The search for aliens, time travelers, and espers

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Suddenly I can feel Haruhi's pain. In today's episode of Real Life I spent over 2 hours driving around looking for the first DVD (Normal Edition, because I'm cheap). Perhaps the mass effect of Haruhiism was widely overrated by me; I expected normal retailers such as Target and Circuit City to carry it. Luckily, Fry's Electronics caters to the Japanophile niche.

So, how about the DVD itself, eh? Hit the jump (there's got to be one in every post, now. suckers).


The case could be worse; the first front cover features the shot of Haruhi dragging Kyon by the tie (some uniform North High has by the way, I'm glad American schools don't require 'pull here to choke' equipment) with the usual H superimposed in the background (set in what appears to be the SOS Brigade room?). The logo is pretty much the same as the Japanese with the vertical text, the swirly thing is on the 'O' in Of, and there's a little Haruhi silhouette (from the beginning of the ending credits) at the top of it to balance it out.

The back cover is horribly pastel, however. The little blurb features Kyon narrating general generic stuff about the weird girl named Haruhi, and the mysterious 3 other members of the strange SOS brigade. There's little pictures of awesome chibi Haruhi, 'You'll be right' OP credits Haruhi, Bunny Girl Haruhi, and oh yes, Yukiiiiiiiiiiiii (from the first episode, the introduction with the glasses fixing).

Right, right, but how about the content? I'm sure you've been glossing over all I what said. What's on the bloody DVD? That's what matters, of course.

We'll start with the extras first. There's a creditless opening and ending advertised on the box, although they may not be as advertised. The opening is actually from Ep. 00 - the Adventures of Mikuru Asahina opening. XD As much as I hate this song, it has an amazing ability to get stuck in one's head. The creditless ending actually is Hare Hare Yukai, although it's not the full dance version. There's some live action commercials and 'making of' for Haruhi, which are mildly amusing (and narrated by Yukiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii), some scary ASOS Brigade shorts, and Bandai anime ads. Lots of ads.

Not to mention, if you sit there and watch all the titles, it'll take you 2:45 to get to the title screen, whereupon you can nagivate to the extras section and watch...more ads. Yay.

The title menu is pretty slick, with a bunch of windows showing scenes from the episodes this disc contains; which, by the way, is The Asahina Mikurururururun Double Zero Special and the first 3 of the Melancholy Series. A lyricless version of Bouken Desho Desho plays in the background. It's so weird without lyrics, but it's good to feel familiar music.

Not much to comment on the dubs yet. From the 5 seconds of Ep. 00 I watched with the dub, I learned that 1) it's probably not too bad, and 2) there's no English cover of the Mahou Miracle Mikururururuuuuuuuun song, which would have been incredibly hilarious.

The subtitles are exactly the same style as the ones on my 20th-century Cardcaptor Sakura DVD's; color-coded, cheap-looking text (which, at least in Double Zero, covers up a lot of the action), which really bugs me. Sometimes I wonder why they can't switch to the slick fonts a lot of fansubbers use. Something similar to AFK's fonts would work wonders.

Now, to settle down and actually watch the anime, which is where I'll leave you off for tonight. It's my first time actually watching Double Zero (since it was too off-the-wall the first time). Perhaps impressions and Kanon-esque spoiler recaps will ensue at a later date.

-CCY