Release Teardown: Sengoku Collection Complete Collection

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The samurai era is a fairly popular motif in Japanese fiction. The tales of honor and betrayal, conquest and loss make for a thrilling backdrop. Prominent figures like Oda Nobunaga and Date Masamune have been elevated to the level of folk heroism, their own experiences becoming grandiose accounts of otherworldly accomplishment.

Sengoku Collection is a series that takes the idea of embellishment to a logical extreme. While the names are familiar, the rest of the lore is thrown by the wayside. The prominent generals became busty ladies, who hardly look or act the part of their feudal counterparts as they’re transported to the modern world.

So, basically, it’s a show about a bunch of time traveling girls trying to adjust to Japan, circa 2013. Riveting.

Right Stuf will release the series in a single set on August 5, 2014. We were fortunate enough to receive a review screener for the show and, since we received the full product, I felt that it was only right that we do a full teardown.

(Click images for larger versions)

Packaging

The set ships in a single Amaray DVD case. The front cover features a piece of key art, which places Oda Nobunaga front and center. The image itself portrays the time traveling samurai girls, as they descend upon Tokyo. The logo is placed at the bottom of the case.

The back of the case features a two-pane design. On the left is a yellow box with a description of the show proper. Beneath the box is a trio of stills from the show. The right pane contains a piece of key art, that portrays Nobunaga and Ieyasu Tokugawa standing before a starry background. The bottom of the case contains the “feature grid” that’s a mainstay for Right Stuf’s releases, as well as the bar code.

Inside the case, the discs are stored on a paged setup. Each of the discs containsa piece of key art from the show, set against a starry background. The show’s logo, disc number, and standard branding are arranged along the bottom 1/4 of each disc.

Menu Structure

Note: Since the release has a consistent look & feel across the discs, I will only be covering the first disc of each edition. Further dissections would be redundant.

The menus feature a two-paned structure, similar to that of the back of the DVD case. Menu selections are arranged inside a yellow box in the left-hand pane. In each menu, the left margin of the box is bisected by either a transparent line, or a trio of three pink parallel lines. The text itself is presented in pink, sans-serif font.

The right pane features a piece of key art, which varies from menu to menu. The one exception to this rule occurs in the Previews menu, which substitutes key art for the DVD cover art of the featured trailers.

Video Quality

Overall

Sengoku Collection is a simple, yet effective release. The packaging design is clean and attractive, with a fantastic use of color. The menus are simple, yet effective, with a smart layout and plenty of lovely key art.

The video quality of the show itself was generally strong, with no clear artifacting in the video or distortions in audio. The colors are rich, the lines are well-defined, and the only real failing is in the inconsistent animation of the show itself.

Release Teardown: Sengoku Collection Complete Collection
Mike Ferreira

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