Let’s see if I can do this more than two weeks in a row this year! Note, I’ve not seen any of these DVDs, I am solely commenting based on my experience with the series, the price, and the staff of the series. Mainly the price.
It’s all single discs of TV shows this week. So that means none of the following is worth buying. I’m sorry, anime industry, you need to catch up with the rest of home video market.
Tsubasa 3: Spectres Of Legend
It’s the recent CLAMP series that wasn’t xxxHolic, and thus not as interesting from an animation POV.
Paniponi Dash: Vol.4
Horrible “comedy” series from SHAFT, the greatest animation studio yet to make anything worthwhile.
Utawarerumono: Vol.4
A series that ranks high on the “what were ADV thinking when they licensed this” list.
School Rumble: Vol.1
Another high school comedy. What little I’ve seen, I found bland. Your mileage may vary.
Shadow Skill: Vol.5
Hmm, this is £7.99 on play.com, almost putting it into a price range I could recommend. Almost, but not quite. Get it down to £5.99 and we might be talking.
A friend actually got me School Rumble: Vol.1 for my birthday since he knew I was a huge fan. The dubs are awful (of course) and the subtitles are lackadaisical. They’ll translate “shimatta” as “rats!” for example, and without the notes that many loving independent subbing groups will provide, many jokes and references are lost on the viewer.
It’s a symptom, I think, of the corporate machine running these shows through post-production without spending some TLC on them. They aren’t simple American cartoons for children, and the sooner FUNimation and friends realize this the better the reception Japanese animation receive.
But anyway, School Rumble has always been my favorite comedy / romance anime. I suggest you give it another go even though it’s probably slightly below your maturity threshold. It does start slow, and the second season is much better than the first.