Blu-ray Import Catch-Up: Shirokuma Cafe Animate LE Volumes 5-7

Had been waiting for the latest volume of Shirokuma Cafe to come in before I made this post. Actually been awhile since I last made one on my anime BD imports…and no, the last one which focused on the BD boxset of TYPE-MOON Fes. doesn’t really count since that was more of a event home video release (even though it had a new episode of Carnival Phantasm).

So anyway, this is a catch-up post on the Animate LE BD volumes 5-7 for the Shirokuma Cafe anime series.

Photos can be enlarged by right-clicking “View Image”

First up is volume 5 which features Sasako and Handa on the slip-cover case for the BD.

Actually have a somewhat interesting story when I bought this volume. Originally pre-orders for this volume had apparently sold out on Animate’s online shop about 2 weeks before its official release date and I hadn’t put in mine yet since I usually don’t do it until about a week before. Wasn’t too worried initially when I found out since previous volumes had also sold out of pre-orders a few weeks in advance before it was re-stocked on the week it was released. For some reason though, this particular volume wasn’t re-stocked for about a month after it was released which had me in a little bit of a panic. I thought of acquiring it on Yahoo Japan Auctions if no re-stock was coming at all but even they only had about two sellers who listed the 5th volume for sale, both of which I had missed out on and no other copies had popped up at all over the next few weeks. This made me constantly check on Animate’s listing for it wishing a miracle would happen.

I was about to give up hope of ever being to buy this volume when one day Animate had listed it as “stock available and ready to be shipped”. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance in my putting in my order for it, which was a good thing because only a few days later after my order was confirmed and shipped from Animate, the listing for it went back to “sold out” and no re-stock has happened since then. Had I probably waited a few more days to put in an order then I would’ve lost a final chance to get the 5th volume!

So yeah, that’s the story behind the purchase of this volume. As for the on-going bonus original goods that comes with each volume, a mini stainless steel tray was included for this one.

Next up, volume 6 featuring my favourite character from the series on the cover…Llama-san! XD. As talked about above on the 5th volume, this volume also sold out of pre-orders about 2 weeks before it was officially released and I had still been waiting for a re-stock for the 5th volume at the time when it happened. I wasn’t going to sit around and wait for Animate to re-stock this and decided to grab it off a seller who had listed a brand new copy for sale on Yahoo Japan Auctions.

The original goods that comes with this volume is funny to me, a hair scrunchy! Obviously the series must have quite a number of female fans if this type of item is included as a bonus.

Volume 7 features Mr. Full-time Panda and Rin Rin on the cover!

And the bonus goods for it is an ear phone jack.

Now for an Animate store exclusive bonus item from importing their limited BD volumes, a special audio commentary CD featuring the voice actors of Shirokuma, Panda and Penguin (Takahiro Sakurai, Jun Fukuyama & Hiroshi Kamiya) given out to those who bought volumes 4-6.

I actually got this off Yahoo Japan Auctions because as stated before, volumes 5 and 6 had originally sold out on Animate’s online shop and having only being able to purchase volumes 4 and 5 from Animate, I’d have to wait for a re-stock for the 6th volume to be able to buy it in order to receive this CD. Couldn’t be bothered waiting for that (and there’s no guarantee it would’ve been re-stocked given how things went for the 5th volume) and bought it from the same seller who sold the 6th volume on Yahoo Japan, even if it meant I had to spend more money to get this CD.

As for the CD itself, there are three tracks on it with the first one having the three main voice actors introducing themselves, while the 2nd one contains their audio commentary of episode 23 of the series, and the 3rd one a free talk between them.

So after the whole fiasco with the ordering of the 5th volume, I’ve decided not to risk any chances and save myself from the worry of missing out on any future volumes by having placed pre-orders for volumes 8-13 already. On another note, it’s interesting that the series blu-ray format home video release will also be sold at other retailers now such as Amazon Japan and CDJapan although it is likely to not have the bonus goods that comes with the Animate BD exclusive release (such as the bonus drama CDs and original goods) given the description from both sites. Part of me thinks that the manga author, Aloha Higa, must’ve worked out a deal with Avex Entertainment in getting royalties from the anime series, which now allows other retailers besides Animate to sell the series home video release on the blu-ray format. Of course, it’s all speculation from me and is in no way definite that is the case for why this is happening but it is interesting nonetheless.

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