‘Blue Thermal’ Blu-Ray Review – Pleasant, High-Flying Adaptation Should Have Been A Series

“I want to experience a love that sparkles!” Arriving from Nagasaki with her wishful mantra is Tamaki Tsuru, who in high school could think only about volleyball. Things don’t begin well, however, when she looks for an extracurricular club to join and proceeds to immediately ding a glider at aviation club tryouts ending up having to work it off. She is initially disillusioned with campus life. Then Kuramochi, the club leader and glider pilot, takes Tamaki under his wing, and from the moment he takes her up for a flight in a glider, Tamaki becomes a captive of the vast beauty of the skies.

For thoughts on Blue Thermal, please check out our discussion on The Video Attic: 

[youtube https://youtu.be/Nj7nOR-2yJ8?t=4258]

Video Quality

Blue Thermal comes to Blu-Ray from Eleven Arts and Shout! Factory with a gorgeous 1080p transfer in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio. We have a soft spot for traditional hand drawn animation, and this does not disappoint with fluid and textured character designs. The transfer handles the swift aerial scenes and some of the environmental changes with notable stability including no jagged lines or bleeding colors. The detail and care put into each shot will knock you sideways, especially as you take in the expanses of nature. The animators include countless distinct enhancements to each character which make them unique and memorable. The colors on display fill your heart with warmth as the vibrant hues elevate the picture alongside the deeper, more reserved colors. The textures in the character designs and the environments are very impressive, even if they may not be on par with some of the masters of the medium. Black levels are incredibly robust with no hint of compression artifacts or digital anomalies of the sort. This is a top tier transfer. 

Audio Quality

The Blu-Ray comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless track presented here in its original Japanese with optional English subtitles. The track allows for a wonderful sonic experience which captures the magic of the piece. This film can be very subtle, but each sound really makes an impression which this track captures quite well. There are a few noteworthy moments of more intense activity in the low end when the moment calls for it. There are some moving panning effects throughout the channels when flying through the air. Dialogue comes through flawlessly without being overwhelmed by any of the competing sounds or the score. The score is one of our favorite aspects of this track as it emanates with grace. Eleven Arts and Shout! Factory have done a splendid job. 

Special Features

• Interview with Director Masaki Tachibana: An eight-minute interview with the director in which he discusses his feelings on the film finally being released, the process of adapting from the source material, the music in the film, the voice performers they brought on board and much more that is enlightening. 

• Character Highlights: Each character is given a brief text-based breakdown plus a selection of clips from the film. 

• • Tamaki Tsuru (0:58)

• • Jun Kuramochi (0:45)

• • Daisuke Sorachi (0:49)

• • Chizuru Yano (0:47)

• • Yo Asahina (0:38)

• Trailer: A minute-long trailer is provided here. 

Final Thoughts

Blue Thermal is a very pleasant feature, but it is one that does not live up to its full potential. As this is based on a manga, you can feel that a lot of the nuance is lost as the creative team tries to condense a lot of material into one feature-length film, leaving the pace feeling rushed and narrative feeling scattershot. There are rousing sequences, but as a whole it cannot contain itself. It feels like turning this into a series might have been a better movie, even if this is far from a trainwreck. Eleven Arts and Shout! Factory have released a Blu-Ray with a grand A/V presentation and a small slate of special features. Devoted anime fans will find things to like, but casual fans may find it hard to fall in love with this story. 

Blue Thermal is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray. 

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Eleven Arts and Shout! Factory have supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.