Kandagawa
Jet Girls: Complete Collection
(2019 - 2020*)/Kingsglaive:
Final Fantasy XV 4K
(2016/Sony 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/Laidbackers
(2019*)/Twittering
Birds Never Fly - The Clouds Gather
(2020/*all Sentai Blu-rays)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B Picture: B+/B-/B+/C+ Sound: C+/B &
B-/B+/B+ Extras: C Main Programs: B+/C/B+/B+
Here's
a new group of animation for older audiences...
Rin
Namiki came to study in Tokyo, but her dream is to join the Jet Ski
races along the Kandagawa water ways. Girls would form pair teams
where one drives (a jetter) while the other shoots (a shooter) with
high powered water guns at their opponents trying to blow them away
(and their swimsuits too). Rin teams up with Misa as they become the
newest Jet Girls on the Kandagawa waters to watch out for in
Kandagawa
Jet Girls: Complete Collection
(2019 - 2020).
Rin
just wants to follow in her late mother's footsteps and become a Jet
Ski racing girl on the rivers of Tokyo. She is joined by the cool
mature beauty Misa an ace shooter with her own shadowed past. As
they clash with their opponents (and each other) Rin and Misa
eventually become closer and their teamwork makes them the dark horse
in the jet ski racing competition.
This
anime series is full of females who basically treated like idols and
celebrities on jet skis in bikinis with high tech water guns (be
warned, all the girls are well endowed and aren't afraid to show some
skin with cleavage, also there is plenty of frontal and fanservice).
Extras include clean opening and closing animations, Japanese promos
and trailers.
Episodes
include:
The
Kandagawa is Calling - Rin Namiki arrives in Tokyo and meets Misa
Aoi and immediately chooses her as her 'fated' partner and she
challenges the current champions of Kandagawa river.
The
Ace's Pride - Rin and Misa challenges Kaguya in their first race
together, Kaguya barely wins and acknowledges Rin's raw potential.
Country
Comes to Town - Rin must find new members to help rebuild the
school's Jet Racing Club.
My
Favorite - Rin and Misa race a pair of American girls that love
Japanese samurai and ninja culture and earn their first win.
Pop
Idol Racers - Rin and Misa go out on a shopping and challenges
the twin idol sisters to a jet ski race.
What
They Lack - Rin and Misa go out on a date, but Misa gets jealous
when other girls start flirting with Rin.
Why
They Race - Rin needs to score better on her next test exam or
she will not be allowed to race. Rin gets a cold and Misa and her
friends get to play nurse for Rin.
The
Great Nyu-Nyu - Rin, Misa and their friends go searching the
underground water ways for a beast, the Great Nyu-Nyu.
The
180 Jetter - Rin and Misa race a pair of shrine maidens who are
also Jet Girls.
A
Summer Gig Receive - Rin and Misa work part time jobs to raise
enough money for new parts for their jet ski.
Rin
Goes Home - Rin goes home to mentally prepare for the race while
Misa's past is revealed that she wants to get out her older sister's
shadow.
Our
Jet Race - It's the big race, can Rin and Misa's hard work
finally payoff and they have a chance to winning the championship?
and
Tokyo Girls Promotion Starts Here - All the girls must come up
with a promotional video to create a Jet Ski commercial.
Kingsglaive:
Final Fantasy XV 4K
(2016) is an upgrade of the straight-to-video release we covered
years ago at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/14471/Kingsglaive:+Final+Fantasy+XV+(2016/Sony+Blu-r
My
fellow writer here liked it much better than I did, a simple quest
plot that takes advantage of casting voices of two of the key actors
from the now-wrapped-up Game
Of Thrones megahit TV
series (see our 4K coverage of the Complete
Series elsewhere on this
site) and that is reason enough to do this upscaled upgrade. I did
not think the older disc looked or sounded that great like he did,
but the upgrade will be one fans like. Few others will be impressed,
so be warned.
Extras
include Digital Copy from Movies Anywhere, while the regular Blu-ray
repeats its four Making Of featurettes, including one on the music
score and one of the voiceover work.
Kumi
just inherited her grandmother's candy shop, but what she didn't
expect was to find was 4 reincarnated heroines living there Harami,
Mai, K and Arnelia. Together they are to find the Demon Lord who has
also reincarnated in our world, only problem is the Demon Lord
botched up her reincarnation and is now a cute girl, Ran who wants to
atone for her sins. Now with the 'former' Demon Lord in tow they
have to find the remaining shards of the Demon Lord's powers and
prevent her from ever become the evil she was in Laidbackers
(2019).
Kumi
has 4 boarders living with her, but secretly they are super powered
girls reincarnated to find the Demon Lord that destroyed their world.
However, after being reincarnated Harami was a martial arts master
but became an overnight internet idol sensation, Mai was a large axe
wielding berserker but now is lazy and loves junk food, K was a
magician but has been turn into total fujoshi and finally Arnelia was
originally a princess warrior but somehow turned into a dog. But the
Demon Lord has been turned into cute girl named Ran and no longer has
her powers and they can't beat her up if she's innocent. Ran now
fights alongside them to help collect and seal away her former evil
powers.
This
was a comedy movie about a bunch of girls with superpowers fighting
the forces of evil alongside the very enemy they were sent to
capture. The comedy comes in when the heroines can't decide wither
to trust their 'former' foe and the fact without her powers she is an
extremely kind, cute and innocent girl. Extras include trailers.
And
finally, Yashiro
is a high-ranking lieutenant within the Yakuza, only thing is he is
also a homosexual masochist. And he is totally attracted to his
newest body guard Doumeki who is also a former cop. But as Yashiro
and Doumeki get to know each other, each one has their hidden past,
but it is because exactly they both have a tragic past do they become
attracted to one another in Twittering
Birds Never Fly - The Clouds Gather
(2020).
Yashiro
is also a fast-rising lieutenant within the Yakuza ranks, he is a
sexual deviant he enjoys being forced on or forcing blow jobs on his
subordinates. However, his life became a tragedy long ago when he
was raped as a boy by his father and the boy liked was his best
friend but he liked someone else. However, Yashiro falls fast and
hard for his new subordinate Doumeki who seems just as stoic as him
and accepts all his 'faults'. Doumeki was a former policeman, but
after witnessing his father rape his step-sister (who is also in love
with Doumeki) Doumeki beats his father almost to death and was sent
to jail for it and afterwards he became sexually impotent. Yashiro
becomes immediately attracted to Doumeki for his ability to remain
stoic and sees Doumeki as a challenge to get him sexually excited.
Doumeki respect and admires Yashiro after learning his past and
helping him move on from his own. The movie ends on a question when
Yashiro gets randomly shot and Doumeki rushes him to the hospital,
Yashiro's fate remains unknown. We will save the rest for you too
see.
This
definitely a yaoi series, but be warned it is
a mature series in which there is rape, incest, violence,
tragedy and the relationships were the result of sexual disfunction.
It also captures the yakuza culture when the worst things are, the
more stoic a yakuza leader must be and how in a society mainly made
up of mostly men, half are pseudo homosexuals. Extras include
shorts, Japanese promos and trailers.
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, HDR (10;
Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Kingsglaive
should be the best performer here, but it is just correcting softness
and blur you can sadly see on the also-included regular Blu-ray of
the film in the same 2.35 X 1 frame. This was not a 4K production,
though this still might have cost more money at the time than it
looks.
On
the other hand, the 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image
transfers on all three Sentai releases have better color, color
range, detail and depth than the 4K release here, which has us asking
once again: where are the 4K Sentai releases?
As
for sound, the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mix on
Jet
Girls
is here in disappointing Japanese original sound and an even worse
English dub, so consider yourself warned. The rest of the discs here
are in DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes that sound great
in the cases of the Japanese-only tracks on the remaining Sentai
releases. In the case of Kingsglaive,
the mix is weak and a little compressed on the older Blu-ray, but the
4K corrects this and the soundmaster sounds much better, likely the
way it should have to begin with.
-
Nicholas Sheffo (4K) and Ricky Chiang
