Naruto and Furuba acquistion

August 16, 2004 | 18 Comments

My Naruto obsession has finally reached its fever pitch. I've actually gone and purchased the R2 DVDs. Well, the ones that contain the Chuunin exam parts. I just like watching Naruto finally getting the acknowledgement that he deserves from the people in his village. The DVD packaging themselves are very good. These are the 2nd Stage DVDs, which feature the individual regular from the series instead of collage of 2 -3 characters like the first half of the R2 DVDs. The extras are pretty slim though. There is only a first press sticker for all 3 DVDs that I got and inside the disc itself character sketches are the only extra available. The disc with Kakashi and Iruka on the cover, however, also contain the trailer for Naruto: the Movie. The menu itself is clean and simple. Only the main menu has any kind of animation in it.

The other thing that I finally decide to get is the Fruits Basket Illustration Book. This is a nice compilation of all color illustrations that Takaya Natsuki has done for Fruits Basket manga. This means you can see the progression of her design from the early time to the current style. I actually prefer her current style simply because it's far more refined and better, especially in the case of Yuki and Kyou's design. The only problem is, all of the characters now look kind of similar even with the different hair colors and styles. Anyway, the book itself is pretty good although just like Uzumaki artbook, there aren't that many original images here. The majority of the images have been featured inside Hana to Yume magazine with the exception of the last couple of pages and the front/back cover themselves.

Then there's Yakitate!! Japan vol.4. After looking at the cover, I finally know why it's so bloody hard to find a copy on the shelf of my local Japanese bookstore. You have to admit though, it's one good-looking image of Azusagawa Tsukino. And after looking at her anime incarnation, I'll have to say that unfortunately that incarnation can't beat Takashi Hashiguchi's art style. Last but not least, I actually managed to score the Furuba Figurines from Hana to Yume magazine. The figures were offered to anyone who collected all of the coupons from inside the magazine. The catch is, the deal wasn't opened to anyone who doesn't live in Japan. Thankfully, a good friend of mine happened to live there and offered to do it for me. And they do look good in comparison to the clear-looking version that came with the first pressing R2 DVDs.

Do not link straight to these images from other sites/forums. If you are interested to purchase them, here are some of the details:

Naruto 2nd Stage
Format: R2 NTSC
Price: 4095 Yen/disc ($37.08 US Dollars)

Fruits Basket Illustrated Book
ISBN: 4-59-273220-0
Price: 1500 Yen ($13.66 US Dollars)

Yakitate!! Japan Tank 4
ISBN: 4-09-126394-1
Price: 410 Yen ($3.71 US Dollars)

Posted by Garten

Comments

August 18, 2004 | David wrote:

Ha, I'm also planning on purchasing the DVDs - it's good to see you hooked as well :)

Just as a quick question, for the DVDs, how many episodes are on a single disc? Is it widescreen?

August 18, 2004 | Garten wrote:

I still blame you for getting me hooked in what could be a very expensive series :)

Each DVD contains 4 episodes. They are not Widescreen but the encoding is very good. Beats those fansubs miles ahead.

I maybe wrong about this but I don't think the original was created for widescreen. If that was the case, then I'd rather have the original 4:3 format than having a fake widescreen.

August 18, 2004 | Kabitzin wrote:

Holy Shigure, those Furuba figurines are so cute! Do the onigirii have plums on their backs?

August 18, 2004 | Garten wrote:

What a good guess :) Yes, there is a red plum stuck behind each onigiri.

August 19, 2004 | yiingz wrote:

hello, i like to know where can i buy this furuba figurines...

August 19, 2004 | Garten wrote:

Unfortunately, as I said in the paragraph above, you can only get them if you collect the coupons inside Hana to Yume magazine and send them to the magazine. They're limited edition kind of thing so you can't buy them from other place. And I'm not selling mine :)

The only figurines that you can 'purchase' (so to speak, because they're technically free) is the clear-looking ones included with the first-pressed version of Vol 8 and 9 of the R2 DVDs. I think some stores still have copies of the DVDs if you look around.

August 20, 2004 | cheryl wrote:

amazinq ! very kyute ! where can i get the fruits basket illustration book ?

August 20, 2004 | Garten wrote:

Amazon Japan (www.amazon.co.jp) has them. That's the only place that I know at the moment.

August 21, 2004 | Darci-San wrote:

oh my lordy. I only wish the naruto anime could hook me as much as the manga does...

But oh my! Go read the new Furuba chapter!! it's just... just... O_O!!!!! .. never saw that coming.. please read! and then write about it XD.. your my only good source of furuba translations XD.

August 22, 2004 | Ash wrote:

That kind of cuteness should be illegal in all fifty states. The amount of jealousy and envy I feel right now is downright palpable, and I'm not above petty thievery at amoment like this...muahaha. Oh yes! I'm sorry for such an abrupt comment but I've just finally worked up the nerve to comment on your site. I love anime blogs so I hope you don't mind if I linked to your site. If you have a problem with this please let me know and I'll take the link down immediately. Keep up the excellent work!

August 22, 2004 | Stina wrote:

Okay, that new little twist to FB just blew me away. I can't wait to read you comments on the new chapter, and here how it came about. I absolutely love you translations.

September 1, 2004 | chrystal_ball wrote:

Goodness, I'm about to die of envy of those figurines x_x
And your Fruits Basket summaries are beautiful :D I almost choked after reading ch.97... then again, I'm way behind with the series -_-"..
Do you know how many volumes the story is gonna end with?

September 12, 2004 | Ashley wrote:

I know that Naruto manga has been translated into English but has the anime been dubbed yet? I want to see the anime. I know they are showing the anime in some other different countries. (In Philippines definitely... I have some friends that live there. They say the anime is awesome.)But I really want to see it... -_-

September 12, 2004 | Garten wrote:

Unfortunately, I have no idea when Fruits Basket will end and on what volume.

As for Naruto, no company has actually got the right to dub the series yet.

October 28, 2005 | DuMy wrote:

does sommebody know if the second series of naruto is out or is it not finished iet

January 27, 2008 | Desti wrote:

Where did you get the Furuba Figures? I have been looking everywhere for them.

July 4, 2008 | Garten wrote:

Hi Desti. Those figurines were limited edition items that you can only purchased if you collect coupons from Hana to Yume. I don't think they sell that anywhere else now.

July 29, 2008 | Desti wrote:

Hi Garten. What if you live in the US. How do you get Hana to Yume from here? But if i can't get them that way i'm not going to stop looking for them.