- English DD 5.1
- Japanese DD 5.1
- English subtitles
- Arjuna Karaoke
- TV Spots
- Episode Previews
- Artwork Sketches
- Madman Propaganda
Anime DVD Review:Arjuna 1 - Rebirth
Audio:
Arjuna comes with Japanese and English 5.1. I watched the disc through
in japanese and spot checked the English track here and there, and everything
sounds good to me, with no problems to speak of. Having seen the first
episode in English on the promo DVD that came with the first Newtype USA
magazine, I can say that the dub is fairly decent on most accounts, and
thankfully doesn't sound to flat. That said, the Japanese track is still
the superior of the two - The original and the best.
Video:
Carrying on the trend with a lot of more recent anime, Arjuna is presented
in widescreen and looks quite simply gorgeous as you would expect from
a recent and wholly digital production. I can't find much to complain
about here outside of some things not looking as sharp as they perhaps
could, but that's hardly noticable and quite possibly just me being fussy.
As well as traditional looking 2D animation,
Arjuna makes good use of cel-shaded 3D animation aswell, with some prime
examples being the scenes with Juna and Tokio on a motorbike. It looks
fantastic, and meshes with the 2D feel perfectly. Unfortunately a small
minority of the 3D isn't seamless, with Ashura, a large robotic looking
creature Juna has the ability to summon when in trouble looking completely
out of place, as it looks fully 3D rather than 2D like the other examples,
and as a result sticks out like a sore thumb and looks quite goofy, something
which can be attributed to not only it's looking out of place, but also
it's design.
Packaging:
The cover is quite bright and eye-catching, with our main character Juna
holding Gan Deeva, a mystical Bow and Arrow which comes as part of the
Avatar of Time package deal. The background is a very earthy orange colour,
with the earth and another, faded picture of Juna, with the series logo
up top. The back contains the standard blurb and extras info and the technical
details of the DVD aswell as a few screenshots.
The inside houses breif episode sumaries
and promotion for other Madman releases in FLCL, RahXephon, Spirited Away
and GTO. All up the packaging is very attractive, and if you're anything
like me you'll be hard pressed to leave it sitting on the shop shelf,
in favour of having it on your own shelf at home.
Menus:
Presented in anamorphic widescreen like the show itself,
the main menu with A closeup of Juna's face, and her Avatar of Time
appearance in the center as a short peice of background animation place
with the title and options fading in. The menus are in keeping with the
colour scheme of the cover, with everything appearing a light orange colour.
Access times between each menu are nice and fast.
Extras:
The extras here consist of firstly a Karaoke clip, with
with subtitles for the japanese to sing along to or an english translation.
Next up are some TV ads for the video and DVD release in Japan. Making
their appearance in the extras section rather than being tacked onto the
episodes are the epcoming episode previews. Finishing up the Arjuna related
extras are some character designs for the main cast. Rounding the package
off is the standard Madman propaganda, with Spirited Away, Tenchi Muyo,
Jubei chan, .hack//SIGN, Geneshaft and FLCL trailers. Not an awful lot,
but it's all reasconably interesting and worth a look at.
Content:
I remember fondly coming
home from primary school, turning on the TV and sitting back to watch
Captain Planet and the Planeteers
fighting the good fight for the sake of our environment with power rings
and envorinmentally friendly airplanes against rat-men bent on polluting
everything, Radioactive men who looked like they were made from corn trying
to poison any and everything and all manner of other nasty Eco-villans.
What does this have to do with Arjuna? Well, Arjuna is much the same as
far as it's overtones and messages go, and while it may not be so in your
face with characters screaming at you to recycle your coke bottle or die,
the message is non the less there as Juna is thrust into her role as earths
protector to fight on behalf of the planet.
It all begins when
Juna and her boyfriend Tokio head off on his motorbike for a trip to the
sea and crash on the way. Afterwards, Juna dies in hospital. She can see
herself, and what has happened, and in her state sees the fate of the
planet as it is choked with pollution and waste and all manner of envorinmental
unfriendliness. Then she is given the chance to have her life saved and
become the Avatar of Time, to protect the earth and fight the Raaja, strange
creatures that appear in areas affected by humanaties wasteful ways and
destructive nature. Juna accepts and is immidately thrust into the role
of earths protector as she is whisked away by the S.E.E.D. organisation
to a nuclear powerplant under threat of meltdown. Chris, the former avatar
of time who saved Juna is also there, and gives to Juna the 'Drop of Time',
a stone which gives Juna her powers and enables her to transform into
the Avatar of Time, complete with a bright pink suit and stange hair,
not to mention all sorts of powers and Gan Deeva, a mystical Bow which
can kill the Raaja.
Arjuna isn't your
average anime series, as while Juna must fight and learn about herself
and what she is needed to do, there is also an emphasis on her relationship
with boyfriend Tokio, so in a sense it's a big twist on the standard mahou
shojou formula. While the overtones and messages relating to environmental
problems may deter some people, it isn't presented as preaching, and while
thought provoking it isn't patronising in the way it presents and deals
with the issues it raises, which I am quite thankful for. From this disc,
Arjuna looks to be a very promising and interesting show, and most definately
worth a look in.
Anime
Inferno is developed and managed by Adam Hicks, MCMXCIX - MMII. All rights
reserved.
| 
