DVD: Kimagure Orange Road: TV Series Volume 5 (AnimEigo)

Order

Kimagure Orange Road: TV Series Volume 5


English DVD Title (Region 1)

Kimagure Orange Road: TV Series Volume 5 - Episodes 17-20

Sound:

Japanese (2.0 Stereo)

Subtitles:
Length:
Release:
Company
:
Discs:
Aspect Ratio:

English
100 minutes
2003
AnimEigo
1
1.33:1

Movie:

Kimagure Orange Road

DVD

Extras

  • Menus (English)
  • Chapters (4)
  • Extended Credits (English)

Captures


Review

By: Anthony Romero

Disc 5 of 12 for the Kimagure Orange Road TV series, which was released on DVD by AnimEigo. Volume 15 for this 1987 show features episodes 17 through 20. As to be expected, the quality on this release remains around the same level as the prior one, with minimal signs of improvement. The video track remains the low point, possibly only "out done" by the virtual lack of extra content, which both betray an actually decent audio presentation on this release.


 Video: Star Rating


The video presentation is lackluster here, but still a bit better than the first three DVDs. In contrast to volume four, one thing it does fix is the intro. This correctly appears before episodes 17, 18 and 19 as a separate video track. Episode 20 is an exception, which starts very abruptly, but this is because the format changes where their is a short segment before the intro and then the episode title card. Despite the change in structure, the new intro is still an isolated video track and the episode will switch back and forth between sources to make this work.

In terms of the color, this release sheds the color tint that plagued earlier volumes. However, the colors remain pretty muted, especially on the first three episodes on this set. Brightness in general is pretty low on these episodes too, but then shifts dramatically to be slightly too bright on episode 20. On the plus side the blacks continue to be a bit deeper here compared to volumes 1-3.

As for source damage, all four episodes have moments of the frame being unstable. Episode 17 is particularly bad, though, as it has a mildly unstable frame that lasts for the whole episode's duration. Across the episodes there are also moments where there is some transition damage, most often at the top of the frame. Episode 18 also has faint source damage on the far right side, in the form of a slight yellow tint here.

As for the compression, all four episodes show overt signs of artifacting. The worst offense, though, is episode 19 which feels even more compressed than usual. This causes smearing and even more pixilation than normal. Not sure if this was because there was more noise on this particular episode, i.e. grain on the source, and their compression technique went into overdrive or they just decided to compress this episode more. There is also stronger signs of edge enhancement being applied, which makes me feel like AnimEigo tried to course correct from having a really subpar source for 19.

Kimagure Orange Road is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

 

 Audio: Star Rating


AnimEigo continues to be consistent on the audio quality. Like the prior volumes, every episode offers a single Japanese audio track that is a two channel stereo presentation. The clarity on this audio track is good, while there aren't any notable discrepancies to be heard. There isn't anything fancy about the presentation here, with weak speaker distinction for example, but this can be chalked up more to the source than AnimEigo's handling of the release.

The audio on the DVD's episodes can be accompanied by removable English subtitles. These are available in two options: limited translations or all speech and text will be translated.

 

 Extras: Star Rating


While no extra content was a hallmark of a lot of early DVDs, this is a 2003 release. While TV shows often didn't have much for extras, it's not abnormal to see this one be bare bones. That said, due to the lacking video quality, it would have been nice to at least have something special about these releases. Alas, though, instead one finds a DVD with just a cheap looking menu that allows navigation to four episodes, no additional selectable chapter breaks, and some extended credits. Those extended credits take the show's ending and overlay English subtitles of the show's staff on the entire screen.

 

 Overview: Star Rating


Bottom line, I expect this level of quality to continue, even though we aren't quite at the halfway marker yet for this DVD series. While the video quality could be said to be improving, it's marginal and inconsistent. Suffice to say, as with the prior four volumes, this disc remains an option to see the show in the United States for fans who elect for DVD. For others, though, I'd recommend going with the Blu-ray set.