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Feature Presentation:
Special thanks to Geneon Entertainment for sending a copy for a review for this site. The story continues for our group of Haibane, the angel-like beings that lives with humans. As we left off, Rakka got sicked & Reki started to help her after Kuu left for her "Day Of Flight". Rakka still is depressed a bit, but showly, somehow, she must overcome it. Somehow, she discovered the connection between her & the mysterious birds & seek to go to the forbidden walls. However, she falls ill with a fever. As Reki helps Rakka back to health, she must reflect her own past & overcome what is troubling ler. You get to know more about Rakka & especially Reki, why she is so trouble & so want to help Rakka. Though, one mystery solved, but another comes out. At the end, it will all worked out. Again, this series is a little slow pace & hat a strange world it is the story is taken place, not to mention the music is very nice to listen. That's what make this series very interesting.
Video:
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. There is some watermarks done for the introduction & ending credits (they are translated in English). There is still only three episodes on this volume. Each episode are split into 4 parts, introduction, part A, part B & ending. There is no preview for the next episode. Also, on some episode, you might have a little epilogue right before the introduction, but intergraded to it. 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. 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 dubbing is really well done, they suit the characters & they kept the expression just like the original Japanese. 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:
Keeping the same type of font, Geneon Entertainment have selected a great font, a bold one, very easy to read. They use green for the ending theme, 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 on this volume, every even numbered episodes, the ending subtitles are in English, while the odd numbered episodes are in Japanese original text on this volume.
Menu Option:
The menu is also in widescreen format, but if got just a regular full screen TV, it will display in that format with no problem. On this volume, the menu is different, less green, not yellowish, like a view looking down at the town. There is a moving Halo right in the middle. The background music also changed, playing yet another soft classical piano tune. There is the "Play All", "Screen Access", "Set Up" & "Extras". When you selected any options, the menu makes you fly in the clouds at high speed, which is really cool. Though, there is no background music in the other part of the menu, except the main one. The icons used for the selected options is the Haibane-Renmei logo, which is really cute.
DVD Extras:
As before, Geneon Entertainment put the previews of each episodes in this volume in the extra section. I wonder why they didn't kept it during the featurette. They could put it right after each episodes when it's over. The preview isn't dubbed at all, it's only in Japanese with subtitle. There is also the original promotional trailer, along with a new program commerical, both in Japanese with subtitle as well. There is more arts to see in the gallery with various drawing of mostly items within the three episodes on this DVD.
Packaging:
Keeping the same style as before, the color theme of green remains. On the cover, you see Hikari & Kana riding on a bicycle but it's more of an artwork, like a painting, then an actual picture take off the animation. In the back, you got some screenshots with a green background with a fading halo hidden. The insert is pretty simple, it's the same image used as the front cove. It also got the chapter list. Inside the insert got another beautiful artwork of the group at Old Home. The DVD disc itself is another same image of the cover, but tainted in greenish color. Since the DVD case is a clear one, you can see another image, again, the same as the front cover, tainted also in greenish color. Boy, over using that image I say!
PC Viewing:
Watching it on the PC is the same as watching it on the TV. However, I don't know, it seem to be there is a slight problem viewing it, is it blurry or it's just me? Anyways, 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, this is where you get to find out more about Reki & finally, Rakka discovers the reasons & her place as a Haibane. I can't wait to find out on the next volume.
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