Some pictures of the 4K UHD release for Hiroyuki Okiura’s explosive directorial debut Jin-roh : The Wolf Brigade (人狼 / 1999). It ranks very high up on my list of favorite Japanese animated films, trailing only behind absolute masterpieces like AKIRA, Ghost In The Shell & Princess Mononoke ).

This fairly bare-bones set comes in a cardboard slipcase, and the contents include just the jewel case for the 2 discs ( 1 4K UHD disc + 1 SD blu-ray disc ), plus a small booklet that gives some background information on the film as well as select BG art and settei pieces ( character design sheets ).

Unlike the Patlabor 2 : The Movie 4K UHD that was also released around the same time, the set does not include the storyboard book, although it was for the much older DVD box-set. Sadly, the price doesn’t seem to be any much lower even though they left out the storyboard book.

I do have to say that I love the stylish cover art design for this release a whole lot more than the one for Patlabor 2, the latter which looks positively drab.

(above & below) Some select character design sheets included in the small booklet. These settei drawings and art work are covered in much more detail in 2 of the published art books Jin-roh Maniaxx as well as Jin-roh – Behind The Screen. Sadly, both books are out of print and are more difficult to come by these days. The same is true for the excellent storyboard book.

(above) Some of the moody background art paintings by art director Hiromasa Ogura. They can also be found in the 2 art books I mentioned above as well as the artist’s own art book ‘Of Light And Darkness’.

And now let’s talk a little about the video quality of the 4K UHD presentation; as a disclaimer I am not a professional physical media reviewer and can only offer my layman take, but the image quality are certainly a marked improvement from the prior SD blu-ray version of the film.

Because of the inherently muted color palette of the film, the improvement isn’t a very noticeable one in terms of the vibrancy or saturation of the images, but the fidelity of the cel drawings and background art paintings do see an overall improvement in terms of sharpness and in the latter tonal range.

I would go on to say that casual viewers who are not big fans of the film will likely not see a very big difference between the existing SD version compared to the new re-mastered 4K UHD presentation, but discerning fans who want the very best edition with top image quality would appreciate it. Recommended.

“Jin-roh : The Wolf Brigade 4K UHD 人狼 4Kリマスターセット details :

– 2 discs ( 4K UHD + SD blu-ray )
– 4K film scan re-master
– With English and Japanese subtitles

  
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