Combatants Will Be Dispatched! (Limited Edition Blu-ray & DVD) Unboxing

Combatants Will Be Dispatched! (戦闘員、派遣します！, Sentōin, Haken Shimasu!) is a 2021 television anime series based on Natsume Akatsuki’s light novel series of the same name. The adaptation is directed by Hiroaki Akagi and produced by studio J.C.Staff. Staff credits also include writer Yukie Sugawara, and music composed by Masato Koda. The series first aired in Japan on April 2021.

Background:

“With world domination close at hand, the Kisaragi Corporation turns its sights on interstellar conquest, and who better to take over a magical world than two randomly assigned minions – Combatant Agent Six and his android partner Alice? But Six’s path up the evil corporate ladder won’t be easy – a Demon Lord’s army is hatching its own nefarious plan!”

Plot Synopsis via Crunchyroll, August 2022.

If you thought Konosuba was the only work that Natsume Akatsuki worked on that had fantasy/isekai elements then you would be proven wrong. He’s worked on a bunch of other projects around the same time. One of them was Kemono Michi which is basically wrestling & isekai, and the other is Combatants Will Be Dispatched! Now this isn’t technically an isekai in the modern sense but rather like the older stories such as Tenchi Muyo! where characters were transported to a different part of the universe. But the rest is the same as you would expect in the tropes.

Another difference is that Combatants Will Be Dispatched! is animated by J.C.Staff, who also adapted one of the story arcs for Konosuba in movie format rather than Kadokawa’s ENGI who adapted Kemono Michi, or Deen who worked on the Konosuba seasons. As a whole Combatants Will Be Dispatched! was great fun but there’s probably not enough content to produce more seasons so what we got is a nice batch of entertainment.

Funimation, before they rebranded as Crunchyroll, acquired the streaming and home video rights from Kadokawa and eventually Crunchyroll distributed the series for home video. The UK release will also be handled by Crunchyroll via their UK branch.

Limited Edition Contents:

While Crunchyroll has changed their layout for the regular Blu-ray releases, they will still be offering limited edition sets in the same fashion that Funimation had been doing over the past few years, and Combatants Will Be Dispatched is pretty much the first one under the new branding.

The limited edition box set features a rigid box that houses a Amaray case as well as a 104-page booklet while an outer cardboard box houses the 8 art cards, an ID Holder & Lanyard and Enamel Pin. The limited edition for this series also uses different artwork for the Amaray compared to the standard edition release. The booklet has character designs, interviews, evil points trivia, illustration artwork and more.

The artwork is free of any information and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Funimation limited edition releases.

The SRP for the limited edition set was $84.98. The North American Funimation limited editions don’t have an exact unit count. I acquired the limited edition release from United Publications, which arrived before release date due to Rightstuf getting early stock as well, and it wasn’t cheap due to the exchange rate taking a hit so the value of the sets went up as a result.

Physical Contents:

• Rigid Box with Amaray packaging and clean artwork
• Info sheet for specification
• 104-page Art Book
• 8 Art Cards
• ID Holder & Lanyard
• Enamel Pin

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Crunchyroll
Released: 9th August 2022

The limited edition release for Combatants Will Be Dispatched! contains all 12 episodes across two Blu-ray discs and two DVD discs, with the encode and authoring done by Crunchyroll. Audio options include Japanese audio with English subtitles and the Funimation English dub.

The white subtitles are unlockable during playback and the disc regions are playable on A & B for Blu-ray, and 1, 2 & 4 for DVD in NTSC format.

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	No
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 2 4
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	No
Discs	2

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Disc 2:

• Combatants Will Be Dispatched: Voice Actors React
• Promo Videos
• Commercials
• Textless Opening Song “No. 6”
• Textless Closing Song “Home Sweet Home”

DVD On-Disc Extra Features:

No extras across all discs

Unboxing Photos:

Final Notes:

Combatants Will Be Dispatched! is available to order through multiple retailers across the United States. The limited edition Blu-ray & DVD release is available to order on Amazon UK via AmazonGlobal, Rightstuf and United Publications.

(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.)