Video:

The video quality isn't bad on this at all, but (as already noted) there is a grossly uneven spread of episodes that doesn't quite make sense to me. Disc 1 features the standard 4 episodes that one would expect of such a collection, but then the remaining 9 episodes are crammed onto Disc 2 - I just don't get that! The quality wasn't really that bad (unless you have a huge screen or an impeccable eye for this stuff), but it's obviously not as good as it could have been. There are also some small instances where a scene will jump or where the credits are cut short on the second disc at times (due to the obvious space constraints). Still, it won't really affect your experience and for the price it's a dream!

Audio:

The audio was great! The English dub was actually better than most and the sound quality seemed good on my stereo. I don't normally watch 'dubs', but it worked for this one and I was feeling lazy. I noted that the Japanese audio seemed to be a little softer than the English dub, so I needed to adjust my volume to compensate whenever I watched an episode that way. Still, there wasn't really anything to complain about here - just something to keep in mind for when you switch between languages.

Subtitle:

Maybe it's because I really enjoyed the English dub this time, but I just didn't feel that the subtitles were 'up to snuff'. They weren't bad (I don't think a 4 out of 5 is bad), but they didn't stand out in such a way as to get a higher ranking. While some shows are translated perfectly in a way that reads and sounds well, this show fell a little short in that respect. I'd recommend watching it with the dub unless you're really that adamantly against it (or you understand Japanese).

Comment:

I was really impressed with this collection overall. The packaging is great (there should be a section to comment on that), there's a couple of small extras besides the episodes themselves (again, a section to discuss these would be good), and it's a really great price to get the whole series. Aside from the technical aspects (which I've already discussed more than I usually would), this is a great anime and easily one of my favourites. I highly recommend it to anyone and think that you couldn't beat this collection as the perfect means to get. As I've said, it's one of my favourites and this format was plenty fine for me. Go ahead and order it on my recommendation - you'll like it! :)

Video:

Disk 1 contains only four episodes and looks excellent. Disk 2, which has nine episodes, is a bit problematic, with occasional pixellation during fast pans and abrupt movement. This increases as you reach later episodes. I didn't find it a big deal, but if you're super picky, you might. Episode 13 has genuinely distracting pixellation during hard panning and with abrupt movements (for example, a skirt suddenly swishing). But the episode seems tacked on, with the proper close to the series in episode 12, so it's no disaster. Still a shame, and too bad the episodes hadn't been more evenly distributed across the two disks.

Audio:

I listened to this under headphones connected to my Toshiba television. No major sound setup for me, then. But with what I have, no complaints about the sound.

Subtitle:

Contentwise, these seemed fine. The subs on the second disk appear low on the screen at times, with descenders sometimes meeting the image bottom. But you can always easily read the subs, and they read well. To me, that's what important.

Comment:

This was a much better series than I expected, as I usually prefer action-oriented anime. Visually it's very pretty, with a rural setting. The story (a mix of sci fi and romance, with comedy thrown in) plays like a soap opera at times, but the characters are well conceived, and I found myself giving the plot a lot of slack because I liked the characters so much. Really enjoyable anime and well worth the price.