My name is Kestrel Swift, and I go by GingaDaiuchuu on the forums. I’m obviously a big anime fan, and being obsessed with knowing about the best anime out there, I’ve managed to find the best of the best, which I am very happy about. I’ve been very active on the forums since the site’s public debut, and I was lucky enough to be brought onboard as a reviewer at the beginning of this past season, which is just now coming to a close. I reviewed three series from it, Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!, Blast of Tempest, and Robotics;Notes, the latter two of which will continue through the next season. I’m very grateful for what I’ve been able to do this year, and doing this reflection has reminded me how great a year it was for US anime releases as well.
Best Anime DVD/BD Of 2012
1) Clannad After Story: Complete Collection (Blu-ray) – As someone who appreciates “premium” releases and all the extra things that can go into making a release special, it seems a little strange to choose a release that’s about as barebones as you can get as the best of 2012. However, you can’t discount the importance of the content itself, the real reason we have for picking up these products, and this year brought us the best content of its kind in this release. Sure, the same basic content has been released multiple times in previous years, first in sub-only half-season sets, then in a bilingual complete collection, but along with also including the dub from the latter release, this is the first time this content has been available on Blu-ray. The first season was released on Blu-ray late last year, having followed the same release pattern shortly before After Story, but when I, or almost anyone I would assume, say that Clannad is the best anime ever, it means Clannad After Story is the best anime ever. As good as the first season is, this one completely blows it out of the water, and even gives it significantly more importance, making my re-watches of the first season after having seen After Story far more impactful, but still not even coming close to reaching the level of this amazing second season.
Fortunately for the sake of this Blu-ray, it also benefits from the HD treatment even more than its predecessor, already a mighty impressive specimen at half a decade old, both in terms of video and audio quality. Along with constantly gorgeous visuals that rival the best TV animation even these years later, the Blu-ray boasts lossless 5.1 HD audio tracks for each language, making the brilliant use of music even more powerful regardless of your language preference. And yes, the release is quite barebones as per Sentai’s standard. But that’s not to say it’s a pain to look at. The cover retains one of the most beautiful pieces of anime art that was used for the corresponding DVD set, and the spine is changed from cute to adorable, and sitting it next to the first season’s Blu-ray on a shelf makes for an absolutely perfect image of the story’s progression. And of course, thanks probably to Sentai smartening up a bit but perhaps simply due to the fact that there aren’t any Blu-ray cases of the like, we don’t have to deal with the terrible STACKpak cases that the DVD sets had. The extras are limited, and the single fault I found with the set was Sentai’s practice of including the clean openings and endings on the first disc of their releases (something they fortunately seem to have changed as of late, judging from the UN-GO Blu-ray I’m currently watching), which made for the final scene of an episode on the last disc being present on the first.
However, the one extra apart from the bare minimum (not that the regular opening and, to a lesser extent, ending are anything short of spectacular) is the commentary from the English voice actors for the main pair of the series, which was in the DVD set as well. This is one of the best commentary tracks I’ve ever listened to because, faced with one of the most moving episodes in the history of anime, the two actors do not go to the kind of small talk that is usual for these kinds of commentaries, but instead are completely absorbed in the magic of the story, speaking of its events and merits with as much sincerity as the characters in which they’ve lent their voices to for this emotional roller coaster of an anime series. I could go on forever about the show itself, but that’s not exactly my job here. I would recommend checking out Chris’s review of this release if you haven’t already, as his grades are spot-on with how I feel. In fact, despite him awarding it with a perfect A+ score, my only differences in opinion from his are that I had an even more positive reaction to the few things he took issue with, each of them so minor that they couldn’t even pull the final grade down any lower than the absolute highest point it could reach. So barebones or not, this is the best anime release of 2012, and setting aside such issues as the lack of extravagant packaging or extras, either physical or on-disc, I’m confident in saying that it is, because of the absolute perfect in every other aspect, the best anime release ever.
2) Steins;Gate, Part 1 (Blu-ray / DVD Combo LE) and Steins;Gate, Part 2 (Blu-ray / DVD Combo) – The highlight of my anime fandom in recent days has been the release of the second half of the series, which as of this writing was less than a week ago. At this point, Chris hasn’t even posted his review of it yet, but I’m very excited for it, because with his love of the series and with the second half being by far the superior of the two, I can’t imagine it not getting great grades all around. I’m obviously very happy with the US anime releases of 2012, because this anime ranks as my #3. In fact, all of my top 3 were released on Blu-ray in the US this year, but as my #2, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, merely received re-releases with nothing new, I had no reason to include that on this list. This, however, only aired last year, and was fortunately licensed during that time, managing to be released in its entirety just a couple of weeks before the next year began. Part 2 may be where the real meat of the story is at, but Part 1, as per FUNimation’s standards, is technically the more impressive release, with a magnificent double-wide chipboard artbox and, when pre-ordered from Right Stuf (as this unendorsed fan insists that everyone should for any release not from NISA), came with a perfect reproduction of the lab member badge from the series, an excellent little extra that I keep in the first set’s “filler box” rather than tossing it in favor of storing the two halves in the same box. This also seemed to just barely escape Kadokawa’s limited freeze on US Blu-rays, which made me indescribably happy to find out. To counteract the positives of the better-than-average packaging and the possibility of a nice physical extra, there are the negatives of some minor banding issues in dark scenes and a dub that could never compare to the Japanese track. This serves as a balancing act to keep the competition between this and Clannad After Story to the quality of the anime itself.
3) anohana – The Flower We Saw That Day: Complete Series Premium Edition (BD/DVD Combo) – It may not have the power to make people cry like Clannad After Story does, but anohana definitely tries its best. This anime-original title aired for a brief 11 episodes on the noitaminA block in the spring of last year and really made an impression. I’m a big fan of dubs, so whenever NISA licenses something, I feel a little disappointed in the fact that they don’t include dubs, but this is nearly always outweighed by the presentation of the product itself. These premium editions come in enormous and incredible boxes that are a sight to behold and the only fault I can find in them is the difficulty in finding places to store such massive slabs of beauty. The size of the boxes is to make room for the amazingly equally enormous artbooks stored within, some of the nicest physical extras we get on a regular basis these days, especially at price points that aren’t terribly oppressive. Pre-ordering directly from NISA’s store for their releases gets you an additional physical extra for each premium release (hence why I mentioned that they’re the only releases that aren’t best to pre-order from Right Stuf), and although I’m a sucker for anything more than the bare minimum, especially when it means even more physical extras, this little chunk of plastic is, while displayed proudly on my shelf with others, one of the more useless ones out there. Although it will never receive a dub and doesn’t really have any extras, the series is all here on both formats, and it’s a fantastic self-contained story that makes this one box the best of the completely standalone releases of the year.
4) Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Vol.1 (Blu-ray / DVD Combo LE), Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Vol.2 (Blu-ray / DVD Combo LE), Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Vol.3 (Blu-ray / DVD Combo LE) – These sets, on the other hand, aren’t nearly as tall as the NISA premium editions, or even much taller than any standard release, and there’s not even any chipboard. And yet, you have to pay $225 (at the “sale” price) to get the limited editions of this release family, even though the series is just as short as the comparatively extremely cheap anohana behemoth. However, I can’t recommend getting any version other than this, because, while I wouldn’t recommend the DVD at all due to the anime’s mind-blowing visuals, these sets are, if you have the money for them, really unique products that are loaded with as much extra material we almost never get as could possibly be stuffed inside each of these boxes. Pre-ordering all of these definitely helped to soften the blow as the charges were staggered by a few months, but even still, the enjoyment to be had from these releases can last forever, while the thoughts of their cost won’t. Plus they’re limited, so before long they’ll be going for a lot more than $225. Although chipboard is always nice, I actually really like the soft material the boxes are made out of, and they seem to be sufficiently sturdy as well. The inclusion of all three soundtrack CDs is greatly appreciated as one of the most powerful facets of the series, and there are lots of nice images and supplementary material included in the box to be enjoyed with one of the most creative and important anime in years.
5) Natsume’s Book of Friends: Seasons 1 & 2 Premium Edition – The release configuration for this particular product was surprising when it was announced, and that’s the case even more now that future installments have been announced. These two seasons were both released together, something that basically never happens for the initial release of an anime, and sadly on DVD only. However, the third season has now been announced as not only being released on its own despite NISA having licensed the fourth season along with the previous three, but also as a Blu-ray and DVD combo pack. The lack of any HD option for these first two seasons is greatly missed, and the series only gets better with each season, but that’s not to say that this release isn’t still one of the best of the year. As mentioned before, NISA’s premium boxes are always amazing, and along with the gorgeous artwork (although the manga style used for it isn’t quite as nice as the anime designs), the box has a really nice texture added that shows NISA is making an even greater effort to make a high-quality product for their consumers. The artbook inside is the standard practice but cleverly modeled after the eponymous Book of Friends, and the optional pre-order bonus exclusive to NISA’s store is an equally nice cloth bag with images of the cat-like sidekick character of the series. Between the advancement in quality and the inclusion of Blu-ray, I’m looking forward to the future seasons even more, but getting 26 episodes in one of these giant premium boxes is a special treat in its own right, so I definitely appreciate that.
Honorable Mentions: bunny drop: Complete Series Premium Edition (Blu-ray / DVD Combo), One Piece: Season 4 Releases
