Kin-iro Mosaic: Complete Season 1 + Season 2 Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Kin-iro Mosaic: Complete Season 1 + Season 2 Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Kinmoza arrives in a new collection containing the original series. The series was originally broadcast in Japan on Tokyo MX. Created by Yui Hara, Kinmoza is a lighthearted and entertaining comedy-drama series beautiful animation produced by Studio Gokumi (Yuki Yuna Is a Hero, Tsuredure Children). As developed by the production team of Fumiki Yamazaki (Blue Drop, Black Bullet), Hiroyuki Kobayashi (The Demon Girl Next Door, Castle Town Dandelion), Mitsuhiro Matsuo (The Familiar of Zero, Wanna Be the Strongest in the World), Sachi Kawamoto (Gourmet Girl Graffiti, House of Five Leaves), Shigeaki Komatsu (Bamboo Blade, Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040), Shingo Yokota (Dragonar Academy, Non Non Biyori Repeat), and Youhei Hayashi (Girls und Panzer, Aria the Scarlet Ammo), Kinmoza is a fun series for audiences who appreciate quality slice-of-life anime with a comedic spin.

Shinobu Ōmiya (Asuka Nishi) learns some of the complicated lessons of language as a foreign exchange student – starting with the fact that language barriers can sometimes cause confusion and make some friendships more complicated than expected. Yet with Shiobu in Japan, new commotion arises when Alice Cartelet (Manami Tanaka), the daughter of her foreign-language exchange student host, visits Japan for a similar experience. Can Shinobu help balance the language barrier and connect Alice with her own best friends Aya Komichi (Risa Taneda) and Yōko Inokuma (Yumi Uchiyama) or will there be too much of a language barrier? Things become even more complicated when an old acquaintance, Karen Kujō (Nao Tōyama), joins the commotion. Nonetheless, the girls have a lot of fun to look forward to!

The characters are at the forefront of the success of the series. The cast of characters certainly help make the production all the more entertaining and engaging. Shinobu and the other girls have the bubbly and energetic personalities requisite to make the production more entertaining for fans. A fantastic ensemble cast and each character exhibits a good personality with quirks to keep the production interesting.

The animation is one of the best elements of the production. The series features stunning art direction from Chikako Shibata (Fruits Basket, Chobits). The art style is cheerful and engaging. The background animation is well detailed and line art is exquisite. The series has a colorful landscape and the team involved on the production brought some fantastic elements to the forefront of the series.

A great collection for series fans.

The animation and artistic elements are complimented by the excellent character designs by Kazuyuki Ueda (BanG Dream!, Hinako Note). Each of the central characters has a distinct aesthetic and design. These attributes benefit the series and its success. A solid effort for the character designs.

The cinematography by Hyeon Dae Song (With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day is Fun, Magi: Adventure of Sinbad) is lush and bright. The colorful and vivid cinematography helps the animation to stand out as something cheery and entertaining. The cinematographer understands the right ingredients to keep things engaging for audiences.

The score composed by Ruka Kawada (Is the order a rabbit?, If Her Flag Breaks) is an enjoyable and light element of the production. The music provides a breezy and fun background to the animation. This is certainly a worthwhile score and something that builds on the production. The music fits these fun characters and the world inhabited by them.

Written by Yuniko Ayana (BanG Dream!, Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl), Kinmoza is all the more enjoyable because of the writer’s keen understanding of the characters and their journeys. The script certainly provides opportunity to highlight the characters respective personalities and these arenas enhance the story-flow.

Directed by Tensho (Azur Lane, The Eden of Grisaia), Kinmoza is well worth checking out. The anime series has beautiful production values and director Tensho understands the genre and works well within the expectations audiences will have for the production. The direction is enjoyable and showcases the strengths of Tensho as an artist.

Kin-iro Mosaic: Complete Season 1 + Season 2 Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on Blu-ray from Sentai Filmworks, Kinmoza is presented in the original television broadcast aspect ratio of 1.78:1 widescreen. The release also utilizes some scenes which are in a wider 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The video quality looks excellent and shines bright on the release. The animation is exceptional and well reproduced for the release. Color reproduction is excellent. The encode is wonderful and handles the art style of the anime. A quality encode from Sentai Filmworks.

Kin-iro Mosaic: Complete Season 1 + Season 2 Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release is presented in Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo (with English subtitles). The lossless audio quality is superb. The sound quality on the release capably preserves the audio and beautifully reproduces the original score. The music is well integrated in to the stereo sound mix. Unfortunately, the release does not provide an English dub option and this is something that will possibly disappoint dub fans. Nonetheless, the original Japanese language dub is excellent and is certainly not something to avoid. A quality encode by Sentai Filmworks.

Kin-iro Mosaic: Complete Season 1 + Season 2 Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Season 1:

Clean Opening Animation (HD, 1:32)

Clean Closing Animation (HD, 1:32)

Season 2:

Clean Opening Animations (HD, 14:58)

Clean Closing Animation (HD, 1:32)

More Kinmoza (HD, 1:09)

The release also includes a selection of trailers promoting other releases available from distributor Sentai Filmworks: Sakura Trick (HD, 1:31), Princess Principal: Crown Handler Chapter 2 (HD, 00:47), Just Because (HD, 1:34), Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya – Licht Nameless Girl (HD, 1:14).

Kin-iro Mosaic: Complete Season 1 + Season 2 Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kinmoza is an entertaining anime series with great animation and engaging characters. The new collection set includes the complete first and second season of the series. The first season had previously been available but became out-of-print and was fetching huge prices so this new collection is certainly a wonderful set for series fans. The release features a strong video and audio presentation. The release includes a small selection of extras. Fans should be pleased with the release. Recommended.