With an AVC MPEG-4 upconverted 1080p (in 1.78:1) transfer, 'Champloo' is a bit of a video mess. The series will never look sparkling like many more recent shows do, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be presented in anything other than its natural state. Tinkering with video elements is never a good thing, and there are plenty of reviews here that prove such.

Color banding is evident, even in skin tones in close up shots. Solid colors and clothing don't suffer as much from banding as background elements. Some dancing grain looks like artifacting, but it isn't (while some light artifacting looks a bit like grain at times). Flashback grain looks awkward, as it doesn't remain constant. Some sequences have a light brightness flicker, while others sport solid lines that will fade in and out in small patches, possibly due to some of the tinkering. Some shots come through fuzz, lacking any clear definition, as well. While all of this can sound like there is another issue at hand, the DNR issue becomes loud and clear when grain freezes in place hideously, shifting every few seconds rather than constantly.

Items in distance shots, or in zoomed close ups have a blocky appearance, while others have a light color bleed around any exposed skin. Black levels vary in this moody program, but all look natural in their environments. Colors are wide-ranging, but not often all that bright (to be fair, though, the show isn't exactly sunshine, puppies, and kisses). In the baseball game, there are a few instances of heads disappearing, but this could be the fault of the animation, not the most egregious DNR ever

The recent wave of blu-ray titles -- Ouran, Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid, Gunslinger Girl II, and so on (sob) -- has burned me, and that's making me "twice shy" about buying future Funi DVDs at this point... which sucks.