Real Girl (3D Kanojo: Real Girl) is a 2018 television anime series based on Mao Nanami’s manga of the same name. It was adapted into an anime by studio Hoods Entertainment with director Takashi Naoya, writer Deko Akao and publisher NTV. The series first broadcast in Japan on April 2018 as part of the Spring season, followed by a second season in January 2019 as part of the Winter season.
Background:
“Hikari Tsutsui has never been popular, his one real friend is an even worse otaku than he is, and the only girls he’s known are the two-dimensional women from his manga and video games. Until, that is, he’s sent to help clean the pool as punishment and is partnered with the school’s resident “bad girl”, the very real, very three-dimensional Iroha Igarashi.
Brash, beautiful, and known for her promiscuous behavior, Iroha is loathed by other girls but loved by the guys. And yet, inexplicably, she not only seems to be interested in Hikari, but proposes that they enter into a relationship! Unable to resist, Hikari agrees, but there’s one big catch – Iroha’s moving away in six months, so no matter what happens between them, in half a year Hikari’s guaranteed to lose his real girl!”
Plot Synopsis via MVM Entertainment, January 2021.
This is one of those instances where I actually do not know much about Real Girl other than it’s a romance series, received two seasons covering the whole manga story (to my current knowledge so you get a conclusion by the end of the anime), and that’s pretty much it.
The truth is, Real Girl honestly did not get that much fanfare for the most part so it went under the radar for many people, and part of that reason could be because Sentai licensed and made it exclusive to HIDIVE. HIDIVE is quite niche but it does offer tons of content, but the competition is tight as Crunchyroll and Funimation acquire most of the new content every season.
That being said, Sentai did provide an English dub and even went as far as offering a premium limited edition release for the show in June 2020. As Sentai also had UK rights, they sub-licensed them to MVM Entertainment for a UK home video release on Blu-ray. Kodansha Comics did license and release the manga digitally in English.
Collector’s Edition Contents:
Much like some of MVM Entertainment’s recent collector’s editions in the past few years, Real Girl is very similar to the Sentai release in packaging and presentation. In fact other than some BBFC & MVM logos here and there, it’s pretty much identical.
This release has a rigid box with an Amaray case housing all three discs as well as the physical items included next to the case. Those physical items are a 56-page booklet and 4 art cards. Basically if you’re after an affordable version of the Sentai limited edition release, then MVM has done just that. The booklet is mostly an episode guide with a few pages dedicated to character info and artwork.
On the bottom of the box, there is brief information and BBFC content about the series, while the rest of the box is clean with no info or logos whatsoever. The Amaray case will have the BBFC logo on the spine and info on the back cover. Unit count is never known for MVM titles but I believe their collector’s editions are 1000 units. The SRP is £89.99 but do note that this series is a double cour length (i.e. 24 episodes) so you do get a bit more value than a regular length show like Revue Starlight or Girls’ Last Tour. There’s no news on any plans for a standard edition Blu-ray as of the time of this post, but it’s expected after a certain period of time has passed.
I acquired the collector’s edition Blu-ray set as part of MVM’s Deal of the Week offer which was for £19.99.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with Amaray packaging with some info on the artwork
- 56-page Booklet
- 4 Art Cards
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: MVM Entertainment
Released: 18th January 2021
This release for Real Girl contains both seasons (12 episodes from Season 1, 12 episodes from Season 2) across three Blu-ray discs. The encoding and authoring were handled by Sentai.
The audio options available for the film include Japanese with English subtitles and the Sentai Studios English dub. The subtitles are locked during playback, and the discs are playable for both A & B for Blu-ray players.
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 |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | Yes |
| Discs | 3 BD-50s |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 3:
- Clean Opening Animation “Daiji na Koto”
- Clean Closing Animations “HiDE the BLUE”, “Hagan” Ver. 1-3 & “Daiji na Koto”
- Japanese Promos
- Sentai Filmworks Trailers
- Sentai Disc Credits
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Real Girl is available to order through multiple retailers across the United Kingdom. You can order the collector’s edition Blu-ray on Amazon UK.
(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)
The Normanic Vault 
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