(Someone, really, really, REALLY liked this series!)
When US distributor Sentai Filmworks gets the urge to go to town on their releases, they go full throttle apparently. When I posted pictures earlier this year of their lavish
Knights of Sidonia release, in several forums I got the reply: "Very good set, but have you seen their release of
Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions?"
Ehm... no? The series itself wasn't high on my radar so it kind of slipped past me. And then yet again someone recently told me "
Sidonia was great, second-best anime set of the year after
Chunibyo!"
OK, them's fighting words. So when I came upon a discounted set of
Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions, I snatched it up and WHOA... this is indeed a spectacularly pimped edition. Normally I don't cover older releases in these feature columns, but hey, it's still a 2015 title,
The series itself is also quite a bit better than I feared, and far from the "moe" fan-servicing dross even its packaging seems to sell it as. It's all high school hi-jinks with a hint of harem, and it deals with the interesting subject of the "Chinibyo": youngsters who believe themselves to be able of magic (or think they have superpowers), and who form the exuberant opposite of the better-known socially withdrawn people who are called the "Hikikomori".
Still, I'm puzzled why
Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions got this stellar treatment, because it's hardly a "classic for the ages", but I'm not complaining either. It's just that I can think of many other series which I'd prefer to have such a splendid edition of...
And splendid it is. Therefore, here is a gallery of shots. Click on the edge of the pictures to scroll through them, or at the center of each to see a bigger version.
And here it is: a big, BIG box. Quite possibly the thickest box I have for a series with a mere 12 episodes (and one OVA).
It's a sturdy hard-cardboard box, with ample use of holographic foil.
What holographic foil?
THIS holographic foil. All embellishments and most of the texts will rainbow out if you put enough light on them.
And the box is well-stacked, with two multi-disc amarays, a hardcover book, and a smaller box which holds the physical extras
All contents on display. The series is there on Blu-ray (two-disc) and DVD (three-disc).
The inner box is chock-full of goodies.
There are cards of all kinds: one-sided, two-sided, holographic, lenticular...
There are stickers, a set of bookmarks, a pendant on a wallet chain, a key-chain figurine with reversible face... oh yeah, and a cosplay eye patch.
All contents opened and displayed. I had to move furniture to get it all in one picture.
The best physical extra isn't actually in the goodies-box: this is a hardcover book of over 150 pages, and it is a VERY good one, a treasure (see next picture)
There are sketches, embellishments, interviews with the series' creators, explanations, a making-of... this is excellent, excellent stuff, and probably the must-have item for avid fans of the series.
A closer look at the wallet chain and the key-chain figurine. That figurine is actually fun to fiddle with, as you can change its face and form a bit.
And here is the cosplay eye patch, which is the laugh-out-loud funny item in this set. It is reversible too, showing that eerie yellow contact lens the character is using.
The end!
Silly childish bathing-suit shenanigans aside, this is a spectacular edition for a fun little series, and it will be interesting to see if Sentai Filmworks will top this in the future.