009-1 Volume 1 (DVD)

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I can't help but enjoy this series, in spite of its ridiculous, exaggeratedly sexy, heroine and outlandish scenarios. In fact, I like this series because of them. The pace is fast, the characters are humorous, and the adventures are fun.

Video
"009-1" is presented in 16:9 anamorphic wide screen. This is a recent series, and has been given a quality transfer. There is a lot of action in this show, and there are a few moments of jagged lines in some action shots, but for the most part, this disc looks great. The colors are deliberately muted and soft, giving the series even more of a retro feel.

Audio
As I have stated, this is an action series, with lots of fighting, shooting, and daring escapes. To handle this, ADV has given us a solid English 5.1 stereo track and a Japanese 2.0 stereo track.
The Japanese voice of Mylene is Yumiko Shaku, an actress I recognize from several live-action television series. Her cool, confident, portrayal of Mylene sounds great in the Stereo track provided.

Extras
ADV gives us a great selection of extras here. First there are the standard clean opening and ending credits. Then there is an excellent behind the scenes feature that contains interviews with the director and staff, including Mylene's voice actress Yumiko Shaku. It's fascinating to see the animation studio and the voice recording studio. This is a very informative piece that explains how the series was chosen to be animated, and provides a good look at how it was made. Next up is a text feature that explains some of the "009-1" series history and information about the series creator, Shotaro Ishinomori. There is also a text feature that further explains the history of the series. Finally, there is a detailed text feature that explains the weaponry- both realistic and fantastic- used in these episodes. I love extras like this. All of this is useful information, not just filler to pad out the disc. Great stuff.

Miscellaneous
The DVD comes with a booklet that contains character pictures, descriptions, episode summaries, and interviews with the Japanese staff on the series. This is another great extra that elaborates further on the motivation and planning behind creating the series that were discussed in the interviews on the DVD.

Final Thoughts
Fun! "009-1" is an enjoyable action adventure series. It is almost like a guilty pleasure for me with it's shamelessly sexy heroine, and slick retro style. I can't help but feel that with only 12 episodes total, we won't get nearly enough time to explore Mylene's world as I would like!

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