Hula Fulla Dance (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing

Hula Fulla Dance (フラ・フラダンス, Fura Fura Dansu) is a 2021 original theatrical anime film directed by Shinya Watada, and produced by Bandai Namco Pictures. Staff credits include chief director Seiji Mizushima, screenplay writer Reiko Yoshida, character designer Hiroko Yaguchi, and music composer Michiru Oshima. The film was theatrically released in Japan in December 2021.

Background:

“Hiwa Natsunagi is a high school student living in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture. Worried about what to do with her life after graduation, she spots a poster for Spa Resort Hawaiians – the “Hawaii of Tohoku”, a place where her sister used to work – and applies to their hula dancer campaign on a whim.

Despite her lack of experience, Hiwa is accepted for the job, and starts on the path towards becoming a Hula Girl with her classmates Kanna, Ranko, ‘Ohana and Shion. However, unable to keep in step with one another due to their differing personalities, the first stage ends in disaster. Called the “most pitiful rookies ever”, the girls are disheartened, but they learn to share the good and bad, and strengthen their bonds despite the occasional fumble. With their hearts and minds firmly set, the girls grace the stage once more…”

Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, November 2023.

Anime have featured a wide variety of topics, themes and cultural elements over the years and a common trope that you might have noticed is that in some anime (and especially in some notable games like Persona 5) the story would eventually land in Hawaii. And one notable tradition in Hawaii is their hula dances which is what Hula Fulla Dance is all about, and to me that’s a pretty neat idea to work on.

Given the lack of promotion outside Japan, it’s got an interesting number of staff members involved. The chief director many will know for his work on Fullmetal Alchemist, then you have the Gundam Build Divers director, the Violet Evergarden series composition writer and on top of that the character designer for Aikatsu! which is another magical girl series for the younger audiences. Knowing all of that I’m curious to see how Hula Fulla Dance delivers in its execution.

While Aniplex are involved with the film, it’s not been licensed for any other English-speaking territories other than Anime Limited for the UK & Ireland territories, though you could suggest that Crunchyroll have the rights as they did make the anime available on their streaming platform for the US & Canada territories.

Now despite what Anime Limited have mentioned on their info sheet, Bandai Namco Pictures is a spin-off of Bandai Namco Filmworks (formerly known as Sunrise who produced Gundam and Love Live!), so in a sense this is the same studio behind the likes of Gintama‘s later seasons, Aikatsu! and Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun.

Collector’s Edition Contents:

Anime Limited like to provide collector’s edition releases for their film catalogue, both the most popular and the nichest so it’s nice to see Hula Fulla Dance receive the same treatment.

The collector’s edition package is presented as a rigid box with a Scanavo clear case housing the Blu-ray, plus you also have a booklet that includes character designs and an essay written by Jonathan Clements.

The artwork is free of any information on all sides of the box and the info sheet covers the BBFC content, information and specification. The collector’s edition Blu-ray set is limited to 1000 units for SRP £39.99. A standard Blu-ray is expected to follow suit later.

I pre-ordered my copy through Anime Limited’s store during their early bird offer in October 2023 for £24.99 but with the Anime Unlimited membership offer at £22.49.

Physical Contents:

• Rigid Box with Scanavo packaging and clean artwork
• Info sheet with info, specification and BBFC description
• 48-page Booklet

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 6th November 2023

The collector’s edition release for Hula Fulla Dance contains the film on a single Blu-ray disc, with the encode and authoring produced by VDMS. Audio option available is Japanese with English subtitles only, as no English dub has been produced for the film.

The white subtitles are locked during playback, and the regions are locked to Blu-ray players set to B.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	Japanese
Audio	Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Video	1080p High Definition Native format 1.85:1 aspect ratio
Region	B
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	Yes
Discs	1 BD-50

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

• Previews
• Trailers

Unboxing Photos:

Final Notes:

Hula Fulla Dance is available to purchase on Blu-ray by Anime Limited in the UK & Ireland territories. The collector’s edition Blu-ray release can acquired through Anime Limited’s store.

(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.)