The Normanic Vault: Unboxing [UK]: Genius Party & Genius Party Beyond

A surprise release from Anime Limited has appeared and I'm looking forward to checking out these short films included. This is the shop exclusive collector's edition which was shipped before its release date.

Genius Party is a collection of short anime films from twelve different directors and animation studio Studio 4C. The collection had two instalments; Genius Party in July 2007 and Genius Party Beyond in October 2008. The first collection had 7 short films while the second collection had 5 short films.

Here are the twelve short films and their directors:

#1 - Genius Party, dir. Atsuko Fukushima

(Key Animator for Akira & Original Character Designer for Giovanni’s Island)

#2 - Shanghai Dragon, dir. Shoji Kawamori

(Director for Macross & The Vision of Escaflowne)

#3 - Deathtic 4, dir. Shinji Kimura

(Art Director for Blood Blockade Battlefront & Project A-Ko)

#4 - Doorbell, dir. Yoji Fukuyama

(Manga author of The Day of the Wolf & Gamurakan)

#5 - Limit Cycle, dir. Hideki Futamura

(Director for The Animatrix & Halo Legends)

#6 - Happy Machine, dir. Masaaki Yuasa

(Director for Lu Over the Wall & The Tatami Galaxy)

#7 - Baby Blue, dir. Shinichiro Watanabe

(Director for Cowboy Bebop & Space Dandy)

#8 - Gala, dir. Mahiro Maeda

(Director for Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo & Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo)

#9 - Dimension Bomb, dir. Koji Morimoto

(Director for Memories & Art Director for Mind Game)

#10 - Moondrive, dir. Kazuto Nakazawa

(Director for B: The Beginning & Character Designer for Samurai Champloo)

#11 - ‘Wanwa’ the Doggy, dir. Shinya Ohira

(Key Animator for Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence & Redline)

#12 - Toujin Kit, dir. Tatsuyuki Tanaka

(Key Animator for Riding Bean & Storyboard and Layout Artist for Roujin Z)

Anime Limited have the UK & Ireland rights for both Genius Party compilation films, and will also be the first English speaking territory to release it on Blu-ray. There won't be an English dub nor are there any on-disc extras but we do get all 12 short films with English subtitles.

The UK collector's edition which is exclusive to their online store (Shop AllTheAnime) uses the usual packaging and contents. 1 Blu-ray disc and 2 DVD discs for all the short films on a digipack housed in a chipboard rigid box with clean artwork. The distributor clarified that there wasn't much artwork available for Genius Party hence the simplistic cover art so the info stuff is on the back cover of the box (like Anime Limited's collector's release for Lucky Star). The collector's edition also includes a 144 page booklet going through the production stages of the development.

The Blu-ray is region locked to B and the DVD is region locked to 2 NTSC only. The subtitles are also unlockable.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages: Japanese

Audio: DTS-HD MA 5.1

Video: 1080p HD Native 16:9

Region: B

Subtitles: English

Subtitles Locked: No

Discs: 1

DVD Specs:

Languages: Japanese

Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1