HINAMATSURI (Limited Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing

HINAMATSURI (ヒナまつり) is a 2018 television anime series based on Masao Ōtake’s manga of the same name. The series was produced by studio Feel, and the staff credits include director Kei Oikawa, screenplay writer Keiichirō Ōchi, character designer Kanetoshi Kamimoto and music composer Yasuhiro Misawa. The season was first broadcast in Japan on April 2018.

Background:

“Yakuza member Yoshifumi Nitta’s way of life takes a turn for the absurd when a young, telekinetic young girl falls onto his head. Now he’s stuck caring for this socially awkward psychic weirdo while struggling to continue his normal criminal lifestyle.”

Plot Synopsis via Funimation UK, May 2022.

HINAMATSURI was one of the most surprising anime shows I watched in the past few years. It’s a perfect example of a series that went under the radar for a lot of viewers during simulcast, and it’s a great comedy slice-of-life series. Studio Feel adapted the show and they did a great job, but it’s a shame the series did not get any more seasons, but at least the manga was licensed in English.

The anime was one of Crunchyroll’s titles and was dubbed into English and distributed by Funimation so it got a Blu-ray home video release in North America. However, this came out during the period where Funimation did not give much attention to these shows when it came to the UK, so it was ignored and basically considered forgotten until a couple of folks in the UK community (like myself) kept asking them to bring it over. And so they did, but it took a few years (in fact it was released almost two years after Funimation had released the series under their Essentials range for a cheaper price).

However, to make up for their ridiculous hold-up, the UK did get a limited edition release. That said, with the UK team made redundant due to Crunchyroll taking over, HINAMATSURI eventually became one of the last limited edition releases to be made under the Funimation branding, and technically the final one produced.

Limited Edition Contents:

With the Crunchyroll branding now taking over, HINAMATSURI is technically the last new limited edition under Funimation’s name (though we do have Black Clover Season 4’s LE release in June, but was already released in North America). The set is designed in the same layout as the previous UK exclusive limited edition sets like Code Geass: Akito the Exiled and Yona of the Dawn.

The package is presented as a rigid box with an Amaray case to house the discs. Also included with the set is a 32-page booklet and 6 art cards. The booklet features a bunch of character designs, key artwork and more.

The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Funimation UK releases. The limited edition Blu-ray set is limited to 1000 units for SRP £64.99. A standard Blu-ray was also released on the same day as the set.

Physical Contents:

• Rigid Box with clean artwork and Amaray packaging
• Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
• 32-page booklet
• 6 Art Cards

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Funimation
Released: 30th May 2022

The limited edition release for HINAMATSURI contains all 12 episodes 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 accessible to Blu-ray players set to A & B.

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 B
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	Yes
Discs	1 BD-50, 1 BD-25

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

• Textless Opening “Distance“
• Textless Ending “Sake to Ikura to 893 to Musume”

Unboxing Photos:

Final Notes:

HINAMATSURI is available to order across multiple retailers in the United Kingdom. The limited edition Blu-ray can be acquired on on Amazon UK, MVM’s Anime-on-Line, and United Publications. A cheaper UK standard edition Blu-ray is available to order 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.)