The Merchandise of Haruhi Suzumiya (Figurines, Artbooks, OSTs, etc.)

[FlashFumo]

Originally Posted by ultimatemegax

While searching to see if there was any information about the Volume 5.285714 DVD release for this Friday, I found one website that had the cover for volume 5.428571 (or Endless Eight V and VI).

Seems to be a leaf motif this time with the DVD covers. The picture of Nagato has moved to the "normal" front side instead of the side views on the first two Endless Eight DVDs. I'm somewhat disappointed that they didn't include a "saddened" or "bored" appearance for her as well.

She's smiling.

She's smiling.

Oh, she is smiling.

Mind: Boggled.

[Heatth]

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

Honestly, Disappearance should really be showcasing Kyon, not Nagato.... I'd love to see a promotional image of Kyon on his knees in the snow, looking up mournfully at the grey winter sky...

But male characters rarely sell merchandise, so...

Well, Yuki is the star this time. I can't see why you say she souldn't be showcasing. Well, she wasn't suppose to appear to be the star at first, we should only lear it half way in the story. This was kinda threw out of the window long time ago. The teaser only made things worse.

For Kyon... well, he is the most important character in the whole series so he deserved be in a lot more colvers, promotional images, merchandises and etc... But, as you said, male charactes don't sell. (well, not in a male oriented series, that is it)

[ultimatemegax]

Well, I received my copy of Haruhi Vol. 5.285714 yesterday as a nice birthday gift thanks to Amazon Japan and I figured that probably no one else would have a English review of it due to the whole Endless Eight fiasco, so I'll give a good review as much as I can.

Packaging:
The packaging is the same as the others from this year. A special Ito cover of Depressed!Nagato with leaves falling around her. The sliding case is a big improvement over the double CD slots from the first set of DVDs. The background behind the discs is of a star peeking around a planet compared to just a starnight sky from the first two. I'm curious if that's a theme for these. I did not get lucky this time to get a bookmark or a special coaster, but I did get number 14 overall, a saddened Nagato coaster. There's also a special piece of artwork that's also a small folded pocket container from the Endless Eight prologue on the Limited Edition Disc. Overall, I'm still a huge fan of the packaging and give it a 9/10. (I really wanted a book mark from the ED!)
pics:

Plot:
Here's where I may differ from everyone else. I absolutely loved Endless Eight from the fourth episode on. It was a gutsy move that was necessitated by the Disappearance movie and I really like the idea of it. If it wasn't for the real events shown chronologically before this story, it would be rather difficult to prove that time is looping over and over again based on the novel's sole trip. By having the viewers go through the loops, you do get a sense of what Nagato's feeling. Plus, only watching two per month isn't as bad as every week when you don't know when it's going to end. I still give it a 8/10 since the general plot is the same for both episodes with the multiple fake-outs for IV.

Art:
Having said praise about the arc, these two episodes are rightfully the weakest animated of the bunch. Episode III was called a K-On!ifcation of the characters and too many still frames were shown. It felt like a slideshow at times rather than an animated feature. IV was much better, but that could be due to the significant art feature in that episode. III focused much on the sun and lighting while IV focused on clouds and airplanes. IV also has the most realistic Mikuru at the night scene where her hair is all disheveled. The DVD quality highlights the high quality scenes on my HD monitor and shows the lows clearer, which makes it easy to pick out the annoyances. I have to give this a 6/10 due to the poor quality of III.
Screencaps:
(I thought the subtitles would be captured by VLC, I was wrong. First and last are "Endless Eight" The second one says "Croak-Croak" and I like the picture of the third one)

Audio:
I notice new pieces of music everytime I watch the episodes over again. Kousaki masterfully turns what was a joyful summer melody into a haunting melody and back again through the "repeat" scenes. There's bits and pieces like the frog suit scenes in IV where the music doesn't fit as well, but overall very good. 9.5/10.

Menus:
Same as the past two discs. I've included the pictures for the menus below. They do their job adequately 8/10



Special Features:
This set includes the CMs for the 5.147852 DVD, more for the original showing back in April, more of the artists touring the school to shoot pictures for the Sigh scenes, and more of the making of the Super Driver PV. (Did that get released on a DVD with the CD or will it likely be an extra on the final DVD?) Also more HD wallpapers are included. Below is an example of the screen cap versus the wallpaper. No surprises, but great stuff that's good to see. It's really amazing seeing the real life equivalent of the school. 8.5/10

Screencap on left, wallpaper on right

Here's how the wallpapers are stored:
click on the 396_3 and it takes you to

Limited Edition Disc:
Like the others, this DVD has the SOS background music, "Taniguchi Goes! Vol. 3" and a rehashing of the plot by Taniguchi's VA. In addition, this disc features the introduction to Endless Eight by Kyon with three pictures shown for background imaging. While I love the music, the other two features seem unneccessary, but it is interesting to see the actions of Taniguchi's VA. The introduction was a big letdown. Only three still images while Kyon reads over seems to be a waste, but since the trip to his grandmother's house isn't as important as the trip back from the Lone Island, it's understandable. 7/10 mostly for the music.


2 SOS Memory Album screencaps, Taniguchi Goes (stuck outside a building), Memory Scrapbook, and Endless Eight Prologue

Was it worth it?:
Like I said earlier, I'm a fan of Endless Eight and of the whole series. The English subtitles are good enough to get the plot, but not the nice subtleties that fansubs can provide. I do like the fact that the subtitles are there though. I have my doubts that we'll see a R1 release of these episodes, so having the R2s is something I like. It's worth it to me because I don't go and buy a lot of stuff, so I don't mind paying the money for Endless Eight. Some people will go ahead and call me an idiot for supporting this, but it's a show I love and that's what matters. If you like it, get it. If you don't, don't get it. Overall, a solid 7.5/10 that will get bumped up to 8 as soon as I find the track listing for the OST.

[ultimatemegax]

FINAL ENDLESS EIGHT DVD ARTWORK RELEASED!

Nagato in a dress!

Sorry, just wanted to say that in a really excited manner. I really like this cover and the style of Nagato compared to the yukata one. I think this and the 5.285714 cover were the best of the Endless Eight covers.

For those who don't want to go to the amazon link, is the final cover.

[Jintor]

Woah.

WOAH.

[worldruined]

Oh, hey, that's really pretty.

[Kogetsu Shirogane]

Pretty. Also loving the leaf necklace.

[PrincessFrani]

Originally Posted by ultimatemegax

Nagato looks positively beautiful.

[ultimatemegax]

In addition to the wonderful cover art for Volume 5.571428, we have confirmation that the OST for the Vanishment movie will NOT be included with the DVD/possible BD release, but instead be released separately on January 27th, 2010 on a two disc set. Links for purchasing are here for CD Japan and here for Amazon Japan.

[Starry Dust]

Ah, she's so cute.

I always adored Noizi Ito's style of Yuki.

[ultimatemegax]

Sigh....
This is the first cover with Mikuru in her school uniform. I was expecting the "Battle Waitress" outfit personally, but this is a pleasant surprise.

[AmyElizzabeth]

Mikuru really is pretty, so I'm guessing all of the Sighs are going to have Mikuru on them?
Shame, I wanted Ito's Haruhi on something other than Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody.
I just love Ito's art in general.

[ultimatemegax]

Today was a very Haruhi Christmas. First news of the OST titles (in the music thread), a possible title for the theme song (holding off on official confirmation before posting), and finally my Christmas present for myself. Since I've been getting the 2009-2010 DVDs, I needed the original 8 from 2006-2007 to complete the collection. So, with help from a middlewoman in Japan, I ordered a set that came with special postcards from the Toranora store. My pictures are displayed below.

DVDs received today.
Special postcards from Toranora.
The collection waiting for the last four volumes!

I'll be getting Volume 5.571428 on Monday, so only three more to go!

[brocko]

Damn they look so great all lined up one after the after, it's making me itch in starting my own R2 collection now XD

BTW how are the english subs on the "rebroadcast" DVD's? Are they horrid, watchable or actually perfect?

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by brocko

Damn they look so great all lined up one after the after, it's making me itch in starting my own R2 collection now XD

BTW how are the english subs on the "rebroadcast" DVD's? Are they horrid, watchable or actually perfect?

The subtitles are workable. There's some moments where the translation misses certain aspects like in Endless Eight II, Kyon says "She's three times cuter when she blushes" but the subtitles just say "She's cuter when she blushes." missing the little reference. Surprisingly, the Gundum reference in Endless Eight V made it through perfectly. There's some bits of Engrish as well as seen in every Endless Eight episode with the line "Look how much fun she's enjoying." So to conclude, you will get the gist of what's going on, but they're not the best (or the worst) subs in the world.

In other news, the latest DVD made it to the 5th ranking on the Oricon daily rankings both Friday and yesterday for overall DVDs, and first for Anime DVDs.

Additional edit because I'll only make a double post when I have pictures of the final Endless Eight DVD and the whole set again tomorrow. They've changed the music for the menu. It's somewhat different, but more distracting than anything compared to the first four. No film strip again for me, and no epic music from Endless Eight VIII, but some absolutely incredible wallpapers. Pictures and a new post tomorrow to encompass all of the Endless Eight DVDs and accessories.

[ultimatemegax]

Sorry for the double-post but apparently 3 days ago CD Japan/Neowing posted the next cover art for the limited edition, and it is a first. The cover for Sigh III and IV goes to...

Spoiler:

Kozumi!!!

This is the first time a male human has appeared on the cover of a Limited Edition Haruhi DVD. (Shamisen was on Volume 5 and is a male cat) It shall be interesting to see if Kyon makes it onto the final volume or if we get someone else. I'm personally glad to see at least one of the guys on the cover for once.

I'm also working on an overall review of the Endless Eight DVDs and a comparison between the 2006-2007 R2, 2007 R1, and 2009 R2 and maybe what to expect if an R1 release is coming out next year. I wouldn't expect it until the weekend due to coming down with a cold after Endless Eight VII and VIII came yesterday.

[TMSIDR]

@ultimatemegax

I did a picture quality comparison for the first episode (Melancholy I) last year between German R2, US R1 (the episode from the bonus disc and from the normal disc) and Japanese R2.

The text is in German but there are many comparison pictures. The Japanese DVD wins of course (and the German one looses...)^^.

http://www.sos-brigade.de/wordpress/?p=414

I also posted some pictures and screenshots of the last EE DVD:

http://www.sos-brigade.de/wordpress/?p=4569

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by TMSIDR

@ultimatemegax

I did a picture quality comparison for the first episode (Melancholy I) last year between German R2, US R1 (the episode from the bonus disc and from the normal disc) and Japanese R2.

The text is in German but there are many comparison pictures. The Japanese DVD wins of course (and the German one looses...)^^.

http://www.sos-brigade.de/wordpress/?p=414

I also posted some pictures and screenshots of the last EE DVD:

http://www.sos-brigade.de/wordpress/?p=4569

Those are some absolutely splendid reviews on your site; not just of the ones linked, but all of the ones there. I'm quite jealous at the Kozumi coaster you have. I know the feeling of getting the same character on the strips since Kozumi is on both of mine. (The one at the park with the HD background in EE II and the "I love you" scene from EE VI) Did you notice a difference in the animation on this disc than any of the ones prior? It seemed sharper and smoother on my computer than the prior episodes. I'm glad to see another R2 fan like myself on these forums.

[TMSIDR]

Originally Posted by ultimatemegax

Did you notice a difference in the animation on this disc than any of the ones prior? It seemed sharper and smoother on my computer than the prior episodes. I'm glad to see another R2 fan like myself on these forums.

Unfortunately, I don't have the time and motivation to translate everything to English .

I only watched EE7 on this disc so far, but I haven't seen a large difference. However I watched the On-Air version only a single time and I mix up all the EE episodes^^. When watching the fansubs back then I had mixed felings about the animation quality, but when watching BLR and EE again on DVD I had a general feeling that it looked smoother and had more details. And I remember that EE8 looked fine even in the On-Air version.

Besides, in general I must say that it's visible that KyoAni animates in HD, because everything looks more blurred than in season 1 especially the edges of the characters. I thought the same thing on Kanon but when I checked the Kanon Blu-rays I saw that the animations are very sharp and have lots of details in 1080p. Perhaps this is just my imagination but I think the downsizing seems to remove some details that were normally there when it was animated in SD.

EDIT: I checked today the musical track on the bonus disc again and the beginning sounds totally defect on different players. Did you have the same problem?

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by TMSIDR

I checked today the musical track on the bonus disc again and the beginning sounds totally defect on different players. Did you have the same problem?

I believe that it's the music track itself that's doing that. Once I find the track titles, I'll rip the audio for my personal convenience and double-check to make sure it's the track, but I'm 99% confident it is supposed to sound like it does. There's some other tracks that have the crackling and creepy variations from the BGM as well.

EDIT: It is supposed to be like that. A kind person uploaded the music to a youtube video and it sounds just like mine with the noise sounds.