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Feature Presentation:
Special thanks to Geneon Entertainment for sending a copy for a review for this site. The Great Mission is finally over & everyone can relax, sort of. The Second Wave has pass & turn the green Universe to red, but that doesn't stop humanity to keep going forward. With the threat of destruction over, it's back to exploring the Universe. Shima & her class is now up training to the new DLS control system. However, it's not that easy controlling using your mind. Though, Shima didn't have any problems with it, but the problem is Ayaka Machida is getting jealous & she hides a deep secret & a mistake that is bound to happen again, not only with Shima, but with Yayoi as well. Nothing beats the Christmas holiday in space with everyone getting ready to celebrate with a little romance, too. It's so sweet. Since it's winter vacation, Shima & Kouta went down back to Earth to visit their family & Shima is proud to be home. However, their break has been cut short as an emergency call from Stellvia.
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 & a preview for the next episode! There is a prologue before the introduction, but it's not seperated. 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 quite 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 blue for the introduction theme & ending theme, white for Japanese signs & text. The rest is yellow for the dialogue. 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 on this volume.
Menu Option:
The menu remained the same, the Bianca computer system screen. However, since the Second Wave turned the green color to red, it also reflects that. There is also clips taken from the episodes in this volume. There is the "Play All", a selection of one of the 3 episodes & "Screen Access". The "Set Up" & "Extras" & merged together. Selecting any of the options will get you a little animation like closing windows & opening new one on your computer. The main theme is playing in the background. However, the main menu only have background music, as there is no music playing in the other sections.
DVD Extras:
Another round with no extra again. I'm so sad.
Packaging:
Here we go, the same glossy look, but in purple now. On the cover, you see the rest of Shima's classmates. In the back, there is some screenshots, along with Stellvia logo in the middle. It's still hard to read the synopsis through that kind of background. The insert is nothing special, with the same image as the cover & a list of all the volumes for this series & date releases for them. The DVD disc itself is the same image as the cover, but in purple-scale. Since the DVD case is a clear one, you get to see another cool image that you see during the commercial breaks during an episode, which I really like them alot.
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:
We get to see a side of the famous Ayaka & something new about Yayoi. Somehow, because it's Christmas on Stellvia, I just can't wait for Christmas soon! Shima still need to do her best, but I wonder what is the new threat. You got to keep going to find out!
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