Naruto Uncut Box Set 14 (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)Right off the bat Naruto's next mission(After bribing Grandma Tsunade) teams him up with Tenten and Neji to help protect a small ninja village called the star village and their special treasure. The star village has a special meteor that gives increased chakra and even unusual chakra abilities to people who drain the chakra from the meteor, but it also comes with a very heavy price using the meteor's chakra energies eventually leads to the users death, which has caused a division in the star village between those who wish to stop using the meteors energies and those who feel there's no other choice. After this saga we have Naruto battling another personal problem as he unwittingly becomes the adopted mother to a formerly legendary creature known as the Unba(At least that's how it sounds like). Than we have Naruto teaming up with Shino of all people to go to a funeral where Shino will as act as the substitute mourner of the person that's hired them, the reason is that if the chief mourner laughs at the funeral he will loose all the lands that his father will bequeath to him but the will allows a substitute mourner to be in his place, thus Shino is giving the job but like most missions with Naruto somethings bound to happen to mess with the plan. The last few episodes deal with the missing feudal lords daughter from the lands of greens which has been taking over by a band of rogue ninja trying to become feudal lords themselves, the feudal lords daughter flees and tries to regroup and find volunteers to reclaim her lands. This mission saga-arc I felt were the only ones in the series that Naruto just should have let the spoiled lords daughter just die she's so unlikable I just had no sympathy for her and her attitude, but like Naruto usually does with his usual determination and his sense of ninja way and own morality that won't let him abandon her. The video is of course clear and sharp and as always the voice cast both Japanese/English did a great job for their character roles. So for hardcore fans rejoice as we come closer to the Shippuden series and for all fans here comes another great box set at a great price for your anime library....

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The ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village are summoned on a mission to the Land of Stars, where a meteorite with incredible powers has been stolen! Naruto and the others begin to suspect it was an inside job when they learn that the ninja who stole the star used a special ninjutsu known only to the Star Village. Then, Choji, Hinata and Naruto set out for the Land of Greens to protect a group of merchants, one of whom turns out to be a princess! When Hinata is threatened by an evil ninja to reveal the princess's whereabouts or Naruto will be hurt, will she choose to save a princess or the boy she loves?!

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Speed Racer - Episodes 1-11 (1967) Review

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(More customer reviews)So, you waited MANY years to finally get the original Speed Racer show on DVD! (I know I did!) Well, you may be disappointed with this release. (I know I was!) Why was I so upset? Well, read on:
First and foremost, this is NOT the same version of Speed Racer we grew up with! Both the opening credits sequence and the closing credits sequence have been re-done. Gone are the original "Trans-Lux" credit and the exciting swirling white animated "Speed Racer" logo. Now, the opening boasts cheesy yellow & red titles that were obviously created by computer. The lousy graphics were then placed over a re-edited opening sequence that uses the original Japanese version as its base (You can see the swirling red Japanese title in the middle of the wheel). This is where the computer-generated credits are used (with jarring, ham-fisted edits!). The closing credits also feature computer-created graphics that are superimposed over out-of-focus background animation. The closing theme also appears to have been re-recorded...
Look, I know you shouldn't base your purchase solely on the fact the opening and closing credits were changed, so let's look at the episodes themselves:
The colors are very good, as it does look like the producers of this DVD went back to the original Japanese masters. The problem is that the producers decided to pack *5 hours* of material onto *one* single-sided DVD! The episodes have been compressed too much! The bit rate fluctuates from only 2.1Mbps to about 4.5Mbps. (Compare this to the 6.9Mbps to 10.0Mbps bit rate of Rhino's "Battle of the Planets" DVDs.) The Speed Racer episodes suffer from quite a bit of digital artifacting. My disc's video also freezes from time to time.
Maybe the producers of this think they are being generous by including 11 episodes. Well, I think they could have given us 11 episodes over 2 discs, or at least one double-sided disc. They compressed the material too much, and the final results are very disappointing.
Beyond the video compression the producers used to cram 5 hours of material onto one DVD, many of the episodes have also been "time-compressed", meaning they have been sped up. This is usually done so stations can air more commercials, but for a home video release, it's inexcusable!

So, how do I know they have been time-compressed? Well, I compared the actual episode content (minus the opening & closing credits) of the first eight episodes to the Japanese version. Of these first 8 episodes, 3 run faster than the originals. Now, the US-version is edited in a few places, so that will shorten their runing time, but identical portions should run the same speed. Sadly, they don't.

When you watch the episodes side by side (something my TV is capable of doing), the US Speed Racer episodes start getting ahead of their Japanese counterparts. Episodes 1, 7, and 8 all immediately start running faster than the originals. The running time for the first episode is 21:31. Compare that to the 22:45 of the Japanese original (1:14 faster). That's enough for 2 more commercials! Episode 7 is 1:35 faster, and episode 8 is a minute faster.

I don't want to speculate on why the producers felt the need to time-compress these episodes, but it shouldn't have been done!
The Japanese release of "Mach Go Go Go (Speed Racer's original Japanese name) came out on a total of 9 DVDs. They cost a lot more than this disc, yet they feature a much better picture, with less compression. I only wish the US-version was of the same high-standard as the Japanese-version. Sadly, it's not.
Finally, to emphasize how [bad] an operation this whole DVD is, look at its "1966" copyright date. Well, "Mach Go Go Go" wasn't released in Japan until 1967, and the US version didn't come out for another year or two...! Why 1966? How can a company release a truly definitive version of Speed Racer when they don't even know when it was made..?!

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The world's favorite high-octane animated hero is back! Roaring into action aboard his trusty Mach-5, it's the intrepid youngrace car driver who sparked an international cult phenomenon: the oneand only SPEED RACER! Now, for the first time ever, the first 11 episodes of this classichugely popular "Japanimation" series are brought together in thisspecial limited edition DVD.Turbo-charged with all of Speed Racer'strademark animated thrills, offbeat humor, unforgettable characters andcliff-hanger racing action, these collectible, specially remasteredepisodes are the stuff of every fan's dreams.So fasten your seatbelts- and join Speed, girlfriend Trixie, Speed's two brothers, onemischievous monkey, and an outrageous assortment of villains for onefast-lane, no-brakes, nonstop adventure after another! Ready...Set...Go, Speed Racer, Go!

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