Infinite Stratos 2 (IS<インフィニット・ストラトス> 2) is a 2013 television anime series based on Izuru Yumizuru’s light novel series of the same name with illustrators okiura and CHOCO. The series was adapted by studio 8bit, and the staff credits include director Yasuhito Kikuchi (with series director Shin Tosaka), series composition writer Izuru Yumizuru, character designer Kumi Horii, and music composed by Hikaru Nanase. The series first aired in Japan on October 2013, distributed by TBS.
Note: This post also contains images from the book that are not suitable for work.
Note: This post has been updated on June 2019 & then May 2024 to reflect the current blog layout and some minor tweaks to the original write-up.
Background:
“There are probably worse things that could have happened to Ichika Orimura than being the only guy in a training academy filled with military hardware and several battalions of highly competitive and extremely boy-crazed teenage girls. And being caught in a five-girl crossfire between his obsessive childhood friends Lingyin and Houki and the even more zealous British, German and French pilots Cecillia, Laura and Charlotte, at least turned out to be survivable. But surely, Ichika’s finally put all his female troubles behind him, right? Oh don’t be ridiculous.
None of the femmes fatales in his life have canceled their conquest scenarios; there’s double trouble arriving in the form of the Sarashiki sisters; the rest of the school is still waiting in line to take their shot; and when a whole new set of female pilots working for the bad guys shows up with a new generation of stolen IS hardware, things are about to get utterly lethal! The mayhem continues, the mecha runs amok, the hormones run wild and the maiden’s behavior becomes even less maidenly as Ichika gets schooled for a second spectacular semester.”
Plot Synopsis via Sentai Filmworks, January 2017.
The early 2010s were pretty huge for the harem genre. It was everywhere and did the numbers for everything like home video, merch and visual novels. Among the ones that had its audience were Date A Live, Freezing, High School DxD, Maken-Ki!, Rosario + Vampire, Sekirei and of course Infinite Stratos. This one in particular is notable because it was very popular amongst fans and yet there was only two seasons of content, when you compare to others that managed to get a bit more as there were enough source material to adapt it. I suppose the novels not having enough content halted the series’ popularity for the years after.
Infinite Stratos 2 was licensed by Sentai Filmworks for streaming and home video for the United States and Canada territories. However, as the anime scene in the west was slowly pushing more towards the Blu-ray format, Japanese distributor TBS weren’t happy with the idea of having their titles out in English asap due to fears of reverse importation, so Sentai Filmworks were forced to only release it on DVD for the time being. The holdbacks meant that they would have to wait a very long time (averaging 1-3 years) before releasing the series in HD.
Eventually they were allowed to release it on Blu-ray, but at the cost of being presented as a limited edition box set (which happened to the first season of Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!), though fortunately for fans of the franchise it’s better than expected. In the UK, MVM Entertainment released the series on DVD but were not interested or able to release it on Blu-ray.
Limited Edition Contents:
The interesting part about Infinite Stratos 2‘s limited edition set is that it is actually a replica of the Japanese Blu-ray Disc Box in its entirety (minus the authored discs). So overall it is a very unique case for Sentai Filmworks, with the last time that something like this had happened was with Highschool of the Dead back in 2014.
The limited edition release from Sentai Filmworks is an B5 sized box, housing the 144-page B5-sized Illustration Artbook and a cardboard box that stores the digipack that contains the discs. Included in the digipack are the Blu-ray discs for the series and also the OVAs and Picture Drama content. The disc covers have been translated into English; with the first disc covering episodes 1-5, second disc covering episodes 6-10, and the third disc covering episodes 11-12 & on-disc extra content such as the OVAs and Picture Drama.
Next, we have the B5 sized illustration book containing a ton of artwork featuring the female cast from the series. The artwork does feature some ecchi shots but no unexposed parts like nipples etc. It is for the most part artwork that is considered not safe for work. At the back of the illustration book is a list of every credit for the artwork presented. Sentai has also provided an English translation for the staff & cast on a paper sheet.
The artwork is free of any information and the obi-strip covers the information and specification in a similar design to the Aniplex of America releases. The limited edition Blu-ray has an unspecified amount of units printed for an SRP of $219.98. At the time of this write up, there are no plans for a standard edition Blu-ray.
The series was purchased through Amazon US at a massive discount thanks to price-matching Best Buy by pure luck.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid B5-sized Box with Digipack packaging and clean artwork
- Obi-strip for specification
- 144-page B5-sized Illustration Artbook
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Sentai Filmworks
Released: 24th January 2017
The limited edition release for Infinite Stratos 2 contains all 12 episodes of the series plus the One Summer’s Memories (Broadcast Version) episode, the World Purge OVA and the Infinite Wedding Picture Drama across three Blu-ray discs, with the encode & authoring done by Sentai Filmworks. The audio options available are Japanese with English subtitles and the Sentai Studios English dub.
The yellow subtitles were locked during playback and the disc regions were accessible to Blu-ray players set to the United States country code (which will work on Region A players as per normal, and for specific Region B players like video games consoles and ones that support the country code).
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | A B United States Country Code (Geolocking) |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | Yes |
| Discs | 3 BD-50s |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 3:
- OVA: World Purge
- Infinite Wedding Picture Drama (presented in Japanese audio with English subtitles only)
- One Summer’s Memories
- Clean Opening Animation “True Blue Traveler”
- Clean Closing Animations “BEAUTIFUL SKY”
- Sentai Filmworks Trailers
Unboxing Photos:
Cardboard Box with Digipack Set:
Illustrations Artbook:
Final Notes:
Infinite Stratos 2 was available to purchase on Blu-ray by Sentai Filmworks in the US & Canada. The limited edition Blu-ray release has since sold out of stock.
The Normanic Vault 
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