6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
In feudal Japan, many generals struggled for power in unending warfare, but one man proved to be too big a threat - the dark lord Oda Nobunaga. Sanada Yukimura and Date Masamune, two young warriors from different regions who become heated rivals, must form an unlikely alliance with the rest of the generals to take down the Devil King. Sengoku Basara is based on the PlayStation game Devil Kings by Capcom. The series was animated by Production I.G., and directed by Itsuro Kawasaki.
Starring: Kazuya Nakai, Sôichirô Hoshi, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Tesshô Genda, Takehito KoyasuAnime | 100% |
Foreign | 98% |
Action | 50% |
Adventure | 21% |
War | 3% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Japanese: Dolby TrueHD 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Four-disc set (2 BDs, 2 DVDs)
DVD copy
Region A, B (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Real time strategy games are among the most popular in the wild and wooly world of online gaming. Something about a minute by minute (or even second by second) reexamination of tactics and battle plans make for some major adrenaline rushes that younger males especially seem to thrive on. Of course the world of series television can’t quite match that same kind of visceral intensity as a real time strategy game can provide, but Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings manages to dance around the edges of the same sort of idea of a real time strategy game, if not its actual execution (no pun intended, considering the death count in most of the games, and indeed in Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings itself). The irony here of course is that Sengoku Basara started life as a videogame, albeit not a real time strategy outing, and the track record of videogame adaptations into other media is littered with the rotting corpses of franchises that just couldn’t reinvent themselves as either feature films or anime series. Sengoku Basara may not be completely successful, and is indeed probably too stuffed with characters for its own good, but it still manages to be surprisingly effective and exciting at times, and better yet, this second season of the series ups a kind of stoner-surfer comedic element that plays unexpectedly well in this series set in a warring feudal Japan. In fact it’s the odd concatenation of style and content that is one of Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings’ strongest calling cards. The show is elegantly designed, making its visual component compelling and inviting, but the dialogue is more often than not cheeky and over the top, giving the show a sort of goofy ambience that keeps the show amiably enjoyable even if it’s not always completely comprehensible.
Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings Season 2 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78.1. Many of my comments with regard to Sengoku Basara - Samurai Kings: Season 1 hold true for this second season as well. This is one of the most sumptuously handsome high definition presentations in recent anime memory and is certianly one of the strongest looking releases from FUNimation. Colors are incredibly vivid and well saturated, with incredibly vibrant reds, purples and greens and some actually stunning gradations of light scale. Fine detail is really quite remarkable for an animated outing, and the Japanese ethos of this piece is really extremely evident in some of the gorgeously rendered backgrounds. As is fairly typical of these releases, sometimes the backgrounds are presented in an impressionistic manner, and occasionally there are also "establishing shots" (for want of a better term) that have a certain slapdash quality. But line detail and overall design aesthetic here are extremely sharp and well defined. This second season tends to exploit more of a three dimensional approach in many sequences, with something akin to the old Disney multi-plane technique where foreground objects move at different speeds and in different planes than background objects.
As with the video assessment, the audio of Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings Season 2 is largely in line with that of the first season. Once again two lossless tracks are offered, the original Japanese in a Dolby TrueHD 2.0 mix, and an English dub in a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix. As mentioned above in the main body of the review, the English dub, while wild and wooly and incredibly boisterous at times, may be somewhat off putting to some listeners as the English voice cast tends to emphasize the contemporary sounding surfer-dude ethos of a lot of the dialogue. (Just one example: the final episode of this season has repeated references to a battle tournament dubbed a "Manstravaganza!"). The Japanese track, while obviously narrower, has a much more reserved voice cast, one that is almost gruff by comparison, but which might be more in keeping with the historical bent of the series. That said, the English version is actually laugh out loud funny a lot of the time (intentionally, or at least I think so), and the added activity of the surround mix really opens up the proceedings in the series' many battle sequences. Fidelity on both tracks is excellent, and dialogue, effects and underscore are well balanced and prioritized. As was mentioned in the Season 1 review, don't expect a whale of a lot of dynamic range here, as in the English track especially, this is an "up to 11" aural assault a lot of the time.
A lot of times the anime series that are built around a "battle of the week" idea get to be incredibly boring after just a few episodes. Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings overcomes that obstacle with a couple of gambits. First of all, the series has an almost insane amount of supporting characters, so that shifting alliances and strategies often offer some variety to the proceedings. Perhaps even more importantly, the series is just sumptuously designed, which offers the viewer plenty to look at even when certain story elements may be more than a bit confusing. The series does a rather artful job of blending history with fantasy, and the show's quasi-supernatural elements add just a dash of spice and mystery. This second season is highlighted by a more comic approach which blends surprisingly well with the more over the top action elements. This second season beefs up the supplements at least a little, while offering the same excellent video and audio quality. Recommended.
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