Thanatos
04-04-2007, 09:57 PM
Take 2: the previous post I was working on was lost forever when Windows downloaded updates and restarted my computer without permission.
Because I've been very lazy and not wanting to watch raw anime, I have been putting off viewing Yuria Den Limited Edition. But since I watched Death Note 25 raw on late Tuesday night, I figured "what the hell, and Yuria Den even has Japanese subtitles!"
Packaging: the Yuria Den DVD is housed in a slide-out slip case which also contains an obi. (Yes! I was able to just cut the plastic on the side and remove the DVD without having to remove the plastic wrap on the slipcase.) Inside the slipcase there is a pack of manga-ish Yuria postcards and 4 trading cards featuring the Hokuto Brothers. The cover art on both the slipcase and DVD, oddly, does not have Yuria on it. Instead we have a starry background with Ken and a figure of ... REI... with blood all over him doing a swandive into Southern Cross City??
O...K...
I'd like to mention that nowhere in the actual OVA does Rei, or anyone else, assume this position. The cover is different from the mock-up released on amazon.co.jp and other J sites and different from the reg edition cover which has Yuria featured with Ken and Shin in the background.
The DVD case is a flipper containing both the feature disc and extras disc. And a lot of inserts. A lot.
Inserts:
Yuria Den insert + chapter guide
Raoh Den 2 fold-out poster
Pack of 4 bummer stickers with "ore no na wo itte miro!" "aishiteru wo itte miro!" "Nanto Gokuto Ken" and a yuria den one.
Raoh Den/Yuria Den OST Ad
Hokuto no Ken MMORPG Ad
Raoh Gaiden Manga Ad
Hokuto no Ken DX Ad - some kind of cell phone-accessible internet service off hokuto.com with exclusive content for 310 yen.
Souten no Ken DVD Release Ad
Menu: same as regular edition cover. Has play all, chapters, audio/sub selection and extras.
Video: Video is presented in 16:9 anamorphic progressively-encoded widescreen. Flawless.
Audio: Choice of either 5.1 or 2.0. For subtitles you have Japanese subtitles, "Technique subtitles", or none. I wasn't sure what Technique subs were, but it turns out they only contain onscreen subtitles for when special techniques are spoken on screen.
...
I believe these are the 2nd most useless special feature ever. The T subs have the kanji for the moves as well as the furigana, whereas the regular Japanese subtitles contain the kanji but not the furigana (only one word in the whole feature has furigana added). Oddly, the ending theme song has no subtitles but on the extras disc the ending theme music video is hardsubtitled.
Extras: Disc 1 has ads for Yuria Den, Raoh Den 2 Movie, Raoh Den DVD, and Souten no Ken DVD releases. Disc 2 contains a 22-minute interview with the new Yuria actress, a Eien ni Yuria "movie version" music video, and a 14 minute animated Yuria Gaiden manga with voiceovers, which details an adventure Yuria and Kenshirou had as crazy teens in love.
Content: I won't say a ton because I don't want to spoil the OVA. Yuria Den has the same level of fantastic character designs (with Yuria as a guest designer from City Hunter's Houjou because Hara can't draw an attractive woman to save his life) and background art detail as the Raoh Den movie, though the animation is nowhere near as good. But Yuria Den doesn't really need good animation, as doesn't have a lot of action scenes. While Raoh Den played out as an epic action film, Yuria Den is a collection of Hokuto no Ken backstory flashbacks in chronological order with talking heads. We get to see Yuria meeting Ken and how their love was written in the stars; Jagi attempting to kill Ken and his resulting disfigurement; Jagi's corruption of Shin; Shin stealing Yuria; Toki saving Ken and Yuria; etc. The film doesn't show Jagi or Shin meeting their ends and some other choice scenes, but I think generally it's well-edited. It ends with an epilogue to the Raoh Den film and sets up the new Raoh Den 2 movie which is coming out in theatres this month.
There is some new retconned material. Yuria, while previously having only the Helen of Troy-like power to make everyone on Earth fall in love with her and kill to own her, she now possesses limited precognition to see people's destinies. There are some new characters and scenes such as Yuria capturing Rei and sending him to Ken because she senses he will be a great ally to him, as well as scenes involving Yuria's dog Toby (spoiler: he's a stand user! :P ) and foster father.
Though the OVA is mostly talking, there is some gore: in addition to various stabbings and beheadings, we're treated to a tiger getting bloodily decapitated and Rei slicing up punks UNEDITED, though sadly it's lots of blood but no finely detailed pieces of brain tissue.
When I first saw the teaser trailer for Yuria Den, I was horrified by Crystal King's new techno-dance remix of the Hokuto ending theme song Eien ni Yuria, but the whole version actually sounds good and not like blasphemy. (I do wonder what happened to the chick's voice however...)
Overall, this is a nice addition to the Hokuto franchise even if it tells us stuff we mostly already know, and adds some new, odd retcons that don't quite make logical sense but fit within the alternate universe that Shin Kyuuseishuu Hokuto has created. Yuria Den gives backstory and sets up the Raoh Den 2 film, but it itself is really a character study and not an exciting action film. I have to wonder what Toki Den OVA and thus Ken Den Movie will be like, because after Raoh Den 2 it doesn't seem like there's going to be more Hokuto no Ken 1 material to cover... unless Ken Den is all flashbacks or in fact "Falco Den."
Because I've been very lazy and not wanting to watch raw anime, I have been putting off viewing Yuria Den Limited Edition. But since I watched Death Note 25 raw on late Tuesday night, I figured "what the hell, and Yuria Den even has Japanese subtitles!"
Packaging: the Yuria Den DVD is housed in a slide-out slip case which also contains an obi. (Yes! I was able to just cut the plastic on the side and remove the DVD without having to remove the plastic wrap on the slipcase.) Inside the slipcase there is a pack of manga-ish Yuria postcards and 4 trading cards featuring the Hokuto Brothers. The cover art on both the slipcase and DVD, oddly, does not have Yuria on it. Instead we have a starry background with Ken and a figure of ... REI... with blood all over him doing a swandive into Southern Cross City??
O...K...
I'd like to mention that nowhere in the actual OVA does Rei, or anyone else, assume this position. The cover is different from the mock-up released on amazon.co.jp and other J sites and different from the reg edition cover which has Yuria featured with Ken and Shin in the background.
The DVD case is a flipper containing both the feature disc and extras disc. And a lot of inserts. A lot.
Inserts:
Yuria Den insert + chapter guide
Raoh Den 2 fold-out poster
Pack of 4 bummer stickers with "ore no na wo itte miro!" "aishiteru wo itte miro!" "Nanto Gokuto Ken" and a yuria den one.
Raoh Den/Yuria Den OST Ad
Hokuto no Ken MMORPG Ad
Raoh Gaiden Manga Ad
Hokuto no Ken DX Ad - some kind of cell phone-accessible internet service off hokuto.com with exclusive content for 310 yen.
Souten no Ken DVD Release Ad
Menu: same as regular edition cover. Has play all, chapters, audio/sub selection and extras.
Video: Video is presented in 16:9 anamorphic progressively-encoded widescreen. Flawless.
Audio: Choice of either 5.1 or 2.0. For subtitles you have Japanese subtitles, "Technique subtitles", or none. I wasn't sure what Technique subs were, but it turns out they only contain onscreen subtitles for when special techniques are spoken on screen.
...
I believe these are the 2nd most useless special feature ever. The T subs have the kanji for the moves as well as the furigana, whereas the regular Japanese subtitles contain the kanji but not the furigana (only one word in the whole feature has furigana added). Oddly, the ending theme song has no subtitles but on the extras disc the ending theme music video is hardsubtitled.
Extras: Disc 1 has ads for Yuria Den, Raoh Den 2 Movie, Raoh Den DVD, and Souten no Ken DVD releases. Disc 2 contains a 22-minute interview with the new Yuria actress, a Eien ni Yuria "movie version" music video, and a 14 minute animated Yuria Gaiden manga with voiceovers, which details an adventure Yuria and Kenshirou had as crazy teens in love.
Content: I won't say a ton because I don't want to spoil the OVA. Yuria Den has the same level of fantastic character designs (with Yuria as a guest designer from City Hunter's Houjou because Hara can't draw an attractive woman to save his life) and background art detail as the Raoh Den movie, though the animation is nowhere near as good. But Yuria Den doesn't really need good animation, as doesn't have a lot of action scenes. While Raoh Den played out as an epic action film, Yuria Den is a collection of Hokuto no Ken backstory flashbacks in chronological order with talking heads. We get to see Yuria meeting Ken and how their love was written in the stars; Jagi attempting to kill Ken and his resulting disfigurement; Jagi's corruption of Shin; Shin stealing Yuria; Toki saving Ken and Yuria; etc. The film doesn't show Jagi or Shin meeting their ends and some other choice scenes, but I think generally it's well-edited. It ends with an epilogue to the Raoh Den film and sets up the new Raoh Den 2 movie which is coming out in theatres this month.
There is some new retconned material. Yuria, while previously having only the Helen of Troy-like power to make everyone on Earth fall in love with her and kill to own her, she now possesses limited precognition to see people's destinies. There are some new characters and scenes such as Yuria capturing Rei and sending him to Ken because she senses he will be a great ally to him, as well as scenes involving Yuria's dog Toby (spoiler: he's a stand user! :P ) and foster father.
Though the OVA is mostly talking, there is some gore: in addition to various stabbings and beheadings, we're treated to a tiger getting bloodily decapitated and Rei slicing up punks UNEDITED, though sadly it's lots of blood but no finely detailed pieces of brain tissue.
When I first saw the teaser trailer for Yuria Den, I was horrified by Crystal King's new techno-dance remix of the Hokuto ending theme song Eien ni Yuria, but the whole version actually sounds good and not like blasphemy. (I do wonder what happened to the chick's voice however...)
Overall, this is a nice addition to the Hokuto franchise even if it tells us stuff we mostly already know, and adds some new, odd retcons that don't quite make logical sense but fit within the alternate universe that Shin Kyuuseishuu Hokuto has created. Yuria Den gives backstory and sets up the Raoh Den 2 film, but it itself is really a character study and not an exciting action film. I have to wonder what Toki Den OVA and thus Ken Den Movie will be like, because after Raoh Den 2 it doesn't seem like there's going to be more Hokuto no Ken 1 material to cover... unless Ken Den is all flashbacks or in fact "Falco Den."