[Kuraze] 戦国奇譚妖刀伝 / Sengoku Kitan Youtouden (Yotoden - Wrath of the Ninja) OVA (DVD 706x480 H264 Hi10p AC3)

Series Information

Video

Audio

Subtitles

Filters used:

DDComb, KNLMeansCL (for chroma noise removal), DFMDeRainbow5, XAA, DeHalo_alpha, FineDehalo, Hysteria, f3kgrain, BalanceBorders, FixChromaBleedingMod, aWarpSharp2 (chroma sharpening only)

Encode Comparison

Notes:

My encode of this late 80s ninja OVA in which Oda Nobunaga, having once again entered into a pact with demons to conquer Japan, must be defeated.
Interestingly, this series saw VHS, LD, & VHD releases but was never transferred to DVD domestically.
It was later re-edited down into a film version (available here), but with several new animated segments included which makes for a complementary pairing on viewing.

Sourced from the old CPM 2-Disc Set, the OVA footage isn't very good containing frame-blending that's cleaned up as much as possible without introducing jerky movement. Significant ringing, errant aliasing, and dotcrawl were also both reduced and removed respectively. Luma-adaptive grain matching was applied in the dark & midtone regions to ameliorate macroblocking and minor banding in the source without harming shadow detail. Finally, chroma noise was eliminated along with some residual rainbowing. EP03 exhibited some fairly strong chromatic aberration that needed to be fixed separately. Regarding the bitrate and filesizes, each episode has a 40+ minute runtime combined with a graining pattern befitting older cel-based footage that doesn't compress well, moreso after restoration filtering is applied. DVD extra included.

OCR'd subtitles were taken from DarkDream's release and QC'd by me manually retiming them to fix scene bleeds, correcting typos and inaccurate lines, aligning historical terms with their modern spellings, typesetting signs, as well as restoring Japanese name ordering and honorifics. Original unmodified DVD sub tracks also included for those that might prefer them.