Ai Yori Aosh #1: Faithfully Yours (DVD)

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My problem with those last two episodes is that they introduce artificial props to carry the love story forward, rather than allowing for a study of two people´s relationship. To me, having some rival competing for affection, or having a disapproving authority figure looking over the lovers´ shoulders, is unrealistic enough that it detracts from the story.

Video:
The video aspect ratio is 1.33:1 (full-screen on 4:3 monitors). The colors and shading came out well in the transfer, and the animation quality is top notch for a television show. Some of the girls have unlikely hair colors, but that´s not too out of the norm for anime.

Audio:
You can watch the show in either Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo Japanese or DD 2.0 stereo English. There is an option for English subtitles. I watched it in Japanese with English subtitles. I didn´t hear any problems with the audio quality. The music, both in the background and opening and closings, is a little above average.

Extras:
There are three main extras on the disc. The first is the "Yoko Ishida Music Video", which is a live action music video featuring the lady who actually sings "Ai Yori Aoshi"´s opening song, "Towa no Hana".

The second extra is a "Conceptual Art Gallery", which consists mainly of various sketches of Aoi and Kaoru. From looking at there, you can see the work they put into designing Aoi´s kimonos.

The last extra is the US trailer for "Ai Yori Aoshi". I liked how Geneon put some real effort into making it, rather than just playing the Japanese trailer with subtitles or making an aimless montage of scenes.

--Miscellaneous--
The DVD comes with a two page insert. On the cover is a chapter listing. The inside is a two page picture of Aoi and Kaoru reclining together. The back page has an explanation of various name suffixes common in Japanese.

The cover is reversible, but there are more pictures on the default side, so I left it alone.

Film Value:
I want to like "Ai Yori Aoshi". It has a very strong beginning, and the relationship between Aoi and Kaoru started out as pretty believable. In fact, it´s only when the focus switches off of their relationship that I get less interested. I don´t want to see another romantic comedy with wacky rivals and hijinks aplenty. That´s not to say some humor isn´t a good way to break up the pacing- the part where Kaoru is trying to keep cool when Aoi crawls into his futon and the TV is coincidentally calling all the plays was great- but it shouldn´t come at the cost of taking the show seriously. However, it´s important to note that, although these bad things could happen in "Ai Yori Aoshi", they haven´t yet, so for now I´m still into this series.