One of AnimEigo's many Toho releases, this disc contains another movie produced by Mifune Productions that happens to walk a fine line between comedy and action piece. The film aside, this DVD is sadly nothing special. The video track is fairly lacking, while the audio is good considering the source but not enough so to compensate for a rather meager showing in the extra department.

Sadly, the video track found on this release is pretty sub-standard. On the plus side, the print used in the transfer appears to be in good shape in respects to print damage, as things such as scratches are hardly to be seen; however, it suffers a lot in the color department. To be frank, there is a lot of color distortion through out, with many scenes appearing too yellow and red in their hue, although some are faded other colors as well. The range also looks washed out, which distorts details as well, most noticeably on the famous "red lion" headdress.

Red Lion is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is Anamorphic for widescreen TVs.

The disc contains one audio track, which is a 2.0 mono presentation that is a faithful recreation of the source material. There generally aren't any inconsistencies to be found here, as the entire track runs without any pops or crackles while the dialogue is very clear. As always, more options, like an added stereo track, would have been nice, but what is included is adequate enough.

As with other AnimEigo titles, the audio track is accompanied by, removable, English subtitles which are color coded to show when more than one character is talking. There is also a second set of subtitles that can be turned on to provide definitions for certain words related to Japanese culture.

Well there is a decent amount of supplemental content, but nothing too interesting. The image gallery is at least nice to look over, as it does contain some pretty nice production stills from the movie. The DVD also runs the gamut in terms of text extras, including several pages of notes on the time period, which is a standard feature on most AnimEigo releases, and character biographies. Finally, the disc also has trailers for other Toho movies available from the firm, including: Demon Spies, Shadow Hunters, Samurai Banners, and Samurai Assassin.

Bottom line, it's a typical release from AnimEigo. They used to be known for having great video presentations, but those days are long past now and this over priced release, at least for the presentation, is what remains. However, it's still the one way to see the movie on region 1, meaning Mifune fans are left with little other alterative if they want to view the production.