Anime, generally, is separated sharply by age differences. Usually series are made to appeal to certain groups; stuff like Pokemon to the 12-and-under set, and fare such as Cowboy Bebop to an older audience. Rarely is there a production that can transcend age groups to appeal to a wide audience. Enter Hayao Miyazaki, lauded as the Japanese Disney, and who has managed to basically make his business to turn anime from either an after-school affair for children, or an expensive hobby for the older set, into an art-form for all ages. Sadly, very few of his films have ever seen an American release; the only success has been My Neighbor Totoro. Kiki was sent straight to video and Mononoke slowed down the major release of anime films to theaters. And now Pioneer has graced the US with the release of one of Miyazaki’s lesser known works, Famous Detective Sherlock Holmes (although packaged here as Sherlock Hound).

The initial volume of Holmes opens with Holmes and Watson’s first meeting, where they thwart a group of gangsters looking to exact their revenge on a former member who has a valuable treasure of theirs. Instead of the characters being human, Miyazaki used anthropomorphic dogs as his players. The following four episodes detail different cases the two detectives take on. While the stories presented aren’t exactly faithful to the original books written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, they show a similar spirit and do remain faithful to each character’s personality.

This is no ordinary old ragged chair, Watson...	What have you done with my dentures!?

The DVD itself has completely been remastered, and it shows; the transfer is extremely clear and crisp. Unfortunately, the audio didn’t receive the same treatment, as it’s still only available in mono sound; it has been remastered to be a bit clearer, however. It does the job, though. The DVD is dual-sided, due to the English dub having about a minute of extra footage per episode. All the vocals have been removed from the opening of the English side; instead, a nice instrumental version of the opening song is played. This is a much nicer approach then trying to dub a song into another language. The dub, however, suffers from its age. Originally recorded into English, the voice acting constantly sounds muffled, almost as if all the characters are muttering under their breath. The voices are at least well suited to their characters. The Japanese track, on the other hand, sounds much clearer.

The disc only contains an episode selector and credits for the production company, Toko Movie Shinsha of Japan and RAI. Of greater interest are the included liner notes on the back of the DVD insert, detailing how Holmes was originally cancelled after only four episodes in 1981. Interest was reignited after two episodes were shown together with the film debut of Nausicaa.

Sherlock Hound is the perfect addition to your collection if you happen to be a Miyazaki fan or would like to expose young children to some quality anime. It’s definitely rare to find a gem such as this that can transcend the age barrier.

Distributor: Pioneer Animation
Creator: Tokyo Movie Shinsha
Released: 2002

Video Quality: A-
Audio Quality: B-
Presentation: B
Content: A
Overall: B