HomeReview: Sword of the Stranger US Blu-ray Disc
Since my copy of Bandai Entertainment’s US Blu-ray Disc release of Sword of the Stranger (Mukoh Hadan) arrived a few days before the official release date on June 16, here’s my short review on the disc itself. Luckily and unlike on their Ghost in the Shell: Innocence release, Bandai has decided not to use region encoding so feel free to (pre-)order, there’s no need to wait for the announced Region B release.
Bandai also does not repeat the audio track mistake from their first BD release (lossy DD only), as both audio tracks (original Japanese and English) on Sword of the Stranger are available in sweet and lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 that especially shine during the grand finale and the fight scenes accompanied by Naoki Sato’s gripping score. The English subtitles are available for all dialogues or signs only which is a nice gift to fans of the English dub.
The visual presentation of Masahiro Ando’s adventure tale should also convince those who keep on repeating the same “animation does not benefit from higher resolution” jabber. The characters as well as the detailed background art just look great, especially the stunningly animated fight scenes. Studio Bones’ artists did really flex their muscles in these scenes when it comes to animation quality and choreography. The picture is virtually free of compression artefacts and banding effects, which sometimes are issue on Anime releases on Blu-ray Disc.
I’ve uploaded 40 full resolution screenshots to the Asian Blu-ray Disc gallery.
To fill the BD50, Bandai has included some interviews and Japanese press events (HD), several trailers and TV spots (SD & HD) for the main features and even a three minutes long pilot film (HD).
All in all, Bandai Entertainment has shown with this release that they can indeed rival the Japanese release when it comes to picture and sound quality. Meaning good times for high definition anime fans are coming if Bandai can keep this up with their following releases (The Girl Who Leapt through Time, please?).
Related Blu-ray Discs
Sword of the Stranger (Mukoh Hadan) 
Sword of the Stranger (Mukoh Hadan) 
Sword of the Stranger (Mukoh Hadan) 
Sword of the Stranger (Mukoh Hadan) 
Sword of the Stranger (Mukoh Hadan) 
Sword of the Stranger (Mukoh Hadan) 
Sword of the Stranger (Mukoh Hadan) 
Sword of the Stranger (Mukoh Hadan) 
Sword of the Stranger (Mukoh Hadan) Sword of the Stranger (Mukoh Hadan)
Tags: bandai, Blu-ray, Japan, Masahiro Ando, mukoh hadan, Naoki Sato, Review, samurai, sword of the stranger, USA
Big Bad Wolf
Ulrik
Mein Kurzreview von damals:
Mich hat der Film (mit Untertiteln) schwer begeistert und rutscht trotz des “Kind mit Hund” Hintergrunds nie in gefährlich kitschige Gefilde ab. Die an sich recht einfache Geschichte wird durch die extrem gut animierten und geschickt choreographierten Kämpfe sowie einige Nebenplots gut voran getrieben, ohne daß die Charakterentwicklung auf der Strecke bleibt.
killerspieler
Ulrik
Wieso, weil ich den Kram teilweise vor dem offiziellen Verkaufstermin bekomme?
killerspieler
Ich habe es so verstanden, dass du die Blu-Ray am 16. Juni bekommen hast, wir haben aber 13. Juni, daher die Frage…
Ulrik
Vielleicht war/ist/wird es ja auch so… *Blitzdingens raushol*
killerspieler
Verdammt, ich weiss zu viel !
*sonnenbrille anzieh*
Silencer
Ein Film der im ganzen so funktioniert wie er sollte, in sich abgeschlossen und mit einer schönen Story, die über die 100 Min sehr gut unterhält. Da bedarf es nicht immer einer Serie.
Ich will mich keiner Lobeshymne die dieser Film trägt in den Weg stellen, eher noch unterstreichen.
Weihnachten ziehe ich auch ins blaue Zeitalter (Blu-Ray), da wird dieser Film mit Sicherheit einer der ersten sein
MD-Krauser