Extras |
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Captures |
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Review |
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Anthony Romero |
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AnimEigo is certainly no stranger to Toho's
vault of film properties, or the Japanese swordplay
genre in general, although sadly the company's
glory days seem to be growing ever further behind
them. This particular release continues that trend.
To be fair, I wouldn't call it bad, but there
are some noticeable things that do go astray here,
leading to a fairly mediocre disc across video,
audio and supplemental presentations. |
Video: | |
Not a bad video presentation from AnimEigo,
but one with some apparent flaws none the less.
One thing that surprised me, though, was the level
of artifacting present, particularly noticeable
during the scenes with heavy black in the background
where the pixilation is most apparent, as it's
not something I associate with the company. The
noise levels also could have been handled
a little better, showing noticeable grain through
out. Sadly colors aren't as distinct as they could have been either.
The film also lacks the sharp array of detail
seen some of the company's other offerings, which
might be on account of the compression, although
it's still nothing to scoff at and is one of the
better aspects of this release. Speaking of, at least the shape of the print used is in great condition, with no scratches to speak of.
Shadow Hunters is presented in its original
aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and is Anamorphic for
widescreen TVs. |
Audio: | |
AnimEigo was never highly renowned for their
audio presentations, but this one falls noticeably
short. Not so much that it really ruins the experience,
but to the point where even the most casual viewer
will begin to notice the discrepancies from this
mono presentation. Suffice to say, it seems that
AnimEigo did not have the best source material
for the audio from this film, as the presentation
here sounds notably harsh, particularly the musical
score, while a lot of the dialogue sounds more
muddled than it should.
The audio can be accompanied by, removable, English
subtitles. Like other discs from the firm, the
subtitles are color coded so it's easy to tell
when multiple characters are speaking during the
same scene. |
Extras: | |
The disc comes with the standard fare in terms
of supplemental content from AnimEigo, which means
another "ho-hum" selection. Like all
of their releases, the company's trademark program
notes are included, along with a selection of
trailers for other movies from them. This particular
disc also has an image
gallery, which is a short video that runs
through various promotional stills from the production
that are found here in black and white. |
Overview: | |
Bottom line, not a bad release if one just
wants to see the film, but the company has certainly
done better. I do miss the days when AnimEigo
was renowned for having some of the better video
presentations around, as their current offerings
are getting harder and harder to merit for their
above average prices. |
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