Short
Peace (2013/Sentai Blu-ray)
Picture:
A Sound: B Extras: C+ Main Program: A-
Short
Peace is series of 4 short stories linked into one film showing
different styles of Japanese artists. It shows how anime has grown
as an animation with the Japanese imagination and stories. From
ancient folklore of spirits comes the story of Possession.
Combustible is a bitter sweet tale of love and fate. Gambo
is a story of a white bear who protects humans from a certain red
demon. And A Farewell to Weapons is a sci-fi story set in an
post apocalyptic future.
In
Possession, a wandering peddler finds shelter in a storm at
the shrine of discarded material, and must fix everything in order to
be freed. Combustible is about a young man in ancient Japan
who against his father's wishes becomes a fireman, but leaves behind
a sweetheart who longs for him but is soon to be married to another.
In Gambo, a red demon is stealing all the women of the village
for a dark purpose, but a Gambo decides to protect the last female.
Finally in A Farewell to Weapons, a group of futuristic
soldiers are sent to disarm a weapon, but an AI tank stands in their
way with an unexpected ending.
This
was one of those artistic films that show the variation and advances
in the anime industry. The 4 different short stories with very
different styles and story telling in Japanese culture. It shows how
anime has virtues of respect, honor, skill, courage, and humor. We
don't get enough shorts collections and we hope Sentai does many more
of these soon.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 image is pretty consistent between the four shorts and
all look great, while all four sport lossless DTS-HD MA (Master
Audio) 5.1 mixes that are pretty good. Extras include 4 post cards
and trailers.
-
Ricky Chiang
