Daria: The Complete Animated Series

I was a moderate fan of Daria when the show aired in the late 90's/early 2000's. It wasn't that I didn't like the show (I actually liked it quite a bit), just remember it being a show I'd see from time to time and remember it being decent. Funny, good writing, just simply entertaining. When I heard it was coming out on DVD I didn't have to think twice. The memories of watching the show were good ones, so I ordered it the day it came out (and ended up only having to pay 28 bucks-NEW-and this included shipping). Well I can say after having watched the first few episodes of the Daria Series Collection that the show seems to have held up well. I guess if I could knock anything it might be the video quality. Grainy lines and bland reproduction are apparent in the episodes I've viewed, but this in no way takes away from the enjoyment of watching the episodes. Maybe I'm just spoiled in today's age of Blu-Ray. I'm not going to downgrade the DVD for not having the original music. Number one, everyone knows this that would be interested in this DVD. I wouldn't be telling you anything you didn't know. Additionally, inside the case there's a small note explaining why it isn't there (costly licensing). So nobody is trying to hide anything here. Number two-It's not that big of a deal. I'm frankly shocked everyone is so concerned about the original music being present. It's not like this is Beavis and Butthead where the music played a much more regularly present central role to the plot/action of the episodes. Personally, not being a person that remembered many of the episodes, the lack of original music so far has not taken away anything from my viewing experience. Guess I'm not sure what everyone's big problem with this is? If you like the music that much, go hop on ITunes??? Maybe buy some used CDs on Amazon??? In the end, if you remember liking/watching Daria, there's no reason not to pick this up. It's affordable. All the episodes (including the movies) are there. The show has held up well. On a side note, I'm uncertain how people could have been reviewing this specific DVD collection in February of this year. It was released on May 12th (I believe) 2010. Maybe that's the most upsetting thing about this product-The Amazon Reviews. The point of a review is to review the product once you've used it, not to hype it or knock it, when the damn thing hasn't even been released. I don't care if you've seen all the episodes or not, until you use the actual product in question-DON'T REVIEW IT ON AMAZON!!!!!!!!!! It completely defeats the purpose of reviewing items.

I'd like to start off by saying that I never saw Daria when it aired on TV. When I found out that the girl from Beavis and Butthead got a spin off I decided to check out the show (illegally) online. I then decided to purchase (after realizing I couldn't watch the entire series on YouTube) this box set. After watching the whole series I'm very glad that I did. Daria is now one of my favorite shows of all time. It's smart, witty and, very funny. If you don't already know, the series is about a teenaged girl named Daria and her life throughout high School. Of course this has been done before, but what makes this show special are the characters. The title character is truly unique. I honestly believe that there will never be another main character like Daria; she's smart, very sarcastic, and funny. After watching the entire series I know that I will be quoting her for the rest of my life and you will too. The rest of the cast is not as unique as Daria, but they still bring a lot humor to the series. There is Jane (Daria's artistic friend), Quinn (Daria's shallow sister), Kevin (dumb Jock), Upchuck (pervert), Mack (Black guy), Jake (Daria's manic father) and the list goes on. The comedy comes from putting the characters through everyday situations and just having them be themselves .Truly the work of very talented writers. A huge benefit of owning the entire series is that you can watch the show in rapid succession and you will be able to see the great deal of character development that goes on over the course of the entire series very clearly. Almost all the charters in Daria mature and change throughout the series in very realistic ways, something that isn't done in many shows that I watch nowadays. The last reason that I'm recommending this DVD box set is that even though the show is no longer on the air its themes are still relevant to this day. Even though the show will have you laughing through every episode, it still deals with things that every teenager, including myself, deals with. Sex, morality, and questioning one's own existence are the themes of certain episodes and these episodes happen to be my favorite ones because of how well the subject matter is handled. It is fair to say that any teenager will be able to relate with Daria in some way. I know I did. Until know I have only been talking about series itself, but now I will talk about the actual box set. All 65 episodes are here with the 2 TV movies and some extras. The actual box is very simple with very simple artwork on the front and back and only a note from Glenn Eichler, the series creator, inside the box. The extras are not much,but were fun to look at. You get original character sketches, the unaired pilot episode (my favorite extra), and a music video from one of the shows characters. My biggest problems with the box set are actually about 2 of the extra features. My first problem was that both of the TV movies are a part of the extra features and not a part of the main feature. Since there is not an episode list included with the box set, I had no idea were too chronologically place the movies in the Daria time line. Thankfully I was able to find episode guides online, but it still annoyed me. The other problem I had was with this one extra feature that has Daria and Jane counting down the top 10 animated music videos of all time. For some reason they skip the music videos after Daria and Jane introduce them. Why couldn't MTV include the videos? There were 11 music videos on the Beavis and Butthead Box set and there were 3 of those and in my opinion Daria in a better show. Anyway, to fix this all you need to do is watch the extra feature on your computer, wait until they introduce the music video, pause it then look up the video on YouTube. I know that it's a hassle, but Daria and Jane's introductions are as smart and funny as anything that they say on the show plus the music is good (oasis!!!). The final thing that I would like to bring up about the box set is about the music used in the show. I know that many long time Daria fans complain that the box set doesn't use the original music that the show used when it aired on MTV due to legal issues. For people that don't know when Daria aired on MTV it used licensed music from various popular artists for transition and background music, so that means that the box set had to use generic stock music instead because of the cost of home distribution licensing. From what I have read the show was better with the original music but I don't have opinion on the matter, I never got the chance to hear the difference (I didn't even know about the whole music issue until I read the note inside the box) so it doesn't bother me one bit. Final thoughts The show 5/5 It's smart, witty, and very funny. I don't think there ever was or will ever be a TV show like Daria, truly one of a kind. I understand that it might not be for everybody, so watch an episode online and if you like it you will LOVE the 24 hours of teenage angst that are in this box set The Box set itself 4.5/5 Could have done better and it did annoy me a little with the extras, but it gets the job done very well. Afterthoughts Why doesn't MTV air any reruns. I would really enjoy watching the show with the original music. Do we really need all of those" reality" shows? I know I'm willing to replace any one of them with 9 year old episodes of Daria. Any daria fan would agree with me right? In my opinion there is more" reality" In Daria than anything on MTV now a days.

In the era when MTV still gave a crap about not pandering to the lowest common denominator with its programming, there was "Daria". The irony is, "Daria" was spun off from the ridiculous, but admittedly amusing, "Beavis and Butthead" series. Where that show gleefully wallowed in the stupid and moronic, "Daria" went in the opposite direction. Using her sarcasm, commentary, and general cynicism, the show showed that one could be intelligent and blunt but still be entertaining. In its way, the show dealt with the usual crap of being a teen without being preachy, moralistic, or boring. And it assumed that the audience was smart. Which MTV obviously no longer does. Admittedly, I am not in the demographic for this show (30s), but a smart show is a smart show, and I have waited for this series for ages. It is long past time this series is finally being released. Maybe it will make some remember when MTV was relevant, socially aware, and treated young people like thinking beings and not Barbie and Ken dolls for reality TV crap. I think - if one like smart shows with an edge - one would love "Daria", regardless of age. (Ironically, I think the character of Daria, if she existed naturally, would have plenty to say about the state of the channel today that she originated from. And none of it good! LOL!) On the downside, I am 99.999% sure there will be music deletions and substitutions, the dreaded "rights issues". While I do wish that would be left intact, I guess I could see where it would be cost prohibitive, and this series is too good to sit in a vault because of it. Which is why I still give this DVD set five stars regardless of that issue. So, I will live with the music changes. But complain. Daria would be pleased! In short, if you like animation, wit, fun, intelligence, and snark (of which there is plenty!), let "Daria" entertain you! You'll feel smarter for it. Edited to add, as I have answered another review via the comment link, and it may not be readily seen: Daria the Musical episode *is* included on this DVD set, making it, as advertised, the "complete" series! Its production number was 301; however, MTV used "Through A Lens Darkly" as the Season 3 premiere years ago, and the DVD order is the same way. Daria The Musical is episode #7 in Season 3, as it was when it originally aired. And it is the one episode retaining its original end music over the alter egos/credits. Also, regrettably, "Is It College Yet" is again the edited version, but from another account here in the discussion thread regarding this set, MTV tried for the unedited version, but the master of the audio and video could not be located to synchronize, so the edited version it is. There is also the belief that copyright played a role in using the edited version, as well. However, one episode in the grand scheme of things is not bad!

Before I begin this review, yes, Glenn Eichler does put in a disclaimer about why the DVD Collection had changed all the music sound bites. Mainly due to the fact although MTV never had a problem with using them on their network, whenever you attempt to put it on another medium, you end up dealing with outrageous licensing issues. Bottom line, it makes it impossible to release the collection because one would have to sell it at about $500 or so, not to mention getting approval by the artists themselves. By that time, you'd never get the aforementioned item in a collection such as this. (Probably why we'll never see the Gamera episodes of MST3K on DVD.. ah, well). But enough grousing about insignificant details, let's get onto the collection itself. First off, it's amazing something spun-off from Mike Judge's "Beavis & Butthead," genuinely became an animated cult-classic. Essentially because at the time, Daria was simply a passing character, attempting to be the voice of reason for these guys. Whereas here, she's pretty much a realistic teen dealing with the nonsense which makes up high-school life. "Daria" has a refreshing spin when you watch it because it doesn't follow the typical 'teen' mould of animation. No angst, no emotional nonsense, no 'brainless' adults, just a person dealing with the realistic (?) view of teenage life. Back in the late 90's, thanks to shows like "Saved by the Bell," "Galaxy High," and other teen-based shows out there, basically you had the youth coming up like intelligent know-it-alls, while the grown-ups were usually portrayed as clueless adults. Whereas with Daria, usually the problem with adults, was they were too absorbed with their agendas, or being too condescending. Unlike other shows, Daria's parents usually knew what was going on at times, even though sometimes her sister, Quinn could usually pull a fast one on their father now and again. And unexpectedly would help their daughters out of jams. "Arts & Crass" happens to be an excellent example, Jane & Daria get roped into participating with a poster contest for Lawndale High. In true Daria fashion, Jane paints a picture of a young girl looking into a mirror, while Daria provides a rather controversial poem to go with it. Amazingly, it gets submitted but Principal Li has the poem altered against Daria & Jane's wishes. Of course, after they 'deface' their entry, Principal Li attempts in informing Daria's mom about the incident (apparently Jane's mother's off in her own little world). But before Li can suggest any punishment, Helen utilizes her legal knowledge for getting Daria & Jane off the hook. Another reason Daria has endured so well is the characters develop than just keep on being 'recycled' in endless persona. For instance in Season One, Quinn is essentially the superficial opposite of Daria. But at the end of Season Five - and the movie finale, she starts realizing there's more to life than just fashion and popularity, much to Sandy's chagrin. Overall, The Complete Series is great for any Daria fan out there, or someone who might want something a bit different than the teen fanfare shoveled out there by Disney.

There's isn't much to say about this DVD collection when it comes to someone who already knows about it or even has the collection themselves, so I'll just explain it to someone who has never even heard about this show, which will be most of the people on here. First off, this show was first aired back on TV in 1997 on MTV, ran for five seasons and two movies (one ending season four and the last ending season five) and went off-air in 2002, just about the same time MTV decided to close down their animation department. This show is basically a spin-off series of another MTV show called "Beavis and Butt-Head", where our star character, Daria was a supporting role in. After a few seasons of B&B aired, the creator Mike Judge asked one of the writers who basically invented Daria's character (who's name is Glenn Eichler), to created another show staring everyone's favorite cynic. This collection has all of the episodes in fantastic DVD quality with letterbox screen ratio. Only thing it lacks is the nostalgia factor of this show, which is the music during some scene cuts and transitions. This show, back when it was still on TV, had its moments where it'll play songs that were popular back in the mid to late 90s, from 311 and The Offspring to Korn and Rammstein. There is a little note where the creator, Glenn talked about why the music is not in the DVD release of this show and I (and hopefully everyone else) understand why they had to cut out the music bits and why it's been replaced with generic music cues. Costs for licensing would of been a fortune, making this DVD release impossible to achieve. The only exception is the original theme song, played by the all-female rock group, Splendora, that plays during the beginning of each episode. When this show was still on TV, I was only about 6 years old and only saw bits a pieces of it when my eldest brother watched it. It didn't really click with me since I was too young to understand its message, so I skipped out on it. Boy, did I really miss out. This is basically a show about a very intelligent and cynical girl that's just trying to make it through High School without any social interaction, but life's never fair for anyone, including Daria. It seems in almost every episode, she's usually forced to do something she's not proud to do, makes her seem hypocritical, or just stick out, which is something she doesn't like to do. For the message it displays, all this show is tell us is no matter what era you're from, High School will always be the same for everyone; nothing will be different. You have all of your typical groups: the jocks, the nerds, the geeks, then you have Daria (along with her only true friend Jane). This is a great show and I would highly suggest it to anyone who would like to watch something mellow, but still have a laugh. One thing I should warn is that the humor placed in this facade of a cartoon is quite dry. It's that type of comedy that's only funny when you think about what the punchline was about.

I've loved watching this series since I was 17 years old and I can't believe I've finally been able to get the DVD. The quality is excellent, even the day intros make everything funnier. Thank you so much MTV

MTV obviously made compromises to release this DVD set. As everyone knows, the original music is replaced by generic songs, and the 2 movies are the abbreviated versions that were designed to air as reruns on MTV. With that being said, I'm not going to argue whether or not MTV should have tried harder with this release. The fact is, it's a show that's been off the air for a decade that was never as mainstream as say, South Park, The Simpsons, or Family Guy. As fans we are lucky to finally have something of high quality, instead of the poor quality VHS rips or Censored-for-content "The N" versions that have been floating around on the internet for years. The lack of the original music is disappointing - as someone who watched the originals when it was on MTV, and then watched the modified versions on this DVD set, I do notice the difference. The music did help pull the viewer in to a Late 90's/Early 2000's timeline. But, they honestly didn't do a horrible job with the replacement generic music, and new fans to the show would probably not even be aware of the change unless they did some research on the fan sites. As a compromise, go to a website like "Outpost Daria" and pull up the song lists from each episode and make a custom "Daria" playlist to listen to before or after watching the show. With regards to the actual DVD release: The disc case seems a bit poorly made. The front plastic cover came a bit warped, causing the cover artwork to look distorted. Not a huge deal, because most of the time this is going to sit on the shelf wedged in between a bunch of other DVDs. The extra content is nice, although a bit minimal. It would have been nice to see more from the behind-the-scenes production of the show. But back in 1997 I doubt the staff even considered that some day people would be interested in seeing them work their day to day job on a bonus section of a video disc. The only major problem I have with this release, is that the 2 movies are located on the last disc under extras. If you watch the series straight through, you will miss out on watching the movies in the proper order. The first movie, "Is it Fall Yet?" should be watched after the episode "Dye! Dye! My Darling." The last movie, "Is It College Yet?" should be watched after the last episode of the series, "Boxing Daria." Even if they couldn't find a way around needing to squeeze the two movies on the last disc under extras, they should have at least included some type of note or warning for viewers who want to watch the series in order. All in all, Daria was a great show that truly was unique, if not misunderstood by many. Despite the flaws of this DVD release, I feel that any fan of the show, whether new or old, should pick up a copy. And who knows - maybe in another ten years the music industry will have changed enough where the episodes with the original music can be re-released. I doubt MTV would pass up an opportunity to sell it to us again!

This show is fantastic!

La la la la la… La la la la la… Souvenez-vous. C’étaient les années 90. Carthage venait d’être détruite. Haroun Tazieff n’était encore qu’un nom prometteur parmi d’autres dans le domaine de la philatélie acrobatique synchronisée. Le cirque revenait en ville avec son cortège de parlementaires arthritiques et d’orthodontistes métacorticaux. On mangeait de la glace au furet en gardant un œil sur les derniers tournois des championnats du monde d’Air Guitar microtonale avant d’aller danser autour du totem ithyphallique de Telefunken Friedrich, le corps enduit de guacamole hydrophile et la chevelure artistement repeignée à la graisse de pangolin. Les hommes portaient des serre-têtes à franges et des vestes en fanons de baleine avec des épaulettes clignotantes qui épelaient des vers de l’Enéide en braille télépathique. Toutes les filles à la mode se déplaçaient sur échasses de berger landais en mastiquant suavement de la résine d’argousier phosphorescente. Et chaque soir, on s’asseyait rituellement derrière la télé avec un verre de tourbe philosophique frappée au cérumen de banane pour halluciner un nouvel épisode de Daria. Daria est une adolescente sarcastique, blasée et intello, remplie de mauvais esprit et au timbre tellement monocorde qu’il filerait le bourdon à un père Noël en pleine crise d’hyperthymie. Flanquée d’une petite sœur superficielle et pimbêche affiliée au « club de la mode », d’une mère accro au travail et d’un paternel complètement dépassé qui vitupère aveuglément à propos de tout et de rien, elle va apprendre à évoluer dans le milieu hostile du lycée de Lawndale, où comme chacun sait, tous les stéréotypes sont vrais. Elle y croisera le quaterback totalement débile, la cheftaine des pom-pom girls carénée comme une pin-up de Tex Avery, les trois beaux gosses interchangeables, la black étudiante modèle, la gothique boulotte et le rouquin libidineux, ainsi qu’une horde d’enseignants qu’on dirait peints sur le vif : le prof de littérature résilient qui apprend aux élèves à chérir son enfant blessé intérieur, la prof de physique-chimie acariâtre et misandre, le prof d’histoire-géo atrabilaire et la principale hypocrite et vénale aux dents qui rayent le parquet. Heureusement, Daria pourra aussi compter sur sa copine Jane Lane, jeune fille « décalée » et artiste en herbe, ainsi que sur Trent, frère d’icelle et leader charismato-lymphatique du groupe The Mystik Spiral («mais on va peut-être changer de nom »), lesquels portent le même regard ironique et désabusé qu’elle sur le narcissisme écœurant de leurs contemporains. (Aujourd’hui, on peut faire le même constat que pour tout le reste : c’est toujours pareil, mais en pire.) Quoique dans un genre très différent, cette série pourrait être comparée à Friends, dont elle était à peu près contemporaine : on avait commencé à la regarder pour les vannes et l’ambiance générale, et puis on avait fini par s’attacher aux personnages qui évoluaient au fil des saisons. Friends était une série s’adressant aux jeunes adultes en train de se construire, Daria parlait aux adolescents se préparant au « triste monde tragique » qui ressemblerait beaucoup à la microsociété du spectacle de leur lycée. Alors bien sûr, Daria reste une satire, mais une satire très drôle précisément parce qu’elle sonne juste, une satire fichtrement bien écrite, avec des personnages fouillés qui deviennent parfois franchement émouvants, conférant à la série une certaine portée morale qui continue de faire mouche aujourd’hui. Pour ceux que ça intéresse, il existe une bande annonce d’un film de Daria vingt ans après, avec la géniale Aubrey Plaza dans le rôle-titre. Malheureusement, c’est un canular. Mais en fait, c’est peut-être encore mieux comme ça : Daria ne se serait de toute façon jamais vendue à Hollywood. Cette édition peu dispendieuse contient toutes les saisons et les deux longs-métrages (sur les extras du dernier DVD), ainsi que quelques autres bricoles : l’épisode pilote, des interviews, un clip vidéo de la Spirale Mystique et le script d’un spin-off jamais réalisé où le groupe de Trent serait allé tenter sa chance dans une autre ville. Signalons à toutes fins utiles, puisque l’éditeur s’est bien gardé de le préciser, que si le second film, « Is it college yet ? » est censé clore la série, le premier doit être visionné à la fin de la quatrième saison, juste après l’épisode « Dye! Dye! my Darling », sans quoi la chronologie se retrouve complètement bouleversée. À l’exception du générique, les musiques ne sont pas celles de la diffusion sur MTV (plus d’extraits de Sonic Youth ou de Morphine, par exemple). Oui, c’est nul, mais on s’y fait. Les musiques de remplacement sont généralement des déclinaisons parfaitement ignobles du générique original, pourtant excellent. Oui, c’est nul, et c’est difficile de s’y faire. Il n’y a pas de sous-titres, ni en français, ni même en anglais. Yeah, it sucks, too. Oui, il vaut mieux avoir quand même un assez bon niveau d’anglais pour comprendre. Et enfin, oui, ça vaut le coup de faire un effort. Pourquoi les meilleures séries ne bénéficient-elles presque jamais d’une édition française correcte ? Que feriez-vous si vous découvriez que le monde entier était secrètement constitué de robots humanoïdes à part vous? Qu'est devenu Guillaume Leroy? Que peut-il bien faire avec une pince à sucre? Je n’en sais rien. Allez chercher vos propres réponses dans le Yi King ou sur les sites conspirationnistes. Et le Grand Punta reconnaitra les siens. Daria est notre héroïne. Laissons-lui le dernier mot, à travers une de ses maximes sapientielles dont elle a le secret et qui peut servir de pôle talismanique à toute une destinée : « N’oubliez jamais qu’il n’y a aucun aspect de l’existence qui ne puisse être amélioré par une part de pizza. » La la la la la… La la la la la…

This set is amazing! I used to watch this show on TV all the time. This set has everything: All the episodes (5 seasons) and the two movies. Plus a few bonus. I'm really happy I bought this.

Quanto concerne le indicazioni regionali si tratta della versione americana, quindi Regione 1, potrebbe non essere leggibile con tutti i lettori DVD sul mercato, anzi quasi sicuramente pochissimi riusciranno ad utilizzarlo in un lettore dvd. Sul computer chiaramente funziona. Ottima la qualità dei disci e il modo in cui è stato strutturato il menù. 5 Stelle perchè questo è un cartone mitico,Amazon però dovrebbe mettere a posto l'informazione sbagliata riguardante la regione del DVD!

ATENCIÓN, DVD en región 1 así que si tu reproductor es región 2 no será reproducido. Asegurate antes de que sea región 0 o 1. El producto ha llegado sin problema y en perfecto estado.

Tudo perfeito. Seria ainda melhor se tivesse legendas em português.