My "Avenger" order arrived!

...and I just quickly scoped out episode 1 to see how the disc was.

It looks pretty good. No obvious flaws, the picture quality holds up very well, and the sound is excellent. So far I haven't spotted any hidden visual detail that the fansubs were otherwise missing, besides some of the subtler color gradients and whatnot.

Oh, and apparently this is more "un-cut" than the TV version from the fansubs. In that the Layla Ashley "bath" scene (and the flashback therin) was a little more, uh, revealing. A bit of a surprise, but nothing particularly shocking -- the surprise being more along the lines that something that minor was actually cut for TV. It makes me wonder what else might have been trimmed or cropped along the way, though. I can't think of too many other opportunities for that, but still... an interesting difference.

Of course, I wanted to sample the dub as well. All of you probably remember my distaste for the "MADLAX" dub. And the "Kino's Journey" dub before that. Obviously, when I get used to a show's original soundtrack and the way the characters are vocalized when the director is directly involved, I have a hard time accepting the "interpretation" of it in the form of localized English performances.

That said, the "Avenger" dub wasn't too terrible. I think mostly it's because Layla didn't have much to say in this episode. Or most episodes for that matter. I think her English VA put a little too much emotion in it, but it wasn't entirely off-note like I felt Margaret was in "MADLAX". The dialog translations for the dub seem okay as well, though it conflicted in a few spots with my fansub-programmed expectations. I didn't get a chance to watch it with "official" subs yet to see how those fared, but I know I'll be getting to that soon enough.

Especially since I want to figure out just what the heck happened at the end.

Anyway, with another month-and-a-half to fill before the next "MADLAX" disc shows up, this should hopefully provide me enough of a fix for any Bee-Trainy cravings that might overcome me in the meantime.