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Feature Presentation:
Special thanks to Geneon Entertainment for sending a copy for a review for this site. This is a really strange series & I find it a little bit boring. It's not that bad. Peoples are looking for a very powerful cube called "Gad Guard" & they are highly valuable. A cube, when it found someone to emotionally attach to be its master, turns into a very powerful machine called Techode. Once that transformation is done, it can't turn back to its former state & loses all his values. Hajiki somehow stubble into a Gad during his job & made a special bond. However, he discovered that when his Gad turns into a Techode, trouble comes along with it. Along the way, he met Arashi & other peoples who have a Techode of their very own. New friends, new enemies, his life is forever change.
Video:
Geneon Entertainment did a very great job. I found no problem, the image are clear & the color looks perfect. There is some watermarks done for the introduction & ending credits (they are translated in English). Since all the episodes are on one single track on the DVD, there is no loading time or changing tracks when you move on to the next episode. Each episode is split into 4 parts: introduction, part A, part B & ending! There is no preview for this series. I do note that you can skip the warnings & logos in the beginning using the "Menu" button on your remote.
Dubbing: English:
I find the dubbing pretty good. It's about 85% of the original Japanese.
Audio 01: English 2.0:
No problem found.
Audio 02: Japanese 2.0:
No problem found.
Subtitle:
Geneon Entertainment have selected a great font, easy to read. They use white for any text subtitling & yellow for the dialogues. One track is for the sign subtitling & the other one is for the Japanese dialogue. There isn't a vocal introducting & ending theme, so there is no need for subtitles there.
Menu Option:
The menu is pretty simple. You got Hajiki in the corner with the night time city view in the background. There is the "Play All", "Episodes", "Screen Access", "Set Up" & "Extras". Selecting any of the options will get you a little animation related to this series. The main theme is playing in the background, which isn't my favorite. However, the main menu only have background music, as there is no music playing in the other sections.
DVD Extras:
There isn't much extras. There is just a non-credit opening, along with an art gallery. The art gallery is just screenshots from the episodes in this volume. There is also an original promotion trailer that isn't indicated. If you want to know what's the "Easter Eggs" is, I got no idea. I didn't find any.
Packaging:
I find it ok. On the coverm you see Hajiki & Arashi sitting on Hajiki's motocycle. In the back, you got some screenshots. The insert is just the episode list, along with the same image as the cover. Inside the insert is a very colorful mini-poster of Hajiki & his Techode with a nice scene of the city. It's the only thing with coloful color. Since the DVD case is a clear one, you will see the reversible cover. The default one is better. On the DVD disc itself, well, it's really pretty plain. It's just black with a nice Gad Guard cube logo.
PC Viewing:
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.
Overall DVD Rating:
Well, it's not that bad this series, but I will give it a chance as it's only the beginning. Though, those Techodes looks like Mega-man style mecha, except they are huge. Maybe it will be better on the next volume!
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