This HAS to be an R2 rip. The picture is THE clearest I've seen on an HK set, and it really helps for a high-action series like this.

I'm not sure what it's actually coded in, but it sounds great from my TV and on my headphones.

I'm not sure what it's actually coded in, but it sounds great from my TV and on my headphones.

Ah, good ol' Soul Taker. My all-time favorite anime series. :D I've been keeping up with ST probably since mid-'01, but never got around to actually watching it until I bought this set a couple months before the R1 releases last year. Although nowhere on this set mentions it, these DVDs are actually the "Special Edition" version of the series; the same source material as the actual R1s. You see, after the original 13 episodes of Soul Taker aired on Japanese TV in 2001, the producers put together a "Special Edition" version for the re-runs. It's still the same series, but supposedly with some scenes changed around to clarify some problems in the plot. (I've only seen the first episode and OP from the original cut, and the only differences I noticed is that the soundtrack during the battle at the end of the first episode is changed around a little in this version, and some new CG effects were added to the intro sequence.) I've noticed that people who watch this series think it's either the greatest shiznit on the planet, or else the stupidest thing ever created by man. I have never seen anyone in the "grey area" with this series. Most of the people I know who love the series saw it off of TechTV a couple months ago, and most of the people I know who hate it watched it from the R1s. That's just a fore-warning. If you've by any chance watched and/or read Ayashi no Ceres, you'll have a pretty good idea of how this series is going to resolve after watching the first episode after doing some role-reversals. After all, ST is pretty much AnC taken as a shounen superhero series (and a really, really, really cool one, at that. :D). A LOT of the plot elements are still intact - twins torn between sides, mythology (though different source material), half of Kyousuke's own family is out to kill him, evil corporation trying to play God, "Flickers" (*cough*C-Genome), that cross choker, etc. etc. As with a lot of MI sets, only the OP from the first episode on each disc is intact and only the ED from the last episode on each disc. No subs included. I believe I've rambled enough. :)

This DVD has an absolutely gorgeous transfer. Soultaker is (despite the very film-noir style shading and "cinematography") a very colorful series, with screens full of vivid greens, blues, and reds, and this DVD captures them marvelously. There's no macroblocking or pixelation in high motion scenes either. There are few cases where the MI watermark shows up in the upper right hand corner, but it hardly ever happens.

Flawless sound, no weird echoes or distortion.

Flawless sound, no weird echoes or distortion.

[menus] The menus for this set are gorgeous, with animated backgrounds and the show's theme song playing in the background. Very professional. [random weirdnesses] The intro and outro on my set are only on each disc once, and interestingly enough come in the very MIDDLE of the first disc, right after episode 4. This is probably due to the fact that my version was a rip of the MI version and the first two discs were combined into one disc in my set (see details below) [disclaimer] This set was a 2 DVD gatefold set which I got off of ebay, not 3 disc. It doesn't have any identifying marks on the gatefold, but there are AC disc codes on the discs themselves and the MI watermark and e-mails appear a few times; this may be the AV set, but as it looks nothing like the picture of the AV set depicted on IA, I submitted this review to the MI section. Be aware that if you see a 2 Disc gatefold set with the same cover art as the MI version, it's identical to the MI version with the first two DV5 discs from the MI set combined into a single DV9.

video:4 audio:4 subs : look other reviews below content: 2 what a piece of pretentious , corny style-over-substance crap. ive never been so bored in my entire life . for me it was a chore to complete this series. ZZZZZ..........

Video is perfect. Only bad thing is (as I noticed to be normal for Manga International) Intro and Credits once per Disc.

Same as on the oryginal Japanese DVD - Stereo. Perfect.

Same as on the oryginal Japanese DVD - Stereo. Perfect.

I like this title very much. It's dark and twisted. It has oryginal story line. As for this release, it's pretty good (except the script). I've bought it to make fan-sub, and the basic knowledge about Japanese language was really helpfull. Maybe if you're from the country where English is your native language it would be easier to understand. But sometimes you don't know if you should laugh or cry.

Pretty darn crisp.

normal

normal

I bought this on a whim 'cause I liked the cover art :) It looks like a typical boy-transforming-into-fighting-robot-borg-thing show, but it turned out to be pretty insane. The conclusion is kinda what you might expect, but everything until that last moment is great and keeps you in suspense. It has interesting sides and a good 'who's the real villan?' thing, and great action. It's been getting great reception during it's commercial release.

Good audio and video. The subtitles are kind of a....mixed bag. On some of the episodes they are very good. On other parts, then are down right bad. It;s enough to understand what the heck is going on, but are far from perfect.

Video: 5/5- Very clear, definately DVD quality

Audio: 4/5- Very good audio, no buzzing or distortions that i could hear.

Audio: 4/5- Very good audio, no buzzing or distortions that i could hear.

A very awesome series, i saw a couple of the r1 episodes and i knew i had to see the rest of this series. its got a pretty deep plot and is very entertaining. Video: 5/5- Very clear, definately DVD quality Audio: 4/5- Very good audio, no buzzing or distortions that i could hear. subs: 4/5- They are pretty good, episode 2 is horrible. They do a lot of one time name changes though, like for one line they'll refer to someone by a different name and then change back to their real name... kind of annoying but not that bad. Not too much engrish

Packaging: Simply put, Beautiful. This set is designed very professionally, using eye catching cover art with a clean yet very cool cover piece. The flaps are equally well designed, the outer two containing black with text reading Soul Taker and the other featuring a picture of the main character. The inner flaps, where the discs are, contain individual pictures with a very well set use of dark colors. The back cover is also quite impressive and professional looking (shown to the right.) This is one of the nicest looking sets I've seen to date, from any company, Bootleg or Legit - and fits the gothic mood of the show perfectly. The discs, while not matching the backgrounds exactly, as in many MI sets, are very nicely done. Each disc features a main character on a black back with the given Soul Taker lining and logo. The green Manga International logo off sets it nicely - and looks worlds better than that Orange A ever did. To top that off, these contain little latches which actually HOLD the DVDs, unlike previous sets such as Noir and Evangelion. Very nice. Content: This show is interesting, I'll give it that much. The art work (for the most part), animation style, and mood for it are all excellent. The story seems to be pretty good so far as well, but there are a few things (now on episode 7) that kind of bother me, the main one being Soul Taker. He just doesn't seem like an overly necessary part of the show, not to mention his theme music sucks. Every time he appears the show turns into a cheesy old Devilman-style outing, but I guess it isn't all bad. The art takes a hit during some of the battles as well, luckily this seems to have been contained to episode 5, which is looking to be a low point in the series. Don't get me wrong, episode 5 was quite good, but the last 5 minutes consisted of a battle between Soul Taker and Soul Crasher, and it was just corny as hell. Overall though, it's a cool and very unique show...I'm just glad Soul Taker is in it as little as he is. Subtitles: Episodes 1,3,4,5,6 use the fansubs created by AnimeMPEG sometime ago, I double checked to see and they are near identical (the AnimeMPEG one had less typos, of course.) Thus, they are actually excellent. 1,3,4,5 all had maybe 1 typo a piece, and those were usually with spacing or non-letter placement (like that perso'n s) episode 2 is abysmal, and quite difficult to understand, not to mention with names so wrong they made it more confusing (Date became period.). Episodes 7+ use original HK Scripts, while not great, are not bad. They're easy to follow along with and easy to understand for the most part, and that's a good thing, especially considering a show of this type. Some names are correct in 7+ as well, however, they reference checked them with the fansubs (Which is actually a good thing.) so every time somebody says "Mio!" you get "Date Mio!" in the subs, which is her full name, no big deal. I haven't fully watched 8 - 13, but spot checking suggests they are all very similar to ep 7, which isn't a bad thing. Overall, the subs are really quite good for the most part, ranging from Excellent (the fansub episodes) to okay (the HK original subs 7+) and only peaking at abysmal for a mere 1/13th of the time (episode 2), no big deal, that and ep 2 wasn't exactly a key plot episode, so little is lost. Video: Wow. This is a BEAUTIFUL transfer. I mean. DAMN. The colors are bright and vivid, the blacks are black, and with the exception of some color banding (which is present on the R2 and R1 discs) it's flawless. As of now, I haven't seen any frame of frame blips, though I will be watching them again to be sure I didn't just miss them. Gone are the every episode logos, Here are logos (MI) that appear once every other episode on the upper right hand side of the screen. You're also treated to one e-mail address an episode, this isn't bad though - as it doesn't stay on screen long and is never during anything important (note: these are part of the English subtitles.) Very nice. The bitrate is a steady 5 mbps+ - Not ultra high but once you see it you'll probably just say... Damn. These discs are presented in non-anamorphic widescreen with the Aspect Ratio of 1.77:1. Audio: An excellent 448 kbps 2 channel Japanese Audio track. A rather impressive display of rear speaker use and very well done directionally. Everything in crisp, clear, and bold. No pops, hisses, or cracks to speak of, also no humm. Very well done and transferred. Menus/Chapters/Extras: Ah, Finally some nice menus from Manga International again (was running a dry streak there with Excel Saga and Noir featuring some rather unimpressive menus.) These menus hold a very US DVD-feel to them, using an interesting font with a well animated set of menus. They are very well done. The chapter select screen lets you start any episode you want, duh. Each disc is split into about 10 chapters, which means a chapter stop in each episode, and at the end/beginning of each. The mid point ones don't seem to really be significantly placed, but they're there and they work. There are no extras to speak of (the quality itself should count as one.) and it should be noted the intro only appears before the first episode and closing after the last episode of each disc, which is a plus to me, since I think the opening sucks (musically.) Overall: What can I say, so far so good, I hope the quality keeps up for the remainder of the episodes and gets a definite recommendation. Get the US discs when you can, but if you want to see what you'll be buying into -- definitely check this set or the fansubs out, more than worth a little bit of your time. So far the show itself comes Recommended and this set is a Safe Buy. edited by Rich on 03 Mar 2002 6:47 pm