Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Volume 1 DVD Review

Following a Maiden's Voyage! (旅立ち！フタバタウンからマサゴタウンへ!! / Setting Off! From Futaba Town to Masago Town!!) is the first episode of the Diamond & Pearl series. It first aired in Japan on September 28, 2006 as part of the launch day celebration for the Japanese release of Pocket Monsters Diamond and Pearl for the Nintendo DS. The English dubbed version aired on Cartoon Network on April 20, 2007.

The episode starts off inside Dawn's room. A Nyruma is sleeping next to a window, and an alarm is beeping from upstairs. A girl named Dawn shuts it off. She pulls the bed sheet over her head. The narrator states that Dawn will be getting her first Pokémon today. Dawn opens the window and looks outside. Then Dawn gets dressed for her big day. Her mother comes in and makes sure that Dawn is awake. She notices that Dawn is up unusually early this morning. Dawn says hello to Nyruma who just sleeps on Dawn's bed.

At breakfast time, Dawn's mother asks Dawn if she is ready to go. Dawn tells her that she is all packed up. Dawn then takes out the postcard that is needed to get a Pokémon and Pokédex. Before Dawn leaves, her mother gives Dawn her first contest ribbon. The ribbon is a symbol of good luck. Then Dawn rides on her bicycle, and she is off. Dawn waves goodbye to her mother while on her bike. Her bike bumps over a rock, but she ends up being fine. So begins the Pokémon journey for a new character in the series.

Episode information is available in the episode guide which covers specifics such as character bios, full episode synopsis, music, pictures which are not the focus of this DVD review.

Video Quality

Both the Japanese and the American DVD releases are 4:3 Full Screen, 720x480 NTSC. One of the things that Japanese anime DVD's are know for is video quality. The big difference between these two DVD's is the actual media. The Viz English dub DVD episodes are stored on a DVD9 which has a maximum storage of approximately 7.9GB where as the Media Factory/Shogakukan Japanese episodes are stored on a DVD5 which has a maximum storage of 4.3GB. Obviously, the more space you have to store information, the more episodes can be put on the disc or you can put higher quality episodes on the discs. Viz squandered the media by packing 8 episodes on the DVD where as Media Factory/Shogakukan took the opposite approach and put only two episodes on the DVD. Both discs had free space available for more content and they could have utilized the extra space. The Japanese DVD used 3.73GB out of a total of 4.3GB of available space while the English dub DVD used 6.89GB out of a total of 7.9GB.

Below is a bitrate comparison chart which shows the bitrate in megabits per second and the time. The Japanese DVD has an average bitrate of 8.75Mbps while the English DVD has an average bitrate of 5.65Mbps. That is just over 3 megabits per second difference. The Japanese episode is approximately two minutes longer than the Dub version as it includes an Okido segment, next episode preview and various uncut transitions. The Pokémon TV Anime Collection DVD and rental DVD are identically encoded and therefore there is no point comparing the two Japanese DVD's.



It's quite obvious from the above chart that the Japanese release has a better overall bitrate for the episode, but does that translate into a better viewing experience? Both DVD releases benefit from the show being computer generated and from a clean source. Having a clean master significantly improves the video quality of a DVD. Some of the earlier Pokemon DVD's suffer from terrible masters which result in ghosting, encoding artifacts, film grain as well as other video issues.


The Viz DVD for Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Vol 1 has a slightly noticeable compression grain when viewed on a high resolution television or monitor. Obviously a higher bitrate would have solved this issue as the Japanese DVD is near flawless in that aspect. It's definitely not as noticeable as it was on the Pokemon Advanced DVD's and Viz has certainly improved their video quality. The screenshot to the side compares the same scene on both DVD's. The compression grain is noticeable on the wings and blocking is especially noticeable on the bricks of the Dub DVD. The compression grain and blocking would be easy to spot on a large screen HDTV or high resolution monitor. The left frame is the Japanese Media Factory/Shogakukan while the right frame is the Viz English dub DVD.


Both DVD's are interlaced and have a few ghosting issues as a result. "DVDs are based on MPEG-2 encoding, which allows for either progressive or interlaced sequences. However, very few discs use progressive sequences, because the players are specifically designed for interlaced output." (hometheaterhifi.com) Most standard DVD players will deinterlace the video fine and filters can be used if you are playing the DVD's on your computer. You can click on the image to get a uncompressed version of the screenshot which compares the two DVD's. Once again, the left frame is the Japanese Media Factory/Shogakukan while the right frame is the Viz English dub DVD. As you can see from the screenshot, it appears that a similar encoding process was used for both DVD to encode the discs as the interlacing fields are almost identical on both discs.

Audio Quality

Both DVD's include Stereo sound in their respective languages. Neither DVD has alternative audio tracks such as commentary, or other languages. A DTS or Dolby Surround track was also not included on either DVD. The dialogue is clean and clear throughout both discs and there was no issues with dropouts or distortions during the playback of either discs.

Below is a table with the technical specs for the audio on each of these DVD's. The Viz DVD has a slightly better audio compression bitrate but both tracks are free from defects and sound fine. The difference in bitrate isn't noticeable.



Since Pokemon USA took over from 4Kids, they have begun creating their own background music and dubbed the show in house. From a technical standpoint, the audio sounds fine on the dub DVD, but those that grew up with the original voice actors might be disappointed in the somewhat lackluster voice actor performance. The voice actors sound robotic at times and lack some of the flair the original voice actors had as they knew their characters quite well.

The Japanese audio features the same voice actors as it has in previous years but it is now accompanied by new background music from the Pocket Monsters Diamond and Pearl games. One of the benefits to the anime audio, is that fans get to hear many of their favourite audio tracks from the game fully orchestrated. While Pokemon USA uses some of the tracks from the Japanese version, they are often replaced with their own music. It's unfortunate that some people will not get to hear some of the great music tracks from the Japanese version if they only watch the English dubbed DVD.

Packaging / Extras

Neither of these DVD's had much as far as extras. The Viz DVD had no extras whatsoever but are priced accordingly. The Diamond and Pearl boxset is available online from retailers like Amazon.com for $18.99 for 17 episodes. That's just over a dollar an episode which is an excellent price per episode. The DVD's are packed in standard full sized DVD cases and not the slim cases that were part of the Battle Frontier boxsets. The boxset also includes a cardboard slipcase to hold both the DVD cases together.

The Japanese DVD has a few Pocket Monsters movie trailers as well as a few advertisements for other television series available on DVD. The trailers aren't really extras and are presented more like promotional material. The Pokémon TV Anime Collection DVD can be purchased in a box set for approximately 2800yen or separately for 378yen. The individual packages measure W131×Ｄ25×H126mm and include a lemon drink as a bonus. 378yen translates into about $4 an episode which is about four times more expensive than the English dub DVD's per episode, but the episodes are individually packaged and include a drink for that price. The DVD's are available at all Pokemon Centers and participating 7/11 in Japan at the time this review was written.

The menus for both DVD's are quite simple. The menus load quickly and due to the simplicity of the menus, navigation was very easy. Neither DVD included audio setup menu but as we discussed in the audio portion of this review, there is only one track on both discs which makes it pointless to add a menu item for audio setup.



The Viz menu had a slight deinterlacing issue which is visible on the screenshot in the background stars. Also the bitmap they used for the Poke ball that appears while navigating the DVD menu looks horrific.



The Japanese menu system is pretty similar to the English dubbed disc. Basic chapter selection is available for each episode on the disc and currently navigated menu item buttons are highlighted to indicate which one you are currently at. The menu button highlighting scheme looks more professional than the pixelated Poke ball used on the dub DVD.

Final Thoughts

Viz has certainly priced these DVD's appropriately though it's unfortunate that they didn't add any extras. Most TV box sets have extra's included these days. It's also unfortunate that only a limited number of Japanese episodes are available on DVD for purchase. Hopefully Media Factory/Shogakukan will continue to release more DVD's for the public to purchase allowing people outside of Japan to be able to enjoy the episodes that are only available on rental DVD's.

You can rate this and other DVD's in the DVD database. There you can also find information about all the Pokemon DVD's released worldwide.

Reviewers Equipment

Dell 24" LCD s2409 1920x1080, Xbox360 with VGA cable for upscaled viewing, VLC for computer playback and screenshots

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