it was just beautiful. i think this was an r2 rip. it look really good and was full screen.

i tought it was amazing. i didn't hear anything wrong with it.

i tought it was amazing. i didn't hear anything wrong with it.

this is an amazing action anime, i love it, and recomend it to anyone

great

GOD THIS SUCKED. Towards the end it got so horrible that I cant begin to describe my hatred for it. It got to the point where if you didnt have it at a low volume (I like to watch at a high volume) then you could here a lot of static and such. The first half was great though.

GOD THIS SUCKED. Towards the end it got so horrible that I cant begin to describe my hatred for it. It got to the point where if you didnt have it at a low volume (I like to watch at a high volume) then you could here a lot of static and such. The first half was great though.

I'd buy the R1, but for the price difference and the quality difference, the HK version is great. Without a doubt, this set would be a smart buy. REALLY enjoyable. Be sure to pick up part II by the same studio. This is the best set out there

Very, very good. There are a couple dropouts though, so it looses .5 off the score.

Pretty good, but it distorts on higher notes.

Pretty good, but it distorts on higher notes.

Chapter breaks at intro, part A, part B, credits, and next episode preview. Only a couple next episode previews are subbed. Wow, this is good. Crazy good. I've only seen set 1 so far, but from what I've watched, it gets a 5/5 easily.

Nearly perfect...DVD Rip

No problems. Great music too.

No problems. Great music too.

The Menus are in English. Deffinetly Reccomend. Don't know why they put the show in 5 DVDs though, it's stupid , it could easily be fitted into 3 DVDs for the entire show ...includes Creditless Opening and Ending. Buy this and stay away from AS set.

Nearly perfect, but for a few dropouts. 16:9 anamorphic widescreen.

Perfect stereo.

Perfect stereo.

A nearly perfect set. And the series is also excellent. Creditless opening and ending are included as extras.

Although the topic is different, this reminds me a lot of "Lain". So if you don't like getting irritated and depressed by watching anime, you better don't watch this set. Nevertheless, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

This is a very well done DVD. I can't say this enough good things about this release. First of all, The video is amazing. The video on this DVD beat out tons of American released on DVD that I've seen (I work at a video store, so I see tons of video). The audio is crystal clear, and the subs are for the most part dead-on and very well timed. This DVD should be the sparkling Beacon that shouts "HK DVDS CAN BE TOTALLY AWESOME!!!" Video 4.8/5 I'm giving it a 5 since there is no denomination between 4 and 5, but there are some things in the video that were pretty apparent. First is the obvious amount of NTSC interlacing. I haven't watched this on a standalone DVD player through the TV, but on my computer, the interlacing is really apparent. As that's a post processing part of the DVD process, I won't take too much off for that (there's not a lot one can do about it). The only other things were some artifacts here and there. Such as a screen blip, large compression blocks appearing in a single frame, and sometimes some weird compression colors (a few times there are purple hues on skin tones). But since the total amount of instances that this happen number under 5, I won't bitch about it too much. In fact, I've been dumping on the video to much, on to the good stuff. The video is VERY crisp, with good detail, coloring, and little compression. The video is shown in Anamorphic Widescreen, which is totally awesome for Wide screen Buffs, and people like me who hate letterbox. The video is this set is amazing, nuff said. Audio 5/5 1 word - WOW! The audio is nearly perfect. Very Crisp, very clear. No Buzz, no humm. The only thing I can think of that would be slightly bad, is a little distortion on a really really high note on 1 episode. Other than that, the audio is flawless. However, it is only 2 tracks, so the 5.1 set-up won't be utilized to the utmost. Subs 4.5/5 The subs on this set are pretty good. However there are a few problems here and there. first of all, there are some times where there are some awkward sentences, but they are easily understood (nothing like the Cowboy Bebop subs). The subs for the most part are understandable, there are no instances of '/n', and rare occurrences of ". The only other issue are some quick subs, which require you to rewind and pause. And those are few and far between. Overall, I give this an emphatically good review. This is THE set to base all other HK DVDs upon. However, the shows content may not be everyone's cup of tea. The show's premise is pretty intriguing (assassins are always intriguing), however there are some things that need to be pointed out. A) The lack of Blood (with a death count as high as this show, the only glimpse of blood is on a seat from a character who doesn't die). B) The soundtrack is a bit limited, and there are at least 2 songs that play in almost every single episode (not including intro and outro). C) There are some plot points and dialogue that are just plain corny. Besides that, the show is pretty cool (not really much T&A tho, for you guys thinking of getting this show for that). Another two things I need to mention tho are that this set DOES have the MI watermarks (even if they are for short durations, and usually only at the beginning, and right after Commercial breaks). And also, this set is only the first 13 episodes. The second set is needed to finish the set. Anyways, to wrap this up, the show is pretty cool, and this set is amazing to say the least. I recommend looking for reviews that bring a little more insight as to what this show is about, so that you an determine if it's right for you, and if it is, this is definitely the DVD to get. edited by kakomu on 19 Jul 2002 11:29 pm

This is another of those series I first saw in an Anime club. I picked it up more or less on a whim--I wasn't sure I'd like it. Thankfully, I did, and I don't regret getting this set one bit. The synopsis already provided is pretty good, so I won't repeat it here. I'll simply add my two cents on this particular release. Video: 5/5. Widescreen, man! Can't get much better! My only minor complaint is that on the disc with more eps., there's some very slight distortion in high-motion scenes. Otherwise, it's crisp, the animation is fluid (this is a very recent show, but still), and I haven't noticed any major glitch. Audio: 5/5. As usual, my setup isn't that great, so I can't really judge. Still, sound came out very well, which is a good thing given the amazing soundtrack this series features. Actually, I'd say the series is pretty much worth it for the soundtrack alone, if it came to that--which it doesn't, since it's very well executed otherwise as well. Subtitles: 4/5. Some mis-timings, nothing very major, though. There's those crazy quotes all over the place, but it's not really a deterrent to the contents. Overall: I'd say get this set. The release is good overall, no engrish in sight and no mistimings in 95% of the set. The contents itself is excellent--this is a high quality series, and it looks like nothing I've seen before. This is what anime is about--stuff that's different. The series' tone is serious, nearly humourless, which lends it a very peculiar style. One word of caution, however: the story develops slowly, and the first few episodes follow an obvious formula. But I found myself enjoying this a lot, despite all this, because it's so well done.

This series is so tight! I love the music! And the story reminds me almost of a meeting of La Femme Nikita & the Metal Gear Solid games. I LOVE IT!!!!! Anyway... Video quality- Damn near perfect r2 rips. A few rare glitches that's it. Audio quality- Again perfect 5.1 dts sound, the music thumps in my HTS. Did I mention how AWESOME the music is?!?!? WOOT! Subtitle qaulity- There are some typos, but overall the timing is good and the subs are decent. Man, I CAN'T WAIT FOR part 2 of this series!

Sweet DVD! Am I ever glad I picked this one up. The quality of it is not what one would expect from a HK set. Well worth the money if you ask me.

Video - 4.5/5 ------------------------------------ Wonderful, I have to say this is the first time I've seen an anamorphic HK release and it was quite impressive. Ripped from the R2 version, this set looks great and if it wasn't for small problems here and there with blips etc I would have given it the full 5. Sound - 5/5 ------------------------------------ No problems at all, ripped without any distorion, hum or annoyingness like so many others. Sounds like a great 2 ch track. Subtitles - 4/5 ------------------------------------ If you're getting annoyed about little spelling mistakes and quotation marks then don't bother buying HK DVD's ever again. MI loves their quotation marks for sure and we see them again on this set, apart from that and the silly spelling mistakes every now and then (I wouldn't be shocked if these were on the digisubs as well) they're fine. Great show and the comments about how wonderful the music is isn't wrong. If you enjoyed Noir and want to own them on DVD this is a great way to do do. Safe buy. edited by NoxiousOffender on 05 Mar 2002 2:56 pm

There is one reason to see this series: The music this soundtrack puts nearly all others to shame. It is what gives this show its stylistic feel. the music powers all the emotional drama and accelerates the action. It is another example exoticism in Anime music, and this time it is used quite tastefully. We can all thank MI for transferring the Audio on these discs perfectly, because with out that, the series just wouldnt work. Highly recommended.

Video: Excellent Audio: Excellent Subs: Excellent but a few minor spelling errors Menu: Below standard. Too plain. I highly recommend you get this anime. Almost flawless!

Video: Top Notch 95% of the time, there are a few instances of scene change breakup and occasional video glitches and blips, but the fact that it's Anamorphic Widescreen (1.77:1 A.R.), holds a pretty decent bitrate (~5mbps avg. VBR, which isn't half bad for a hk set) and is both very sharp and very bold (colors and overall picture.) Awesome, Awesome quality. Audio: A rich 2 channel track taken from the R2. It sounds excellent, especially for a 2 channel track for a TV series. Subtitle: Uhm. Ya. These have been a little bit overrated. Don't get me wrong, they are very good, but they aren't anywhere near perfect. First, you have a nice amount of mispellings. No big deal, but they're obvious when they occure and do occure quite often at times. Second, those damned quotation marks. "Yes Okay." - what do you mean? - "Huh?", it's a bit distracting, mostly because I don't get why they're there... Third, mistimings. It's obvious that these scripts were timed with the Chinese Subtitles. Many situations where stuff on screen will be translated, but since it's already in english - the fansubbers didn't bother - so when Manga International decided to rip them, the timing to their chinese subs get thrown off since the chinese subs DO sub the on screen text that's in english. Better explaination - if you have a screen that says "Noir - We have a new job for you." you will end up getting the next lines of dialouge instead of an text translation. The show always catches up, but this happens quite a few times more than it should, but it is no big deal (It will get 3 or 4 lines ahead, then ease off a scene or two later and catch up, usually happens 1 - 2 minutes per episode in about 4 or 5 episodes, but is nothing really bad. The only episode with some questionable subtitles is, I believe it was episode 6. Mierelle turns into Mieryu and the wording is a little awkward, overall, however, the subs are still very good. Overall, this set comes highly recommended, as the badass show and video quality make up for any faults with the subtitles.

Excellent stuff. R2 rips, good quality. Video is R2 and very, very good. Only a few problems such as glitches, but excellent. Audio is awesome here, the music and gunshots really pound in this one. Great stuff. Subs, these are taken from the digisubs, so there basically perfect. The only problems are normal spelling errors when replicating the subs, and the strange quotes they put around the quotes. Who knows but still really good. Great stuff here, only thing that bugged me really was that they still go company logo that pops up here and there like normal :)