As to why, there's probably all sorts of good reasons - licensing issues, labels preferring to release new material, Illuminati intervention - but wouldn't it be nice if you could sit down and watch the following without tracking errors and tape-snow?
Here's a few things I'd quite like to see back on sale. For the time being I've restricted myself to things that actually got a UK video release first time around. (Some of them do have a US DVD but that's not the same, is it? )
In no particular order:
Wicked City
An uneasy truce between the Human and Demon worlds is protected by agents from both sides. With the treaty up for renewal and terrorists bent on unleashing hell on earth, a human and a beautiful demon woman are paired up to protect the one man crucial to the peace process. Pity he's such a dick.
Normally I loathe "Tits and tentacle" horror anime with a passion but although this one is violent and sometimes downright disturbing, (oh dear gods, there's some places that should never have gnashing teeth) "Wicked City" has more going for it than shock value.
The character designs are quite angular and take a bit of getting used to but it is nice to see female characters that are obviously meant to be grown women. Female lead Maki is cool, collected and competent and although some horrible things happen to her, keeps getting back up to get stuck in again.
Male lead Taki is a bit of a knob sometimes but is likewise competent and it is nice seeing their initial sparring evolve into something warmer.
The bad guys are like something HP Lovecraft would come up with if he got talking with HR Giger after a dose of absinth and then there's the Spider Woman...
Actually, let's not talk about her. I watched this the other day and after that scene it took a crowbar to get my legs uncrossed again.
Wicked City is probably best not watched with company but if you like the darker end of the spectrum, this is worth seeing.
The character designs are quite angular and take a bit of getting used to but it is nice to see female characters that are obviously meant to be grown women. Female lead Maki is cool, collected and competent and although some horrible things happen to her, keeps getting back up to get stuck in again.
Male lead Taki is a bit of a knob sometimes but is likewise competent and it is nice seeing their initial sparring evolve into something warmer.
The bad guys are like something HP Lovecraft would come up with if he got talking with HR Giger after a dose of absinth and then there's the Spider Woman...
Actually, let's not talk about her. I watched this the other day and after that scene it took a crowbar to get my legs uncrossed again.
Wicked City is probably best not watched with company but if you like the darker end of the spectrum, this is worth seeing.
El-Hazard - The Magnificent World (OAV series)
A mysterious woman transports three Japanese pupils and their borderline-alkie teacher to a fantastic new world. A world facing something of a crisis. El-Hazard desperately needs a way to stop the invading Bugrom insect-men and to do that involves teenager Makoto dressing up as ..erm..a Princess.
A cross-dressing hero... a beautiful woman who is really a Weapon of Mass Destruction and who has to be wound up on a regular basis...adorable living armour..spies and giant bugs and priestesses and romance and humour and a giant purple hippo...
This series is certainly inventive. Admittedly the story is the usual "Where the hell are we and why do these people think we're here to save them?" thing we've been seeing since The Wizard Of Oz but it's done with panache and some absolutely glorious Arabian-inspired design work.
Considering this series is stuffed full of memorable, dynamic female characters it's a nice touch that they manage to make hero Makoto, nutjob Jinnai and drunken slob Fujisawa-Sensei strong enough to hang with the girls without coming off as wimps or macho douchenozzles.
An additional bonus is the excellent English dub which features the most crazed laugh in animation history.
One of the best things Pioneer ever released in the UK and if you like "Tenchi Muyo", there's a pretty good chance you'll like this.
Since I am a massive fan of lethal - but curiously sympathetic - War-Doll Ifurita, in lieu of a trailer here's a tribute AMV somebody did. In Russian but it still works.
The SDF-1 Space Fortress and her ill-assorted mixture of crew and civilians were left stranded in space after an engine test went haywire. After fighting off wave upon wave of hostile aliens, the Macross has finally come home to Earth, only to find the militaristic Zentraedi have got there first.
Meanwhile, young fighter pilot Hikaru and aspiring singer Lynn Minmay find themselves thrown together by circumstances. What neither of them realise is that the Zentraedi have taken a special interest in the young songstress...
The Macross tv series was a massive hit in Japan and (after some heavy re-editing) later in the USA so a big-budget movie was inevitable.
Considering this film dates from 1984 it still stands up well. The Macross franchise has always been based on the three pillars of Love, Music... and freaking awesome fighter jets that turn into giant robots. All are present and correct.
At the core of the story is the relationship between Hikaru and Minmay, which gets complicated when no-nonsense officer Misa enters play. Unlike a lot of other movie love triangles, this never seems tacked-on.
Music... Ahh now this is a definite strong point. The orchestral score is majestic all the way through and then you get one of the most peculiarly Japanese moments in anime history when Minmay wins over an entire enemy fleet with a love song.
It makes sense in context.
And just in case this film is sounding sappy, there's the semi-legendary transforming Mecha and some classic anime dogfighting. The short, vicious Mecha duel between human ace Max and alien giantess Millia being a particular highlight. As is the spectacular final battle.
"Macross-Do You Remember Love" was released on VHS by Kiseki but when they fell off the face of the earth nobody was in a hurry to pick up the DVD rights. Since the original Japanese companies have spent the last couple of decades in legal trench warfare, I can't see anybody wanting to get involved in that mess anytime soon.
Bugger.
I was originally going to do this as a Top Ten but since the piece was already getting rather long, I thought I'd best chop it off here.
There's a few others I can think of that I might cover at a later date: Wings of Honneamise. Venus Wars. Genesis Surviver Gaiarth...
Then of course there's a lot of stuff that never got a UK release that should have done. The second Urusei Yatsura movie immediately springing to mind.
So, anybody out there got any suggestions? I'd love to hear them.
This series is certainly inventive. Admittedly the story is the usual "Where the hell are we and why do these people think we're here to save them?" thing we've been seeing since The Wizard Of Oz but it's done with panache and some absolutely glorious Arabian-inspired design work.
Considering this series is stuffed full of memorable, dynamic female characters it's a nice touch that they manage to make hero Makoto, nutjob Jinnai and drunken slob Fujisawa-Sensei strong enough to hang with the girls without coming off as wimps or macho douchenozzles.
An additional bonus is the excellent English dub which features the most crazed laugh in animation history.
One of the best things Pioneer ever released in the UK and if you like "Tenchi Muyo", there's a pretty good chance you'll like this.
Since I am a massive fan of lethal - but curiously sympathetic - War-Doll Ifurita, in lieu of a trailer here's a tribute AMV somebody did. In Russian but it still works.
Honour to: xurd666
Macross - Do You Remember Love?
Meanwhile, young fighter pilot Hikaru and aspiring singer Lynn Minmay find themselves thrown together by circumstances. What neither of them realise is that the Zentraedi have taken a special interest in the young songstress...
The Macross tv series was a massive hit in Japan and (after some heavy re-editing) later in the USA so a big-budget movie was inevitable.
Considering this film dates from 1984 it still stands up well. The Macross franchise has always been based on the three pillars of Love, Music... and freaking awesome fighter jets that turn into giant robots. All are present and correct.
At the core of the story is the relationship between Hikaru and Minmay, which gets complicated when no-nonsense officer Misa enters play. Unlike a lot of other movie love triangles, this never seems tacked-on.
Music... Ahh now this is a definite strong point. The orchestral score is majestic all the way through and then you get one of the most peculiarly Japanese moments in anime history when Minmay wins over an entire enemy fleet with a love song.
It makes sense in context.
And just in case this film is sounding sappy, there's the semi-legendary transforming Mecha and some classic anime dogfighting. The short, vicious Mecha duel between human ace Max and alien giantess Millia being a particular highlight. As is the spectacular final battle.
"Macross-Do You Remember Love" was released on VHS by Kiseki but when they fell off the face of the earth nobody was in a hurry to pick up the DVD rights. Since the original Japanese companies have spent the last couple of decades in legal trench warfare, I can't see anybody wanting to get involved in that mess anytime soon.
Bugger.
Rather than posting the trailer, here's that dogfight I was talking about.
I was originally going to do this as a Top Ten but since the piece was already getting rather long, I thought I'd best chop it off here.
There's a few others I can think of that I might cover at a later date: Wings of Honneamise. Venus Wars. Genesis Surviver Gaiarth...
Then of course there's a lot of stuff that never got a UK release that should have done. The second Urusei Yatsura movie immediately springing to mind.
So, anybody out there got any suggestions? I'd love to hear them.
That's all folks.
The thing I'm looking forward to is the rumoured live action reboot of Ghost in the Shell.
ReplyDeleteNow that I didn't know about. Could be worth seeing.
DeleteSo the obvious question is: Who do you fancy to play badass Major Kusanagi?