Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day (Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai.) is a 2011 original television anime series helmed by director Tatsuyuki Nagai, screenwriter Mari Okada, and character designer Masayoshi Tanaka. The anime was produced by studio A-1 Pictures, and publisher Aniplex. The series first broadcast in Japan on April 2011 as part of the Spring season.
Background:
“Jinta Yadomi and his group of childhood friends had become estranged after a tragic incident split them apart. Now in their high school years, an unexpected surprise forces each of them to confront their guilt over what happened that day. They must overcome the burdens of their past, and come to terms with years of shame, hard feelings, and heartaches.”
Plot Synopsis via Aniplex of America, October 2017.
Anohana is a series that a lot of people may be familiar with, as it’s considered to be one of the best anime during the early 2010s era. Though for UK fans, the series was barely accessible in terms of legal distribution. The series was also written by Mari Okada who is quite loved in the anime community.
US distributor NIS America had the rights and released it on Blu-ray in a premium edition package which I actually almost picked up when I got into importing anime back in April 2013. While the series did get a standard edition by them, eventually the license expired because Aniplex stopped allowing renewals of their titles.
Eventually in a rare move, Aniplex of America re-released Anohana for their catalogue and also provided an English dub. At the same time, the streams were slowly being made available for the UK & Ireland starting with Netflix before eventually hitting Crunchyroll and Funimation. I believe Viewster also had access at one point but it wasn’t handled very well.
Home video release wise, Aniplex of America released Anohana as a complete collection in October 2017 on Blu-ray, while MVM Entertainment stepped in to release the series for the UK & Ireland as one of their first proper UK authored Blu-rays in January 2020 which had its ups and downs. The positive side was that it includes the English dub but the drawback was the picture quality is not great and most of the bonus features were not allowed to be included in the release.
Considering I imported the theatrical compilation version released by Aniplex of America back in July 2014 (and I acquired it in January 2015), it makes sense for me to keep some consistency and acquire the main series from them directly. Though it’s not a cheap release, so it took this long to finally pick it up.
Limited Edition Contents:
Aniplex of America may be known for their expensive prices, but in return they also offer some interesting packaging for their titles. Anohana was one of their releases that was given the ‘complete series’ treatment than being split up into different parts.
This package offers a sturdy rigid box that houses the complete series in an Amaray Blu-ray case as well as a 60-page booklet. The booklet goes over character artwork and backgrounds for the series.
Aniplex in recent years have started to place the information and specification on the actual box and in this case, it’s shown on the back cover. The design does match their 2014 collector’s edition release of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day the Movie, however with this set it has no o-card so the title is only shown on the main spine of the set. While its not stated to be a limited edition, Aniplex titles are known for their limited quantity and sometimes re-releases with less packaging content. The unit count for Aniplex releases is not known but it’s probably a few thousand. The SRP for this release is $149.98. Currently there are no plans for a cheaper edition or re-release.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with Amaray packaging
- Info for specification on the Back cover
- 60-page Booklet
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Aniplex of America
Released: 31st October 2017
The complete series Aniplex Blu-ray release for Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day contains all 11 episodes across two Blu-ray discs which were authored/encoded by Aniplex. While NIS America released the series subtitled only, the audio options available for the Aniplex of America release include Japanese with English subtitles and a Bang Zoom! Entertainment English dub.
The white subtitles are unlockable during playback, and the regions are playable to Blu-ray players set to A, B and C (basically region free, Aniplex generally don’t region lock their releases).
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Linear PCM 2.0 Japanese Linear PCM 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 1.78:1 aspect ratio |
| Region | A B C |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 2 BD-50s |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 1:
- Episode 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7 Web Previews
- Credits
Disc 2:
- Episode 8, 9, 10 & 11 Web Previews
- Textless Opening (Special Version)
- Textless Opening “Aoi Shiori”
- Textless Closing “Secret Base (Kimi ga Kureta Mono) (10 years after Ver.)” Ver. 1 & 2
- Trailers and Commercials
- English Dub Teaser
- English Dub Trailer
- English Dub Bloopers
- Episode 11 English Dub Commentary by Cast & Director
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
The limited edition release of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day is available to order exclusively through Rightstuf, but an affordable UK version is available through multiple retailers like Amazon.
(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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