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Feature Presentation:
Special thanks to Geneon Entertainment for sending a copy for a review for this site. Wow, I never knew that the famous fighting game, Tsukihime, is now in a full-lenght Anime series. If you haven't heard of it, that game never been release in North America, but it's pretty famous in Japan. The music & even all the characters are used to make this series. There is a sense of creepiness, along with blood & gore, but beside that, it's seem quite interesting. As a child, Shiki have been cursed seeing strange line of everything he sees & bring such horror. However, one day, a strange woman came by & gave him a special pair of glass that seem to stop his curse. Finally, he can go back to a normal life. He is moving back to live with his sister. During a day in school, he met a strange female, but ends up not remembering what happen after that. He got flash back that he killed her in a very horrible way. Trying to forget about it, Shiki met her again & she accused him that he killed her, in such details. Denied it, he ran away, but someone, something came after it. She came by & rescue him, but she isn't some normal female, she is a vampire, Arcueid Burnestud. She told him that he is cursed with a special power called the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, which Shiki can see lines that reflects the breaking point for an instance kill. Now, he is drawned to fight those who is killing the innocent.
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), except for the first episode of this series, which remains with the original Japanese credits. Each episodes are separated into 5 parts: the introduction, part A, part B, ending & the 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. 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, bold, very easy to read. They use green for the introduction & ending themes, 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. There isn't any subtitle for the introduction as there isn't any vocal, but one for the ending. I might note that every odd numbered episodes for the ending subtitles are in English, while the even 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. Very mysterious look for the menu. There is one thing that bother me that it takes a bit to load. You can see some screens from the episodes in this volume, along with the introduction. There is the "Play", a selection of one of the 4 episodes, "Screen Access", but "Set Up" & "Extras" are combine together. The background music is the introduction theme but the other section has no background music.
DVD Extras:
There isn't much, just a non-credit opening. That's all.
Packaging:
The package reflects the style of the series, mysterious but beautiful. It's also quite colorful to look at. On the cover, you will see the strange vampire, Arcueid Burnestud. On the back, you will see many screenshots that looks like blood drips with a full moon in the background. The insert carried the same beauty, with a summary of the episodes on this volume with other releases of other volumes, along with the CD OST as well. There is also another picture of Arcueid Burnestud. Inside the insert, it's a little profile of Arcueid Burnestud & Shiki's maid, Hisui. On the DVD itself, it's like a crescent moon, which is pretty cool. Since the DVD case is a clear one, you actually see the the reversible cover, which carries the same design, except you see Hisui.
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. All the episodes is 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 have played the game before which this series is based on & I find it quite well made. The music is actually the best part of this series, mysterious & moving. I find some part to be disturbing, but somehow, draws you need to continued & solve the mysteries that awakes you.
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