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His and Her Circumstances Complete Collection

His and Her Circumstances Complete Collection is a five-disc DVD box set that include all 26 episodes of the series. The set is packaged in a single-disc DVD box; however, two DVDs are in the inside of the front of the box, two DVDs are on a flap in the middle, and one DVD is on the inside back of the box. The first disc has six episodes and bonus features, while the other four discs have five episodes and bonus features. It’s pretty obvious that this set took the five single DVDs that were originally released and put them together into one package. The episodes are available with Japanese audio with English subtitles and with English audio.

Yukino Miyazawa is a high school freshman who strives to be perfect and wants to always be the center of attention at school. Unknown to her classmates, Yukino is spoiled, a slob, and obsessively studies to maintain her grades when she’s at home. While she was always at the top of her class in middle school, she finds herself knocked down a peg when she enters high school.

Handsome boy Soichiro Arima gets the top score on the entrance exam and becomes the class representative. He’s getting the attention that Yukino craves, so she considers him to be a threat and vows to destroy him. Yukino gets an unexpected surprise when Soichiro confesses his feelings to her. This series follows Yukino and Soichiro and how their relationship evolves.

At the beginning of the series, there is a mixture of drama and humor that is reminiscent of the original manga source material. However, once you reach about the halfway point of the series, the series focuses more on the comedy than on the drama. Also, it is around this point where it becomes painfully clear that corners were being cut when producing the animation for the series.

While the series shows a lot of potential early on, the potential unfortunately falls apart before the series ends. After seeing the His and Her Circumstances anime, I really want to continue reading more of the original manga to see how the story really continues, since the anime ends at a point that is still relatively early on in the manga.

When it comes to the DVD set itself, there’s quite a bit in the way of bonus features included. Each disc has a section labeled “Bios”; each bio includes text about the character and footage of the character from the series. Most of the characters get a two page writeup, although there are some characters who only get one page.

Each disc also includes “Translator’s Notes,” which is text done in a question and answer format with a translator for the series; the text is accompanied by stills from the show. The “Translator’s Notes” focus on the episodes that appear on the particular disc that you’re on. Each disc also has a section for DVD credits.

The first disc also has a feature labeled as “Storyboard.” This feature runs for two minutes, and to me, it looks more like an animatic than what I could consider as a “storyboard.” Also, the scene featured in this feature appears on a different disc. “Producer’s Notes” is a text feature that features the producer of the English dub. “Producer’s Journal” features the producer and director of the English dub, which has text and an interactive calendar. If you click on a date on the calendar, you can see details for that particular day.

Discs two through five include interviews with various members of the Japanese cast for His and Her Circumstances. These interviews are presented with Japanese audio and English subtitles. Overall, I thought that these interviews were the best bonus features included in this set.

The fifth disc includes “English Actress Outtakes”; this has two of the English voice actresses in the recording studio, supposedly making mistakes while recording their lines. From the way this feature is done, it’s obvious that these outtakes were staged. I was rather unimpressed with this bonus feature.

“Phone Messages” has eight selections, and it features the English dub actors for some of the characters with answering machine messages. Personally, I thought this was pointless and a waste of a bonus feature. Disc five also includes trailers for other properties that Right Stuf was promoting at the time this was released. There’s also the original U.S. trailer for His and Her Circumstances included on this disc as well.

If you’re a fan of the His and Her Circumstances and haven’t added this series to your anime home video collection, then this would be the release to get.

I wrote this review after watching a copy of this DVD box set that my husband purchased for me as a gift.

Disc 1
Disc 2
Disc 3
Her Circumstances
Their Secret
His Circumstances
Her Difficult Problem
Day Of Labyrinth
Your Voice That Changes Me

Bonus Features
Their Estrangement
Her Day
Atonement for Postponed Debts
Everything Starts Now
At the End of the First Semester


Bonus Features
The Location of Happiness
The Subjectivity of Happiness
The Story So Far
The Story So Far (Part 2)
Eternal Interspersion


Bonus Features


Disc 4
Disc 5
His Return
Progress
14 Days/1
14 Days/2
14 Days/3

Bonus Features
14 Days/4
14 Days/5
A Different Story From So Far
A Different Story From Up to Now
14 Days/6

Bonus Features

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