Hare Hare Yukai Madness!

You know after all the “hoo-haa” thats going on around Odex and the anime community in Singapore, i must admit that even an anime freak like me must come to understand and stand up for my actions for once. Yes i admit that ive been downloading anime for the past 4 years and with this saga continuing, it got me thinking: What have i done to give back to the anime industry itself? At least on a personal level, thinking of those anime that i downloaded, it must be Karma acting up again and slapping me with the dreadful Odex letter a month back.

Now im not saying that i would start to support Odex now that ive got the short end of the stick, nor will i ever support them in the future, but hey, there must be other ways in which you can support the anime industry without going through Odex. Nor am i saying that im completely adhering to the binding regulations set by them. If you cant break the rules, bend them. Its still a risk im willing to take at least when it comes to previewing upcoming animes in the future (where unlicensed animes are concerned). It will get harder, relying more on my intuition than ever, doing lots of research on its background and so forth. It might be easier if they originate from works of manga, since i could potentially get a lot of material ahead of the anime releases (aka: Scanlations). Since it is quite well known (and often disputed) that fansubs are the ones that creates an awareness on a particular series, and having gray areas in the copyright laws at least leaves room for exploration.

So to correct my karma imbalances, my first step started a week ago, getting the authentic Blood+ figurine, which deserves my money personally. Now that has been settled, ive set my targets on the cult-status, The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi anime.

Im getting crazy about the song Hare Hare Yukai, the ending song for the series. It all started out when i was surfing around Youtube when i came across music samples from the series’s character CDs. I had no idea what it contained inside, till i discovered that there were a total of 9 CDs, each for representing a certain character. I got the following image from this blog. Its an impressive collection i must say!

I then noticed that the seiyus each have their own rendition of Hare Hare Yukai song and each of them have distinctly different lyrics depending on the character’s background. I started sampling Kyon’s track and that’s when i started laughing at his rendition. Sarcastic, uninterested tones in the music just added to the hilarity to the already hilarious lyrics. I got so addicted to the song that i might purchase the CD after all.

Since i only liked Kyon’s version alot as compared to the other characters I’ve sampled. I think ill just purchase 1 of the volume and that is obviously Kyon’s. Priced at approximately SGD 15 bucks and comes with free shipping to boot, ill just might get it at play-asia.com.

If you want to listen to the song, please click here.

The lyrics are funny and it comes with the English translation, you should check out here.

Hell i think i might just get the entire DVD collection of the series, now that it has been licensed that the DVD volumes are slowly being released.

The first 2 volumes are already out. They even comes with a limited edition series, packed with goodies and a nice packaging, but i think thats an overkill and its a little pricey for me. So ill just be happy with the normal edition one. Both DVDs come with 4 episodes each, in chronological order, as opposed to the TV broadcast. So the episode order is all rearranged to make a smoother flow of the storyline. They also come with lots of extra, including a short making, textless opening and ending, previews, trailers and a couple more. It does come with subtitles and english/japanese option, so the flexibility is there.

The reason why i want to buy this series, is because firstly, its short, totalling just about 14 episodes in total (so that it doesnt burn my wallet collecting!). Secondly, the extras and price is reasonable. Thirdly, Odex plays no part in this. Fourthly, there are extra scenes added to the series, with a number of visual edits not shown in the TV broadcasts. Inconsistencies in the visuals are edited and corrected, so in a sense you get a really good deal in terms of getting a real polished series that the directors all wanted us all to see.

Im getting the following DVDs on Ebay. I found a merchant selling the DVD, factory sealed at a cheaper rate compared to amazon.com, and it offers a fixed flat rate on international shipping. Combine those two prices, and its still cheaper than what amazon’s offering. Furthermore, the feedback from the seller looks really good and i might give it a try. No one can blame me on maximisng bang for buck, especially when it comes to imported products can they?