Synopsis:

Amon is a young warrior on a desperate quest to avenge the death of his mother. When his hunt leads him to the castle of the Emperor Valhiss, Amon must endure the perils of initiation and join the ranks of the Imperial Army in order to gain an opportunity to take his revenge. But once within the heart of the fortified city, Amon unexpectedly encounters the princess Lichia- the sultry daughter of King Sem Darai. The Emperor hopes to exchange the princess for a map in the King's hoped to exchange the princess for a map in the king's possession, but what is his ultimate goal? Set in a barbarous fantasy world of magic and mysticism, Amon Saga is an action packed tale of both intrigue and adventure-back of the box spin.

Audio/Video:

The audio is presented in three separate formats. English DD5.1, English 2.0 and Japanese 2.0. The 5.1 platform is very good with excellent English dubbing. However, I'm still in favor of a Japanese 5.1 track to capture the truest essence of the experience that is anime. Both the English and Japanese 2.0 are lackluster in their presentations but again; the Japanese language track conveys a wonderful sense of genuineness that the English 5.1 track lacks. The surround usage was good. Primarily used during battles, it was mostly the clanging of swords and the screams of warfare that punctuated the listening area. The dialogue was clean and easily understood. The video was another sort however. Amon Saga is an older anime title and as such is a little lacking in the visual department. While 1986 is not that long ago, for you and I, for a video title, it's an eternity. The result is a fairly faded transfer that has moments of richness but on the whole tends to be too dark and very faded. There are a fair degree of scratches and pixelation as well. That's not too say that the video is unmatchable, quite the contrary, it's very watchable however, the transfer could have benefited from a bit of dressing up before she went public. As this is one of Anime's lesser titles, it's certainly not on the list for a re-do so, for serious fans of the saga, this is it.

Extras:

Manga Entertainment generally chocks their discs full of promotional materials and skimps on the real meat in the way of featurette's regarding the film's genesis. Amon Saga is no different. In addition to a gallery of screen shots from the film, there is a collection of static catalogue titles presented as well as video previews. There are 17 trailers in all and they include: Macross Plus, Perfect Blue, Orguss 02, Devilman, Ninja Scroll, Giant Robo, Blackjack, Wings of Honneamise, Patlabor 1, Ghost in the Shell, Sword of Truth, New Dominion Tank Police, Rayearth, and X. In the case of BlackJack, RayEarth and X the trailers are much longer and very good in the way of whetting you appetite for the release of the film. The previous titles are shorter and assembled in something of a collage of scenes with an identifying title at the bottom of the screen. There are no other extras on the disc.

Overall:

While I found the story engaging, the anime itself was very dated. The relative poor presentation of the film coupled with the lack of extras makes this one a very hard sell. The storyline however is good and I enjoyed the plot. However given all the film is lacking, it's only a rental at best. If you enjoyed the look and feel of the original Vampire Hunter D, then you'll really enjoy this feature, as Yoshitaka Amano was the chief designer for this film as well. I really dig anime and jump on just about everything even remotely Japanese when it comes to animation. I'd have to say that this while interesting in it's scope wouldn't be a blip on my radar screen. However, if you are interested in something older and not quite as strong in the way of anime, this one is worthy of at least one night's viewing at best.