lines, however, are much more prominent in some of the sharper scenes.
Now, for the real problems.
It almost seems that they spliced two different streams when making these dvd's. On the first dvd, the segway into the beginning is anything but smooth. For instance, the music in the teaser leads you into the beginning, sort of like what was done in Ayashi no Ceres. This happens all through the first two dvd's. You get a tiny skip like in a bad recording and then it goes into the opening. The same thing happens when the opening ends and you go back into the episode. The first few seconds of episode three are even missing. You won't exactly miss anything but its annoying.
What makes me think they spliced two streams together is that at the beginning of one of the episode, my DVD player picked up Japanese captions for the opening but then the skip happened and they turned english. Also, the beginning just looks a whole lot better then the actual show. Weirdness!!!!!!! If anybody can explain this to me, feel free to e-mail me.
Anyway, all of the above problems minus the first paragraph are fixed on the third DVD.
I also loved the animation style in this and that is what bumped it to a 3.5. The serious looking female designs here are something most other anime studios need to adapt.
Audio:
Not bad. I had it setup through my home theatre system and it sounded amazing. It also has one of the best opening songs I've ever heard. The ending theme, unfortunately, is not so great.
The Dubbed version is also fairly good. I was a little apprehensive considering that the cast is mostly female dominant and I thought someone would get stuck with really annoying squeaky voice but everybody sounded really good.
Subtitle:
Not bad. I had it setup through my home theatre system and it sounded amazing. It also has one of the best opening songs I've ever heard. The ending theme, unfortunately, is not so great.
The Dubbed version is also fairly good. I was a little apprehensive considering that the cast is mostly female dominant and I thought someone would get stuck with really annoying squeaky voice but everybody sounded really good.
Comment:
Despite all my problems with the video and subtitles, I loved this show. The story is quite dark and takes a few unexpected twists here and there. However, most of these happen right at the end. The majority of the show is spent developing the different characters and we are given their background and why they fight. Given that, it is no surprise that the ending is left open. The main arc that was begun is dealt with completely but there is still a whole lot of mystery left at the end. Also, one of the characters that I really wished they would develop was completely ignored right until the very end where we got a one liner about her past.
Still, if you can ignore all that, there are a wealth of great stories here. The relationships between the various women and some of their relationships with the opposite sex are handled very well. In fact, I would say that the love angle here is handled a lot better then it was done in anime that seem to specialize in it like the aforementioned Ceres.
Anyway, I definately recommend this on story alone. It is true that they bring up a lot of revelations at the end but they feel natural since we do get information pointing out the way they were heading in previous episodes.
Level: 3
Reviews: 7
Experience: 14,303
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