Tokyo Shock's second Toho release cements the notion that was already hinted at with their 2003 release of Pyrokinesis: that Tokyo Shock DVDs are worth watching out for. To put it bluntly, Tokyo Shock's release of Gojoe (2000) on DVD is nothing short of spectacular, as its complete with an excellent video and audio presentation that is complimented nicely by 50 minutes worth of extras.

Video:
The video presentation of Gojoe: Spirit War Chronicle is easily the disc's largest improvement compared to Tokyo Shock's own Pyrokinesis release just a year before. Gone are any signs of digital inconsistencies during the film, like artifacting or shimmering, as the picture here looks incredibly sharp. The extras on the disc do suffer a little in this regard though, as the extras do have noticeable signs of compression; however, for a DVD that has a movie which is over two hours long and has 50 minutes of extras to go along with it, something had to give on the disc, and at least the video presentation of the film was not compromised. The print used for the transfer appears to have been in flawless condition, as grain and scratches are all but unnoticeable on this release. The color here is very vivid as well, which is particularly nice in regards to the reds once the gallons of blood start to fly in the film. The brightness and contrast levels appear to be fine tuned here also, with details easy to make out when they should. The film's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 is also maintained on the disc.

Audio:
The audio presentation here is nothing less than excellent. There are in total three audio tracks to chose from: a 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo presentations of the film's Japanese audio track, and a 2.0 stereo presentation of the film's English dubbed track. All three audio tracks sound virtually flawless, with no pops or hisses in the audio tracks and also no unnatural echoes in the surround track. The disc also contains, removable, English subtitles that correspond to the two Japanese audio tracks on the DVD.

Extras:
Gojoe: Spirit War Chronicle is backed with an astounding 50 minutes worth of additional footage. Tokyo Shock has included a variety of extras as well, including three of the film's trailers, the last of which was made to try and promote the film overseas. There is also a short, 8 minute, segment on the making of the film, which is followed by 10 minutes of interviews with the film's four principal actors. The longest extra feature on the disc is the 25 minute "GoJoe Reisinki" Special, which talks about the film from the angle of the legend in which its based on. However, there is one complaint to be had in regards to the extras, and that is the fact that all four segments are sandwiched onto a single 50 minute track in the following order: "GoJoe Reisinki" Special, Making of, Interviews, and Trailers. What this means is that the four sections are broken into basically chapter points on a 50 minute track, and if the viewer wants to watch one of the earlier features it will run straight into the one following it. In this regard, it would have been particularly helpful had the lengthy "GoJoe Reisinki" been broken into chapters of its own.

Overview:
Bottom line, like the movie or not, this is still one of the better done Toho DVDs out there today. On a side note, it's also kind of nice in the manner that Tokyo Shock promotes the disc, stating proudly on the back: "...and produced by the famous TOHO studios (Godzilla, Pyrokinesis)." Now while Suncent Cinemaworks actually produced the film, Toho only distributed it, it's still interesting to see Toho used as a angle to try and sell the disc; perhaps a taste of things to come from Tokyo Shock.