Video:

This looks like it was sourced from a digital TV signal. Everything is nice and crisp without any pixellation or bleeding. I wish I could put my finger on what it lacks. There's something that is just keeping it from that perfect 5 star rating but I don't have the words to describe it. The picture just seems to lack a little of the punch that a full DVD image has. It's still very very good and better than any picture quality I've seen over cable.

Audio:

At least the sound quality rocks beyond compare. Excellent balance between speech, effects, and music. Best of all is the sound placement that makes you feel part of the story.

Subtitle:

I thought most of the comanies knew better than to use white subtitles any more. There are a few scenes where the text is hard to read against the background. Also, there are occasional timing issues where part of a line is mixed with what is being said by the next person. Only for a line here and there but it happens often enough to be distracting. Finally, the translation is a bit too literal for my tastes. I spent quite a bit of time thinking about what was said to make sense of it. It's understandable with a bit of thought but there is room for improvement.

Comment:

I was surprised to see this made into a series after having seen the movie. The action scenes are still great and there is a small amount of fan service but certainly nothing graphic like the movie had. There is a romantic feeling to the stories even though there is gunplay in every episode. If you're looking for some hot action and don't mind working your way through a decent story to get it then you may want to check out this title. If substandard subtitles bug you then you may want to wait a year or so before the translations are available as R1s.