Portable Fantasy and Clover

September 27, 2005 | 11 Comments

The latest broadcast schedule from Newtype magazine reveals what is probably a surprise for some Hachikuro fans. The schedule states that episode 24 of Honey and Clover titled "...tsuita...", will be the last broadcast episode for the series. This will undoubtedly create confusion amongst the viewers because there are sites that list the series as 26 episode series. Well, the number of episodes is probably correct. Judging from the amount of episodes included on each DVD volume, it's likely that episode 25 and 26 will actually be included in the last DVD volume. These episodes will probably featured non-important manga storylines that were skipped over during the broadcast version of the story. An example of this will be the story of Ham guy, Romaiya sempai, a character who never made it into the broadcast version of the series. If this turns out to be the case, then the DVD releases have suddenly become a lot more attractive than they already are at the moment.

Anyway, the second volume of the DVD turns out to be as well-produced as the first one. The limited edition version comes with a digipack illustrated by Umino Chika. Instead of the girls, however, this time, it's Mayama, Morita, and Takemoto who get to be featured on the cover. The actual DVD box itself shows a simple screenshots of the characters as can be seen above. Inside the DVD box, a replica of Hagu's Note(as seen in episode 2 of the series) is also included. The only difference is that this particular note does not have picture of things that Hagu wants to buy. The DVD itself is picture-labeled featuring similar illustration to the one used on the digipack. If you're interested, here are scans of Volume 2 packaging and its extra:

Digipack, Front Cover
DVD Box, Front Cover
DVD Box, Back Cover
Hagu's Note, Front Cover
Hagu's Note, Back Cover

This volume contains 3 episodes instead of 2 like the last time. The extras are also equally interesting although they're not as informative as I'd like them to be. The first extra is basically a behind the scene look as Kudou Haruka (Hagu's VA) prepares for a photo shoot. The second extra are two clips containing two promotional events. The first event is a tea party that also serves as some kind of exhibition for Hachikuro related items and merchandises. During the event, Kudou Haruka, Kasai Kenichi (Director), and Umino Chika appeared in front of the audiences. Unfortunately, the DVD decides to obscure the image of Umino Chika by using a picture of the usual teddy bear that she usually draw to represent herself in the manga. Umino Chika herself turns out to be a pretty shy and reserved individual, who speaks with a rather low voice during the entire time. It also appears to me that she was quite nervous about having to appear in front of many people like this.

The second clip included in the DVD is Hachikuro anime announcement at the Tokyo Anime Fair 2005. The event features, Kasai Kenichi (Director), Kudou Haruka (Hagu's VA), Takahashi Mikako (Yamada's VA), and SuneoHair (Waltz' singer). To me, the most interesting part of this segment is probably the video clips that run behind the VAs. At one point, one of the video clips show something that looks lika live-action Hagu and Yamada running across a field. I'm probably wrong about this but if it's true, I hope they'll include this promo video or whatever it is in future DVD volumes. The last set of extras included in the DVDs are series of adverts that were used to promote the series. This include a TV Spot, a 30 and 60 second adverts, and a brief animation demo. I've encoded them as mp4 files if you're interested:

15 Seconds TV Spot (1.73MB, for PSP/Quicktime)
30 Second Advert (7.5MB, for PSP/Quicktime)
60 Second Advert (9.6MB, for PSP/Quicktime)
Demo Advert (7.5MB, for PSP/Quicktime)

Honey and Clover DVD is not the only merchandise that is well-presented. I managed to obtain the limited edition OST for the series and was pleasantly surprised to see the packaging. The CD is packed inside a small book-like case. Outside the case, there's a nice little paper pattern that acts as some kind of simple decoration for the case. Once you open the case, you'll notice that there's a well-made booklet containing the lyrics of the songs included in the OST. I can't emphasise how beautiful the entire presentation of the OST. The only problem that I have with the OST is the fact that it doesn't include the piano version of Dramatic and Waltz.

Hachikuro OST, Front Cover
Hachikuro OST, Back Cover
Hachikuro OST, Front Cover with flaps opened
Hachikuro OST, CD+Booklet

Another equally interesting DVD that was released this month is Advent Children. I actually like this film as well as Last Order and want to have both of them on DVD. Having said that, I didn't feel like wasting a lot of money for items that I don't really need and that is essentially what I'd ended up doing if I had gone for the Advent Pieces. Because of this, I had no choice but to go with the Limited Package edition. I wish there's another edition that includes Last Order but that doesn't seem to be the case so I had no choice but to get this one. Anyway, the extras on the DVD is quite slim but rather interesting nevertheless. The first one is a compilation of all CGIs from Final Fantasy VII PS game. This essentially sums up the events that happened prior to Advent Children. The second one is a set of trailers for the upcoming Final Fantasy VII related games which includes Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core.

Advent Children, Limited Metallic Packaging Front Cover
Advent Children, Back Cover

Last but not least, there's the white PSP. From a design and usability point of view, this is definitely much better than the black one. So far I haven't had any problem with fingerprints unlike my experience with the black one. Although come to think of it, I have no idea if the fingerprints are not visible because of a new coating, or because the color simply makes them less noticeable. Anyway, the device is now equipped with system 2.0 right off the bat, making it possible for me to surf the net. Connection has been rather slow though and entering address using the internal keypad is rather annoying. The thing that I find really interesting about this upgrade is the ability of the device to accept h.264 codec. I have yet to play around with it but if the codec can give a superior picture quality and smaller files, I may start using this format to encode my PSP files from now on.

As usual, please do not make a direct link to the images/videos. If you wish to link, point the link to this post instead. Here are some of details of the items above in case you're interested to purchase them:

Honey and Clover Volume 2 (Limited Release)
Format: R2 NTSC
Price: 3,948 Yen ($34.82 US Dollars)

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (Limited Packaging)
Format: R2 NTSC
Price: 3,840 Yen ($33.87 US Dollars)

Honey and Clover OST
Format: OST
Price: 3,150 Yen ($27.79 US Dollars)

Ceramic White PSP
Format: R2 NTSC
Price: 24,999 Yen ($220.55 US Dollars)

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