Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion: The Complete Season Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion: The Complete Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion is a romantic-fantasy. Created by Milcha and Whale, the anime has elements of fairy tales as well. Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion features animation production by Typhoon Graphics (My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer, Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start With Magical Tools). Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion features theme music performed by MindaRyn (opening) and SERRA (ending). Executive produced by Asuka Yamazaki (Astra Lost in Space, Bibliophile Princess), Makoto Nakamura (The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today, The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic), Shōhei Ikegami (Servamp), Tomonari Sakai (Ikebukuro West Gate Park, Osamake: Romcom Where The Childhood Friend Won't Lose), and Yuka Sakurai (Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid S).

Produced by Hisato Usui (Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero, High School DxD New), Noboru Segawa (My Sweet Tyrant, Servamp), Noritomo Isogai (Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA, Chivalry of a Failed Knight), Shigeto Takeyama (Kandagawa Jet Girls, Peacemaker Kurogane: Belief), Takayuki Matsunaga (Comic Party: Revolution, Brighter than the Dawning Blue), and Yuki Uchiyama (Osamake: Romcom Where The Childhood Friend Won't Lose, Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start With Magical Tools). Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion is a charming anime for fans of fantasy-romance series. The series features voice-performances by Yume Miyamoto and Yūichirō Umehara.

Rinko Hanasaki (Yume Miyamoto) wakes up and enters a whole new world: a world that resides within a book that she read before. Rinko had a mysterious and untimely demise – a death that could have been by murder. Now Rinko has entered into a novel she read before as the beautiful Raeliana McMillan (Yume Miyamoto).

Raeliana is in a noble and wealthy family and is well-off – so that’s a promising start to her new life, of course. However, Rinko read the entire novel and knows all of the twists and turns in the story – including the murder of her newly possessed character, Raeliana – who dies by murder. Yikes!

Knowing that Raeliana is going to be murdered by her fiancée in the near future, Raeliana decides to take things into her own hands (with the knowledge of Rinko) in order to save her life from another untimely demise. With her incredible knowledge of the books twists and characters, Raeliana will do whatever it takes to not die again – dying twice in a row is no fun task for her. The first task at hand is somehow convincing Noah Voltaire Wynknight (Yūichirō Umehara) to “pretend” to become her fiancée, avoiding the possible pursuits of her would-be murderous other fiancée. Can Raeliana convince Noah to form an unlikely alliance with her to save her own life?

Raeliana isa compelling protagonist for the series. Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion has a lot of fun exploring the central character and her journey through the book. The character has a new chance at life but she must work to avoid dying once more. The character is a book-worm reborn, experiencing something exciting and dangerous. Fans of strong female characters will appreciate the character and her exploration of survival in the book-setting.

The character designs by Haruna Hashimoto (Enter The Garden) are well-done and add a lot of value to the production merits. Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion features solid character designs which help to expand the visual sensibilities of the series. Hashimoto has done a good job of showing the romantic aesthetic through the character design elements.

The animation is one of the central foundations of the production. Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion has impressive animation and it works well for the setting and genre of the series. The series features art direction by Kenji Kato (Restaurant to Another World, Violinist of Hamelin) and chief animation direction by Haruna Hashimoto (My Hero Academia, Summer Time Rendering). The production highlights the excellent work of the team of animators. The animation team certainly explored the series with interesting background art, line art, and detailed animation. The effort is commendable and something that works well at helping to showcase a visual landscape for romantic-fantasy animation.

The cinematography by Yuzuru Funakoshi (My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer, Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle) is an impressive component of the series production. The cinematography is a nice highlight of the series and showcases the engaging spectrum of visuals on the series – the colorful animation and the ebb and flow of the lighting. The cinematographer wants the series to achieve a romantic sensibility and a fantasy setting at the same time and the visuals do a solid job with this regard.

The score composed by Keiji Inai (Alderamin on the Sky, The Misfit of Demon King Academy) adds to the series sense of charm. The score by Inai manages to enhance the romantic-fantasy elements with the score providing a nice backdrop to the production. The music will appeal to fans of romantic anime series.

Written by Mitsutaka Hirota (Bibliophile Princess, Rent-A-Girlfriend), Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion has fun with the series concept. The concept itself is well-done and something to appreciate. The concept explores a reincarnation storyline in a romantic-fantasy book setting. An intriguing concept for book-worms and for romantic anime fans who want something a little bit different compared to the abundance of shonen anime on the marketplace. For fans of the genre, the anime does a solid job with effective characters.

Directed by Junichi Yamamoto (Pop Team Epic, Armor Shop for Ladies & Gentlemen), Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion is aimed directly at the romantic anime fans out there. For fans of romantic anime seeking something new and exciting, Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion delivers something intriguing with a solid concept. Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion will certainly be a series many anime fans who appreciate the book-setting element and romantic elements will gravitate towards and want to check out.

Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion: The Complete Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Released on Blu-ray by Crunchyroll, Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high-definition in the original television broadcast aspect ratio of 1.78:1 widescreen. The series features an impressive high-definition presentation. The high-definition video looks excellent on the release. Colors pop with considerable depth and the image looks clear and well detailed. Background animation and line art are well reproduced and make an impression on the release. The cinematography is well highlighted by the presentation.

Blu-ray provides a distinct advantage over streaming video services. Blu-ray provides a superior video encode option compared to streaming platforms. Streaming services tend to provide lower video bit-rates compared to the Blu-ray format. For home theater enthusiasts seeking the absolute best in presentation quality, Blu-ray provides a superior option for fans seeking the best possible video presentation available.

Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion: The Complete Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release includes a selection of lossless audio options including: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround sound and Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 (with English subtitles). The release also includes a selection of additional audio options: French Dolby TrueHD 2.0 and German Dolby TrueHD 2.0 are also included. The release capably reproduces the sound direction by Yasunori Ebina (Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow, Ranking of Kings: The Treasure Chest of Courage). The sound direction is well preserved. Dialogue is crisp and clear on the release. The score is a nice highlight of the audio presentation and manages to provide a crisp and engaging audio soundstage for enthusiasts to appreciate. The English subtitles are well-done and are free from egregious spelling or grammatical errors.

One of the greatest advantages of the Blu-ray disc format is lossless audio encoding. The lossless audio provides a significant advantage at times over streaming video services. Streaming video services only provide lossy (non-lossless) audio encoding compared to the lossless quality available on physical media. For audiophiles and home theater enthusiasts seeking the best possible soundstage and audio quality, the format is superior.

Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion: The Complete Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The release comes with a nicely designed o-card slipcover. The slipcover features unique key artwork different from the key artwork highlighted underneath the slipcover. The effect is a "dual cover art" sensation with two different distinct pieces of art for the packaging design. This makes the set a bit nicer and adds to the collectability for fans. Slipcover fans will be especially appreciative of this package design.

On disc supplements include:

Promo Videos (HD, 4:17)

Commercial (HD, 00:18)

Textless Opening Song (HD, 1:32)

Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion: The Complete Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion is a romantic-fantasy anime with a lot of nice production merits – including solid animation and a nice score. Fans of romantic-anime will find something worth appreciating. Fans of the genre may wish to check the series out.

The Blu-ray release provides a solid high-definition presentation and lossless audio encoding. The release also comes with a nice o-card slipcover. The only drawback to the release is a lackluster supplemental package. Nonetheless, Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion fans may wish to consider a purchase for ownership and a superior video-audio presentation. Recommended.