[US DVD] Shadow Skill Complete Collection (2009 Edition)

[Chris Beveridge]

Review by Chris Beveridge

Mania Grade: B+
* Audio Rating: B+
* Video Rating: B
* Packaging Rating: B
* Menus Rating: B
* Extras Rating: B+
* Age Rating: 13 and Up
* Region: 1 - North America
* Released By: ADV Films
* MSRP: 44.98
* Running time: 650
* Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
* Disc Resolution: 480i/p
* Disc Encoding: MPEG-2
* Series: Shadow Skill

In Summary:
Shadow Skill was a series that I wasn't looking forward to back during its release in 2005 that I didn't even go with the singles. Now a few years later I'm almost regretting that as it turned out to be a rather enjoyable romp with fun characters, even if they are fairly one-note in their design. In watching the entire thirteen hours of it over the course of three days, it showed rather well how it all ties together while avoiding having a single ultimate villain becoming the big bad at the end. There is certainly enough material for another season to be had here and at the end of it I'll admit that I'd be interested in seeing more. This is relatively self contained though, inasmuch as a first book in a bigger series usually is, and I find myself coming away with mostly positive things to say about it. It's certainly not for everyone and they do avoid going into much detail about numerous aspects of how the world works, but as a character piece involving the strongest of the strongest, it's quite good.

[Betenoire]

Previous to this review most of what I'd read on this title was running it down, and as such the singles (which were picked up during one of the massive TRSI dump sales) have languished in my backlog. Judging by this review, it may be time to move them forward a bit and give the series a chance for myself.

[Orihimes_Boyfriend]

I saw it a while back. I thought it was a decent series.