Clover, Rain, and Sakura

August 29, 2005 | 15 Comments

The items that I ordered from Amazon Japan has finally arrived. The main thing that interest me here is, of course, Honey and Clover R2 DVD. I have to say that I'm not disappointed with this order. The entire package looks as if it's been made carefully with a lot of thoughts put into it. To begin with, the digipack is nicely designed with some kind of wallpaper-like texture. At the front of the digipack, there's a nice hand-drawn picture of Yamada and Hagu created by Umina Chika herself. The main extra of this volume is a hardcover book containing various facts about the series from singers to the place where the characters live. I also can't help but being amused when I first found out that you can buy the clothes that the characters use. Anyway, here are some scans of the package:

Digipack Front Cover
DVD Front Cover
DVD Back Cover
Hardcover book, Front Cover
A page from the Hardcover book

When you take out the DVD box out of the digipack, you'll see a simple but nice cover featuring screenshots from the series. Opening the DVD box will reveal a single picture disc featuring Yamada and Hagu just like in the digipack. There are also the usual leaflets advertising various DVDs neatly tucked on the left-hand side of the DVD box. One of the leaftlets is an ad for the upcoming OST. Of course, in the end all of this will not matter if the DVD is not up to scratch. But thankfully the content of the DVD is equally good. The first thing you'll get once you placed the disc is a logo for Fuji TV. You will then be taken to a simple main menu. The menu only has a small bee animation flying from left to right and leaving a 'Vol.1' tag on the right-hand side of the screen. I kind of hoped that the main menu would have been better but I guess you can't have it all.

I decided to give the episode a run first, so I pressed the 'Chapter' option from the main menu just to see the kind of chapter stops being offered by the DVD. There's nothing surprising here. There's a stop for: Opening, Part A, Part B, and Ending. The chapter stops menu is also equally simple with blue tablecloth-like background overlayed by a white note and a Polaroid photo of Takemoto looking at Hagu for the first time. The chapter stops for the 2nd episode of course has a picture of Hagu forming her clay statue to reflect the episode in question. Since there's nothing else to do in the menu, the only thing left to do was to press one of the chapter stops. I opt to jump straight to the episode 1 part A. The quality of this DVD is excellent. Presented in Anamorphic 16:9, the series never look sharper and clearer.

After the first episode, I decided to see the kind of extras included within the DVD itself. A quick jump to the Extra menu reveals the simplest menu listing four extras: the making of Dramatic opening theme, creditless Dramatic version 1, Creditless Waltz, and a short omake. I'll mention the making of the opening theme and the omake a bit later. But before that, I just want to say I'm glad that this disc included the creditless opening and ending. I know it's a typical extra on DVD these days but I still think it's nice to be able to see the animation without being distracted by the text. Although in the case of Waltz, the lack of text and visuals do create a weird effect. As most people already aware of, the first couple of seconds of the song are nothing but blank frames to insert the last few seconds of the episode.

The making of the opening theme, is undoubtedly the best extra in the DVD. It's interesting to see how the animators put together the opening using various food products which has been combined with glue and other materials to achieve the realistic look while ensuring that the materials are easy to shoot on film. One of the most amusing thing shown in this extra is the way the animators use their own body to figure out how that Sausage man is going to move around inside the hotdog bun. The entire process looks really painful. There'a mention by one of the food creators that one food item can take around 3.5 hours to create. And judging from the workshop table, it looks like they have at least 2-3 extra in case the first one is ruined. All in all, this is one education extra that I hope will be included when this series is licensed in Region 1.

The omake part of the extra is basically just a collection of random videos that are put together to encourage the viewers to purchase the second volume of the DVD. Some of the random videos include Kudou Haruka (Hagu's VA) and someone who is possibly Umino Chika (I never seen her real face before this, she always uses that stuffed bear to represent herself in the manga) promoting the anime in front of the press. There's also some quick shots of character design for Morita, Hagu, Shuuji, and Yamada's old pottery teacher. Finally, there's a segment where the voice-over cast basically goof around with each other. As a side note, please be aware that both the 'making of' and the 'omake' are shot in 4:3 format instead of the 16:9 format used for the actual episodes. Anyway, I have to say I'm quite happy with these extras and can't wait to see the 2nd DVD.

In addition to the DVD, there's also 2 Honey and Clover books, Continue and Honey and Clover Fanbook. Continue is basically a magazine of popular culture. It just happens that in this particular issue they give Honey and Clover a major coverage. The magazine contains interview with Umino Chika and Kudou Haruka. There's also some manga artworks scattered all around the magazines. The Fanbook is basically a tankouban-sized book featuring artistic photograph of real life items that the characters usually eat. So there are pictures of Croquettes, Ham, Roll Cakes, etc. The book also features lists of favourite scenes as voted by fans of the manga. Please note that these books only concetrate on manga illustrations. So don't expect to find some anime illustrations on either one.

Then there is the soundtracks and UMDs. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get the first press edition of Yuki's Dramatic, so no Yuki bookmarker for me. But somehow I managed to get the first press edition of Waltz and obtain a rather nifty bookmarker featuring Takemoto, Hagu, and Morita. The picture was hand-drawn by Umino Chika as usual. Ima, Ai ni Yukimasu soundtrack is definitely a must-have for fans of the film. I think there's not one single background music from that film that I didn't like. The only problem with the soundtrack is that it doesn't include Hana, the main theme of the film. So unfortunately if you want that song, your only option is to buy the Orange Range single with that exact title. Both of them are good purchase though, especially since it's from a film that left an indelible impression on me.

The last item I ordered was Film Lotus IV UMD. This is a compilation of Nakashima Mika's recent music clips. But the truth is, I am only interested in Sakurairo Mau Koro. I first heard the song when I was in Japan but never managed to find out the name of the song. It's not until a few weeks ago I found out about it and I have been obsessed with the song ever since. It's probably because the song reminds me a lot of Japan during the Spring time which is the time when I was there. This is actually the first UMD Video I bought and this kind of title is exactly the reason why I'm glad that I bought a Japanese PSP instead of other region's PSP. Anyway, I'm quite surprised to know that there are more than just the music clip inside the UMD. There's actually 5 behind the scenes short doco on the making of each music clip.

Continue, Front Cover
Honey & Clover Fanbook, Front Cover
Yuki's Dramatic, Front Cover
Suneohair's Waltz, Front Cover
Suneohair's Waltz, Back Cover
Suneohair's Waltz, Bookmarker
Ima, Ai ni Yukimasu CD, Front Cover
Ima, Ai ni Yukimasu CD, Back Cover
Orange Range's Hana, Front Cover
Nakashima Mika's Film Lotus IV UMD, Front Cover

Please do not link directly to these images. If you want to link, link to this page instead. Here are some of details of the items above in case you're interested to purchase them:

Honey and Clover Volume 1 (Limited Release)
Format: R2 NTSC
Price: 2,352 Yen ($21.27 US Dollars)

Continue Special: Honey and Clover
ISBN: 4-87-233956-8
Price: 830 Yen ($7.5 US Dollars)

Honey and Clover Vol.0: Official FanBook
ISBN: 4-08-865283-5
Price: 620 Yen ($5.6 US Dollars)

Yuki: Dramatic (Maxi)
Format: CD Single
Price: 1,223 Yen ($11.05 US Dollars)

Suneohair: Waltz (Maxi)
Format: CD Single
Price: 1,223 Yen ($11.05 US Dollars)

Ima, Ai ni Yukimasu OST
Format: CD Album
Price: 3,059 Yen ($27.65 US Dollars)

Orange Range: Hana (Maxi)
Format: CD Single
Price: 1,223 Yen ($11.05 US Dollars)

Nakashima Mika: Film Lotus IV
Format: UMD Disc
Price: 4,935 Yen ($44.63 US Dollars)

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