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Feature Presentation:
Special thanks to Geneon Entertainment for sending a copy for a review for this site. Wow, this is one of the coolest Anime series that has the uniquely stands out. It's how the design & artwork was used that make this Anime so different. It uses static images, like you only see part of the image when the body moves through it. I can't really explained it, you have to watch it. It's unique & quite colorful. Not only that, the story is a bit strange, curious & exquisite, like you can drawed to see. Welcome to the new distant future of the world we live in, but keeping the old tradition of politics. Here we meet, a son of an aristocratic family, Albert, in search to find himself & hopefully there is more to life then his high class life style. With his best friend, Franz, set out to Luna, a city of the Moon to seek out. His life was forever change when he encountered a very mysterious man named The Count Of Monte Cristo. He is quite the charming man & you might learn a few tips on being a real gentlemen. Albert is so fascinated by his stories, his adventures & his life that he invited him into Paris high society so he could learn about him more, but hidden inside, The Count has his own secrets.
Video:
Geneon Entertainment did a very great job. Chrisp & clear, keeping the colurful bright, yet the mysterious feeling untouched. 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. There is some watermarks done to the introduction & ending, 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 5 parts: introduction, part A, part B, ending & the preview! 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.
Dubbing: English:
The English dubbing is well done. The voice for The Count Of Monte Cristo is one of the best. It kept his charming voice of a gentlemen that really draws you in. 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, though a little small. There is no subtitle for the introduction & ending themes as they are in English already, but the color white is used for any text subtitling & yellow for the dialogues. One track is for the sign subtitling & the other one is for the Japanese dialogue.
Menu Option:
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. For something this colorful, the menu is pretty simple, you see The Count & Albert together. There isn't a "Play All", but a selection of each episode, "Screen Access", "Set Up" & "Extras". The background is the ending theme, but the rest of the section has no background music.
DVD Extras:
Wow, there is many extras filling up here. There is the original storyboard of the first episode, which is really neat to see the making of this colorful series. There is also interviews of the Director Mahiro Meada, along with the commentaries from the Japanese voice actors. As always, there is also the non-credit opening & ending, along with promotional trailers.
Packaging:
To match with the colorful style, the design reflects upon it. On the cover, you will see The Count Of Monte Cristo with a very colorful background. In the back, you see some screenshots from the episodes in this volume, along a very faint but beautiful artwork in the background. The insert also have a list of episodes, along upcoming releases of the next volumes of this series. There is a mini-poster of a scene at the beginning of the series. The DVD disc itself is very beautiful shiny artwork printed on it. Since the DVD case is a clear one, you might noticed the cover is a reversible one.
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:
This series alone is very unique, in artwork & design, along with a mysterious feeling of secrets, especially with The Count Of Monte Cristo himself. You just want to know what goal he is really after. I forgot to mention something, right in the beginning, you opera music might sound familiar. So stay tune.
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