E's Otherwise
ADV Films
DVD 1-2
Episodes: 1-10

 

Have you ever wanted special powers like teleportation, flying, moving objects with your mind, as well as other amazing abilities? Well, in E's Otherwise some people have those abilities! Those who are able to use these abilities are called ESPers, with an emphases on ESP. If you were an ESPer, you would be feared by the mass public and hated for the power you possess. A private organization, Ashurum, that works with the government to control the ESPers. They use a group called AESES, that consists of trained ESPers. As of now Ashurum is trying to develop a city called Gald, which was partially destroyed during a war.

 

On the flip side, the people of Gald do not want to be re-developed. As such it seems Ashurum is forcing it upon them, so they rebel. In the people's eyes the ESPersare enemies, because they are used by Ashurum to help secure parts of Gald.

 

One ESPer named Kai Kudou in particular dislikes violence which gets him into trouble during a raid on Gald. Kai ends up fighting another ESPer and loses. When he wakes, he finds himself at gunpoint in the care a man named Yuuki.

 

Video: 9

 

I did not notice any kinds of imperfections in the flow of animation. The colors used were nice and vibrant. I had no problems viewing the animation at anytime during the show. E's Otherwise has great character designs ranging from normal to comical and even 'punk'. There is also a fair amount of detail in the backgrounds, while it may be lights, buildings, rubble, or plants.

 

Sound: 10

 

There is subtle background music complementing the scenes, being mellow and energetic. On top of the backgrounds, the sound effects were there from footsteps to birds in the distance. There are some differences in the voices of course. I thought one of the characters was a girl at first in the Japanese, yet in the English he sounded more like a boy. Both did a pretty good job with timing the characters lips. Either language is suitable for watching this series in, as they both did a great job.

 

Subtitles: 8

 

The subtitles are yellow color with a black outline, though I would have preferred white. They are in the usual place, the bottom, keeping out of the way of the scenes. Since the English and Japanese have somewhat varied scripts, the subtitles kept to the Japanese track.

 

Overall: 9

 

I really enjoyed the episodes so far, and plan on getting the rest of E's Otherwise. While watching the English version, I noticed some of the voice actors sounded familiar. When I looked at the cast, I found quite a few were in Bubblegum Crisis: 2040, such as: Chris Patton, Hilary Haag, Christine Auten and more. There is a lot of the side story for Kai while he is away from Ashurum, and I would have liked to see more of the fighting scenes; though it helps to show his character and how he grows as a person after falling from his former self.

Written by: Blue Ghost