The Series (3/5)

  The anime series Rin-Ne is based off one of the more recent works by creator Rumiko Takahashi, who is most known to fans as the writer responsible for Inuyasha and Ranma 1/2. The anime series started airing in spring 2015, and is at present at 50 episodes in length. Houston anime distributor Sentai Filmworks have just now released the first Blu-ray volume of the series which contains the first 13 episodes of the show.

    Rin-Ne follows Rinne, a young man who has the power to see and communicate with the dead.  One day in class he meets a young woman Sakura, who has a similar power to him. It turns out this power came to her as a child after a random meeting with Rinne's Grandmother. Rinne uses his power to communicate with the dead, and help bring them over to the afterlife, because if they stay too long among the living they will become evil spirits. Rinne does these exorcisms to make what little money he can, to eat and live, but also to pay his sleazy Father's debts.

    Rin-Ne the series has an interesting concept with 2 main characters who can observe spirits. Unfortunately, the show's pacing is uneven, and so not a lot really happens during these 13 episodes. We get to spend quite a bit of time with the characters, getting to know them, and watch them develop. There are also some attempts at comedy, some of which work, and other's that fall completely flat. The animation is quite solid for the most part, it isn't flashy, but it gets the job done.

Audio/Video (4/5)

Sentai Filmworks presents Rin-Ne Collection 1 with a quite nice 1:78:1 1080p AVC encoded transfer. Detail is very solid, colors are well reproduced, and banding is minimal. Audio is handled by a Japanese DTS-HD MA 2.0 track, the dialogue and score sound quite nice, and I could not find any issues with the track during my listen.

Extras (1/5)

    Sentai has presented Rin-Ne Collection 1 with a clean opening and closing, and collection of trailers.

Overall

    Rin-Ne Collection 1 is a solid supernatural teen romance anime. The Blu-ray looks excellent, but is limited in extras. RENT IT.