Snow White with the Red Hair (赤髪の白雪姫, Akagami no Shirayuki-hime) is a 2015/2016 television anime series based on Sorata Akizuki’s manga series of the same name. The series was produced by studio Bones, published by Hakuhodo DY MaP (Showgate), and the staff credits include director Masahiro Andō, screenplay writer Deko Akao, character designer Kumiko Takahashi and music composed by Michiru Ōshima. The anime was given two anime seasons which were technically split cour given the timing. The first season aired during the Summer 2015 season while the second season aired during the Winter 2016 season.
Note: This post has been updated in July 2023 to reflect the current blog layout and some minor tweaks to the original write-up.
Background:
“Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Tanbarun, there lived an independent young woman with beautiful red hair. A skilled herbalist by trade, Shirayuki used her knowledge of plants and medicine to heal the people of her city. But when her apple-red hair drew the unwanted attention of the devious Prince Raj, she was left with two options become his unwilling concubine, or leave her home forever. In the dead of night, she cut her hair and escaped to the neighboring kingdom of Clarines where she was found by a kind young man named Zen. The mysterious stranger turned out to be none other than the dashing prince of her newfound kingdom. And with his protection, Shirayuki was finally free to chase her dreams.
Now, she’s set her sights on becoming a royal court herbalist and it will take a lot more than poisoned apples, scheming lords, and challenging exams to stand in her way.”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, January 2019.
Funimation has the rights to the anime series and dubbed all of the episodes into English. They eventually released the series across two season sets as a standard combo pack. Meanwhile, in the UK, they were released under Funimation UK on Blu-ray only due to the licensor wanting PAL DVD discs (which would bring inferior disc quality for the DVDs). Years later Anime Limited decided to provide a re-release in the form of a complete collection collector’s edition box set exclusive to their shopping store. This set was made available for pre-orders during the 12 Days of Christmas sale.
Collector’s Edition Contents:
It’s not often that you see an anime get re-released with a collector’s edition after being released first as a standard release, but Anime Limited did just that with Snow White with the Red Hair.
The official release was initially going to be December 2018 but eventually got pushed back to January 2019 due to delays in stock. The discs and packaging are identical to the original two season sets with some minor changes. The cases are now clear with a disc flap instead of a case that had two disc slots. In addition, the collector’s edition comes with a rigid box to house the two seasons as well as a special booklet exclusive to this particular version.
The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The collector’s edition Blu-ray set is limited to 1000 units for SRP £59.99, and I pre-ordered my copy through AllTheAnime during their 12 Days of Christmas sale.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with clean artwork and Amaray packaging
- Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
- 32-page Booklet
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Anime Limited & Funimation UK
Released: 14th January 2019
The collector’s edition release for Snow White with the Red Hair contains all 12 episodes from Season 1 across two Blu-ray discs as well as all 12 episodes from Season 2 across two Blu-ray discs, with the encode and authoring produced by Funimation. The audio options include Japanese with English subtitles and the Funimation English dub.
The white subtitles are locked during playback, and the regions are locked to Blu-ray players set to B, much like how the US release was region locked to A.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | B |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | Yes |
| Discs | 2 BD-50, 2 BD-25 |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Season 1 Disc 1:
- Episode 9 English Audio Commentary with Dub Script Writer/Voice Actresses Rachel Robinson & Jamie Marchi
Season 1 Disc 2:
- Episode 11 English Audio Commentary with ADR Director Cris George, Voice Actress Brina Palencia & Voice Actor Josh Grelle
- Promotional Videos
- Commercial Collection
- Textless Opening “Gentle Hope (Yasashii Kibou)“
- Textless Ending “On Our Bonds (Kizuna ni Nosete)”
- Funimation Trailers
- One Piece
- Barakamon
- Spice & Wolf
- Sky Wizards Academy
- Summer Wars
Season 2 Disc 1:
- Episode 16 English Audio Commentary with ADR Director Cris George & Voice Actor Todd Haberkorn
Season 2 Disc 2:
- Episode 23 English Audio Commentary with Voice Actors Josh Grelle, Ian Sinclair & Austin Tindle
- Promotional Videos
- Commercial Collection
- Textless Opening “The Voice Will Become A Map (Sono Koe ga Chizu ni Naru)“
- Textless Ending “Page ~The Story To Write With You~ (Page ~Kimi to Tsuzuru Monogatari~)” (All 3 Versions)
- Funimation Trailers
- Inari Kon Kon
- Haruchika: Haruta & Chika
- Nichijou: My Ordinary Life
- Noragami Aragoto
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Snow White with the Red Hair is available on Blu-ray from Funimation UK. You can order the shop exclusive collector’s edition on Shop AllTheAnime, and also the standard Blu-rays for Season 1 and Season 2 for other retailers (Amazon for instance).
The Normanic Vault 
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