7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
60 years ago, a young woman was left to die in the abandoned school building behind the exclusive Seikyou Academy. No one knows why. No one knows how. But the horrifying tale and the legends of the ghostly haunting that followed live on to this day. Perhaps it�s not so surprising then, that among Seikyou�s many school clubs is one for students interested in �paranormal investigations.� What might raise more than a few hairs, however, is that the founder of the club is the ghost herself. Unable to remember how she died and trapped in the grey land between life and death, Yuko latches onto Teiichi Niiya, a freshman who can inexplicably see her.
Starring: Tsubasa Yonaga, Yumi Hara, Misato Fukuen, Eri Kitamura, Hiroyuki KishiAnime | 100% |
Foreign | 94% |
Comic book | 20% |
Supernatural | 12% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Four-disc set (2 BDs, 2 CDs)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Friends and acquaintances who know I work for Blu-ray.com often express envy for a job which entails sitting around watching movies all day—that is, until they see the huge stack of product I have assigned to me (something shared by all the reviewers at the site). At this point, their response is almost always, “Oh, good lord! You have to watch all of that?” (And then they realize, watching is only half the game—we then have to sit down and write hopefully cogently about what we’ve seen.) Because of the huge amounts of product I have to shuffle through on any given day, it’s rare for me to actually watch something for pure pleasure, another aspect to this line of work that friends sometimes don't realize is often part of the job. This situation has been exacerbated recently by a number of labels releasing a lot of product more or less simultaneously and unfortunately not getting review product to me much before street date (if in fact before street date at all). But because of these delays (which frankly only cause more stress since I then have a ton of titles to get through as quickly as possible in order for our coverage to be as timely as possible), I actually had a day when I didn’t have any review copies to watch, and for whatever reason settled down to view the recent Blu-ray release of the 2011 ghost thriller The Awakening. This fitfully entertaining film tried a bit too hard to achieve a shattering twist a la The Sixth Sense or perhaps more appropriately The Others, but it had the relatively unusual aspect of featuring a leading female character whose raison d’être was debunking charlatans who were foisting so-called Spiritualism (divining ghosts through séances and the like) off on unsuspecting innocents who were desperate to contact deceased love ones. Without posting any major spoilers about the film, the heroine turns out to have a few secrets in her past, some of which she may not even have any memory of. There’s something at least slightly similar going on in Dusk Maiden of Amnesia, an anime that might have been more effective had it concentrated more on the spooky element of paranormal activity and less on the goofy exploits of some of its characters.
Dusk Maiden of Amnesia is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is by and large a very nice looking high definition presentation, one that glories in tones of orange, black and amber (a subliminal tip of the hat to Hallowe'en, perhaps?). The series also tends to exploit different animation styles, with some cutaways to some distinctive versions of the main characters (see the fifth screenshot for one good example). While line detail is quite crisp, and colors are essentially well rendered and nicely robust, this transfer has a few minor issues, including fairly prevalent banding (especially noticeable in fade outs), as well as some passing stability issues that resemble motion judder (keep your eyes on Teiichi and Yuko in the first episode when they're by Yuko's supposed grave and the camera pans up—it's like the characters are doing a jitterbug all of a sudden). These are relatively minor issues, however, and do not detract from what is otherwise a very pleasing high definition experience.
Dusk Maiden of Amnesia features lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mixes in both English and Japanese (for the record, I received a message from a member asking about a reported 5.1 mix, but there is no surround mix on these Blu- rays, unless it's really well hidden). Fidelity is excellent, with voice work in both languages coming through loudly and clearly. The series' interesting score (which is also provided via two soundtrack CDs in this deluxe set) also sounds great.
2012
2007
2008
2011
2007-2008
13 Episodes & 4 OVAs
2012
2008-2009
さくら荘のペットな彼女 / Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo
2012-2013
2010
2011-2012
Essentials
2011-2012
ソウルイーター
2008-2009
Classics / Stray God / ノラガミ
2014
2012
S.A.V.E.
2010-2011
Season 3
2012
2010-2011
Combo Pack
2010
ノーゲーム・ノーライフ / Nōgēmu Nōraifu
2014
Essentials / 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱
2006-2009