After over a month of hiatus from blogging about CDs / DVDs, I'm finally back with my new arrival which arrived last week (not that new anymore, is it?) - A CLIP BOX 1998 - 2011 ayumi hamasaki, which was originally released in Japan on January 1, 2012. What a way to start a new year in Japan, no?
Unfortunately though, due to my shallow pocket and constantly depleting fund, I could only afford the Hong Kong press of this DVD box set containing EVERY SINGLE PV that ayumi hamasaki had ever shot since her debut from 1998. That's means this box set contains 12 years worth of her work! And on top of that, it also includes her commercials for her albums, singles as well as other random items.
Sigh~ The deluxe version is so much better, you know? Here's how the deluxe version looks like...
First of all, it comes with this black furry bag with this really adorable pom-pom key chain which, as a guy, I would obviously not use. The consoling thing for not ordering the deluxe version is probably so that I can save my money away. I mean, why would I need a furry bag as a guy?
Other than that, instead of 3 DVD cases that the Hong Kong press came with, it comes with 6 DVD boxes that when you piece them together, you get ayu's "A". Cool, no?
Sigh~ Maybe I should start begging for sponsorship to run this blog. :P Idea!!
Anyway, back to the regular edition one... SIGH!!
At least I took all the pictures on this blog myself as far as possible, yes? Like I've previously mentioned, this box basically contains everything that ayu had every released before in her albums. So if you had been purchasing her CD-only albums, this box set is a must have to have a complete collection of all her promotional videos since "poker face" all to way to her latest mini-album "FIVE". Love the hot pink curtain but I don't really love the font. The "P" in "Clip" is a little hard to read.
The Chinese promotional sticker on the plastic cover of the box set. It basically translate to whatever I've said earlier.
The Hong Kong press normally comes with an obi over the actual boxes of albums that I've bought. But that obi is written in Chinese so that people in Hong Kong (or where ever else) who can't read English or Japanese can understand what the heck the box is trying to tell them. Here, I've removed the obi and threw it away because it's pure ugly anyway to reveal the English text behind - which is basically the LOOOOONNNNGGG track list of this box set.
The spine of the box set and a clearly "P" in "Clip". I believe the Japanese limited edition version is slightly thicker as it houses each individual DVD in their own casings as opposed to how the Hong Kong press is all compacted into 3 casings. Oh well~ That's for not being them rich people...
The DVDs housed instead the rather sturdy cardboard box. Did I mention that along with the DVDs, a pretty thick lyric booklet is included inside as well? The lyric booklet features the lyrics of all the songs that are presented in this gorgeously pink box set as well as 3 spreads of the screen grabs of all her promotional videos which I will show off later on.
The DVDs placed side by side. I don't understand why the Hong Kong version doesn't want to adopt the 6 DVD casing like what the Japanese press did because honestly, I don't think it's that expensive to include a few more plastic boxes right? Having just these three rather warm colors make the whole palette of the box set slightly unbalanced, in my opinion, and therefore, I'm honestly not really loving the design of what's inside the gorgeous cardboard sleeve.
On top of that, that font is really hurting my eye, especially the P!! It's so difficult to read~! Other than that, I think they could have did a better job with the design as opposed to just printing the names after names of the videos featured in this box set all over the box and just conveniently making different colors for different casings. Sorry, I'm just being damn critical here. :S How about using the screen grabs instead? Good idea right? At least there's more to feast your eyes on.
Nothing really special about the DVD. 2 DVDs in a single casing with a pretty basic design. Considering that there are 6 DVDs in total, I don't think it would be fair to fault them for making the design so simple so I'll pass.
And here's the lyric booklet - probably the thickest one I've ever seen in my life. It contains over 100 lyrics of each of the songs featured in this box set. The cover is the same as what you see on the cardboard sleeve. Nothing much to complain about. Must add that the print quality of the booklet is top notch though~ Good job!!
First page of the booklet displays the long track list of the entire box set as well as the commercials. They did not name each and every commercial out for the simple reason that it would spill over to the next page if they did as you know, ayu probably did as many commercials as she did music videos. But having the commercials also featured in this box set is a fantastic selling point of this album as the only other place you can probably catch the commercials is on Youtube.
The lyrics in the booklet are laid out cleanly and differentiate via color codes to tell the reader which song belongs to which DVD. Nothing really special. Love that blue though~ Would really love to have one of the DVD casings in this blue as opposed to just pink, yellow and orange.
The only pictures that you can find in the extremely "Wall-Of-Text" lyric booklet are these screen grabs of ayumi in her music videos. Honestly, if it wasn't for these spreads, I would have forgotten how some of the music videos looked like because I've probably only watched some of them once or twice only. One thing to note though - the DVD is not listed in chronologically order for some weird reason but I think we can all live with that, no?
Another spread - this time with yellow lines. Pardon my hands in these photos because it's really hard to get the booklet spread out without causing too much damage to the spine. It's also a challenge to put it flat on the surface for me to photograph.
Blue lines - very Tron, no?
And finally on the last page, ayu thanks her staff and fans in English for supporting her. I wonder if she did this in the Japanese version or not but who cares~ At least she's thankful for the support that everyone had given her.
I think overall, the box set is definitely worth the money because it collects every single videos ever made by ayumi into a single product that everyone can enjoy and on top of that, what really attracted me to get this set are all the commercials that she did. We all know that ayu had did many witty and funny ones and I can't wait to have the time to watch them all. Design wise though, I think the box set could have done more to make itself look so much better but oh well~ Maybe it's just the Hong Kong press one...
And to close this entry, I would like to thank y'all readers who managed to stumble onto this blog to read and share the unboxing of the many albums together and for reading my rants on what I dislike and for agreeing with what I like in terms of the packaging of these albums. I hope you enjoy the photos as well as the words and as much as possible, I will bring you more of such reviews to keep this blog alive!!
Thanks y'all!! :D
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