Boxes are neat.

Just about everyone likes having a nice neat box that they can slot their DVDs into. It’s one of those near-primal urges that has driven many a fan to spend way more money than they ought to.

First you buy the DVD with the box as soon as it comes out – so you don’t miss out and NOT GET A BOX. Because that would be a travesty, see.

Then, you buy the DVDs as they come out to FILL the box, and in the end you have a nice box full of DVDs that is in so many ways more satisfying than a bunch of DVDs that don’t have a box.

Or – forgive the run-on sentence coming up here – maybe you have the box, but then you neglect to buy the DVDs as they come out and then you wind up down a few volumes and all of a sudden it’s going to cost like $120 to fill up the box and that just seems like a lot of money, so you put it off… and then the $35 thinpak edition comes out and you buy that… and then you have a single DVD sitting in a mockingly-empty box and a thinpak next to it that you’ll actually watch.

I am rather ashamed to admit that I have done that a couple of times.

Eventually I realized that it might be better if I limited my box purchases and mostly waited for thinpaks.

I was even going to do this for Haruhi, but they put out such a shiny keen box, with little magnetic doors and a slide out drawer and…

…well, I got sucked in.

But, today I bought volume 4, and so the box is completely full. I have my four DVD cases with a total of, I think, 7 DVDs. I have my mini pencilboards, my iron-ons, my “dancho” armband and Haruhiesque headband. I have the four CDs.  Granted, I’ve had all of them for months, but these ones have, uh, translated liner notes and lyrics.

I even have a couple of pillowcases.

Now, if I only had a spare day to sit down and indulge myself in a start-to-finish rewatching of the series.