Details

Description

DVD release of the theatrical anime "Pokémon: Phantom Ruler Zoroark (Pocket Monster Diamond Pearl Genei no Hasha Zoroark)" which is the fourth and final movie from "Diamond & Pearl" series. At Crown City, a town where water and nature, old streets and modern buildings coexist beautifully, "Pokémon Backer World Cup" will take place. Satoshi, Pikachu and their company head for Crown City to watch this event. On the way, they meet and join up with Zorua, a Pokémon which can change itself intro human and other Pokémons. Zorua says it is searching for its companion. Meanwhile, a Pokémon called Zoroark is destroying Crown City in the guise of Raikou, Suicune, and Entei.

水と緑、古い街並みと近代的な建物が美しく調和するクラウンシティ。 この地で開催される「ポケモンバッカー・ワールドカップ」を観戦するため、サトシとピカチュウ一行はクラウンシティに向かっていた。 旅の途中、何にでも化けることができる不思議なポケモン、ゾロアに出会う。ゾロアはテレパシーで人間としゃべることができるという。 仲間を探しているゾロアを助け、いっしょにクラウンシティに向かうサトシたち。クラウンシティはセレビィがやってくる街としても知られていた。 そのころ、クラウンシティでは、奇妙な事件が起こっていた。街の守り神とされる伝説のポケモン、ライコウ、エンテイ、スイクンが街を破壊していたのだ。 その様子を不敵な笑みを浮かべ見守る男がいた。 彼こそが、事件を起こしている人物、巨大企業コーダイネットワーク社長のグリングス・コーダイ。 コーダイは、幻影をみせるポケモン、ゾロアークを操り、ライコウ・エンテイ・スイクンに化けさせ、街を襲わせていたのだ。 そして、このゾロアークが、ゾロアがさがしていた仲間なのだ。

Special Features: (ボリュームたっぷり！映像特典)
ノンテロップ版オープニング＆エンディング映像 (Creditless Opening and Ending)
イラスト設定資料集 (Illustration Pictures)
アイディアスケッチ集 (Sketchbook Pictures)
イメージ ビジュアル ギャラリー (Visual Image Gallery)
ピカチュウ・ザ・ムービー2010 予告編集 (Pikachu the Movie 2010 Trailers/Notices)

Interlacing

No interlace artifacts were observed throughout the movie.

Frame fill

Unfortunately not the entire usable video area is covered by the film transfer. There are black borders around at least two edges and an edge enhancement artifact is visible on the right. While this is not visible on most CRT TVs, it may frustrate PC viewers or those who prefer the to disable overscan on their flat screen televisions or projectors.


DVD vs HD TV trailer. While the HD trailer has a narrow black bar on the right, it also shows that a slight cropping on the DVD would have avoided the top/bottom black bars.

Encoder Performance / Transfer Quality

Video bitrate is very high throughout the entire feature. Scene changes and high-motion scenes do not exhibit visible block artifacts. Most dark scenes have visible banding which become especially visible whenever a fade in involved. Brightness levels are balanced, none of the scenes show signs of over/underexposure.

Bitrate Distribution

Edge Enhancement

The film transfer is plagued by the ever popular edge enhancement. While this video filter is intended to enhance viewing experience, it merely tricks the viewer’s eyes into seeing an image that appears sharper while actually certain image details are lost in the process. This technology also introduces ringing artifacts around contour lines. The movie being animation makes this effect a lot more pronounced. The effect is literally present on every single scene, resulting in a rather unpleasant viewing experience, especially on a large display/screen.
A comprehensive explanation here.


The left picture is taken from the DVD and magnified so the ringing artifacts become more visible on a PC monitor. The picture on the right is taken from a HD TV trailer, downscaled to DVD resolution, then magnified again for easier viewing. This is how the DVD would look like if edge enhancement was not applied.

Red Shift / Color Accuracy

The disc also exhibits a red shift which is intended to compensate white balance for certain Japanese TV sets which have a very high white point of 9300 Kelvin (the industry standard white point for DVDs and television broadcasts is 6500 K). While this red shift will make the movie appear warmer or more cinema-like on these legacy sets, the red tone is apparent on all other modern displays, further discomforting the viewer. This also impacts how colors are reproduced upon playback: reds are overblown and white surfaces appear reddish.



The picture on the left is straight from the DVD, while the picture on the right was taken from a HD TV trailer. Note the red shift is not present on the HD trailer.

Conclusion

A good transfer, ruined. This is how this DVD release could be characterized. While it seems the involved company possesses the technology to produce a decent film transfer, the disc is simply ruined by the application of edge enhancement and red shift.

Future Outlook

The recent boom of flat screen displays demands movies to be released on high definition media, such as Blu-Ray. The publisher (Shogakugan) has currently no intentions to release anything in this format, so the chance to get Pocket Monsters movies in high definition is bleak.

Equipment Used

Dune HDI Smart B1 multimedia terminal with internal Blu-Ray drive set to 24fps@1080p, with deinterlacing disabled.
Panasonic TX-P50V20E plasma display on ‘Professional 1’ setting, sharpening turned all the way down, overscan disabled.

Images