Emma: A Victorian Romance Season 2 (英國戀物語エマ ～メルダース編～, Eikoku Koi Monogatari Emma: Molders-hen) is a 2007 television anime series based on Kaoru Mori’s manga Emma. The adaptation is directed by Tsuneo Kobayashi and produced by studio Ajia-do Animation Works. Staff credits also include writer Mamiko Ikeda, and music composed by Kunihiko Ryo, both returning from the first season. The series first aired in Japan on April 2007.
Background:
“In the faraway village of Haworth, a new chapter in Emma’s life has begun. Now employed by the wealthy Mölders family, Emma has resolved to put the past behind her. She’ll have to adjust to a new house, a charming (but eccentric) new mistress, and a host of fellow servants, some with buried pasts of their own.
Meanwhile, back in London, William is doing his best to uphold his father’s wishes as the Jones family heir, but try as he might, he can’t forget Emma. Yet, whenever he feels at his worst, Eleanor is always there to comfort him with a warm, shy smile. Could the answer to his broken heart be right before his eyes?”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, August 2022.
I spoke briefly in my Season 1 unboxing post that it was quite uncommon to have anime set in other countries and when it does it had some pretty great representation. Emma: A Victorian Romance is set during the 1800s Victorian era and is not your typical fanservice anime moe show, it’s more grounded and has mature designs that a lot of seinen anime would have. What’s interesting about this season is that the staff is the same but the studio has switched from Pierrot over to Ajia-Do.
Nozomi Entertainment acquired the rights to both seasons and eventually provided a kickstarter campaign to not only dub the series but also release it on Blu-ray. The Blu-ray is an in-house upscale but from the footage that I saw, looked pretty decent and is good enough to watch in this approach. The dub was produced by them as well, with the aim to try and be faithful to the British accent though they still used American voice actors so the logic isn’t going to work but they did try their best to put a lot more effort into them.
As the series didn’t get released in the UK before, Anime Limited acquired the UK & Ireland rights for Emma: A Victorian Romance and released them on home video using Nozomi’s discs and dub. The seasons were split up as expected but were released pretty close to each other which is good. Season 1 was planned for July but got pushed into early August, while Season 2 manages to keep the August release window.
Collector’s Edition Contents:
Just like the first season, Anime Limited also gave Emma: A Victorian Romance a collector’s edition release which is also consistent in both design and content.
The package is presented as a rigid box (using a really nice texture) with an Amaray Blu-ray case to house the discs and alongside the case is a 44-page booklet. The booklet features character designs, Japanese packaging artwork and an interview with author Kaoru Mori.
The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The collector’s edition Blu-ray set is limited to 1000 units for SRP £59.99.
The series was made available for pre-order during Anime Limited’s June Early Bird pre-order line-up for £34.99, but with the Anime (Un)Limited discount lowered the price to £31.50.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with Amaray packaging and clean artwork
- Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
- 44-page booklet
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 30th August 2022
The collector’s edition release for Emma: A Victorian Romance Season 2 contains all 12 episodes across two Blu-ray discs. The encode & authoring were produced by Nozomi Entertainment & Rightstuf. The audio options available include Japanese with English subtitles and the Headline Studios English dub commissioned by Nozomi from their kickstarter campaign.
The yellow subtitles are unlockable during playback, and the regions are locked to Blu-ray players set to B.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Linear PCM 2.0 English Linear PCM 5.1 Japanese Linear PCM 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Upscale format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | B |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 2 BD-50s |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 1:
- Episode 0: Intermission
Disc 2:
- Clean Opening “Silhouette of a Breeze (Celt Ver.)”
- Clean Closing “Rondo of Lilybell”
- Japanese Commercials
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Emma: A Victorian Romance Season 2 is available to order across multiple retailers in the United Kingdom. The collector’s edition Blu-ray can be acquired through Amazon UK, Anime Limited’s store, MVM’s Anime-on-Line, 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.)
The Normanic Vault 
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