ADV's "companion" DVD for their release of Hypnosis (1999), unfortunately, this disc is pretty sub par, as it hosts pretty mediocre video and audio presentations. As for the extras: bare bones, as not even the film's original trailer is present.

Pretty typical video presentation from ADV here. As usual, the film's original aspect ratio, in this case 1.85:1, is preserved, and it's Anamorphic for widescreen TVs. However, the actual appearance of the video leaves some to be desired. The colors, for example, are far from vibrant, although the reds, greens and blues are still distinct. The slight yellow discoloring isn't helping this aspect though. As for the brightness level, it's fairly hard to gauge here. I would say it's set too high, but most of the film is so dark that this was likely done to compensate for this and make the entire movie visible through out.

Unfortunately, the disc's true fault is to be found in the extreme levels of compression. The entire movie shows signs of pixilation from artifacting, but the real fallacy lays in the edge enhancement, as the film looks very blurred, and lacks a sharp definition to it. What makes the obvious compression even more disheartening, though, is that the shape of the print used for the transfer appears to be superb. I say appears to be as it's hard to gauge the amount of grain present due to the artifacting and edge enhancement which mask this aspect. This isn't to say it's perfect, as there are minor scratches present, but overall the shape of the print looks to have been well maintained.

The disc's strong point, although it still hosts a great deal of room for improvement. The audio track found on the disc is the original 2.0 stereo presentation of the film in Japanese. The quality of the track is good, as it features no pops or crackles, while the dialogue is all audible. As for the speaker distinction, it's acceptable, although there isn't a whole lot of parts in the movie to really stress this aspect.

The audio track is accompanied by English subtitles, which, unfortunately, have been burned onto the video presentation and can't be removed. Furthermore, because of the edge enhancement and artifacting present on the video, they appear slightly blurred. This isn't to say that they are hard to read, but it does makes the experience less enjoyable.

ADV's at it again, with another slap dash release that is severally lacking in the extra department. However, after the company's Destroy All Monsters DVD, I suppose one should just be grateful that this disc comes with menus and chapters. Anyway, the only supplemental content to be found here are two of ADV's self made trailers for Parasite Eve and their release of The Hypnotist. The Parasite Eve trailer can be accessed from the menu, while the The Hypnotist can only be viewed when the disc is first inserted into a player, and has to be skipped, or watched, to get to the DVD's main menu. As for what to expect from ADV's previews, the Parasite Eve one has been pretty poorly compressed with obvious signs of artifacting and edge enhancement, while The Hypnotist preview looks horrible as ADV choose to alter a 1:85.1 print by stretching it to a full screen ratio, making the entire trailer look obnoxiously off as seen here.

Bottom line, it's an early effort from ADV that's lacking in a number of areas, but it's an adequate way to watch the film. Honestly, though, ADV's VHS release is likely a better choice, as it doesn't boast the obvious signs of compression that this disc does.