Released simultaneously with the Appleseed: Limited Collector's Edition, the single disc version is an excellent DVD in its own right. In fact, it's simply the first disc from the outstanding "Collector's set," but is sold for $5-10 less than its limited counterpart. Not surprisingly, this release fares very well all around, with a flawless video presentation, superb audio quality, and a good selection of supplemental material.

An outstanding job across the board here, and proof that Geneon is more than up to task when required. In fact, not only does this release make use of the DVD format, allowing for a lustrous array of colors not possible on VHS, but it also manages to ward off setbacks of the format as there are no digital inconsistencies, including edge enhancement, to be noticed. The print used for the transfer, which is a "High Definition" master, is also superb with no scratches to be seen. Noise levels are also great here, as the movie looks very clean.

Appleseed is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is Anamorphic for widescreen TVs.

Following up their excellent video transfer, Geneon also packs this release with a great audio presentation. This disc features three tracks in total, all 5.1 surround, with two of them done in Dolby Digital (a Japanese track and the English dub), while the third is formatted for DTS sound systems. All in all, the tracks sound fantastic, with an excellent array of depth to the speaker distinction, while everything comes through crystal clear without any distortion.

The audio can be accompanied by, removable, English subtitles that correspond to the Japanese track.

This disc boasts a good selection of extras, although it expectedly pales compared to the two disc release. Still the best feature here is the excellent Director (Shinji Aramaki) and Producer (Fumihiko Sori) commentary, done in 2.0 stereo. Granted, there are a lot of gaps of silence, but the two often chime in with some good incite into troubles they had or why they wanted to take a particular scene in the direction they did.

The other extras include five music cues, which are primarily mini-chapters that lead to segments of the movie that feature songs, staff profiles, and some previews.

It should be noted that the packaging here is quite different from the two DVD set, as this is released in a standard Amaray snap case with the US poster art for a cover, while the Collector's Edition comes in a very light metallic case with the Japanese poster art for the cover.

Bottom line, if one is interested in the feature, it's really hard to go wrong with either this release or the more expensive limited edition run. Likewise, it's hard to suggest one over the other, especially since they have drifted into the area where they are only $5 apart online. Of course, if one hardly finds themselves bothering with extra content, then this DVD is clearly the better buy.