Yes it seems Manga Entertainment have finally managed to release a DVD with absolutely no problems at all, this is no doubt down to Viz Media's assistance. I'm talking about the volume 1 release of Death Note which I was pleasently surprised with the quality all round. Let's have a run through...
1. The video transfer is absolutely perfect as far as I can tell. There are no errors in the encoding that put the video and audio out of sync. The same goes for the audio.
2. The subtitles are a translation of the Japanese language and not dubtitles.
3. This is perhaps the first time EVER that I've seen SIGN SUBS on a Manga Ent DVD. Usually these are omitted and becomes very annoying whilst watching a dubbed version when japanese text appears on screen untranslated.
4. Nice artwork for the cover, menus and so on.
5. The fact that we got two DVDs in one set rather than releasing one DVD at a time and what's more doing it for a affordable price.
6. A decent selection of extras. Rather than just the usual Opening and Closing without credits and Trailers there are also several audio commentaries, interviews and behind the scenes footage from both English and Japanese production staff.
I hope the Death Note releases keep up this high quality and I'll continue to buy them. I hope their other releases match the standard this release has set.
I'll also mention that I found the dub to be excellent and even go as far as saying that L's voice in English is A LOT better than it is in Japanese. However the English Ryuk doesn't pull off his signature laugh and Detective Yagami's dub actor was quite stiff compared to the others *which is a shame because he's my favourite character). Regardless it was still a fantastic dub.
Well done Manga. Just keep it up.
1. The video transfer is absolutely perfect as far as I can tell. There are no errors in the encoding that put the video and audio out of sync. The same goes for the audio.
2. The subtitles are a translation of the Japanese language and not dubtitles.
3. This is perhaps the first time EVER that I've seen SIGN SUBS on a Manga Ent DVD. Usually these are omitted and becomes very annoying whilst watching a dubbed version when japanese text appears on screen untranslated.
4. Nice artwork for the cover, menus and so on.
5. The fact that we got two DVDs in one set rather than releasing one DVD at a time and what's more doing it for a affordable price.
6. A decent selection of extras. Rather than just the usual Opening and Closing without credits and Trailers there are also several audio commentaries, interviews and behind the scenes footage from both English and Japanese production staff.
I hope the Death Note releases keep up this high quality and I'll continue to buy them. I hope their other releases match the standard this release has set.
I'll also mention that I found the dub to be excellent and even go as far as saying that L's voice in English is A LOT better than it is in Japanese. However the English Ryuk doesn't pull off his signature laugh and Detective Yagami's dub actor was quite stiff compared to the others *which is a shame because he's my favourite character). Regardless it was still a fantastic dub.
Well done Manga. Just keep it up.
