Nine DVDs in on AnimEigo's release of the Kimagure Orange Road television series. This particular volume contains episodes 33 through 36. On the plus side, this is one of the better DVDs so far in the series. On the down side, that still means a lacking video presentation combined with a good audio presentation, while having virtually no extras.
| Video: |
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These DVDs continue to be lacking on the video presentation, although at least not as bad as the earliest volumes. Oddly, although this disc features four episodes, the quality of episodes 33 and 34 are very similar and in the same vein the quality of episodes 35 and 36 is quite similar. It gives the sense that different teams, or at least individuals, might have been tasked with certain episodes.
Anyway, starting with episodes 33 and 34 both of these have a teal tint to the colors. Of the two, episode 33's tint is more overt. Both of these episodes also show signs of heavy compression, with smeared reds and notable artifacting during scenes with a lot of movement, such as hiking segments in episode 33. On the plus side the black levels are good here while source damage seems pretty minor.
Moving on to episodes 35 and 36, the color tint is mostly gone. In addition, these episodes don't appear as compressed as the earlier two. However, the brightness level has been bumped up way high on these two. Despite that high brightness, though, the black levels still appear deep here. Sadly, there is some source damage apparent on episode 36, which has pretty minor but consistent frame damage on the very right edge across the entire picture.
Kimagure Orange Road is presented in its original
aspect ratio of 1.33:1.
| Audio: |
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Continuing the trend from the prior volumes, the audio presentation is the best part of this DVD. Each of the four episodes here has a stereo track for the original Japanese audio. While there isn't much directionality present in these two channel stereo tracks, that's more on account of how the episodes were created rather than directly attributable to AnimEigo. As with earlier volumes, the clarity in the dialogue and sound effects is pretty good here.
The audio tracks can be accompanied by removable English subtitles. Two options are present: limited translations or all speech and text will be translated.
| Extras: |
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Barely anything to say here, as the disc features the same ugly, ugly menu design as the earlier volumes. As for the real bonus material, it's just a version of the credits that has captions across the whole screen to list out everyone involved in the show.
| Overview: |
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Bottom
line, this and volume 7 are probably the best so far for the DVDs on this 1987 show. That said, the quality here is still quite lacking. Fans of the program would be better suited seeking out the restored Blu-ray. For those who prefer DVD, though, this still remains the primary way for English speaking fans to enjoy the television show.
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