Ever since the early bird had ended, this particular film never went on sale until it turned up as one of the items chosen for the Anime Limited Mystery Box. Much like a few items I picked up a few years back, I acquired this film via the forum marketplace when I had the chance.
Note: The photos in this unboxing have been updated on 16th May 2019, but the content is identical.
Princess Arete (Arete Hime) is a 2001 anime film from Studio 4C based on the 1983 story written by Diana Coles called The Clever Princess. The film was also directed by Sunao Katabuchi, who also worked on In This Corner of the World and Mai Mai Miracle.
The film has been licensed by Anime Limited for the United Kingdom and Ireland territories, and much like Studio 4C’s other film Genius Party & Genius Party Beyond the UK distributor decided to provide a shop exclusive collector’s edition release. It makes sense given the film is relatively niche compared to the animation studio’s other works and there was likely not that many materials available to provide more content.
The UK Collector’s Edition release contains the film on Blu-ray and DVD with a disc for each format. As no English dub was produced, the film is in Japanese audio with English subtitles only but a French dub and subtitles are also available. The discs are region locked to B and 2 NTSC only, and the white-coloured subtitles are locked during playback. There are no on-disc extra features with this film’s UK Blu-ray & DVD release.
You can order the UK release on AllTheAnime and Amazon UK.
Blu-ray Specs:
Languages: French, Japanese
Audio: French DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0, Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0
Video: 1080p High Definition Native format with 16:9 ratio
Region: B
Subtitles: English, French
Locked Subtitles: Yes
Discs: 1
DVD Specs:
Languages: French, Japanese
Audio: French Dolby Digital 4.0, Japanese Dolby Digital 4.0
Video: 480p Standard Definition in NTSC format with 16:9 ratio
Region: 2
Subtitles: English, French
Locked Subtitles: Yes
Discs: 1
Plot Synopsis (via Anime Limited):
Confined in the castle tower by her father, princess Arete spends her days watching the world outside her window. While she looks out at the common people working, the knights of the kingdom compete for her hand in marriage by searching for powerful magical items from a race of long-dead sorcerers.
When a sorcerer called Boax comes to the castle, he sets about persuading the King to let him marry the princess. But he secretly fears a prophecy which foretells Arete ending his life – leading him to imprison her the minute she’s in his castle!
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
None
DVD On-Disc Extra Features:
None
Collector’s Edition Extras:
Rigid box with clean artwork on front side and spine, information is on the back side
4 Artcards
Princess Arete is available on Blu-ray and DVD from Anime Limited.
The Normanic Vault 
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