High School DxD Hero (ハイスクールD×D Hero) is a 2018 television anime series based on Ichiei Ishibumi’s light novel series of the same name with illustrator Miyama-Zero. The series was produced by studio Passione with publisher Kadokawa Pictures, and the staff credits include director Yoshifumi Sueda, screenplay writer Kenji Konuta, character designer Makoto Uno and music composer Ryosuke Nakanishi. The series first aired in Japan in April 2018 with uncensored and censored broadcast versions.
Note: Due to the artwork presented this unboxing is declared ‘Not Safe For Work‘ so readers advised.
Brief Unboxing Note:
This unboxing has been updated on December 2023 to amend its page design but also add additional context to some parts of the write-up. Everything else has been left unchanged from the original post.
Background:
“Bounce into the latest adventure with Issei and his band of beauties! Issei is suddenly attacked in Kyoto by a mysterious fox yokai – whose mother is missing. When it looks like the Chaos Brigade might be the ones behind the fox yokai’s missing mother, it’s up to the Grabbing Dragon and his voluptuous vixens to face them. Plenty of trouble awaits Issei as he takes on new foes and looks to get his rise – as a hero!”
Plot Synopsis via Funimation, April 2019
You’ll notice a big contrast with High School DxD Hero compared to the previous three anime seasons (High School DxD, High School DxD New & High School DxD BorN), and there is a reason for that. To explain this, we have to take a look back at the show’s third season High School DxD BorN which aired in 2015. The third season started by following the source material much like its previous seasons, however, for some bizarre reason, the studio TNK, who were adapting the anime, had decided to go towards an anime original direction, even though there are tons of material available that can be covered.
Going into anime original territory meant that future anime seasons couldn’t animate any more of the source material if they wanted to keep the original stuff ‘canon’ to their adaptation, and the creator himself supposedly hated this completely. As such, High School DxD moved to a different team altogether. The first three seasons were all animated by studio TNK with director Tetsuya Yanagisawa and character designer Junji Gotou, and replacing those folks were studio Passione with director Yoshifumi Sueda and character designer Makoto Uno. The studio, as well as Gotou and Uno all, worked on Rail Wars if you’re curious so they have experience with fan service projects.
With a new team, they managed to bring the anime back on track with Episode 0 to retcon the anime original direction from High School DxD BorN (which were covered in episodes 9 to 12), concluding the story of the light novel’s 6th volume and allowing the main season to adapt the events of the 9th & 10th volumes.
Funimation licensed the streaming and home video rights for High School DxD Hero, keeping the consistency with the previous four seasons. This was one of their most popular titles in their catalogue so it made sense for them to release a limited edition as well.
Limited Edition Contents:
Funimation brought the fourth season over once again and kept the consistency by providing a limited edition. Unlike the previous three seasons, the limited edition for this set is very different and follows the same model of recent releases from the distributor, thus providing more physical content to make up for the retail price.
Included in this limited edition are as follows; a booklet featuring character information and fanservice artwork, a light novel called High School DxD 0 which was included in the Japanese Blu-ray volumes of this season, a fabric poster, and four uncensored art cards. The main series, which is held in a single Blu-ray case, and the booklet are housed inside a rigid box with a slipcover. The fabric poster and art cards are housed in a cardboard box. In addition, both that cardboard box and the light novel are placed outside of the rigid box set.
The artwork is free of any information and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Funimation releases. The limited edition Blu-ray & DVD set has an unspecified amount of units printed for an SRP of $84.98. As of 2020, the limited edition sold out pretty fast at launch and only a standard edition Blu-ray & DVD combo pack is available. I was lucky enough to pre-order the limited edition through United Publications.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with digipack packaging, slipcover and clean artwork
- Info sheet for specification
- 64-page Booklet featuring Character & Eyecatch Gallery Artwork
- 52-page ‘High School DxD 0’ Light Novel Booklet
- 4 Art Cards
- Fabric Poster
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Funimation
Released: 30th April 2019
The limited edition release for High School DxD Hero contains the entire fourth season (episodes 0-12) across two Blu-ray discs and two DVD discs. The encode and authoring were done by Funimation. The audio options available for the series include Japanese with English subtitles and the Funimation English dub.
The white subtitles are locked during Blu-ray playback, and the regions are locked to A for Blu-ray and 1 for DVD in NTSC format, which is a contrast to the previous three seasons which were region free.
The on-disc bonus features are exclusive to the Blu-ray discs. In addition, all of the episodes are based on the Japanese Blu-ray versions – in other words, it’s uncut and uncensored for the ultimate BOOSTO.
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 | A |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | Yes |
| Discs | 2 BD-50s |
DVD Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Dolby Digital 5.1 Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 |
| Video | Standard Definition in NTSC format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | 1 |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 2 |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 1:
- Episode 5 English Dub Commentary
Disc 2:
- Episode 11 English Dub Commentary
- High School DxD: Boobies & Heroes
- Web Previews
- Textless Opening Song “Switch”
- Textless Closing Song “Mote nai Kuse ni (｀;ω;´)”
- Funimation Trailers
DVD On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 2:
- Funimation Trailers
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
High School DxD HERO‘s limited edition is now out of print, but select stock may turn up on Amazon US. A standard Blu-ray release is available, and a Region B compatible release is coming to the UK via Manga Entertainment.
The Normanic Vault 
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