Darker Than Black - Volumes 5 and 6

Label: Manga Entertainment.
Certificate: 15
Discs: 2. (7 episodes + 1 bonus episode)
Running time: 192 minutes approx
Video: 16.9 anamorphic
Sound: English 5.1, Japanese 2.0
Subtitles: English.
Release date: 28th December 2009
RRP: £19.99 - Amazon - Play

Brief synopsis:

Going unseen by the eyes of the public at large, covert agents for a multitude of clandestine organisations roam freely amongst the populace. Blending in unnoticed, these agents are known as Contractors, beings that were once normal people who have left their humanity behind in exchange for bizarre supernatural powers. They work spies and assassins, using their skills and abilities as well as their cold and logical minds to carry out the dirty work of various nations and political powers. One such agent, BK201 known as the Black Reaper, is different to his fellow Contractors; his humanity remains and his abilities come to him freely and with no need for a trade off or remuneration for their use. This mysterious masked man finds himself deeply embroiled in what could turn out to be the final battle in a secret war between the Contractors and various factions within the human race. But in this war, the final battle decides which race will survive, Humanity or the Contractors.

Comments:

With this, the last twin pack in the current Darker Than Black series, Production company Bones has managed something that the likes of GONZO have been trying to do for years; namely present a good plot with well written story lines and interesting characters whilst at the same time maintaining high quality animation all the way though. This is certainly a production company to be keeping an eye on. As at time of writing there’s currently a sequel is airing on Japanese TV which with any luck we should be seeing ourselves on DVD in the very near future.

Often a great series like this can be let down by a lacklustre English language dub but in this case US distributor FUNimation have really pulled it out of the bag with one of their best dubs to date, especially where the more established and explored characters are concerned. There’s still the occasional mispronunciation of Japanese names and terms but not enough to put a dampener on proceedings. Over the last year or so FUNimation seem to have put a lot of effort into bolstering their pool of good voice actors instead of just relying on refugees from ADV films now defunct dub studio.

Also, the English language version is at times a whole lot easier to follow during the last two or three episodes where it becomes most important to get your head around who’s being doing what and why. It can stray into Evangelion or Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex head twister territory at times so in this instance I’d actually go so far as to suggest that those of you who prefer to steer away from the dub give it go this time, if only for the final disc.

As I mentioned in our pervious review for this series; musically this show is a real treat to listen to. But then Darker than Black’s composer Yoko Kanno could probably fart in the tub and still produce a better melody than anything coming from the studios of Simon Cowell. This is just a personal opinion of course and in no way reflects the official SFL stance on any of Mr Cowell’s productions.

Extras:

Each of the two discs includes an Audio Commentary for one episode, Character Bios, Production Art Gallery and the ever-present Textless Opening & Closing Songs. The final disc also includes a bonus un-transmitted 26th episode that was originally only available in Japan on DVD

Darker Than Black - Volumes 5 and 6 will be available from most high streets and online retailers from 28th December 2009. A SFL review of the first two twin-packs can be found here.

The Slayers Try - Volume 1

Label: MVM.
Certificate: 12
Discs: 1. (6 episodes)
Running time: 150 minutes
Video: 4:3
Audio: Japanese 2.0, English 2.0.
Subtitles: English.
Release date: 7th September 2009
RRP: £15.99 - Amazon - Play

The Slayers Try - Volume 2

Label: MVM.
Certificate: 12
Discs: 1. (7 episodes)
Running time: 175 minutes
Video: 4:3
Audio: Japanese 2.0, English 2.0.
Subtitles: English.
Release date: 5th October 2009
RRP: £15.99 - Amazon - Play

The Slayers Try - Volume 3

Label: MVM.
Certificate: PG
Discs: 1. (7 episodes)
Running time: 175 minutes
Video: 4:3
Audio: Japanese 2.0, English 2.0.
Subtitles: English.
Release date: 9th November 2009
RRP: £15.99 - Amazon - Play

The Slayers Try - Volume 4

Label: MVM.
Certificate: 12
Discs: 1. (6 episodes)
Running time: 150 minutes approx
Video: 4:3
Audio: Japanese 2.0, English 2.0.
Subtitles: English.
Release date: 4th January 2010
RRP: £15.99 - Amazon - Play

Brief synopsis:

Several months after the end of Slayer’s next we rejoin spunky teen sorceress Lina Inverse and her travelling party of mismatched misfits. Now that the Mazuko’s magical barrier to the outside world has been destroyed, passage to these new lands is finally possible. There’s new countries to explore, new people to meet and, more importantly, all manner of new and exciting cuisine to be quaffed. Lina’s intent on getting out there to start sampling previously unforeseen menus, plundering undiscovered treasures and relieving the wealthy & unwitting of their purses. But barely have they had time to even start on the hors-d'oeuvres when they become entangled in a prophecy involving Dark Star Dugradigdo, a dark lord from another dimension, who’s stated to be coming to their world and will bring nothing by destruction and chaos in it’s wake.

Comments:

So here we have the fourth and final Slayers TV series produced in the 20th century before production took a ten-year hiatus until 2008 when the fifth series, Slayers Revolution was finally released. Originally released in 1997, Slayers Try follows almost straight on from Slayers Next and the animation quality, voice acting and general feel remaining about the same. UK distributors MVM have been steadily releasing the Slayers TV back catalogue one volume at a time for the last twelve months and from the looks of it will be releasing them again as box sets early next year.

Extras:

With Volume one you get a featurette showing behind the scenes with the dub cast; several deleted scenes; an image gallery and a number of production sketches. For volumes two, three and four you get a whole load of nothing. But as you get a full 26 episode series over four volumes, which are quite heavily discounted if you look around, then it’s still good value for money.

The Slayers Try Volumes One, Two and Three are already available from most high streets and online retailers whilst Volume Four will be available from 4th January 2010.