K-On! (season 1) JP Blu-Ray box coming… also, I’m not dead

TBS’ official K-ON! website announced today the upcoming release of a complete first season Blu-Ray box set for the fifth anniversary of the TV anime. Per ultimatemegax’ translation, it’s sounding like quite the interesting release indeed:

Announced today, the first season of K-On! will be released in a BD-Box on 2014/03/05 for 27,300 yen (w/tax)/ 26,000 yen (w/o tax) covering the first season.

Included in this BD-Box are all 14 episodes on four BDs along with textless openings, textless ending, all 7 Ura-On! episodes, a Toyosaki Aki interview from the AniChannel K-On! feature, and commercial collection. Audio features include a bonus newly made Raji-On! special audio CD, old cast/staff commentaries, and new audio commentaries (Naoko's Room on episodes 8-12 with guests Toyosaki Aki, Yoko Hikasa, Satomi Satou, Minako Kotobuki, and Ayana Taketatsu.

The sets includes a booklet (featuring episode summaries, character designs, production designs, cast/staff messages, etc), 9 postcards (2 key visuals and 7 cover arts), and a special calendar. The 5 discs will have new disc art and fit in a newly drawn 5-side digipak inside a newly drawn 3-sided box.

The set includes BOTH Japanese and ENGLISH subtitles for the main story, Ura-On! episodes, and the Toyosaki Aki interview.

Well – I’m excited. Not only does it appear this release will include all the (on-disc) extras from the single volumes, there’s also going to be some new stuff. And English subtitles. And for a damn good price, too (as far as Japanese anime releases go). Just when I thought I owned enough copies of season 1, sigh…

In other news, guess who hasn’t K-ON! blogged in over eight months? Me, that’s who!! I won’t bother with excuses, nor can I say for sure that I’ll be posting with any great frequency from now on (what can I say? My attention is focused elsewhere these days), but I’ll try to check in a bit more often.

Upcoming releases

So, I used to post these lists of upcoming K-ON! stuff each month, figuring it was a good way of keeping track of interesting releases. After the English language release of season 2, there hasn’t been much point in keeping it going, but now there’s some interesting stuff on the horizon again…

March 20^th – “K-ON! MUSIC HISTORY'S BOX” CD box set (JP)

May 20^th  – “K-ON! Season 2 Part 1” DVD (UK)

May 21^st – “K-ON! The Movie” DVD/Blu-Ray (US)

July 23^rd – “K-ON! College” manga (US)

October 29^th – “K-ON! High School” manga (US)

K-ON! MUSIC HISTORY'S BOX track listing

The complete track list for the upcoming CD box set has been revealed, and as expected it looks like quite an amazing collection of music from the entire anime franchise. With the exception of instrumental tracks, almost everything that has been previously available on albums and singles is included here – as well as a few tracks that haven’t.

Watching K-On!! Episode 3 – “Drummer!”

Ritsu, frustrated with never getting time in the spotlight, announces to her fellow club members that she is sick of the drums.

More K-ON! Movie news

Several new bits of information have come out over the last couple of days since Sentai announced the K-ON! Movie license, not the least of which is the announcement of the release date: May 21^st will see the release of the movie on Blu-Ray and DVD, with SRPs at $39.98 and $29.98, respectively. Bonus features will include: Interviews, K-ON's Anniversary, 1-2-3 K-ON!, Live Event, K-ON in London, trailer, teaser, and clean opening/closing animation. The (possibly not final) cover has surfaced as well, based on the Japanese regular edition’s cover. Credit goes to the always-on-top-of-things WTK.

In related news, Manga Entertainment announced in their most recent podcast their license of the movie for the UK market, and their intention to release it on DVD and Blu-Ray later this year. They also implied that they are likely to license season 2 of the TV anime. No word on whether UK fans can expect a Blu-Ray release of the series.