ADV has been re-releasing some of their earlier DVDs under the banner of "Essential Anime."  The great thing about these discs is that they are at a lower price point and some of them have extra features that the original release didn't.  Case in point: Dragon Half.  The rerelease of this decidedly odd show sports a remastered English dub in 5.1, and a new commentary by the cast.  All at a lower price.  That makes this a hard show to pass up.

This is a really zany, silly show that mocks and makes fun of a lot of anime conventions.  The story is really only there as an excuse for all the mayhem that occurs, but I'll describe it anyway.  Mink is a half human/half dragon girl who is wild about the pop star and dragon hunter Dick Saucer.  (Yep, that's really his name.)  Well the king is madly in love with Mink's mother, a Red Dragon.  Years ago he sent a dragon slayer to capture her, but he end marring her instead.  (Hey, it could happen.)  Anyway, the king sends a series of warriors out to kill Mink and bring back her mother so he can marry her.  But Mink, being half dragon, is a little more trouble than they count on.

This is a two episode OVA was much too short.  I really enjoyed it.  The show is filled with a lot of quick gags, both verbal and visual, so be sure to watch the backgrounds for some great jokes. ( I liked the maniacal looking Mario brother character in one shot.)   The humor is very odd and off the wall, with a lot of slapstick and just bizarre humor.  Sort of like Slayer's on speed.

The only complaint I had was that the animation style looked a little dated.  Even though this show was made in 1993, it had an old school look to it that made the show feel a little dated at first.  That didn't last for long though.  If you like well done parodies and down right silly shows, this is the DVD for you.

Audio:

This DVD has both the original stereo soundtrack in Japanese, and a 5.1 English dub.  Both tracks sounded very good.  The English surround track didn't make use of the rears much, mainly putting incidental music in the back.  Neither track had any distortion or audio defects.

Video:

The full frame video image was adequate, but not outstanding.  The picture was a little soft, and the colors were a slightly muted making the image look much older than it was.  There weren't any digital defects, which was good.  Overall the show didn't look horrible, it just wasn't very good.

Extras:

In addition to a clean closing, there is a commentary by Brett Weaver and Tiffany Grant, which isn't listed on the DVD case itself.  They discuss about how the cast came about and what they liked about the show.  This was a good track.  It wasn't rowdy and party-like, and they managed to keep my interest through the whole track.  You really get an appreciation for how much the talent likes the shows they work on.  A good extra.

Final Thoughts:

This silly and demented anime is sort of a precursor to Excel Saga.  Maybe a wacked out version of Slayers would be more accurate.  It has a lot of odd humor, and the jokes fly pretty fast.  A great show if you are in the mood for something totally irreverent.  The lower price, 5.1 audio track and bonus commentary not of the original release make this an easy disc to Recommend.