Alien 9 Vol.3
Created/Updated 2001-12-22
- Catalog Number : BCBA-0804
- Manufacturer : Emotion
- Series : Alien 9
- Printing Date : 2001-11-25
- Region : 2
- Price : Y5,800
- Play Time : 29 minutes
- Number of Discs : 1
- Number of Sides per Disc : 1
- Number of Layers (side1) : 1
- Number of Layers (side2) : N/A
- Audio1 : Japanese Linear PCM 2ch
- Audio2 : N/A
- Audio3 : N/A
- Audio4 : N/A
- Audio5 : N/A
- Subtitle1 : N/A
- Subtitle2 : N/A
- Subtitle3 : N/A
- Subtitle4 : N/A
- Subtitle5 : N/A
Animephile Rating: D (6.5)
- Video Scan Type : interlaced-OVA (-3.5) -
Perfectly clean 3:2 pulldown.
- Aspect Handling : standard (-0.0)
- Compression : -0.0
- Video Separation : -0.0
- Scene Transition : -0.0
- Calibration : -0.0
Comments:
Uh oh. I'm seeing reduced quality overall in this release compared to
the previous two releases. I guess the director, the animators, and the
voice actors/actresses are kind of tired. They only had 2 months between
this release and the previous release. Hopefully, the 4th DVD will have
quality as good or better than that of first two DVDs. One of the goals
of this OVA series is to enhance the manga reader's experience and it's
done a great job. For example, the ballet attack move by Kasumi on DVD 2
was animated splendidly. Another goal is to add some details missing in
the manga. Kimodameshi scene is a good example. For the most part,
though, OVA series follows the manga very closely, which would normally
be a good thing. In this case, I'm not sure. First 3 OVA episodes barely
covers the first manga. At this pace, we'd need 6 more episodes. It
doesn't seem like we're going to get that. Ah well. Time will tell.
Maybe we'll get a movie out of it. Key the Metal Idol was done that way.
I see no reason why they can't do the same with Alien 9.
Image1: Look at Kumi-chan's neck. After watching all 3 discs again and again,
I realized that these are meant to be shadows. They're animated that way,
however, it still doesn't excuse them because it doesn't look right. Art of
simplified animation is a complex one because sometimes, it has to go against
the laws of physics and favor the workings of human visual systems. This
particular scene made me mis-interpret the story. I thought Kumi was going to
take her head off and scare Yuri. They put those dream events here and there
before, so I was waiting for one. Anyway, even not considering this blunder,
the animation quality is not nearly as high as the animation quality of the
first disc. Character design has lost the very special quality it had on the
first disc. It is not possible to describe it in words. At least, I can't
describe it.
Images:
