Tetsujin 28 – The
Phantom Thief (V. 3/Animé TV)
Picture: B-
Sound: B- Extras: C- Episodes: B-
The third volume of the Animé TV series Tetsujin 28
is even better than the second, dealing with other robots, automation and
criminals instead of just dated gangsters.
The combination of Gigantor, Jack Armstrong, Johnny
Quest, James Bond and even the Horror genre is not totally original; the
show grows on the viewer. We previously
looked at the second volume, but have yet to see the first. The episodes on
this disc (at about a half-hour each) are as follows:
11) The End Of Super Human
Kelly
12) The Melancholy Of Doctor
Black
13) The Glowing Entity
14) Black Mask, The Phantom
Thief
Though still not up to where it could go, the show is
comic, fun, colorful and almost a throwback to the better action cartoons of
the past. The Black Mask of the last
show is not the karate entity played by Jet Li, but a talky spy who is closer
to The Spirit gone bad. This is still
for ages 13 and up, though I wish it had a little more edge.
The anamorphically enhanced 16 X 9/1.78 X 1 image is
pretty good, without the fake whitening we see in too many shows of this genre,
while the Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has some Pro Logic surrounds this time in
both languages versus neither language before.
However, the Japanese version is better than the English in the actor’s
voices. The English dubbing is still on
the lame side, allowing it to be taken in by the false dilemma that the young
man has to be nice all the time, despite fighting all forms of evil. Just compare to the better Japanese voice
performance and you will see why this show is so good. The only extras are trailers for three other
Geneon DVDs and that’s it. There should
be more and not less for such a good show, especially with how many other
Animés that are not as good out there.
Maybe next time.
- Nicholas Sheffo
