Girls Beyond the Wasteland: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Girls Beyond the Wasteland: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman July 3, 2017

Girls Beyond The Wasteland is another anime based on a visual novel video game, but what sets this one apart is that the story is about actually making a video game, not just the video game serving as a setting for another story. It sees six high schoolers join together to put a game to market in a crowded field and within a deeply saturated and established genre. Can they succeed? Can they work together to bring the game to life or will disagreements, inner demons, and self-doubt prevent them from finding success? While the game offered the player the opportunity to explore branching storylines and multiple endings based on a number of in-game choices, this anime offers only one outcome. Still, the result is a well-versed and enjoyable series that might overstay its welcome by a few episodes but that otherwise tells a competent, engaging story through the eyes of half a dozen likable characters.

The Game Makers.

Buntarō has long impressed his classmates with his ability to write moving scripts for the school's stage productions. Little does he know that destiny has a new creative outlet in store for him when he's approached by a shy classmate named Sayuki. She feels him out during a day on the town and decides that he's the perfect fit for her needs. She has long dreamed of producing her own video game, a "Bishoujo" or dating simulator, that can not only compete with the others like it on the market, but stand out and make a statement about her view of modern life. Buntarō, wooed by Sayuki's promises of fame and fortune, agrees to play his part, and he is tasked with putting together a team to work on the game. As the team takes shape and the game's ideas come into focus, the team is worked hard but comes together even under the pressures of deadline and competition. Soon, it becomes clear that, even with obstacles in their way, something special is happening both within the game and amongst its creators.

Girls Beyond The Wasteland balances a cheerful, straightforward story with some occasionally heady and detailed character depth that can shape the direction the game takes, put its future in jeopardy, or strain various relationships. The show is generally light in tone and agreeable, though it often turns to more intensive character moments to allow an expanding area of drama to balance it out. For example, Yuka, the game's voice actor, allows a history of negative reinforcement to threaten her position on the team. When a voice recording session runs into a few hiccups, she's determined to leave the group. Even as her performance was "good," her parents once dashed her dreams of acting because even though they complimented her work as being "good," she was told it was not "good enough." As a result, she's become a perfectionist, with anything less leaving her in a state of depression and incapable of pursuing any given challenge. It's moments like these that give the series depth beyond the various nuts-and-bolts stages of semiprofessional game development. Each character brings their own unique voice and vision to the game, and it's by those unique characteristics that, collectively, will see the game succeed or cause it to fail, either commercially or, worse, even before it's been completed and landed on store shelves.

Mostly, however, the series is about youthful vision and hope, about the individual and collective drive to make something from scratch and build something uniquely "them." Even as the game begins as one individual's vision, it becomes an amalgamation of various talents and visions. That's where the series makes its mark and draws its interest. Certainly the various episodes and sequences that follow the daily rigors of the game's creation -- assembling the team, laying out details, ironing out responsibilities, settling down into roles, getting outside entities involved (recording studios, publishers, marketers), and everything else leading up to release day -- give each episode a unique identity, but it's certainly in the collective group where the show hits its mark. They could be doing anything -- designing clothes, filming a TV show -- and the core wouldn't change much. The details are fun, but it's the characters that drive the show. They're all well rounded, agreeable, and the collective camaraderie is strong, both in their similarities and their differences alike. Further, voice acting is strong and each enjoys an identifiable personality beyond their basic characteristics.

Girls Beyond the Wasteland: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Girls Beyond The Wasteland: Complete Collection features a very good all-around 1080p transfer. Colors are well saturated, a bit simplified but showing consistent range and vibrancy in various lighting conditions, whether sunlit exteriors, artificially lit interiors, dusk, or blue-filtered nighttime shots. Blue skies dazzle, natural greens impress, and various shades of clothes and hair shine. Lines are crisp, details -- particularly environmental textures -- are well defined, and the image never wants for improved definition or clarity whether in close-up or at some distance, and the series is always alternating between telling close-ups and scene-defining longer shots. A bit of banding and a few wayward, jagged edges are present, but neither are particularly distracting. This is a very good presentation from Sentai.

Girls Beyond the Wasteland: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Girls Beyond The Wasteland: Complete Collection's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack is offered only in the original Japanese. English subtitles are forced with no option to change language or turn them off entirely. Additionally, beyond subtitles, the disc offers the occasional bit of help text to identify a word that offers no direct translation (see screenshot above). Translations for various signs and writings appear as-needed, too, though there are times when it's lightning-fast on the screen and with multiple lines it's impossible to read without pausing (the 15:55 mark of episode one is a perfect example). Lastly, musical lyrics are generally translated on screen. As for the track proper, it's quite good and even without the extension the back channels and a subwoofer channel can afford, this track never has a problem pushing the front's limits and producing a clear, detailed sound field. Musical stretch and clarity are both excellent, particularly the opening and closing titles. Effects engage the front with plenty of dynamic intensity and detail, whether atmospherics around the city, a character going into a fit of rage in episode two, or a rumbling train that pushes left to right in disc one's final episode. Indeed, the track finds more oomph than do many tracks with more speakers available to them. Dialogue is imaged to the center portion of the stage with excellent clarity and attention to detail.

Girls Beyond the Wasteland: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Girls Beyond The Wasteland: Complete Collection contains a couple of brief extras on disc two.

• Clean Opening Animation (1080p 1:32): The opening titles without added text.
• Clean Closing Animation (1080p, 1:32): The closing sequence without added text.
• Also Available from Sentai Filmworks (1080p): Previews for Nurse Witch KOMUGI R (1:32), Momokuri (1:31), Girls und Panzer der Film (1:19), and Phantasy Star Online 2 (1:32).

Girls Beyond the Wasteland: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Even as the series can be a bit overlong, following, at times, the nitty-gritty details a little too closely, there's still plenty of enjoyment in watching the characters expand their knowledge base, become familiar with industry lingo, and learn to work together to see their vision made into reality. One of the series' most endearing qualities is that there's nothing odd or out of the ordinary about it. Nothing absurdly crazy happens. It's relatable, simple, and focuses on characters, not any sort of strange outside interference. It's comfortable, agreeable, just a solid, fun series from start to finish. Girls Beyond The Wasteland: Complete Collection comes light on extras, but video and audio are very good. Highly recommended.