Page 3629 – Capsule Computers

Home Blog Page 3629

Dragon Ball Z Season 6 Blu-ray Review

October 14, 2014

Dragon Ball Z Season 6
Studio: Funimation / Toei Animation
Publisher: Madman
Format: Blu-ray
Release Date: 17/09/2014
Price: $59.95 (AU) – Available Here / $24.99 (U.S) – Available Here

Overview

Previously on Dragon Ball Z! Our review of Season 5 of the ongoing Dragon Ball Z Blu-ray release showed it’s massive power level to earn a terrifying score of 8.5 Capsules out of 10! After some massive twists and turns, the high quality of the Blu-ray media format prevailed to prove itself as one of the ultimate ways to view Dragon Ball Z yet! Will Season 6 continue this trend or will it end in defeat for this new challenger? Find out, in this review of Dragon Ball Z!

Story

Anyone that read that opening paragraph in the voice of the DBZ narrator, big props to you. Season 6 brings us the epic conclusion of the Cell Games Saga and some other resolutions along with it, most notably the ending to Trunk’s arc from the future and the aftermath of Cell. Whilst Season 5 had a lot of story to tell and focused on character development, the final two thirds of Season 6 is about the action as the Cell Games begins and the Z-Warriors take on Cell to save the Earth from being destroyed. The first third of Season 6 serves to conclude story arcs leftover from Season 5 and cover the setup of the Cell Games. Notable scenes include the conclusion of Goku and Gohan’s training, Cell announcing the Cell Games on TV and preparing the ring as well as the final 10 days before the tournament. These earlier episodes serve as build up to the Cell Games, increasing the tension surrounding it and making clear what will be lost if Cell is successful.

Now onto the fights! The fights here are some of the biggest and best in the series. There’s powering up, huge Kamehameha’s, energy blast volleys, instant transmission and more. This is what people remember Dragon Ball Z for. We have an awesome ‘even terms’ fight between Cell and Goku where both show an array of new techniques after an impressive warm up. Both fighters unleash the full extent of their power as neither holds back in this clash of titans. The fight to’s and throws so you never know who is in the lead at any given moment as you always feel the other will make a comeback. The ending to the match holds yet another surprising twist.

Then we have the moment Gohan enters the fray and steps it up to a whole new level. Gohan steals the show from Goku in an impressive showing of power, but power alone doesn’t always decide the outcome of battles as viewers will find out. All the less powerful characters get a brief chance to shine here and it’s great to see them still contributing to the action even though they have been long surpassed in power by the Saiyans. The fights aren’t all about fist flurry’s and transformations, containing many twists and turns that serve to both keep the narrative unpredictable and break up the action. Obviously I won’t go into any specifics here for spoilers sakes, but trust me you will be in shock by the end of the saga if this is your first viewing.

There are quite a number of full filler episodes present in Season 6 that you could skip over entirely and not miss anything of importance. These fillers aren’t necessarily bad and are generally fun and harmless, some even bringing back past characters like General Tao. The most irritating moments of filler revolves around Hercule and his sidekicks, who are good for some comedic relief but are on screen far too long and quickly become annoying as you wait for them to finish up so Goku can step up to take on Cell. Some of the filler is actually very good, such as everyone helping out Gohan in the final struggle whilst delivering some great developmental exposition.

One problem I have with some of the dub lines is that they often contradict past story elements. This obviously isn’t a fault of the Blu-ray release but the source material. One example is when Tien says that surpassing Goku had been his goal ever since he became a martial artist, however from Dragon Ball we know that is not the case as he had been studying martial arts long before he met Goku. When viewing with the Japanese translated English subtitles, Tien simply says he would not be where he was today without Goku, a much more fitting statement. Unless you are a hardcore Dragon Ball fan though you probably won’t notice these inconsistencies but its not surprising these mistakes come up as the same vocal track that has been used for many years is still being used here.

Visuals

There is no doubt the quality offered by this Blu-ray collection is margins above its old DVD counterparts. HD does wonders for the series, especially this late into the series where the art style became more consistent and detailed overall. Colours are vibrant and faithful, lines are bold and all the action is crystal clear. You can see a big step up in sharpness from the DVD sets to the Blu-rays and when I was going back to the DVD sets for a comparison it was a large step back. There are some rare moments when the Blu-ray version does seem blurry in parts which does detract from the overall visual quality, however these instances are seldom seen.

Dragon Ball Z has been around for a long time and the anime first broadcasted in the old 4:3 aspect ratio but has been converted to 16:9 widescreen for this release without the option to view it in its original form, resulting in about 20% of the original image being lost. This does look odd in some scenes with the top of character’s heads being cut off, but Funimation have done a fantastic job with Season 6 in cropping these scenes on a frame by frame basis so that important details are not lost.

A great example of this selective cropping is shown above with the DVD image on top and Blu-ray on the bottom, (I apologise for the off screen shots, getting Blu-ray screenshots is incredibly difficult) you see a scene of Tien talking to Yamcha with Trunks lying on the ground. The DVD version has Tien’s head near-completely cut off, where as the Blu-ray opts to show nearly all of it, sacrificing some of Trunk’s screen real estate instead. Obviously this was a hard scene to crop due to both the top and bottom sections being important but the Blu-ray cropping is much better, choosing to focus on the character speaking in the scene whilst still showing Trunks on the ground.

Grain has been nearly completely removed so the picture is much clearer. This has a much more positive effect in Season 6 than in past seasons where some scenes that mostly comprised of background or featured characters at a distance seemed simplified and less detailed due to the grain removal. Colour saturation, whilst a big problem in the Orange Brick DVD releases and, to a much lesser extent, in the former Blu-ray seasons has pretty much been eliminated. Colours now look much more natural and akin to the source material while retaining the correct brightness and contrast. The comparison screens above also serve as a good point of reference to see how much better the colours look in the Blu-ray version, particularly Yamcha’s outfit and Tien’s pants. Also Goku’s skin is no longer pink during the Cell Games Fight as it was in the DVD set!

The original box art (featured at the top of this review) is again awesome and links to up to the former box arts to complete the Cell Arc covers (however doesn’t look like it will link up to the Buu Saga). The only thing I’m not a fan of is the image of Cell on the back cover next to the synopsis. The art style looks strange, his face looks off and he appears to be doing the Can-Can. A much better image could have been used to fill that spot.

Audio

The audio options presented here by Funimation are top notch and should not leave anyone disappointed. The default audio is set to the Funimation English dub with the original Japanese Audio track and is presented in True HD Dolby 5.1 surround sound. I took the effort to move my PlayStation 3 and all the cables to the Lounge Room for the surround sound experience and I wasn’t dissapointed. The music, the ambient sound effects such as the wind and energy plus all the voice acting and sound effects came together loud and clear. You have to experience the episode ‘Save the World’ with this setup you will be blown away. The audio seems louder and even clearer than past releases and is miles above the DVD in terms of quality.

The other audio options are original U.S. broadcast which is presented in Dolby True HD 2.0 and finally the full Japanese audio with original music and voice which is presented in True HD Mono. The final option does sound rather old and muffled due to its age but has got a bit of an upgrade thanks to the improvements in Blu-ray sound quality. Bruce Falconer absolutely destroys Season 6 with his dub soundtrack here. Piccolo’s theme, Gohan’s Ascension Theme, when Gohan goes Super Saiyan 2, when we cut to the lookout, when we cut to the final beam clash, etc. All these songs fit the moment so perfectly and go down as classics in anime dub history.

As for the voice acting, you have the choice of the Funimation English dub or the original Japanese vocal track. The Funimation voice cast continues their great work here, Dameon Clarke as Cell gives a fantastic performance as the cocky, perfect Cell while Stephanie Nadolny steps up as Gohan becomes a central character, delivering bad ass lines as a bad ass and making us believe the self doubt Gohan feels through her acting. The Japanese dub is either hate it or love it at this point, and while I am a dub fan I don’t hate listening the original Japanese cast occasionally for a change of pace.

One final note on audio, the menu song has changed for this release and while it still has that same industrial feel to it this one is much more catchy and kind of fits with the action in the background which is a nice touch.

Extras

Season 5 packed in a decent amount of special features and Season 6 continues this trend. While the physical episode guide featured in the old orange remastered box sets are completely absent without any sort of replacement outside of an episode list of the inside of the cover, the extras here make up for that loss. Near 20 minute long interviews with Eric Vale (Future Trunks’ English voice actor) and Cynthia Cranz (Chi Chi’s English voice actor) offer great insight into how their roles were cast, inspiration for the voices they perform, how they handled the rapid growth of the show, crazy fan stories and more.

For the first time on the DVD or Blu-ray releases there is also some commentated Dragon Ball Z Trivia. These give you a question and 4 multiple choice answers before quickly playing play some video to explain the answer, so you get like 1 second to answer the question after seeing all the options which forces you to think fast or pause playback. It probably would have been better to let you select an answer first before continuing. The questions are all from the Saiyan Saga and are actually pretty challenging to get right, especially if its been a while since you watched the saga. I hope the trivia keeps up on the upcoming season as it was a fun inclusion.

Apart from the big extras, there is also a short U.S. trailer as well as text less opening and closing songs. The ‘next time on Dragon Ball Z’ segments are missing from this release, however the previous episode recaps are present.

Overall

Dragon Ball Z Season 6 on Blu-ray is the best of the Blu-ray sets released so far. Season 6 already had an advantage by featuring one of the most epic and action packed sagas in the Dragon Ball Z story, but the sky high visual and audio quality brings this release to another level. The cropping is much better than before, the colour saturation issues have been fixed and the sound is louder and clearer than ever. Throw in some great extras and you have a must buy for any DBZ fan. Unless you are a true 4:3 presentation purist (and even then I would still recommend giving this set a try), Dragon Ball Z Season 6 on Blu-ray is a true winner.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Follow Shay’s Journey to The Templar Order in New Assassin’s Creed Rogue Trailer

Jamie Laike Tsui

October 14, 2014

Ubisoft released a brand new trailer that follows Shay Patrick Cormac’s journey from a young Assassin to a member of the Templar Order. The trailer teases the failed mission and the atrocities Shay experiences that drives him away from the Assassin Brotherhood. Several breathtaking shots of the North Atlantic are featured in the video, with Shay doing battle with an unknown Assassin on the towering glaciers.

Assassin’s Creed Rogue is launching for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 11th, 2014 in North America and November 13th in PAL regions. Rumour has it PC gamers will have to wait for a Windows port to be released sometime in 2015.

Just Dance 2015 Preview

Mateja Simovic

October 13, 2014

I have never been one for physical coordination, but at this year’s EB expo I decided to throw caution to the wind and try my hand at the newest instalment of the Just Dance series. Coming up to the Ubisoft exhibit at the expo I was greeted a by a cavalcade of lights and sounds. The stall had dancers who were dressed in the neon pop/hip-hop styles of the dancing avatars in the game and danced on a stage behind the punters who had agreed to play the game. After watching for several minutes, I put my hand up to give the game a go.

Right off the bat, I can tell you that this game is fun. In and of itself, it is fun to dance (believe it or not) but this game builds on top of that by having a very slick visual design and scoring system to add a gamified element to the act of dancing. Dance cues scroll along the bottom of the screen to indicate what’s coming up in the song, which gives you a limited ability to anticipate what to do next. The music videos which give you the prompts and directions for the dance is largely just a highly post-produced plethora of colours. The music itself is largely contemporary pop songs with the playlist including Katy Perry, Ylvis, Rhianna, and 5 Seconds of Summer. Although I’m not much of a pop music fan, getting into the groove of things meant I didn’t particularly mind anyway. The game will launch with 41 songs on the disc, with the previous catalogues of songs available for purchase with as the track lists of previous Just Dance games.

The game allows for up to four players at a time, but I’m not sure how practical the space requirements of this is for the average gamer living room. The Wii controllers also had some difficulty with detecting movements occasionally, but they largely worked fine as far as I could tell. There is also a minor dissonance between the dance cues which scroll across the bottom and the actual dancer themselves. There are also some points during some of the videos where the action of the dancer is ridiculously hard to replicate with the players needing to hold handstands and other such acts agility (which yours truly could certainly not perform).

Each player has their own avatar which they attempt to mimic with their movements but there is a limited amount of interaction with players changing places and helping hold certain poses (alongside of course; smack talk). There appeared to be a number of different dance modes on offer which players could choose. Some modes have varying levels of difficulty with some players taking a more active role in the dance while others play as back-up dancers. One of the modes I tried was a ‘team dance-off’ with the players splitting into two teams performing the aforementioned dance-off, with each team trying to get as many points as possible.

After playing a couple of songs, I had one of the Ubisoft spokespeople come up and engage me in conversation. As well as trying to health benefits of playing dance games such as Just Dance 2015 (of which I cared very little), they explained to me that the game now had an app released which could use a portable device (i.e. a phone) as a controller for the game in conjunction with any device which has access to the internet and a screen. This eliminates any need to purchase a console, and the app is free to download. This makes the app a cheaper choice overall as a Just Dance game, but it only lets you access 5 free songs a day to play with the rest requiring a VIP pass to access.

Overall, this game definitely appears like something which would make a fun party game for people who have the space to play it. I enjoyed it and I am seriously considering buying a dance game for myself, although I will have to examine whether I’d have the space to play it at home or whether I should just stick to headbanging and moshing.

For more of our EB Expo coverage, click here.

Samurai Warriors 4 Preview

Mateja Simovic

October 13, 2014

The gameplay of the Warriors series and its specific spin-off, Samurai Warriors, is an interesting combination of action hack-and-slash and strategy. The player taking on the role of heroic commander warriors as they take to the field against entire armies. Although the game setting has some grounding in history, the series is well known for taking many liberties with its depiction of historical events. Characters use very ornate/impractical armour and weapons, are able to send out waves of energy to attack their foes, and participate in battles which they could not possibly have done so. But all these elements, which undermine the game’s historical authenticity, are exactly what makes the games so very fun. All these elements are here in spades for the latest instalment of the series; Samurai Warriors 4, as I discovered in my short hands-on session at EB Expo.

The gameplay largely follows the stock-standard of the series, with the player taking on the role of a powerful, fictionalized historical figure (trust me, it makes sense) as they cut through hordes of A.I. goons and duel opposing commanders. Different characters have different attacks, which are suited to dealing a specific kind of damage or dealing damage to a lot of targets (which is generally quite useful). Special attacks (or “musous” as the game calls them) generally deplete the player’s ‘spirit gauge’, which builds up slowly over time. This element is similar in a sense to fighting games which require the player to careful manage their character’s stamina to perform a number of smaller attacks or a single, more powerful strike.

These special attacks are generally devastating to the rank-and-file of the opposing force, but are all too easily blocked by enemy commanders and officers if used against them. Defeating them unlocks areas and forts on the map and captures them for use by your side. These enemies require a bit more skill in outmanoeuvring their attacks and striking at their weak points. The game also employs a rudimentary morale system with the enemy troops running away if you kill their commanders and bannermen in their vicinity… they are, however, unfazed by the wanton slaughter of their fellow comrades. The A.I. for friendly goons is also lacking in a number of ways with my side’s grunts largely avoiding engagement with the enemy, so I would have preferred A.I. friendlies to actually be helpful in some regard.

The battles play out with the player being given a number of starting objectives which upon completion unlock new objectives, dependent the success or failure of the player. Various flashpoints occur across the battlefield which require the player’s attention and a map in the HUD displays where this flashpoint is occurring and the route the player should take to get there. Unfortunately, the maps are largely twisting corridors with scenery which is all too similar to really get my bearing… although I imagine if I played the maps enough, they would start being more easily navigable but this was not to be in the 30 minutes which I had with this game.

During battles, players can collect items to both gain short term advantage, through healing and other restorative properties, and to unlock new weapons to customise player characters. The game allows the player to create their own character for use battles and campaigns, with the player able to customise their capabilities and equipment. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I was unable to explore this option further but would be excited to examine it further if given the chance.

The game features battles in a number of historical campaigns with various characters to play in each. The player chooses two characters to play during each battle and control can be swapped between the two at the press of a button. The narrative is also largely expressed between the characters in cutscenes. The animation and graphics in these scenes are not exactly cutting edge but are fairly pleasing to look at. The character design follows a distinctive anime style with the writing appearing to follow suit with heightened levels of melodrama. The characters certainly look pretty even though I doubt the historical accuracy of having a samurai lord wearing a set of European style plate mail during the Sengoku period…but hey, you don’t play this game to learn Japanese history.

For more of our EB Expo coverage, click here.

Toadette Helps Toad Find Treasure on January 10th in Australia

Nathan Farrugia

October 13, 2014

Toadette Helps Toad Find Treasure on January 10th in Australia

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker will feature Captain Toad and now his lovely sister/girlfriend/friend (I did my research and the previous lore relating to their relationship is very ambiguous) Toadette as the main characters for the first time ever in a Nintendo title. The game focuses around traversing small universes that can have the camera rotated to reveal hidden secrets and paths. The full game will feature over 70 unique stages including a variety of enemies to ignore/defeat, mine cart stages where you have to throw turnips and even boss battles.

Nintendo also released some more information about the story we can expect to find in Captain Toad’s first big outing.

These tiny heroes are on the hunt for the ultimate treasure, a coveted Power Star. At the beginning of their adventure, Wingo, a giant, greedy bird who makes life difficult for these timid treasure trackers, makes off with their only Power Star, and even whisks away Toadette! Players must then help Captain Toad retrieve the Power Star and Toadette in order to unlock her as a playable character, and ultimately, defeat Wingo. In the process, they’ll encounter more than 70 fun, puzzling stages while also collecting stars and gems.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker releases exclusively for the Wii U in Australia on January 10th, 2015 (December 5th in America). The game will carry a retail price of $59.95, which is $20 cheaper than most Wii U games retail for at release, a seemingly good move from Nintendo seeing as this title is a spin off of the small number of Captain Toad levels that were present in Super Mario 3D World and many wonder how it would hold up at retail at normal price, even if the game does look gorgeous and was pretty fun to play at Nintendo’s booth at the EB Expo. A new 3 minute trailer has been released showcasing all the best features of the game and you can watch it below.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Preview

Mateja Simovic

October 13, 2014

I generally preface these articles by talking about my own experience (or lack thereof) with a given game or franchise. I am happy to say that I have had quite of experience with the Call of Duty franchise, and first encountered it when the games were still setting themselves during World War Two. I have played through every installment (more or less) and have enjoyed both the single and multiplayer gameplay. As far as shooters go, the Call of Duty franchise is most certainly one of the better options available with slick gunplay and polished single-player campaigns for some of their earlier installments. When the option was given to me to examine the newest installment, I was more than happy to take a gander and write up my thoughts on Sledgehammer’s Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

My first exposure to the new title involved watching the new trailer and was followed by a talk by one of the developers, which both heavily featured the setting and story. The biggest thing to notice is just how much the game appears to be banking upon the star power of Kevin Spacey in its attempts to bolster the single-player story. Don’t get me wrong; Kevin Spacey is an amazing actor and I love the quasi-cyberpunk dystopic setting where corporations supplant governments as ruling institutions, the weaponry is advanced, and the world is falling to pieces. The story appears to be continuing its tradition of courting controversy by commenting upon recent political developments as was the case with the setpiece “No Russian” level in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I personally think that games are an excellent medium to provide a critique of modern politics, even if I don’t particularly agree with the general militaristic attitudes which so often pervades the first-person shooter genre. The inclusion of Spacey in the game trailer appears to suggest that the narrative will focus much more on intrigue and the talk by the dev appeared to confirm this assumption, which makes sense as hiring the star of the immensely popular House of Cards series would otherwise be nonsensical at this point.

The trailer also exemplified some of the new additions that the setting provides to the gameplay in the form of the very sci-fi ‘exo-suit’. The exo-suit appears to be a mechanical suit of armour based upon real-world advancements which give the soldiers in the setting increased speed, strength, and durability. The trailer showcased some of these capabilities in its montage and I got to play around with them in the hands-on multiplayer which was on offer at the expo (a trailer we covered here sums it up nicely). The one feature I certainly had the most fun with was the jetpack as I bunny-hopped my way around the map. I didn’t really get much of a chance to kill anyone and I’ve probably earned the eternal ire of the other players which were on my team when we played deathmatch, but dammit, I had my fun. The addition of these jetpacks also added a new element of verticality to the gameplay as players jumped through the air to gun down opposition in the mid-air or be gunned down, as was more often the case with me.

At the start of the match, players are able to select weapons, modifications, and perks. There were some basic class builds, but the game encourages you to build your own class to suit your style. I cycled through the pre-built classes throughout the match and I ended up choosing a class which was catered towards speed, with the ability to propel myself forward in the air and slide quickly along the ground. The game also allows you modify the unlocks you receive upon completing kill streaks to further suit your style of play. There was also a virtual lobby in which you could see what other players were equipped with and a shooting gallery to practice while you wait for a match to start, which I think is a nice touch.

When the match mode changed from deathmatch to ‘capture the flag’, my tactic of bunny hopping around the map actually came into its own. To change things up on the old favourite, the area in which the players must deposit the flag is now a suspended glowing ball up in the air. This allows players to score in two ways: by throwing the flag through the ball or by jumping through it while in possession of the flag. The former option will score you one point while the latter will score you two. My proficiency with using the jetpack helped me to blitz across the map and score two-pointers with relative ease, thus earning back the respect of my teammates.

I lined up about 30 minutes of playtime on the multiplayer while I was at the expo and I feel that I can reasonable say that the gameplay is as slick and polished as ever. I overheard some comments from other players that it was basically a knock-off of Titanfall but, judging the game on its own merits, it’s still quite good. I look forward to playing through this installment’s story and finding out whether it is as good as Sledgehammer makes it out to be.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is set to be released on PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS 3, & PS4 by publisher Activision in early November.

For more of our EB Expo coverage, click here.

Terra Formars to be streamed uncensored on Crunchyroll “at a later date”

Travis Bruno

October 12, 2014

Terra Formars to be streamed uncensored on Crunchyroll “at a later date”

Today during New York Comic Con Crunchyroll revealed that they will be streaming an uncensored version of Terraformars in the future. When exactly is unknown, as it was stated that the streaming would begin “at a later date TBA” but this is great news for fans of the series as it has been nearlyimpossible to actually enjoy thanks to the censorship that has plagued the first three episodes of the anime.

Announced at our Terra Formars screening: CR will stream the uncensored version of Terra Formars at a later date TBA! http://t.co/EZvR5kbBzB
— Crunchyroll (@Crunchyroll) October 12, 2014

Animated by Liden Films, the anime picks up the series from the second volume of the source material, which we reviewed here, where humanity travels to Mars in order to eliminate incredibly strong and violent humanoid cockroaches in order to obtain samples to cure a disease sweeping the Earth.

Blood Lad: The Complete Series Review

Travis Bruno

October 12, 2014

Blood Lad: The Complete Series
Studio: Brain’s Base
Publisher: Viz Media
Formats: Blu-ray, DVD (Reviewed)
Release Date: September 2, 2014
Price: $44.82 – Available Here

Overview
There have been a number of television series that have begun airing fewer and fewer episodes every season. For basic television series, these usually happen when they are popular enough to coast by or are brand new and haven’t been picked up for more than that. However lately, anime series have begun to air at ten episodes and while a few in the past have managed to deliver within this limitation, many have not. With Blood Lad being given that same treatment, but with an OVA added onto it, is the series worth picking up now that Viz Media has released it in English?

Story
Vampires are creatures of legend and even in the Demon World they are ranked incredibly high as far as power goes. Staz happens to be one such vampire and has even managed to claim a large section of Demon World as his territory. The problem is, Staz is a complete slacker who would rather stay in his room reading old manga and playing old video games from the Human World than deal with interlopers.

However when a human girl named Fuyumi ends up lost in his territory, all that changes. You see, over the years humanity’s fear of demons has become non-existent and due to the strength of human technology, demons remain in their realm, giving Staz his first ever encounter with a human. To add to Staz’s love of humanity, Fuyumi is an adorable looking girl that gives him feelings he has never felt before.

Unfortunately, due to his lack of attention when dealing with an opponent, Fuyumi is killed by a man eating plant in his room. Despite this early death, it seems that Fuyumi isn’t about to disappear quite yet as humans who are killed within the Demon World become ghosts. Now that Fuyumi is a ghost she quickly learns that she cannot simply return to life as normal and because of this, Spaz swears that he will do anything to bring her back to life.

On this mission he encounters not only his old rival Wolf, a werewolf with issues of his own, a dimension hopping treasure hunter named Bell, but even members of his own family who he has quite a history with. Despite having a fairly standard sounding premise, Blood Lad avoids mediocrity by giving us a comedic action series that rarely takes itself seriously and is also populated by a wonderful cast of characters with only one real dud.

With Staz being the main lead, and a vampire at that, it would be easy to see him as an overpowered monster but thanks to the actions of his brother and his slacker attitude he rarely takes anything the way your standard protagonist would. He chooses either to instantly take out opponents who are simply too weak and are on his bad side, refuses to go all out against friends who he knows cannot take it, and even realizes when he shouldn’t waste energy in a pointless fight.

Add this to his otaku nature and love of Japanese anime and manga and his personality is a major highlight in a series full of great characters. Bell’s dimensional abilities and attitude towards Staz makes for some very funny scenes even when she is hiding her own feelings while Liz, Staz’s younger sister, ranges from a horror movie style murderer to a cute little girl who just needs someone to actually care about her.

Unfortunately, amongst the aforementioned characters and many colorful characters that appear in the series, Fuyumi’s personality is just as invisible as most ghosts are. Despite the fact that the story revolves around resurrecting her, she rarely grows in any major way outside of a few special revelations that occur near the end of the season. Even then these are just revelations about the people around her and not Fuyumi herself, who mostly serves as a fan service delivery tool that is also a decent source of comedy.

Blood Lad tells an interesting storyline full of wacky events laced with action packed showdowns. There are a number of developments that occur throughout the limited ten episode run as we learn more about Fuyumi and Bell’s connection and what Staz’s scheming older brother is up to. However thanks to the fact that the series is only ten episodes long, there are so many loose threads hanging by the time the credits roll that barely anything is even wrapped up. If anything, this can give the viewer the feeling that the limited run was merely a tool to promote the manga series, which is quite unfortunate.

Visuals
Blood Lad makes stylistic use of a bright color palette that makes the most out of the environment and character designs. The environments have a unique feeling to them, even though many of them tend to be stylistic takes on an urban environment while the characters all have unique looking features, including all of the Vampires looking sleep deprived.

It is worth noting that although Fuyumi and Bell are used for fan-service throughout the series, it is actually limited to cosplay outfits or a few very basic scenes that are a nice treat for those who enjoy it and shouldn’t bother those who don’t. The action sequences tend to be rather short affairs but feature a nice amount of flair and it is interesting to note that the series’ manga influences tend to transition into the series quite a bit as text will often appear on the screen, either containing extra dialogue or sound effects.

Audio
With this release of Blood Lad Viz Media has provided both the original Japanese voice track as well as the newly recorded English dub. Considering the mood of the series and the amount of comedy it contains, the English voice actors fir their characters quite nicely, though it is the female cast that actually works the best. Bel’s voice actress Kira Buckland really helps bring out her personality while Fuyumi’s voice actress Xanthe Huynh fits her helpless sounding nature.

The background music used throughout the series is rather solid sounding with a nice mixture of appropriate sounding tracks. The opening theme “Vivid” by May’n is a real treat for the ears, making it difficult to skip the opening sequence especially since it is paired nicely with the visuals while the ending theme “Bloody Holic” by Yuuka Nanri, the Japanese voice actress for Liz, is softer but is a nice fit for the series.

Extras
It is worth noting that since review is for the DVD version of the release, it comes with only a couple of bonus features. This includes a nice slipcover for the DVD set, as well as a Japanese trailer for the series and the OVA episode “I’m Not a Cat.” The OVA takes place immediately after episode 10 and does serve to advance the story just a little bit, but it mostly serves as a way to give viewers just a bit more comedy and action against new opponents.

Overall
Blood Lad is an exceptional series that is held back by a few faults, the biggest of which happens to be its limited run time. The basic premise might sound simple but most of the characters that populate it are unique and colorful enough to make up for that. Add to that the amount of humor and a great overall look and we have an enjoyable series that is a delight to watch, even if things feel unfinished when everything is said and done.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

1...3,6283,6293,630...6,781 Page 3,629 of 6,781

Capsule Computers

Capsule Computers

Dragon Ball Z Season 6 Blu-ray Review

Follow Shay’s Journey to The Templar Order in New Assassin’s Creed Rogue Trailer

Just Dance 2015 Preview

Samurai Warriors 4 Preview

Toadette Helps Toad Find Treasure on January 10th in Australia

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Preview

Drops Of God Mangakas Start New Series

Countdown Timer And Timeline Website For Naruto’s Final Chapters

Terra Formars to be streamed uncensored on Crunchyroll “at a later date”

Blood Lad: The Complete Series Review