I hope to make this short...

I stopped by Media Play after dinner and picked out a couple more DVDs, as if I have time to watch more than what's on my plate right now.

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket was a steal at $13.99, and I had been looking to get back and actually finish Fullmetal Alchemist/Hagane no Renkinjutsushi.

I had at first only written it [HagaRen] off to be a flavor of the month series as people could tell me they liked it, but they really couldn't explain well what it was about and why they liked it; I saw one episode and liked that one episode, but I sat on it and until nearly before it was licenced, I watched a couple more. The story seemed to be really more engrossing than I had originally anticipated (due to fans' comments of the above), so I knew I would be coming back to this when it came out on DVD here.

I was a little anxious about its licensure because it was done by FUNimation. I had my first experience with them, as many people did, when they did a very, very poor job with Dragonball Z (which they are thankfully making up for). I wasn't as vocal as many others because I had heard and seen that some of thier more direct to DVD releases were done a lot better than the Dragonball franchise had been done.

I checked the back of the box in the store to see what all it entailed, especially as far as extras. What surprised me were Japanese Promos/commmercials. I got home and decided to check it out; I was surprised and very pleased. Not only were there more than two short commercials (4 CMs in all - 2 short and 2 long) but all of the internal text was left virtually alone! I was worried about the opening and ending sequences having the American title pasted over them and the Japanese text removed; likewise, I was surprised to see it all in tact.

I'll be back later with a more full review of the DVD for HagaRen, but right now I need some sleep.

FUNimation, thank you for producing a wonderful first volume of HagaRen. The translations are very well done, all of the internal writings and text are left completely alone - it really is how anime DVDs should be made.