Tristia Of The Deep Blue Sea (Volume 1/Animé TV)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: D     Episodes: C+

 

 

How about a city of ages ago where giant robots fights each other as young girls run around with a talking husky dog and operate said robots?  Yes, we have yet another absurd storyline that could only come from Animé when it’s Tristia Of The Deep Blue Sea.  This first DVD release has no volume number, while the episodes have no titles in the menus selections page, but turns out to be a two-part Tristia Golem Contest pilot of some sort.  Just do not expect the soulless, vengeful living dead figure of German Expressionist Cinema or an X-Files episode.

 

Once again, you have a mostly female cast with the plastic look of semi-cherub 1980s dolls, while the robots are of the Transformer/Shogun variety, so nothing much original is here.  There is some censorship of female nudity, so who knows how much this objectified the female characters, but it is not as embarrassingly over-sexual as many of the other such shows we have looked at are.  Too bad there was not more to it.

 

The full frame 1.33 X 1 image is transferred well, but among the many clichéd Animé series that overdo soft focus, white and blurriness, this show is towards the top of the list.  That is a shame, because the work here is not bad, if no the best in the field.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has Pro Logic surrounds that are healthier than you would expect from an older show.  The only extra is a still section, but Pathfinder deserves credit for issuing something a bit different from the Animé field.  Fans may feel the same way.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo