Right Stuf had a huge sale and I ended up buying this and a few other normally prohibitively expensive series, figuring that if I didn’t do it during the sale then I’d probably be passing on those titles forever. For the record, the series I picked up were Kimi ni Todoke, Cardcaptor Sakura, My Love Story!!, and Chihayafuru. Sentai Filmworks and NIS America are budget destroyers, although it could be worse. I could be pining for Aniplex of America titles. (Actually, there is one I want: Erased. $180 for a 12-episode, 5-hour-long series means I’ll likely never get it.)

This particular boxed set contains what I consider to be the best episodes in the series: the introduction of the series’ main characters, the beginnings of Sawako and Kazehaya’s friendship and romance, and the cementing of Sawako’s friendship with Ayane and Chizuru. I wish I could say that you could buy this boxed set and skip the rest in order to save money, but this first boxed set ends at a terrible spot and can’t stand on its own, if you’re at all invested in Kazehaya and Sawako’s romance. At the point the set ends, Kazehaya is running towards Sawako and Ryu, convinced that Sawako has feelings for Ryu and is about to confess those feelings to him.

I’ve previously reviewed this series, so I won’t say too much here, since I feel much the same way about it as I did back then. This first boxed set was so wonderful and sweet that I somehow managed to watch the whole thing over the course of a weekend. Even though I already knew how things were going to turn out, Sawako was a wonderful character who I couldn’t help but root for, and I loved watching her navigate her first friendships.

Kurumi made for a fun villain. Every time she tried to screw things up between Sawako and Kazehaya, she only made things worse for herself. Ayane’s enjoyment at teasing Kazehaya about his feelings for Sawako was equally amusing - I loved how much of a kick she got out of watching the two of them blush and stammer over each other.

One other thing I liked about this particular portion of the series was that it devoted three whole episodes to Sawako, Ayane, and Chizuru encountering a rough spot in their friendship, navigating their feelings, and resolving everything. No time for romance during this part - Kazehaya only jumped in after everything was over, using his status as the most popular guy in school to make it less likely that anyone would ever try to use gossip and bullying to go after Sawako again.

All in all, this was an excellent start to the series, the anime equivalent of a warm, fuzzy blanket.

Extras:

For the price, you’d think there’d be a decent selection of extras, but not so much. The set includes a clean opening and closing, and that’s it.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )