Sentai also announced licenses for Polyphonica, Special A, Tears to Tiara, and the second season to You’re Under Arrest.

Blue Drop is a 13 episode yuri/sci-fi series which aired between October and December 2007 (see my episode reviews).  Polyphonica is a 12 episode adventure/comedy series that aired between April and June 2007.  Special A is a 24 episode romance/comedy series that aired between April and August 2008 (see my episode reviews).  Tears of Tiara is a 26 episode fantasy/adventure series which started airing this past April and is still in progress.  Finally, You’re Under Arrest Season 2 continues the action/comedy series for an additional 26 episodes, which aired between April and August 2001.

You’re Under Arrest Season 2 Collection 1 has a street date of November 3rd, and includes the first 13 episodes.

Special A Collection 1 has a street date of November 10th, and includes the first 12 episodes.

The Blue Drop and Polyphonica box sets have a street date of November 17th, and contain the entire series.

Tears to Tiara Collection 1 has a street date of November 24th, and includes the first 13 episodes, a mere 5 to 7 months after they aired in Japan.

As is the case with all the new licenses from Sentai, these are all sub-only releases.

Name: Special A
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Episodes: 24
Released: April 6, 2008 – September 14, 2008
Based On: S.A. manga by Maki Minami
Director: Yoshikazu Miyao
Produced By: AIC & GONZO
US Distribution By: N/A

Major Japanese Cast

Hikari Hanazono: Yuko Goto
Kei Takishima: Jun Fukuyama
Akira Todo: Hitomi Nabatame
Tadashi Karino: Hiro Shimono
Ryuu Tsuji: Kazuma Horie
Jun Yamamoto: Tsubasa Yonaga
Megumi Yamamoto: Ayahi Takagaki
Yahiro Saiga: Kishô Taniyama
Sakura Ushikubo: Natsuko Kuwatani

Major English Cast

N/A

Scores

Animation: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Story: 6/10 (x 4 = 24 pts)
Music: 6/10 (x 4 = 24 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 7/10 (x 2 = 14 pts)
English Dubs: N/A
Gut Score: 6/10 (x 5 = 30 pts)

Total: 124/190 (65.3%)

Review

Special A, or S.A., is at it’s core a story about Hikari and her yearning to become an equal to her childhood friend Kei, who has managed to beat her at every single thing, no matter how minor or trivial, since the two met when they were little.

Granted, the story does branch out of that to include the other 5 members of the Special A – Akira, who is Hikari’s best friend, Tadashi, who has a rather abusive, but loving, friendship with Akira, Ryuu, who loves taking care of animals in his apartment, and Jun and Megumi, a twin pair who becomes ultra jealous over anyone who prevents them from monopolozing Ryuu’s attention.

The Special A itself is a super-special class of students at Hakusenkan High School which consists of the top 7 students in the school.  These students are separated out from the rest of the students via the fact that they get their own uniforms and get to hang out all day sipping tea in a big greenhouse because they’re just that damn smart.  The rest of the school is split between those who adore the Special A as celebrities and those who don’t really appreciate the highness of the group in an already high class school.

In the end, Special A does very little to captivate one’s attention.  For starters, the first half of the series is nothing short of atrocious, staying in writing and acting hell for most of it.  While the series does rebound a little in the second half, I could just never very worked up about the trials and tribulations of a bunch of rich bastards, whose primary day-to-day worries seem to be along the lines of deciding what business they’re going to buy today.

And while Hikari is supposed to be the center of the show, she’s so clueless and dense that it borders on the unbearable.  Kei could orchestrate a parade down the street in front of Hikari’s house with giant heart-shaped floats that said “I love you Hikari!” (and he could), she probably still wouldn’t get that Kei likes her.  This on top of a myriad of other reasons just makes Special A a very painful series to watch.

Perhaps the only good thing about the series – and this may be debatable about some – is it’s animation quality which I at least felt was pretty much what one would expect from a upper echelon animation company.  However, both openings and endings leave a lot to be desired in the music department.

Overall, there is little reason to watch Special A unless you’re just into watching The Random Adventures of the Rich and Famous.

First Watched: April – September 2008
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: No

Episode 17

We got some nice Akira lovey-lovey action in this episode as she starts getting all depressed over how Tadashi doesn’t understand her feelings (nor anyone else for that matter, other than Yahiro, who goes a long way towards not being an ass in this episode). I liked the Ouran Host Club gone wrong scene, though, for some reason in this episode. In any case, we appear to be heading into an area where Yahiro has repaired his relationship with the S.A. (for the time being anyway) and may become Tadashi’s rival for Akira as she struggles with how she feels.

Episode 18

Akira’s romance story arc ended faster than I thought. I thought I’d go on for a least another episode with some Yahiro thrown in, but it was Tadashi all the way (well, I guess I’m not surprised, but you never know). So, Tadashi both wins and loses in this episode, getting beaten to a pulp by both Akira and Sakura, but he still gets the girl (yay!). We had a sort-of tie-up with Jun and Sakura as well, though we may see more of that. We’ve also seen more of Megumi, and we really haven’t had a Megumi-centric episode yet, so I’d like to see one. And of course, we still have Kei and Hikari to wrap up as well in the final 6 episodes.

Episode 19

OK, I swear I didn’t see the preview or this episode before saying that I wanted to see more of Megumi since, lo and behold, we get a Megumi episode. From fears by Ryuu that Yahiro may try to still go after Akira (I guess Yahiro and the S.A.’s relationship isn’t as patched up as I thought), Megumi decides to take matters into her own hands by telling Yahiro that she loves him and wants to date him. However, they don’t end up being much of a match, and Yahiro ends up telling Megumi that she doesn’t have to worry about he and Akira anyway. Along the way we finally get to hear Megumi talk and why (she protects her voice for singing) and we finally get to hear her sing, and sing well (yay!)

In the meantime, the rest of the S.A. ends up getting lured into watching Hikari’s house for the day as her parents go out fishing while Hikari remains with a fever. Unfortunately for the S.A., Hikari regresses when she’s sick, and ends up driving everyone batty.

In the end, I thought this was one of the best episodes of the series, just because it was funny all around, and we got to explore one of the more interesting characters in Megumi. I’m not sure what’s next. We haven’t resolved anything with Ryuu, so maybe he’s next?

Episode 20

So, episode 20 ended up being Jun’s wrap-up episode as pretty much the whole episode was Sakura chasing Jun around all over the place since he won’t hang out or even look at her. Of course, the reason ends up being because he loves her, so every time he looks at her, he turns into “Inner Jun” and back. However, in the end all ends up being well. So now that’s 4 S.A. people we’ve wrapped up stories for with only Ryuu, Hikari, and Kei left (at least, I don’t think we’ve had Ryuu’s unless the BBQ episode counted as his). It looks like we’re heading into a Kei story arc next. Perhaps the concluding one?

Episode 21

Well, we’re starting to get into the thick of things, Apparently Kei’s grandfather, and his agent, Aoi Ogata, have decided that Kei’s school is too “low” for him and intend to have him transfer to a school in London. Hikari tries to argue against it, but Aoi just shows her how much above her Kei is. However, just as Aoi is telling Hikari how much trouble she’ll have if she sticks with Kei, Kei comes to her rescue. Also tired for Hikari to figure it out herself, he remarks how “it’s almost like she loves him…romantically.” Of course Hikari denies it and runs off. However, despite Kei’s assurances that he won’t transfer, I doubt it will be that easy to get out of it.

Episode 22

Kei is certainly determined to get Hikari to admit that she loves him, and he basically does after he convinces her to go out on a date with him. Of course, it can’t go all according to plan as, deciding that she’d “lose” to Kei if she admits it, Hikari stops just short. In the meantime, Aoi is going to extra lengths to get Kei to come with him back to London, going so far as causing Tadashi’s mother, the Headmistress of the school, to do something to the Special A. I’m guessing Hikari will have to eventually do something she’s never been able to do to save Kei in the end: beat him.

Episode 23

So the members of the S.A. arrive to find that the S.A. has been disbanded. Almost immediately, Jun and Megumi are pulled from the school, since the only reason they were there was the S.A., and Kei’s family forces Akira’s family to pull her out as well. Hikari tries to find some way to fix the situation, but Kei realizes there is only one fix: for him to go to London. Kei tells Hikari to go to school with her S.A. uniform on the next day, and when she gets there, she and the other members of the S.A. arrive to find Kei gone. Hikari rushes to the airport to stop Kei, but it’s already too late.

Well, I’m not sure exactly how this will end. I guess Kei could go to his grandfather and be like “dude, this isn’t cool, man.” or something. In any case, I thought the bit with Hikari running after the airplane was a bit over the top. In any case, I’m at least interested how they’re going to turn this into a happy ending. This is a very Ouran-like ending, though.

Episode 24

So that’s the end. They all go to London, and pulling every trick out of the book and using all of their skills, they finally…persuade Aoi that it’s pointless to resist? Well, yeah, that’s basically it. Hikari finally wins a “fight” with Kei, with the prize being that he comes back too, but like Kei would have been able to without Aoi finally relenting to Hikari’s determination. And then Hikari confesses to Kei and they’re all lovey dovey and the end.

Thoughts

This series had it’s up but also a lot of deep downs, lingering in the depths of hell for most of the first half before coming back and having a semi-respectable second half of the series. I guess my initial thought that this would be Ouran High School Host Club and His and Her Circumstances mixed together were sort-of, kind-of right, though I think it was more Ouran than H&HC, and it had a tendency to pull out the bad parts of those shows instead of the good parts.

Also, while the core basis of the story is reasonably sound, I’m just not sure how excited I can get about the trials and tribulations of a bunch of rich bastards, whose primary day-to-day worries seem to be deciding what business they’re going to buy today. My initial gut reaction would rate this series somewhere around a C-, doing good enough to be around average…but more on the lower side of average.

Go Straight to the Screenshots | Go Straight to the Review

• We pick up right where we left off, with Sakura having suddenly fallen in love at first sight with Jun, and she asks him out, but he rejects her. However, Sakura makes clear that she wont give up yet.
• Akira gets a text message from Kei’s father, asking if the Special A would come for a barbecue, in thanks for always helping Kei out. Kei tries to get them to not come (since nothing ever good comes from his father’s plans), but fails.
• Once arriving at the barbecue destination, they find out that it was arranged by Sakura, who used Kei’s father to convince the S.A. to come. Of course, the real purpose was for Sakura to lure Jun. And the boat doesn’t return to the island that they’re on until the next evening either.
• Ryuu gives Jun a whistle to blow whenever Sakura is after him, an he ends up having to use it early and often, resulting in Ryuu and Megumi playing interference with Sakura.
• Sakura’s father (who is also there) decides that things are being done too inefficiently, and decides to “randomly” pair up boys and girls to do jobs. Naturally, Sakura ends up getting paired with Jun (and Hikari with Kei)
• Sakura starts dragging Jun into a secluded area of the woods, but when Jun tries to blow the whistle, Sakura grabs and tosses it. Akira remarks to Ryuu that he’s being rather overprotective, but Ryuu won’t say why other than it’s because of a promise.
• In the woods, Jun finally tells her off, but that doesn’t stop Sakura. However, she ends up tripping and Jun catches her. Sakura then puckers her lips, which causes Jun to have an unpleasant flashback and he pushes her away and walks off.
• We then see a flashback, where a younger Jun starts hanging out with a girl from school, but something bad happens, which causes the girl to end up hating him.
• The pair finally returns to the camp, where Sakura’s father decides to bring out all the stops, trying to use the family bodyguards to force Jun to kiss Sakura, but the S.A. fight them off. However, eventually Jun decides to give Sakura a break and lets her kiss his cheek, but Jun ends up fainting afterwards.
• Once he wakes up the “inner Jun,” who seems to be sort of like Kei and/or Yahiro, shows up, and ends up being a Mega-Playboy.
• Ryuu explains that, to be able to better deal with girls, Jun watched a hypnotic show on TV when he was younger which ended up permanently hypnotizing him, and romantic things like kisses bring out the hypnotized side of Jun. On his first date in 6th grade, his Mega-Playboyness attracted all the girls that were around and made his date mad.
• In order to turn Jun back, he has to loose consciousness, which Megumi’s singing is able to do. However, despite Jun’s fears, Sakura is fine with both sides of Jun.

Well, this episode was going on somewhat well (it wasn’t great but wasn’t bad) until we got into the part with the bodyguards trying to grab Jun and all that and the rest of the episode just turned into a big over-the-top mess much like what the early bad part of the series was like.

Hopefully this doesn’t signal that the series is about to sink back into the depths of hell, but I wouldn’t be shocked. So, when are we going to get Megumi’s secret (I assume she has one)?

Go Straight to the Screenshots | Go Straight to the Review

• This episode, we swing back to Hikari asking Kei if he wants to hang out on the upcoming Sunday. Hikari tries asking Ryuu, Jun, and Megumi if they can go, but they’re all busy.
• On the date, Kei notices that someone has sent out people to track the two of them, so Kei tells Hikari to wait in a store while he answers an “urgent phone call,” but instead of a phone call, Kei takes the time to take care of the guys tracking him. However, Hikari soon shows up, saying that she knew Kei was acting strange, and that he should ask her for help if he’s in trouble.
• When the pair finally escape and hide, Kei tells her that the people after him were actually sent by his father, as Kei is running away from a marriage interview.
• Hikari tells Kei that he should go, since his father took the trouble to set it up. Kei, dejected, decides to go, but sensing that Kei is depressed over it, Hikari has a sudden change of heart. However, suddenly, Kei’s marriage interview parter, Sakura Ushikubo shows up, seemingly displeased about being ditched.
• Sakura decides that, as payment for the hours she spent looking for Kei…she’ll borrow Hikari for the rest of the day. Hikari asks why her, and Sakura tells her that Kei doesn’t interest her in the least, but Hikari does, given that she’s actually going around with the ever anti-social Kei.
• Hikari soon takes a liking to Sakura. However, when two guys try to pick them up by asking for directions, Sakura punches one of them out, since she hates liars.
  This doesn’t slow down their friendship, however, as Sakura talks to Hikari what guys she likes and who she is looking for in a partner. She does admit that Kei would be good for the business side of the family, and so Sakura asks a favor of Hikari: to ask Kei what type of girls he likes.
• The next day, Hikari asks Kei what type of girl he likes, however, Kei refuses to answer “such a stupid question.” However, Kei finally relents and tells Hikari that he likes normal girls. Meanwhile, Sakura chats with Yahiro, telling him that Kei and Hikari were out together, and Yahiro remarks how Kei’s feelings must have finally reached Hikari.
• Soon, Sakura shows up and accuses of Hikari of lying to her, under the impression that she and Kei are dating. Hikari tries to tell Sakura Kei’s preference in girls, but can’t get it out since she knows that Sakura isn’t included. However, Ryuu and the twins show up just then, and Sakura suddenly has a love-at-first-sight moment with Jun, a moment which Megumi has severe issues with…

For once we have an episode revolving around Hikari and Kei which is actually pretty funny. While it didn’t really have any impact on what happened in the episode, Hikari looking up how to date in a dating book and acting all weird was pretty hilarious.

Meanwhile, our newest character, Sakura, seems like an interesting new character, though I’m not sure how she’ll fit in since there are no obvious conflicts that involve her, unless her battle to win Jun over becomes a humorous side story. Of course, anyone who knows Yahiro may have another element to them.

Of course, Kei can’t seem to get his day with Hikari yet, as Hikari’s cluelessness as to her own feelings continue to drive Kei up the wall.

In any case, we’ve now strung together several decent episodes in a row, so maybe we’ve finally passed a turning point where this series is finally going to be good after a very rough start.