Jubei-Chan 2: Boxed Set

So this dvd set is pretty interesting. If you've seen the first series then you know what to expect if you haven't here's a little synopsis. The main character Jiyu Nanohana was given the power to transform into Juubei the legendary samurai, but she doesn't want it. In fact the whole series is her trying to pretend she isn't Juubei and refusing to transform. It gets repetitive actually as she never fully accepts her responsibility nor fully refuses it. Anyways, the whole series builds up to the last episode so the fighting is a little disappointing through out the series. The jokes are pretty funny though so if you want to laugh you will, a lot. I would say only get this if you like the first series because it definitely ties up a lot of loose ends and is slightly more serious towards how they handle things. There are a few things that bother me though, as I mentioned before, Jiyuu never really makes a decision on whether to be Juubei or not. She spends so much time saying she doesn't want to be Juubei then finally gives in for the fight only to refuse it again the next episode. To me this was really annoying but whats more annoying is the title, Jubei-chan ninja girl doesn't make sense since she's turning into a samurai. He outfit is that of a ninja but she doesn't do anything ninja like. She fights one on one and shows her weapon beforehand. If your looking for a ninja flick you will disappointed. The dvds do come with reversible covers and they are amazing. Drawn very well and are very colorful its almost worth getting just for the art if your a fan. You also get to see the actress that plays Jiyu do some of the real sword techniques in the extras. Thats about all I have to say about it. Get it if you like the first series, don't if you haven't.

I was officially hooked to Jubei-Chan through the second part of the series while clicking through YouTube. It's newer, so it has a better quality of illustration than the first part. It also has better fight scenes, and you can't go wrong with ninja/samurai sword action. The acting is also much better as the actors and actresses are relaxed and more comfortable this time around.One thing I didn't like was some voice switches. I know this has to happen in many series that go for extended periods like Naruto, Rurouni Kenshin, and Inuyasha. However, I just can't get over how whinny the new guy makes Shiro sound(I prefer Miroku's voice in the twins, but the new Hajime voice is pretty hot).Not much bad to say. It has awesome themes and great storyline. Way to go Geneon.

My order was processed promptly and shipments arrived as promised.

I love it is totally a got to see or watch if your are into alot of fighting or just plain love martial arts and ninjutsu then it is a must watch.

All the DVDs are in great shape and all features worked fine. I have been waiting a long time to get this series and I am very happy with my purchase.

Wonderful seller and quick and fast transaction. Chose the regular shipping and my DVDs were here, wrapped and sealed like promised, three days after I ordered it. Fantastic! Thank you!

Daichi way is humanity with joke, I think. But his joke misses in this anime, and situation is very dark and heavy. At 1st series, Mystic samurai picture was just joke, but he is only eeriness in this series.This is not bad, but I cannot say this is the best.

Despite coming from the same studio, Madhouse, having the same director, Akitaro Daichi, and much of the same crew as on  Jubei-chan: Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch , and coming out only five years later, “Jubei-chan 2: The Counterattack of Siberia Yagyu” is an utterly shocking decline and further proof of my theory that combining comedy and drama in anime is Very Hard To Do and that even if you manage to come up with a good combination, having the same people attempt a sequel tends to go badly.The first problem is the much-reduced comedy. Jubei-chan 1 had a relentless screwball comedy that could (and did!) burst out unexpectedly from ANY character at ANY time, but Jubei-chan 2 greatly limits the madcap comedy, basically to Shiro Ryujoji, the Ruffians, and the weaker members of the Siberian Yagyu. In fact, there are actually more laughs in “The Making of J2, Documentary” on disc four than there are in the whole series!The reason for this is the conscious, deliberate decision on the part of the creators to produce a more Serious and Dramatic plot, which, given my tastes, I normally would have appreciated. Unfortunately, all they really did was replace brilliant comedy with poorly thought out, ridiculously complex melodrama. EVERYTHING is sadder, more troubling, more full of angst! The perfect example of this is to compare and contrast Jiyu’s two 300-year-old ghostly helpers. In the first series, it is the well-intentioned idiot, Koinosuke Odago, who is arguably more punched out by the Good Guys than by the Bad Guys because of his stupidity, his ineptitude, and his cowardice. Lots of comedy bits are made out of that. In the second series, Koinosuke is replaced by Ayunosuke Odago, his daughter, and not a single laugh is had at her expense throughout the entire show. This change is repeated throughout the second series. One of the jokes from the first series is the discovery that the fastest way to deal with the bad guys is for Jubei to simply defeat them in battle, which sanes them up and removes them from troubling Jiyu anymore, but in the second series, the characters who know this are forced to repeatedly, heartbreakingly beg a stubborn and unwilling Jiyu to do this. What’s more, we’ve got a four-way (you could argue five-way) struggle here that will tend to confuse the entire audience, but you will get to hear every side’s sad story explained in withering detail. Finally, it is rather telling that the Ultimate Villain of the first series is Taiko Dayu, the spirit of hatred and vengeance of the man Yagyu Jubei defeated 300 years ago, who in the end must be defeated and destroyed. The Ultimate Villain of the second series, Retsusai Kita, is the 300-year-old spirit of the leader of the Siberian Yagyu who, mistakenly believing that Jubei Yagyu intended to assassinate him, challenges him to a duel and kills Jubei’s wife and freezes Jubei’s daughter, Freesia Yagyu, into a block of ice it takes her 300 years to melt out of, before losing and dying. So 300 years later, after almost killing Jiyu and Freesia, the spirits of Retsusai and Jubei go off to the Afterworld as friends…. (I wonder if Jubei’s dead wife Retsusai killed will be as ‘understanding” after 300 years....)However, the biggest problem IMHO is the virtual elimination of Romance from Jubei-chan 2. First, I was more than a little annoyed by the mishandling of the main love triangle (love quadrangle if you include Shoko Maruyama) in Jubei-chan 1, but that was primarily because they didn’t bother to justify the Surprise Ending. After all, it is perfectly reasonable at least in theory for Mikage Tsumura to have ultimately decided to choose her HUSBAND over the person who saved her life twice and is the father of the girl she owed so much to and was so determined to protect, but in that case, it would have helped if Mikage and Tenryo had demonstrated at least SOME affection for each other, either before or after Jiyu “changes them by defeat”. Instead, Tenryo displays more attraction to a teenage girl (!) he meets in the first series than he ever does to Mikage, and Mikage displays more attraction to Sai Nanohana than she ever does to Tenryo. However, rather than clearing this up in the second series, Mikage and Tenryo don’t even bother to live together, not even in the same part of Japan; instead, Mikage, in fact, lives in the same house with Sai and Jiyu, without ever acknowledging that doing so is rather stressful for Sai!Trouble is that this continuing mess is pretty much the closest thing the entire second series has to a romance because Shoko Maruyama has completely lost her crush on Sai, and Shiro and Bantaro (who spent the entire first series desperately in love with Jiyu) switch to lusting after Freesia but do almost nothing about it.So it is a mixed bag. If you loved the characters in Jubei-chan 1 you are likely to be disappointed in seeing them again in Jubei-chan 2 where they are a lot less funny and a lot more miserable.Note: The Creditless Endings in the Extras section of disc four are worth watching because Geneon got careless and used the same ending after every episode instead of using the Ending number 3, which revealed a number of changes regarding the characters’ futures.Note: If you like the music of the series, you can get the soundtrack:  Jubei-chan 2: The Counterattack of Siberia Yagyu, O.S.T. .