Battle
Girl High School: Complete Collection
(2017)/Love and Lies:
Complete Collection
(2017)/The Tibetan Dog
(2011/Maiden Japan/all Sentai Blu-rays)
Picture:
A/B+/A Sound: B+/B+/C+ Extras: C/C/D Main Programs:
B+/A-/B+
Now
for the latest anime releases...
Hoshimori
Girls Academy, where girls transform into magical girls, idols,
heroines with celestial suits from the power of the Holy Tree to
protect the world. Together, they fight to defend mankind from
mysterious invaders known only as the Irous. Miki, a freshman, along
with all the girls on her team everyday learns, trains and fight
together to become the super stars they know they can become. They
are joined with a new mysterious girl, Misaki ...but who is she and
why is she so powerful?
In
Battle Girl High School: Complete Collection (2017), The
Hoshimori Girls are just regular girls going to school, making
friends ...and turning into magical girls and saving the world, but
lately, they been slacking off and need a new training program ...and
a new (and powerful) mysterious member joins them. Together, they
are fighting the Irous, mysterious beings bent on destroying the
world, but they are getting stronger. As the girls train and become
stronger they must not only fight Irous monsters and solve the
mystery of where they come from.
This
was your typical magical girl anime (except with a lot of magical
girls) but it seems like they are more interested in being cute,
sing, dancing, being idols and having fun than saving the world. The
only thing that seems a bit odd is there seems to be no men in their
world (aside from their teacher). Extras include clean opening and
closing animations and trailers.
Episodes
include...
We
Can Do It! - Here comes the Hoshimori girls ...and the Irous
aliens.
Is
That What Gets You? - A new mysterious girl joins team Hoshimori
...Misaki.
Resort
x Retreat x Escape? - The girls are at an island paradise, but
are they on vacation or summer training camp?
Songs
with Emotion - The girls help setting up a concert and end up in
the concert.
The
Meaning of the Iris - Yuri wishes to become stronger like Misaki,
but can she believe in herself?
Renge
is Kurumi and Kurumi is Renge - Renge and Kurumi exchange bodies
and must find a way to change back.
Protective
Power - A new and powerful Irous appears and Miki awakens to her
true power.
Hoshimori
Downtime - After a tough battle, the Hoshimori girls go on
vacation, each in their own way.
Holy
Tree Festival - It's the school festival, but an unexpected
'guest' decides to crash their festival.
Family
- The girls take the night off and Misaki visits Miki's family.
Truth
- Misaki reveals she is from a parallel dimension and their enemy is
the fallen Hoshimori Girls from her dimension.
Bonds
- The Hoshimori Girls decide to defeat the Wicked Tree of Evil and
'save' the Hoshimori girls from the other dimension.
In
an alternate timeline, in order to combat low birth rates the
government helps make arranged marriages for boys and girls at the
age of 16, that their partner is already decided and traditional
romance is no longer needed. But there was one boy, Yukari who
wasn't happy with the law and has been in love with his childhood
friend Misaki. He finds out his arranged partner is another girl
Ririna, but she approves and encourages his relationship to continue
with Misaki. As Yukari and Misaki forbidden love continues to grow
can Ririna find room for her own feelings?
In
Love and Lies: Complete Collection (2017), we are asked again
to think, what if your future partner was already decided and you had
no choice? Yukari doesn't believe that, he and Misaki have been in
love since they were children, but it is against the law to go
against an arranged partner. Before their forbidden romance can
begin, Yukari finds out he is supposed to marry another girl, Ririna.
Ririna finds out about Yukari and Misaki's relationship, but instead
of rejecting them she approves and wants to see what 'true love' is.
Ririna is moved by Yukari and Misaki's love for one another and even
becomes best friends with Misaki, but then she begins developing her
own feelings toward Yukari... can she really give up Yukari to
Misaki?
This
is your typical boy meets girl story, except it is in a world where
the government decides who you marry, boy meets girl but boy is in
love with another girl. As the characters secret relationships grow
and become more complicated, can our hero/heroines find their 'red
string of fate'? Extras include clean opening and closing animations
and trailers.
Episodes
include...
First
Love - Yukari and Misaki confess their love to each other, but
suddenly Yukari's marriage notice arrives ....and it isn't Misaki.
A
Small Lie - Yukari meets his future arranged wife Ririna, but she
approves of his and Misaki's forbidden love.
Overlooked
Love - Ririna demands Yukari and Misaki must kiss once a day, but
is that really OK?
The
Science of Love - Yukari learns those who follow the government
arranged marriages usually become happy couples ...statistically.
Risky
Love - Yukari, Misaki, Ririna and his best friend Nisaka go on a
camping trip.
A
Prison to Compel Love - Yukari and Ririna attend a government
couples seminar, Ririna begins to have feelings and dreams of Yukari
being intimate together.
A
Silent Lie - After spending the night with Yukari (and almost
losing her virginity), Ririna is unsure of her feelings and she and
Yukari take a break from one another.
Feelings
Without Lies - The school puts on a play for Romeo and Juliet,
but can the play help Misaki and Yukari express their real feelings?
So
Bright It Doesn't Seem Real - Yukari and Misaki practice for
their play, Yukari invites Ririna to the play.
A
Love to Give Everything For - Ririna and Yukari meets an old
friend and finds out their arranged marriage might be tampered with
and Yukari and Misaki may have been originally paired.
I
Don't Care If It's a Lie - Both Misaki and Ririna loves Yukari
(and each other) they are both willing to lie and sacrifice their own
feelings so that each other may find happiness.
Love
and Lies - Yukari realizes he will always love Misaki and he has
grown to love Ririna and both of them love him and each other
equally, that all 3 of them are in a rare love triangle (where
everyone is aware of each other and there is no jealousy) ...so they
decide if they are going to break the rules and all 3 of them will be
getting married together.
We
conclude with a feature film, The
Tibetan Dog
(2011), another boy and his dog tale.
Since
Tenzin's mother died, Tenzin had to move out of the city and to the
Tibetan grasslands with his father. Tenzin feels out of place,
starting a new life and living with his estranged father, he never
grew up with and he doesn't feel like he belongs there. The only
thing he feels connected to is a golden sheepdog, Douji. Both Tenzin
and Douji help teach one another, Tenzin how to survive and Douji how
to live with people. When Douji is blamed for all the violent
attacks on cattle and humans, it is up to Tenzin and Douji to find
and stop a killer monster.
Tenzin
is a city boy, but after his mother died, he had to go live with his
father who is the only medicine man for his tribe in the Tibetan
grassland. Tenzin is angry and blames the death of his mother on his
father and him for never being there. But in the grassland he has to
learn how to raise sheep, survive wolves, bears and bandits. He is
saved by this maverick sheepdog, Douji, and Tenzin helps save Douji
too when he is injured.
This
was like an anime version of Lassie and Old Yeller. A heartwarming
story of a boy and his dog as the learn to find their place in the
world. In the end (spoiler alert) the dog sacrifices his life to
help save the boy, yet this is very well done despite what we may
have seen like this before. Extras include trailers.
The
1080p 1.78
X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on all three releases are
impressive, especially on Girl
and
Dog
(where are the 4K Blu-rays Sentai?) with great color, detail, depth
and definition throughout, so expect demo moments from all these
releases. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Japanese Stereo lossless mixes on Girl
and Lies
have Pro Logic-like surrounds and are well mixed and presented enough
that one only wishes they were 5.1 mixes, so the DTS-HD MA (Master
Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes (Japanese and lesser English dub on Dog
disappoints a bit by sounding watered down and not as enveloping as
I'd like.
-
Ricky Chiang