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[Happosai]

Lots of people rag on the TV series but I love it even if I still prefer the first OAV series. The TV series gives a lot more time to some of the characters and dynamics and the romance is better fleshed out and more believable. I also adore the opening theme in all its cheesy goodness.

I recall on my first VHS copy of the TV series liking the opening and seeing subtitles for the song lyrics romanized Japanese ... which was odd but cool. I'm thinking to make a comparison to the Lodoss OVA being much higher budgeted but inconclusive on characters and the background. Whereas the TV Lodoss gave more context to the characters and environment. Same way I feel about El Hazard OVAs vs. TV. Both enjoyable in differing ways.

 

[Space Runaway]

Well...a fresh scan was needed. The DVD if I remember still looked like a grainy VHS transfer. Although I'll say my Discotek DVD version was waves better than the (possibly Manga Entertainment) release I had which was grainy and appeared to have a lot of cropping going on. That first U.S. DVD release was horrible. I hope we get more great blu-ray masters like that.

Now, if I could see at minimum some of those old Nagai anime/OVA adaptations like The Abashiri Family make it to DVD...that'd be great. When DVD started becoming more widespread with anime releases in about 2001/2002...I waited. But unfortunately that OVA was abandoned in the VHS/LaserDisc era. Unless Japan did something with it I wasn't aware of.

Yeah I remember that first DVD was just a VHS transfer of the cut versions. I didn't think we'd see a better version than the Discotek dvd and it's quite lucky they found the unedited master. So many more "prestigious" works ended up in the dumpster but Violence Jack survives.

Yeah the Abashiri Family ovas are basically forgotten. Feel like that's something that would show up on a JP streaming service before ever getting another shot at physical.

 

[Ladioss]

Lots of people rag on the TV series but I love it even if I still prefer the first OAV series. The TV series gives a lot more time to some of the characters and dynamics and the romance is better fleshed out and more believable. I also adore the opening theme in all its cheesy goodness.

Not a big fan of what they have done to Ifurita in the TV series - a character I was reaching dangerous levels of simping for in the original OAV.

Still, not particulary interested in the franchise myself. But I love the idea of those 90s mediamix franchises which took advantage of the LD support to release beautiful, luminously drawn animes

 

[mortal]

 

[Happosai]

Yeah I remember that first DVD was just a VHS transfer of the cut versions. I didn't think we'd see a better version than the Discotek dvd and it's quite lucky they found the unedited master. So many more "prestigious" works ended up in the dumpster but Violence Jack survives.

Yeah the Abashiri Family ovas are basically forgotten. Feel like that's something that would show up on a JP streaming service before ever getting another shot at physical.

Which is plain and simple a shame too that it was forgotten. Without filter I'll say that "Black Lion" and "Shutendoji" did not deserve DVD releases (as they were given) above The Abashiri Family. One thing that Go Nagai is unappreciated is his sense of humor. I felt with Abashiri Family they got all of that right in a short OVA. I doubt it'll ever even making to JP streaming unless it made it to the DVD-era of home video. Japan tends to forget the less successful OVAs that weren't going to be big sellers. Also, have to take into consideration that they'd need it remastered big time to consider streaming. Seeing the VHS copies shows not only were some shots cropped, possible scenes edited and...that fuzzy VHS quality.

One can only hope though. If only it had been promoted better outside Japan...

Not a big fan of what they have done to Ifurita in the TV series - a character I was reaching dangerous levels of simping for in the original OAV.

Still, not particulary interested in the franchise myself. But I love the idea of those 90s mediamix franchises which took advantage of the LD support to release beautiful, luminously drawn animes

It's not 'the greatest' franchise but it's purely a unique piece (the OVAs & the series) of the 1990's. I think the story had a balance of not being exaggeratedly popular that they'd be making spin-off movies or additional sequels. It gets to remain as a product of the better anime story writing of the 20th-century with splendid hand-drawn/painting cels and backgrounds. That's something we're not ever going to get from an anime product today...except it be something Studio Ghibli (assuming Miyazaki is still in great opposition to CG use in anime).

Guy did his research. I'll admit I'm one of those who disliked the character Shinji and I still do but...I think about Anno's mental health when he wrote Evangelion. I mean, he was suffering some severe depression. As with many artists -- this depression starts showing in his work. I think his mistake was not allow TV writers to assist in the ending of the original series. You have to take into consider in film - sometimes your original stories aren't as fit as what someone who's aware of the TV audience could write (I speak in past tense as this is not something we'd want today). But, let's say for the sake of Fuji TV or TV Tokyo ; you have to consider you'll have a longer career if you work for a broader audience. Had Evangelion simply been released as a 12-episode OVA...that would have been fine and the ending fitting. If you examine the majority anime series from the 90's, many authors of the anime/mangas were well aware they'd have to re-write certain things to make it successful for Japan TV. Anno seemed to have ignored that or just didn't like producers.

That's my opinion on the matter. They would have saved them the spending on movies had the re-written the ending for TV. I'll throw Berserk TV 1997 on the same note. Had they cut the animation at episode 25-ish; they'd still be making fresh extensions to the series today. But they really blew it by trying to work the manga story as the ending. I'm a film guy and I feel that if TV animation has to rewrite the original author to make it a better experience for viewing...it's worth doing.

I'll say this is closing. Jurassic Park (not anime obviously) which Michael Crichton wrote was always aimed at being made into film. But Crichton understood well that with how heavy the violence was, death of Hammond and the ending weren't going to work with a movie / TV audience. It took other writers to come in (which he permitted) to make it something that worked for cinema. I'm not sure why Anno didn't have that mindset but it's been a long time and what's done is done.

 

[mortal]

I'll admit I'm one of those who disliked the character Shinji and I still do but...I think about Anno's mental health when he wrote Evangelion. I mean, he was suffering some severe depression. As with many artists -- this depression starts showing in his work.

Yea I'm one of those people as well lol. I was never a fan of the way Shinji was written. I don't even mind having vulnerable male protagonists.
I think my frustration mostly stems from how his dialogue and engagement with other characters were written. I think it might just be a cultural divide for the most part.

I think his mistake was not allow TV writers to assist in the ending of the original series. You have to take into consider in film - sometimes your original stories aren't as fit as what someone who's aware of the TV audience could write (I speak in past tense as this is not something we'd want today). But, let's say for the sake of Fuji TV or TV Tokyo ; you have to consider you'll have a longer career if you work for a broader audience. Had Evangelion simply been released as a 12-episode OVA...that would have been fine and the ending fitting. If you examine the majority anime series from the 90's, many authors of the anime/mangas were well aware they'd have to re-write certain things to make it successful for Japan TV. Anno seemed to have ignored that or just didn't like producers.

I've been primarily ignorant of Evangelion's production history beyond the surface-level stuff and knowing about a few artists and animators who worked on the production for the 90s series.
I was made aware of Anno's mental state fairly recently, so I don't exactly have any strong opinions regarding how things could've gone.
Maybe you're right about it being told in fewer episodes, considering that the Rebuild films are essentially doing that.
Then again maybe the controversy of the original ending contributed to Evagenlion's prominence, given the amount of discourse and debate that followed in its wake.

 

[Happosai]

Yea I'm one of those people as well lol. I was never a fan of the way Shinji was written. I don't even mind having vulnerable male protagonists.
I think my frustration mostly stems from how his dialogue and engagement with other characters were written. I think it might just be a cultural divide for the most part.


I've been primarily ignorant of Evangelion's production history beyond the surface-level stuff and knowing about a few artists and animators who worked on the production for the 90s series.
I was made aware of Anno's mental state fairly recently, so I don't exactly have any strong opinions regarding how things could've gone.
Maybe you're right about it being told in fewer episodes, considering that the Rebuild films are essentially doing that.
Then again maybe the controversy of the original ending contributed to Evagenlion's prominence, given the amount of discourse and debate that followed in its wake.

Shiji's character was never written to have an appealing or valiant turnaround which would have been fitting for the story of Evangelion (Neon Genesis especially). Look at characters like Akira Fudo from the Devilman franchise. Nagai wrote him as weak, bullied and someone disregarded but he has a turnaround toward becoming the protag which fans liked. I believe Anno was disconnected from his audience and other real world events while writing Evangelion. That also explains some of the nihilistic things which came toward the end of series. Not to sound like a broken record but that was bad TV writing for a Japanese production. I've got no issue with nihilistic themes to an extent, but they seem more fitting in a movie or an OVA. Movies were aimed at broader audiences, home video and to sometimes tell a different story than a series. OVAs could really go in whichever direction depending on the budget as the only audience intended was of course...those buying anime on home video. TV series were written to be sold to JP TV networks for the viewing public. The standards of TV series in JP are similar to U.S. TV standards in the way that ratings play a big part in keeping them afloat. If the ratings, budget or otherwise isn't right -- it's easy to have something cancelled and go completely unfinished. However, Neon Genesis Evangelion was drawing a crowd of viewers and popularity. I think if Anno had consulted better with Producers - he'd have known (maybe he did) that he was going to cause a huge discord with the ending and basically lose future chances at ever getting a TV series again. They've made movies but I don't think a network would trust in funding another series in the future.

 

[Lunarorbit]

I watched neo Evangelion during covid and was underwhelmed. Your boy Austin walker hyped it up so much on his old pod that I decided to give it a try.

Maybe if I had seen it in the 90s when I was a teenager it would have hit me differently. As it was about halfway through the show I was bored with all the anxiety and ennui that was happening with the main kids.

 

[Happosai]

I watched neo Evangelion during covid and was underwhelmed. Your boy Austin walker hyped it up so much on his old pod that I decided to give it a try.

Maybe if I had seen it in the 90s when I was a teenager it would have hit me differently. As it was about halfway through the show I was bored with all the anxiety and ennui that was happening with the main kids.

Not sure who Austin Walker is but many...many have hyped up Evangelion. It still goes on in certain communities in Mexico the same as it was when I was in Illinois. It will never live up to the hype. The first time I saw it was on some old ADV VHS tapes back in the late 90's and just in parts. I bought the platinum DVD box in the 2000's and gave it a shot. I never made it to the ending in a straight viewing and skipped ahead because I found it...boring. The characters to me were just not engaging and the story seemed like something big that never really comes to fruition. I can't say I was disappointed though. I don't dislike Anno for it either (as I credit him for Gunbuster even though that was never completed either).

Some anime I can recommend that DO live up their hype are:

Trigun, Record of Lodoss War OVA & Series, The Slayers and a few others. I wouldn't say that Dragon Ball or Z (never watched any of the spin-offs after those) live up to their hype as both series seemed to decline in writing toward their final seasons.

 

[Lunarorbit]

Not sure who Austin Walker is but many...many have hyped up Evangelion. It still goes on in certain communities in Mexico the same as it was when I was in Illinois. It will never live up to the hype. The first time I saw it was on some old ADV VHS tapes back in the late 90's and just in parts. I bought the platinum DVD box in the 2000's and gave it a shot. I never made it to the ending in a straight viewing and skipped ahead because I found it...boring. The characters to me were just not engaging and the story seemed like something big that never really comes to fruition. I can't say I was disappointed though. I don't dislike Anno for it either (as I credit him for Gunbuster even though that was never completed either).

Some anime I can recommend that DO live up their hype are:

Trigun, Record of Lodoss War OVA & Series, The Slayers and a few others. I wouldn't say that Dragon Ball or Z (never watched any of the spin-offs after those) live up to their hype as both series seemed to decline in writing toward their final seasons.

Record of lodoss war is one I might check out. It has a metrovania game based on it that I heard was good

 

[OmegaSupreme]

I'm too lazy to look it up. Was the Sorcerer Hunters series complete? Did it cover all the manga? Loved that show back in the day. I know the fan service was toned down from the manga.

 

[Happosai]

Record of lodoss war is one I might check out. It has a metrovania game based on it that I heard was good

Without a doubt -- you can find the OVA and TV series on streaming. However, Funimation actually did a good job with the physical release compared to those previously released. The blu-ray/DVD combo set is on Amazon (the 1990 OVA on blu-ray & 1998 TV series on DVD together).

The OVA touches big time on D&D and has some of the most impressive animation I've seen. It's short but impactful. The TV series is a bit more toned down and friendly but it's pretty great watch too and continues where the OVA left off. Check it out!

I'm too lazy to look it up. Was the Sorcerer Hunters series complete? Did it cover all the manga? Loved that show back in the day. I know the fan service was toned down from the manga.

I don't have a definitive answer. I still have the ADV DVD release of the series and watched...once. Seems to meet that it was complete in the sense that the TV writers wrote their own arc to completion for the series. However, I never read the manga -- so that's hard for me to give you an exact. It's only 26-episodes and Discotek did release it in a lite-pack. Why not check it out again?

 

[Happosai]

Yeah I remember that first DVD was just a VHS transfer of the cut versions. I didn't think we'd see a better version than the Discotek dvd and it's quite lucky they found the unedited master. So many more "prestigious" works ended up in the dumpster but Violence Jack survives.

Yeah the Abashiri Family ovas are basically forgotten. Feel like that's something that would show up on a JP streaming service before ever getting another shot at physical.

Your comment about those works that ended up in the dumpster or I'd say...they were never considered for DVD or Blu-ray release bring me to one your referred me to about a year ago. Riki-Oh is one I decided to watch from a VHS rip (parts 1 &2). I'm a bit surprised this didn't have more of a demand to come back for blu-ray at minimum. I think it had a short term DVD release (meaning, it seems like it was oop not too long after release) and a DVD release in JP. Why did they stop there?

 

[Space Runaway]

Your comment about those works that ended up in the dumpster or I'd say...they were never considered for DVD or Blu-ray release bring me to one your referred me to about a year ago. Riki-Oh is one I decided to watch from a VHS rip (parts 1 &2). I'm a bit surprised this didn't have more of a demand to come back for blu-ray at minimum. I think it had a short term DVD release (meaning, it seems like it was oop not too long after release) and a DVD release in JP. Why did they stop there?

I've never seen the OVA DVD release but I get the feeling it's a poor transfer since even the most recent rips still come from the LD. There was supposed to be a Media Blasters DVD release in the 00s but was canned after running into to additional rights issues that couldn't be settled. Perhaps those issues still linger over this production?

As for a new JP release, neither OVA were very popular (And honestly they're not exactly great adaptions of the material. This is also Tetsu Dezaki who directed Grey Digital Target, so it makes me wonder about that adaption now) and I can see whichever company that owned it just vaulting it with a pile of other stuff in a salt mine or something. It definitely would look pretty nice if it was rescanned. The images on the LD sleeve give an idea how a fresh release could look.

In any case you might want to give the manga a look some day. Fun and easy read though it does get fairly stupid in it's latter half and makes no effort to hide everything it's stealing from. Although you can see Riki fight ED-209, among other insanity =P

 

[Happosai]

I've never seen the OVA DVD release but I get the feeling it's a poor transfer since even the most recent rips still come from the LD. There was supposed to be a Media Blasters DVD release in the 00s but was canned after running into to additional rights issues that couldn't be settled. Perhaps those issues still linger over this production?

As for a new JP release, neither OVA were very popular (And honestly they're not exactly great adaptions of the material. This is also Tetsu Dezaki who directed Grey Digital Target, so it makes me wonder about that adaption now) and I can see whichever company that owned it just vaulting it with a pile of other stuff in a salt mine or something. It definitely would look pretty nice if it was rescanned. The images on the LD sleeve give an idea how a fresh release could look.

In any case you might want to give the manga a look some day. Fun and easy read though it does get fairly stupid in it's latter half and makes no effort to hide everything it's stealing from. Although you can see Riki fight ED-209, among other insanity =P

I would have guessed Media Blasters to have attempted a physical release given they had numerous obscure titles in the DVD era which didn't have much of an audience (a few the that come to mind: Marriage Kekkon, Princess Rouge, etc). The releases I've kept from Media Blaster on DVD aside from Berserk 97 are titles I figure no one would ever give a thought to blu-ray about.

Speaking of some rare ones, I don't recall a discussion about the Iczer OVAs. I still have the Media Blasters release of Fight! Iczer One on DVD. Surprisingly, I found it used at my old gaming store about 9-years ago. I think Iczer One is watchable but I've been warned not to watch Adventure! Iczer 3 or Iczelion.

 

[Space Runaway]

I would have guessed Media Blasters to have attempted a physical release given they had numerous obscure titles in the DVD era which didn't have much of an audience (a few the that come to mind: Marriage Kekkon, Princess Rouge, etc). The releases I've kept from Media Blaster on DVD aside from Berserk 97 are titles I figure no one would ever give a thought to blu-ray about.

Speaking of some rare ones, I don't recall a discussion about the Iczer OVAs. I still have the Media Blasters release of Fight! Iczer One on DVD. Surprisingly, I found it used at my old gaming store about 9-years ago. I think Iczer One is watchable but I've been warned not to watch Adventure! Iczer 3 or Iczelion.

Yeah I have the Anime Works dvd which has an interesting behind the scenes piece included. Iczer doesn't have some great story but it works for a mid-80s OVA series and it being such an artist driven production really held it together. It's another I'd like to have on bluray. I know Japan has had a bluray release for awhile but I've never taken a look at the quality (I should probably do that soon). Also one of those rare cases where all the storyboards got released in physical book form. Always cool to have that stuff available.

Never did see the Iczer sequels either. Always saw them for purchase but none of the rental places had them (Just those old US Renditions releases of Iczer One) so I never got around to them. =P

 

[Happosai]

Yeah I have the Anime Works dvd which has an interesting behind the scenes piece included. Iczer doesn't have some great story but it works for a mid-80s OVA series and it being such an artist driven production really held it together. It's another I'd like to have on bluray. I know Japan has had a bluray release for awhile but I've never taken a look at the quality (I should probably do that soon). Also one of those rare cases where all the storyboards got released in physical book form. Always cool to have that stuff available.

Never did see the Iczer sequels either. Always saw them for purchase but none of the rental places had them (Just those old US Renditions releases of Iczer One) so I never got around to them. =P

Adventure! Iczer 3 I've been told is watchable but not that great. This was in a community back in the 2000's where these OVAs were being reviewed. However, I've never heard anyone give a positive review to Iczelion. To me, you watch Iczer One...if that was all you knew of the franchise -- it's not something groundbreaking but it's complete. It's a relic of that 1980's OVA era distinctly. I figure if JP has had the blu-ray release there must have been some interest. I don't believe the U.S. will ever give it a blu-ray release unless there's some cult Iczer following I'm not aware of. But, it's worth a watch.

I feel to those reading...the DVDs are long oop and streaming won't pick up many of these titles. Therefore, check YouTube and other video hosting sites which have these uploaded and free to watch (mind your ad blockers though).

Switching gears Space Runaway Baoh is another anime movie that seemed to have gotten a little bit of attention in the late 90's I recall and then sorta disappeared. I'm surprised there's been interest in getting a release on blu-ray of Baoh simple for the nostalgia part of it. It's not the greatest story but for a quick-cut OVA...it was fun. Side note, the single U.S. DVD release cover art was horrible...I'll share a few images instead.

 

[Space Runaway]

Adventure! Iczer 3 I've been told is watchable but not that great. This was in a community back in the 2000's where these OVAs were being reviewed. However, I've never heard anyone give a positive review to Iczelion. To me, you watch Iczer One...if that was all you knew of the franchise -- it's not something groundbreaking but it's complete. It's a relic of that 1980's OVA era distinctly. I figure if JP has had the blu-ray release there must have been some interest. I don't believe the U.S. will ever give it a blu-ray release unless there's some cult Iczer following I'm not aware of. But, it's worth a watch.

The first OVA series definitely seems to still have some level of cult popularity in Japan. Probably due to the visuals and people who worked on it. It also got an infamous tv broadcast a few years back where it was lazily censored with giant black squares covering everything. =P

Considering some of the stuff released I don't see why it couldn't get a new western release. The JP bluray looks great(In some cases too good as all the dirt and such exposes the cels). If Discotek or whoever slapped some subs on this and released it they'd have my money.

Switching gears Space Runaway Baoh is another anime movie that seemed to have gotten a little bit of attention in the late 90's I recall and then sorta disappeared. I'm surprised there's been interest in getting a release on blu-ray of Baoh simple for the nostalgia part of it. It's not the greatest story but for a quick-cut OVA...it was fun. Side note, the single U.S. DVD release cover art was horrible...I'll share a few images instead.

Yeah even with JoJo catching on in the West Boah still remains ignored. They even removed him from that recent JoJo videogame re-release. Though I never read the comic but the OVA itself I found kinda so-so. Maybe if I rewatched I'd appreciate it more now as OVAs like that are long over with.

Maybe you remember but there was a trailer for Boah attached to one of AnimEigo's VHS releases. I think it might have been one of the Bubblegum Crisis tapes but I cannot remember. Do you recall?

-----------------
And on the subject of this kind of stuff, I don't recall if it was brought up in this thread but "Maryuu Senki" is an interesting curiosity. Story isn't great but the first two OVAs have solid production value and rather nice art direction. Plus gore and body horror for good measure. Unfortunately it's completely let down by the 3rd and final OVA which seems to have been mostly handled by a Korean studio and is generally sloppy and made worse by being a crappy finale too. The first two OVAs are worth a look though. Maybe one day they'll be rescued from LD/VHS.

 

[Happosai]

The first OVA series definitely seems to still have some level of cult popularity in Japan. Probably due to the visuals and people who worked on it. It also got an infamous tv broadcast a few years back where it was lazily censored with giant black squares covering everything. =P

Considering some of the stuff released I don't see why it couldn't get a new western release. The JP bluray looks great(In some cases too good as all the dirt and such exposes the cels). If Discotek or whoever slapped some subs on this and released it they'd have my money.






Yeah even with JoJo catching on in the West Boah still remains ignored. They even removed him from that recent JoJo videogame re-release. Though I never read the comic but the OVA itself I found kinda so-so. Maybe if I rewatched I'd appreciate it more now as OVAs like that are long over with.

Maybe you remember but there was a trailer for Boah attached to one of AnimEigo's VHS releases. I think it might have been one of the Bubblegum Crisis tapes but I cannot remember. Do you recall?

-----------------
And on the subject of this kind of stuff, I don't recall if it was brought up in this thread but "Maryuu Senki" is an interesting curiosity. Story isn't great but the first two OVAs have solid production value and rather nice art direction. Plus gore and body horror for good measure. Unfortunately it's completely let down by the 3rd and final OVA which seems to have been mostly handled by a Korean studio and is generally sloppy and made worse by being a crappy finale too. The first two OVAs are worth a look though. Maybe one day they'll be rescued from LD/VHS.

Maybe the last word I could say about Iczer One is that Media Blasters never promoted it (or any of their titles very well) toward a particular audience. Think about Project A-Ko - it found a Western audience very early on despite never being on U.S. TV (that I'm aware of). I feel that Iczer One would have found it's way into a similar juxtaposed audience that liked Project A-Ko...but it fell into the greasy fingers of Media Blasters in the U.S. So, it's unlikely you'll ever seen anything of it beyond the M.B. DVDs.

I believe this may be the trailer that was with Bubblegum Crisis.


A Maryuu Senki I think it demonstrates what a lot of OVAs did. Seems to me like there was a huge built up in the first episodes but endings never really hit their mark in terms of budget or story...or both such as: Ushio & Tora (last OVA episode didn't compare anywhere to some of the earlier episodes ), Gunbuster (budget ran out almost to the point of just a storyboard) even Bubblegum Crisis (as much as we love it) didn't really get an ending. However, that doesn't mean it's not worth seeing. I recall Arrow videos releasing some of the super rare horror films in these special blu-ray boxsets and thinking "how did that ever make it to blu-ray?" If there was a distributor like that for anime in the blu-ray age, it'd be nice to see half of all the LD titles make it to blu-ray. As mentioned, I watched Moldiver about a month ago. Moldiver was VHS/LD/DVD and stopped there but the show itself has all sorts of tropes about LD (in part due to Victor/Pioneer having produced it...the kings of LaserDisc).

Speaking of OVA movies which never made it out of the LD/VHS era, on into Psycho Diver. I bought Psycho Diver after seeing the UV trailer on my old Wicked City VHS and bought it. Not going to say that the animation was the greatest but the short movie was. I kept the VHS for many years and lost in in the 2000's. The only thing I have of it today is a download on my PS3 harddrive. UV had some great movies that were left in that era. But I felt Psycho Diver would have at least had a DVD release. I highly doubt it ever will though.

 

[ValiantTraveler]

I finished re-watching the 97 Berserk anime with my brother and it's as good as I remember. In a curious twist of fate, we watched the first episode right around the announcement of the return of the manga.

This is easily in my top 25 anime. The animation budget is wisely used, with a lot of economical direction that does not hurt the quality one bit and good to great animation in the moments that count, like blood erupting from slashed bodies or swining swords. The art is mostly excellent with the character expressions and hair being superbly drawn.

The music too is used sparingly which makes it more impactful. I think the lack of music elevates many scenes as it makes the dilaogue feel more important. The soundtrack is one of the best ever made for the medium with the highlights being Guts' theme, the Behelit theme, and Forces. The opening and ending theme are excellent too with a strong grunge influence.

The writing is one of the best in Japanese fiction, the pacing is just perfect, and the escalating intrigue keeps you engaged all the way through. Of course, the major characters are all superbly written.

The voice acting adds a lot to the unique atmosphere that makes you take this story seriously. I might have said it before voice actors of the 90s often delivered some really raw performances, they weren't playing a role but rather speaking and shouting in a very authentic way, they feel like real people talking. Griffith's voice actor has a more subdued, authentic, and visceral voice than the current one (in the films and the shit CGI series). I also recognized Asuka's voice in Casca, and funnily enough the two characters have very similar names. Guts' actor was excellent too, but I doubt he would be fitting for the older Guts of the manga because his voice sounds young and full of energy.

I'm surprised at the lack of censorship especially during the eclipse. I wonder if this was broadcast at late night? And the ending is so abrupt lol. We don't even see how Guts escapes the eclipse.

Overall this is an excellent retro anime through and through and now I'm compelled to re-read the manga. I still hope Berserk will get another adapation of actual quality in the future.

 

[Happosai]

I finished re-watching the 97 Berserk anime with my brother and it's as good as I remember. In a curious twist of fate, we watched the first episode right around the announcement of the return of the manga.

This is easily in my top 25 anime. The animation budget is wisely used, with a lot of economical direction that does not hurt the quality one bit and good to great animation in the moments that count, like blood erupting from slashed bodies or swining swords. The art is mostly excellent with the character expressions and hair being superbly drawn.

The music too is used sparingly which makes it more impactful. I think the lack of music elevates many scenes as it makes the dilaogue feel more important. The soundtrack is one of the best ever made for the medium with the highlights being Guts' theme, the Behelit theme, and Forces. The opening and ending theme are excellent too with a strong grunge influence.

The writing is one of the best in Japanese fiction, the pacing is just perfect, and the escalating intrigue keeps you engaged all the way through. Of course, the major characters are all superbly written.

The voice acting adds a lot to the unique atmosphere that makes you take this story seriously. I might have said it before voice actors of the 90s often delivered some really raw performances, they weren't playing a role but rather speaking and shouting in a very authentic way, they feel like real people talking. Griffith's voice actor has a more subdued, authentic, and visceral voice than the current one (in the films and the shit CGI series). I also recognized Asuka's voice in Casca, and funnily enough the two characters have very similar names. Guts' actor was excellent too, but I doubt he would be fitting for the older Guts of the manga because his voice sounds young and full of energy.

I'm surprised at the lack of censorship especially during the eclipse. I wonder if this was broadcast at late night? And the ending is so abrupt lol. We don't even see how Guts escapes the eclipse.

Overall this is an excellent retro anime through and through and now I'm compelled to re-read the manga. I still hope Berserk will get another adapation of actual quality in the future.

There was a discussion in this thread about Berserk 97' last year. Upon watching it the first time (I'm that guy who seldom reads manga and will watch a series without knowing anything prior). So, I gave it a positive aside from the eclipse ending. I felt that the TV writers should have considered a 'quick-cut' ending which doesn't detail this whole "let's rescue Griffith" which leads all characters to the eclipse. I felt a good cut would have been to stop it on episode 25 and the writers should have considered "telling about the nihilistic arc" in a follow-up movie.

Some good points you touched on:

1. The animation. In the late 1990's the majority of anime series had very budgeted animation from what I've seen. Although you'd sometimes find one or two episodes in a 26 episode series where there was some additional frame-rate or cel shading added; it was rare. Berserk 97' surprised me with how clean the animation was and consistent. The production team never cut that I recall the budget to decrease this or cut corners. So, visually it's a great experience which is extremely important when you're dealing with the story of Guts.

2. The writing. The 1990's also brought a myriad of fantasy Medieval-style anime OVAs and series. However, very few were good. The good ones (Slayers, El Hazard, The Record of Lodoss War, Berserk (OVA)) vs. the turds (The Weathering Continent, Ruin Explorers, etc) were easy to see in the writing moreso than the anime. I feel the aside from Berserk the only two fantasy style anime of the 1990's that had a budget to look somewhat decent were Bastard!! (OVA) and The Record of Lodoss War (OVA). Notice though, those were OVAs. OVAs depending on the popularity of the manga were sometimes given great budgets -- so it shouldn't be too hard to believe that they were made in the 1990's. TV series though...the Slayers or even El Hazard -- you can clearly see where the animators cut corners or in certain episodes or throughout the entire series. That didn't take away the fun but The Slayers never really got much of a budget despite it's popularity at the time. Berserk on the other hand the writing & production stayed consistent throughout. We'll say this...it's quotable.

A note on the English dub though: I've seen both subbed Berserk TV 97' & the dub. I'm not going to say the English voices were bad but the ADR director was bad. Countless scenes in which the timing was off and someone's either speaking where the animation shows no dialogue or vice versa. The subbed version would probably be the best route to go with Berserk 97.'

It's worth a watch and let's face it -- this is the best we're ever going to get of Berserk in animation. JP production teams have had numerous opportunities to do more with it but it hasn't been done.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

There was a discussion in this thread about Berserk 97' last year. Upon watching it the first time (I'm that guy who seldom reads manga and will watch a series without knowing anything prior). So, I gave it a positive aside from the eclipse ending. I felt that the TV writers should have considered a 'quick-cut' ending which doesn't detail this whole "let's rescue Griffith" which leads all characters to the eclipse. I felt a good cut would have been to stop it on episode 25 and the writers should have considered "telling about the nihilistic arc" in a follow-up movie.

Some good points you touched on:

1. The animation. In the late 1990's the majority of anime series had very budgeted animation from what I've seen. Although you'd sometimes find one or two episodes in a 26 episode series where there was some additional frame-rate or cel shading added; it was rare. Berserk 97' surprised me with how clean the animation was and consistent. The production team never cut that I recall the budget to decrease this or cut corners. So, visually it's a great experience which is extremely important when you're dealing with the story of Guts.

2. The writing. The 1990's also brought a myriad of fantasy Medieval-style anime OVAs and series. However, very few were good. The good ones (Slayers, El Hazard, The Record of Lodoss War, Berserk (OVA)) vs. the turds (The Weathering Continent, Ruin Explorers, etc) were easy to see in the writing moreso than the anime. I feel the aside from Berserk the only two fantasy style anime of the 1990's that had a budget to look somewhat decent were Bastard!! (OVA) and The Record of Lodoss War (OVA). Notice though, those were OVAs. OVAs depending on the popularity of the manga were sometimes given great budgets -- so it shouldn't be too hard to believe that they were made in the 1990's. TV series though...the Slayers or even El Hazard -- you can clearly see where the animators cut corners or in certain episodes or throughout the entire series. That didn't take away the fun but The Slayers never really got much of a budget despite it's popularity at the time. Berserk on the other hand the writing & production stayed consistent throughout. We'll say this...it's quotable.

A note on the English dub though: I've seen both subbed Berserk TV 97' & the dub. I'm not going to say the English voices were bad but the ADR director was bad. Countless scenes in which the timing was off and someone's either speaking where the animation shows no dialogue or vice versa. The subbed version would probably be the best route to go with Berserk 97.'

It's worth a watch and let's face it -- this is the best we're ever going to get of Berserk in animation. JP production teams have had numerous opportunities to do more with it but it hasn't been done.

I'm still holding out hope we get a Hellsing Ultimate type of situation where we get a big-budget manga accurate adaptation from beginning to end. I realize Hellsing is much shorter but I can dream lol. Maybe we can get Elon Musk to fiance it or something. Get a quality studio like Madhouse on it.

 

[Happosai]

I'm still holding out hope we get a Hellsing Ultimate type of situation where we get a big-budget manga accurate adaptation from beginning to end. I realize Hellsing is much shorter but I can dream lol. Maybe we can get Elon Musk to fiance it or something. Get a quality studio like Madhouse on it.

I still need to watch the original in full completion. Seems there were still a handful of good anime titles that came out in the year 2000. I had it in my hands back in 2003 at Best Buy (back when they sold anime) but ended up buying a Lupin the lll movie boxset instead. If I recall, the animation still appeared to gradually break away from cel painted but in 2001, using digital ink was new and...it looked better to be honest. Another that comes to mind is Blood: The Last Vampire (movie) -- I recall watching that and really noticing C.G. used for special effects in an anime. But it was done well. In the OP, I gave a random timeline of anime and Hellsing was the cut-off anime I used as it's old enough now to be considered retro and with an art style which had already diminished by 2003/05 (when we started seeing anime character designed with rounded faces, lines for noses and having uniformity in everything).

 

[Space Runaway]

Maybe the last word I could say about Iczer One is that Media Blasters never promoted it (or any of their titles very well) toward a particular audience. Think about Project A-Ko - it found a Western audience very early on despite never being on U.S. TV (that I'm aware of). I feel that Iczer One would have found it's way into a similar juxtaposed audience that liked Project A-Ko...but it fell into the greasy fingers of Media Blasters in the U.S. So, it's unlikely you'll ever seen anything of it beyond the M.B. DVDs.

A-Ko did air on the Sci-Fi channel a few times though I don't know how much affect that had on it's popularity within the US, though I do believe most of Armitage's semi-popularity in the US was due to the Sci-Fi channel's constant airings, so maybe it did. =P

Considering some of the similarly niche stuff Discotek has released on bluray (Like Tezuka's Cleopatra & 1001 or even Arion) I do believe there's enough of an audience where a bluray would get some sales. I hope would Media Blasters doesn't have some long term license or something. Though it might be one of those situations where it's value in Japan is far greater than here and would cost too much to license. Hopefully more old stuff with high quality rescans like Iczer and Leda have their blurays released over here one day.

I believe this may be the trailer that was with Bubblegum Crisis.

Nah that's not it. It was one of those "trailers" which was basically a clip from the OVA similar to AnimEigo's adverts for Riding Bean, Madox-01 and such. Though I'm not looking for the trailer itself, just trying to figure out which tape(s) it was on. =P

A Maryuu Senki I think it demonstrates what a lot of OVAs did. Seems to me like there was a huge built up in the first episodes but endings never really hit their mark in terms of budget or story...or both such as: Ushio & Tora (last OVA episode didn't compare anywhere to some of the earlier episodes ), Gunbuster (budget ran out almost to the point of just a storyboard) even Bubblegum Crisis (as much as we love it) didn't really get an ending. However, that doesn't mean it's not worth seeing. I recall Arrow videos releasing some of the super rare horror films in these special blu-ray boxsets and thinking "how did that ever make it to blu-ray?" If there was a distributor like that for anime in the blu-ray age, it'd be nice to see half of all the LD titles make it to blu-ray. As mentioned, I watched Moldiver about a month ago. Moldiver was VHS/LD/DVD and stopped there but the show itself has all sorts of tropes about LD (in part due to Victor/Pioneer having produced it...the kings of LaserDisc).

Yeah it wasn't uncommon for an OVA series to go unfinished or have to cut it's budget to finish (The drop in quality from Fandora 1 to 2 is quite extreme). And that's assuming they even get past the first OVA. Though you had those situations where a studio would complete an OVA series after 5 years and give you those "We did it!" message with splash at the end. Kinda charming. In Maryuu Senki's case, it seemed like the final OVA had enough budget to be decent but was let down due to being handled by a weak studio and crew. Too bad. The ending would still suck but it would have looked nice at least.

Speaking of OVA movies which never made it out of the LD/VHS era, on into Psycho Diver. I bought Psycho Diver after seeing the UV trailer on my old Wicked City VHS and bought it. Not going to say that the animation was the greatest but the short movie was. I kept the VHS for many years and lost in in the 2000's. The only thing I have of it today is a download on my PS3 harddrive. UV had some great movies that were left in that era. But I felt Psycho Diver would have at least had a DVD release. I highly doubt it ever will though.

Yeah probably not. Though with an UV release, a DVD probably would have been VHS sourced anyway. =/

I'm surprised at the lack of censorship especially during the eclipse. I wonder if this was broadcast at late night? And the ending is so abrupt lol. We don't even see how Guts escapes the eclipse.

Yeah it was an am show. The ending is total blue balls but it got me to seek out and read the comic so, mission accomplished. =P

The music too is used sparingly which makes it more impactful. I think the lack of music elevates many scenes as it makes the dilaogue feel more important. The soundtrack is one of the best ever made for the medium with the highlights being Guts' theme, the Behelit theme, and Forces. The opening and ending theme are excellent too with a strong grunge influence.

The sound in general is great. Not only is the music fantatsic but all the sfx are really pleasurable to the ear, not unlike in those in old Blizzard games.

 

[Happosai]

A-Ko did air on the Sci-Fi channel a few times though I don't know how much affect that had on it's popularity within the US, though I do believe most of Armitage's semi-popularity in the US was due to the Sci-Fi channel's constant airings, so maybe it did. =P

Considering some of the similarly niche stuff Discotek has released on bluray (Like Tezuka's Cleopatra & 1001 or even Arion) I do believe there's enough of an audience where a bluray would get some sales. I hope would Media Blasters doesn't have some long term license or something. Though it might be one of those situations where it's value in Japan is far greater than here and would cost too much to license. Hopefully more old stuff with high quality rescans like Iczer and Leda have their blurays released over here one day.




Nah that's not it. It was one of those "trailers" which was basically a clip from the OVA similar to AnimEigo's adverts for Riding Bean, Madox-01 and such. Though I'm not looking for the trailer itself, just trying to figure out which tape(s) it was on. =P



Yeah it wasn't uncommon for an OVA series to go unfinished or have to cut it's budget to finish (The drop in quality from Fandora 1 to 2 is quite extreme). And that's assuming they even get past the first OVA. Though you had those situations where a studio would complete an OVA series after 5 years and give you those "We did it!" message with splash at the end. Kinda charming. In Maryuu Senki's case, it seemed like the final OVA had enough budget to be decent but was let down due to being handled by a weak studio and crew. Too bad. The ending would still suck but it would have looked nice at least.



Yeah probably not. Though with an UV release, a DVD probably would have been VHS sourced anyway. =/



Yeah it was an am show. The ending is total blue balls but it got me to seek out and read the comic so, mission accomplished. =P



The sound in general is great. Not only is the music fantatsic but all the sfx are really pleasurable to the ear, not unlike in those in old Blizzard games.

I caught the tail end of Sci-fi Saturdays back in the day. I recall seeing Demon City Shinjuku there but I missed a number of other things which has aired like A-ko. I agree that Cleopatra, Arion and such are relatively but there had to be some type of following on those in the West (I speak of Europe too as Italy and France were introduced to anime years before those in the U.K., Canada and the U.S.). Discotek sells their releases globally and I've seen the intenational reviews as I use an international version of Amazon.com So, that's hopeful in a sense but I don't even think that Europe had a following for Iczer. I also am well aware that many titles don't make it in due to the extremely expensive price of licensing. That's one thing I commend Discotek for is the millions they've had to dish out to pay for licensing alone. Many see an anime series on blu-ray and think that a remaster (if it was indeed) isn't that big of a deal. But it is. Not sure what the most expensive series is that was paid for but I recall reading that one of our popular titles once sold for over $15 million.

After posting that I watched through again and realized that the Baoh trailer shown on YouTube is not one that was on any of the videos I'm aware of. I couldn't say which tape because I'll confess, I never got to Bubblegum Crisis until AnimeEigo released the DVD boxset. I was a cheapskate in the VHS era (due to the expense of a series) that I only recall having less-than a handful of actual boxsets. My thoughts on reading about Bubblegum Crisis back in 2000 was that it was going to be sold big. So, I passed on it (this was prior to buying anything online and relying on retail video stores to buy anime). I'm sure someone knows though. The name alone is still popular and I'm sure a number of hardcore BGC fans still own the VHS boxset just like I kept a few VHS sets for the series that I really like (including the Gunsmith Cats OVA).

You mention drop in quality to Fandora possibly as a comparison which is absolutely hilarious. If you read back to the OVAs release in 1985-ish -- you'll find about 3 or 4 other similar OVAs to Fandora. But Fandora will ever be known for OVA which showed us how bad a dub could really be. Sometimes I wonder if the dub wasn't made by the weirdos who sold it as an overpriced mail order. Just a bunch of homespun idiots sitting in a room with a cassette player and micro phone. I'm sure many have seen this but it never gets old...


With Psycho Diver I agree that had U.V. released it on DVD it would look like a VHS rip. However, I own several titles on DVD from them still which to me look better than their VHS equivilants (Twilight of the Dark Master, BioHunter and Wicked City). On that note, I'd pay double if they'd give a new release on DVD or blu-ray to Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes OVA. It was the goofiest and fastest paced fantasy OVA I've ever seen and it disappeared from the video market after the VHS era. Another one that U.V. had.

 

[Space Runaway]

I caught the tail end of Sci-fi Saturdays back in the day. I recall seeing Demon City Shinjuku there but I missed a number of other things which has aired like A-ko. I agree that Cleopatra, Arion and such are relatively but there had to be some type of following on those in the West (I speak of Europe too as Italy and France were introduced to anime years before those in the U.K., Canada and the U.S.). Discotek sells their releases globally and I've seen the intenational reviews as I use an international version of Amazon.com So, that's hopeful in a sense but I don't even think that Europe had a following for Iczer. I also am well aware that many titles don't make it in due to the extremely expensive price of licensing. That's one thing I commend Discotek for is the millions they've had to dish out to pay for licensing alone. Many see an anime series on blu-ray and think that a remaster (if it was indeed) isn't that big of a deal. But it is. Not sure what the most expensive series is that was paid for but I recall reading that one of our popular titles once sold for over $15 million.

Yeah I remember my want to consume anime was enough that I'd watch all those chopped up Sci-Fi channel airings. Where was all this modern day easy access when I needed it? =P

I'm sure international sales factor in but they've been willing to release titles that never saw airings outside of Japan and couldn't even get a fansub in any language, so I just have to put it down to being a price issue. Though you never know, sometimes these Japanese companies decide to block a release for arbitrary or completely unknown reasons. Like Toei is somewhat notorious for being a pain in the ass when it comes to licencing their stuff and they infamously outright blocked Discotek from including the Japanese ending to Fist of the North Star on DVD but then allowed it on the bluray release a few years later(I even have some personal anecdotes on this stuff). But that's a whole subject in and of itself. I'm just hoping it's like New Cutey Honey, which was available on JP bluray for over half a decade before it got a western release. Basically, an eventual release despite being available for so long beforehand. =P

After posting that I watched through again and realized that the Baoh trailer shown on YouTube is not one that was on any of the videos I'm aware of. I couldn't say which tape because I'll confess, I never got to Bubblegum Crisis until AnimeEigo released the DVD boxset. I was a cheapskate in the VHS era (due to the expense of a series) that I only recall having less-than a handful of actual boxsets. My thoughts on reading about Bubblegum Crisis back in 2000 was that it was going to be sold big. So, I passed on it (this was prior to buying anything online and relying on retail video stores to buy anime). I'm sure someone knows though. The name alone is still popular and I'm sure a number of hardcore BGC fans still own the VHS boxset just like I kept a few VHS sets for the series that I really like (including the Gunsmith Cats OVA).

Yeah the good old days where a subbed VHS ran around $25-$30 for stuff with 40 minute runtimes or like 2 episodes of a show. To continue with the Bubblegum Crisis example, Born to Kill and Blow up were separate $30 releases and only ran 25 minutes each. Thankfully a lot of this stuff could be found at rental stores and if you went to comic conventions you could get decent deals. Getting a second VCR was a game changer for me since then I was able to double record everything I rented.

You mention drop in quality to Fandora possibly as a comparison which is absolutely hilarious. If you read back to the OVAs release in 1985-ish -- you'll find about 3 or 4 other similar OVAs to Fandora. But Fandora will ever be known for OVA which showed us how bad a dub could really be. Sometimes I wonder if the dub wasn't made by the weirdos who sold it as an overpriced mail order. Just a bunch of homespun idiots sitting in a room with a cassette player and micro phone. I'm sure many have seen this but it never gets old...

I'm not sure Fandora even is known for that as most don't know that dub existed and even if you do, you won't be able to find it lol. On a quasi related note, I hadn't checked out Kenny Lauderdale's channel in a good while and a lot of his videos are missing. Evidently youtube demonetized his channel and after getting it restored he had move a lot of his videos to non-monetized sub-channels. Who is coming after this guy for posting insanely obscure content, such as that Fandora clip...? =/

With Psycho Diver I agree that had U.V. released it on DVD it would look like a VHS rip. However, I own several titles on DVD from them still which to me look better than their VHS equivilants (Twilight of the Dark Master, BioHunter and Wicked City). On that note, I'd pay double if they'd give a new release on DVD or blu-ray to Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes OVA. It was the goofiest and fastest paced fantasy OVA I've ever seen and it disappeared from the video market after the VHS era. Another one that U.V. had.

Yeah so much of that stuff from the VHS days is becoming totally forgotten. Heck I had to google Dragon Slayer because I didn't remember it but once I saw the VHS cover it was a big "Ooooooh yeah". Sucks so much oddball genre stuff has gone down the memory hole. Awhile back that "Not Quite Hollywood" doc brought enough attention to many VHS only Aussie genre films that some got modern re-releases. Maybe if a doc like that was made for old genre anime it could lead to a similar result. =P

 

[Space Runaway]

And now for some D-grade crap

"Sin Karate Jigokuhen" - Two OVAs from 1990 based on the comic of the same name.

It starts off as either a rip-off or a story heavily inspired by real-life karate master Mas Oyama (More on that in a bit) until about halfway through our hero, Daito, hooks up with an Italian broad who wants to get revenge on Nazis located somewhere in the amazon. Daito refuses for the usual "karate isn't meant for revenge" type reasoning, so she goes without him and gets captured and of course, now he must go and save her. This second half basically turns into a low rent exploitation piece. There's tons of sex, nudity, some torture and female characters being nude for long periods of time; though strangely, despite the violence there's almost no blood whatsoever and even the sex scenes don't really show anything beyond tits and bare ass. I'm not saying I want this to be some gore fest and filled with explicit pornography (Especially not the rape scenes), I just find it odd for a flick to go the exploitation route but go soft on the more explicit content. Though when it comes to the nudity,n the art is so trashy and rough I don't know who would be titillated by it anyway. =P

The second OVA is some goofy story where Daito heads to New York and makes an enemy/rival of some unbeatable kung-fu master that intends to start a practice in America. Daito joins up with some mafia guys who employ wrestlers, then betrays them because he doesn't care for their dirty tactics, only to then help them again after the kung-fu guy he betrayed them over exhibits similar dirty tactics as well. And of course this leads to a crappy ending that probably worked better in the source material. If there's any positives to this one, the production is slightly better and they made up for the first OVAs lack of blood by having everyone barf out a gallon of blood when struck.

This pretty much stunk. Everything was weak and ugly and there's not even any good fights. I never score this stuff but I would definitely give this a D. Maybe a D+ if I'm a good mood. Not surprisingly, this remains a VHS/LD only release and will probably stay that way.

Interestingly the source material for this was written by Ikki Kajiwara/Asao Takamori, the writer of the classic Ashita no Joe and more notably the manga and tv series, Karate Master, an actual show based on Mas Oyama (And like Joe, directed by the late great Osamu Dezaki. Surprisingly Discotek released this series on DVD and anyone into old-school 70s karate stuff should give it a watch. It's a solid oldie). It makes me wonder why he penned a quasi-knock-off a comic he wrote a couple years earlier. Was he trying to immediately recapture the success of Karate Master or something? I don't know and there's little to no information on the production of the comic but it was serialized for a few years so it's probably pretty good. Being that he was already dead by 1990, I have to assume the team behind these OVAs just fucked it up...

 

[kunonabi]

And now for some D-grade crap

"Sin Karate Jigokuhen" - Two OVAs from 1990 based on the comic of the same name.

It starts off as either a rip-off or a story heavily inspired by real-life karate master Mas Oyama (More on that in a bit) until about halfway through our hero, Daito, hooks up with an Italian broad who wants to get revenge on Nazis located somewhere in the amazon. Daito refuses for the usual "karate isn't meant for revenge" type reasoning, so she goes without him and gets captured and of course, now he must go and save her. This second half basically turns into a low rent exploitation piece. There's tons of sex, nudity, some torture and female characters being nude for long periods of time; though strangely, despite the violence there's almost no blood whatsoever and even the sex scenes don't really show anything beyond tits and bare ass. I'm not saying I want this to be some gore fest and filled with explicit pornography (Especially not the rape scenes), I just find it odd for a flick to go the exploitation route but go soft on the more explicit content. Though when it comes to the nudity,n the art is so trashy and rough I don't know who would be titillated by it anyway. =P

The second OVA is some goofy story where Daito heads to New York and makes an enemy/rival of some unbeatable kung-fu master that intends to start a practice in America. Daito joins up with some mafia guys who employ wrestlers, then betrays them because he doesn't care for their dirty tactics, only to then help them again after the kung-fu guy he betrayed them over exhibits similar dirty tactics as well. And of course this leads to a crappy ending that probably worked better in the source material. If there's any positives to this one, the production is slightly better and they made up for the first OVAs lack of blood by having everyone barf out a gallon of blood when struck.

This pretty much stunk. Everything was weak and ugly and there's not even any good fights. I never score this stuff but I would definitely give this a D. Maybe a D+ if I'm a good mood. Not surprisingly, this remains a VHS/LD only release and will probably stay that way.

Interestingly the source material for this was written by Ikki Kajiwara/Asao Takamori, the writer of the classic Ashita no Joe and more notably the manga and tv series, Karate Master, an actual show based on Mas Oyama (And like Joe, directed by the late great Osamu Dezaki. Surprisingly Discotek released this series on DVD and anyone into old-school 70s karate stuff should give it a watch. It's a solid oldie). It makes me wonder why he penned a quasi-knock-off a comic he wrote a couple years earlier. Was he trying to immediately recapture the success of Karate Master or something? I don't know and there's little to no information on the production of the comic but it was serialized for a few years so it's probably pretty good. Being that he was already dead by 1990, I have to assume the team behind these OVAs just fucked it up...

I know it wasn't your intent but this looks and sounds hilariously entertaining to me.

 

[Space Runaway]

I know it wasn't your intent but this looks and sounds hilariously entertaining to me.

Yeah it has enough elements where it should be but it ultimately never delivers in a way that's satisfying. =/ Though if you want to see if it tickles your fancy, it's uploaded to youtube and the usual places.

 

[Happosai]

Yeah I remember my want to consume anime was enough that I'd watch all those chopped up Sci-Fi channel airings. Where was all this modern day easy access when I needed it? =P

I'm sure international sales factor in but they've been willing to release titles that never saw airings outside of Japan and couldn't even get a fansub in any language, so I just have to put it down to being a price issue. Though you never know, sometimes these Japanese companies decide to block a release for arbitrary or completely unknown reasons. Like Toei is somewhat notorious for being a pain in the ass when it comes to licencing their stuff and they infamously outright blocked Discotek from including the Japanese ending to Fist of the North Star on DVD but then allowed it on the bluray release a few years later(I even have some personal anecdotes on this stuff). But that's a whole subject in and of itself. I'm just hoping it's like New Cutey Honey, which was available on JP bluray for over half a decade before it got a western release. Basically, an eventual release despite being available for so long beforehand. =P



Yeah the good old days where a subbed VHS ran around $25-$30 for stuff with 40 minute runtimes or like 2 episodes of a show. To continue with the Bubblegum Crisis example, Born to Kill and Blow up were separate $30 releases and only ran 25 minutes each. Thankfully a lot of this stuff could be found at rental stores and if you went to comic conventions you could get decent deals. Getting a second VCR was a game changer for me since then I was able to double record everything I rented.



I'm not sure Fandora even is known for that as most don't know that dub existed and even if you do, you won't be able to find it lol. On a quasi related note, I hadn't checked out Kenny Lauderdale's channel in a good while and a lot of his videos are missing. Evidently youtube demonetized his channel and after getting it restored he had move a lot of his videos to non-monetized sub-channels. Who is coming after this guy for posting insanely obscure content, such as that Fandora clip...? =/



Yeah so much of that stuff from the VHS days is becoming totally forgotten. Heck I had to google Dragon Slayer because I didn't remember it but once I saw the VHS cover it was a big "Ooooooh yeah". Sucks so much oddball genre stuff has gone down the memory hole. Awhile back that "Not Quite Hollywood" doc brought enough attention to many VHS only Aussie genre films that some got modern re-releases. Maybe if a doc like that was made for old genre anime it could lead to a similar result. =P

I'm not on YouTube very often anymore unless I need to pull something for quick reference (such as this thread). However, I did notice the Kenny's channel had been cut down and renamed. He put a lot of work into those videos -- I can't begin to think who or what demonetized it. But on a humor side, imagine if I'd been the owners of one of those titles that ran some really poor dialogue and sought vengeance. Maybe those who made this (see video) found his channel, translated the title and started lawyering up


Do yourself a favor and watch Dragon Slayer (Legend of Heroes) the OVA. It's 3 parts but I've never seen a faster paced OVA...ever! It's hilarious. I liked it for how cheesy it was. The action starts and suddenly, we're in a forest talking, two seconds later a flaming fighter with streaming backgrounds. The whole thing is like that. My thoughts were that once production started on this OVA there was a conversation that went like this amongst the producers:

Producer 1: Legend of Heroes is a popular video game. People like action in games and they don't like to wait.
Producer/Director 2: Let's call it Dragon Slayer and speed the story up so fast that no one gets bored...like a video game.

Then, we give you Dragon Slayer the OVA. No sequels, no DVD release (in N.A. anyway) and almost forgotten completely. Yet, something I'd recommend anyone to watch who has a great sense of humor and can process a lot of information in very little screen time.

Not to derail, but I was not aware some of the obscure Aussie films were being dug up. I hope Razorback gets a decent release (I had this crap release that was cover art shrunken/centered with a DVD-R). I feel the obscure OVAs should get that treatment. Discotek thinks about marketing on a global scale -- food for thought.

And now for some D-grade crap

"Sin Karate Jigokuhen" - Two OVAs from 1990 based on the comic of the same name.

It starts off as either a rip-off or a story heavily inspired by real-life karate master Mas Oyama (More on that in a bit) until about halfway through our hero, Daito, hooks up with an Italian broad who wants to get revenge on Nazis located somewhere in the amazon. Daito refuses for the usual "karate isn't meant for revenge" type reasoning, so she goes without him and gets captured and of course, now he must go and save her. This second half basically turns into a low rent exploitation piece. There's tons of sex, nudity, some torture and female characters being nude for long periods of time; though strangely, despite the violence there's almost no blood whatsoever and even the sex scenes don't really show anything beyond tits and bare ass. I'm not saying I want this to be some gore fest and filled with explicit pornography (Especially not the rape scenes), I just find it odd for a flick to go the exploitation route but go soft on the more explicit content. Though when it comes to the nudity,n the art is so trashy and rough I don't know who would be titillated by it anyway. =P

The second OVA is some goofy story where Daito heads to New York and makes an enemy/rival of some unbeatable kung-fu master that intends to start a practice in America. Daito joins up with some mafia guys who employ wrestlers, then betrays them because he doesn't care for their dirty tactics, only to then help them again after the kung-fu guy he betrayed them over exhibits similar dirty tactics as well. And of course this leads to a crappy ending that probably worked better in the source material. If there's any positives to this one, the production is slightly better and they made up for the first OVAs lack of blood by having everyone barf out a gallon of blood when struck.

This pretty much stunk. Everything was weak and ugly and there's not even any good fights. I never score this stuff but I would definitely give this a D. Maybe a D+ if I'm a good mood. Not surprisingly, this remains a VHS/LD only release and will probably stay that way.

Interestingly the source material for this was written by Ikki Kajiwara/Asao Takamori, the writer of the classic Ashita no Joe and more notably the manga and tv series, Karate Master, an actual show based on Mas Oyama (And like Joe, directed by the late great Osamu Dezaki. Surprisingly Discotek released this series on DVD and anyone into old-school 70s karate stuff should give it a watch. It's a solid oldie). It makes me wonder why he penned a quasi-knock-off a comic he wrote a couple years earlier. Was he trying to immediately recapture the success of Karate Master or something? I don't know and there's little to no information on the production of the comic but it was serialized for a few years so it's probably pretty good. Being that he was already dead by 1990, I have to assume the team behind these OVAs just fucked it up...

Wow, they went all out writing this. Likewise, I feel I'd watch it but the production value shows through. Do you think there was some correlation between studios choosing whether or not to put money into production if the story...wasn't that great? kunonabi Watch it and watch Dragon Slayer (YouTube in several different parts but still, short). Watch both. It's like having a B-movie night with horror films. At minimum you'll have fun in a way you weren't expecting.

 

[Happosai]

Not everything from the past is gone in terms of webpages. I was reading into The Record of Lodoss War and saw a reference to an old webpage.

I felt before this gets lost to share it here:

http://www.kashue.com/

 

[Space Runaway]

I'm not on YouTube very often anymore unless I need to pull something for quick reference (such as this thread). However, I did notice the Kenny's channel had been cut down and renamed. He put a lot of work into those videos -- I can't begin to think who or what demonetized it. But on a humor side, imagine if I'd been the owners of one of those titles that ran some really poor dialogue and sought vengeance. Maybe those who made this (see video) found his channel, translated the title and started lawyering up


Do yourself a favor and watch Dragon Slayer (Legend of Heroes) the OVA. It's 3 parts but I've never seen a faster paced OVA...ever! It's hilarious. I liked it for how cheesy it was. The action starts and suddenly, we're in a forest talking, two seconds later a flaming fighter with streaming backgrounds. The whole thing is like that. My thoughts were that once production started on this OVA there was a conversation that went like this amongst the producers:

Producer 1: Legend of Heroes is a popular video game. People like action in games and they don't like to wait.
Producer/Director 2: Let's call it Dragon Slayer and speed the story up so fast that no one gets bored...like a video game.

Then, we give you Dragon Slayer the OVA. No sequels, no DVD release (in N.A. anyway) and almost forgotten completely. Yet, something I'd recommend anyone to watch who has a great sense of humor and can process a lot of information in very little screen time.

As luck would have it I ended up already having Dragon Slayer on my hard drive (Which was grouped with Xanadu Dragon Slayer, another OVA based on the Falcom Dragonslayer games, though no story relation to this one. Guess I'll watch that next =P).

And you're right, most of the OVA was at a breakneck pace and a lot of the hyper speed action scenes reminded me of sequences from old FMV games like Strahl. I would have enjoyed this as a kid as I really liked sonic speed action sequences back then and actually I kinda still do. It's also somewhat whiplash the tone, being super serious for long stretches and then throwing out comedic lines at odd moments before becoming serious again. =P

One definitely has to notice the animation in it. Not only did it appear to be working with a decent budget but much of the animation had a lot of character and small nuanced expressions. Not something you get too often. This was by Nakamura Production, who have been involved in so many titles it's hard to gauge them (They seem very strong until the 00s), though at the time of this OVA they were doing a lot of animation for Disney, which might explain some of the more exceptional parts. Though personally, I will always know them for Hell Target, which I believe is the only time they made their own original production =P.

Not to derail, but I was not aware some of the obscure Aussie films were being dug up. I hope Razorback gets a decent release (I had this crap release that was cover art shrunken/centered with a DVD-R). I feel the obscure OVAs should get that treatment. Discotek thinks about marketing on a global scale -- food for thought.

There's been a couple region 2 blurays for Razorback released over the last few years. I believe the most recent release is from a new scan and has the uncut vhs version as a bonus extra.

Wow, they went all out writing this. Likewise, I feel I'd watch it but the production value shows through. Do you think there was some correlation between studios choosing whether or not to put money into production if the story...wasn't that great?

I can't say how the final product came about but I wouldn't be surprised if it's just a really poorly truncated version of whatever arcs in the comic this covered. Though I haven't read or seen any of the comic so that's a total guess.

--------------
And a super quickie...Gdleen from 1990. Based on light novels of the same name and became a Super Famicom the year after this OVA.

Just one of those deals where the unlikely guy ends up in a foreign "fantasy-like" world and ends up helping defeat the usual oppressor. It's not at all serious with wacky comedy and all the tropes. It's an easy and entertaining watch but there's nothing memorable or noteworthy about it. Feels like the kind thing you'd appreciate considerably more if you read the light novels and then got to see it depicted in animation (Although the artwork on the light novels looks radically different from this, so maybe not.=P). But yeah, it's fine for what it is but mainly an old curiosity.

 

[Naked Lunch]

2 years or so back - I bought the (then) long out of print bluray of Nadia Secret of the Blue Water for something close to $100.
Turns out its getting a re-release next month at normal retail.
Just goes to show almost everything will get released - or reprinted at some point.

Speaking of, one retro anime I never actually saw but has always been on my radar - but theres no apparent modern release or easy way to watch it:
Neo Tokyo. Anyone seen that and have any thoughts?

 

[Meesh]

I've gotta come clean here, I want a re-release of 3x3 eyes, but with the option to toggle between the different translations/ dub. Seriously I think the original voice acting (Streamline) was superior even if the translation wasn't.
Throw in some digital Manga and art in there too.

 

[Space Runaway]

2 years or so back - I bought the (then) long out of print bluray of Nadia Secret of the Blue Water for something close to $100.
Turns out its getting a re-release next month at normal retail.
Just goes to show almost everything will get released - or reprinted at some point.

Yeah though unfortunately it looks like the new release was killed by DNR to where the problematic previous release may be the better option. =/

Seeing shots like this scares me: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1...1-TC00082613_Cropped_2022-02-01_2400x1805.png

Speaking of, one retro anime I never actually saw but has always been on my radar - but theres no apparent modern release or easy way to watch it:
Neo Tokyo. Anyone seen that and have any thoughts?

Yeah it's been touched on here and there ( Happosai Has a very strong opinion on Construction Cancellation Order and Akira lol). It's a quality work though, outside of the final story, is more abstract than it's contemporaries. Still a must watch and at the very least, a really great audio/visual experience. It's certainly begging for an HD release. We have Robot Carnival and Memories, so we need this to complete the "big 3" of anime anthologies. =P

I've gotta come clean here, I want a re-release of 3x3 eyes, but with the option to toggle between the different translations/ dub. Seriously I think the original voice acting (Streamline) was superior even if the translation wasn't.
Throw in some digital Manga and art in there too.

Yes to 3x3 Eyes and I'm with you on Streamline. They generally had even and fairly natural voice acting, even if always seemed to be the same dozen people reading fully rewritten scripts. I was really disappointed their dub was left off the Vampire Hunter D bluray.

 

[Happosai]

2 years or so back - I bought the (then) long out of print bluray of Nadia Secret of the Blue Water for something close to $100.
Turns out its getting a re-release next month at normal retail.
Just goes to show almost everything will get released - or reprinted at some point.

Speaking of, one retro anime I never actually saw but has always been on my radar - but theres no apparent modern release or easy way to watch it:
Neo Tokyo. Anyone seen that and have any thoughts?

I'll take something over nothing when it comes to Nadia. I wasn't able to get the last DVD release before it was oop. Thanks for bringing up that it will be back in print but I'd take Space Runaway 's word on the quality of the release as he's done more research into this (along with good folks like J JunkerWoland who seems to also have a passion for these precisions).

As Space mentioned, NeoTokyo's been a recurring thing I touch on every 6-months or so in this thread (I even added it to the poll as I feel it needs a blu-ray release). I was an idiot and sold my ADV release in 2011 in exchange for credits at my gaming store. The price shot up really high when it went oop and then I stopped seeing it sold at all outside eBay. I do have a bias on Akira vs. Construction Cancellation Order. My big thing with CCO although it's not 'the greatest' story ever -- it's fun and it's complete. Akira to me will always have some of the most impactful animation for a late 80's anime film but the story to me gets convoluted. Running Man by Yoshiaki Kawajiri is my favorite segment of NeoTokyo...there's nothing else like it. The first one is more of an artfilm type animation which is visually amazing too and has parts comparable to the Cat Soup movie. If you find it somewhere...you must watch it.

I've gotta come clean here, I want a re-release of 3x3 eyes, but with the option to toggle between the different translations/ dub. Seriously I think the original voice acting (Streamline) was superior even if the translation wasn't.
Throw in some digital Manga and art in there too.

Well Giger, that I agree with you on. It surprises me that 3X3 Eyes has been seemingly forgotten after the Pioneer release. I kept my Pioneer release on DVD (which has a "stick-on" tattoo in the booklet placeholder which I didn't see in there until I cleaned out my collection 3-years ago). It'd be nice to give it extras. I recall having the Super Famicom game too some time ago (which I do not believe ever made it to N.A.).

Yeah though unfortunately it looks like the new release was killed by DNR to where the problematic previous release may be the better option. =/

Seeing shots like this scares me: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1...1-TC00082613_Cropped_2022-02-01_2400x1805.png



Yeah it's been touched on here and there ( Happosai Has a very strong opinion on Construction Cancellation Order and Akira lol). It's a quality work though, outside of the final story, is more abstract than it's contemporaries. Still a must watch and at the very least, a really great audio/visual experience. It's certainly begging for an HD release. We have Robot Carnival and Memories, so we need this to complete the "big 3" of anime anthologies. =P


Yes to 3x3 Eyes and I'm with you on Streamline. They generally had even and fairly natural voice acting, even if always seemed to be the same dozen people reading fully rewritten scripts. I was really disappointed their dub was left off the Vampire Hunter D bluray.

I've honestly felt that Robot Carnival & NeoTokyo (almost typed it as NeoGAF lol) were big compliments of each other. Doesn't seem we get these anthology anime packs anymore but as you'd mentioned...it's the missing of those 3. Not sure what ADV's status is on the license since they're no longer ADV (they're...Section 23 or something like that...I forget and many titles in license limbo after ADV's liquidation). I'm confident Discotek would indeed release NeoTokyo but there must something preventing them from having done so.

Surprised to read that it wasn't on the Vampire Hunter D bluray (I only have the DVD). The reason being that have a handful of releases where on the back cover one of the tags written is about "Streamline English Dub & New dub included." Many people were introduced to anime with Streamline and it's the experience that brings them back. As stated before, I'm half and half with dubs and have my fair share which I prefer. But those older V.A.'s for dubs like Mike Reynolds really stood out and I think he started with Streamline. He was that signature "old man" or the "mature professor" type voice. By the way, in the English version of Dragon Slayer (which we were rambling about above); you'll hear Mike Reynolds in their briefly too...along with most of the English V.A.'s who voiced the Tenchi Muyo OVA and TV series.

 

[JunkerWoland]

Since I was name-checked, I'll throw-out some things to consider for this new release of Nadia, coming from GKids.

Sentai's now out-of-print version isn't perfect, but it was made from a traditional 1080p master, initially created for the Japanese Blu-ray. GKids' forthcoming, standard 1080p Blu-ray is being produced from a new 4K scan, presumably ordered by series' owner, the NHK (this isn't proven, but Gkids' wording doesn't make it seem like they are behind the scan).

As a whole, Japanese consumers have more readily accepted somewhat aggressive approaches of applying DNR to older shows, which is partially why we've seen so many 1080p releases unnecessarily scrubbed of grain and turned into blurry messes. Also, video producers are beginning to find--in the process of creating 4K video from 16mm and 35mm film--HDR can overly intensify film grain, taking it from a texture-providing element to a major distraction. Unless video-production companies provide the proper hands-on care, we'll likely see more Japanese-produced 4K versions of older anime with heavy DNR.

For this new Nadia, while it is out in the wild, the disc technically doesn't release until 8/2/22, and (far as I'm aware) we haven't received any hands-on reports of video quality.

That said, we do have some comparisons, based on various screenshots. Some examples:
- Individual Screenshots: Sentai vs. Gkids
- Single, overlay image

There's also the official trailer, which is kinda horrendous (link). Based solely on what is available, for all the video gains in vibrancy, it does look to lose a ton of fine detail. Unfortunately, we can probably expect this new 4K master of Nadia to be the default source for any future discs, even more so if it was created in Japan; and Gkids' version will be the only official release on the North American market in the foreseeable future. I'd wait for some reviews, before writing-off the Gkids' Blu-ray, but for anyone wanting a more conventional 1080p release, you'd do best to find Sentai's edition on the secondary market or import the current JP set (no English subs or dub, however).

Unrelated, regarding Sentai's release of Vampire Hunter D, the company's comment on omitting the streamline dub was, essentially, the Japanese stakeholders wanted a new dub and that there were "challenges associated" with streamline's. You can view the whole statement, here, if you want to deal with getting past the weird pop-up.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[Happosai]

Since I was name-checked, I'll throw-out some things to consider for this new release of Nadia, coming from GKids.

Sentai's now out-of-print version isn't perfect, but it was made from a traditional 1080p master, initially created for the Japanese Blu-ray. GKids' forthcoming, standard 1080p Blu-ray is being produced from a new 4K scan, presumably ordered by series' owner, the NHK (this isn't proven, but Gkids' wording doesn't make it seem like they are behind the scan).

As a whole, Japanese consumers have more readily accepted somewhat aggressive approaches of applying DNR to older shows, which is partially why we've seen so many 1080p releases unnecessarily scrubbed of grain and turned into blurry messes. Also, video producers are beginning to find--in the process of creating 4K video from 16mm and 35mm film--HDR can overly intensify film grain, taking it from a texture-providing element to a major distraction. Unless video-production companies provide the proper hands-on care, we'll likely see more Japanese-produced 4K versions of older anime with heavy DNR.

For this new Nadia, while it is out in the wild, the disc technically doesn't release until 8/2/22, and (far as I'm aware) we haven't received any hands-on reports of video quality.

That said, we do have some comparisons, based on various screenshots. Some examples:
- Individual Screenshots: Sentai vs. Gkids
- Single, overlay image

There's also the official trailer, which is kinda horrendous (link). Based solely on what is available, for all the video gains in vibrancy, it does look to lose a ton of fine detail. Unfortunately, we can probably expect this new 4K master of Nadia to be the default source for any future discs, even more so if it was created in Japan; and Gkids' version will be the only official release on the North American market in the foreseeable future. I'd wait for some reviews, before writing-off the Gkids' Blu-ray, but for anyone wanting a more conventional 1080p release, you'd do best to find Sentai's edition on the secondary market or import the current JP set (no English subs or dub, however).

Unrelated, regarding Sentai's release of Vampire Hunter D, the company's comment on omitting the streamline dub was, essentially, the Japanese stakeholders wanted a new dub and that there were "challenges associated" with streamline's. You can view the whole statement, here, if you want to deal with getting past the weird pop-up.

I feel it probably won't get better (these newer releases). Makes wonder if all of those in my above poll (from about a year ago) if they're not going to do a blu-ray release due justice. Then again, I can't be a total snob on video quality as I still own certain titles on VHS. Basically, I'm that kind of "I'll take what I can get" kind of guy -- unless a release means omitting scenes due to censorship or a bad edit grabbed from a TV syndicated run. This was an interesting read nonetheless and going to that comparison -- I'd also wonder if their price point will reflect on that. I'm sure they're aware there are those who will find these fine details unjust to a proper re-release.

Now THAT's an old ass website

Jesus


I can't even sign his guestbook!

I imagine there were those who'd signed it in 2001 that were not seen. Imagine, those were likely 17-years old at the time. That'd be a trip, going back and seeing your name on that site in your 40's.

 

[JunkerWoland]

Makes wonder if all of those in my above poll (from about a year ago) if they're not going to do a blu-ray release due justice.

For older shows, increasingly, it depends on how much the content owner or licensee cares about the property. For instance, there's an Italian BD for Urusei Yatsura TV that doesn't seem to be an upscale but is a smeary mess, whereas Discotek took Toei's DNR-ed version of the Galaxy Express 999 TV, added some artificial grain, and massaged the video to produce a much better looking end product.

In terms of the shows in the thread poll:
- Gunbuster = JP BDs look good and are the source for Discotek's forthcoming release
- Maison Ikkoku = JP BDs look good (I still expect VIZ will eventually license this material)
- Urusei Yatsura = JP BDs look really good (someone should license this)
- The Slayers series 1-3 = can't speak for season 3, but the JP BDs for seasons 1 & 2 are apparently nasty upscales (whatever the case, they look bad)
- Berserk TV 1997 = based on screenshots, the JP BDs looked fine, and presumably, the 2017 release in the UK was created from the same materials
- Neo Tokyo = hasn't received a HD release in any territory

I'd also wonder if their price point will reflect on that. I'm sure they're aware there are those who will find these fine details unjust to a proper re-release.

MSRP is $49.98. Amazon already has it slightly below $40. Gkids isn't selling Nadia as any type of limited or collector's edition, and we can probably assume they'll have the rights to sell the product for the next couple of years. Especially if it doesn't move tons of copies, I wouldn't be shocked to see it on various sales for around $35, before shipping and any applicable taxes.

 

[Happosai]

For older shows, increasingly, it depends on how much the content owner or licensee cares about the property. For instance, there's an Italian BD for Urusei Yatsura TV that doesn't seem to be an upscale but is a smeary mess, whereas Discotek took Toei's DNR-ed version of the Galaxy Express 999 TV, added some artificial grain, and massaged the video to produce a much better looking end product.

In terms of the shows in the thread poll:
- Gunbuster = JP BDs look good and are the source for Discotek's forthcoming release
- Maison Ikkoku = JP BDs look good (I still expect VIZ will eventually license this material)
- Urusei Yatsura = JP BDs look really good (someone should license this)
- The Slayers series 1-3 = can't speak for season 3, but the JP BDs for seasons 1 & 2 are apparently nasty upscales (whatever the case, they look bad)
- Berserk TV 1997 = based on screenshots, the JP BDs looked fine, and presumably, the 2017 release in the UK was created from the same materials
- Neo Tokyo = hasn't received a HD release in any territory


MSRP is $49.98. Amazon already has it slightly below $40. Gkids isn't selling Nadia as any type of limited or collector's edition, and we can probably assume they'll have the rights to sell the product for the next couple of years. Especially if it doesn't move tons of copies, I wouldn't be shocked to see it on various sales for around $35, before shipping and any applicable taxes.

I'm really looking forward to Gunbuster and have been for years. I was unable to buy the JP blu-ray before it became a bit more scarce.
Agreed on Urusei Yatsura and if that were licensed...that'd be a pretty big deal. Many got their start in anime (albeit they likely saw fansubs of U.Y.) with this first animated Rumiko adaptation.
I didn't expect them to do too much with Slayers. The DVD's (U.S. Manga & the Funimation release) are pretty much the same thing. I see no difference in quality in those from the VHS releases.
Berserk TV 97' I feel will eventually get a blu-ray release in N.A. too but...who and how well that will be handled is unknown. Probably couldn't get worth than Media Blasters but I'll be honest on their 'remastered' DVD set...they surprisingly didn't botch it up.

NeoTokyo (which was discussion last week) is sad to hear no one has touched this.

$40-ish is a pretty good price point if you're not selling a high quality item. That seems a bit standard. I was thinking they'd try pushing Nadia out at a less-than quality for some $80 +.

 

[Happosai]

As luck would have it I ended up already having Dragon Slayer on my hard drive (Which was grouped with Xanadu Dragon Slayer, another OVA based on the Falcom Dragonslayer
And a super quickie...Gdleen from 1990. Based on light novels of the same name and became a Super Famicom the year after this OVA.

Just one of those deals where the unlikely guy ends up in a foreign "fantasy-like" world and ends up helping defeat the usual oppressor. It's not at all serious with wacky comedy and all the tropes. It's an easy and entertaining watch but there's nothing memorable or noteworthy about it. Feels like the kind thing you'd appreciate considerably more if you read the light novels and then got to see it depicted in animation (Although the artwork on the light novels looks radically different from this, so maybe not.=P). But yeah, it's fine for what it is but mainly an old curiosity.

Sorry about that Space Runaway , it slipped me to see the full mention on Gdleen.

I can't say where it was exactly (memory tells me it was Veoh.com in like 2006) but I recall watching this. The story sorta brought it back but seeing the images made me think I'd owned it. But, I know that's not the case. Did the VHS of the OVA ever make it into North America? Seems like since the video game has fallen out of popularity, it'd be hard to ever see this get brought back. I feel that if Legend of Heroes had remained popular, Dragon Slayer (OVA) would have at minimum made it to DVD. Having seen this one -- I would recommend those into fantasy for an all-in-one story that doesn't require too much investment of your time, watch it.

 

[Space Runaway]

Sorry about that Space Runaway , it slipped me to see the full mention on Gdleen.

I can't say where it was exactly (memory tells me it was Veoh.com in like 2006) but I recall watching this. The story sorta brought it back but seeing the images made me think I'd owned it. But, I know that's not the case. Did the VHS of the OVA ever make it into North America? Seems like since the video game has fallen out of popularity, it'd be hard to ever see this get brought back. I feel that if Legend of Heroes had remained popular, Dragon Slayer (OVA) would have at minimum made it to DVD. Having seen this one -- I would recommend those into fantasy for an all-in-one story that doesn't require too much investment of your time, watch it.

Nah the OVA never made it over here. Also I should have mentioned it was co-directed by the late Toyoo Ashida and he provided the characters designs for the OVA version. Despite helming some legitimate classics I always found him very hit and miss as a director. It seemed like animation direction and character designs were his main forte.

 

[Happosai]

Nah the OVA never made it over here. Also I should have mentioned it was co-directed by the late Toyoo Ashida and he provided the characters designs for the OVA version. Despite helming some legitimate classics I always found him very hit and miss as a director. It seemed like animation direction and character designs were his main forte.

Yeah, I was fairly certain I didn't have the VHS but I had it downloaded in the 2000's pre-YouTube. I had a handful of OVAs downloaded back then that were raw Japanese...no subs.

Switching gears. We know Pioneer eventually moved many of their VHS/LD titles over to DVD in the 2000's (3X3 Eyes, Moldiver, Video Girl Ai, Tenchi Muyo etc). One that I used to hear a lot about was The Hakkenden. I recall trying to watch the first episode and never returning to it. I'm not sure if it was boredom or that it was during a time in which I was more focused on retro game collecting and anime collections were somewhat more novelty. I never read ahead to know what the story was really about. I'd heard many back in the 2000's in old anime forums say, "Hakkenden is Japanese for 'Dog Warriors'". I'd even seen (possibly fanmade covers) that had Dog Warriors written on it.

My question, was The Hakkenden really any good and would it be worth searching for to watch in the future? I always felt I didn't give it enough of a chance before selling the LD copy (which I owned without an LD player lol) and selling the Pioneer DVD release.

 

[Space Runaway]

Yeah, I was fairly certain I didn't have the VHS but I had it downloaded in the 2000's pre-YouTube. I had a handful of OVAs downloaded back then that were raw Japanese...no subs.

Switching gears. We know Pioneer eventually moved many of their VHS/LD titles over to DVD in the 2000's (3X3 Eyes, Moldiver, Video Girl Ai, Tenchi Muyo etc). One that I used to hear a lot about was The Hakkenden. I recall trying to watch the first episode and never returning to it. I'm not sure if it was boredom or that it was during a time in which I was more focused on retro game collecting and anime collections were somewhat more novelty. I never read ahead to know what the story was really about. I'd heard many back in the 2000's in old anime forums say, "Hakkenden is Japanese for 'Dog Warriors'". I'd even seen (possibly fanmade covers) that had Dog Warriors written on it.

My question, was The Hakkenden really any good and would it be worth searching for to watch in the future? I always felt I didn't give it enough of a chance before selling the LD copy (which I owned without an LD player lol) and selling the Pioneer DVD release.

Never really watched it. Way waaaay back I remember watching one of the tapes and finding it incredibly boring. Though my attitude and what I was into was extremely different back then so it might just be me being a stupid kid. I'd be curious if anyone had some insight into the series.


Some more VHS era stuff - Battle Royal High School from 1987.

This was one of those tapes that would never get rented at Blockbuster and that cover may have been part of the reason why. The other being it was a really weird ass OVA that felt like tons of shit mashed together. Too many various details so just know it starts with what feels like a normal high school fighting anime with the usual comedy bits but suddenly we have an alternate dimension version of our lead that quasi-fuses with him after to being tricked into coming due to some legend...Then we have fairy demons things taking over humans, suddenly a demon slayer character who hunts them and later pulls a Majin Vegeta because he wants to defeat the lead. In there we also have some female usurper demon as the big bad and for good measure a guy from space who turns into a metal hero character. =P It's yet another OVA based on a manga and yet again one I haven't read. Watching this gives the impression they covered a ton of content in short order which made this feel like it was constantly shifting gears.

Notably you have the (perhaps infamous?) Ichiro Itano directing this which generally always means really nice animation, questionable content and excessive gore, all of which we get. Aside from direction Itano wrote the screenplay and storyboarded the whole thing. Without having read the source material it's difficult to say if he was taking any liberties but I would not be surprised if he did. But as mentioned the animation is quite good, starting ok but really pushing the budget toward the end (Or anytime there's monsters and violence) and you get a lot detailed grossout monsters, guts and destruction. Also have Takeshi Waki on art direction. He's been art director on a great many things, one of which was the recently talked about Dragon Slayer ova and...the Hakkenden. =P

This did get a DVD release by AnimEigo though I've never seen it. Being there's no official JP DVD it was likely another cheap transfer. Also being an AnimEigo release the dub totally sucks, so best to seek out a sub.

This is one of those things you can't recommend to the average person but if you're the type that likes super oddball 80s anime with nice production and random splatter gore you can probably enjoy this. At an hour it's an easy watch as it's not bogged down with filler dialogue, things are always happening and it has more budget than it probably should have been allotted.

 

[JunkerWoland]

At Otakon, Discotek make their usual crop of updates and OK-ish announcements, but they closed with this...

Yay!

::edit:::

Also, here's the rest of the new announcements (sans product updates; meaning, for instance, no decent new on when Gunbuster is getting released).

 

[Happosai]

Never really watched it. Way waaaay back I remember watching one of the tapes and finding it incredibly boring. Though my attitude and what I was into was extremely different back then so it might just be me being a stupid kid. I'd be curious if anyone had some insight into the series.


Some more VHS era stuff - Battle Royal High School from 1987.

This was one of those tapes that would never get rented at Blockbuster and that cover may have been part of the reason why. The other being it was a really weird ass OVA that felt like tons of shit mashed together. Too many various details so just know it starts with what feels like a normal high school fighting anime with the usual comedy bits but suddenly we have an alternate dimension version of our lead that quasi-fuses with him after to being tricked into coming due to some legend...Then we have fairy demons things taking over humans, suddenly a demon slayer character who hunts them and later pulls a Majin Vegeta because he wants to defeat the lead. In there we also have some female usurper demon as the big bad and for good measure a guy from space who turns into a metal hero character. =P It's yet another OVA based on a manga and yet again one I haven't read. Watching this gives the impression they covered a ton of content in short order which made this feel like it was constantly shifting gears.

Notably you have the (perhaps infamous?) Ichiro Itano directing this which generally always means really nice animation, questionable content and excessive gore, all of which we get. Aside from direction Itano wrote the screenplay and storyboarded the whole thing. Without having read the source material it's difficult to say if he was taking any liberties but I would not be surprised if he did. But as mentioned the animation is quite good, starting ok but really pushing the budget toward the end (Or anytime there's monsters and violence) and you get a lot detailed grossout monsters, guts and destruction. Also have Takeshi Waki on art direction. He's been art director on a great many things, one of which was the recently talked about Dragon Slayer ova and...the Hakkenden. =P

This did get a DVD release by AnimEigo though I've never seen it. Being there's no official JP DVD it was likely another cheap transfer. Also being an AnimEigo release the dub totally sucks, so best to seek out a sub.

This is one of those things you can't recommend to the average person but if you're the type that likes super oddball 80s anime with nice production and random splatter gore you can probably enjoy this. At an hour it's an easy watch as it's not bogged down with filler dialogue, things are always happening and it has more budget than it probably should have been allotted.

I think we both came to the same conclusion on The Hakkenden...let's leave it at that. I see no efforts to bring it back and everytime RetroCrush or someone uploads a video on a 90's series...we never see Hakkenden. FYI, I was about 24-years old when I watched it...so not super young.

The below you made a great point there about the possible 'why' people didn't rent it at Blockbuster. As I'm sure you're aware of (there are books about this today)...VHS artwork could be so great even for low budget works that they could sell something on the cover alone during that era. I was that kid who'd look at box art but I was an edgy teenager and use to check to see if they'd have that "mature rating" or gauge (I think U.V. used a guage as a warning on the back of their VHS'). This cover is pretty awful...who did this? Looks like Manga Entertainment but I should just do the research to find out.

I haven't watched Battle Royal High School but I have the full OVA/movie on my PS3 harddrive. I was able to find a cleaned up "DVD-ish" rip of it. I haven't watched it so far but my thoughts were that this was just a "let's fight in the cafeteria" type movie. The synopsis, images and coverage you gave on it says...maybe they should have added some buzz captions to the VHS'...if it was extreme in the least, it would have been rented and talked about today. Granted Wicked City was very popular in JP and gained a crowd in the U.S. too -- we know why most who come to this thread recall watching it. I'd appreciate Battle Royal High School and my wife too. Cheesy stories don't put me off -- it's not hard to sell me on a title.

At Otakon, Discotek make their usual crop of updates and OK-ish announcements, but they closed with this...

Yay!

::edit:::

Also, here's the rest of the new announcements (sans product updates; meaning, for instance, no decent new on when Gunbuster is getting released).

Thank you! Absolutely brilliant news! Just spectacular. I'd forgotten that VIZ video never touched Urusei Yatusura...which means it's not in license limbo. This is going to be pretty big for Discotek. When they got Lupin the lll (the original series') I thought that was one of their biggest...big name feats. But this is something else. Talking about many who've asked for this and haven't seen it for possibly decades. Yeah, this is a pretty big deal. Wooo! That's news worth checking out.

And there you go...of the 90's Lupin the 3rd movies (I believe it's 90's) Farewell Nostradamus was one of my favorites and I just watched it a couple months back.

 

[Valonquar]

The Hakkenden starts out great, but the quality reeeealy drops further in. The 2nd half heavily relies on rotoscoping and not in a good way. It almost looked like they started with one studio and switch groups entirely or something. It's a shame because I remember really loving the first few.

 

[Happosai]

The Hakkenden starts out great, but the quality reeeealy drops further in. The 2nd half heavily relies on rotoscoping and not in a good way. It almost looked like they started with one studio and switch groups entirely or something. It's a shame because I remember really loving the first few.

I'd need to see some shots from that rotoscoping. I thought Ralph Bakshi has certain scenes of sloppy rotoscoping in American Pop (the animated movie) but...overall, I've never seen someone screw up rotoscoping. That was the whole point in animation was to bring in something more realistic for visual effects. I'd take a leap to watch this to see it for myself it it was only 2 episodes but not for the 11 or 12 it had.

One simple explanation for the seemingly change in animation was the fact that there were 2 OVA that I believe Pioneer boxed up as one. The first was 6 episodes and there was another 6 (maybe 7) episodes thrown into the same DVD set from a 2nd OVA.

By they way, welcome back to the discussion Valonquar ...you were here all the way back on Page 1 if I recall.

 

[Space Runaway]

I think we both came to the same conclusion on The Hakkenden...let's leave it at that. I see no efforts to bring it back and everytime RetroCrush or someone uploads a video on a 90's series...we never see Hakkenden. FYI, I was about 24-years old when I watched it...so not super young.

The below you made a great point there about the possible 'why' people didn't rent it at Blockbuster. As I'm sure you're aware of (there are books about this today)...VHS artwork could be so great even for low budget works that they could sell something on the cover alone during that era. I was that kid who'd look at box art but I was an edgy teenager and use to check to see if they'd have that "mature rating" or gauge (I think U.V. used a guage as a warning on the back of their VHS'). This cover is pretty awful...who did this? Looks like Manga Entertainment but I should just do the research to find out.

I haven't watched Battle Royal High School but I have the full OVA/movie on my PS3 harddrive. I was able to find a cleaned up "DVD-ish" rip of it. I haven't watched it so far but my thoughts were that this was just a "let's fight in the cafeteria" type movie. The synopsis, images and coverage you gave on it says...maybe they should have added some buzz captions to the VHS'...if it was extreme in the least, it would have been rented and talked about today. Granted Wicked City was very popular in JP and gained a crowd in the U.S. too -- we know why most who come to this thread recall watching it. I'd appreciate Battle Royal High School and my wife too. Cheesy stories don't put me off -- it's not hard to sell me on a title.

Yeah it looks like it should be some High School fighting anime but the OVA as presented is a mish-mash of fantasy, sci-fi, action and horror but still with comedy interjections. Certainly some guilty pleasure to be found.

And yeah the western boxart makes it appear like something generic. The JP VHS and LD boxart is better representative of what you get though obviously the nudity meant it couldn't be used here and perhaps makes it appear too similar to a hentai as well:

overall, I've never seen someone screw up rotoscoping.

Watch Bakshi's LotR. They didn't finish the rotoscoping for large chunks of the movie. =P Although in his defense they had to go ahead with a slashed budget and ran out of money while dealing with a studio that didn't want to do the movie anymore.