- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Audio Codec: Japanese LPCM 2.0 (48kHz/16-bit)
- Subtitles: English (forced)
- Subtitles Color: White
- Region: A (Region-Locked)
- Rating: 16+/OT (Older Teen)
- Discs: 4 (2 x Blu-ray + 2 x DVD)
- Digital Copies: N/A
- Run Time: 292 Mins.
- Studio: NIS America
- Blu-ray Release Date: September 11, 2012
- List Price: $69.99
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Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Series
[Rating:4/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Series
[Rating:4/5]
Ghastly Prince Enma Burning Up (えん魔くん メ~ラめら, Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera) is a remake of the 1970s Japanese comedy/fantasy/horror anime series from Toei Animation, Dororon Enma-kun (ドロロンえん魔くん). This updated series from Brain’s Base maintains the series’ 1970s setting, even if some of the pop-culture references span all the way from the 50s through the 80s, at least in the English translation subtitles; as the various characters are attacked, they typically yell out puns on on song titles, television shows, or video games, such as “Stairway to Heaven,” “Shock the Monkey,” “whacka, whacka” (like in Pac-Man) and so forth.
The story is a whacky, zany, action-filled, slightly risqué romp with mild tendencies toward fan service that follows Harumi, a young girl who stumbles into the world of the Demon Patrol. The Demon Patrol are group of demons led by the fiery Prince Enma and include his longtime friend and possibly girlfriend, the scantily clad ice princess Yukiko, plus their two sidekicks, a half-turtle/half-frog demon spy Kapperu and a talking hat Chapeauji. Together, they must all find and capture demons escaped from hell into the world of humans that are bent on causing mayhem.
I never had the pleasure of viewing the original series so I cannot compare the two, but I can say that this updated remake was enjoyable even if its pop-culture references were somewhat anachronistic (as I already pointed out) and the storylines somewhat repetitive, until the final four or five episodes. Still, the colorful animation, almost dizzying amount of activity, and goofy sense of humor help to keep one well entertained over the course of all 12 episodes.
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Apart from some mild color banding here and there, this AVC/MPEG-4 encodement of Ghastly Prince Enma Burning Up from NIS America, Inc. shouldn’t cause any complaints from viewers. It has a clean and crisp image with excellent color reproduction, little in the way of video noise and no aliasing around the line art.
Audio Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
A stereo LPCM 2.0 (48kHz/16-bit) Japanese track is the sole audio offering provided. While a 5.1 track would have nice, especially in the original Japanese language, NIS America rarely, if ever, provides 5.1. Still, this track is of a high caliber with full, clear dialogue, big sound effects and wide stereo panning.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3/5]
On-disc extras are slim in this Premium Edition, however, the set comes packaged in a glossy collectible box with a collectible hardcover book.
The supplements:
- Clean Opening
- Clean Ending
- NIS America Trailers
- DVDs – 2 DVDs of the series are also included
- Hardcover Book: The 36-page glossy hardcover book includes character bios, factoids, character sketches, transcripts from roundtable discussions with the cast, and an interview with the original author.
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:4/5]
Ghastly Prince Enma Burning Up is another fine premium edition from NIS America. It includes a good bit of swag for anime fans in its collectible hardcover book, but the meat of the set is, of course, the enjoyable anime series that anchors the whole thing. It shows up in a solid rendering on Blu-ray and DVD. Recommended.
Additional Screen Captures
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Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Series
[Rating:4/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3/5]
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