Search - Agent Aika: Anime Legends on DVD

Nice, but the "remastering" killed the atmosphere.

Takahashii | Wageningen, Netherlands | 05/14/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I don't know where the big companies got it from but with every "re-release" on Anime out there the buzzword seems to be "remastering" these days. Usually they promise us that the colors are now finally "bright and sparkleing". However, with that I don't always agree. When you've seen the original trials (an Aika episode is called a "trial") then this could put you off on this release. In many scenes some colors (red, yellow) have become so saturated that there is almost no room left for any nuances. And no matter how silly this series is, sometimes its small nuances which create the atmosphere. Note however that this problem (personal opinion) isn't something specific for this release, you see this happening a lot with re-released Anime these days. Personally I think this to be a bad development; its as if someone who never drew any animation suddenly knows what the original animators we're trying to achieve, which is something I don't believe.

But, despite all that I still think this is an interesting buy if you're into Aika. Summing up Aika (many others have done reviews on the series so I won't go there) can be best done with "panty shots". And lots of them.

What makes this DVD collection interessting is that it contains all trials and some nice extras. Unfortunately they have overdone the extra's a little to my opinion (including a textless opening/ending of all 8 trials even though they only have 3 different versions is a bit silly in my opinion). But that is made up for with some other interesting extra's which - to my knowledge - never made it into the original releases. Like original Japanese Aika trailers to advertise the series, as well as a full blown "OVA like" episode. And there is ofcourse the episode of the live action.

The only thing which I found lacking here was a video clip composed of several scenes of the original trials which features the "Silent City" intro music.

So summing up: Because of the remastering the DVD might put you off, but having all episodes in one box which has some interesting extra's might make up for that.
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