Ichigo Masimaro lives again! Anime purchase antics

(tags anime, Ichigo Masimaro, Sugar, purchase, DVD Region 2)

As a fanatic still fuming, I was looking forward to the Ichigo Masimaro Original Video Animation series (苺ましまろ OVA). I didn't pre-order it though, so I was worried that it would be out of stock or the omake ran out. To make matters worse I was doing a lot of overtime from Thursday till Saturday midnight. I kept on thinking of excuses to get away from work but I couldn't even execute the locker maneuvers (sneak away from work, buy something, stick in the locker, go back to work).

So work says I don't have to come in on Sunday. Still I waste a perfectly good morning waiting for the delivery guy. It turns out he delivers the Rozen Maiden ouverture DVD (ローゼンメイデンオーベルチューレ), which I forgot I ordered at Chara-Ani. I actually planned to buy it at a store today. Great stuff this senility. I'm not watching this until I finish watching Rozen Maiden Traumend. For some reason I'm stuck at episode 11.

I wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing any omake, so I decided to first go to Sannomiya's anime-oriented stores like Animate and Gamers (not Joshin or Seiden/Tsutaya) before heading to the cheap Sofmap. Animate had a huge stack, Gamers had none, and Sofmap had some at their expected 10% off retail. But Animate's "Stamp Rally" promotion (帰ってきた「苺ましまろでショー」 in 豊島公会堂) won me over: Buy/pre-order the 3 OVA DVDs at Animate and get a chance to meet up with the voice actresses (along with other fans, of course).  A chance, not a sure thing, eh?

Since Animate always sells stuff at retail price, I double checked my point card to see if I could get a discount. When I asked one of the staff, they told me I have 240,000 points, where 1 point is usually equal to 1 yen spent (but there are times when you can get double points, but I have yet to encounter it). Given the current system for discounting, that means I could discount 12,000 yen on a purchase. Jeez. Senility in all matters.

He went on to explain the difference between the former point system (which they are phasing out the end of this fiscal year, e.g. 2007/3/31) and the current computerized system in transition: When you wanted to redeem your points for a discount, you would get 3000 yen off the current purchase, get a 1000 yen value voucher good on another purchase, and you would have to select an keihin tokuten (point prize) 1000 yen telephone or 500 yen library card at the time of purchase. This was not a computerized system, BTW. With the new system, the points and point prize redeeming can be separated, no need to buy something to get a point prize. The staffer emphasized the advantage: you can defer your point prize redemption until a card with the design you want appears. I didn't understand this new system until I had it explained to me, and now I'm all for it.

Okay, so I buy A Little Snow Fairy Sugar TV-DVD set 2 of 2 (RONDO ROBE COLLECTION ちっちゃな雪使いシュガー TV-BOX 2) along with the Ichigo Masimaro OVA 1. I tell the staffer that I want to use the points towards a discount. He assembles the omake stuff then swipes my card. Perhaps I threw him for a lurch because of the amount of points, but I only realized after getting home that I didn't get a "Stamp Rally" promotion card. I called up the store, and after just calmly explaining that I got a poster but not the card (which is the only reason to pay retail), the staffer puts me on hold probably to converse with colleague working the register, then comes back with an apology ("he forgot") and an offer to give me the card when I come back in the store. Yeah, I'll come in within the week because I have to build up the points again, right?

I already watched it, twice. The first time I was annoyed with over-white Macrovision, and I ROTFLOL'd with the liberal use of the scenes from the manga. The second time was with the audio commentary by Fumiko Orikasa (折笠富美子, "Miu") and Saeko Chiba (千葉紗子, "Chika"). I was annoyed with off-the-cuff, undirected banal dialogue. It's only 25 minutes, but it comes with a 2007/4-2008/3 black and white Barasui illustration calendar and a collection box. Proper.

I was hoping for truly new content, but this mix of undone manga snippets and new transitions makes me look forward to the next 2 DVDs.