DVD Title
 Early Reins
International Title
 Early Reins
Movie Length: 44 minutes Original Length: 44 minutes
Company: Anime Works Release: 2004
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Anamorphic: No
Region: 1Discs: 1
  
Language/Sound: Order
Japanese (2.0 Stereo), English (2.0 Stereo)
Subtitles:
English
Extras
· Menus (English)
· Chapters (10)
· Trailers: Knight Hunters, Seven of Seven, Gun Frontier, Ex-Driver
· Making Of (7 minutes)
· Textless Opening (1 minute)
· Textless Closing (3 minutes)
Captures
Review
Anthony Romero

Anime Works, a division of Media Blasters who is likely best known for their Tokyo Shock division, presents a pretty high standard release of the short OAV (Original Anime Video) feature Early Reins. The DVD is pretty commendable across the board, with good video and audio quality that is complemented with a few extras.


 Video:

The video presentation found on this disc is pretty solid. There is no noticeable print damage, while the image looks sharp without overt signs of compression. The colors on this release are also very vibrant, although there are minors signs of over saturation in clouds and other things that was the result of achieving this richer tone in color levels.

Early Reins is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1, or full screen as the made-for-video production was originally intended to be viewed.


 Audio:

There are two audio tracks found on the DVD, both of which are presented in two channel stereo. The first is the original Japanese track, presented flawlessly with good speaker distinction for a stereo track. The second is an English dubbed version of the movie, which is also devoid of inconsistencies and does a decent job in terms of the quality of the dubbing.

The audio can be accompanied with, removable, English subtitles that can correspond with either the Japanese or dubbed track.


 Extras:

The disc is light on extras, but does feature a wider selection than most Toho DVDs get in the States. The biggest draw on this DVD is the Making Of feature. At seven minutes, this is rather short, and spends most of its time detailing the process of creating the CGI train, although does devote some time to creating the backgrounds seen in the movie toward the end of the feature.

The other extras are textless versions of the movie's opening and closing. These aren't too special, but still aren't bad to have since Anime Works added their own English titles to the scenes in the movie and this gives something for purists to mill over.


 Overview: Star Rating

Bottom line, this is a great way to view the short OAV feature for those interested, and can be acquired at a fairly decent price these days.