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Gluhen DVD 1 Review
Before we start - I lucked out today and snagged my copy of "Knight Hunters Eternity vol 1 - New Blood" in San Jose's Japantown a few days ahead of street date. This has been my most anticipated dvd release of the summer, and Media Blasters/Anime Works didn't fail to deliver. For this review, I watch the first episode entirely in dub, spot-checked the dub and sub in the remaining four episodes in key scenes, and watched the extras. I'll post an additional comments/complaints that come up when I get to watch the other four episodes with my husband tonight, but having already seen those episodes countless times in fansubbed format before, I'm not concerned about missing out on context or content.


Things they did right:

DUB OUTTAKES!!! <--- Buy it for this reason alone, the outtakes are great!

Two subtitle tracks - one for incidental otherwise-untranslated Japanese on screen ("soft overlays", I think?), and the usual subs that go with the Japanese track. This is a nice bit of effort for people who prefer the dub but would lose out on things like the screensaver messages and signs, yet gives the option to shut them off completely for AMV capturing. Not that I would know anything about that, oh no. ^_~

Five episodes on the first dvd of a 13 episode series. Most licensers would go with the 4-3-3-3 release for more money, but Media Blasters is really giving you the bang for your buck and getting the series out faster to fans in a 5-4-4 three disc, bimonthly release.

Video and sound quality - no qualms here. I've yet to compare it to my Region 2 IN FLAMES dvd, but nothing stood out glaringly wrong when I watched it. The video looked pretty crisp, there weren't any noticeable audio dropouts, and it didn't have the irritating flickering white line along the top or bottom of the screen that plagues certain anime company's discs. (*coughADVcough*)

The story, dammit! And god forbid, animation that uses more than two frames per second - Gluhen's animation blows the first series out of the water.


Things they did wrong:

Nearly all references to "Weiss Kreuz Gluhen" are cut from the animation. The eyecatches fade to white rather than show the final screen with the Weiss Kreuz Gluhen logo; the creditless opening has the original title screen (with the night sky behind it) cut completely and replaced with a black screen with background flickering flames. Also, all of the animated episode title screens have been replaced with just the background template - I presume this is, again, to eliminate references to the show's original name.*

Episode 1, while properly titled "White Flames" in the dvd insert, comes up as "White Flowers" in the dvd subtitles. Oops? As for the second episode, since it's the only episode that was originally titled entirely in Japanese, I'm a little puzzled by their translation - "God Grieves Over Important Things", whereas every fansubber I'd seen tackle it named it some variation on "God Hurts the Ones He Loves", which I *think* (please correct me if I'm wrong) is a Farfarello image song. Since I don't know a bit of Japanese, though, I'm completely unqualified to argue the point either way.

Menus - there's some kind of weird flashing/artifacting? going on along the square defining the menus that makes me dizzy if I leave them on too long. The background images picked are nice and the music is nice, but because the menu is so distracting I'm not inclined to linger on the menus.


*While I'm bitching about these omissions, I will also note that Media Blasters has stated repeatedly in the past that changing the name "Weiss Kreuz" to "Knight Hunters" was a condition of the licensing from its Japanese owners. As such, it's possible the ommissions in the current dvd are a licensing issue and beyond their control.


Things that fall somewhere in between:

The dub - I never thought I'd see the day I thought Omi's dub voice was better acted than Aya's, but with the replacement of pissy Kapitel Aya with someone who sounds a little too much like dub Masafumi is a bit of an adjustment even for me. Omi's voice has deepened a bit for his new role, and skimming over episode five, I must say I am impressed with his delivery. Rex and Kyou seemed really well-casted and acted, and Sena's a bit of a mixed bag to me. I suspect dub Sena will grow on me, but he seems just right about half of time and not quite right the rest of the time.

Cover art - Well, I like it, and it could have been far worse (just think of what Central Park Media could have done to it if they'd had the license), but having seen the covers for the R2 release, I was admittedly hoping for something a little more like that. Actually, what I really wanted was the second Gluhen drama cd picture with all six members of Weiss, but I know that's a little unreasonable. ^_~ Still, I think it's eye-catching and a nice presentation overall.

Dub vs. Sub - I put on the subs for a few minutes while watching the first episode in dub, and just like the dub for the first WK series, there is a difference in dialogue. There's added dialogue ("You ass!" from Sena to Toudou), noticeable added profanity (mild, admittedly), and in some cases, the dub dialogue has been changed enough that it obscures or changes the meaning of the original Japanese. None of these are severe, and it's certainly not as bad as say, an ADV butcher job (Generator Gawl, anyone?), but it can be jarring when you're pretty damn sure they never said that in Japanese, and upon flipping the subs on, your hunch is confirmed.


You'll note I did not include character designs on any of the lists above. While I was initially opposed to the design changes, I've grown to love the Gluhen character designs as an evolution in the characters themselves, to the extent that for many of the characters I prefer their Gluhen design.

The dvd is set for release on this coming Tuesday (07/27/04), but if your local retailers break street date like mine do, you can probably find it this weekend - assuming you aren't one of the lucky ones who already found it at your local anime conventions earlier this month.

Despite any minor gripes mentioned above, I highly recommend this dvd.