Video:

VHS video, like part 1

Audio:

Also VHS, still some crackling and buzzing like part 1. The crackling seems to get bad during the heavy bass moments and the music for the Kyoto saga (which this set consists entirely of) has alot of it.

Subtitle:

Out of the 3 MI sets this was the best. Still spelling errors, dropped lines, mistimings, etc. but they were fewer here.

Comment:

As far as quality of the MI releases this part 2 seems to be the best. The set is entirely the Kyoto saga but there are a few episodes that still leak over into part 1 and 3 of this set so if Kyoto was all you wanted you still won't get the entire thing in this set.

Video:

The video is an obvious VHS rip, including the VHS distortion bar at the bottom, the soft Video and bleeding colors. Despite it being a VHS rip, it's still a decent rip nonetheless. The video is pretty good looking on the TV, but is less good on the computer screen. There is macroblocking during motion intensive scenes (scenes where the pictures will change and move radically), like where people will get hit in a comical way with lots of bright colors moving around, and wild and crazy stuff on screen. On scenes where Kenshin is whoopin ass, it really doesn't block up. Somestimes the video will exhibit some Tape flaws with the white specs from static appearing on the picture. Lastly the brightness seems really high, so a few scenes seem like they're brighter than they should be. With all these flaws, the video is decent to watch. Definately not as good as a decent transfer, but decent nonetheless. The video looks just fine on a 20" TV screen.

Audio:

For the most part, the audio is just fine, however there are a few episodes that have the classic VHS buzz. Other than that, the episodes have a decent stereo track, and surprisingly clear music and sounds.

Subtitle:

I have mixed feelings about the subtitles. As stated before, these subs come from the Shinsen Gumi fansubs, which are supposedly rife with curse words, however, I didn't notice that much cursing. Second, the subtitles have quite a few problems, in fact it has all the problems subtitles could have. There are Turbo subs, mistiming, unsubbed lines, mispellede words (lots of em) and this weird condition where the subtitles will have a literal and intended meaning sub. The literal sub will say one thing, and the intended meaning will be right next to it in brackets with how the line aws supposed to be interpreted. The problem is that the intended meaning wasn't much different from the original line, and they should have dropped one in liu of the other. The good thing about the subs is that a hefty portion of the subs are in fact subbed, they are taken from fansubs, and they are 100% engrish free. However, the problems of the subs are pretty annoying, but doesn't entirely detract from the entire feeling.

Comment:

This set is on par with the first set. On a whole, this set is only average. I'm sure in some ways the FX set is better than the MI (just about all categories). However, the unfortunate case with the R1 sets is that they supposedly have "watered down" subs (read at animeprime.com), and FX always has the pixelated video, however, this video pixelated too, plus some desyncronized audio. So in the extent that MI is better over FX is only through better translation, and in a few cases better audio, but worse looking subtitles, where FX has better video audio and subtitle timing, and spelling. So the decision is do you want a better translation, or better media? Right now, I haven't made up my mind if I want better subs or better audio and video, because it seems the subtitles from the R1s are taking away from the overall feeling. Also, to note, Kenshin Disc distribution is: Disc 1 DVD-9 Episodes 33-41 Disc 2 DVD-9 Episodes 42-50 Disc 3 DVD-9 Episodes 51-59 Disc 4 DVD-5 EPisodes 60-64

Comment:

i've got this set done. Compared to the first box set, the subtitles are generally excellent fan subs and did not degenerate towards the end. Moreover the video quality seems to have improved. The last few episodes of disc 2, i could have sworn it was dvd quality and not tv quality. Only issue is that in 1 or 2 episodes, there was a mild sound popping noise in the background.

Comment:

Well the audio & video are top notch. The subs are very good but have spelling mistakes, no spacing between words, & a few mis-timings. The subs are still really good the problems only occur infrequently...and the mis-timing is fixed in a matter of seconds. The artwork on the gatefold is really cool. Overall, I am very happy with the set and recommend it to any Kenshin fan who wants the whole set for a cheap price.

Video:

Same as Part 1... Good video but it seems to be a Vhs-rip because you have some lines about 4" down from the top that is moved a few pixels to the right. This goes through the whole set and you can especially see this when the camera is moving from down to up. Sometimes there is also some wellknown vhs disturbance.

Audio:

Same as part 1... The intro-song on every disc is very distorted and sometimes theres popping. Other than that the 2.0 japanese track works fine.

Subtitle:

Not so many missing lines like in part 1, some spelling mistakes. But you still know whats going on.

Comment:

Wowowowowow this series kicks ass!!! I watched almost the whole set at once because its so good! To bad that the sound and video werent the best.

Comment:

One of my all time favorite series and thankfully the Hk set doesn't butcher it up. I have some of the R1 sets and a few fansub copies and this set comes pretty close to being just as good. Listed down below are the reviews: Video: 5/5 In my opinion the overall quality of the video consisting of all the episodes..Though like the other reviewers mentioned there are some scenes that it becomes pixelated but it doesn't happen for that long...Maybe for like 10 secs but other than that its just as good IMO as the R1 set. Audio: 5/5 Perfect..I even tried comparing it to some of my R1 episodes of Kenshin it sounded just as good..Also, the R1 set the English dub sounds alot louder than the Japanese original voice. Subs: 4.5/5 The subs for the most part about 90% of the time are on point..Very Very Very similiar to the fansubs except there aren't that many episodes in which there is cursing..Yahiko is still rude and curses but not as much as he does in the fansubs. There are some mispelled words but nothing devasting..In example would be like "Himura-done" when its supposed to be Himura-dono..Little things like that other than that they are fine. Also, all the names remained intact..Another thing is that Kenshin keeps saying "de gozaro" over and over but from what others have told me online there isn't really a way you can translate this..Just like when Kenshin says "Oro" in the R1 set he says "Huh" so they just sub it saying Oro because its just an experession and doesn't mean anything. Overall, I would definitely buy this set and other sets as well to save some money..The packaging is pretty and you basically can't go wrong buying them.

Comment:

i thought the video picture was great. great video imo the subs have been decent so far. there are a few times when things dont make sesne.....well they wont make total sense to someone who has never seen the series b4, yet they are good, a few times the english is left in...romanji spelling. For instance whenever kensin says de gozarou its written in that format. its not clearly translated to what the English equivalent would be. Im not a huge audio buff, but the soynd on my little HI-Fi tv seems to be decent. i hvent watched the entire thing yet but im up to the 3rd disc. just finished it, the seris is tight overall. go get it. edited by prolific00 on 01 Apr 2002 5:35 pm edited by prolific00 on 04 Apr 2002 11:11 pm

Comment:

Packaging : 4.5 / 5 Beautifull gatefold again. Not as perfect as the first set, but it doesn't really make too big of a diffrence. I liked the cover art of Pt. 1 better, but then again, i think the 'background pics' of the DVDs look better this time. Video : 4/5 Pretty good looking LD transfer. I'm not too bitchy on video qualtiy, LD rip works for me. There were some little screen errors, but nothing to worry about. Also, there is a minor disortion in the picture on top of the screen, but it's only noticable on 'pan' pieces, again, nothing to worry about. Extra: It has been said that this is a VHS rip, and it's true. You can see quite a bit of colour bleeding, and the... weird line on the bottom of the screen (only noticable when watching on a PC). Still I think this looks VERY good. Not perfect, but it works great. Audio : 3.5/5 Not an expert, but it happens that there's some errors in the sound, humming and cracks, since it's a VHS rip. But then againt, not too much. It's works OK. Subs : 4/5 Taken from the Shinsen Gumi/Hecto fansubs again. The're very good except for some mistimings and quite a bit of typo's. Overall : 4/5 Recommended. Overall it's defenitely not perfect, but well worth your money. Especially with this nice a case ;) (Side note: Damn, these new disc holders are pretty annoying!!) edited by Markaveli on 29 Sep 2002 4:21 am

Comment:

Well this is basically the exact same as the first set. So i'll just past that review here since they are basically the identical review. No problems in the set. I would say there seemed to be more errors in the subs, but nowhere to bad or enough to ruin the set. So heres the past from pt.1's review. Well first off the video. The video here is pretty good. At times it looks better than the R1 release which was kinda grainy at times, its hard to say the source here. Low bit rates from stuffing to much on each disc obviously causes some pixelation during high motion scenes like expected. Audio is very good. No problems whatsoever. Nothing special, a TV audio track so nothing spectacular. For the subs they used fansub scripts, not the really horrid ones, but still some strange ones that are full of foul language. It kinda is irritating to see such language from these characters but its not every minute so its not that big of problem. Subs are good though. Some problems with errors such as putting words together and the expected spelling errors. Nothing bad though, just a few errors spread throughout. Couple lines missing and onscreen Kanji translations missing, but very good. As long as your not to picky.