English and Japanese in 2.0, 5.1 and DTS.
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There is a generous supply of extras which fill the second disc which are mainly continuations of extras from previous volumes. On top trailers for other titles, there’s a 20 minute lecture on the Heian period, 7 minutes for a behind the scenes feature, an 8 minute piece about the ending theme and 25 minutes for a group discussion between the central production staff.
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After a somewhat uninspiring last volume, things were about to kick off in a big way at the end of volume 2 as Shutendoji’s plan of invading of the capital had been revealed. Hikaru and her group move into action to stop him.
This volume is an improvement on the last and I’ll get round to talking about the good stuff later, but first I want get the bad points out of the way. The main problem with Otogi Zoshi has always been its poor plotlines, and things haven’t especially improved. As the first half of the series escalates to a spectacular finale Hikaru is continually shell-shocked at each twist of the plot. The fact that each of these revelations is totally obvious and a by the numbers non-event is disappointing.
One of the more significant moments reveals the identity of the masked Seimei. With the opportunity to stand the whole series on its head and shake the foundations of the viewer’s regard to the show (which considering what is about to happen for the next disc was entirely possible), it instead simply confirms the glaringly obvious to anyone who has been vaguely paying any attention over the last two discs. With its limited cast and linear story, the series has trapped itself as to its options and this far down the line there is nowhere for it to go apart from in an uninteresting straight line.
That’s the bad part over with, now it’s time to be more positive. The artwork is still lovely and its quality in maintaining a good atmosphere has remained consistent. Its impressive style still makes it all too easy to be fooled into expecting this show to rise above the other generic action shows that are out there. It is best to ignore these perceptions and downgrade them more along the lines of ‘it looks cool and has samurai and ninjas and stuff’, and then you’ll find that this is a much better way of enjoying the hackneyed plot.
There’s a war going on and everyone’s holding a weapon, so it’s with a certain amount of pleasure that the action picks up. Things are a little more brutal as the stakes are upped and while having been fairly realistic up until this point, I find a bit of glee in seeing a bad guy mutate into a nasty looking monster who’s up for some scraps. I’ll admit to liking my action and something that goes beyond reality every now and then really helps to break up the groansome plot with its po-faced characters. These parts have been what have made the series worth watching for me so I didn’t mind in the slightest when things kicked off.
The first half of the series is over, and it looks like the second half will be very different in both its content and tone. It seems as though this samurai drama has been a starter in preparation for the main course where the creator’s real intentions and ideas have been placed. It’s been fun in its own peculiar way up until this point, so I’m very interested in seeing what will happen in part two.
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Not as intelligent as it wants to be, but that said there’s some interesting elements going on in the background which have yet to bear fruit so it might yet throw that notion back in my face. As things currently stand though this series is an enjoyable action show if you can stand its cheesy story and characters. "
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