Number Of Disc(s): 1

Review Done By: Guardian Inferno

A year to Live

For Mahoro Ando, knowing when she will die has given her an opportunity to live, & despite experiences that were painful or annoying at the time, Mahoro cherishes each & every memory. As Mahoro prepares for a final battle with Ryuga, one of Saint's top agents, she reflects upon her life & braces for a battle that may greatly accelerate her expiration. In situations as this, a year can literally feel like a lifetime.

Created by GAINAX (Evangelion, Wings Of Honeamise, FLCL, His & Her Circumstances), scripts & direction by Hiroyuki Yamaga (Wings Of Honeamise), character designs by Kazuhiro Takamura.

Special thanks to Geneon Entertainment for sending a copy for a review for this site. This is the final volume & the last three episodes of the first season of this wonderful series about a combat android becoming a normal maid. Finally, Mahoro have to do one last battle with Ryuga, bit before doing so, she want to have a happy date with Saguru. Then, you get a brief history on Mahoro's past, which I find sad, but really cute. Now, the final battle with Mahoro & Ryuga on his way, but what will Suguru do? He is only human! Though, I love the ending of this series, it's really sweet. There is a really nice music at the end. Oh, don't worry, it doesn't end that way, there is a second season coming up.

Geneon Entertainment did a very great job. I found no problem, the image are clear & the color looks perfect. To top things off, the series is feature on Widescreen format. If you got a Widescreen TV, you're going to enjoy this even more. Though, there is a few pixel when the color fades in & out time to time. All the episodes are feature on one track, so there is no loading time when you move on to the next episode. However, if you use the auto-replay track option, it will not work, it will just go back to the menu. I do note that you can skip all those warnings & logos when you first load the DVD by just pressing the "Menu" button on your remote control.

The English dubbing is well done. They kept all the emotions & feelings that each characters hold one & another, as well keeping the hilarious fun & laughter! It's about 85% of the original Japanese. However, there is only one part that they didn't dubbed, it's the introduction of a poem at the end of each episode.

No problem found.

No problem found.

Geneon Entertainment have selected a great font, very easy to read. They use green for the introduction & ending themes, the rest is yellow & white for Japanese signs & text. There are two tracks of subtitling. One track is for the sign subtitling & the other one is for the Japanese dialogue. I might note that every odd numbered episodes, the intro & ending subtitles are in English, while the even numbered episodes are in Japanese, for you to do some karaoke!

The menu is also in widescreen format, but if you got just a regular full screen TV, it will display in that format with no problem. However, you won't see the animation on the side when you go to the menu screen the first time in full screen mode, you gonna need to have Widescreen TV. I find it simple, using the Vesper meeting room. There is the "Play All", a selection of one of the 4 episodes, "Screen Access", "Set Up" & "Extras". There isn't any music in the background, just some sound effects & voices clips, but it's the same as the first volume.

There isn't much extras on it, just an art gallery, a promotional trailer number 2 & an actor commentary for the original Japense voice actress of Saguru. That's about it.

A really colorful cover, with Mahoro in battle gear with Ryoga in the background, both battle suit on & off. In the back, some faded screenshots, with a cute picture of Mahoro in the corner holding a magazine. The insert is really cute, got a sexy mini-poster, the episode list & another picture of Suguru & Mahoro together. The DVD disc itself is pink with Mahoro holding a knife. One more thing, as an extra bonus, the cover is reversible cove & it's very naughty. You have to see it for yourself.

Watching it on the PC is the same as watching it on the TV. Very clean, no problem at all, very little pixel (little squares popping in & out), both normal mode & full screen mode. The sound is just great. The episodes are place on one single track as you play the episodes, so loading time is really small. You can fast forward to the first episode to the last episode with one move on your mouse! Like on your regular DVD player, you can skip the warnings & logos when you load the disc, just use the "menu" option to go to the menu screen.

It's a good series to laugh & enjoy.

27" Citizen JCTV2704 Stereo TV, LG-530 DVD Player, S-Video connection for video with regular stereo cable connection for audio.

Model LG 16x DVD-ROM, on a P3-933Mhz, 512 MB RAM, ATI Redeon 8500 128MB Video Card, ASUS CUSL2-C Motherboard & Sound Blaster Live v5.1, Dell 19' LCD E193FP monitor, Windows XP Professional SP2 & CyberLink PowerDVD v6.0 Deluxe using CyberLink PowerRemote.