ANIME

DVD REVIEW . Shinobi: Heart Under Blade

Being that I’ve already reviewed Shinobi: Heart Under Blade, and professed my deep love for it in our Best of 2006 list, I’m going to launch straight into the DVD review.

Funimation presents Shinobi: Heart Under Blade in an absolutely pristine 2.35:1 transfer (truly the best I’ve seen) representing its theatrical aspect ratio, with your choice of Japanese or English 5.1 language tracks. The transfer really is quite nice. The blacks are deep, the blues and reds are pure. The fine details of the forest fights, landscapes, clothing textures, and the like are all represented admirably. Both audio tracks are quite nice, though I will admit that it’s a bit strange to hear Oboro and Gennosuke speaking English after so many viewings in Japanese.

The first disc offers a trailer gallery of other Funimation releases, including Fullmetal Alchemist, Origin, Speed Grapher (hoping to watch this one soon), Robotech, Basilisk (review coming soon), and Trintiy Blood, as well as a promo for the Z-Store.

As with most two disc special editions, the second disc is where all the special features are housed.

First up is The VFX Behind the Scenes feature, a 40 minute informational piece concerning the special effects of Shinobi. I say informational piece because it is genuinely educational, rather than the usual fluff-doc you usually see as a special effects feature. Everything including scene decompositions, digital doubles, particle effects, rotoscoping, motion capture, lighting and color correction, terrain mapping, matte layering, and animation of 3-D models is covered in depth in this feature. They even go so far as to show a seminar on the technology behind the special effects of Shinobi in its entirety. It’s quite fascinating, and easily one of the best special effects features I’ve seen in quite some time.

The Storyboard features come in the form of a standard Storyboard Collection and a Director Storyboard Collection. Both collections display various sequences from the film along with their storyboards in real time. In both cases the scene plays in the upper left corner, and the individual panels corresponding with the finished scene are displayed on the bottom. The standard Storyboard Collection feature also has the storyboard flow featured along the right. Undoubtedly this will be interesting extra for film students and the like, but I found it a bit tedious. I understand the purpose, and admittedly this is a bit nitpicky, but I’d much rather be able to look at the storyboards up close.

The Weapons Introduction featuring prop master Ryuji Hayakawa details the process of creating weapons for the various characters of Shinobi. He discusses the reasoning behind the look and assignment of these weapons with respect to clan alignments as well as character traits themselves. This is another informative extra that might actually add an extra layer of depth to the various fights in the film. Very cool.

Shinobi Art – Manjidani shows the construction of the set for the Kouga Manjidani village. It covers everything from conception to location scouting to actual construction of the Manjidani village along a windswept cliff face. What I like about the extra is its straightforward style and the documentation of the crew’s perseverance, even in the face of repeated set destruction due to heavy winds. It’s like an episode of this old house crossed with a Discovery Channel special. I dunno, there’s just something cool about watching people build stuff out of wood, hammer, and nails. A cool extra.

Shinobi Action – Sumpu Castle Fight complements the earlier VFX Behind the Scenes feature, showing the Yashamaru vs. Yagyu fight from filming to completion. While the VFX segment goes in depth into the layering of special effects, this one shows a little more from the side of the cinematographer and director. It’s very brief (only 3 – 4 minutes long) but again quite informative.

The Trailer and TV Spots collection is just as the name implies. All trailer and television commercial variations are presented for your viewing pleasure. Each takes a decidedly different approach toward wooing the audience, with promises of action, love, and “Popularity” (read: audience testimonials). It’s worth noting that Funimation went to the trouble of subtitling all of these.

I was disappointed to see that a couple of the Japanese special features were not included in the Funimation release. Absent are a 60 minute making of documentary, featuring fly on the wall footage and interviews with all the stars, a segment with premier footage, and a 10 minute interview segment featuring Joe Odagiri and Yukie Nakama (I would have loved to see this subtitled). It’s possible Funimation is holding these for a later edition of Shinobi, but I doubt it.

My other criticism is the choice to change the DVD cover for the US release of the film. The original Japanese cover had Oboro and Gennosuke’s embrace taking up the whole space. It emphasizes the love aspect of the film, but also allows you to see the unusual quality of Oboro’s eyes, which play such an integral part in the narrative. Funimation usually has absolutely stellar DVD cover art, but their choice to move Oboro and Gennosuke to the bottom, and include the image of the Shogun’s ninja squad (not even the Shinobi of the title), which figure into only one action sequence in the film, seems a bit foolish. I know you’re going to get more teenage boys to watch the picture if you show the ninjas, but I really can’t say I like it.

Alas, these criticisms are minor. Funimation’s release of Shinobi: Heart Under Blade is remarkable; an awesome presentation of an awesome film, and at quite the affordable price. If you’re curious at all, you owe it to yourself to pick it up. Again, awesome disc, awesome movie. Hats off to Funimation.

About the Author

Chris Nelson has been a film fanatic since age six. A former film and English major, he is now a Software Engineer and contract Technical Writer living in the Silicon Valley.