location: The Kitchen, as usual
mood: 
busy
I got the box set of the "It's a Rumic World" convention a long time ago, but Inever had an inclination to write about it before. Particularly since I didn't think anyone would ever read it. Of course, I still don't have more than one reader, but one is good enough, if you ask me. This is a review, of sorts, and it will undoubtedly be characteristically long-winded. No more long winded than Takahashi's series' though. I do have an awful lot of things to talk about when it comes to this set of DVDs, so anyone who might happen across this, do bear with me.
WARNING!: This post will contain spoilers. If you plan on watching these or ordering the box set for yourself, you had best stay clear of this review.
I ordered the box set from CDJapan, and it came the day after I came back from my first trip to Santa Fe (great, fantastic place, by the way, I'll be sure to recount what I was doing there later, if anyone would like the story). There areacouple ofthings thatI founda little frustrating right off the bat, or rather three specific issues that caught my attention immediately. The first was that when I first ordered the thing, I had to go to the bank and activate the transaction, because apparently they had assumed someone ELSE had gotten access to my account information and made the purchase against my will. Now, I know what this precaution was for; they were trying to protect me from identity theft, and I appreciate that greatly. However, there is something I don't understand about the whole situation, recounted now as an inconsistency. I activated the transaction with my bank and everything ended up fine, I got the package, and was told that VERY big online purchases like the one I had undergone at the time would automatically need activation. Recently though, I had gone online to order two new hard drives for my computer, and I not only was allowed to make a mistaken first purchase with Seagate (one that I had to send back to them because I failed to read the product description fully) but immediately make an even more expensive purchase for the CORRECT hard drives, and I didn't get ONE notice from my bank or the website I purchased them from telling me I had to activate the purchase. I'm not going to make any accusations, but I AM going to say that it's a little suspicious that they would make me activate a purchase from Japan, and lie to me about big purchases in the future being suspended as well. That just seems a teensy bit conspicuous to me.
The second thing that caughtmy attention was the fact that the box set came in a cardboard box, plain, white, with the words "It's a Rumic World" on the front, and that box came in another shipping box. I'm sure it was because the white box was so thin and that the thicker cardboard shipping box was there to protect against damage, but really, it was a little bit of a waste of cardboard. Luckily, I was working in a bookstore that did a lot of shipping at that point, and I was able to pawn the large shipping box off on my boss, but it still annoyed me a little.
The last issue I had at the outset was the the DVD region encoding. From what I understand, certain regions have certain coding to the DVDs that help to prevent bootlegging and other such things. I had to search for two hours on my laptop for the option to change the region on my computer to match the region on the DVDs I had just recieved, and wouldn't you know it, there are only a certain number of times you can do this. I understand why they do this, and it makes perfect sense, but it doesn't make it any less annoying to a personwho came by the DVDs honestly. Besides, there are ways to get around those types of restrictions, just like any others ;)
Let's just say that I overrode the rules so that I can watch the content on the DVDs anytime I want and leave it at that.
Now, let's get to what that flimsy white cardboard held. The description of the product did not disappoint. We have DVDs, we have figurines, we have new illustrations that are absolutely hilarious. Here are some pictures I've taken, though I do not claim to be a photographer by any means. Some of them are a LITTLEblurry, but you get the idea:
WOW! I don't usually put pictures in these things, but this time I went all out, so forgive me.
So, first of all, lets talk about the figurines. I rather like them... when they're in their boxes. I haven't taken any of them out yet, as you can see, and I don't really intend to do so. They might be worth a lot to someone in the future, and I would like to provide them with quality, undamaged toys. Besides, what am I going to use them for? I don't have much of a place to display them at this point, and even if I did, I wouldn't see any point in taking them out of their boxes then either. I'm not much into toys these days, and those that I am interested in are flexible for stop-motion purposes (I've been dabbling in animation these days, so these are beyond my uses for them).
From what I can see through the boxes, though, these are absolutely exquisite. Not a drop of paint is out of place, and the little faces are shaped and drawn on with the greatest of care. You can see all of Inuyasha's digits, including the toes! Another reason not to let them out of their boxes is that there are too many thin looking parts that could potentially be broken off. These are some of the best looking figurines I have ever seen, although, given that I don't do much collecting, that's not saying much. If anyone wants a closer look, I'll be sure to upload some even closer pictures, more carefully taken, of course.
The box containing the DVDs has two components: the fold-out DVD divider, and theinformational booklet. These all display, as you can see, original art and an assualt of information. The DVDs themselves are very lovely, with an image depicting a summary of what might be found on the episode. The designated slots for the DVDs contain the same image, and gives a mild "popping" effect when you're looking at it.
The scene on both the back side of the DVD divider and the front side of the booklet is very interesting, and full to the brim of characters from all three series represented. I did a lot of looking at this picture, and discovered a lot about the characters without even having to watch one DVD. Working my way out from the center, one can deduce that the main female characters, all three grouped together in the middle, aspire to be great cooks, but perhaps aren't quite suited to it. The radioactive looking bowl of... is that popcorn?... that Lum is holding along with the pepper and tabasco sauce is enough to make anyone wary, though the cake with the octopus tentacle and fish head poking out would be enough to convince the doubtful.
To the immediate right we see Shippou and Ten causing their usual childlike havoc, though I can't tell why Shippou is looking so angry, nor what he is angry at. It seems to me that he is upset with Ten, possibly for acting so much like a kid, but I can't be sure. Ranma in Female form, flexible and smiling, is conducting a feat worthy of a double-jointed acrobat, while Lum's "Darling" is holding up a cell phone and leaning close to the busty redhead, most likely grappling for a phone number. The far right sees Sesshoumaru curiously examining a fork, ignoring everyone in the foreground. To the immediate left of center, Ranma in his natural male form struggles to get past an eagerly hungry Inuyasha, who evidently stole a plate from the top of his stack of dishes. Genma is looking stern, though in panda form can't do much in the way of reprimading anyone.
Several minor characters from the series appear on the outskirts of the busy scene; that futon-cat-thing appears to be falling in love with the weird alien thing with the fishbowl on its head, Cherry looks like he's hanging from the frame insidiously andRyouga is hanging from one of female Ranma's teapots, looking frustrated. The perimeter work encloses the area in which the whole situation is taking place, a grand hall withscarlet draperies and a split staircase, a red carpet (significant for its celebrity connotations) trailing from it to the doorway, from which we are presumably viewing all of this.
It's rather overwhelming, but I noticed something straightaway that may just be me reading too much into things, but I'll let you be the judge of that. Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru are on opposite sides of the frame, both holding eating utensils. While Inuyasha seems only interested in digging into the cake being displayed by Kagome and Akane, not seeming to care what the tool looks like, as long as he can use it, Sesshoumaru is displaying an intense interest in the utensil, and therefore a curiosity to the point of distraction. I have always thought of Sesshoumaru as a character with a prominent trait of curiosity, and this confirms a lot of questions I may have had regarding it before. The most interesting aspect I noted between these two, however, was the utensils themselves. Inuyasha is holding a spork, a combination of a fork and a spoon, and with Sesshoumaru holding the fork, it draws my attention to the fact that Inuyasha's spork may signify his own mixed qualities. Remember what I said about Inuyasha being a synthesis of thesis and antithesis? The spork could be a symbol for that, though I'm not sure THATmuch thought was put into the picture.
Then again, you never know.
The booklet contains character designs, and what I assumeare summaries of what happens on each sections' respective DVDs. If there is any demand for this information, again, I'll get pictures, although you could find the character designs in the art books, most likely. In fact, the character designs for Inuyasha's Black Tessaiga seemed to be pulled directly from the Inuyasha art book, so I would check there first.
Now, to what's actually ON the DVDs!A couple ofthings I should mention before I get to the episodes are the opening (the same one for all three DVDs and the same one that has been on Youtube for the past couple of years when this tour began) and the DVD menu. The opening is, I assume, the precursor to the intricate picture I only just got done describing. It depicts an interaction between the main characters of all three series, minus Akane of Ranma 1/2. It wasfunny, because I had expected to see her there, but I suppose the plot of beating the living s**t out of Ataru didn't really have a place for her. Ataru proceeded to hit on female Ranma and Kagome, angering Lum, and causing everyone except for Kagome to chase him into the distance threatening him with a severe beating, even moreso than he had already sustained. The most interesting part of this, for me anyway, was the stage scene, where they all bowed at the end. All of them curtsied, but the females crossed their feet over in the back, while all of the males crossed their feet over in front. Does anyone know what that's about? I find these sorts of things interesting, evidently.
The DVD menu on all three discs interested me because the very top option was "play" which is a given. However, what WASN'T a given was the fact that there were TWO play options, and the one at the very top was in English. One would assume that the English play option would be at the bottom, if it was there at all. I wasn't even expecting an English play option, to be entirely truthful. I suppose since these series were so popular in America, it was natural to put the English option there, but putting it above the Japanese option? It seems just a little strange to me. Perhaps it was for aesthetic reasons or something....
The episodes were entertaining. No subtitles were available, quite obviously, so I was stuck guessing what was happening most of the time. I had read the manga chapters regarding Black Tessaiga, so I was already familiar with that story, familiar enough to be minimally confused, anyway. As for Urusei Yatsura and Ranma 1/2, however, I was mostly in the dark. I only had a passing familiarity with Ranma, and this new episode of Urusei Yatsura was my introduction to that series.
All I could think while watching Urusei Yatsura, in fact, was "WTF?????". That was possibly the most insanely random thing I had ever seen. At least with Ranma I could understand the underlying themes in the episode. With Urusei Yatsura, I was TOTALLY confused. The best explanation I could come out with was that during a really hot summer day, the school held some sort of competition, an obstacle course that ended in a pool. The rest eluded me to the point of my jaw dropping comically. And it really was comical; my friends all told me so. :)
Ranma 1/2 involved some sort of sleeping incense of which Akane was the victim. She ended up acting out the dreams she was having, causing choas and destruction all throughout the city. Ranma and company ended up trying desperately to wake her, eventually fighting over who was going to administer the mouth to mouth antidote; in other words, they all wanted to wake her with a kiss, much like Sleeping Beauty, only with a lot of different princes struggling for the honor. This one was cute, and I found it to be enjoyable, once again, even though I didn't know a lot of what was being said.
Inuyasha's Black Tessaiga took on a much more serious note, as is to be expected, considering this was the caliper by which the popularity of Inuyasha would be judged and the ultimate decision to continue the series with The Final Act was made with the measurements. Sesshoumaru confronts Inuyasha with a Tenseiga equipped to steal Tessaiga's powers. He demands proof that Inuyasha is the true heir to Tessaiga, and recieves it when Inuyasha's resonance with Tessaiga helps him to almost escape from the Meidou. It is essentially episode 15 of The Final Act, True Heir, only with certain parts removed and cut to make it fit into a TV slot.
They almost seem to be organized in gradations of silliness, the most ridiculous being Urusei Yatsura and the most serious being Inuyasha. There is little that these individual episodes hold in common. It was obvious that the previous two were there to make an attraction for the fans of their series, while Black Tessaiga held that pivotal quality to it that made it seem almost more important. Urusei Yatsura and Ranma 1/2 contained much more lighthearted material, including cameos from the other two premier series. Urusei Yatsura featured a Shippou keychain on a bookbag, and Kagome and Akane making an appearance at the very end, to be hit on by Ataru. Ranma 1/2 saw Lum as a server in one of Akane's dreams, and in another dream, the Inuyasha group put in an appearance as a defeated party to an unnamed villain. Black Tessaiga didn't have any cameos, but it didn't stop me from looking.
There was only one thing I can say for sure that all three of these episodes shared: All of them had a mallet scene.
. My new operating system was able to take snippets of the screen in all three cases:
In Urusei Yatsura, Ataru hit Mendou over the head with a mallet to spite him after the two worked together to get out of a "sticky" situation. In Ranma 1/2, Akane hit her teacher over the head with a mallet when she was trying to disturb her enchanted sleep. In Inuyasha, Toutousai hit his three-eyed bull over the head with a mallet to activate the projector behind his eyes.
Why is this? What does it mean? I don't know, but I'm going to confess, I don't want to meet the writers for these scripts, on the off chance that the mallet thing is a part of their social behavior.
TL;DR: There's some weird shit in this box, yo.
Tags: akane, ataru, box set, dvd, inuyasha, japanese, kagome, lum, ranma, rumic, rumiko takahashi, ryoga, ryouga, sesshomaru, sesshoumaru, world
