Unboxing: Cardcaptor Sakura – The Complete Series (Premium Edition Blu-ray) [USA]

It’s not often we cover NIS America Blu-ray releases, mainly because they are expensive and are not compatible with Region B Blu-ray Players; however when the studio announced that they would be releasing of ‘Complete Series’ set of Cardcaptor Sakura i could not help but get excited and pre-order it. I’m not usually a fan of these types of series, but Cardcaptor Sakura has always been a personal favourite of mine; eitherway the Blu-ray set has arrived and it’s now time to unbox it “Hoorah!”

Where to begin; well the Premium Edition of Cardcaptor Sakura contains the entire series (70 episodes) over 9 Blu-ray discs; each of which have been remastered in 1080p and left in their original 4:3 aspect ratio; but wait thats not all. This American release feature both the original Japanese Audio (with English subtitles) along with the rare Singapore/Asian Animax English Dub – a Dub which has ‘never’ been released outside of asian countires and as such makes this set ‘extra’ special. The discs also house a clean opening and closing animations as well as a wide selection of trailers for other NIS America releases.

In terms of phyical bonus content a premium artbook featuring 76 pages worth of content as well as a heavy duty chipboard artbox. The artbook itself is basically a ‘re-cap’ of every episode of the series as well as a selection of newly iullustrated images of Sakura; meanwhile the chipboard artbox contains the whole set nice and neat in a single package – although the contents do slide out rather easily.

The bad news of this set is obviously how it looks; and no i’m not referring to the visual quality of the series. For starters newer Cardcaptor Sakura logos and illustrations of Sakura are used all over the box and packaging; thus loosing its original ‘japanese’ feel and making it look more like a regular childs TV Show. The second annoying problem is that a werid-shaped DVD sized case that is used to house the discs; the case doesn’t bother me much but its the fact that the Blu-ray discs on the isnide of the case easily overlapp each other – thus making them easier to damage and scratch; which is not something you want from a set that costs more than a games console.

Anyway i have mixed opinions about this release; the contents are spot-on perfect (including the artbook and disc design) i just really dislike the packaging design choice and the fact that the original cardcaptor sakura wasn’t used. If you are a fan of Cardcaptor Sakura (and have a Region A Blu-ray Player) then owning this set (if you have the cash) is a must purchase; otherwise you’ll probably want to avoid it until a cheaper solution becomes available. Is it worth the money though? Well for me i say its a tad bit expensive for the overall packaging quality you receive.