Peacemaker Volume 1: Innocence Lost - Gamerz Edge
- Gamerz Edge
- Travis Pierce
- 10/12/04
- click here
Peace Maker Kurogane
Final Score:8.3
The revolution is about to begin
The Story
Tetsunosuke is your average 15 year old kid living in 16th century Kyoto. Tetsu wants to become a member of the famous Shisengumi , the protectors of the old capitol. Unfortunately for Tetsu, 16th century Kyoto is probably the worse time in history to become a Shisengumi.
Tetsunosuke Ichimura desperately wants to join the Shisengumi (the defending Samurai of Kyoto) however Tetsu fails to convince the guards at the front gate from even letting him in to try out. After failing to get in to the Shisengumi Tetsu runs into Souji Okita (a freakishly feminine samurai), a member of the Shisengumi so strange that Tetsu doesn?t even realize that he is a samurai. After talking with Souji for a little while, Souji gives him the chance that he has been waiting for, a chance to meet the leader of the Shisengumi and a chance to show them what Tetsu has to offer. Tetsu, being the 15 year old loud mouth that he is, mouths off that he can beat the captain of the first squad, which turns out to be Souji. After a pretty embarrassing fight against Souji, Tetsu does not get the approval to join the Shisengumi from Mr. Hijikata the Vice Commander of the Shisengumi. After camping out at the Shisengumi Dojo Mr. Hijikata finally lets up and lets Tetsu join as his page.
As Tetsu gets more familiar with the Shisengumi Dojo Tetsu is ultimately faced with the decision of his life, will he give up his humanity to become a demon wolf of Mibu (a.k.a. the Shisengumi) or will he never be able to grow strong enough to avenge the death of his parents.
Video
The video transfer in Peace Maker Kurogane suffers a little. It looks to me that the original series was shown in a widescreen format, and in this DVD it has been formatted for your standard 4:3 ratio TV. With that said, you can at occasions see blurring from this process. While it is a small annoyance, the video transfer in Peace Maker is not the worse I have seen, but for those of you with a wide screen HDTV this might turn you off a bit, but for us poor folks with an old school TV, well you will not mind it too much.
Audio
Peace Maker Kurogane surprisingly has a pretty good English Dub. The dub is presented in English 5.1 for those blessed with a 5.1 system, while the good ol faithful Japanese Dub is presented in your run of the mil 2.0 stereo. The voice of Souji in Peace Maker Kurogane is however the only thing that I have a problem with, Souji has a high pitch voice that makes him sound, well let?s go out and say it, The Japanese Michael Jackson. While admittedly this is because Souji is the most feminine Samurai in the history of Samurai, it still makes for some awkward moments and the occasional desire to listen to Thriller.Special Features
The special features section of Peace Maker Kurogane is well lacking, we have your standard ADV previews, clean opening and closing, production sketches and well that?s about it.
Presentation
Peace Maker Kurogane is presented in a nice clear DVD case with Tetsunosuke on the cover dressed up as a full member of the Shisengumi. Nothing spectacular here, but nothing bad either, oh and the cover is reversible too.
Overall Comments
As a huge fan of the Samurai Genre of Anime I am both disappointed and pleased with Peace Maker Kurogane. This is one of the first stories about the Kyoto revolution I have seen from the side of the Shisengumi, since I know the history behind the Kyoto revolution it is nice to see that familiar faces and names are represented in Peace Maker. My only dissatisfaction with Peace Maker is that (at least in the first 4 episodes) the story of the Kyoto revolution is not really explained. But then again, as time goes on I?m sure Peace Maker Kurogane will only age like a fine wine, and get better as time goes on.
The Show :8.5/10.0
Video:8.0/10.0
Sound:9.0/10.0
Special Features :8.0/10.0
Presentation:8.0/10.0
Posted on Tuesday, October 12, 2004 (Archive on Friday, November 12, 2004)