Unboxing [UK]: Seraph of the End - Season One Part One: Collector's Edition (Blu-ray)

Universal entered the UK market earlier this year and now I finally got my hands on their treatment for Seraph of the End -Vampire Reign-, released as Seraph of the End: Season One Part One. I picked this up at HMV for £39.99 which is a great deal.

The DVD version of this collector's edition is exactly the same, but I have the Blu-ray so here it is.

Seraph of the End -Vampire Reign- is based on the manga Seraph of the End and was animated by Studio WIT who were mostly known for Attack on Titan and recently Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress. The series was released as a split-cour with 12 episodes each. I've only seen the first half and for what it is I relatively enjoyed it especially its final few episodes. Seraph was originally suspected to be released under Anime Limited but it turned out that they only acquired the streaming rights instead.

In 2016 Universal Pictures announced they'll be entering the UK anime market and many of us had some concerns after Warner Bros' terrible treatment on JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. However a representative of Universal's anime department clarified that they wouldn't pull a 'JoJo' on this instance and instead went towards an Anime Limited style collector's release. Starting with Seraph of the End and The Heroic Legend of Arslan (plus Berserk's 2016 anime and Drifters in 2017), Universal are putting out these really nice collector's edition sets for an SRP of £59.99 on Blu-ray and £49.99 on DVD. The two formats are the exact same content-wise.

Seraph of the End -Vampire Reign-'s first half includes the first 12 episodes of the series in English, French and German dubs as well as Japanese audio with English, Dutch, French and German subtitles. The subtitles are unlockable however the discs are Region B only. The physical contents is what makes this collector's edition great; over 130 pages of content in an booklet, a poster, 4 artcards and 4 trading cards, plus a digi-pack to hold the Blu-ray discs, all contained inside a top-loaded chipboard box with clean art and no logos (aside from the Universal logo on the spine).

Also worth noting is that the main menus for the Universal anime sets have the same template of sorts and may confuse people. The discs start with the language options (English, French (Français), German (Deutsch), Dutch (Nederlands)) followed by the main menu.

I have a quick guide on the main menu buttons here (from left to right):

 - House - Back to the language section (which played first on the disc), or to the main menu section if you use it via pop-up menu

 - Right Arrow - Play the first episode

 - Shield/Open Book - Episode Count (1-6 on Disc 1, 7-12 on Disc 2)

 - Star - On-Disc Extra Content (Trailers, TV Spots and Music Clips on Disc 1, Seraph of the Endless on Disc 2)

 - Audio - Language audio options (Japanese (日本語), English, French (Français), German (Deutsch))

 - Square with some lines inside - Subtitle options (English, French (Français), German (Deutsch), Dutch (Nederlands))

Also worth noting is that Universal's video masters use the Japanese credits instead of the English credits that Funimation have. However the Opening and Closing songs are not subtitled. The subtitles on the discs are white and much bigger than the normal. I took a picture which you can see below, so you get what I mean (by the way I'm using my phone to take photos so the presentation may look eh).

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages: Japanese, English, French, German

Audio: DTS-HD MA 2.0 [Japanese, French, German], DTS-HD MA 5.1 [English]

Video: 1080p HD Native 16:9

Region: B

Subtitles: English, Dutch, French, German

Subtitles Locked: No

Discs: 2

Plot Synopsis (via Universal Pictures):

From WIT Studio, the producers of Attack on Titan, comes the hit new anime series Seraph of the End, an apocalyptic action epic about a modern day war between humans and vampires! A virus has ravaged the Earth, killing all but the youngest members of society and vampires have arisen from the darkness to make all of humanity their slaves. Into this dark world comes 16 year old Yuichiro, who escaped the vampire clutches and joins the Moon Demon Company, an elite extermination unit of the Japanese Imperial Army, who use demon possessed weapons to drive back the vampire horde.

On-Disc Extra Content:

Seraph of the Endless Parts 1-9

Seraph of the End Trailers

Music Clips (aka Textless Opening & Closing)

TV Spots

Collector's Edition Extras:

Chipboard rigid box packaging with top-load and digipacks

132 page Book of Interviews, Character Profiles and Artwork

Poster

4 Artcards

4 Trading Cards

Digipack (that holds the discs):

Trading Cards, Art Cards and Poster:

Booklet:

Seraph of the End -Vampire Reign-: Season One Part One is available on Blu-ray and DVD in collector's edition sets. A standard edition will be available in 2017. Funimation have the North American rights while Sony Universal have the Australian rights.