Grave of the Fireflies (Limited Edition Steelbook) (Blu-ray + DVD), Anime, Shout! Factory

Grave of the Fireflies is an amazing movie that will stick with you for the rest of your life. This Blu-ray lets you experience it in a few different ways. It features the 1998 English Dub as well as the 2012 English Dub, so you have options as a dub watcher. There are also some bonus features that were really fascinating. The bonus features include the entire movie in storyboard. The storyboards are like the rough draft version of the movie. It was interesting to see how detailed the storyboards were even without final touches. This Blu-ray contains 763 backgrounds, 119 character/color design images, 105 photos of real-life locations used as models for the movie's locations, 179 image boards, and 113 concept arts. That's an insane amount of production material to include in a blu-ray when all of those things are 40 years old. That alone is worth the money you could spend on this thing. Having access to 1,000 production materials is what some people pay hundreds of dollars for when they go see the Ghibli Museum in Japan. I was very impressed by both the blu-ray's accessibility of the artwork and the artwork itself. I like the coloring for this blu-ray. There're lots of subtle differences that help the background art look nicer. The audio uses the original 2.0 tracks from each recording (Japanese 1988, English 1998, and English 2012). The Japanese track sounds very raw and raspy, which I thought added to the authenticity of the movie. It was like watching a VHS or something. The 1998 English dub sounds old like the 1988 Japanese one does. The 2012 English dub has clearer/more modern sound quality. That's for both the audio and the sound effects. The subtitles are colored white if that matters to you. I'm very impressed and am glad to have such a good Blu-ray for such an iconic movie. That, and the artwork for the steel book itself was extremely impressive, using a unique reflection at the top. I don't want to spoil it, because when I noticed the reflection, I just sat in awe for a moment staring at it. The exterior has really good artwork. It's totally worth the $25. I'll watch this high-quality Blu-ray a few times in the coming years, and the bonus features are really fun to look through.