ADDITION: Animeigo - Region 'A' - Blu-ray (September 2012): So, 6 films spread over 2 Blu-ray discs. The bitrate is only about 3 times that of SD. It is hard to deny the improvement but the image is severely digitized looking overly glossy with some less-noticeable banding. It looks like HDV with some of the same contrast weaknesses, BUT - it is so significantly improved over the flat, hazy, cropped and picture-boxed ArtsMagic and the boosted Eureka. So, despite the waxy-glossiness it is still an enjoyable presentation for the less image-discerning. I really enjoyed it without getting overly picky.

The audio is lossless via 2.0 channel linear PCM tracks. The effects benefit from the lossless transfer sounding quite crisp and sharp. Swords hack with a definite punch and although there is no surround separation - it does have aggressive depth. Animeigo are very thorough with subtitles and they are in both yellow and green for alt-characters reasonably matching the ArtsMagic translation.

No extras save the digital program notes as a menu option for each film that flash through pages every 45 seconds. There is no booklet.

Absolute classic of the genre and great to have in 1080P despite the imperfect transfer. I think fans will appreciate the improved appearance and audio.  

 - Gary Tooze  

ADDITION: Eureka - Region 2 - NTSC - December 09: Eureka took reigns from Artsmagic which released all 6 films in UK first in 2005 and then restored version in 2008 HERE and used excellent Toho restorations for this 7-disc boxset. Unfortunately, we could not compare to the second edition or to Animeigo US releases, but compared to Artsmagic's first release the improvement can be seen easily. Each progressive all-region disc use NTSC masters from Japan, so there is no PAL/NTSC conversion issues. White font subtitles with black borders are easy to read and placed over the image (see examples below). The bonus 7th disc presents a 1980 US re-edit and re-dub of the second film (plus a few scenes from the first) called Shogun Assassin. Most English-language speakers learned about the series from this version and it's been restored as well. Notice that in the second comparison from Shogun Assassin, the damage spot from is missing in the original. Each disc has an original trailer which are also on the 7th disc. Each disc is packed in a slimcase Eclipse Series style. Reversible artwork has a one-page essay about each film by Tom Mes on one side and reproduction of original posters on the other.

 - Gregory Meshman

***

ON THE ARTS MAGIC: DVD 5 editions, the image appears to be a port from video. Its presented in 1.78:1 anamorphically, with the cropped 2.22:1 Aspect Ratio top aligned, not centre as normally, with space for the fixed subtitles below the image.

The image has serious problems. First the ghosting is very intrusive. Even normal movement causes ghosting and fast movement causes invisibility of objects. Secondly, the image is very soft and has a tendency to blur. Third, it has at time very visible edge enhancement, even visible on small screens. Forth, it has serious problems with light. Bright scenes tend to “white” out, night scenes tend to “black” out. Fifth, it lacks sharpness in detail, images away, especially in long shots show almost no characteristics. Six, colors are faded.

Also the sound has problems. Being the 2.0 Dolby Digital mono, the sound seems to have been subdued, possible by noise reduction. While dialogue is clear, subtle sounds are barely audible.

ArtsMagic should simply take this release back. Even as this is the first time these films are released completely uncut in the UK, a very bad cropped image does not do these films any justice.

Henrik Sylow