K-ON! 7inch Vinyl “Donuts” BOX

So, that box set of vinyl singles from season 1? I bought it. I’m not going to do a full review of it or anything (here’s a short one: It’s very nice), but I will show off a bunch of photos.

Happy Birthday Mugi!!

Yes, it’s the birthday of who else but Tsumugi Kotobuki, Ho-kago Tea Time’s beloved keyboard player and supplier of beach house training camps. She turns [fictional number of] years old, and though she’s fictional and thus unable to celebrate her own birthday that doesn’t mean her fans can’t. Don’t get too drunk, my friends, it’s a weekday after all.

CD review: “K-On! Character Image Song Series” part 2: Ritsu, Tsumugi & Azusa

The second batch of K-On! character singles were released in late August of 2009. The first wave had seen the release of Yui and Mio’s singles, and this second wave upped the simultaneous CD release count to three, with the Ritsu, Tsumugi and Azusa singles all coming out at once.

If you read the first part of this particular review series, you may remember that I’m not particularly fond of anime character image songs in general (if you missed it, you can read my pretentious ramblings here) but came to the conclusion that the first two K-On! character singles had several strong points. The question is, would this continue with these next three outings?

K-On! manga US vs. JP review and comparison (vol. 4)

The fourth and final (for now, at least) volume of Yen Press’ English version of the original K-On! manga has arrived! So is it good, or does it suck shimapan? And how does it compare to the Japanese edition? Let’s have a look and find out!

Watching K-On! Episode 5 – “Adviser!”

Upon learning that they are not recognized by the school as an official club, the club members attempt to recruit Sawako as a faculty adviser. Meanwhile, their upcoming live performance at the school's culture festival draws close…

K-On! Blu-Ray US vs. JP review and comparison (vol 3)

The third volume of Bandai Entertainment’s North American K-On! release is here, which means it’s time to have a look and see how it fares in comparison to the original Japanese Blu-Ray discs. The episodes on this volume are culled from two of the Japanese discs, so I’ll be looking at both of those before moving on to the Bandai version.

The fifth Japanese volume comes in the usual pink Blu-Ray case and contains two episodes, #9 “New Club Member!” and #10 “Training Camp Again!”. These episodes concern themselves primarily with the introduction and gradual integration into the Light Music Club of new member Azusa Nakano, or “Azu-nyan” as she is soon nicknamed by Yui. The opening sequence has been updated to include footage of the newcomer, and a second guitar has been subtly added to “Cagayake!GIRLS” to indicate her part in the band. Nice touch.

At this point, I’d like to bring up the fact that the textless version of the first opening (sans Azusa) was included as a bonus feature on the Japanese volume 4 BD, something I neglected to mention in my review. Just another feature missing from the US release…

Speaking of bonus features, though – what does this volume have to offer? Well, for starters; there’s another four page character bio, this time about Mio. The Mio theme continues with this volume’s guitar pick (Mio depicted on one side, the K-On! logo on the other), another piece of “Fuwa Fuwa Time” sheet music with Mio’s scribbles on it, and the cover reverse features her as well.

Breaking with the Mio theme, however, is the Azusa paper doll (which makes sense, as Mio’s paper doll was included in volume 3), the cat ear sticker and the disc art, which features Mugi feasting on a delicious snack.

In terms of on-disc extras, there are the usual two audio commentaries per episode, this time with Ayana Taketatsu permanently joining the cast commentary. The Uraon! short this time is called “Deserted Island” and has the Light Music Club stranded on a… deserted island, apparently for real.

Moving on to volume 6; this volume again features two episodes, but only one of them – #11 “Crisis!” is included on Bandai’s volume 3, leaving episode 12 for the future fourth and final volume.

The cover reverse this time features Mugi, but the physical extras otherwise don’t have a specific character theme. The bio this time is for Azusa, the guitar pick features Ui and the “Fuwa Fuwa Time” sheet is Mugi’s. There is no new paper doll, but maid outfits for each of the five paper dolls included in previous volumes (does anyone actually use those for anything?). Finally, in honor of the Light Music Club’s band finally being named in this volume, there’s a sticker with that name on it.

Oddly, it is spelled “Houkago Tea Time” here, which – while not technically incorrect – is not how the name is usually romanized on official merchandise. On CD singles and other relevant products, the name has always been spelled “Ho-kago Tea Time”, which is why I will be using that name (and not the other spelling, or any variation of “After School Tea Time” as the English versions call it – although the original manga occasionally references that name), or just HTT.

Moving on, the disc art features Azusa enjoying a snack with her new “name” on it. Bonus materials include cast commentary and staff commentary, as usual, and an Uraon! short in which the club members imagine each other as animals. Yeah.

As always, the Japanese Blu-Ray discs feature each episode in glorious looking AVC encoded 1080p with lossless linear PCM stereo audio. No complaints there.

Now then – let’s look at the Bandai release, which contains three episodes instead of the usual four and comes at a slightly reduced price because of it.

The cover is taken from the Japanese volume 6, which is fine, although I personally would have preferred it if they had gone with the volume 5 cover (if only because that back-reference in a later episode will now be lost on American viewers if and when season 2 eventually gets a US release). That’s a minor point, though, and not a legitimate complaint.

As usual, there is nothing in terms of physical extras, nor is there anything else inside the cover besides the Blu-Ray disc itself. The disc art continues the instruments trend from previous US volumes, with Ritsu’s drum kit on display this time.

The main menu screen features clips from the three episodes contained on the disc, accompanied by the usual piece of music. The episodes themselves are presented in glorious looking AVC encoded 1080p, but with lossy Dolby Digital 192 kbps audio for both the original Japanese track and the English dub. Speaking of which; some may feel relieved to know that the English dialogue – both in the dub and in the subtitles – retain the name “Azu-nyan” rather than change it to “Azu-meow” as the English version of the manga did.

Bonus features include a six minute interview with the Cassandra Lee, the English voice of Ritsu, in which she is asked those typical boring questions to which no interesting answers exist (I don’t mean to be a jerk, but honestly; why do they think I have any interest in knowing the name of Cassandra Lee’s best friend?!) as well as a frankly terrible English version of “My Love is a Stapler” (aka. “Watashi no Koi wa Hotchkiss”).

There’s also the usual trailers for other Bandai releases, the same ones as on previous volumes. Normally I’d say these don’t count as bonus features but in all honesty I’d rather watch the trailer for “The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya” for the umpteenth time than Bandai’s original K-On! extras. If only they’d include at least some of the bonus features from the Japanese discs… Something, anything. Oh well…

On the other hand, extra features are just that; extra. The episodes themselves are obviously the reason to buy this Blu-Ray, and the episodes themselves look great and sound decent. With three out of four volumes out now, there is only the fourth and final volume to wait for before the first season of K-On! is complete.

Finally; here are some screenshot comparisons between the Japanese Blu-Ray and the US version (Japanese screens first, US screens under). Can you see a difference?

K-On! Blu-Ray US vs. JP review and comparison (vol 2)

So, let’s have a look at the second volume of Bandai’s North American release of K-On!. As with the first volume, I’ll be comparing it to the Japanese versions, but I’ll say this up front: If you’ve seen Volume 1, then you should know what to expect from Volume 2 in terms of quality and extras.

The cover picture is taken from the Japanese volume 2, although the episodes on the disc do not correspond to that release. It doesn’t really matter, though, as the picture is not really relevant to any specific episodes.

The disc art continues the instruments theme from the previous disc, and features a picture of Mio’s bass. Again, there is nothing else to be found inside the case other than the Blu-Ray disc itself.

The disc opens again with the standard FBI piracy warning and the Bandai logo. Not skippable, but fast forwarding works if you’re impatient. The menu screen is much like the first, with the same music and visual style. The featured clips, however, are new ones from the episodes contained on this disc, that is; episodes numbers five through eight.

Audio is still lossy Dolby Digital 192 Kbps, but the video looks very good for the most part. There were a few shots with obvious and annoying color banding, but since this is present on the Japanese version as well, I can only assume it is a flaw inherent in the material itself and not a problem with the video encoding on either Blu-Ray release.

I watched the video with subtitles on, and the English dialogue is quite good in my opinion. I got distracted at one point, however, when Ritsu addresses Mugi as “Mugi” (like always), and the subtitles have her say “Tsumugi” instead – and then “Mugi-chan” about a second later. Another thing I found a bit odd was that the title of the song, “Fuwa Fuwa Time” is left untranslated yet when episode eight comes along and Ritsu reads the set list, the other three songs all get English titles (“Curry, Then Rice”, “My Love is a Stapler” and “Brush Pen, Ballpoint Pen”). Not that I have a problem with it, necessarily, I was more annoyed that the (green) subtitles of Stapler’s lyrics remain on top of the screen throughout the song rather than at the bottom. The subtitles used when playing the dub don’t have this problem, as there aren’t any dialogue subtitles with which to compete for space.

Not surprisingly, none of the Japanese bonus materials have been carried over. Which means, any extras on here will have been original Bandai productions and of interest to dub fans only. We get a seven minute interview with Cristina Vee, who does the English voice for Mio. As with the Stephanie Sheh interview on Vol. 1, it begins with the typical predictable questions (“How do you resemble your character,” etc.) but eventually transitions to other topics.

The other extra is an English dubbed version of “Fuwa Fuwa Time”. A welcome treat for dub fans, I’m sure, as the songs are left in their original Japanese performed by the original voice cast within the episodes themselves (other than scenes where the girls practice in the club room, in which the American voice cast sing their lines in Japanese… weird). It’s listed as a “music video” so I was expecting it to be the music video style performance from the episode, just dubbed, but instead it’s a video pieced together from random clips from all eight episodes released thus far. It runs for a little over a minute, so obviously it’s not the full song but rather the shortened version used in the episode.

In order to compare this release to the Japanese one, we need to look at both the third and the fourth Japanese volume as they only contain two episodes per disc. Episodes five (“Adviser!”) and six (“School Festival!”) are found on Vol. 3:

Unlike the blank inside of the US cover, the third Japanese volume features drawings of Sawako. The disc art features her munching on a snack.



Don't eat it! Can't you read?

Aside from the Blu-Ray, we are given a four-page Sawako Yamanaka biography, a black guitar pick with the K-On! logo on one side and Sawako’s face on the other, a Death Devil sticker, a Mio paper doll and what appears to be sheet music for “Fuwa Fuwa Time” with scribbles all over it. Presumably, it’s supposed to belong to one of the K-On! girls.

The Blu-Ray, as usual, features lossless PCM audio, Japanese subtitles, two audio commentaries per episode and another “Uraon!” episode. This one is called “Mio’s Panties” and revolves around, well, Mio’s panties.

Episodes 7 (“Christmas!”) and 8 (“Freshmen Reception!”) are part of Volume 4:

Ui is the subject of this volume’s disc art and the inside of the cover. Physical extras include a Tsumugi bio, Mugi pick, Mugi paper doll, a sticker with the instrument symbols from the opening sequence, another scribbled-on piece of “Fuwa Fuwa Time” sheet music and a printed promo for the K-On! Desktop Accessories.

Specs are the same as previous volumes. The “Uraon!”  this time is called “Chibi Yui-chan” and has Ui reminiscing about her sister’s childhood.

As I mentioned in the Volume 1 comparison, the Japanese Blu-Ray discs are ridiculously expensive. Keeping that in mind, it makes sense they’d have more to offer in terms of extras than the US release. It’s disappointing that the latter doesn’t get the same quality audio, though, but at least with this volume there is no music replacement to put up with. As for video quality, here are some comparison shots. Japanese screenshot on top, US screenshot below.

 

"Hey! That's not food!"





"Must... kill... demon!"





The crowd turns angry when it becomes apparent there won't be any fanservice.



 

"See this? This is the color a Blu-Ray case is SUPPOSED to have!"





It's not your imagination... it really is staring into your soul.

And there you have it!