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Feature Presentation:
Special thanks to Geneon Entertainment for sending a copy for a review for this site. I just love this series, it touch your heart, while giving you a laughing good time. As Aoi & Kaoru's relationship keep on growing, while, the other girls; Taeko, Tina & Mayu, are giving him a hard time to be, well, faithful! This time, sexy swimsuit! They are off to the beach & there you will get to meet a Taeko's cosuin, Chika, who is really cute! However, Chika got her own ideas, trying to get Taeko & Kaoru together, in the bath! Then, one summer day, Tina planned another trip for the photo club & invited everyone like before, but ended up going alone with Kaoru! Oh, it's so funny how the day goes & they ended up in a love hotel? Boy, Kaoru sure got trouble, but don't worry, it all worked out! Chika also visited the Sakuraba mansion to visit Taeko! At last, there is a festival at Kaoru's college, & our photo club gang decided to do a cosplay cafe! You should give a pause when Tina & Taeko try out the costumes! Some are naughty! You guess it, it got pretty mess up! Don't worry, Aoi saves the day & you see a side of her you never seen before & have a new experience! You're really going to enjoy as our love story continues. I do note, the introduction have change to Version 02.
Video:
Geneon Entertainment did a very great job, again. I found no problem, the image are clear & the color looks perfect. There is some watermarks done for the introduction & ending credits (they are translated in English). EPS 18 have the original Japanese credit ending. Since all the episodes are on one single track on the DVD, there is no loading time or changing tracks when you move on to the next episode. Each episode is split into 5 parts: introduction, part A, part B, ending & the preview! I do note that you can skip all those warnings & logos when you first load the DVD by just pressing the "Menu" button on your remote control.
Dubbing: English:
The English dubbing is well done. They even capture the emotions & impacts during certain parts of the series. The dialogue even includes Japanese terms, like "chan" or "sama". This way, Geneon Entertainment can get it to be as close to the Japanese dialogue, since its mostly involve Japanese culture. Chika's voice really hit it, cute & almost the same as the original Japanese! It's about 85% of the original Japanese.
Audio 01: English 2.0:
No problem found.
Audio 02: Japanese 2.0:
No problem found.
Subtitle:
Geneon Entertainment have selected a great font, very easy to read. They use green for the introduction & ending themes, white for any text subtitling & yellow for the dialogues. One track is for the sign subtitling & the other one is for the Japanese dialogue. I might note that every even numbered episodes, the intro & ending subtitles are in English, while the odd numbered episodes are in Japanese original text on this volume. Since the EPS 18 have a special ending, if you put the sign only subtitle track, the lyrics are in English, but for the Japanese dialogue subtitle track, it's in Japanese text.
Menu Option:
Like the other volumes, the menu is set up same way with a summer feeling sunflower background. The photo album does change with images from the episodes on this volume. It's very simple & there is a small animation, just a little white flash when you enter the menu & select the options. I didn't like it much, it doesn't suit the menu. There is the "Play All", "Screen Access", "Set Up" & "Extras". Also, a different background music is playing, another soft nice music that I really like. However, it's only for the main menu, there is no music playing in the other section of the menu.
DVD Extras:
There isn't much on this volume, just the non-credit opening for the second version. There is also a little conceptual art gallery, which is pretty interesting to know how the series was designed! Also, there is English credit ending list for EPS 18, since they kept the original Japanese ending credit. That's pretty much it.
Packaging:
Another colorful package, mathcing the other volumes. You get the cute Aoi & Chika at the beach! In the back, you get alot of screenshots. Also, the flowers have change, here you will get cute little sunflowers all over the design. The insert got the chapter list with a screenshot from each episode, & a little information about what's a "Umi-no-ie". Inside the insert is another mini-poster of the beautiful Aoi. Very nice! On the DVD disc itself, it's little sunflowers all over on a transparent background. It would be nice if it was colorful as the rest of the design. Oh, since the DVD case is a clear one, you get to see the reversible cover, which is as good as the default one. You get to see Tina & Taeko in kimonos, with Aoi.
PC Viewing:
Watching it on the PC is the same as watching it on the TV. Very clean, no problem at all, very little pixel (little squares popping in & out), both normal mode & full screen mode. The sound is just great. The episodes are place on one single track as you play the episodes, so loading time is really small. You can fast forward to the first episode to the last episode with one move on your mouse! Like on your regular DVD player, you can skip the warnings & logos when you load the disc, just use the "menu" option to go to the menu screen.
Overall DVD Rating:
I just love this series & I can't get enough of it. I find it very sweet & it does move your heart. As the love story continues, you do feel a little pity for the poor Kaoru going through all that torture, but it's all in good fun! If you got this far, do continued! As always, I do suggest to watch it with someone you love!
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