Post by Zone Fighter on Jun 12, 2007 13:06:55 GMT -8
Shadow Warriors: The Complete First Season box set (region 1, Japanese with English subtitles)
The box is designed to look like wood. The front cover shows the image of a man holding a sword. The back describes the series. Inside the box are four clear plastic cases. The first three cases each hold two, double-sided discs. The fourth case holds one double-sided disc. The first six discs each hold four episodes, two on each side. The seventh disc holds three episodes and an interview with Sonny Chiba, which is the only bonus material, unless you buy the set from Best Buy. If you purchase the set from Best Buy you will get a fifth clear plasic case containg two single-sided discs. One disc features the movie Shogun's Ninja, on the other is Shogun's Shadow.
Each of the series discs has the two episode titles and a Set Up option. From the Set Up screen you can toggle the English subtitles off, they default to on. The Best Buy bonus discs include trailers for seven Sonny Chiba films.
The DVD image and audio is excellent. There are some minor glitches in the English subtitles. I've noticed typing errors. And sometimes they leave words untranslated ("kunoichi", "oniwaban"). While both the opening and ending credits are subtitled, the ending theme lyrics are not.
The episodes are uncensored, there is some partial female nudity in scenes of the bathhouse.
Included with the DVDs is an 8 page booklet written by Patrick Macias. There is an error in the booklet. He quotes Quentin Tarantino's whos memory of the other Shadow Warriors series is faulty. Tarantino claims Sonny Chiba always plays Hattori Hanzo (III, IV, etc), which is not correct. Sonny Chiba plays Hattori Hanzo the third in the first series. Then in the second he's Tsuge Shinpachi. And in the third Tarao Hanzo. In the fourth he's Hattori Hanzo again. They may all be Inga ninja but they don't all have the same name.
Trivia:
Sonny Chiba's first television role was in 1959 as the lead in Nana Iro Kamen. In 1973 he guest starred in the first episode of Robotto Keiji as the older brother of Detective Go Shinjô (played by his real life younger brother Jiro Chiba).
Junichi Haruta who plays Kiheiji would go on to be the in suit actor for Vul Eagle 1 & Inazuma Ginga in the super sentai series Taiyo Sentai Sanbarukan (Solar Task Force Sun Vulcan). Vul Eagles one of the heroes, Inazuma Ginga is a villain. Junichi Haruta also played Kanpei Kuroda who becomes Goggle Black and Ryu Hoshikawa who becomes Dyna Black.
I like this series and I hope BCI comes out with Shadow Warriors II (Kage no Gundan II), Shadow Warriors III (Kage no Gundan III) and Shadow Warriors IV (Kage no Gundan: Bakumatsu hen).
The box is designed to look like wood. The front cover shows the image of a man holding a sword. The back describes the series. Inside the box are four clear plastic cases. The first three cases each hold two, double-sided discs. The fourth case holds one double-sided disc. The first six discs each hold four episodes, two on each side. The seventh disc holds three episodes and an interview with Sonny Chiba, which is the only bonus material, unless you buy the set from Best Buy. If you purchase the set from Best Buy you will get a fifth clear plasic case containg two single-sided discs. One disc features the movie Shogun's Ninja, on the other is Shogun's Shadow.
Each of the series discs has the two episode titles and a Set Up option. From the Set Up screen you can toggle the English subtitles off, they default to on. The Best Buy bonus discs include trailers for seven Sonny Chiba films.
The DVD image and audio is excellent. There are some minor glitches in the English subtitles. I've noticed typing errors. And sometimes they leave words untranslated ("kunoichi", "oniwaban"). While both the opening and ending credits are subtitled, the ending theme lyrics are not.
The episodes are uncensored, there is some partial female nudity in scenes of the bathhouse.
Included with the DVDs is an 8 page booklet written by Patrick Macias. There is an error in the booklet. He quotes Quentin Tarantino's whos memory of the other Shadow Warriors series is faulty. Tarantino claims Sonny Chiba always plays Hattori Hanzo (III, IV, etc), which is not correct. Sonny Chiba plays Hattori Hanzo the third in the first series. Then in the second he's Tsuge Shinpachi. And in the third Tarao Hanzo. In the fourth he's Hattori Hanzo again. They may all be Inga ninja but they don't all have the same name.
Trivia:
Sonny Chiba's first television role was in 1959 as the lead in Nana Iro Kamen. In 1973 he guest starred in the first episode of Robotto Keiji as the older brother of Detective Go Shinjô (played by his real life younger brother Jiro Chiba).
Junichi Haruta who plays Kiheiji would go on to be the in suit actor for Vul Eagle 1 & Inazuma Ginga in the super sentai series Taiyo Sentai Sanbarukan (Solar Task Force Sun Vulcan). Vul Eagles one of the heroes, Inazuma Ginga is a villain. Junichi Haruta also played Kanpei Kuroda who becomes Goggle Black and Ryu Hoshikawa who becomes Dyna Black.
I like this series and I hope BCI comes out with Shadow Warriors II (Kage no Gundan II), Shadow Warriors III (Kage no Gundan III) and Shadow Warriors IV (Kage no Gundan: Bakumatsu hen).
