Video is very good quality, a bit fuzzy occasionally but not distractingly so. I would say DVD rip, but at the very end of one of the later episodes I saw something that looked suspiciously like a vhs glitch. Coupled with the occasional fuzziness, this would point to a vhs rip. That said, if it is a vhs rip then it is a very good one.

No problems with audio. Good channel separation (I noticed the channel separation because I kept seeing lines subtitled when there was no audio, then realized that the wires for my right speaker had fallen out :)

No problems with audio. Good channel separation (I noticed the channel separation because I kept seeing lines subtitled when there was no audio, then realized that the wires for my right speaker had fallen out :)

Box art is very nice, no complaints there. As for the show itself, I still haven't made up my mind about that. The story is about a girl called Shiina (Hina in the subs), who befriends a strange star-shaped creature that she names Hoshimaru (Circle Star). What I had gathered from reviews before I watched this series was that the first half was Pokemon-like and the second half was shocking. This is nonsense. This series is shocking enough from the second episode onwards. The second half is just *more* shocking. There are many problems with this series. The pacing is very inconsistent, the story is far too condensed, characters appear and disappear with little or no explanation. The story starts so many threads that it is like a completely different show every few episodes, and only a few of these threads are tied up at the end. New characters are still being introduced in the second-to-last episode. And despite all this, I'm left wanting more. Something about this series kept me watching. In fact, I ended up watching the whole series in one day. Apparently there is a second season in the making, which I look forward to. I certainly wouldn't recommend this to everyone, but I am glad to have watched it and I will probably watch it again. If you do watch it, I think it is best not to expect anything from. Definitely do not expect it to be uplifting. Overall this boxset was very good and aside from some small problems with the subs, there is nothing to stop me from recommending it as a good way to see this unusual series.