- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Audio Codec: Japanese & English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit)
- Subtitles: English
- Region: AB (No Region C)
- Rating: TV-14
- Run Time: 75 Mins.
- Discs: 2 (1 x Blu-ray + 1 x DVD)
- Studio: Funimation Entertainment
- Blu-ray Release Date: February 14, 2012
- List Price: $29.98
[amazon-product]B0069556TU[/amazon-product]
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Purchase .hack//Quantum on Blu-ray at CD Universe
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Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Series
[Rating:4/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Series
[Rating:4/5]
.hack//Quantum is the three-part OVA of the successful anime franchise .hack, in which a group of three teenage high school girls in the near future enjoy adventures in the vivid virtual reality MMORPG (Massive online multiplayer role playing game) known as The World.
In this action-filled three-parter, the three friends, known in The World as Tobias, Mary, and Sakura come across a mysterious cat-like player with strange powers known simply as “Hermit.” Little do they know that they have stumbled into dangerous circumstances that not only threaten to ruin The World, but also threaten to leak into reality, starting with all the players online who are equipped with microchip implants, putting them into comas and trapping their souls inside the game.The friends must discover who is behind it all and stop it, before one of their own is seriously hurt in the real world.
.hack//Quantum is, admittedly, my first experience with the .hack franchise – hey, we can’t see or know everything, we’re only human, right? From what I can see in this OVA series, it seems darn cool to me. The animation, though not groundbreaking, is more than adequate and enjoyable, mixing hand-drawn and 3D CGI reasonably well. The idea of a series taking place inside a virtual reality world is in itself not wholly original, one can go back to Ghost in the Shell or The Matrix for stories revolving around that theme, but this is done with an exceptional amount of originality and levity, making it very enjoyable to watch.
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
The 1080p AVC encodement of .hack//Quantum is excellent, with very detailed line art, vibrant colors and clean overall animation. There aren’t any signs of noise or processing issues such as aliasing or compression errors, but sometimes the artistic choices do tend to veil the detail a tad.
Audio Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Both the Japanese track and English dub are provided in lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1. There aren’t any noticeable differences from an aural standpoint as both have clean dialogue, lush amounts of ambience in the surround channels, wide dynamics and natural, airy sounding high frequencies. The surrounds are often used for some discrete sound effects as well during the numerous action sequences. Low frequencies are nicely extended, but well balanced and tight, rather than boisterous and bone rattling.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]
There is a very odd mixture of supplements provided on this one. It’s mostly promos, but other “themed” extras, including the Chim, Chim animated sequences and “Yui-Yui” stuff is quite out there.
The supplements:
- Go, Our Chim Chims! (1.78:1; 1080p/24)
- 1
- 2
- 3
- Yui Ogura’s “Yui-Yui”
- “Cooking”
- “Club”
- “Cult Quiz”
- Promotional Videos (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:03:12)
- Original Commercial (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:00:17)
- Pre-release Promotional Video (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:01:39)
- U.S. Trailer (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:01:02)
- Trailers
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:4/5]
If I had one criticism about this OVA series it would be that these episodes should have been combined into one long feature-length OVA rather than being broken up into three parts. It would have helped with continuity and kept the tension and fantasy going. Minus a few other issues with some of the plot devices I had, such as a scene where the girls are meant to be in a virtual reality world drinking tea, but when they take off their visors, the tea is still there – uh, wuh? – I find .hack//Quantum to be rather solid overall.
Additional Screen Captures
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[amazon-product]B0069556TU[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com
Purchase .hack//Quantum on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for More Blu-ray Titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Series
[Rating:4/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]
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