It's amazing to see how low AnimEigo has sunk with Zatoichi At Large. Often credited as having some of the best video transfers for Toho titles when they first started out, Zatoichi At Large's video presentation is, sadly, anything but good. The company's trademark vibrant array of colors are mostly gone from this release, replaced by more monotone shades, with only a few exceptions like the early festival scenes. The colors themselves are also discolored, as the entire film appears to have a faint purple and brown tint to it. The video presentation's true fault, though, and what ruins the DVD as a whole, is the brightness level. It's set so low on this release that many scenes, such as the climax, are rendered entirely un-watchable. It's a fatal error, and one which pretty much overshadows the positive aspects of this DVD. The negatives don't stop there, either, as the disc is plagued by some digital inconsistencies. It's nothing severe, certainly incomparable to what was seen in the early Simitar days, but all the same, the film does appear notably blurred while there are minor signs of pixilation. The video presentation isn't entirely a lost cause, though, as the condition of the print here is actually fantastic. In terms of noise, grain appears to be greatly reduced as well.

As with all of AnimEigo's releases, Zatoichi At Large is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, or widescreen, and is Anamorphic for widescreen TVs.

Zatoichi At Large's audio presentation, which is the original Japanese audio track, is about on par with AnimEigo's other titles. This means that there is nothing inherently wrong with it, unless one is expecting a great stereo experience. Even though the disc boasts about having a stereo presentation, the actual film sounds like it's accompanied by a mono track, with hardly any speaker distinction to be heard at all. Under normal circumstances, a title might get some flack for this, but the original audio presentation of Zatoichi At Large was mono to begin with, so there isn't a whole lot to gripe about. The actual audio track sounds good too, with no pops or any other problems to be heard during the course of the film.

The audio track here is accompanied by English subtitles, which can be toggled on or off. Like other AnimEigo releases, the subtitles are color coded so it's easy to tell when more than one character is speaking during a particular scene. The subtitles are available in two types: a general one, and one that provides definitions for words which apply to Japanese customs.

Bottom line, AnimEigo's release here does an acceptable job in the audio and extra department, but the video presentation here is just so poor that it's hard to suggest the title to anyone unless found at a bargain price, or if one wants the entire series on DVD.

This disc is also featured in the box set: Zatoichi The Blind Swordsman: DVD Collector's Edition Box.