Lucky Penny’s first releases hit the market a few weeks ago, with Ristorante Paradiso. For those who don’t recall, Right Stuf created the Lucky Penny brand was created for “high-quality and budget-friendly” releases. When the label was first announced, we spoke with Alison Roberts, Right Stuf’s Director of Marketing to discuss the then-upcoming releases. From our conversation, we were able to glean that the releases would mirror Nozomi releases like El-Hazard: The Wanderers and Gasaraki. They would keep with the liteboxes, and pare down the extra content as a way to keep costs down, and prices lower.

Earlier today, we received the privilege of review screener for Lucky Penny’s release of Ristorante Paradiso. Since this is the company’s inaugural outing or the brand, I wanted to take a closer look at the overall release,

Packaging

The front cover for the show features a piece key art that places the cast in a natural, relaxed setting, as they sit before a sepia-toned photographic backdrop. The monochromatic snapshots provide an attractive contrast to the colorful character art. The effect is especially prominent in Nicoletta, whose red locks and green sweater pop in comparison to the drab hues and lighter hair colors found in the rest of the cast’s presentation.

The back cover holds few real surprises. The basic information of a plot summary, a listing of extras, and a smattering of screen shots is present and accounted for.

The inside of the case is similar to that of Nozomi’s Dirty pair Flash release. The same Scanavo case with the same disc arrangements are. The discs, though, are all adorned with pieces of key art from the show.

Menu Structure

Note: Since the release has a consistent look & feel across all three discs, I will only be covering the first disc. Further dissections would be redundant.

Upon booting the disc, viewers are greeted by a shot of Santo Claudio attending to a pair of patrons. The menu takes up the right side of the overall real estate, and takes on the style of a restaurant menu’s front cover.

Each sub-menu is presented in the style of an index card, accompanied by a trio of shots from the series.

Extras

Aside from the standard clean opening, clean closing, and trailers, the Lucky Penny release of Ristorante Paradiso contains the following:

• TV Commercials
• NOISE Trailers
• Background Gallery
• Rome Scenery Gallery
• A Guide to Rome
• Liner Notes

Of the extras provided, the most substantial would have to be the Guide to Rome, which gives information on the various landmarks that appear in the show, from Castel Sant’Angel to the Spanish Square.

Video Presentation

Overall

Overall, Ristorante Paradiso proves to be an attractive release. Lucky Penny’s version packs a surprising amount of substantive extra content along with the show, while maintaining a fairly high standard of visual quality.