J2: Jubei Chan 2 – The Counterattack Of Siberia Yagyu
(Animé TV)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: C Episodes: C+
A powerful samurai has been resurrected as two young girls
while the polar icecaps are melting at a record pace? Only in Animé could this happen and empowerment becomes a shaky
issue in J2: Jubei Chan 2 – The Counterattack Of Siberia Yagyu, one of
the silliest, most preposterous such series we have seen to date. Throw in some out of place comedy and you
have got a near mess of a show.
Though a “J1” may or may not exist, who cares? This is far from any kind of mystery, and
instead of taking an approach to get the audience to suspend disbelief, we get
condescending distractions instead. The
half-hourish shows here include:
1) It Melted
Somewhere On Earth
2) Fate Has
Arrived By Coincidence
3) An
Unneeded Item Had Been Thrown Away
4) Father
That Never Returned
If only the scripts had that kind of effort, though the
titles also demonstrate the run-on feel of these shows. The anamorphically enhanced 16 X 9/1.78 X 1
image is fair, but would have been much better if the creators did not insist
on softness so often throughout the shows.
The transfer itself is fine otherwise.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has Pro Logic surrounds in both English
& Japanese and are the highlight of the disc. The few extras include action figure info, alternative trailer
endings, Ending Eye-Catches to odd to explain, trailers for this and three
other Geneon Animé titles. This is for
those who like oddball Animé and think they known good comedy.
- Nicholas Sheffo