Finally, after over one year since it was released in Japan, Your Name came out on Blu-ray and DVD in November in Australia, distributed by Madman. The Australia Your Name Limited Edition comes with both the Blu-ray and DVD copy of the movie, six art cards and a 130 page booklet. Unlike the limited editions released in US or the various collector editions from Japan (with English subtitles too, so is import friendly), the Australian version comes with a lot less, which is disappointing, but is also cheaper as a result (A$60 RRP but if your timing is good, you can get it as low as A$40 a few days after release).
Packaging:
The Limited Edition comes in a really nice slip case, with the front cover showing off the core promotional artwork.
The back is the teaser artwork (which is the back perspective of the front cover) and it is printed in a reflective shiny film, making it hard to photograph but looks great.
There are two compartments, one is for the two discs and the other is for everything else.
The Movie and Special Features:
For the review of the movie, refer to this page. Otherwise, the packaging containing the two discs is not your standard Blu-ray case (which is actually slightly disappointing). The front cover uses an artwork that was seen on various posters during its theatrical run (and one of the most iconic and saddest scenes in the movie) but the back is the same artwork as the slip case.
The inside has the Australian Blu-ray cover artwork and the vibrant colors makes it look so nice.
Of course, the main thing are the discs containing the movies. First off, the special features are disappointing. At best, the vast majority of it is simply padding. The following is a list of what you get on the discs:
- various Japanese promotional trailers
- the English trailer
- reel of other anime distributed by Madman
- the Makoto Shinkai Filmography Featurette
- Japanese TV special
The Makoto Shinkai Filmography Featurette sounds fancy but is nothing special since it just chronologically lists the various movies by Makoto Shinkai along with some trailer scenes.
The best extra and the only one worthwhile, is the Japanese TV special for promoting the film. At 22 minutes long, the voice actors of Taki and Mitsuha talk about the themes of Makoto Shinkai's movies and what makes them so great. They go to the real life locations of 5 Centimeters Per Second to show how the movie adapted the environment into the animation, and finally finishes off with a quick Q&A with Makoto Shinkai himself. It was interesting and something new. It really is a shame that Madman couldn't carry over some of the other numerous special features from the Japanese edition.
Both the Blu-ray and DVD contain the same extras but obviously the Blu-ray is higher quality at 1080p resolution.
Art Cards:
The Limited Edition contains six art cards, which is four more than the normal Blu-ray. They look nice but nothing too amazing.
Booklet:
The chunkier aspect of the Limited Edition would be the 130 page booklet. It is not so much an artbook than a proper book filled with contents such as cast interviews, staff interviews, promotional illustrations, pre-production sketches and a Q&A with Makoto Shinkai himself. It was an interesting read since the text was translated into English and you get to see the thinking behind the initial concepts of the film and the decisions which were made to get what we saw in the final version. Interspersed are still scenes from the throughout the movie, which makes it feel like a lot more effort has been put into this book than what you'd expect. The book is hefty (and it is to the point where when you first pick up the Limited Edition, it's a lot heavier than what it looks like) and the paper used is high quality glossy paper. The best part is that you glean so much more behind the film and all the detailed thinking that went behind it.
Below are some lower-quality sample pages of the booklet.
Overall:
Your Name is a fantastic movie and the reason you'll buy a physical copy whether it is on Blu-ray or DVD. The Limited Edition is roughly 50% more expensive than just the movies themselves and you get an artbook, fancier packaging and some additional art cards. Whether that is worth the premium is hard to say but the extras are great and the booklet interesting. The only slight negative are the lack of meaningful special features if like me, you want to stay in the world of Your Name longer after you finished watching the movie.
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For reviews of other things, have a look at this page.
