Kita ze Inbou! - キタぜ陰謀!

My first entry, ne? Well gee, I wonder why…So yesterday when I came home I wasn’t expecting my order to come one week in advanced. Amazon, you filthy liars! Well, before I could actually get to watching, my outlets had to work again, and for some reason only my room’s outlets worked at the time. Freaky…

Anyways, on to the main point. The Shana DVD and CD combo pack was packaged very nicely. It’s got a loose casing but no biggie. The front has the Vol. 1 cover shown (and a very nice first cover, Ito-san!) The back holds the OST with a beautiful image of Shana and her lovely flaming hair.

Right when you open it up, you can see a survey card on the left compartment and the disc on the right, complete with the DVD cover image. You’ll also find what looks to be a poster card with the DVD cover on it as well, very nice. The back of the card lists the release dates for all the Shana DVDs, revealing its release as bimonthly. I couldn’t exactly wait so here’s the deal when I popped the disc in.

After some loading, the Shana DVD menu finally appears. Beautiful Shana on the screen with the logo. A very distinct background and set up of the selections, with the “Shana” track playing in the background. They’re all aligned and simple to know. You’ve got your Play, 1, 2, 3, 4, Chapters, and your Set-up/Extras. Needless to say, I had to choose to play all of them first.

First thing I noticed was the lack of subtitles for the English audio, which is somewhat understandable since we can clearly tell what they’re saying, although it would’ve been a nice addition too. Next up the anamorphic widescreen presentation. Now I don’t know if my TV has zooming in problems but I had a hard time finding the right resolution to watch it in. It’s not really a big issue anyway since the quality looks very excellent.

The End to Everything, the One Beginning

The very first episode, starting off with the introduction as always. I’m pretty sure you know whose voice is hear first no? None other than the Flame of the Heavens himself, Alastor. Looks like the Ocean Group is the ADR prodcution. Anyways, Alastor’s voice is quite awesome. His voice isn’t as deep but it’s very raspy. Oh boy, Hishoku no Sora (Scarlet Color Sky)! Watching this on the TV screen looks so damn stunning. Only the OP/ED apparently gave translations + subtitles. Although in the following three episodes, they use romaji instead.

Now, all I can say is, Geneon did their job well done. The dubbing process was overall great for the first episode. However, I’m not very fond of the first episode anyhow so I wasn’t nearly convinced yet until episode 2. Ah yes, and they kept a lot of the terms intact.
The Lit Flame

The 2nd episode comes on now and this one was obviously more tasteful to watch. I completely forgot how awesome it was. Just the way the music suddenly emerges and the change in atmosphere. Let’s get down to voice-over business. First off is Yuji. In one word, he’s perfect. I might find it more fitting than his Japanese counterpart, but that’s just me talking. He narrates the episodes flawlessly and he does a good job playing as Yuji, especially right after he gets even more lines starting episode 2. He gets even better by the episode, so I’m real glad for that.

Friagne sounds like a pervert with a doll fetish to me. Marianne is… well she’s a doll lol. Tanaka and Keisaku have great voices. Ike… well yeah, his too, although I nearly got confused with Yuji’s voice too.
Here’s what you’re all expecting huh? Well, Shana’s voice… I must say, it sounds completely different than Kugimiya Rie’s voice by a whole lot. The irony is that her dub voice is perfect for Shana as well. Heck even Hirai’s English voice does a good job. Shana’s voice got much deeper, making her sound like a fully-grown teenaged girl but she still carries the same attitude like she’s supposed to. Is this a problem? I think not. In fact, you start to grow on her voice as the episodes go by, just like Yuji. It’s nothing to be distrubed about really. Even her “Shut up, shut up, shut up!” is still cute and hilarious. She says it better each time.

The Torch and the Flame Haze

Here’s where things start to shine. Shana takes on Hirai’s form and is now watching over Yuji at school. I think this is the first time I got to hear the exclaimed “Damn it!” in dubbed anime for a while. It’s also the first time I’ve heard a dubbed anime use the word “asshole” too (LMAO). Do I really miss Kugimiya’s Engrish? Well… Tabitha St. Germain does a wonderful job voicing Shana, I don’t really mind it at all. Her tsuntsun side was really a great thing to see again, outsmarting all the teachers and such. Yoshida’s got a cute voice, and it’s pretty deep too. :O Then comes the new Flame Haze… bwahahaha…

The Confused Flame Haze

So the old geezer comes into town, though not even introduced ’til much later. Although, we do now receive the full attention of Margery Daw!!! Oh, such an elegant figure and a wonderful voice to boot. Hell, Marco sounds very young but still has that spunky laughter and remarks on his favorite Goblet. The episode unfortunately ended with a cliffhanger so now I have to get the next volume soon. >.>

DVD Extras

Extras that were included was a Production Gallery, filled with 42 images, the first several images from the original illustrator Noiji Ito herself, and the anime production art. We also get a treat to a creditless opening video. Lastly, some previews of Geneon series and DVD credits. I might have missed something but that’s about it on the DVD. I think it’s well worth the price for the DVD alone. I only got the combo pack ’cause I felt like it.

Shana OST

The great folks at Geneon always love OSTs, so what better than to give this another listen? According to the little packet, Kow Otani was looking for a dark fantasy European feel when he composed the music. Listening to all of his compositions are always great, espeically Bataille and Sérieux. Never gets old. The booklet also has lyrics to the OP/ED with romaji and English translations. How nifty of you guys. :X

So what’s my rec to you? Well… personally I love what I got and got what I love. I think for anyone else, the DVD is all you really need. The OST you can easily get it online like I did, but if you want a pretty CD cover and nice packaging, go on ahead and get the combo pack! ^_^