Escaflowne - A Girl in Gaia Ultimate Edition DVD Review
| Ultimate Edition DVD |
MSRP
$54.98
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What truly sets the North American Ultimate Edition apart from the Japanese Limited Edition — and from the Japanese and North American Standard Editions, for that matter — is the bonus material. Good god, there's a lot of it — so much that it requires its very own DVD to house it all. And unlike the bonus material provided on many anime releases, almost all of these extras are well worth your time.
Most of the material is exclusive to this release, and has never been made available to the public before, such as the Maaya Sakamoto and Kim Su Jin concert event footage. The concert footage includes a full version of Yubiwa (note Yoko Kanno playing the piano), as well as Maaya's introduction and a selection of brief interviews with cast and crew members who attended the event, including Yoko Kanno, Masahiko Minami, and Masuo Ueda. There is also a brief interview with the director, Kazuki Akane, and the English voice of Hitomi, Kelly Sheridan. While this interview won't exactly inspire you with its in-depth commentary, it's still a fascinating watch.
You'll get much more meat out of the staff and cast interview clips that were included on the Japanese Limited Edition, here provided for the first time with subtitles. Maaya Sakamoto, Tomokazu Seki, and Shinichirou Miki always manage to provide entertaining yet informative dialogue. You'll learn all sorts of weird things about the seiyuu, including the fact that poor Maaya simply cannot steer a bicycle properly. Be sure to make note of Miki's boob-tastic shirt, by the way. The staff interview, while not as charming, does provide more movie-relevant discussion.
Sick of interviews? No problem. There's plenty more material to tickle your fancy. Most, though not all, of the Japanese and North American movie previews and trailers are provided. Anime Expo premiere footage is also included on the disc, though it has limited replay value and suffers occasionally from poor sound quality. I suppose recording discussions in large rooms full of people isn't as easy as it looks.
What will be the most fascinating bonus material for most fans is the enormous collection of production art and design sketches. I found the series of North American movie poster prototypes to be especially interesting, and wish that I had a larger television so I could examine them more easily. In addition to the startling array of art styles that were tried, there were also apparently a number of other taglines that were entertained, including:
- He had no home.... He had no people.... Until she came for justice.
- Be Careful What You Wish For
- Evil Has a New Foe
- Only One Can Tame The Dragon
- Welcome To Her Wildest Dreams
- Her Wildest Dreams Are Their Only Chance
- The Clan of One is About to Become Two
The poster image collection is put to shame, however, by the design sketch galleries. Characters, mecha, settings, and weaponry are all covered in outstanding detail. There are even translations available for most of the Japanese notes written on the sketches. Unfortunately, at least one of the translations isn't accurate — I nearly tore my hair out when I discovered that the sketch of the train station flashback character was labeled "Van" — even though "Folken" is written right there on the sketch, in Japanese and in the character designer's own handwriting. I had hoped that the release of these sketches would finally put an end to all of the emails I receive about this issue, but apparently they're just going to keep on coming. Yay.
Of course, all this bonus material would be a poor reward if the quality of the movie itself was lackluster. Fortunately, it's not. This may be the first time in the history of anime that the North American release has lived up to the Japanese version in regards to image and sound quality, if not improved upon it. The Japanese release of 2001 was outstanding, but the North American version looks much better on my setup. The contrast is greatly improved. Please take this statement with a grain of salt, however, as I do have a rather low-end system that cannot take full advantage of the anamorphic presentation. What is undeniable, however, is that Bandai worked hard to make this movie as visually perfect as possible. In fact, the Japanese release's one major visual glitch — a "jump" in the film during the scene in which Escaflowne turns into a ball of light and floats away — has been fixed in the North American version.
A great deal of time and effort was spent providing an option to watch the movie in conjunction with the display of the original storyboards. Production art fans, take note, because the storyboards have never before been published. I wish the storyboards had been included on the extras disc in a larger format, but the "corner of the screen" versions present on the main disc are fascinating enough to keep me busy for months to come, and greatly increase the replay value of the main feature.
There are a number of different audio tracks to choose from when watching the film. If you don't have the ability to make use of the fantastic Japanese DTS track, that's OK, because both the Japanese and English DD 5.1 tracks are also included. And then there's a special treat — an audio track with nothing but the background music. I really enjoyed this BGM track, because not all of Kanno and Mizoguchi's work is present on the soundtrack CD. It allowed me to hear the extra material without the overlaying sound effects and speech for the very first time.
Speaking of the soundtrack, note that at present, the CD included with the Ultimate Edition DVD set is only way to obtain a licensed copy of the music in North America, unless you purchase an expensive imported CD. I have not yet heard of any plans for the soundtrack to be released independently of the Ultimate Edition, so treasure it. You may never get another chance to enjoy Yoko Kanno's work in all of its glory.
Bandai has done a truly excellent job in presenting all of this material in a well-designed package. There are three separate discs — one for the movie itself, one for the bonus material, and one for the soundtrack — contained in a gorgeous high-quality box. Personally, I found the insert booklets to be somewhat less attractive than the keepcase covers, but even so, they are certainly far from hideous. The design of the DVD menus is especially pleasing. Each transition is fluid and unique, and the use of music is varied and appropriate. That being said, I do wish all anime DVD designers would adjust music selections so that they "looped" more smoothly when the menu is left on for a period of time. It can be very jarring to hear the music cut off and then start over again. This is a minor annoyance that is easily forgiven, however.
I have already packed away my Japanese discs. The Ultimate Edition has rendered them obsolete. You won't find a better collection of movie material anywhere, even in Japan. This release is worth the wait.