Received the Hagaren Premium Collection DVD today which was released on 29 March.I had a good laugh during the later part of the DVD which had three brand new short stories made specially for this release. I'll come to that later.
Let me talk about the first section, "Nanadai Homculus vs Kokka Renkin Jutsushi Gundan". The setting is for the viewer to become a newbie national alchemist who goes on a learning tour about 5 main subjects before embarking on a mission to eliminate the Homculus. The 5 subjects are namely alchemy, automail, the millitary, Homculus and miscellaneous topics like Kenja no Ishi. Basically, by going through these sections, you will be able to learn more about the anime series itself as well as the concepts within the story. In addition, the characters are grouped into several categories for easy reference e.g. the alchemists, the national alchemists and the Homculus. I believe you will be able to learn something new after browsing through the topics. By the way, each topic begins with a short narration with past visuals by Mustang's subordinates before you come to the interactive menu which works like what you would find on CD-ROMs.
After you are done with the learning, the 10-minute long battle between the millitary and the Homculus will begin. In this clip, all previous relationships will not be taken into account as we have the supposedly dead people all coming back e.g. Greed and Co. as well as those villians in the millitary being on the side of justice. I won't say that there's much humour but it's fun to see everyone again at one shot.
The next major segment would be the three short stories I mentioned earlier.
The first story is the "real-life movie" version (Jissha-hen) where the crew actually put a huge model of Al on the streets of Tokyo at various spots while the narration goes on about how he tries to look for Ed. In the end, the conclusion is that the staff will not do a real-life movie. It was so funny to see an otherwise emotional narration being made to look more like a comedy as Al pops up at various junctures.
The second story "Enkai-hen" (Banquet version) is set to send you rolling on the floor with laughter. All the characters are shown in chibi format and the setting is a celebration party after the end of the movie last year. That's why you can see Al in his original form instead of the armour and the dialogue is largely linked to what has happened in the movie. Personal favourite moments include Mustang misunderstanding that Hawkeye has the intention to be with him and getting so disappointed when she says that she's thankful that the scriptwriter didn't make that arrangement as well as Scar and Lust appearing as a couple complaining about the lack of lines and being made extras in the movie. You've got to see this for yourself since it's hard to describe all the punchlines in words. By the way, do check out Winry's complaint about Ed getting too close to Noah (the girl who looks like Rose) in the movie. That was also quite enjoyable to watch.
Last but not least, we have the story entitled "Kodomo-hen" where the children versions of Ed, Al and Winry roam the streets while they head somewhere. Along the way, they will meet Mustang and Co. as well as Hughes who plays a policeman. In the end, we find out that the trio have come to visit an old man who happens to have automail limbs and holds a photo of Ed and Al in the teenager days at the time after the movie. It so happens that the kids are there to celebrate the birthday of this old man whom I suspect should be Ed. At the end, the parting message is that Ed would turn 100 in 2005 and he should be living somewhere peacefully...
Do not stop the DVD yet because you will get to hear a song titled Hagane no Kokoro sung by the three female seiyuus who play Ed, Al and Winry. Kind of corny lyrics but then the visuals are the things to take note because you will see how the staff moves the huge model of Al around to do the filming for the Jissha-hen.
Overall, I'm quite satisfied with my purchase but there could be more content to justify the price tag of 3990 yen. As for the freebies, there are 2 postcard-sized pictures, the introduction booklet as well as the drawings which the staff did for the "Enkai-hen".
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