Orphen

Director - Hiroshi Watanabe

Cast -  Various

Distributor - Sentai Filmworks

Number of discs –  2

Reviewed by - Scott MacDonald

Date- 08/20/2019

    Before the series begins Azlie is experimenting with magic in the famed "Tower of Fang", where sorcerers learn and pass on their skills.  In the process Azlie has an accident,this accident takes Azlie and turns her into the dangerous and dark dragon Bloody August.  The show begins with a friend of Azlie, who has taken the name of Orphen, beginning a quest many years later to find her dragon-form and revert her humanity to her.   He begins by assembling a party to help him on his quest. Before diving into the adventure on hand.

    The show's first season is interesting in that it isn't purely episodic and then later building to an overall goal. Rather, it has a series of episodes making a sub-adventure, that eventually adds into the pursuit of the overall narrative. This makes each segment feel a bit more substantial than just minor episodic adventures. This, is sadly, done away with in Season 2 of the show, where the show becomes more episodic, and the humor is ramped up quite a bit where as in season 1 there was more of a balance.

    Orphen is the latest older series to get the SD on Blu-ray treatment from Sentai Filmworks. The show itself is presented 480p with all 47 episodes across 2 discs. The show itself doesn't look bad, but I can't say it looks very good either. Detail and colors are solid, but there is some minor bleeding issues with color at various points, but as this is my first time having a real sit down with Orphen (I'd seen a few episodes in the past), I was not sure if this was the original look for the show. Audio fares a bit better here with 2 HD audio 2.0 tracks in English and Japanese, both are clear and without any obvious issues. Extras include clean opening and closings, featurettes, some interviews, and more.