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The Show:
ADV is repackaging some of its older shows and releasing
them at very attractive prices. One
of
the latest shows to get this treatment is Orphen,
or Sorcerous Stabber Orphen as it is
known in Japan. This latest release includes both seasons of
the show (labeled Orphen and Orphen
Revenge,) a fun fantasy series
will make a nice addition to any anime collection.
In the first season of the show we meet Orphen, a young
adult who is a graduate of the famed Tower of Fangs
school of
magic. He's taken on a young apprentice,
Magic Lin, but being a teacher doesn't seem to be the magician's main
goal in
life. He's also very interested in The
Sword
of Balthanders, a trophy that is in the possession of a local well to
do
family. When Orphen tries to obtain the
sword, he meets a girl slightly younger than he is, Cleao Everlasting. She agrees to let him use the sword on his
mysterious quest, but she's going to accompany him to make sure the
sword is
safe.
It turns out that the magicians from the Tower of Fangs
are hunting the powerful and dangerous dragon, Bloody August. Orphen is also on this quest, but for a
different reason. He owes a debt to his
best friend, Azalie Cait Sith. They were
both orphan taken in by the Tower and educated because of their innate
magical
ability. Orphen wasn't a good student
however and Azalie tutored him constantly.
She's the only reason he's a magician today.
This debt he owes her is at the heart of his problem... he
needs to find Bloody August before anyone else does because he knows
that that
dragon is actually Azalie transformed.
So together with his apprentice and Cleao he sets off to save
his
friend, is she doesn't kill him first.
In the second season the show drops a notch in quality.
In the first dozen or so episodes not a lot
happens and the show seems to revert to a monster-of-the-week program. Orphen and his friends travel across the land
being attacked by random evil baddies.
It's not until the season is half way finished that the
background as to
what's actually going on is clear and the plot starts to get moving.
This was a pretty good show, a character based drama that
works pretty well. As the series
progresses Cleao starts to fall for Orphen, but he's only interesting
in saving
Azalie, and when he talks about her in glowing terms it causes the poor
younger
girl a lot of grief. I also really liked
Orphen. He's almost an anti-hero in some
ways. He keeps his cards close to his
chest and is kind of cold emotionally. He's
also very powerful, though that's not apparent at first.
The show also mixes a good amount of humor into the show,
but never so much that it turns into Slayers. It comes close at the beginning of the second
season, with Cleao and Orphen fighting in (not so) comical ways in
almost every
episode, but the second half of the season saves it.
There are also some comic relief characters
(the trolls Volkan and Dortin) that do more harm than good to the show
but they
are bearable.
The one main gripe I have is that the show runs a bit too long
in both seasons. If they had cut then
number of shows by 1/3 the stories would have been much stronger. As it is there are too many filler episodes
that just drag the series' momentum to a halt.
These fillers aren't even entertaining as drama or comedy
either, and I
was really surprised that the quality of the show could fall and rise
so much
from one episode to another.
The DVD:
Like ADV's recent release of Saiyuki,
the eight discs that make up the two seasons of Orphen
come in two inch-wide cases.
Each case contains five discs on a spindle.
That really surprised me, I was assuming they
would come on pages, and putting them on spindles was a bad choice. The discs are too easily scratched, and it's
hard to get the disc you need. The two
cases have a cover, similar to the limited edition slipcovers that come
on some
DVDs.
Audio:
The show comes with
the original Japanese audio track in stereo and a 5.1 English dub. The first season was a bit infamous in anime
circles for having a really bad dub track.
Not because of the quality of the voice actors, but because the
English
script was not faithful to the original.
Scenes were rewritten and dialog changed that altered the
meaning of the
original. (This didn't happen with the
second season luckily.) For that reason
I viewed this with the Japanese track and spot checked the English dub. While the English surround sound made the
battles more exciting, both tracks sounded very good.
The dialog was clear and the sound effects
were mixed well, never overpowering the rest of the audio.
This set sounds just fine.
Video:
The full frame image looks pretty good as well. The
colors are solid and the contrast is fine but the image is a little on
the soft side. There are a couple of
digital defects that bring the score down a little. There
is some mosquito noise in a few scenes
and aliasing is not uncommon. Aside from
those typical flaws this set looks very good.
Extras:
Sprinkled across these discs are several bonus
features. The first season includes
clean opening and closing animations, sketch galleries, Japanese TV
spots, a
hilarious gag reel, and an interview with the Japanese cast and crew. Season two has a outtake reels on every disc,
which are definitely worth watching, and a clean opening and closing. For a budget-priced complete series set, this
was a good amount of extras.
Final Thoughts:
Though flawed in some ways, Orphen is a good show
overall. I really enjoyed the first
season, and just wish they had cut out some of the filler shows. The second season starts off slowly, but it
picks up at about the half way mark and manages to redeem itself. ADV has released this double season set at a
very attractive price point too, which helps a lot.
I'd gladly recommend this to any fan of fantasy
anime shows. |
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