I think this must be on another DVD. I don’t remember it on Martian Successor Nadesico, and I remember the commentaries pretty vividly.
I think my favorite aspect of this show, is seeing Hillary Haag and Monica Rial playing off each other as love rivals. In fact, more than love rivals. They detested each other at the on set of the series, at Monica’s character did anyway. Can’t wait to see how their relationship grows and evolves in the series.
DVD 4 (Ep. 14-17)
This is probably going to be a short post, since I’m trying to catch up on my VOD stuff that showed up.
Drama, drama, and more drama!
The continuation of the Rinkai game starts off this volume. With their tactics being less effective, and Ryo’s confidence waning, Rinkai ties the score. The team doubles their efforts due to Izumi’s urgings (she really should be the coach the way she motivates people) again, and manages to squeezeout another run, bringing them into the lead. It’s not until Ryo reflects on something Coach Kido told her in the locker room, her father being his strongest in the final innings of the game, that it finally clicks with her what the Lightning Ball actually is. And with this in mind, she stuns everyone by pitching the Lightning Ball, striking out the batters to win the game.
And from here on out, it’s just one dramatic setback after another, though I’ll go into it more tomorrow when I wake up.
You got all the updates?
Princess Nine Volume 4
Spoiler Warning:
This volume was filled with a lot of great moments with struggling to learn the Lightning Ball and the triumph of the victory… to the whole ordeal with Ryo and her father’s scandal.
My favorite scene was when Ryo’s condition was critical, the whole exchange between her and her father, and then later how Izumi helped bring her back from the brink – and the music in these scenes were just awesome. I mean it’s one thing to have great music, but it still needs to gel with the scene and combine to evoke the necessary feelings and this one does it beautifully with either the soft romantic violins or the aggressive short string and brass (for the competition aspects).
On the humorous side I love the sparring between Yoko and Siera, especially the way both are performed by Tiffany Grant and Keilly Cousins, respectively.
I just love the dialogue and exchanges between all the characters, like the ones between the coach and Ryo and the coach and Keiko.
The set up of creating heart touching characters/storylines and how the characters overcome situations is what makes series like this and Kaleido Star so special. There’s a lot of shoujo out there, but not a lot in this kind of caliber. This volume to me especially encapsulated a lot of those spirits that I enjoyed in both titles, although presented and executed quite differently.
I have to say that I really enjoyed Izumi’s role there at the end too. It was great seeing her work so hard to make it to the hospital, and then start pushing Ryo to wake up.
It was really amazing.
I can’t wait for the next disc. The whole cast in this does an amazing job.
Agreed with the dub. As an old-school ADV dub fan too, hearing the non-big names that you don’t normally hear like Mike Vance, Paul Sidello… and hearing John Gremillion as the VP (since he normally doesn’t go to this range, it’s quite fun). It brings a lot of good memories from a different era, I keep thinking of BGC 2040 and Nadesico when I hear this dub. 
Yep, I edited my last post on the reports thread about it.
Continuing my post from last night…
All kinds of dramatic things happen after winning the game against Rinkai.
First, now that Ryo and the team are in the limelight so to speak, the press digs up the dirt, and the scandal of her farther comes to light sending Ryo into a downward spiral of depression.
Like both of you, my favorite part as well, is the moments of her critical condition. Starting with the part with Izumi sitting in the theater, and realizing some of her misplaced feelings and Ryo’s hallucination with her father, all the way up to Izumi pushing Ryo to live.
That was some sweet drama!
Volume 5
Of all the volumes this was perhaps the most understated one and serves as a good bridge-counterpoint between the more dramatic previous and tonight’s finale volume with the final episodes.
The drama between Izumi, Ryo and Hiroki was intense. Never trust women… with all of Izumi’s manipulations in trying to break Ryo and Hiroki’s bond. 
DVD 5 (Ep. 18-21)
All I could think last night was “Damn, woman are so spiteful and manipulative”.
All in all, last night’s volume was a welcome release after the really dramatic previous DVD, while still keeping the drama flowing.
Besides the love triangle between Izumi, Ryo, and Hiroki, we also get a little back story on Yuki.
Was swamped with all the things going on yesterday so it, and some other stuff, bumped up my evening schedule and I got behind. It was like the superbowl of anime-day, can’t blame me/us.
Hopefully will be able to finish it sometime today if time permitting, but if not definitely tonight.
Final Volume
And the final volume covers the drama surrounding the team coming together as a real team on their way to and at Koshien… and the all important resolution of the love triangle situation between the 3 characters.
I just loved the scene when Ryo saw them and how the relationships and worked itself out with Hiroku confessing his love and Izumi accepting her defeat with grace.
It’s been a great rivalry between Ryo and Izumi, but even deep down the cornerstone of their rivalry was always Izumi’s respect for Ryo’s talents. I love the polarity and complexity of that.
The ending was surprising… most people would have expected the cliché happy ending with the girls team overcoming everything and winning. It’s how most series of this sort end, but in this case they simply did not have the experience to be the best… not yet.
Wonderful series with a lot of heart, charm and just a lot of natural emotions.
I almost forgot how amazing Hilary Haag, Monica Rial, Vic Mignogna were even in the early parts of their careers. But it’s a standout ensemble performance as well, the casting and directing was a watermark for its time.
DVD 6 (Ep. 22-26)
Sorry, I kind of neglected my duty of posting.
Following the last DVD, we get the full back story on Yuki and why she is the way she is, as well as what Fifi is.
The little love triangle between Ryo, Izumi, and Hiroki also peeks in this DVD, with the admittance of each of their feels, which also causes some trouble with the game against Hiroki’s team, their brother school, Kisaragi High, that they should be focusing on instead.
But Hiroki, being the honest sort that he is, clears the situation up in the end with his admittance of love to Ryo, at bat. Which finally sparks Ryo into trying her best, sadly, it’s too little too late, and thus the girls team loses.
Unlike most people, I kind of expected them to lose from the beginning, after all, Keiko clearly stated near the beginning that within three years, she wanted them to be able to go to Koshien. So I fully expected them to lose their first time around.
It was really nice to see, Izumi & Ryo make up after they lost at the end though, when Izumi went to Ryo and hugged and comforted her on the mound.
All in all, it actually turned out rather well, and I’m glad I bought this.
Yeah I wondered if you forgot, it’s ok to double post in this context (since you were the last post prior to my previous post when I missed a night).
We should do Air Gear next!
It was more that I kinda got lazy, then when I started watching the VOD updates, I got caught up with this those.
Air Gear is definitely next, but I’d like to wait a week or so, since I also got caught up in re-watching Ah! My Goddess.
Also, since I’ve just been waiting it out because you said you wanted to do it, are you going to make a Kaleido Star thread, or did you just give up on it?
Yeah next week is good. I need a few days off myself.
I was actually just looking at that list of stuff that I was supposed to do, from the thread assignments we had. I’ll make one tonight or tomorrow, I guess I need to double check to make one for the community too.
That chrisc guy made on for the Community when he made a slew of them.
Yeah I thought I remembered joining it but I wasn’t sure… oh and look there it is, I’m in said group. LOL
Just thought I would share something I found tonight. If anyone out there is looking for Princess Nine, I found a website that has all six volumes in stock:
They actually have a lot of older ADV singles. They even have the art box for Full Metal Panic. I shop from TLA all the time, but I didn’t realize the anime selection they had. Though it does appear to be all older stuff.
EDIT: Actually, after placing an order, it seems that most of their anime titles are “special order” items through a third party warehouse. So whether or not they can get them, who knows…
Well, since the soundtracks showed up yesterday, I started listening to them today.
They almost make me want to see the series again, though I’m watching too much currently to slip it in.
I finally got to finish this up a few weeks ago. Very satisfying ending, despite the outcome. And they handled everything very well. The characters were sympathetic, and everything felt real. Excellent series.
Be sure to listen to The Battered Pitcher in all its glory!