Customer Reviews

Sherlock Hound - Case File 1

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

 

 

I've been a fan of this series for a long time even though I've only seen a few of the episodes, so when I heard it was coming out here in the States, I was very excited. After viewing the first of six DVD releases, I can tell you this is definitely a series to anticipate, and you should buy it as soon as it comes out!

Originally conceived and scripted in part by Hayao Miyazaki, director of such classics as "The Castle of Cagliostro", "My Neighbor Totoro", and "Kiki's Delivery Service", the series follows one Sherlock Hound (Sherlock Holmes in the original Japanese dub) through his many adventures and mysteries. All the characters in the series are anthropomorphic dogs, and the series is full of Miyazaki's influence and style. However, he only worked on of the six episodes, three of which are contained on this DVD: "A Small Client" (Little Martha's Big Mystery), "Mrs. Hudson is Taken Hostage", and "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" (Blue Ruby).

Here are short reviews of the episodes contained on this DVD. "English titles" (followed by Japanese titles):

"The Four Signatures" (He's the Famous Detective)
In this episode, Dr. Watson and Hound/Holmes meet for the first time. They are on a ferry from Currie, and midway through their journey a band of Barbary pirates shows up seeking a traitorous member and the treasure he stole. Dr. Watson helps Hound/Holmes as he does his best to save both the innocent people on the ship as well as the former pirate.

"The Crown of Mazalin" (The Evil Genius, Professor Moriarty)
The son of the protector of the Crown of Mazalin is suspect in its theft, and only his girlfriend and Hound/Holmes can clear his name. Inspector Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is intent on catching the young suspect, and it takes all of Hound/Holmes' brains, as well as a little luck, to find the real criminals.

"A Small Client" (Little Martha's Big Mystery)
Martha's daddy is missing, and thanks to her neighbor friend, Martha knows just who to ask to find him. Meanwhile, London is being flooded with counterfeit coins, threatening to undermine the economy of the entire empire, and Lestrade is stumped. When an innocent letter from Martha's father turns out to be more than it appears, Hound/Holmes enlist Lestrade's help to save the missing father and the empire.

"Mrs. Hudson is Taken Hostage"
Moriarty become an amateur photographer as he finds a weakness to exploit in Hound/Holmes: Mrs. Hudson. He hatches a plan to kidnap the beautiful widow and get Hound/Holmes to steal a work of art to exchange for her so Moriarty can get him locked away as a criminal. Mrs. Hudson, however, turns out to be more than he expected.

"The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" (Blue Ruby)
Moriarty has just stolen a priceless gem, and on his way home he literally runs into Polly, a young pickpocket who relieves him of his new acquisition. Moriarty is furious when he discovers the gem is missing, and so begins a hunt for the elusive young thief. Hound/Holmes and Watson intervene on behalf of Polly, and together they battle to stay one step ahead of the evil genius.

The transfer onto DVD is excellent, and there are only a few spots where artifacting is obvious. It looks like the best source materials were used to create this transfer. Because the English version is about 1 minute longer than the Japanese version, the English and Japanese versions are recorded seperately on opposite sides of the DVD. Pioneer thoughtfully made the labels for each side different colors, though, so it's easy to tell which side is which: blue for English and red for Japanese.

The English voice acting is very good, and the translation for the subtitles is an actual translation instead of "dubtitles". There are some minor continuity problems in the English version (for instance, Professor Moriarty greets Hound/Holmes as if for the first time in the sixth episode, despite them having met in the second). The sound quality, while only Dolby Digital 1.0 (Mono), is clean and clear, and the sound level is just right.

There are no extras included on the DVD, though with the age of this series (almost 20 years old) it's probably hard to find any. The insert, however, opens into a nice mini-poster of Hound/Holmes and Watson.

This series is enjoyable by kids of all ages. It's full of action, a little bit of romance (as Holmes has a thing for Mrs. Hudson), mystery, and slapstick adventure. There's a little bit of something for everyone here, and it's a great introduction to the cases of Sherlock Holmes for those who've never read the originals. I highly recommend it!

This is solid entertainment for kids and anime fans alike, especially those interested in the works of master anime director Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Castle of Cagliostro). He directed three of the five episodes (A Small Client, Mrs. Hudson is Taken Hostage, and The Blue Carbuncle)and his flair for great action and pacing (see Castle of Cagliostro) is especially evident in these episodes. The other two unfortunately lack that kind of energy and invention but are still fun. Sure the animation is a bit dated but the story, characterizatons and humor are still top quality. I personally prefer the Japanese language with English subtitles(you get the Japanese vocals for the opening and closing themes to boot) but the English dub is certainly decent in of itself.

Overall, a must have for Miyazaki fans and for parents who want their children to watch wholesome yet inventive anime that's not the usual Pokemon-derived dreck.

I have been a fan of Sherlock Holmes all of my life. I am not locked into tradition as some Sherlockians. I am open to new and different interpretations of the Great Detective. This DVD is a delight. True it takes several big liberties with Holmes, but that's OK. It is not intended to be a straight retelling of the Canon. The stories are well told and the Anime is very good. This disk can serve as an introduction to Sherlock Holmes for young children and as a pleasant variation on a theme for older Sherlock Holmes fans.

This DVD was great! I watched Sherlock Hound as a kid, and had only good memories about it. I'm happy it came out on DVD! The only thing bothering me is the English version, which is very bad in my opinion. The actors are just plain, and the English accent, although a nice touch, doesn't add up to the whole thing. Better to watch it in Japanese! I know though that there is a French version which is excellent, and although there's probably not a very big market for anime in French, would it be so much trouble adding one more track on the DVD? Still, I recommend this cartoon to any Sherlock Homes fan, and any nostalgic young adults like me :)

Or so the series is called in Japanese. Known around here as Sherlock Hound, this series was originaly produced in 1981 as a joint project between Tokyo Movie Shinsha and an italian studio called RAI. Hayao Miyazaki became involved, directing six episodes, and writing a few of those. Afterwards, probably after the ones covered in the first few volumes, the production was put on hold due to some conflicts with copyrights involving Sir Arthur Conan Doyles estate. But, in 1984, the next batch were released as planned on TV, with a different crew directing, writin and animating. So, these 5, and the first one of the next volume are all done by Miyazaki and a great group of creators.

For this first Case File disc, we get the first five episodes, which include: (I'll just use the Japanese titles, but they are different in the english dub.)

-'He's The Famous Detective!'
-'The Evil Genius, Professor Moriarty'
-'Little Martha's Big Mystery'
-'Mrs. Hudson is Taken Hostage'
-'Blue Ruby'

I won't waste your time with plot analysis for all five, because the Spotlight review features this. I will say that this is the japanese translation of the stories, and the reimageining of the characters. They are, of course, all dogs. And while some are direct stories out of the many books, some are new scripts. They both measure up, with the original scripts being full of crazy machines from Moriarty and flying and all kinds of great excitement (you can tell Miyazaki was inventing some of the flying bits).

The disc contains no features, unless you count it being dual-sided with the english dub on one side, and the original japanese on the other.
The dub is a little dry, sounding like a grown up interpretation of Holmes, with dry british accents and cliched voices (even I could do a better Watson impersionation), but all the japanese voices are spot on, with a correct and actual translation in the subtitles. You would do best to watch the original language tracks.

The quality is good, especially for an '80s TV series. And the sound is great. Sometimes the music is nearly muffled or even drowned completely, in typical Saturday morning flair. A bit annoying, contributing to it losing a star. The other factor being no special features (wasn't expectin much from a TV series, but this is the DVD age)

Overall, anime fans, cartoon enthusiasts, Holmes-a-maniacs, or adventure seekers of all ages will find this fun. If your looking to buy the whole series, there are no plans on making a boxed set, so start shelling out 27 dollars for all 6, because this is one to collect!

First off, I'm reviewing the whole series under Vol. 1 since I don't want to be repetitive and post this review under all the volumes.

I decided to rent this since I heard that it was one of Miyazaki's first works. However, I later found out that he only directed a few episodes, so it's not as though the entire series is his. I must say that the series really bears little resemblance to anything Miyazaki later did under Studio Ghibli, or even to "Panda Go Panda!", which was pre-Ghibli. Furthermore, the cartoon (I can't bring myself to call this anime) suffers from serious flaws. Despite this, it is enjoyable if you pretend that Miyazaki had nothing to do with it. Then, your expectations are not quite as high and you can enjoy this as a simple, child-oriented, 1980's-era cartoon.

"Sherlock Hound" posesses many flaws that make it seem dated by today's standards. First, the animation is rather simple-looking. I'm not sure if it looked good for it's time or merely looked mediocre, but by today's standards, it's rather poor. Another strike against the series is that the voice acting is bland. Although Hound's voice is okay, several other characters either have inconsistent accents or very stereotypical accents (I cringed when I heard the Japanese man in one episode). Lastly, the plot became rather repetitive since Moriarty was ALWAYS the villian-as though no one else ever commits crimes. It would've been less dull if some of the crimes were done by other people. After awhile, you always know it's him (even Hound starts to assume it's Moriarty by the end of the series even before he's gathered any evidence).

Plot-wise, it's typical cartoon fair for the time period (if you've ever seen Scooby-Doo, you know what I mean). In other words, there's a typical good guy (Hound), a typical villian (Moriarty), and a typical plot arc (Moriarty steals something, Hound gets it back, Moriarty escapes anyway, etc) for every episode. If you've seen Miyazaki's later works and are judging them against this, you'll notice how very poorly this compares. "Sherlock Hound" is very shallow in plot and character development compared to, say, My Neighbor Totoro or Kiki's Delivery Service. I suppose this is to be expected since Sherlock Hound wasn't really Miyazaki's work anyways.

Despite all these flaws, I actually enjoyed watching Sherlock Hound. It's still entertaining, funny at times, and charming. If you forget about Miyazaki and take into account it's age, Sherlock Hound can be a reasonably likeable experience. If you're not looking for deeper meanings and just want to watch a mildly amusing "Saturday-morning" cartoon, I would say it's worth a rental.

I found this to be thoroughly disappointing. The plot was
weak, dialog poor, dubbing dreadful, and the art was
low-to-average 1960s cartoon quality. At some spots,
my wife and I were laughing out loud at how unbelievably
bad the story and dialog were. Do yourself a favor, look
for more modern Miyazaki ... you'll be happy you did.

Some reviewers note that you can see some future Miyazki
characters and themes. While this is true ... it isn't
worth the time or money if you're not writing a biography
of him.

As far as the Sherlock Holmes mythos, we couldn't believe
the gaffes just in the first two episodes ("the game has begun"
instead of "the game is afoot"; "221 Baker Street" instead of
"221B Baker Street" (about 1/15 people make that mistake,
according to Google); having to be told that Watson had
visited Afghanistan rather than deducing it (see "A Study In
Scarlet"); "private detective" instead of "consulting
detective").

In summary, it wasn't merely bad, it was really most sincerely bad.