Onto volume eight for the Kimagure Orange Road television series. This DVD from AnimEigo features episodes 29 through 32. The quality here is similar to the prior volume... but not quite as good. This is largely due to some source damage on the video track. The audio still remains a positive element, though, while the extras are pretty much vacant.
| Video: |
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Well... at least the quality on the video tracks are better than the earlier volumes. Unfortunately they aren't trending upward in contrast to volume 7 from this set. On the plus side, the colors here are all pretty accurate, but are a far cry from being vibrant all the same. Sadly, the big issue here is source damage. Episodes 29 and 30 both suffer from an unstable frame, one that starts with the beginning of their respective episodes and never really stops. Outside of this, there is some transition damage, in particular on episode 31. The image is also soft on 29, along with some issues on 31 and 32 into terms of the sharpness of the image on scenes with a lot of detail in the frame. For episode 29, it's probably source damage. For the latter two episodes, gonna guess it's more to do with the level of compression.
Kimagure Orange Road is presented in its original
aspect ratio of 1.33:1.
| Audio: |
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As with the earlier DVDs for this series, the audio remains the best aspect. The four episodes here each offer a stereo Japanese track for their audio. The two channel presentation doesn't make much use of the directionality, but that's not AnimEigo's fault but rather just how the show was recorded. The nice aspect is that the clarity in the audio is quite good, both on the dialogue and sound effects.
The audio on this DVD can be accompanied by removable English subtitles. Two options are available: limited translations or all speech and text will be translated.
| Extras: |
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I'll admit, after eight discs it's getting hard to say basically the same thing. To sum it up, though, AnimEigo skimped on extras here, having only the show's credits with expanded subtitles for the cast and crew as a supplement. Beyond that, there is just a very, very, very ugly menu which is a hallmark of these releases.
| Overview: |
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Bottom
line, things are still improved versus the earlier volumes. It would have been great if this was a low point instead, though, rather than probably the "second best" disc on this show from AnimEigo so far. If the frame was stable on episodes 29 and 30 it would be a much better experience here. Regardless, this disc still offers English fans a way to watch the show on DVD for those looking for it.
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