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Joji (George) Kodama (Michael Lindsay in English, Hiroaki Hirata in Japanese) travels to the rural town of Kimujiku to investigate a fifteen year old mystery. He’s self- assured and independent, very likely a byproduct of his mastery of martial arts and weapons. In appearance and mannerisms, I was reminded of Cowboy Bebop’s Spike Spiegel.

Kodama befriends a ramen shop owner; it’s here that he can most often be found taking his meals, and it’s here that his combat prowess is first revealed. His rescue of a teenage girl, Miyuki Tanokura (Melissa Fahn in English, Sanae Kobayashi in Japanese) being abused by a group of ruffians comes to the attention of her father, the boss of one of the town’s two rival criminal gangs. He’s corrupt city councilman Shusaku Tanokura (Tom Wyner in English, Shinpachi Tsuji in Japanese) and he hires George to be his daughter’s bodyguard. But with little provocation George gives up that position and accepts a job from rival gang boss Samekichi Shirogane (Kirk Thornton in English, Yoshitada Otsuka in Japanese). And as the war heats up between the two gangs, George resigns once again, only to be hired by a beautiful innkeeper who seems to be caught in the crossfire.

The series and its characters are so laconic, and George’s motives for drifting from one job to another so inscrutable, that I simply could not become engaged. He’s distracted by a mystery in his past and doesn’t resemble the intriguing Ronin of the original film. The style is typical of inexpensive Anime productions aimed at television. Limited character animation, the blend of CGI animation of vehicles, and somewhat richer backgrounds. The series does seem to capture what feels like an authentic representation of rural town life in modern Japan, but this is pure speculation on my part.

Perhaps I’m simply impatient. Perhaps this is a prolonged first act that runs over two hours and is intended to set up the characters and the underlying conflicts that will ultimately drive the story forward. My problem is that as I watched the five 25-minute episodes, I found my attention drifting rather than becoming more immersed in the story. I’ll speculate that the series creators realized that the show’s slow pace needed a visual trick to spark audience attention; they made the artistic decision to place "video noise" backgrounds behind characters when something significant happens. It didn’t work for me.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The series’ television aspect ratio of 1.33:1 is presented in anamorphic video. Whatever I may have thought of the content, I must admit that this is a very fine transfer. Edge halos have been banished, leaving very clean, film- like images. Small object detail is very good; facial features in medium shots are quite clear. Fine textures in the form of painted background plates are nicely delineated. The limited color palette is vividly conveyed without a hint of smearing or chroma noise. Nicely done.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The Dolby Digital 2.0 track is available in both Japanese and English. I found the English track to be quite acceptable, conveying appropriate levels of emotion and avoiding some of the more artificial aspects of dubs. There is neither exceptionally deep bass nor an outstanding dynamic range. The background music is fine but not unusually good. The sound quality is what you might expect from a television production. The studio recorded dialog remains crystal clear throughout with a nice sense of presence.

For those who prefer listening to the original Japanese, there are optional English subtitles.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

The only supplements on the disc are trailers for Yukikaze (1:51), Spirit of Wonder (1:33), and Please Teacher (1:51).

Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?

There are no DVD-ROM features on this DVD.

Final Thoughts