Customer Reviews

Fate/Stay Night, Vol. 2: War of the Magi

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although the animation isn't exactly top of the line, it was still able to draw me in. The story is very intricate, hope it continues to deliver. Although it lacks any significant plot twists yet, this is only the second volume. This particular volume reminded me a little of Rurouni Kenshin, in which the main character will fight, but he does not believe in taking a life. It is also hinted that the road which the character is on will not be an easy one. While the English voice acting is good, lately I find that watching it in Japanese with subtitles draws one into the story more deeply. Overall, was solid DVD and look forward to the Volume 3 release in april.

Great series. I'm an original Japanese subtitled fan, but the English dub is not bad at all. If you like anime, definitely check this one out.

As of late Geneon USA has been doing a terrible job at authoring and distributing their domestic releases, so this time the review of the DVD features and quality itself comes before the review of the actual show's contents.

Geneon seems to have mostly fixed their "Engrish" and typo problems in the subtitles for this volume, for which I am grateful. Last volume there were about 20 grammatical errors, this time there are "only" two.

But other severe problems plague this release. The DVD video quality is terrible. The authoring studio responsible, 342media, has never been one of the better authoring studios at encoding DVDs, but someone over there deserves to be fired for this release. It borderlines on being unacceptable. Look around the credit text during the opening and ending sequences and you'll see what I mean. The video quality is more like a HK DVD or fansub than what a domestic release should be. The show itself seems to be encoded somewhat better than the OP/ED sequences, but I still think it is suffering a bit.

Something is wrong with the audio as well. Both the Japanese and English tracks are significantly softer than they were in the previous volume, which had a volume level typical of 342media releases. This time the volume level is abnormally soft, someone at 342media screwed up big-time.

342media and Geneon get an F- for this release. Releases like this should be pulled from the market.

The show itself is good, maybe worth 4 stars (but averaged out with the terrible 0 star Geneon USA authoring that gives 2 stars). The plot was slightly more interesting than I had predicted after watching volume 1, but the drawings were as degenerated as I had feared after watching the vol 1 preview of the next episode. All 4 episodes on Fate Vol 2 have bad drawing quality. The animation quality remains good though, Studio Deen isn't being skimpy with the frames.

Overall, I'm shocked at Geneon these days. I don't think they deserve my money anymore, and I'll probably look around for some HK DVDs of Fate/Stay Night now, it might be better quality than what Geneon is putting out.