DVD Corner

Level E- The Complete Series Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Review

“Level E” is downright baffling.

Based on the manga series of the same name, this 13 episode series primarily revolves around a prankster alien (Prince Baka) who crash-lands on Earth in a spaceship. In the first episode, we see him take up residence at the apartment of a baseball player named Tsutsui. You’d think the story would then revolve around these two, but that’s not the case. The story goes into all sorts of side stories revolving around Captain Kraft (Baka’s guard of sorts), Disckonians, an alien who eats women, 5 kids becoming color rangers, Tsutsui’s neighbor Miho (whom he has a crush on), the color rangers being transported into an RPG world where they must face the Demon Lord, the Princess of the Macbac, a mermaid alien, a mind warp, Princess Luna, and plenty of deceptions and tricks.

If you go into “Level E” expecting a linear story and main characters that appear in every episode, that’s not what you will see. Instead, you get an odd story structure, characters that come and go, tonal shifts, and plenty of humorous parodies about everything from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to E.T. Whether or not this equals a good show will be entirely up to you.

“Level E” is a flat-out oddball show that will certainly divide fans. Personally, I’m not even sure what to make of it overall. On one hand, the unique plot shifts are a nice change of pace from the usual fare, but it also makes it hard to connect with or care about anything that is happening. To say the show is chaotic is an understatement.

With all of that said, I did find myself gravitating more towards the goofier episodes that featured one-liners, pop culture jokes, RPG spoofs, and human and alien cultural clashes and confrontations. At times, “Level E” certainly has a “Sgt. Frog” vibe to it even though it’s not as entertaining or funny as ‘Frog.’ Still, when the show fully embraces humor and doesn’t focus on dramatics, it’s certainly watchable.

Video/Audio:

The series, which is presented in widescreen 1080p, is a beautifully animated series if nothing else. Between the colorful credit sequence and the different than usual animation style (in a good way), anime fans will no doubt be pleased by the series’ visuals.

This set contains English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 audio tracks. Fans will be happy to know that you can’t go wrong with the English dub cast or the Japanese track. Naturally, the English track has more depth as it’s a 5.1 track, but purists will find little fault with the original language track.

Extras:
* Trailers for “Is This A Zombie?,” “Baka and Test,” “One Piece,” “Shakugan No Shana,” “Tenchi Muyo!,” “Toriko,” “Sengoku Basara,” “Sgt. Frog,” “Steins;Gate,” and Funimation.com.
* Commentary on episode 7 by the 5 rangers (Terri Doty, Apphia Yu, Leah Clark, Cris George, Caitlin Glass). The group chats about characters, voice acting, the show’s weirdness, recording, etc.
* Textless opening and closing songs.
* A U.S. trailer for “Level E.”
* “Level E: Interview With A Prince”- English voice actor Vig Mignogna interviews himself. A weird extra, but a nice departure from the usual extras to be sure.
* A lively commentary on episode 13 by Vic Mignogna and Micah Solusod.

January 6, 2013 - Posted by nicklyons1 | Blu-Ray review | Level E Anime, Level E Blu-ray Review, Level E Manga, Level E- The Complete Series Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Review