Buyer’s Regret Strikes Back, Too

Maybe watching that expensive brick oft called “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” volume 1 special edition from Bandai Entertainment USA can put Manabi Straight away for a moment. Oh how ironic that I turn to gnostic pleasures to forget my higher calling…? LOL.

Anyways, this post is sort of a review of that brick that got here. And in short, it is so not worth spending nearly 3x more money on the expensive brick. To put it in perspective, the limited edition episode 00 R2 DVD (volume 1) was 4600 yen, volumes 2-5 were 6600 yen each for the limited edition, and volume 7 LE was 4600 yen. If we exchange 110 yen per dollar, that’s only about 60-70 dollars to match MSRP of $64.98 times 4. Even if volumes 2-4 of the R1 release is $5 less, it makes you wonder if you get what you paid for.

Maybe I’m just slow on the uptake, but when Bandai reneged on the broadcast order thing, either I heard about it and paid it no mind (forgetting I pre-ordered the box), or just entirely forgotten about it. I was even looking forward to that…

Anyways, yea, buyer’s regret. But the main source of it isn’t because the DVD and R1 release was crappy (as it wasn’t–in fact I liked the dub a lot (but still hated Ryoko’s voice though…) and the production was solid). The extras was good and the box was…neat. What I hated about it was its … how should I put it… lame design. There’s no mind paid to how the box art should look, or the purpose of this luxurious box. Hey, it’s got magnets, yay. So I spent an extra $30 on that? It looks like someone went and designed a neat box mechanically and some doof just plastered official images all over it (when some of them I’d fully consider as SPOILERS?) paying no mind of the overall vibe the box gives off. I hate it.

But that’s no compare to what actually is contained inside the box. I never was a big fan of “worthless trinket” like the iron-on or the ribbon, although I’m partial towards the ribbon. Art collections like pencil boards or post cards are more my thing, but even then that just “tickles” my collector’s senses and unless you’re Range Murata you’re not going to see me jump after them. After opening the box I scratch my head, trying to ease that sensation of “I just got sooooo ripped.” It was just sad how, not unexpectedly, this fanboy got played.

To be fair, Bandai did one thing awesomely as far as the packaging: including the CD single AND ALSO RELEASING IT FOR INDIVIDUAL SALE at the same time. I’m so happy about it I bought the Hare Hare Yukai US release separately, because it was cheap and LOL, I’m just happy that this was possible.

Because it totally removes any reason whatsoever to buy those crappy boxes with nothing good in them.

Sigh. I wish more things were released like Scrapped Princess. Now those limited release box sets rocked the house. If you want my otaku dollars, you can’t just bank on the lame-ass collector’s mentality that too many of my peers suffers from. I’m more than ready to buy volume 2 in its simple, DVD-only form.


9 Responses to “Buyer’s Regret Strikes Back, Too”

  • Maiku

    Are you saying you actually paid the full price and didn’t buy it from, say, DVD Pacific?

  • JELEINEN

    The first three episodes are the same in either order. The broadcast order isn’t supposed to start until next volume.

  • dm

    I’ll bet you’d spring for a Satoshi Kon artbook, too.

    You’re one of the proud few! RightStuf has had a counter on their site for the number of limited-edition v1s they have left. They started with 1000, and sold about 750 in the first week of pre-orders, they’ve trickled out since then (they have 330 left now). That’s probably indicative of how sales have gone generally — it’s fair to guess that maybe 2500 of the limited-edition things have sold nationwide.

    Even cheapskate, buys-only-on-sale, keeps-a-list-ordered-by-publisher-for-those publisher-specific-sales me is tempted by the special-edition volume two, which will include a second DVD presented in broadcast order. They had to wait until v2 for the broadcast-order release because they will have all the necessary episodes in hand for the regular release (even though the broadcast-order disks are subtitle-only). Gosh, it’s confusing to write clearly about that.

    I suppose I could always watch my standard DVD in whatever order I want, but… I probably won’t: the thing comes cluttered with too many tchotchkes. If they just sold the DVDs in a twin-disk DVD case & no tchotchkes, I’d have my order in already (I guess I’m pretty atypical, but it always annoys me to have to throw those silly boxes away).

  • omo

    Ah, thanks for explaining about the episode order. The 4th episode on volume 1 is already out of broadcast order, so that worried me a bit.

    To be honest, I’ve yet to watch the show in chronological order so I don’t mind doing that at some point.

    And nobody pays full retail price. Even R2 imports :3

  • wildarmsheero

    GOD OMO YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THE EPISODE ORDER THING JEEZE :V :V :V

    Being serious now, I can see what you mean about the box. Ideally, it’d be nice to get Noiji Itou to do boxart to cover the entire thing, but what can you do? It looks fine from the pics, but nothing totally ground breaking. I’ve yet to get mine yet, so I haven’t really handled it IRL. Also Bandai loves the magnets. Especially in their retarded Gundam Seed Destiny box. God

    I suppose it’s a matter of taste when it comes to all those trinkets. I doubt I’d use the hair ribbon (and if I am it’d be for something sinister) but can’t wait for those pillow covers! Huzzah!

  • omo

    What can I do? Whine like a fanboy.

    Personally it’s just that if I knew it was going to be like this, I wouldn’t have preordered it. I suppose I just didn’t care about the R1 release enough to keep up with these nitpickery industry news.

  • Babel

    Well, I have to wait a little for mine as it’s being imported, but I’m getting the thing for pretty much the price I’d have paid for the discs due to a great deal. I’m buying it pretty much to say ‘thanks’ to kyoani for a fantastic piece of work, and Bandai for really trying hard to please the fans (and for taking the right attitude about subs), so I’d have shelled for it even if it had been a bit more expensive.

  • omo

    And I think you get a quality product that’s worth the money you paid for!

    Because, yeah, I could’ve done something similar. It’s not like I sweat the translation; worse comes to worse I can show friends fansubs.

  • blueZhift

    Honestly, I let the fanboy in me take over for a bit and went ahead and bought the special edition anyway. For me, the CD is the only extra that really matters. Best of all though, the english dub is actually pretty good. But I won’t be buying any more special editions for the series because I’m generally a cheapskate!^_^

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