Theatrical Feature Prince of Tennis Memorial Edition

Wow, I got this premium edition yesterday and I'm simply bowled over by what I'm getting. I'm extremely satisfied with the contents even though I paid so much for it.

First of all, I was SO SUPRISED to see a Hyotei handphone strap as one of the freebies!!! This is what the fans could buy at the screening of the movie and I never thought I could own one of this. Although I would have gone delirious with joy if I had got a Rikkai strap, I'm already jumping for joy at the sight of Hyotei's strap.

Secondly, the extremely refined and beautiful packaging of the box and the cases which hold the DVD! Well, I think it's quite difficult to get the DVD out of the packaging but the box's cover is simply cool. We have the faces of the Seigaku regulars and Ryoga on the main feature while on Atobe's feature, we have him, Oshitari and Mukahi on the front while Kabaji and some of the other schools' members are on the back. Why isn't Genichirou on the cover?! And in each case is a pretty thick booklet featuring a detailed explanation of the plot with pictures. There's also another booklet separate from the cases which has info on the movie on the whole plus interviews with some of the seiyuus.

Thirdly, the reflective board on the back of the box which shows Ryoma or Ryoga depending on the direction you view it from. They look so similar that it's quite hard to get a distinct view of the two. Somehow, I think Ryoga is the Ryoma a few years later and he really looks more like it. In fact, Konomi-sensei said that he had plans to put Ryoga into the manga but the anime beat him to it but Ryoga will appear in the manga in the near future. Maybe we will get to see who he really is.

Last but not least, the additional contents in the DVD itself. Well, the making clips differ since there's the premiere party and seiyuu meeting at the cinemas which are not in the single DVD editions I posted earlier. HOWEVER, the main highlight is the commentary by the seiyuus where you turn off the main track and hear their comments. I heard the double bucchou commentary on the Atobe feature by Okiayu Ryutaro-san and Suwabe Junichi-san and they were so funny! I'm going to watch the main feature which has two sets of comments i.e. by Aozu (Echizen, Fuji, Oishi and Tezuka) and Cap to Bin (Kaidou, Momoshiro, Kawamura, Inui and Kikumaru) before I make further comments.

I'm really glad that I got this special edition. Although it's extremely expensive, it's definitely worth it. ^__^

Futari no Samurai

I'm at a loss for words. Really.

It's extremely exaggerated especially that part when Tezuka Zone was at work. I know it's a magnificient trick but to the extent of an explosion on Earth seems to be overdone. And when the ship was sinking, what on earth are Ryoma and Ryoga thinking? Playing tennis while submerged in water? And why must Ryoma's clothes disintegrate and do a smash in that state? It is good for laughs and I do enjoy it but they could have toned down with regards to this aspect.

Ryoga seems like an older version of Ryoma and in the end, I still don't get to know what is his identity. I don't think Nanjirou has another son and he seems to be like a tennis student of Nanjirou who lived with his family for a while. And according to the childhood flashbacks, it seemed that he was on good terms with Ryoma. Besides, he was picked up by Sakurabuki to join the team to play fake matches so his family background needs more probing...

In the end, I'm not sure whether Atobe was the one who initiated the rescue operation since he found out that Sakurabuki is not a rich man. He's that resourceful to know those in the same social status...Sugoii ne, Atobe!

Generally, this main feature was fine but please, if they do another movie, maybe they can do something about the exaggerated storyline. I want to see more tennis scenes and the private lives of those characters...

Atobe kara no okuri mono ~ Kimi ni sasageru Tenipuri Matsuri

It's been some time since I updated the Tenipuri blog. Well, new found motivation since I received the movie DVDs yesterday. I didn't have time to watch the longer part about Seigaku and watched the Atobe short film first. I'm still waiting for the deluxe edition which I got from CD Japan. What is taking them so long?!

All I can say that it was hillarious at various points and it's truly a fan service feature where we see all characters appearing regardless of whether they speak. It was quite obvious to see that Atobe's motive for holding the event was for Kabaji. However, I thought that the girl he was eyeing would have been the girl of his dreams but who knows it turned out to be his elder sister who is getting married soon? ^__^ And Atobe actually got Kabaji's birthday wrong since he meant to hold the event on his birthday. Well, I do remember that Kabaji's birthday is in Jan and yet everyone was in summer wear so I was trying to reconcile these two contradicting facts. Until Atobe knew he got the wrong day, it was funny to see how he reacted to save himself face. However, that plane concept was so exaggerated. Is Atobe really that rich?!

Some of the other interesting points in the short feature film:

-Atobe saving Tezuka at the end of the race when the signboard fell down. Oh my god, are they trying to provide more material for the yaoi fans? Oh please...

-Sanada and Yukimura finally standing together in a place other than the hospital ^__^ Oh my Genichirou in a singlet...

-The haunted house scene where Yanagi was hanging upside down to scare Marui while Shinji was going on and on about being arranged to play a ghost in the well. And I think Yagyuu was scared stiff but still pretended to be fine so as to maintain his image.

-The game where they had a group of guys and girls with the ladies asking questions and picking the guy they liked best. It was such a big surprise to see Shishido winning all the votes and Sengoku dissed him by saying that the outcome was due to the system's problem and the computer did crash after that. Haha! Shinjou and Hanamura-sensei...those two are ayashii...

As what Suwabe Junichi-san says, this is something which all Tenipuri fans should enjoy since we get to see so many characters at one sitting.

By the way, this version's DVD has a series of stickers which looks like a film negative plus an insert on the story's plot. Inside, we have pictures of all the characters in the anime.

Will go home and watch the long feature film of Seigaku tonight...

Gekijouban Tenipuri DVD out in June!!!

This is really long-awaited news! I would have thought that the DVD would only be out in mid summer i.e. July or Aug but it turns out that it would be released in late June!!! However, this DVD is released by Shochiku and it's getting hard to choose what I want... The website doesn't update June DVD releases yet unlike Bandai which already has the picture for Vol 41 due in June.

First of all, there is the memorial box edition which has The First Game and Atobe's SP together with a booklet. There's no mention of the other goodies so I'm not sure whether it's worthwhile to get this version which costs a whooping 9240 yen! And if that box is going to be real bulky, I'm going to get charged quite a bit for the shipping.

On the other end, Shochiku is releasing the two parts of the movie in two separate DVDs which would only cost less than 6000 yen together. Again, no mention of the goodies or specials other than it comes in digipak (easy to store). Aargh, why can't they release more details on the items sooner as I really want to place my order ASAP?! I have a hunch that the box edition should contain more than a booklet for the extra 3000 plus yen it's charging as compared to the individual versions but as to whether it's worth paying so much, I really need more details to judge.

June's going to be a month when I'm going broke. Besides the usual Bandai DVD release, now comes the movie... Have to save up and work harder to pay for that...