Today marks the day I finally got my hands on my Ushio & Tora Limited Edition set, and oh was the wait so long, but so worth it. 

For those that weren’t following the release this set was originally scheduled to come out in late August alongside the standard edition blu-ray (which will now be referred to as ‘BD’ for the rest of this article) and DVD sets, however Sentai Filmworks delayed this Limited Edition box set until late September, and then moved it to early October. Much to my dismay this box set seemed to take forever to come. 

Despite these minor setbacks I am truly over-the-moon about this set, no amount of delays can sour this for me. I didn’t plan to really write another unboxing post so I apologize if this may be a little off-the-cuff, but this particular box set just blew me away and I can’t help but to share. So without farther ado, let’s take a look!  

The first thing to notice is with how huge the outer case is, and how elaborate the opening mechanism of said case is–this is something that has become increasingly normal for Sentai box sets which instead of a semi-standard size set that can easily fit on your shelf like a lot of Funimation’s and Viz’s BD sets, Sentai aims to create complete showpieces. Make no mistake, if you have limited room this box set is not for you. This set is meant to be proudly displayed, and boldly draws eyes towards it. 

As alluded to above, the box set does not open traditionally but is instead kept together through fabric straps on the side, undoing said straps folds out the set. Unfolding the left side you can see some more artwork, and unfolding the right (completely opening it) you can now see all the yokai crawling around the ground–a very cool effect that is reminiscent of the cellar that Tora was trapped in for 500 years. 

Now the contents of the box set are all visible, at the very top is yet another box that holds most of the goodies (the fun stuff), underneath that is the art/guide book, and finally the show itself: separated into 3 standard DVD sized cases–2 cases for all the DVDs and 1 for all the BDs. This is another thing that has become the norm for Sentai with these box sets; for better or worse they include their BDs in standard sized DVD cases. I like to be an optimist and think this is most likely done to maximize the nice artwork on said case and conform 1 size since DVDs and BDs are both included, but this may be a bit annoying to anyone who prefers the smaller blue BD cases over DVD cases. 

Moving along let’s examine the box with the goodies in it. Despite just being locked away in the larger outer box, this box itself is pretty darn nice looking with different art on both sides and even the title in foil on the spine. Perhaps you can put this on your shelf if you don’t want the giant showpiece that is the entire box set taking up shelf space. Opening up the box reveals all the physical extras included in this set. There’s the art cards, poster, and Beast Spear replica. Let’s start off with the art cards. 

Included in the set are 4 art cards that yes, are reversible, giving you 8 works of art to admire, although still only 4 to display (unless you live in some alternate dimension that can view fronts and backs at the same time!). Only the first card is glossy, and it’s a noticeable difference, being much brighter and all together prettier than the other 3, however these 3 aren’t total losses either. Said cards are nice and firm, not flimsy, and feel like they were made of pretty thick paper-stock. Overall you have your self a small yet beautiful set of cards. 

Next is the poster which regrettably is probably the weakest part of this set. Unlike the art cards the paper for the poster does feel flimsy, and I only looked at it once and I can already see creases and fold marks just from being shoved into the box it came in. The whole thing feels very cheap and kinda disappointing, but I could have let that slide if the poster was actually big! Instead it’s pretty small, not much bigger than two standard BD cases turned on their side (see here). I’ll probably still find use out of it but this is really one of the few missteps in an absolutely incredible box set. 

And finally, the last piece in this box we have the Beast Spear replica. This tiny little guy is actually made with real metal (or at least it feels like it is) and believe it or not is kinda heavy. There’s honestly a good amount of weight to it that just feels right. This is no pen or pencil, it’s a real weapon–that just so happens to be about the size of a pen or pencil. 

While the spear itself is great, the cloth tide around it really doesn’t look like the cloth in the show, instead it obviously looks like the ribbon it is. Seems like something my mother would use in her crafting instead of a mighty seal that prevents the spear from going berserk. The box itself is kinda a dud too. Don’t be fooled by the nice interior the spear is stored in, the rest of the box is pretty much just flimsy cardboard. All that said, I still love the spear replica itself, and it’s a fun display piece, especially with figures. 

No longer satisfied with hunting Moblins all day, Link’s traded in his Master Sword for the Beast Spear and is ready to fight some yokai! (I really need the Ushio & Tora figures don’t I?) 

So now that we have everything in that goodies box out of the way let’s examine what was next in this box set: the art/guide book. This book is hefty, also having a good weight to it. Hard cover and solid like a rock, boasting over 150 pages of information and art. This is by far the nicest book I have gotten in an anime box set, and puts most of the stuff in Funimation sets to shame. The book comes in at pretty much the same size of a standard manga volume (see here) and is formated for western reading (left-to-right). 

Honestly this book is the biggest winner for me in the entire box set. I didn’t have any expectations for it but, boy, oh boy! There’s just so much information in this little book and it’s all displayed beautifully. 

There’s descriptions of every episode which include screenshots and bios for each character in said episode (and even more interesting is that they didn’t just copy+paste these, each bio on the characters explains what they are doing in the episode and is wholly unique), information and art on the yokai featured in the episode, and best of all the descriptions even list the script writer, storyboard artist, episode director, and animation director for the episode; info that I wish more companies would make as easily available in these kinds of books. 

Besides the episode descriptions we have your standard section dedicated to the art of the characters showing off the multiple appearances they had over the course of the show, and a section dedicated to all the background art featured in the series. This is a tome of information on the entire process of making the show from start to finish and really makes you appreciate how much work goes into anime. I ended up taking a lot more photos of this book than I should have, so if you want to take a peak: check out some more pics here. 

I do not recommend diving into the book right away however if you haven’t seen the show yet because it is full of spoilers. 

Last but not least is the actual show itself. As I stated in the beginning it is separated into 3 unique DVD sized cases that do not resemble the standard edition set for this show. The cases each feature different artwork on both the exterior and interior, and house around 13 discs in total: 8 DVDs and 5 BDs. The episode breakdown results in about 4-5 episodes a DVD and about 9 episodes a BD, pretty much a standard amount for most anime nowadays. 

Below I will post the interior art for all 3 cases.

So that is the Ushio & Tora Limited Edition BD & DVD box set from Sentai Filmworks! A huge set full of a lot of great content. If you love the show like I do and want to have a great display piece then I definitely cannot recommend it enough. I also look forward to my rewatch of it with the brand new dub Sentai has made. 

I hope this unboxing has helped anyone on the fence about getting this, as I know I absolutely love looking at it on my shelf now! 

Sony’s Funimation Global Group Completes Acquisition of Crunchyroll from AT&T | Sony Pictures Entertainment

amisbro:

Should Sentai OWN UtaPri

My short answer is “No” but let me explain this for y'all

When Broccoli created the “Uta no Prince-Sama” series just in general back in 2010 (really in August of 2009 was the first Audition CD but I digress) I’m going to make a wager

NO…they DIDN’T expect the series to take off or if they did they expected it to probably “die down” after a while. It’s been almost 12 years and we are still seeing it around so if you had made the bet that it WOULD take off like it did then you would be probably rich as hell by now!

They PROBABLY also wasn’t expecting the series to be a success in DVD sales or even ratings given that the series would be in the 25:00 time slot in Japan (1 AM Sunday Morning) so the DVDs were going to be their driving force

(WHOOPS!)

Oh yeah and then there are the CD sales which ,when you look at the Billboard charts in Japan a # of the CDs hit #1 so they had something right?

Now could they (or even SHOULD THEY) have expected the UtaPri series to take off outside of Japan?

Hell no!

(Let’s be honest fam…we know that ,unless its Love Live, you PROBABLY weren’t going to be popular outside of the home market because we were mostly dealing with LL in terms of localized games IIRC)

Broccoli might have had their popular game series and CDs but games…nah we wouldn’t get ANY games for a good while until 2018 when Shining Live was translated about 5 months after the game came out in Japan. Before that if you wanted to play the games you needed a guide and hoped that someone had made one to know what choice made what route happen for a character. It’s wasn’t like it is now because Otome/Visual Novel games are far more localized now even if the quality of the games has suffered at times in the most infuriating fashions. CollarXMalice at one point wanted to say hello and the less said about Taisho x Alice the better.

But UtaPri was still (for the most part) confined to Japan and DID get its Anime (all 4 seasons) simulcast outside of Japan. All Seasons were broadcast first on Tokyo MX and then put on Crunchyroll later on. I discovered the series literally through a gif of Ren Jinguji back in 2013 and then ordered the first DVD collection (which I might be getting rid of soon) off Amazon and then proceeded to binge it. I immediately became immersed in the world and loved every second of the 13 episode first season and then later closer to Christmas I watched Season 2 on Crunchyroll (this site will be repeated a lot and for good reason so stick with me) and the reason I did it so close to then was because I wanted to watch the Christmas Special which ,was a nice and tidy 22-25 minutes vs. the hour special that will be airing in Japan soon, and I loved it!

TO…

THIS…

DAY…

“Shining Star Xmas” is the most watched episode/OVA for me ever when I watched it about 50 times between Christmas day to sometime in February! It’s still one of my favorite things about the Anime and I will never forget how much it meant to me to be honest. The only thing that means more to me (outside of a group that will get its own post again later on) is the song “Crystal Time” which I listened to for no joke…about 3 weeks straight because it kicked that much ass!

Now you will notice I mentioned that I got the DVD off Amazon well…who distributed it?

That would be Sentai Filmworks!

Now to be clear at this time I had no issue with them and honestly the amount of times they actually tweeted about the series was mindboggling because of the fact that I didn’t think they cared THAT MUCH about the series (and to be clear I still don’t but more on that in a minute) but it was interesting because they were tweeting about it constantly and there was a part of me that trusted them but another part of me that…well I AM a Gemini so “trust” is something I don’t give up easily

The thing is that ,for a good while, the series had a home in two places IIRC: HDIVE which is just a paywall site and Crunchyroll which had a free tier and a premium tier and yes I was a free user so I couldn’t watch the episodes right away but I made

do with this fact.

What I didn’t know was the fandom was about to get a BAD does of reality

When Sentai got the License for Seasons 1 and 2 I thought there was no problem because we had a place to watch it with CR. Now I love the hell out of Crunchy because of the fact that it had (and still does now with the acquisition of Funimation thanks to Sony) so I’m thinking everything is going to be GREAT!

Oh boy was I wrong

Hey uh…Sentai: You could have bought dinner first before the rough session you gave us!

Around the time of Maji Love Kingdom the fandom wanted to actually see this…and it HAPPENED which was “kind of” awesome?! I say kind of because there were still people that had bad experiences and actually complained about it. That was their right but there was at least ONE twitter user (“ruby_honda”) that decided it was a good idea to play “PR Spin Doctor” for them and I get it…they had a good time and they didn’t want Sentai to ACTUALLY KNOW that there were people that had a bad experience because for people either their theater was dead for it OR the ushers were basically CLUELESS with what people were watching! Like literally there were people that were actually annoyed with the experience. Now it ALSO doesn’t help that “Good Guy Sentai Filmworks” literally didn’t get the right to actually play a part of the film that would have helped where people were actively ENCOURAGED to sing along with the songs (although to be fair in the theater I was at in Manville I seriously DOUBT anyone save for like one person on twitter that I followed knew the songs).

The crazy thing about this is that this would be the lasting memory I had of the event because when they finished the final song I left right as “Encore” played. Then again I was still hella pissed off about having to listen to the MC that was done for “Feather in the Hand” and so I was just generally DONE with the day AND ,Sentai, when I was asked later on by someone if I was happy I went or if I wished I hadn’t gone

Honestly? The latter

Oh but it got worse

Not long after this was ANOTHER problem that was going to arise soon…but first…some backstory

So before this day happened Crunchyroll was having some weird issues with the page for the series. What would happen is that you could go to the page (and you still can now I think) but some seasons would not be there. If you wanted to watch Season…4 let’s say right? You might find 1-3 on there but 4 would be M.I..A.

What gives? Well we would find out AFTER the Maji Love Kingdom event showings in the states

An event I call “The Sentai Filmorks nuke” took place?

What is that you ask? I’ll tell you

This is when Sentai just obliterated CR’s catalog for the series (among others) and put it behind their paywall service called “HDIVE”. Why PRETEND to get along with the UtaPri fandom when you can stab them dead in the back right?

The interesting thing is that since this has happened I have NOT heard many people really talk about the series as a whole. Like unless its Shining Live NO ONE really discussed the series on my Twitter TL because its basically non-existent anymore and its a shame because what Sentai did was make the series LESS accessible to a fandom unless they PAY UP!

Yeah Sentai Filmworks…you really know about “Love and Music” don’t you?

Do I think they know that they really harmed the series’ popularity in the States? No but I know they will go something like

“Durrr Muh Capitalism”

Let’s be real Sentai: You KNOW you shouldn’t outright OWN that series because honestly you just see it as dollar signs. People like me? I see it as a series that I loved (and still do) but the death of the series and (positive) interactions with the fandom at times is one of the most depressing things ever! Like…its hard enough to be a HEAVENS fan as is but you TOOK A SERIES THAT I LOVE AND RIPPED IT FROM FANS THAT GIVE A DAMN!

No Sentai…you shouldn’t own a rather beloved series because hiding it from those of us that have been around for ALMOST 10 YEARS is painful. No I won’t sub to

your crappy service…I want you to let those of us that enjoy CR to actually get to see the boys again. I know people will think I am speaking just as a HEAVENS fan but no…I’m a fan of the series as a whole and I won’t buy your stupid DVD to see it…what sucks is that to see Maji Love Kingdom no matter what I think I gotta see your stupid logo and it makes me mad

Let Viz have a crack at distributing it for a minute…I’d love to see what they can do

Y'all have a good one

Should Sentai OWN UtaPri

My short answer is “No” but let me explain this for y'all

When Broccoli created the “Uta no Prince-Sama” series just in general back in 2010 (really in August of 2009 was the first Audition CD but I digress) I’m going to make a wager

NO…they DIDN’T expect the series to take off or if they did they expected it to probably “die down” after a while. It’s been almost 12 years and we are still seeing it around so if you had made the bet that it WOULD take off like it did then you would be probably rich as hell by now!

They PROBABLY also wasn’t expecting the series to be a success in DVD sales or even ratings given that the series would be in the 25:00 time slot in Japan (1 AM Sunday Morning) so the DVDs were going to be their driving force

(WHOOPS!)

Oh yeah and then there are the CD sales which ,when you look at the Billboard charts in Japan a # of the CDs hit #1 so they had something right?

Now could they (or even SHOULD THEY) have expected the UtaPri series to take off outside of Japan?

Hell no!

(Let’s be honest fam…we know that ,unless its Love Live, you PROBABLY weren’t going to be popular outside of the home market because we were mostly dealing with LL in terms of localized games IIRC)

Broccoli might have had their popular game series and CDs but games…nah we wouldn’t get ANY games for a good while until 2018 when Shining Live was translated about 5 months after the game came out in Japan. Before that if you wanted to play the games you needed a guide and hoped that someone had made one to know what choice made what route happen for a character. It’s wasn’t like it is now because Otome/Visual Novel games are far more localized now even if the quality of the games has suffered at times in the most infuriating fashions. CollarXMalice at one point wanted to say hello and the less said about Taisho x Alice the better.

But UtaPri was still (for the most part) confined to Japan and DID get its Anime (all 4 seasons) simulcast outside of Japan. All Seasons were broadcast first on Tokyo MX and then put on Crunchyroll later on. I discovered the series literally through a gif of Ren Jinguji back in 2013 and then ordered the first DVD collection (which I might be getting rid of soon) off Amazon and then proceeded to binge it. I immediately became immersed in the world and loved every second of the 13 episode first season and then later closer to Christmas I watched Season 2 on Crunchyroll (this site will be repeated a lot and for good reason so stick with me) and the reason I did it so close to then was because I wanted to watch the Christmas Special which ,was a nice and tidy 22-25 minutes vs. the hour special that will be airing in Japan soon, and I loved it!

TO…

THIS…

DAY…

“Shining Star Xmas” is the most watched episode/OVA for me ever when I watched it about 50 times between Christmas day to sometime in February! It’s still one of my favorite things about the Anime and I will never forget how much it meant to me to be honest. The only thing that means more to me (outside of a group that will get its own post again later on) is the song “Crystal Time” which I listened to for no joke…about 3 weeks straight because it kicked that much ass!

Now you will notice I mentioned that I got the DVD off Amazon well…who distributed it?

That would be Sentai Filmworks!

Now to be clear at this time I had no issue with them and honestly the amount of times they actually tweeted about the series was mindboggling because of the fact that I didn’t think they cared THAT MUCH about the series (and to be clear I still don’t but more on that in a minute) but it was interesting because they were tweeting about it constantly and there was a part of me that trusted them but another part of me that…well I AM a Gemini so “trust” is something I don’t give up easily

The thing is that ,for a good while, the series had a home in two places IIRC: HDIVE which is just a paywall site and Crunchyroll which had a free tier and a premium tier and yes I was a free user so I couldn’t watch the episodes right away but I made

Sentai Filmworks Licenses the Vermeil in Gold Anime

Sentai Filmworks Licenses the Vermeil in GoldAnime

Sentai Filmworks has announced that it has acquired the exclusive rights to Vermeil in Gold, the anime adaptation of the cheeky fantasy-comedy manga of the same name published in Square Enix’s Monthly Shonen Gangan magazine. Sentai will stream Vermeil in Gold exclusively on HIDIVE during the Summer 2022 simulcast season.
Meet Alto, a hapless student at Royal Ortigia Magic Academy whose academic…

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