Video:

The video is pretty nice, no mayor problems, some image break-up at the start of disc 2, but my player managed to chug along... great image for a show thats almost 30 years old (made in 1974)

Audio:

Audio is perfect, nice and clear, no pops or drops

Subtitle:

Subtitles are not perfect but totally understandable, with some weird sentence structure and some changed names, nothing that will detract from your enjoyment

Comment:

The first combiner robot and another of the great creations of Go Nagai, Getter Robo is a great example of the golden age of the giant robot show, breaking new ground in team dynamics and action. three heroes, three times the angst and a lot of comedy thrown in (more than Mazinger Z). The dinosaur Empire comes from the center of the Earth, to stop the research on the getter rays, the "real" cause of the dinosaur extintion so many million of ears ago and destroying the Getter Robo prototype, that was being prepared for space exploration and killing Prof. Saotome eldest son. Now Prof. Saotome prepares Getter Robo for war against the dinosaurs and only one will survive!!! The series is in 5 discs, disc 1-4 with 10 eps, disc 5 with 11, menu is simple play all, chapters(1 per ep) and languages (chinese/english) for any lover of mecha and giant robot shows, this is a no brainer pick!!!!! :)

Video:

The video came out awesome for a show that's almost 30 years old now and is squeezed 10 episodes a disc, except the last which had 11. But like I said, for 10 episodes a disc, it's pretty nice looking. Some fuzziness, to say the least. But not much. I didn't see any pixelation at all. The video is very good, and nothing in it will detract from your viewing. It's source is most likely the LD release, since at the time the R2 DVDs were not out yet.

Audio:

Awesome job in this department. Sounds great on my TV. Theres no popping sounds when a special move is screamed at the top of the characters lungs, and the music comes through clear. Excellent job here.

Subtitle:

Here's where this release doesn't falter. The subs are great on this release! I'm not going ot lie to you, though. There are some name changes. Only some. Maybe a few characters at the most. But that's it. Everyone else is correct, maybe with some weird spellings, but correct. So not much loss there. After another viewing, the only main character that had a name change was Professor Saotome's daughter, Michiru. Her name is subbed as Man. Yes, Man. Let the jokes begin :P Seriously though, at first it had me confused, because a character might say something like "How are you, Man?" and I though they would just be calling each other man like some people do. Don't make my mistake. Also, the pilot of Getter One, Ryo, is subtitled as Yoi. Very similar, I can see how the mistake can be made, since when I first watched the show, I thought his name was just Yo. Anyways, some might be wondering why his name is Ryo and not Ryoma. They changed it for the TV release of the show for some reason. Lot's of changes were made from Go Nagai's original manga to the TV series, but that's expected of an anime in the 70s. Also, the attacks and moves shouted in English are changed a bit in the subtitles. Eg., the show says "Getter Beam" while the subs will say "Getter Ray." Nothing terrible. Just listen the the screaming English and you will get it. The grammar is superb. I doubt any fansub scripts exist of a show that is about 30 years old and more then 51 episodes, so it must have been all on there own. The grammar is perfectly understandable. Sometimes there will be wierd sentences, but I'm not talking Engrish here. Subtitles are very good for this show.

Comment:

This is Go Nagai's original super robot. Mazinger was animated first, but Getter Robo was written before. Getter Robo just rules. Three different ships, called Getter Machines, can combine into three different robots, each with there own traits. Getter Robo's name comes from the energy it is powered by, Getter Rays, founded by Professor Saotome. An ancient race of intelligent dinosaurs living underground, known as the Dinosaur Empire led by Emperor Goer, decide to attempt tot ake Earth over again. Out of the millions of years they've been hiding underground, they just happen to pick the year Saotome makes a robot powered by Getter Rays, which are lethal to the dinosaurs. What follows is 51 episodes of pure robot mayhem. Defiently a classic series. For those wondering, the anime does indeed differ fromt he manga ALOT. In the manga, Hayato is a genious school gang leader. An IQ well into 300. Ryoma, or Ryo as he is called in this series, is an incredibly strong fellow class mate of of Hayato. Ryoma is given the Getter Eagle, and goes off to recruit Hayato as the pilot of Getter Jaguar. A Mechasaur attacks, and Saotome goes out in Getter Bear (Musashi comes in the manga later. He is the most accurate of his anime counterpart, bascially being a silly guy with a heart of gold). Hayato goes into full pussy mode. And everyone thinks he's a bad ass. He makes Musashi look brave in the first episode. Anyways, yeah, so the manga differs alot. But the anime still rocks. Onto the DVD itself... The front cover is a funky looking shot of Ryoma and Getter One, with some Dinosaur Empire members in the background. This is the cover of one of the LD sets, also, which this set is sourced from. The back cover appears to be some basic green template you can find on your computer, with various pictures. In the center is a diamond with four pictures inside, including one of Texas Mack. The bottom features the typical HK DVD information. OH, the spines cool, too, with the Getter Robo title logo shown big. Looks real nice. The set opens up with a picture of Hayato and Getter Two kicking ass on the left, and a picture of Musashi and Getter Three on the right, which is also the spot for the first disc. The disc art does not match the backing. Each side oepns again, leaving you witht he final four disc holders. Far left one has a picture of the whole Getter Team running forward with Getter One big in the background. All the previous mentioned artwork comes from the LD packaging. The middle left spot appears to be images either ripped from the show and made into a picture, or just a scan of a picture from a magazine or something. it looks nice, regardless. The middle right picture is of Getter One, messed up, with a bloody Ryoma coming out of the cockput. The right picture is of Getter One big and tall (possibly more LD art) and some more dinosaurs in the background. The disc art, actually, does match the backing in most cases, but if you put the discs in order, the picture on the disc won't match the backing. For the middle right picture, there is no matching picture. So for those who like matching disc art and pictures, you'll have to put your DVDs in a funky order. But the disc pictures are just shrunken versions of the gatefold art. The show is 51 episodes divided over 5 discs. The first four have ten episodes each, while the last has eleven, but it still looks as good as the other discs. Disc starts and goes straight to the menu, which is your basic HK menu. Play All, subtitles, and chapters. The background is just a static screen cap from the show, and the show's opening theme plays in the background. Go Nagai himself wrote the opening theme to the show, I hear. The chapter select menu just lists the episode name and you pick it. The episode names are all in kanji, so you're on your own figuring out which is which! Each episode plays out by opening, episode, next episode preview, and ending. There is no eyecatch for the show, as one doesn't exsist. The chapters don't work that way, though. Each episode is one chapter, so you can't skip around in an episode. There is only one version of the opening and ending for this show. That's right. I hope you like the opening theme, because you can't skip over it, and it plays at least once an episode in the show, too. The opening theme is subtitled really well, but the ending isn't subtitled at all. Next episode previews are subtitled. No watermarks or email addresses anywheres in the show, but I don't beleive AV uses them, and this is one of there releases, so go figure. I reviewed this set on my slowly dying Toshiba SD-1200 and on my still going Zenith TV from the 80s. Grab this show if you're a fan of old school super robots!