Which anime DVDs have the best extras?

[BrendaBat]

Here's my list:


Legend of Himiko: The voice actor dating sim game.
This extra alone is totally worth the price of the third DVD! Since the anime was based on a dating sim, the voice actor interviews are set up like one of those multiple choice dating sim games (except its G-rated ). You take the role of the interviewer and the questions you ask will either cause the voice actors to answer politely, get creeped out and leave the room, storm out in a huff, or kick your ass. Five different actors are featured in the game (Jack Taylor, Lisa Ortiz, Tristian Goddard, Jessica Cavello, and James Wolfe) and its one of the few DVD games that’s actually fun to play!


World of Narue: Anime idol.
The anime idol feature shows how Michelle Knotz landed the role of Nagi by winning a Who’s Line is it Anyway-style acting contest at an anime convention. The clips of the contest are fun to watch and I really wish another company would try doing one like it someday.


Nerima Daikon Brothers: ADVid notes and commentary.
I almost never watch shows in Japanese once I’m used to the dub (especially if the show has super-literal subtitles). But the pop-up notes in Nerima Daikon Brothers actually make it worth seeing the show again in Japanese (if only to find out what crazy Japanese pop-culture thing inspired each episode). And it’s even better when Nabeshin is doing commentary tracks.


Boogiepop Phantom: Commentary on EVERY episode.
American cast and crew members do commentaries for each episode. Boogiepop is a terribly confusing mindf**k of a show and the detailed commentaries actually helped me make sense of it.


Noein: Outtakes.
Because they’re so hilarious that they almost make up for the fact that the actual show makes no sense at all.


Magic Users Club: Outtakes.
The outtakes have a lot of fun improv numbers and are fun to watch over and over again.


Slayers NEXT and TRY: Behind the scenes featurettes.
The interviews were a lot of fun to watch and it showed that the actors and staff genuinely love the show. And it's really neat to actually see the actors let loose in the booth.


Slayers Premium: Crispin Freeman.
Crispin Freeman got more screen time than Lina Inverse on this DVD. It was a smart move on ADV’s part because, aside from being kinda lousy, Premium is also very short for a movie (only 30 minutes). He has a lot of great insights about the show and his commentary is hilarious.


Evangelion: Spike Spencer’s “alternate ending” of the final episode.
If you’ve heard it, you know why.


Irresponsible Captain Tylor (TV and OVA sets): The Extras DVDs, the soundtracks, mini-novels, and the translator notes.
The Tylor sets included HOURS of extra featurettes from Japan. And it was great to read small excerpts of the Japanese novels (even if they were just teasing us with something we can never have ). The translator’s notes were a lot of fun to read, too and really made me appreciate how hard a translator's job is.



If I missed any great ones, please let me know! :anime:

[Juu-kuchi]

Escaflowne (TV series and movie): While markedly sparse (I mean, one segment a disc sans the 1st and last DVD), the DVD extras of Escaflowne are kept quite afloat thanks to the added segments of Club Escaflowne. There are some great behind-the-scenes moments with regards to the show, and of course there is a lot of humour to be had with Seki "Van" Tomokazu running a bar, serving drinks, and making small talk with other cast members of the show. Helped also, that we got 4 music videos (including the textless opening), and also cutscenes from the PS game as well.

Sparse as they are compared to later styles of anime releases, I do think the extras in the DVD release of Escaflowne deserve some distinction.

The Escaflowne movie Ultimate Edition worked quite well. You got an isolated score, a second disc with interviews and promotional tours of the movie (including the appearance of Hitomi's English VA), and other fun stuff that I can't remember exactly.

I'll think of more as time goes on, but that's just one.

[FlyByNite77]

Eureka Seven has some great extras. The commentary from the various japanese VA's on the episodes are pretty hillarious and the little behind the scenes stuff as well.

I almost wish the US release had as few episodes per disc as the Japanese release just because the US release by letting us having more episodes per disc and saving us $$$, ended up cutting out like 1 or 2 of the commentary episodes that were from the Japanese release.