Sunday, February 10, 2013

Rozen Maiden

Rozen Maiden is a license rescue from Geneon's back catalog.  I never did get my hands on it when it first came out, so I was thrilled when Sentai Filmworks planned to distribute it here in the U.S.  Even better, Sentai released both Rozen Maiden (12 episodes), Rozen Maiden Traumend (12 episodes), and Rozen Maiden Ouverture (2 episodes) all in one set!  The icing on the cake was when I was able to snap up a copy from Right Stuf for less than half off the original price!  I had only ever ordered Angel Beats from Sentai, so I wasn't sure what to expect with this set.  Unfortunately, I am wholly disappointed. 

The series comes in a clamshell case the width of two regular DVD cases.  Not my favorite way to package anime, but it gets the job done.  Upon opening said case, I found all 5 DVDs stacked on top of one another on a single spindle on the right side of the case.  On the left side where inserts (or more discs) usually go, is a piece of Styrofoam.....Huh....  After some grumbling, I decided to take a look at the DVDs themselves.  Let me say that getting the first one off of the spindle required quite the effort.  The DVD came perilously close to breaking because the little nubs on the spindle would not let go.  In the end, I finally got the first one out but with my fingerprints all over the disc.  Then, to my horror, I saw this:


The image is corrupted, as if the device that printed the picture was misaligned or running out of ink or both.  The other discs are fine, but this one is of very poor quality, the kind of thing you expect to see from Chinese bootleg movies.

So not only are the discs impossible to remove from the case, but the discs themselves aren't that great.  I can only imagine my anger would be that much greater had I paid the full MSRP of $50 for this collection.  I don't even know if I will be able to watch this show without breaking the discs when I try to wrestle them out of the case.

If this release is indicative of the quality of Sentai's other repackaging, then I will refrain from purchasing any anime licensed by them, unless it's a must-have series and is on sale.