DVD Review

By TheBurningCrow Published: August 28, 2005

PACKAGING AND MENU

Due to the subject matter of Colorful, the outer artwork is very appropriate. The front cover is simple and contains only a close up of somewhat pixilated woman’s backside and panties, with the Colorful logo and small catch phrase. I have to say I’m not as fond of the back cover. First of all the good bits: the catch phrase is definitely one of them. “Roses are red. Violets are blue. This show’s about panties.” That it is lass, that it is. Unfortunately, the layout of the rest of the back cover isn’t nearly as interesting. Tons of little rounded screenshots fill the cover, but are laid out in a fairly random fashion. Also, since they are all tiny and there are so many, it makes the artwork look very busy. Indeed, when I look at the back cover my eyes immediately jump to the catch phrase but then don’t really go anywhere. I think this would have been better with a few larger screenshots placed strategically around the area so there’s something for the eyes to be drawn to. I’m not sure how much I like the “reversible cover”, which is basically the exact same thing as the regular cover, except one of the sides has another picture of a girl’s panties. It’s fine, but looks an awful lot like the regular cover so I’m not seeing the huge appeal of switching it.

While the menu might look a little strange at first, it’s actually quite appropriate. The very beginning of each episodes shows a Space Invaders ship shooting some letters and the title of the episode. The menu, consequently, shows the same thing. When the spaceship hits something, a flash of a girl is shown in full color. My only small squabble about the menu is the navigation colors. I’m not sure if this is fixable but the letters looked very… weird. I don’t know how to explain the graphical term, but the edges of the letters looked… aliased? Like they were always in flux. Again, a minor detail but one I noticed anyways.

FEATURES

A clean opening and closing is included, and a trailer. The key “feature” is something called “Colorful: Exposed!”, which is basically a “making of” of sorts. We see some (clearly) fake and comical interviews with the voice actors (which were amusing), and looks at some of the cast that worked behind the scenes. It was pretty interesting to see what the ADV headquarters looks like… I think I would have assumed it would be larger! One major thing I didn’t like about this, though, was the high amount of episode clips that were interspersed with the rest of the feature. Not only would most of the episodes be spoiled for anyone watching this first, but if you had already seen the series, a lot of this feature would be a huge waste of time. In fact, about 5 minutes in I found myself starting to fast forward when all the episode clips rolled in. I would have preferred if it was only the actual feature content, and not minutes of clips from each episode.

Also included is a set of character bios that are entertaining. Each person has a fictional writeup as well as what they actually do.

VIDEO

The video on this DVD was really quite impressive. There were so many different types of video segments thrown together that it would have been pretty hard to make them all look as good as they did. There was quite an array of bright colors and dynamic video that all came across perfectly. I really have no complaints with the video. There were no aliasing issues or artifacts that were noticeable.

AUDIO

The audio wasn't anything terribly impressive, but the main focus of this anime isn't necessarily the audio. I do have to admit to loving the intro song, but I'm a sucker for ska. The array of different noises and sound effects come across very well. The English 5.1 sound was really pretty cool. The dialogue was kept up front with some directionality, however the rear speakers were just ambient noise, which really helped fill in the incredibly strange audio that persists through the show. The Japanese 2.0 mix was almost identical to the English, only that there was not sound from the rear speakers.

CONTENT

Let me be the first to say that I am definitely not the target audience for Colorful. Not only am I probably too old (24 at the time of writing this) but I also am the wrong gender (female). That being said, I’m going to try to review this as objectively as possible and score according to what I think of the series in general, not just what I personally liked or disliked. That being said, I didn’t personally like the story or plot behind Colorful, but I can see why men probably would. It definitely wasn’t bad in any way (on the contrary, its creepiness and randomness was quite effective), but for me it just was a little too creepy.

So what was Colorful about? As the back of the DVD says: “Roses are red. Violets are blue. This show is about panties.” Indeed, that’s the entire point of the series: various guys either trying to see or freaking out over seeing panties or cleavage. Well, that, or fantasizing about seeing various women naked. While this sort of thing could have turned into another generic ecchi series, Colorful instead throws in a heavy dose of randomness and strangeness that make it anything but. Think Abenobashi on crack, but then make the subject matter panties and nosebleeds. We see a variety of places and situations including working at a theme park, friends falling asleep in a living room, drinking with friends, employment at a shoe store, an English classroom and many others. The characters tend to be the same throughout the standalone episodes, sort of like Azumanga Daioh.

Colorful contains a very strange mix of animation styles. In general, most of the animation is fairly static and doesn’t move around much. For example, we might be shown a set of legs with panties. Or, perhaps a recycled shot of the same leg moving back and forth for effect. Often, real movie clips are thrown in with the animation. In general, imagine how spastic something like FLCL is, and then imagine it being in a show about panties. Strangeness abounds pretty much everywhere, from close-ups of blood shot eyes to repetitive motions. A variety of styles are shown as well, such as silhouettes, shots that look like TV ads, or an ever recurring shot of a doll whose eyes move around. It’s hard to explain what makes the animation so effective; it just… is. The content probably wouldn’t have been as funny without the combination of the spastic animation and music.

In general a very spastic and weird look at the life of an "average male", on their quest to see panties. Even though I'm female I could still appreciate the weirdness and spastic nature, though I didn't really appreciate the content. If you are male and are over the age of 13 or so, odds are you'd get a kick out of this.

OTHER REVIEWS

Penguin Musume Heart

by ThePatches

Ichigo 100% - Jump Festa 2004

by sothis

Sekirei

by ThePatches