Product Description

Based on the best-selling manga written by Masahiro Itabashi, illustrated by Hiroyuki Tamakoshi (Gacha Gacha) and released in North America by TOKYOPOP, this 13-episode anime series was directed by Masami Shimoda (Ai Yori Aoshi / Someday's Dreamers / Zegapain) and has appeared on both Comcast Anime Selects and the Anime Network. Additionally, Boys Be... features a trio of performances by popular voice actors on both the Japanese- and English-language tracks: - Kenichi Suzumura (Super GALS! / Gundam Seed Destiny / Ouran High School Host Club), Akira Ishida (NANA / Naruto / Saiyuki / Slayers Next) and Hideo Ishikawa (Bleach / Death Note / Gravitation); and - Sam Regal (Fate stay/night / Paranoia Agent / The Third), Liam O'Brien (Comic Party / Ergo Proxy / Naruto) and Patrick Seitz (Hellsing / Paradise Kiss / The Third). There are two sides to every love story, and Boys Be... reveals what's really going on - from the guy's point of view! Meet three normal high school guys with just one thing on their minds: girls. Quiet Kyoichi has been friends with Chiharu ever since they were young, but lately, his feelings have begun to change. Lecherous Makoto, a self-proclaimed master of the rules of romance, is ready to sweep the ladies off their feet. And Yoshihiko, a handsome sports nut, is unfortunately a bit clueless in matters of the heart. Join this hapless trio for a year of romantic misadventures that will change their lives forever! DVD Features:Contains the entire 13-episode TV series! Scene access, Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo audio for English and Japanese dialogue, English subtitles and English on-screen translations. Plus: Line art galleries, textless opening and closing, Japanese promotional spots/commercials, English directors' commentary, Right Stuf / Nozomi Entertainment trailers, and a 48-page booklet featuring artwork, character bios and commentary from the Japanese cast and staff!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #87267 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-02-26
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Animated, Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 325 minutes

Customer Reviews

Huh? What have they done?
I have to say I was more then a little worried when I first picked up Boys Be the anime. I'm a huge fan of the manga series it's based off of and well my experience had taught me that anime made from manga just don't measure up. Sadly that wisdom has proven true with this series. Even now after a month after I've watched it my furry at how they botched the anime series still burns.

The series starts off following six friends. Three guys of high school age and three girls of high school age. The series then proceeds to follow these six friends along their romantic ventures of their youths. This is all well and good until the car stalls. What do I mean well . . . Let me first list off the good things about the series.

One has to be said that the animation is pretty good. It's not great, or ground shattering but it is above average for an anime of its age. The music to be honest is forgettable. The voice acting is actually pretty good. Also the story, for the most part if I try real hard to forget the manga is okay with some of the adventures of our characters bordering on toughing. The voice acting is, well the best part of the series, the English voice actors did a rather good job from what I can remember.

Note my last comment. Yeah . . . from what I can remember. That's one of the main problems with this series. Yes in case you're wondering I'm going to list off the series flaws now. First and for most what was utterly unforgivable to me was how the story was set up. I didn't have a problem with it focusing on the friends however after they were set up with their respective matches I expected the series to move on to their friends. However the series stubbornly sticks to the friends and messes up one of the relationships of what seemed like a perfect couple merely to keep the series going. In order to explain this I think I need to explain how the original mangas are set up. In the originals each story are completely disconnected from each other, each chapter has different characters. This is not to say that the plot had to depend on said mistake. In fact a number of the chapters from the mangas take place after the couple in the story have gotten together and would have made great substance for the anime series. However instead the anime makes clunky attempts to fit in what I call `couple becoming couple' chapters together thus really destroying the continuity of the series. This especially makes me cringe as a number of the chapter the anime tried to adapt are among my favorite and the fact they in relation to the originals were batched did not help my opinion of the series any.

To explain my point I'm going to include a spoiler so skip this if you want to buy this hell or high water and want to know nothing.

Spoilers start

The series starts out with one of the guys starting to awaken to romantic interests in girls which focuses sole on his childhood friend. As it turn out this childhood friend (a member of the three girl main characters if you're wondering) likes him as well. After spending two episodes on them things move on to the other four characters until about half way threw the series. Then the original couple that seemed break up for some really dump and ill thought out reasons. The rest of the series with little exception follows the original male lead on his other romantic adventures all the while he keeps thinking and otherwise pining for his original girl friend. This as you can imagine rather kills every story past this point. Finally he makes up his mind that the one for him is the original girl however as far as I know never tells her or tries to make up with her before the series ends.

Spoilers end.

In the end I can't say this is a terrible series. However I cannot say that its really worth the money to buy it. So I have to recommend not getting this series, rent it if you want but don't buy it. Save your money for better series.