Utawarerumono Volume 1 DVD Review

By sothis Published: February 5, 2007

PACKAGING AND MENU

5 / 10

Imagine, if you will, the first day you saw a Hypercolor T-shirt. A stunning technological advance for its time in the 90s, its charm was immediate, but ultimately short-lived. Once the knockoffs started showing up in local discount clothing stores, I knew the end was near.

Now imagine that you get the same kind of nostalgic 90s feeling when looking at a DVD. Sound crazy? ADV managed to pull it off; and that isn’t a good thing.

Utawarerumono volume 1 is one of a batch of recent releases that are covered with – are you ready for this? – holographic artwork. That’s right, holograms. The front cover is pretty much an abomination to the eyes, and consists of nothing more than a non holographic mask sitting on top of a completely holographic field of grass. The title is also holographic. The only way I can stand looking at this for more than 2 seconds is if I have the case tilted so I don’t see anything holographic. Otherwise, the use of a holographic design is simply tacky and loud.

The back cover, unfortunately, is a lot worse. The text describing the DVD and series is located at the top, and is normal. The entire middle, top, and bottom sections are holographic, though. It’s almost impossible to read the catch phrase and equally as obnoxious to try to look at as a whole. If I picked this up on a store shelf I’d be immediately put off and probably wouldn’t bother trying to see what the series is. And what's with listing that the DVD contains episodes 1-4 in the information, even though it contains 1-5?

The menu is decent, though a little unimpressive. The background, like on the DVD artwork, is a field of grass. Only a picture of the mask accompanies any menu page. A full color shot of any character would have been appreciated.

FEATURES

10 / 10

This DVD is stocked with extras. First, the insert is a booklet of interviews. The DVD includes extended episode previews, a character art gallery, and one of the best features, a glossary of terms. The most unique and hilarious feature is a short comedic “episode” of sorts. All I’ll say is that it involves bad food and a battle for the bathroom. I laughed so hard I cried!

VIDEO

8.5 / 10

The video quality is quite good, with the exception of dark patches of color. In those, you could see discoloration and slight artifacting. Overall though, a great transfer and gorgeous.

AUDIO

6.5 / 10

In the English 5.1 track of this DVD, music played in powerful and emotional scenes was mixed effectively through the surround channels. Rarely is this the case in a surround mix. Likewise, sound effects were used mostly for atmospheric elements (such as a creek), as opposed to specifics (such as the sound of feet running towards a character).

Both the English 5.1 and Japanese 2.0 track had clear dialogue that sat nicely above sound effects and music.

Eluluu’s English voice actress is in serious need of more experience under her belt. For an American cartoon? She’d be fairly standard. But in anime, she comes across as very fake and scripted. Specifically, she strains her voice to attempt to sound younger, but instead it sounds very unnatural. This is something that plagues most English voice actors for both anime and cartoons; ADV usually puts out very high quality dubs, so having an actress like that is surprising. The rest of the dub is equally as uninspiring, with most characters sounding at least partially scripted.

8 for the audio tracks, but -1.5 points for the dub.

CONTENT

7.5 / 10

A man awakens in an unfamiliar place, with an unfamiliar affliction: amnesia. He wears a mysterious mask and can’t remember who he is or where he came from. With nowhere else to go, our hero (nicknamed Hakuoru by the village elder) decides to stay with the family who saved him. What follows is a slow-moving tale of Hakuoru’s integration into the village, and his struggle to discover his past. Along the way he helps the villagers with everything from teaching them how to better plant their crops, to protecting them from invaders.

With a similar feel to Juuni Kokki (aka Twelve Kingdoms), I couldn’t help but be enamored with Utawarerumono. While not exactly engaging, the slice of life stories combined with mystery and action definitely kept me interested. I am very curious about the origin of Hakuoru, and most importantly, why he is wearing a mask. Hopefully this will be revealed as time goes on.

Though the character designs can be somewhat generic (medieval catgirls, anyone?), Utawarerumono has fantastic animation. Action scenes are the most impressive, with a jittery camera and fast action shots. Unique camera angles can be found as well, such as in scenes where characters are riding through the woods on their steeds.

I’m also a big fan of the non-human character designs. The green lizard/bird hybrids which take the place of horses are as cute as can be, and a white tiger is the perfect combination of ferocious and adorable. The rest of the characters are very similar to recent series such as Scrapped Princess, with textbook large eyes and pale-colored clothing.

Quite often, Utawarerumono is devoid of background music; regardless, plenty of sound effects such as birds chirping can still be found. When music is available, it sounds strongly like it was pulled straight out of a console RPG. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if a console RPG does exist for Utawarerumono; it has the kind of story which would be fitting for one. I loved almost all of the songs, so this section gets high marks.

Utawarerumono is heavy on character development and has a slow-moving pace. For some, the ultimate boredom; for others like me, quite fascinating! Depending on your personal tastes, you’ll either love or hate this series. If you liked Juuni Kokki or enjoy a bit of mystery, try on Utawarerumono for size!