Kara no Kyoukay Gets English Subbed Blu-ray

The "English subbed" part may be the one catching our Western attention at first glance, but the real selling point of the newly announced Blu-ray box set is that it will extend the anime film saga Kara no Kyoukai with a new final chapter, of about 30 minutes long, in addition to its original seven parts and several other goodies. All in all, over 10 hours of gory HD glory!



This new Blu-ray Disc Box set has been advertised on the official website since last night, with a release date set for February 2, 2011 in Japan, and an exotic price tag of 52,500 yen ($620). But relax, Amazon.co.jp is already offering it for pre-order at only 38,850 yen ($460), if that makes you breathe any easier. And you can probably forget about this getting licensed anytime soon, if past Blu-ray releases have taught us anything about Japan's justified paranoia of reverse-imports.

Now, about those "other goodies" mentioned earlier. Aside from the seven Kara no Kyoukai movies and the all-new final chapter (titled "Gekijou-ban Kara no Kyoukai Shuushou: Kara no Kyoukai", by the way), the Blu-ray set will also include the 60-minute long compilation "Remix: Gate of Seventh Heaven" (which recaps the first six movies), a 51-minute special program (so far that's 640 minutes of footage at 1080p resolution, if anyone's still counting), plus a Visual Chronicle Book with all the key visual art, the illustrations for each film, and the illustrations for the DVD releases.

Does that start to justify the price tag, even slightly?...