Dramatical Murder: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Dramatical Murder: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 19, 2015

For those of you who may not be up on the very latest and greatest news from the pop culture front, it is my distinct pleasure to announce that we may all soon be privy to new, improved cries (plaintive or otherwise) of, “The plane! The plane!” That’s right, folks, the iconic (?) series Fantasy Island is potentially headed back to the airwaves, though it’s notable that this time whoever is emitting that classic announcement will evidently be addressing Ms. Roarke, as the new version is reportedly going to feature a female lead, instead of someone stepping into the same gender shoes as Ricardo Montalban. The new version is evidently going to finagle with the original’s premise, eschewing the actual “island” part of the title in favor of a high tech firm that arranges fantasies for its clients, whether they be landlocked or not (so to speak). There’s an actual fantasy island of a different sort at play in Dramatical Murder, though it’s notable that even here a high tech firm is in control of both the island and the fantasy. Based on visual novel in the so-called “boys’ love” or “yaio” idiom (meaning there’s at least some passing homosexual content), Dramatical Murder concerns a kid named Aoba Seragaki who lives on an island called Midorijima. The island is home to a conglomerate called the Toue Konzern, run by Tatsuo Toue, a villain who has turned the once idyllic place into a resort called Platinum Jail. The creation of Platinum Jail has resulted in a number of displaced peoples, who now are forced to live in the hardscrabble Old Residential District. The island is perhaps even more “crowded” due to the fact it’s where a virtual reality game called Rhyme is played. Aoba takes a point of pride in not playing Rhyme, nor in joining any of the island’s “teams”, some of whom are involved in gangster like activity. That makes it especially strange for Aoba (along with his sidekick, about whom more information will be detailed in a moment) when he more or less stumbles into a Rhyme game and is almost instantly recognized as an expert combatant.

There’s a “haves” and “have nots” sensibility that’s hinted at almost subliminally in some of the establishing shots that get Dramatical Murder underway, as an overview of the island clearly shows a luxe and gleaming metropolis sequestered from the everyday rabble courtesy of a large containing dome. It brings to mind views of the contrast between, say, downtown Rio de Janeiro and the teeming favelas the cover the hills surrounding the city almost like a horde of invading insects. Aoba is part of that unprivileged multitude making do in the Old Residential District, where he works at a second hand store rather whimsically named Junk Shop Mediocrity. There, Aoba is surrounded by the detritus of a technological age—old monitors, CPUs and other electronic gadgetry is stacked to the ceiling, awaiting the call of a prospective customer who might be willing to actually pay for such material. Aoba is at least kept company by that aforementioned sidekick, a little pet of sorts named Ren, a creature which looks like a dog but which is in actuality kind of an artificially intelligent “smart pet”, able to access the internet and to provide Aoba help in making deliveries from the junk shop. As with several anime that deal at least in part with virtual realities and online gaming, Ren can assume a different form when he’s within the confines of the Rhyme game. Many of the characters in Dramatical Murder sport a similar A.I. pet, called an Allmate.

Several of the first episodes in Dramatical Murder serve a kind of dual purpose, introducing a number of supporting characters while at the same time starting to explore the mystery of who exactly Aoba is and why more and more people claim he’s a “master” at playing Rhyme. Though it’s perhaps too chaotically presented to fully resonate, Aoba turns out to (of course) have a bit of a history and furthermore may be suffering from something akin to a split personality, with his “darker half” being a pretty intense and ruthless Rhyme aficionado. However, this plot point is woven into an overall gambit that involves Aoba's kind of psychokinetic abilities where he's able to control various aspects of his life (including other people), and there's a certain ambiguity about whether it's Aoba or one of the alter egos that may be experiencing some of the game related phenomena.

There’s a perhaps unavoidable disconnect between some of the anime’s plot mechanics and its dating sim progenitor. If the “goal” of the original game was simply to hook up with this or that character, the anime, while occasionally (perhaps less than some yaio fans might want) offering a bit of boy on boy action, is instead more interested in setting Aoba on a different kind of quest than a merely romantic one. Unfortunately, the series tends to fray some of its energy in this regard by offering undue time to a number of supporting characters. In fact several later episodes are built largely around these supporting characters, as if the anime adaptors wanted to give some of the flavor of the original game by presenting a kind of analog to the game’s various “paths” for different characters.

Dramatical Murder actually ended up causing a brouhaha completely removed from any perceived objectionable content vis a vis the “boys’ love” angle when one of the episodes which aired during the series’ original broadcast exhibition turned out to be a workprint of sorts, with ungainly character designs and other errors. The fact that this particular aspect raised more umbrage than any gay content is perhaps indicative of a society moving toward some semblance of tolerance, though it also tends to point up the fact that Dramatical Murder for all its bells and whistles tends to often play in a kind of “old hat” style that is visually quite sumptuous but a bit tired in the story department.

Dramatical Murder: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Dramatical Murder is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is a really gorgeous looking anime a lot of the time, one suffused with richly varied colors, but which really exploits a lot of hues in the blue to purple range quite evocatively. Line detail is sharp and well defined, and the character designs are very distinctive and precise looking. There are occasional near graphical elements employed, as in one brief sequence that relates to a player coming back from a Rhyme game with his mind apparently hacked (see screenshot 5), and some brief establishing shots tend to look almost like watercolors at times (see screenshot 16).

Dramatical Murder: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Dramatical Murder features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mixes in both Japanese and English. The tracks sound largely if not absolutely identical in overall mix and effects, save for the obvious difference of the voice work. Both of these tracks offer excellent fidelity and rather wide dynamic range, though audiophiles probably will be a bit disappointed that some of the action sequences (mostly within the Rhyme environment) don't offer true immersion or overpowering LFE.

Dramatical Murder: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Clean Opening Animation (1080p; 1:32)


• Clean Closing Animations (1080p; 7:39)

All of the supplements (and trailers for other Sentai Filmworks releases) are found on Disc 2 of this two disc set.

Dramatical Murder: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's a certain irony inherent in Dramatical Murder's genesis as a yaio title, for those coming to the anime from the game will probably wonder where all the "boys' love" went, while those who come to the anime without any inkling of the property's history will probably wonder where the occasional "boys' love" content is coming from, since it often just seems to erupt out of nowhere, pretty much returning there after some brief on screen portrayals. All of this would be neither here nor there if the main storyline of the anime were a bit more involving, but there is an obvious glut of shows that deal with people dealing with a virtual reality or online gaming situation, and Dramatical Murder never quite finds its own distinct identity within this emerging subgenre. Still, the show is visually incredibly sumptuous and it looks great in this Blu-ray edition. With caveats noted, Dramatical Murder comes Recommended.