Basically, this is THE highest quality mastering I've seen on any anime DVD.
The end. What a shame (for the other companies, that is). Actually, I think
Card Captor Sakura Movie1 has somethings that it does better. I think that
one comes from cells, not from film, so it's cleaner.
This part is not really technical, but I justed wanted to mention it. I
watched "Mononoke Hime" twice. It is a beautiful film. I'm certain no one
would argue with that, however, I don't find it to be a powerful film. "Ima
Sokoni Iru Boku" has a lot of the same themes like "life," "wars," "hate," and
even a living form of the nature. In my opinion, it is a MUCH more powerful
anime. I watched it twice so far and while watching it, I am so overflowing
with emotion, I can't even cry! The anguish and the emotional attachments to
the characters are so much more powerful in "Ima Sokoni Iru Boku" than it is
in "Mononoke Hime." Okay, so it's not really a "film" since it is a
TV-series, but then again even "Nausicaa" is a more powerful film than
"Mononoke Hime" is in my opinion. "Ima Sokoni Iru Boku" is also very
beautifully animated although one could argue that it doesn't have as
much beautiful scene. True, it has the dark overall tone, but beauty is felt,
and therefore created, by the viewer, not by the animator. I'm sure what I
just wrote could be misunderstood very easily. You see? I think that the
most beautiful scene I've seen in anime is when Sarah (Sala?) in "Ima Sokoni
Iru Boku" is standing on the desert sand right after the escape. And the
moonlight is shining down on her. It is a simple scene, but it is a beautiful
scene.
Okay, enough of my babbling. Screenshots!
First image shows the blending of detailed image (the tower) and the soft
background image. Smoke is most likely computer graphics and it works
beautifully. Visually, there is nothing to complain about.
Second image shows a dark scene. Usually it's easy to spot problems in dark
scenes, but this DVD has no problems. I have to hand it to the team that
mastered this DVD. What a wonderful job!
Note that both images are in anamorphic format since they're straight off the
MPEG2 stream.
