DVD Corner

Princess Jellyfish- The Complete Series Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Review

“Princess Jellyfish” is engaging, but it doesn’t really go anywhere.

In this 11 episode anime series, “Princess Jellyfish” revolves around the adventures of a 20 something, Otaku, Jellyfish loving, illustrator (Tsukimi) who lives in all-girl apartment with 4 single, eccentric, stylish hating Otakus. The bulk of this 11 episode series involves plots about a cross dressing son of a rich politician (Kuranosuke), Kuranosuke’s brother Shu, the all-girl apartment complex possibly being sold and turned into a hotel, a shady real estate developer named Inari, a blackmail plot, and a plot for the girls to raise money to buy the apartment and keep it from being sold.

It feels like I often say this, but “Princess Jellyfish” is certainly one of the oddest mainstream anime series out there. While it’s not hard to see why people fall for the screwball comedy or the likeable (albeit loud) eccentric characters, the series is rather baffling as it largely focuses on a rather dull real estate plot and really doesn’t go anywhere. By the time the eleventh episode rolls around, you essentially realize this is just one very minor coming-of-age story in Tsukimi’s life. You get the impression there should be more stories about Tsukimi’s life, but alas, there are no other episodes which makes you wonder what the point of this series actually is. It feels like we’re getting a tiny part of the story here. Perhaps the manga the anime series is based on elaborates on the story more, but I don’t know for certain.

My favorite part of the show surprisingly has nothing to do with the episodes themselves. It’s the opening title credit that pays homage to cinematic classics I got a kick out of. For some reason, I liked seeing the cast of characters in scenes from “Star Wars,” “Mary Poppins,” “Singin’ In The Rain,” “Kill Bill,” etc. It really catches your attention as opposed to most opening titles.

Summary: The quirky characters and zany comedy may appeal to some anime fans, but overall, I can’t help but feel like viewers are getting short changed by only getting 11 episodes.

Video/Audio:

Once again, the white colors are a little too bright for my taste here, but other than that, the colors and animation looks quite sharp in 1080p.

The Blu-ray set contains English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 audio tracks. The English track is much better than the average dub and is equal with the Japanese track in my opinion.

Extras:
* Trailers for “Okami-San,” “Black Butler,” “One Piece,” “Romeo X Juliet,” “Hetalia World Series,” “.hack//Quantum,” “Sengoku Basara,” “Birdy The Mighty: Decode,” and Funimation.com.
* DVD copies (in a Blu-ray case).
* Episode 1 and 11 commentaries by the English voice director/voice actor, a voice actress, and another voice actor. You know the drill…
* 2 promo videos and a U.S. trailer.
* Textless opening and closing songs.

*Episode 11 commentary by the English voice director/actor and 4 voice actresses. Very talkative.

* “The Princess Jellyfish Field Guide”- Text classifications about humans and jellyfish.
* “Tsukimi And Jiji’s Jellyfish Tour”- Japanese voice actresses Kana Hanazawa and Mamiko Noto tour an aquarium.
* “Go, Sisterhood Explorers!”- 6 weird shorts with the Sisterhood characters out on adventures.
* “Princess Jellyfish Heroes”- 4 shorts featuring Banba, Mayaya, Jiji, Chieko, Shu-Shu and Mr. Hanamori.

March 16, 2012 - Posted by nicklyons1 | Blu-Ray review | Funimation, Princess Jellyfish- The Complete Series Blu-ray Review, Princess Jellyfish- The Complete Series DVD Review