Kizuna: Kazuma Kodaka Signature Edition

By Chris Beveridge     September 14, 2007
Release Date: March 07, 2006



What They Say
Ranmaru and Kei have a strong and passionate relationship built on years of trust, sacrifice and love. But when the mysterious son of a Yakuza boss pursues Ranmaru's affection, tempers flare, and hidden emotions rise to the surface...especially when the stranger turns out to be Kei's own half-brother! Will Ranmaru and Kei's love survive, or will the emotional conflict finally come to a head?

OVER 90 MINUTES OF GREAT BONUS FEATURES

The Review!
Is the third time the charm for watching this OVA series?

Audio:
Unlike previous releases of this series, this edition features a brand new English language adaptation. Both tracks are presented in a basic stereo mix done at 192 kbps and just like the previous edition of this series it feels like it's a bit low. Beyond that however what we get is a basic mix with a simple forward soundstage layout. Dialogue is clean and clear but there's really nothing to be found in terms of placement or depth. It does sound good once you bump up the volume a little bit and both tracks are free of distortions or dropouts.

Video:
Originally released in 1994, the transfer for this OVA release is presented in its original full frame aspect ratio. This edition of Kizuna, which has both OVAs on it instead of just one, essentially looks just like the single releases if not a touch worse because of the copious amounts of extras to be had here. That said, this show has never looked great to begin with so it can look only so good. It still has a significant amount of grain throughout the program but more heavily at the beginning. This is simply the only materials that must be left for it so I doubt it'll ever look any better. Once the major grain section is passed though, things do look much better and in general the colors are good and free of most problems. There's some considerable softness in a lot of scenes but cross coloration and aliasing are both pretty minimal to non-existent.

Packaging:
This "Signature Edition" release of the series takes the cover artwork from both single volumes and uses it well. The slipcover uses the artwork from the second volume with the good looking logo and the tagline of it being the Kazuma Kodaka Signature Edition while the keepcase uses the artwork from the first volume. The back covers for each are identical as it uses a good deal of pink to tie together the various shots from the show that highlight the character designs as well as the sexual nature of it. And yes, I'm still shocked that a quote from AnimeOnDVD is there. The layout of the discs features is fairly standard for a CPM/Be Beautiful release which means it's all there but not too cleanly kept together. The reverse side of the keepcase has some black and white artwork of the two leads together on the left while the right side features the chapter lists and bilingual cast list. The remainder is filled out with the usual production credits from both sides. A booklet is included that contains the cover art of the first seven volumes of the manga series by Kodaka.

Menu:
The main menu is nicely done with a faux letterbox style applied to it with reds and grays while animation clips play through the center. Though it avoids anything too risqué, it does show off lots of good looking menu while a bit of upbeat music plays along. The navigation strip along the right is standard material for a BB/CPM release which means it's quick to navigate but also quicker to actually start into the show itself as setting language options doesn't take you back to the menu. The disc does function quite well overall though and it correctly read our players' language presets and played accordingly.

Extras:
Be Beautiful has brought a lot to the table here to really make this a "signature edition" that's definitive in terms of Kodaka's involvement. The extras here are all original and very much in favor of fans of the series. Having flown her in to New York for several days, they took the time to provide some really engaging extras. Some are short, like a look at the book signing she did that broke records at the time or the seven minute Q&A session after they showed the OVAs at the Japan Society. The lengthier bits include a nearly fifteen minute Q&A session in the studio with Kodaka and a "yaoi researcher" which goes over the changes in yaoi in the last couple of decades and her own experiences.

Where the real meat is in the extras is in the commentary track. A full length commentary has been recorded for both episodes that you can listen to during playback with Kodaka and those that were at her side during every event here. The commentary is certainly fascinating enough as she talks about yaoi and the culture of it in Japan but also side stories from others that help to highlight differences and similarities. What is really engaging about this commentary is that they provided a video commentary along with it. So you can either just listen to it during the actual show or you can watch a separately encoded piece that flashes back between the show, the recording session and other material. Having Kodaka on hand and seeing how she reacts to questions or how she gives answers is quite a lot of fun and adds some real warmth to the commentary overall. Though there are some repeated questions and answers across all of the extras on here, the commentary provides the most material as it gets beyond the usual first questions and into the deeper and more interesting questions.

If I have only one gripe with all of these extras, it's that they're all hard subtitled. Whether for ease or dual use in something else, it's annoying that even in 2006 we were seeing it from a company like Central Park Media and its Be Beautiful label.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Kizuna was the first yaoi series to makes its way to release here, mostly because it's fairly harmless compared to most straight adult series. It's strong in showing some upper chest skin and pretty boys, but it avoids for the most part in this first episode going all the way. Originally released by Ariztical back in 2001, Be Beautiful milked it rather well for their acquisition. After putting out the show in single form during late 2005, they double dipped rather quickly with a Signature Edition release in 2006.

What's likely attributed to poor timing, the single volume releases were scheduled and then Kodaka came to New York during finalization of materials. So rather than cancel it, they took the chance on releasing it in single form and then putting out this edition later on. That's something that certainly annoyed those who follow such release details but likely went over the heads of the more casual Kizuna fans. The Signature Edition however really did bring a lot of great material to its release so it doesn't feel quite like a cheap move by Be Beautiful when combined with the way they cheaply priced the singles. If you just wanted the show, you could get it at a pretty good price and earlier. But if you wanted all the Kodaka goodness, it'll cost a few bucks more and come a few months later but it would be all on one disc.

Being the son of a yakuza boss, Enjyoji knows that the hit was made for him, so he tries his best to make things up for Ranmaru and to make his life easier. But Ranmaru wants to get back into the swing of things, with the exception of his fencing and kendo career, as that is completely over with now. But during his first day back at work as what appears to be a professors assistant, he finds himself being taken to a gay bar and being hit on by the professor.

Through what is likely planning on his part, one of the waiters at the club is Enjoyji's half brother from another marriage, and he manages to rescue Ranmaru from his would be attacker after the drink is laced with a drug. Kai doesn't reveal himself here, but takes off after the professor and leaves Ranmaru to be helped by others in the bar.

When Enjyoji learns of all of this, we start to see some flashbacks to their high school past as well as Enjoyji's earlier past with his yakuza father. We also see a fair bit of Kai's past and the current way things run between him and his father as well as his guardian yakuza, who apparently has strong feelings for him.

While I don't have anything against yaoi, and I'd like to see more, I have something against poorly plotted anime. This show definitely falls under that category, in that the story is so haphazardly told, you begin to forget who's related to whom and why there's bad blood between the half brothers and so forth. The animation itself is fairly nice, being of more striking design for the leads being college aged men as opposed to high school boys. It definitely has an early 90's look to it though.

In Summary:
In comparison to the original release by Artizcal or the single volume releases by Be Beautiful, it's a no-brainer to pick this up as it lives up to its labeling as a Signature Edition. The improved transfer and lack of hard subtitles over the Artizcal release and the copious amount of extras here really set it apart from everything that's come before. Whereas I felt that Be Beautiful had dropped the ball with the singles by splitting up the two OVAs and the not providing a dub, they've fixed all of that here and produced a solid release While this isn't anywhere near my favorite show, it's not a terribly bad intro to very light yaoi that focuses more on the love and romance aspect than the sex.

Features
Japanese 2.0 Language,English 2.0 Language,English Subtitles, Audio Commentary by creator Kazuma Kodaka,Video Interview with Kazuma Kodaka, Video Footage of Kazuma Kodaka's attendance of the Japan Society Screening of Kizuna,Kazuma Kodaka's Autograph Session at Kinokuniya NY

Review Equipment
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70" LCoS 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 480p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.