HDTV Heaven vs. SDTV Hell? Detective Conan vs. Haruhi Suzumiya

 
So 4/4/2009 NTV in Japan rebroadcasted the first episode ( ジェットコースター殺人事件 Jet coaster murder case/Big Shrink) of Detective Conan (Case Closed), according to hdanime’s screenshot and comment, it appears to be HDTV, not some SDTV upconversion.

The introduction is 16:9 upconversion shown some aliasing stuff:

Some thoughts on Infinite Ryvius 無限のリヴァイアス

 

  

Released: 1999

Go to IMDb page

Information © IMDb.com

"Mugen no rivaiasu"

Tetsu Shiratori, Houko Kuwashima, Sakura Tange, Kyôko Hikami, Rikako Aikawa, Michael Adamthwaite,

     So I bought the first volume LE box last year, and pretty much set it aside. I finally watched it last week, and it blows me away. I haven’t watched anything so intense for a long time. I finished this series in two sittings. The story is just so gripping that I keep on watching it and never feel tired.

The series is the debut work from Taniguchi, Goro as a director. He later did s-cry-ed, Planetes, Gun x Sword, and Code Geass. All of which are quite enjoyable to watch. But to me, this one is definitely my favorite. One note is that if you don’t like teen angst, this is not the series for you. 

 

The series involves around 487 teens rode on an advanced space ship Ryvius after being attacked by some mysterious organization and all their instructors were dead. There’s an ass-kicking giant robot on board ryvius which is pretty much the only weapon they have. So now these teens need to organize together, and live in a small society to survive in this government conspiracy.
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The sci-fi elements in this series are quite enjoyable. The setting of sudden burst of Geduld is just nice as a background, since now the space is more like ocean. There are different levels of this “ocean” (There are even space squids later seen in the series). Normal spaceships won’t be possible to “dive” very deep into the Geduld due to high pressure and temperature. So the show is pretty much like a submarine drama, but set into space. The robots fighting sequences are more close to the nature of physics, you won’t see any fights like crazy movements/poses Gundams can do. The fighting might miss the whistles and bells of mecha anime, but under the great music and intense atmosphere the director takes, it’s absolute gripping to watch.

The music utilizes r&b and hip hop which is rare in anime. And the music is used wisely so that you don’t feel they are out of place. The opening and ending and some variations used are also memorable.

Opening Dis-

 

Easy Living

 

NOWHERE

 

The character design is actually pretty acceptable despite it’s done by Hisashi Hirai, who later did the Gundam seed which is shit. I never understand this dude’s character design concept, to me he just uses exactly the same face and changes the hair, thus everyone almost looks like the same. This dude should be banned from the anime industry. By the way, the main character Kouji Aiba 相葉昴治 lookes very close to Shinji Ikari 碇 シンジ from Evangelion…

Characters development and interactions in this series are the absolute fantastic aspects of the show. There are lots of lots characters, nearly all of them are memorable to some degree. Neya got to be one of my favorites although “she” is only a biological form of the Sphix, the AI of the spaceship Ryvius. Her dance in one of the episodes is just absolutely hilarious. Another notable character is Fina S. Shinozaki ファイナ・Ｓ・篠崎, who came from Uranus with a religious background has a dark secret which reveals later in the series. I somehow like these mental twisted girls… (Another notable one is Flay Allster from Gundam seed)

Seiyuu are also another strong aspect. The main character Kouji Aiba’s voice is by Tetsu Shiratori 白鳥哲, whose notable role as Lloyd in Code Geass. I don’t quite like this voice, but it’s bearable. Kouji’s brother Yuki Aiba 相葉祐希 is by Sōichirō Hoshi 保志総一朗, his notable role is Kira Yamato in Gundam Seed/seed destiny, Yuki is a super angst version of Kira. Kouji’s best friend Ikumi Oze 尾瀬イクミ is voiced by Tomokazu Seki 関智一 who has done countless roles (my favorite role of his is still Sgt. Sousuke Sagara 相良宗介 from Full Metal Panic). Kouji’s real girlfriend Aoi Housen 蓬仙あおい is voiced by Houko Kuwashima 桑島法子, my all time favorite, needless to say. Ikumi’s girlfriend Kozue Izumi 和泉こずえ is voiced by Sakura Tange 丹下桜, the notable role of her works is definitely Sakura Kinomoto 木之本桜 from Cardcapter Sakura. You get to know how Sakura gets angst in this show. Another character immediately identifiable by me is Lucson Houjou ルクスン・北条 who is voiced by Bin Shimada 島田敏. Right, he IS Ken Nakajima 中嶋剣, white hawk of Bokuto Station from You’re under arrest. (Didn’t know he is also the voice of Stig Bernard from Genesis Climber MOSPEADA(Original version to the third arc of Robotech: New generation).)

The animation is quite decent, Sunrise prodeces quite a few good animes during that period of time anyway.

The show’s only downside to me is the sudden slow-down pacing in the last 6 or so episodes prior to episode 25 which is how this incident is resolved, too much recaps are provided in these episodes. I understand the director wants to make the characters deeper by lots of flashing back and monologue, but it’s not very effective to me. This is the only negative point of the show. If this series is done in 24 episodes, cutting out some recap parts, making the plot advancing faster, it would be a masterpiece to me.

Some words about the DVD, the US R1 release is the non-remastered version. I only have the first disc (out of six total) for episodes 1-5 (I don’t plan to buy the rest since there’s a superior remastered edition with Dolby Digital 5.1 remix released in 2006). The video quality is fine with minor aliasing except a few scenes are extremely fussy/unfocused, no noticeable cross coloration, dot crawl, etc are spotted on the main feature. The audio, as per the Japanese track considered, has no obvious flaw. It’s just a standard simple 2.0 stereo mix, the R&B BGMs do have some bass though which makes the sounds fuller. The extras presented on the disc are quite nice, the most notable one is Ryvius Illusion #1, a super deformed version that summarizes the show. Gun X Sword has a similar extra called Gun X Sword San, but I think Ryvius has done a better job on it by providing something in line with the show, while Gun X Sword San is not quite related to the plot not to mention the characters are overly violent…

Adding some DVD screencaps from R1 release:

Menus:

Another “the Matrix” style menu. I liked this type of menus.

Extras are quite nice.

 

The videos:

Like I said, the videos are good enough most of the time. But an HD remastering would look absolutely gorgeous, I imagine.

 

This is the example of a frame can go really wrong. Not sure why inconsistent frames would show up. And there are quite a few others throughout the show.

 

Ryvius Illusion extras which I found quite interesting.

Somehow the original Japanese menu is still on the disc. I might take a in-depth look at the disc some time.

Two recent Anime I’ve enjoyed massively

 

So two shows, first is Tetsuwan Birdy 鉄腕バーディー, second is Yakushiji Ryōko no Kaiki Jikenbo 薬師寺涼子の怪奇事件簿.

 

First show is Tetsuwan Birdy TV series. There was an 4-episode OVA done in 1996 by Madhouse. This new TV series is done by A-1 Pictures. To describe the series, it falls into action, sci-fi, drama, and a bit comedy genre.

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Released: 2008

Go to IMDb page

Information © IMDb.com

"Tetsuwan Birdy Decode"

Saeko Chiba

Actually, the show I enjoyed “massively” is season 2 of the TV series, named Decoder 02. But to get to Decoder 02, Season 1 Decode is not skippable. This is not saying that Decode is unwatchable, it just doesn’t stand out from other shows, while Decode 02’s plot managed to touch my heart so much. Or maybe Decode has Maaya Sakamoto as one of the main casts, which made the show downgrade automatically for me?? (I’ve watching shows which had her as main cast lately, intentionally or unintentionally, and found that most of the shows are somewhat unwatchable… I still like her songs though.)

It’s just such an unforgettable emotional ride that’s so gripping, so intense. Accompanied with the story, the animation style is also very unique. It takes the direction of totally “fluid” animation over traditional static images. The trade off is the sloppy frames, or the blob animation someone mentioned. I’ll take this style over the static images anytime though.

Here is the most infamous episode 7 fighting sequence from Decode 02:

HD Link

About the DVDs, currently only Decode (Season 1) is complete, so I can comment on these discs only. And these are the limited editions with supplement discs which includes “making of” type commentary.

The menu uses transitions between each. But the opening transition to main menu is a bit too long, the menu looping is kind of short.

The video quality is a bit soft, I think the HDTV broadcast version is a lot better (although the HDTV version is more like upconverts), but since DVD contains animation error fixes, it’s probably the format to collect. Also the DVD comes with LPCM 2.0 which is better than the ~192Kbps aac HDTV broadcast had.

I picked all the screen captures from volume 5 because of episode 9’s Birdy vs. Marionette fighting sequence is probably the best fighting I’ve ever seen.

HD Link

When I first saw this sequence, I went back and watched 5 times in a row, that’s how good it is!

The limited edition comes with quite a few goodies, episode guide, actual show’s film prints, and a DVD contains “making of” features, just to name a few. Despite how good the limited editions are, the show’s DVD sales aren’t that good from what I heard. The manga was created in the 90s last century, the elements might be a bit outdated? It’s an even niche show in an already niche anime market, to best describe the show’s situation. I’m still hoping a third season though since some stuff aren’t resolved.

I think they could just put the extra disc’s stuff onto the same disc, to just make it easier to view instead of having two discs… But this makes backup quite easier since now both discs are under D5 size… I think they might have used the same disc as they regular edition, but this disc is skipped.

 

 

 

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Next show is Yakushiji Ryōko no Kaiki Jikenbo 薬師寺涼子の怪奇事件簿. The enjoyment is to a lesser degree than Birdy though.

I’d like to describe this show as Haruhi Suzumiya meets 009-1, with a touch of generic detective show (but less emphasized). The show involves in solving mysteries (crime related). The mysteries are somewhat like x-files, involving controversial gene manipulation, hi-tech AI coexist with human, etc. The view point is from the male lead, Junichirō Izumida 泉田準一郎. His first opening line is always I’m Junichirō Izumida, 33 years old, I’m Ryōko Yakushiji’s assistant. His role is much like Kyon with Haruhi. The show doesn’t develop a real romance between the two however, unlike Haruhi. Ryoko, the main character, is depicted as a sexy, energetic, self-centered, smart woman who has a crush on Junichiro (but is toying around him).

 

About the DVDs, 13 episodes on four DVDs with some extra features such as character design, scene design, next episode narration stuff.

The show is generally decently animated, but action sequences are almost always cut short. The first seven or so episodes especially demonstrate this shortage.

The characters, especially women are well drawn.

Yukiko Muromachi 室町由紀子, a rival of Ryoko, her seiyuu is Houko Kuwashima, which is one of the reasons why I’m watching the show initially… But it proves that the show really don’t need much of this role…

The show also has some French element, the two maids only speak French (must be awkward since the casts are Japanese).

 

戦場のヴァルキュリア Valkyria Chronicles anime is totally disappointing

OK, so the adaptation of the fan praised PS3 exclusive strategy game - 戦場のヴァルキュリア Valkyria Chronicles ended last week, finally. The anime version totally sucks IMO. I’m not sure why I watched it every week though… I usually don’t follow new animes, but this is the rare occasion I followed it every week… Guess I’m just bored… The plot is so weak for this series, I can’t believe it lasts 26 episodes. The ending also feels rushed, for the 20 or episodes, it didn’t do a lot on the plot that much. The game story in comparison is much much better, although it’s really not that great either.