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Feature Presentation:
Special thanks to Geneon Entertainment for sending a copy for a review for this site. Wow, I find it a very cute series, about magic users (mages) in the modern world. Boy, there is alot of restriction being a mage, aren't they? They can only use their powers on requests only. The story rolls around on a 17 years old girl from the country side of Japan, Yume Kikuchi, as an apprentice mage. We get to see her grow up & how she adapts to the city as she learns about her powers.
Video:
Geneon Entertainment did a very great job. They have taken the time to do it right. I found no problem, the image are clear & the color looks perfect. It's a really colorful. Each episode are split into 5 parts, introduction, part A, part B, ending & preview for the next episode. 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 English dubbing is well done. They even capture the emotions & impacts during certain parts of the series. I think the voices are a little better then the Japanese. Yume sounds a little older in the original Japanese voices. 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, very easy to read. They use green for the introduction & ending themes, yellow for the dialogues & white for Japanese signs & texts. 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 even numbered episodes, the intro & ending subtitles are in English, while the odd numbered episodes are in Japanese original text on this volume.
Menu Option:
The menu is pretty colorful. It's on the table, where you see a picture frame with flowers in a pot on the side. The photos changes to different artworks. There is "Play All", "Screen Access", "Set Up" & "Extras". Selecting will make clips move around. The background music on the main menu is one of the background music in the series, however, the other sections got none. It's a very nice piano tune. The dolphin icon they used is really cute.
DVD Extras:
Well, here we go, a set of non-credit opening & ending, as well, the original Japanese opening & ending. There is this cool music video of the song "Under The Blue Sky", which is the ending theme, by THE INDIGO band.
Packaging:
It's a very colorful cover. On the cover, you see a very nice artwork of Yume. In the back, you got lots of screenshots from the episodes of this volume, as well a cute dolphin in the corner. The insert got more screenshots from each episode that goes around with the chapters list. There is another picture of the cute dolphin, which is Yumi's mage symbol. Inside the insert is a mini-poster, another beautiful artwork. The DVD disc itself is the same as the cover. Since the DVD case is a clear one, you get to see the reservible cover, which is actually the same picture as the mini-poster in the insert. Very nice. The default cover & the reservible cover are both equally good.
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. There is one little problem. In the extra section, you have to click on the dolphin icon, not the "word" like the main menu. 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:
I find this series is really sweet. It might be a little boring in the beginning, but I'm sure it will get better as each episodes goes on.
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