Fan Disc: The Best and the Brightest Remix

Received the DVD on Saturday even though I was expecting it earlier. I think the delivery was delayed due to the public holiday in Japan on 23 Dec. Anyway, this is the final DVD release of the year under the Tenipuri series and I'm happy to get it before Christmas. I was rather worried about this delivery dragging beyond the long weekend but my worries were unfounded. Well, the title of this DVD is The Best and Brightest so this is an apt description for the Senbatsu team members who are the cream of the crop. Personally, I think that with the absence of Yukimura, Tezuka and Tachibana, the team is far from complete but looking at the candidates available for selection, I can't deny that these 8 guys are indeed the best in one way or another. The bulk of this DVD consists of highlights from the practice matches during the Senbatsu Camp and the US-Japan friendly matches. The Sanada-Echizen match from the Kantou Tournament wasn't included in the previous fan disc released during Feb so made its way into this title. For the Camp, the focus was on 3 doubles matches but I don't understand why they didn't include the Atobe-Sanada match which was rather exciting. Maybe it's because that match was unfinished? As for the friendly matches, only 3 sets were featured i.e. Doubles 2 (Atobe & Sanada), Singles 3 (Sengoku) and Singles 1 (Kirihara/Echizen). Thank goodness they didn't leave out Kirihara in Singles 1 or people would grumble about them favouring Echizen just because he's the lead. I didn't have time to watch every single match so I only chose the three doubles matches in the Camp and Atobe & Sanada's Hametsu e no Tango match to watch. No matter how many times I watch the collaboration between those two captains, I get the kick seeing them cooperating with each other despite being at "loggerheads". I think they appreciate each other's talents deep down but they are not the type to praise their rivals. ^__^ Besides, Sanada dislikes Atobe's desire to attract attention while Atobe feels that Sanada is too boring.

The special contents for this fan disc would be the Tezuka feature in conjunction with his recovery and return to Seigaku. The scenes include those from the time he was having a chat with Fuji in the locker room after the latter had a match with Echizen in the rain until the part when he finally announced his return to the team. Wow, it is great to see Tezuka basking in the limelight after being MIA for a long time and this should satisfy all Tezuka fans including me! Other than that, the DVD also includes ending images of each episode in the anime whereby some of them were not shown because 2 episodes were shown at one go. There is this particular image of Atobe leading his Hyotei army for Episode 177 which was so hillarious. Since Episode 177 was shown with Episode 178, no wonder I did not get to see this.

Something worth mentioning is the Seigaku seiyuu chat session where they talked about the chibi characters in the Tenipuri family. Onosaka-san was being teased for having to play the female version of Momo i.e. Momoko while Kiyasu-san mentioned that it was tough to say fshuu all the time since Kaidou was a baby. Takahashi-san also said that he was in a similar situation like Kiyasu-san because Eiji became the cat Kikumaru. At the end of the chat, there was a compilation of clips from various chibi character episodes AND it ended with Sanada pushing Yukimura on a wheelchair along a corridor where Ryoma and Momo bumped into them. This caused Yukimura to be flung from the wheelchair and Sanada held him while shouting his name. This scene was so funny and provided a humourous ending to the compilation.

I'll scan the poster and the three free photos given in the first press on another day.