ADV Films never had the best quality control for their titles. They had a few well done releases, but by in large a lot of their catalogue was rather sub par in the effort put into the creation of the DVD. This 2004 release of Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis is a perfect example of the company simply putting in the minimal amount of effort required. Truthfully, the quality here is so poor it might as well have been the original VHS copy one is buying, and things like the lack of a anamorphic video track back up that ADV Films phoned this release in from whatever source they probably used for their earlier release in 1998 on video cassette. To the point, this DVD features a very poor video presentation, the adequate audio track mixed with almost no extras to speak of do little to elevate the overall worth of this release.

The video presentation here leaves a lot to be desired. The most apparent setback is the very noticeable artifacting, as the entire movie appears very blurry. The colors, outside of a very few select scenes, are also pretty lackluster, not at all vibrant as they could be. The print used in the transfer is in okay shape as it does contain few scratches. Noise level is an issue, though, as the movie has a very thick layer of grain through out and has an almost "textured paper" like quality to it. Should also be noted that ADV "hacked" up the film's introduction pretty good for their western audience. If one thought the black boxes placed conveniently over the Japanese with English green text placed inside of them for ADV's presentation of Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995) was shameless, wait till they see the opening work for Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis. For this intro, ADV simply cuts to a black screen with English text on it every time Japanese text would have appeared in the introduction, or it simply uses a scene freeze framed with English text placed over it; the ending result is pretty horrendous and adds a very low budget quality to the production. Thankfully, the credit sequence here is left alone, and ADV instead added a English credit sequence after the Japanese one finishes, adding four minutes to the running time as ADV does a very thorough job of detailing the entire cast of the production in English.

Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Sadly, the print is not Anamorphic which is shocking for a DVD released in 2004.

In heavy contrast, the audio presentation is easily the disc's strongest point, although still not something to give high marks about. There is one audio track found on this release, which is a two channel stereo presentation of the original Japanese audio. In terms of the shape of the source, there are no pops in the audio track, but the the stereo presentation isn't quite as rich as it could be. The one audio discrepancy which should be pointed out, though, occurs during the long music cue that plays during the credits. For the most part, the ending theme sounds spot on, until the credits near their closing point, which is when the audio track sounds slightly scratchy as the orchestra music increases in volume.

The audio can be accompanied with, removable, English subtitles. Unfortunately, Japanese text which appears in the film is not translated for the viewer.

The extras found on this disc are stock in terms of an ADV release, as the only supplement is a collection of six trailers. However, these are ones ADV created to promote these titles, not the original Japanese trailers.

Now something else that should be noted is that the disc only has eight chapter breaks, with two of the chapters leading to different parts in the four minute introduction. What this results in is chapters that are 20-35 minutes apart from each other, which almost defeats the purpose. Oh, and the menus are also extremely generic looking, as is likely overly apparent from the screen captures above. The bright blue menus, besides being dull, are also very out of place when combined with a more gothic film like Tokyo: the Last Megalopolis.

Bottom line, if one doesn't have a large interest in the rather twisted nature of the "Megalopolis films" then they would probably be better off skipping this release of Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis. As a side note, this title was revisited by the company in 2009, given a new release with a new cover. If this DVD is any different or not is unknown, although it is likely the same given that the company repackaged Gunhed (1989) on DVD using the same exact disc a couple months before. The 2009 re-release of Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis is pretty rare today, however. ADV Films went out of business later the same year it was released, and it's possible this resulted in a very limited run. Regardless of reason, this earlier 2004 disc tends to be the one most will be familiar with from the firm.