Release Date for Volume 2: AVAILABLE NOW
Release Date for Volume 3: August 14, 2007
Rating:   /
Starz Entertainment brings the final two volumes of the popular Tokko anime series to DVD. Each Volume is sold separately, and in these episodes detective Shindou Ranmaru is getting deeply involved in the mysterious cases of mass murders. His investigations also lead him to the sword-slicing special task force called Tokko. After getting intimately involved with one of the Tokko girls, he joins forces with them to try to save the city from being brutally massacred by the demons. He uncovers the mastermind behind the slaughter, but can he alone prevent the horror from being unleashed and avoid becoming a demon himself? See for yourself in these ultra-violent episodes that focus on character development and the struggle between sects of humans.
Tokko: Volume 2 contains the following episodes 6-9:
- Sadness
- Love
- Awakening
- Brave
Tokko: Volume 3 contains the final episodes 10-13:
- Trembling
- Prison
- Rage
- Dark
Each episode is presented in its entirety with credits and all.
 VIDEO QUALITY: 4.5/5
Like Volume One, the animated video delivers impressive colours and contrast. Black levels appear better reproduced on both Volume 2 and 3 increasing image contrast. Maybe I was a bit too hard on Volume One, but there is little to complain about with both of these Volumes. Compression artefacts are non-issue and edge enhancement is absent. Colours range from vibrant to mute depending on the texture of the scene. The video appears to be well transferred to DVD. Having a DVD player that can work nicely with animation cadences is a must or else some may see a few jagged edges and a loss of resolution. The aspect ratio is 1.78:1 and is enhanced for widescreen televisions.
AUDIO QUALITY: 3/5
As is on Volume One, the 5.1 presentation is very front heavy with a few surround effects here and there. Surround presence is better on these Volumes than on the first one. Again, it’s a toss-up between the matrix surround audio when using Pro-Logic II vs. listening to the 5.1 discrete soundtrack. The latter delivers a bit more ambience but the 5.1 soundtrack has much tighter bass.
When listening to the Japanese soundtrack, dialogue is sibilant making it uncomfortable listening to it at reference level. The English option this time around (Volume One had bright sounding English dialogue) sounds more smooth and better integrated. Even though I usually prefer to listen to the original soundtrack and watch subtitles, this time I was very content listening to the English track. The words spoken in English are more edgy and much more effective for storytelling than the translations in the English subtitles.
TACTILE FUN!! ZERO /
TACTILE TRANSDUCER ON/OFF?: OFF
SPECIAL FEATURES: 1/5
Both DVDs feature the same Making of Tokko – The Animation. You’ll view interviews and behind the scenes footage of how the story that originated as a comic/graphic novel to late night anime. This runs about 25 minutes and is spoken in Japanese with English subtitles. Each disc also includes an image gallery with 100 stills from the episodes on the discs.
IN THE END...
Watching the final chapters of Tokko proved to be a thrill. It’s a great story with good character development and has excellent video quality. I’d recommend it.
Michael Osadciw
August 05, 2007.
Review System
|
