Video 4/5 - Overall very good. Noticed some macroblocking at high action sequences. The coloring seemed a little too washed out for a newer show.

Audio 3.5/5 - Very good most of the time. In episode 17 the sound is off by a second, so everything looks a little akward. It just didn't feel right and I couldn't get into the episode. In episode 44 the audio starts from the beginning of the commerical break. So you hear Tatra talking while Clef and Lantis are on the screen. I turned my stereo off and watched it in silence. There is only one opening and ending theme per disc which is a shame because they rock!!!!

Audio 3.5/5 - Very good most of the time. In episode 17 the sound is off by a second, so everything looks a little akward. It just didn't feel right and I couldn't get into the episode. In episode 44 the audio starts from the beginning of the commerical break. So you hear Tatra talking while Clef and Lantis are on the screen. I turned my stereo off and watched it in silence. There is only one opening and ending theme per disc which is a shame because they rock!!!!

Packaging 4/5 - I didn't like the design on the spine but I love the inside design because it's from CLAMP. Content 3.5/5 - Some of you are thinking that I'm being to harsh and maybe I am. I really didn't like the show for several reasons. The first season is your average quest type anime. It felt a lot like an RPG, and came down to a villian of the week feel. However the ending to the first season blew me away. It was totally unexpected. It left you wondering who was good, and bad, or who was right. Amazing. The second season started out very solid, however the ending took a heavy hit. It was wrapped up in one episode and it felt very congested. There were so many loose ends that I wouldn't even know where to begin. Replayability 2/5 - I'll be frank here. Due to the poor ending for season two, and a lackluster middle for season one, I don't have an urge to rewatch the show. Overall - I'm ambivalent over the show. It could have been really amazing but it took a sad, predictable root and did not follow up on it's left over story lines. From what I'm told the OAV won't wrap it up either so the story is never fully told. Though if you are in search of a quest type series with plenty of magic/mecha thrown in hop aboard this 49-episode tale. Some will be pleased and some won't, but if you want to see it, than this set is your answer.

Good video, artifacts appearing sometimes, but not distractive.

Right, my set has that audio screw-up with episode 44 on disc 5. The audio for that episode seems to be totally from somewhere else, nothing makes sense. Switch the sound off to prevent permanent damage to your audio-visual sensory perception and synchronization (^_^) Also, on episode 17 on disc 2, the sound is mistimed by about 1 second early. Irritating.

Right, my set has that audio screw-up with episode 44 on disc 5. The audio for that episode seems to be totally from somewhere else, nothing makes sense. Switch the sound off to prevent permanent damage to your audio-visual sensory perception and synchronization (^_^) Also, on episode 17 on disc 2, the sound is mistimed by about 1 second early. Irritating.

There are a few possibilities as to why the audio screw-up went unreported in the first few reviews below: 1) the earlier sets were ok 2) the reviewers posted reviews before finishing watching both series 3) those of us who got the screwed-up sets were just unlucky (T_T) - Menu is animated with songs playing. Standard menu options: Play All, Subtitle, Chapter. - The first 5 discs contain 9 episodes each, and disc 6 contains 4, adding up to a total of 49 episodes from the 2 TV series. - Each episode is about 20 minutes long. - AC logo appears sometimes, about once every 2 episodes. More annoying is the e-mail address - this comes out at least once per episode (as far as I can remember). - Only 1 opening and 1 ending per disc. Commercial breaks intact. - For the first series, the opening song has English subs hardcoded. Chinese subs are toggleable. - For the second series, the opening song is not subbed. Japanese ending song is subbed, in both English and Chinese. If the English credits follow after the Japanese credits (not for all discs), the song is in English and not subbed. - My set's packaging is 3 clampshell cases with leaflets in a hard cardboard box. The back of the box claims the set includes R1 features such as Art Gallery, Bloopers, Interviews, etc., but of course these were not to be found. Content: It's a magical girl story. This alone is enough to scare off some viewers. I myself find it entertaining, however. The first series has a sillier tone to it, with super-deformities appearing often. The second series is more serious and has a darker feel. The story can drag a bit at times, but this is still a very good show which I enjoyed very much. No throw-away purposeless characters, nice music and songs (oooh both opening songs were excellent), plenty of relationships development for the shoujo and explosive action for the shounen... Conclusion: Well, the audio mistime on episode 17 is still forgivable, but the major problem on episode 44 is really too much. If you can look past these flaws, this set is really, really good. Otherwise, look for another company's release instead.

GRRR!!! No one mentioned that the audio was messed up on episode 44 except BeardFan. If I'd known, I'd have sprung for the MAC. Video -3.75to4/5- Starts out crappy, but gets progressively better. Why? Who knows. Started with some SERIOUS color bleeding and washed-outness. But then, it's ripped from Anime Works, so I should've figured I'd get low quality video. Anyway, the second season is much better. All of it requires some fine-tuning of the tv, however. It's set up different from most of my discs, so color, hue, sharpness + brightness ALL needed tweaking. Looks a lot better then, however. Audio: -4/5, 1/5- Sounded fine to me. BUT IT'S WORTHLESS IN EPISODE 44!!!! It's so out of synch that you have to turn sound off to stay sane (the beginning of the episode has the audio from the commercial break on). Damnit that pissed me off. Package -5/5- GORGEOUS! This is what gatefolds should look like. A picture of people as they appear in the second season would have been appreciated, perhaps instead of the panel w/ but a lonely MKR logo. One of my discs was colored incorrectly, but that's not a normal occurrence. Too bad MI isn't very helpful. Pay 13 bucks simply to replace ANY defective disc. They told me to go to my seller, and if not pay them 13 bucks for *just* the disc. I guess I don't dislike it THAT much. Content -4.5/5- Goodness, I do love CLAMP. Sometimes I felt that it was aimed at a three year old audience, others like it was talking directly to me. A good series, if a little preachy and girly. Artwork is REALLY cool, though animation sometimes shows as low-budget.
edited by ragnorokk on 28 Nov 2002 1:27 am

Audio completely screwed up during one episode, which is unwatchable with sound on.

I wish that the reviewers before me would have done their job right, but obviously they didn't. The big problem with this set is, that on one episode the audio is totally messed up. You get the audio of the second half of the episode during the first half, and outro music etc. on the second half. You can only watch this episode with sound turned off. On one other episode the sound is like 1 second early. Watchable but very annoying since the subs are timed correctly. Apart from this I give the following ratings: Video: 3.5/5 - some pixelation, but perfectly watchable Audio: 3/5 - Very good through the most time, but with the problems mentioned above Subs: 5/5 - Perfect, very very few typos, one of the best HK subs I've seen so far

It looks like they use the R1-release as a source so the quality is pretty awesome.

A very nice and clear japanese track. Although it looks like they ripped the R1-dvd's they didn't include the dub (thank god) I did encounter a glitch. I don't know if it was just my release (I have been looking at other reviews and there is no metion of my problem so..) but on one episode (i believe ep44) the sound is totally out of sync for the whole episode (sounds like they forgot about half of the ep). I had to watch this ep with no volum since it was to distracting to hear them battle or get the endsong when the characters were still talking to each other.

A very nice and clear japanese track. Although it looks like they ripped the R1-dvd's they didn't include the dub (thank god) I did encounter a glitch. I don't know if it was just my release (I have been looking at other reviews and there is no metion of my problem so..) but on one episode (i believe ep44) the sound is totally out of sync for the whole episode (sounds like they forgot about half of the ep). I had to watch this ep with no volum since it was to distracting to hear them battle or get the endsong when the characters were still talking to each other.

Loved the show. Especially the second part which had a darker feel to it.
A very nice release. If you like this kind of show i'd recommend buying it.

Video:4/5- A little dull sometimes, but still very good

Audio:5/5- No buzzing or abnormalities, sounds pretty good to me.

Audio:5/5- No buzzing or abnormalities, sounds pretty good to me.

A great magic girl series, very entertaining Video:4/5- A little dull sometimes, but still very good Audio:5/5- No buzzing or abnormalities, sounds pretty good to me. Subs:5/5- Perfect, yellow font and absoutely no engrish at all very professionally done fansubs

clasic set, nice picture, cool sound and for a change, nice subs also ;-) edited by mentalist otaku on 23 Mar 2002 5:46 pm

Ahhh a very good set indeed. Unlike the incomplete AS set this set contains the entire MKR series. Video is quite good, no problems here. This is apparently a rip of the media works set so you got good video and the audio is perfectly fine as well. The dub track was no included, but thats no biggie. The subs are great, probably ripped along with the rest of the product. Well worth the money for this classic series.