Heaven's Lost Property: The Movie - The Angeloid of Clockwork Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Heaven's Lost Property: The Movie - The Angeloid of Clockwork Blu-ray Movie Review

Time for a surprise.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 24, 2013

Back in the days before digital files replaced actual film canisters, were you ever at a movie where the reels got mixed up and suddenly you were watching a film out of order? That same discombobulating quality might afflict some viewers who come to Heaven’s Lost Property: The Angeloid of Clockwork, at least for those who don’t catch every broadcast of every anime and instead depend on home video releases to get their fill of their favorites. Heaven's Lost Property: Season 1 was released on Blu-ray well over a year ago, but if we’re to believe pre-announces, we’re not due for Heaven's Lost Property Forte: Season 2 until late June of this year. That might not seem like a huge problem, except for the fact that Heaven’s Lost Property: The Angeloid of Clockwork picks up from the end of the second season, making its release now something of a conundrum. That said, for anyone who has watched even an episode or two of this often goofily funny but rather randy little series, logic rarely has anything to do with what happens in the show, so watching it out of order might actually tend to make it at least slightly more comprehensible. This potential confusion is ameliorated at least a little bit by one of those “previously on. . .” recaps that can get newcomers partially up to speed on the ins and outs of the franchise, but with the caveat that true fans of the series will have some of the second season’s arc “spoiled” (though again this is a decidedly relative term, since we’re not exactly talking any great densely plotted masterpiece with regard to Heaven’s Lost Property). In a gambit strangely reminiscent of the very recently reviewed Rurouni Kenshin: New Kyoto Arc, a rather large swath of this film revisits events from the first two seasons of the series from a different perspective, supposedly adding allure but in reality probably tending to alienate as many old viewers as it will entice new ones into the Heaven’s Lost Property fold.

The first few minutes of Heaven’s Lost Property: The Angeloid of Clockwork is a fitting introduction to the lunacy that’s regularly in store in this franchise for those who have not seen previous iterations of the show. A small hatchling which has been left in an alternate dimension is not pleased with having been abandoned, and grows to immense proportions, bursting through into what is ostensibly “our” realm. Like an oversized fowl version of Godzilla, this Chicken Big (so to speak) starts marauding through a teeming cityscape, crushing buildings with its trifold foot. That leaves central character Tomoki reeling, trying to quickly figure out how to combat the situation until he comes up with a solution. One of Tomoki’s harem, Sohara, is magically transformed into a giant size herself to combat the errant chick. Once Sohara is giant sized, though, that puts her panties in easy view of the “normal” sized Tomoki far below, and more mayhem ensues. If this is your cup of tea, Heaven’s Lost Property provides it—in spades (to mix some metaphors).

What happens next is kind of a strange left turn from a forward momentum standpoint, but it at least serves to catch new viewers up on the proceedings while perhaps at the same time reminding established fans of the general outlines of what will inform the rest of the story. We are privy to a (very) brief recap of the various Angeloids (for more information on some of the terms in this series, as well as a general overview of the basic plot, see the Heaven's Lost Property: Season 1 Blu-ray review). Then perspective switches once again and we get some supposed “first person” reminiscences from Hiyori, recapping some of her history with Tomoki.

A lot of the “new” content in Heaven’s Lost Property: The Angeloid of Clockwork revolves around the idea of unrequited (or at least unconsummated) love. The relationship between Tomoki and Hiyori suffers an unexpected (and, frankly, tragic) setback which sets the film off on some interesting sidebars. But Tomoki is also trying to come to grips with the various Angeloids and what exactly he wants, relationship wise, with each of them. There are some plot strands running through parts of this film which may remind longtime anime fans of similar elements in such disparate offerings as Tenchi Muyo in Love 2 and Shakugan no Shana the Movie, especially with regard to the transitory nature of existence and the persistence of memory. Heaven’s Lost Property: The Angeloid of Clockwork probably comes closer to Shakugan no Shana in overall tone, simply due to its often silly comedic aspect, something that certainly crops up in the Tenchi Muyo franchise as well, but which was largely absent from Tenchi Muyo in Love 2.

Heaven’s Lost Property: The Angeloid of Clockwork is actually quite a bit more enjoyable than the series, for the very bittersweet quality hinted at above. The series often was rather precariously balanced between ecchi harem shenanigans and a kind of over elaborate quasi-science fiction ambience, and the outright stupidity of some of the humor, while undeniably enjoyable, made the whole enterprise feel kind of disposable. What’s most surprising about Heaven’s Lost Property: The Angeloid of Clockwork is how it actually builds up some emotional resonance once the “real” story kicks in. Getting there may take a bit of unnecessary time, but for fans of the series, this is most likely a journey well worth taking. You simply might want to “reserve passage” until the second season of Heaven’s Lost Property is finally released in a few months.

Heaven's Lost Property: The Movie - The Angeloid of Clockwork Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Heaven's Lost Property: The Angeloid of Clockwork is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is a really nice looking presentation that is quite a bit more detailed and fluid looking than the actual anime series. There's a certain "old school" quality to the animation style in this film which hearkens back to such iconic franchises as Dragon Ball Z. Colors are bright, bold and extremely well saturated, and line detail remains very crisp and nicely defined. A cursory comparison of the screenshots in the Heaven's Lost Property: Season 1 Blu-ray review with the ones accompanying this review will show that especially with regard to character design, it appears that much more care has been given to this iteration. (It should also be stated that chibi are much less prevalent in the film than in the series.) While there's a certain "painterly" quality to this film's animation that might be mistaken for softness (especially with regard to some of the backgrounds), the high definition presentation is really splendidly sharp and clear and should easily please fans of this franchise.

Heaven's Lost Property: The Movie - The Angeloid of Clockwork Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Heaven's Lost Property: The Angeloid of Clockwork features an English dub presented via Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and the original Japanese language track presented via Dolby TrueHD 2.0. I typically am an "original language purist", but I have to say you'd be a fool not to at least sample the English track, for this is one of the best rendered anime surround offerings in recent memory. The 5.1 mix is virtually awash in fantastic surround elements, including some great (and consistent) "front to back" pans that seem to offer various sound effects traveling over the head of the listener. There is also consistent use of discrete channels throughout this film, and not just with regard to some of the noisier sequences. Dialogue is very cleanly presented, fidelity is true and precise, and the mix is very well prioritized. Hats off to the FUNimation sound mixing team for this English dub—some may in fact not love the voice work, but the actual mix and surround activity are very commendable.

Heaven's Lost Property: The Movie - The Angeloid of Clockwork Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• U.S. Commentary features Christopher Bevins, Greg Ayres, and Carli Mosier. This is a kind of middling commentary, poised halfway between the typical FUNimation joke-fest and more "serious" (if that's even an appropriate term, considering this franchise) discussion of the anime. Enjoyable, but not unmissable.


• Original Commercials (1080p; 2:00)


• Promotional Video (1080p; 2:00)


• Japanese Trailers and Previews (1080p; 5:15)


• Original Teasers (1080p; 00:51)


• U.S. Trailer (1080p; 1:02)

Heaven's Lost Property: The Movie - The Angeloid of Clockwork Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I was quite pleasantly surprised by Heaven's Lost Property: The Angeloid of Clockwork, perhaps due only to the fact that I had kind of intentionally set my "enjoyment bar" fairly low going in after my less than satisfactory experience with the actual series. There's nothing fantastically innovative about the film, and in fact it's rather reminiscent of a number of other properties (heaven's or not), but unlike the series, there's at least an attempt at emotional depth here that helps to invest the film with a little more compelling content. This Blu-ray sports nice looking video and great sounding audio and comes with some minimal supplementary material. Recommended.