A perfect example of pleasure and pain

No toys arrived for me this week, but I did get some DVDs and Blu-rays.


Monday (last week), HMV.com, I received Eden of the East The King of Eden The Motion Picture.

Here's the first of my Eden of the East DVD purchases that I made when I saw HMV selling the series for £5.99. To me that was a bloody good deal for a series I've heard about but never actually seen, so I decided to buy both that and this movie along with it.


Tuesday (last week), Amazon.co.uk, I received...

• Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance Collector's Edition
• The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 Collection

If I had the option of playing Blu-rays sooner, this is the the version of Evangelion 2.22 I would have bought to begin with as it contains the same DVD I got a couple of weeks ago (hell, this is pretty similar to what happened when Evangelion 1.11 was released last year).

I know I'm still getting used to this whole Blu-ray deal, but even I can tell when a film looks visually stunning in HD (and this is certainly one of those films). You could say it has tempted me into possibly getting the first film again on Blu-ray at some point (if HMV still have their Collector's Edition version of it, I'd be very interested in that one).

As for the second season of Haruhi all I can say is I must be fucking crazy for buying it. If you're asking yourself why, you're possibly one of the lucky few who has yet to experience the pain and misery that is Endless Eight. I don't hate the story behind it, I just hate the fact they dragged this shit out for eight fucking episodes! And considering I first watched these new episodes as they were being aired in Japan that torture lasted for eight fucking weeks!

I think the only saving graces of this box set are the Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody episode (cos it ties into The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie for one thing) and The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya and Nyoron! Churuya-san mini-episodes on the bonus disc (even though I feel they cheaped out by only putting half of both on it). I actually find Haruhi-chan more enjoyable to watch than the second season itself (seeing Nagato play visual novels is awesome)!


Friday, HMV.com, I received Eden of the East The Complete Series.

Like I said above, I saw this series going for £5.99 and bought it.

What better way to get started on Blu-ray than with Akira?

Some of my arrivals this week are Blu-ray related as this is first opportunity I've had to actually watch anything on that format thanks to my new PC (it might not be the fanciest method around, but it's all I've got for now).


Tuesday (last week), Amazon.co.uk, I received Summer Wars / The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

I had no intention of getting these movies on Blu-ray as I already own the DVD releases of both, but if you saw Amazon selling this double pack for as little as £7.47 you'd be forgiven for succumbing to the urge of purchasing it there and then without thinking twice about it.


Wednesday, Amazon.co.uk, I received...

• Gurren Lagann Complete Collection
• Akira The Collector's Edition
  

I've wanted to own Gurren Lagann on DVD for a long time, but I was not prepared to splash out roughly £75 for the three box sets that were originally available. Hence why I bided my time for the inevitable Anime Legends release that was more agreeable to the wallet.

Akira is a film I first came across when I was still at school and was able to see roughly half of it when some of the older kids happened to watch it one evening. But when it came to seeing the of it I was told no cos it was a 15 which annoyed me as I was really getting into it.

As the years went on I was finally able to get it on DVD for myself (the version I had was the one with both the original and rerecorded English dubs). However, I seem to have misplaced it somewhere since then and that's where this version comes in. I knew they were doing an HD remaster of Akira, but I had little interest in it until the new PC came and thought "why not test it out with that?" and proceeded to order the Collector's Edition (it was the same price as the standard Blu-ray release and included a booklet, DVD and steelbook case to sweeten the deal).