Retrospect in Retrograde: Hareluya II BØY

So this is a first for the blog: A Retrospect in Retrograde re-review for something that I did NOT initially review based mostly (if not solely) off of sheer memory. Back in October of 2012 I watched all of the 1997 TV anime Hareluya II BØY, which was based on the 1992-1999 Shonen Jump manga by Haruto Umezawa, technically known simply as BØY in Japan (an homage to J-rock legends BOØWY), & reviewed it. At the time, I had to rely mostly on what I can easily say were the worst "materials" I have ever come across for the blog: Chinese TV-sourced "raws" with super low video resolution that was blown up, terrible audio quality, all manner of visual glitches, hard-encoded watermarks AND Chinese subtitles (two episodes were even only available with Chinese audio!), & the audio literally de-synced at some point in every single episode, which I had to manually fix using the video editor I use, VideoPad; I managed to buy two laserdiscs of the show at that time, and eventually got all seven LDs. The first three episodes did also have an old & forgotten English fansub, but the translation for those was not good at all, and Eps 2 & 3 still had the hard-encoded Chinese subs. I finished that old review with this line:

"As it is right now this show, though awesome & definitely worth the watch, is also viewer beware."

Boy, what a difference a literal decade can make!

Multiple eyecatches, so you get four of them!
Hallelujah, Hareluya!

In February of 2020, just before the pandemic started, various Japanese digital outlets suddenly started offering the Hareluya II BØY anime, quite literally from out of nowhere. Considering that this was an early example of "modern" late-night anime, & especially the production committee model, I had the feeling that there was something bigger behind this, as there's no way that Shueisha, TV Tokyo, King Records, & Yomiko Advertising (the members of this show's production committee) would just suddenly come back together & make the show available in full digitally in Japan for no real reason; something had to bring this committee back together. My hunch would end up being right, as in November of 2021, Sentai Filmworks announced that it had licensed Hareluya II BØY, & that Hidive would start streaming it later that December with one new episode every week, almost like a "retro simulcast", if you will; seriously, Hidive should have promoted it like that. Now that all 25 episodes are readily & easily available on Hidive, with a complete home video release planned in the future (the first since the VHS & LD release in Japan!), I think it's time to finally re-watch the Hareluya II BØY anime, this time with a full English translation (by "Twin Translators" Alethea & Athena Nibley) that's actually good, & see if there's anything new I can appreciate from this show, now that I can fully understand it from start to finish.

The fact that 2022 is also the 25th Anniversary of the anime, & 30th Anniversary of both the BØY manga & the original Hareluya that came before it, is just fun & cool coincidental timing.

Hareluya Hibino is a first-year student at Rakuen Private High School who managed to get himself suspended for two weeks on the first day of school by beating up some upperclassmen who messed with him. Claiming to be "invincible", Hareluya is a cocky delinquent with a lofty dream: World Domination! However, despite his brash & egotistical exterior, Hareluya is actually rather benevolent & tends to have no problem helping out those in need, especially if it allows him to beat up those who do others wrong. Alongside his new friends Kiyoshiro Okamoto (who dreams to be a painter), Makoto Ichijo (who dreams to be a rock star), & Michiru Yamana (who dreams to be a jewelry designer), Hareluya will take on any & all foes that get in his way.

In the original review back in 2012, I tried to establish BØY as being tough to fully categorize, but in reality that was a bit silly to do. Even though Hareluya & his friends go to a private school instead of the public schools that the casts of titles like Rokudenashi BLUES & the Crows x Worst franchise attend, that doesn't make BØY any less of a yankii/delinquent series in the long run; if anything, guys like Hareluya & Ichijo can be considered "preppy delinquents". Likewise, I tried to distance BØY from series like Gintama & SKET Dance simply because there's no organized reason for Hareluya & the gang helping people out. However, BØY is the spiritual precursor to Gintama & SKET Dance, from just the basic concept to some character relationships to even all of their respective penchants to jump from comical to serious on a dime, depending on the moment & situation. As for saying that BØY isn't exactly an action or slice of life series, though, I guess that still holds true to some extent, as while both of those elements are found here, they're really more a means to an end & beginning, respectively.

Simply put, Hareluya II BØY is a delinquent anime, & until Tokyo Revengers in 2021 it was essentially the only time a delinquent manga that was "purely" in that style & not simply an aesthetic (Beelzebub, Yu Yu Hausho, Cromartie High School, etc.) was made into a TV anime, though I guess Tokyo Revengers' use of time travel does arguably DQ it, to some extent. But, yeah, Hareluya himself is absolutely a ruffian of a delinquent, with an ego the size of the planet itself (if not even larger), and while he certainly has no problem just beating people up for the greater good, he's also more than willing to "play fair" if need be. His "invincibility" is also not just mere bravado, as Hareluya easily takes the most physical damage over the course of the show, yet always gets back up, teasing his foe to hit him harder next time. Meanwhile, Ichijo used to be part of a notorious gang called Mad Satan (subtle...), so his own fists can back up his words, when push comes to shove. He & Hareluya are essentially "Best Frenemies", as while they trust in each other 100%, they also are quick to insult, belittle, & mess with each other; Hareluya, for example, always calls Ichijo a "Closet Pervert". Kiyoshiro & Yamana may not necessarily be "delinquents" by most definitions, but Kiyoshiro is often the first person to act when he sees wrongdoings & his sheer determination allows him to take beatings that would knock out most other people, while both he & Yamana break school rules by taking side jobs (Kiyoshiro works for a foreman, & Yamana sells her wares on the street), so they aren't exactly angels, either. And then there's Shozo Momiyama, the leader of Rakuen's 3rd years who drives a 1960 Impala, smokes cigarettes, looks like he's in his 30s/40s, & is pretty tough in his own right when needed... and often becomes the semi-reliable comic relief fifth member of the group, more often than not; he's as textbook a delinquent as you can think of.

In terms of how BØY works as a story, the anime is mostly comprised of episodic tales which see Hareluya & Co. eventually helping someone out in dealing with some sort of bad guy, with the person they're helping more often than not being a girl. The first three episodes act as introductions for our five most-seen characters, and there are only three recurring characters who appear in multiple stories. There's Harebare Hibino, Hareluya's priest father who's kind, caring, & in some instances shown to be way more powerful than he lets on; he appears in ten episodes. Then there's "Grandpa Bob", a street artist who's almost always seen with his pet cat, Picasso; he appears in six episodes. And finally there's Reiko Ibu, a sukeban from nearby Maten Girls Academy who initially appears as a villain, but in later appearances is an ally to the gang & even falls for Ichijo, which he can be embarrassed to reciprocate; she appears in five episodes. Despite the anime debuting late into the manga's run (Volume 22 came out just days prior to the first episode), it doesn't feature some of the manga's other recurring cast, like Rakuen students Takuya Amamiya & Masashi Shiina, who would become Ichijo's new bandmates, or Rakuen's school nurse Haruka Yamanoue, who would go on to become a quasi-love interest for Hareluya; to be fair, Haruka debuted in the manga not too long before the anime even started production. As for the foes our heroes take on, they include various other delinquents, multiple gangs (street, biker, beach, etc.), corrupt businesspeople, a blackmailing lewd photographer, & even hired human "Dissector"; remember, this was the fist ever late-night Jump anime, so it could go into darker subjects. There are also some sillier foes, too, like a supposed ghost at an onsen, an alleged alien (which itself is vague, in the context of the episode it's in), & Shozo Momiyama himself on two occasions.

That said, there is a quartet of stories that do take multiple episodes to tell. Episodes 4 & 5 introduce Grandpa Bob & deal with his backstory regarding his final painting, the very one that inspired Kiyoshiro to become a painter, and a greedy art dealer named Michiyuki Kageno who wants to steal it & make a fortune. Episodes 9 & 10 see Hareluya & the others help out Yuichi Honjo, the disgraced star player of Rakuen's baseball team who's been framed for attacking his own teammates by Katakuri High's team, lead by the devious Junichi Hido, one that plays dirty & aims to physically hurt just as much as win. Episodes 18 to 20 deal with Reiji Marukido, a Rakuen transfer student who's the spoiled son of a conglomerate boss, & with his bodyguard Goda makes sure he always gets his way, like kidnapping Yamana when she denies his skeevy advances; Harleuya, Ichijo, & Kiyoshiro chase after Reiji to rescue Yamana. Finally, Episodes 22 to 24 are about Taro Momoyama, a young boy who loves fighting games so much that he manages to create a real life equivalent via an underground fight ring, which includes Ibu, fighting freak Keisuke Baraki, & a pair of sadistic kogal & gyaruo named Naomi & Shinji; this arc is the closest BØY gets to being a straight-up action series. Without a doubt, the multi-parters are the highlight of the entire show, especially the Yuichi Honjo & Reiji Marukido storylines.

In all honesty, BØY is an interesting case of how to adapt a manga comprised of mostly-episodic stories (with only the occasional longer story arc), and it's here where I should bring up the the head writer for the anime: Yasuhiro Imagawa. After making a name for himself by directing Mister Ajikko, Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still (which he also wrote), & Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Imagawa entered the world of "series composition" with The Violinist of Hameln in 1996, & BØY was his sophomore work in that field. Much like how he helped altered the tone of Hameln from a comical gag manga to a serious & operatic anime, or how he added over-the-top food reactions to Mister Ajikko (literally defining an entire genre), Imagawa didn't exactly do a direct 1:1 adaptation of Umezawa's manga for the BØY anime, though at least here the general tone of the manga was kept intact. Instead, while the majority of the anime's episodes are based on stories from the manga, they pretty much all feature some sort of alteration, some minor & some more notable. For example, Ichijo is a former member of Mad Satan in the anime, where in the manga he wasn't, while some one of the one-off characters have slightly different backstories, like one being Yamana's old classmate in the manga, but is now Ichijo's in the anime; one episode is even an interesting fusion of two one-off manga stories. Not just that, but the order of events is mixed around, like the Reiji Marukido story arc originally happening pretty early on in the manga, but happening ~2/3 into the anime, likely due to the escalated stakes. Also, some fan-favorite stories, like the Million Arc, are nowhere to be found here, though the Taro Momoyama storyline was a then-recent story in the manga. Overall, the writing in BØY is extremely solid, telling fun & varied stories with instantly memorable characters, though Imagawa does add in some bonus philosophizing a handful of times, namely in defining our male leads as "BØYs". However, one could argue that some aspects have aged a little roughly over 25 years, like the handful of moments of sexual coercion and/or assault that Hareluya & the gang have to put a stop to; this is a show from 1997, after all, so subtlety isn't always a strong point.

However, Imagawa decided to also pay some homage to the manga's "origin story" via the anime. Prior to BØY's debut in Shonen Jump in late 1992, Haruto Umezawa originally debuted a series called Hareluya earlier that same year. It starred Hareluya, son of "God of the 20th Century" Harebare, who gets cast down to Earth to live as a human by his deific father in order to learn humility before he becomes "God of the 21st Century". Hareluya would get taken in by a nun named Sister Chris, be given the name "Hareluya Hibino", & enrolled in her alma mater, Rakuen High School, where he'd befriend classmates Kiyoshiro Okamoto, Masashi Himuro, & Ryoko Morikawa. This first series only ran for 10 chapters before getting cancelled, though while it initially bombed, it apparently did rebound a bit as the whole "Son of God" aspect got downplayed & it turned into more of a standard delinquent manga. This would explain why BØY managed to debut so soon after Hareluya's cancellation (easier to just cancel & reboot, than to work around an unpopular concept), and why most of the cast were simply repurposed into the cast for BØY, with Hareluya, Harebare, & even Kiyoshiro getting to keep their names exactly the same, while Himuro & Ryoko would be repurposed into Ichijo & Yamana, respectively; Sister Chris would eventually be repurposed into Haruka, as well. However, despite featuring "Hareluya II" in the logo (likely just a case of Umezawa being playful), BØY is NOT a sequel to Hareluya, but rather is a reboot that removes all "Son of God" elements... At least when it comes to the manga.

To be fair, Kanzaki in both the original Hareluya & BØY manga
was a crazed drug addict, so this isn't totally out of character.

You see, the first thing shown in the Hareluya II BØY anime's first episode, before the OP sequence even starts playing, is what looks like "God Hareluya" flailing through space, before falling down to Earth. However, the anime never really makes any future reference to that initial scene (minus a very quick visual reference in Episode 12, with the alleged alien), and outside of BØY's Harleuya now rarely speaking in more biblical tones, including an awesome new catchphrase of "Find your penance at my back!", and light emanating behind him whenever he pulls something out from behind his back (which one could just chalk up to artistic license), "God Hareluya" plays no part in the BØY anime whatsoever... until the end. That same initial scene not only gets replayed to start Episode 25, but is now expanded on, with the final episode itself seemingly now tying the BØY anime directly to the original Hareluya manga, though with its own alterations (only the pre-OP "avant" is actually be accurate to the manga), including recurring manga rival Kyo Kanzaki being re-imagined into essentially the Devil; fitting, since Kanzaki was the leader of Mad Satan in the BØY manga. However, after an utterly bonkers climax that I dare not spoil for anyone, the post-credits scene for the final episode reveals the truth, but does so in a way that leaves it up to the viewer to decide how much of the episode itself it applies to. Honestly, aside from just being a very enjoyable & zany episode in its own right, the finale to the BØY anime is a really neat & fun way to pay homage to Umezawa's original failed concept, which would otherwise never have received an anime adaptation in any way. However, it also results in some people online taking it as gospel when describing the anime, with some even arguing that Sentai & Hidive "buried the lead" when first announcing the license, showing that they likely never even knew about the post-credits scene; it wasn't included in the old "materials" I reviewed from in 2012, either.

With all of that out of the way, we should move on the production side of things, which is admittedly where BØY's biggest flaw rears its head: The animation. This anime was the first TV series done by the now-defunct Triangle Staff, a studio founded a decade prior by ex-Madhouse staff & later found notoriety by doing the beautiful animation for Macross Plus across 1994 & 1995... but you certainly wouldn't be able to tell any of that by watching this show. My original review in 2012 was based off of those rough raws, which I have since discovered were based on the original broadcast version of the show, and while the official English release uses the later home video version, which includes some fixes to the animation, there's still no denying that Hareluya II BØY can look really chintzy at points. There's likely a variety of reasons for this: It was an early "modern" late-night anime (which were all produced on the cheap), it was Triangle Staff's first weekly TV series (which they'd get better at, as seen with Serial Experiments Lain & NieA_7), & this was the third of only four TV anime that were directed by Kiyoshi Egami (Metal Jack, City Hunter '91), with his last one being the first half of the infamously poorly animated Weiß Kreuz/Knight Hunters in 1998. I fully admit that I can be pretty forgiving of an anime's "visual sins" as long as the other aspects of it (story, characters, music, voice work, etc.) more than make up for it, and luckily BØY is indeed one of those cases, but I can certainly see some people be turned off by how it looks, & I honestly wouldn't fault them for that. This also isn't helped much by the fact that the show has never received any sort of remastering at all, as Hidive's stream has a very soft image to it, likely being sourced from laserdisc masters, & Episode 24 in particular features some very noticeable rainbow banding on some character outlines; it's entirely possible that the original film masters for BØY are lost.

The characters designs were done by Takahiro Kishida (Madoka Magica, Hakiyu!!), and while the sometimes chintzy animation messes with things at points, Kishida's designs match up extremely well with Haruto Umezawa's original artwork, which really helps instill the era that the show takes place in; this is truly "Japan in the 90s", much like how Kimagure Orange Road is "Japan in the 80s". As mentioned, Imagawa was the head writer for the show, personally scripting 12 of the 25 episodes, and while the other five writers that worked under him may not be major names, there are three worth bringing up. Episodes 7, 15, & 25 were written by Kazuharu Sato, who's now part of ufotable's "Literature Club" of screenwriters & would go on to write almost all of Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works TV by himself; you can "blame" Sato for BØY's memorably bonkers finale. Episode 11 & the entire Taro Momoyama arc (the only multi-parter not done by Imagawa) were written by Ryo Motohira, who was Chief Director of Doraemon from 1981 to 1984. Following BØY, Motohira would write only one more TV series (being head writer for the original Japanese version of Transformers: Armada), before following in his parents' footsteps & training to be a Jodo Shinsu priest at the Kusei Temple in Himi, Toyama; after writing the 14th Crayon Shin-chan movie in 2006, he retired & is now head priest. Finally, there's Tsuyoshi Kida, who wrote Episodes 13 & 21 of BØY & would go on to be head writer for the first half of Kamen Rider Hibiki, main writer for Kamen Rider Wizard, lead series composition for the Zanpakuto rebellion "filler" arc for Bleach, & writes/directs stage play adaptation of things like Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, Naruto, & Cells at Work!. If you look deeper into the staff list you can also find a few notable names, like Shinji Takamatsu (Original Director of Gintama), Toshiyuki Tsuru (Director of Gungrave), Yuzo Aoki (Director of Lupin the 3rd: Part III), Masahiko Murata (Director of Corpse Princess), & veteran animator Masahiro Sekiguchi all handling things like storyboards, animation direction, and/or episode direction; Takashi Nakamura (Director of Fantastic Children) even lead the animation for the very music video-like OP sequence.

As for the music, we have the late Shingo Kobayashi, who worked on anime themes for a few shows, but this is his sole credit as composer for an entire score; he also apparently was a part of the Boys Be... anime's "Be Factory" composer collective. Honestly, the score is one of the biggest highlights of Hareluya II BØY, right up there with the characters & writing, as Kobayashi created a ton of music for the show, resulting in a wide variety of styles, ranging from silly to serious, & is a great example of mixing together electric & acoustic music; there are so many songs that it took two OSTs to fully contain. However, he also wasn't alone in this endeavor, as Kobayashi also brought in two non-Japanese musicians, Duran Chapee & Vincent Penn, who are called "Hallelujah Boys" on the OSTs. What Chapee & Penn bring to the table is hard rock (sometimes mixed with both piano & even harpsichord!), which includes rock renditions of classic music, namely Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D minor &, naturally, Händel's Hallelujah Chorus; Händel's original version is also used a handful of times, too. The end result of all of this is an awesome mix of Kobayashi's electric/acoustic music for more general scenes, character set ups, & comedic moments, while Chapee & Penn's rock music fits the action-oriented moments excellently; both styles are also used for serious moments very well. Just taking these two factors into consideration, BØY's score is already outstanding, and I'm proud to own both OSTs in their complete glory... but then there's SPYKE.

Formed in 1994, SPYKE was a rock duo comprised of lyricist/vocalist Hiroyuki Shibata & composer/guitarist Hironori Morikawa. The duo originally signed with BMG Japan, releasing four singles & an album by the end of 1996. Then, at the start of 1997, SPYKE switched over the King Records, right as the label was getting involved with the production of a new anime series based on a manga that was heavily influenced by rock music. Yes, SPYKE is kind of all over the BØY anime, with one OP theme, two ED themes, and SIX INSERT SONGS HEARD ACROSS 8 EPISODES, & that's not including the episodes where they're used in vocal-less form; including those, it's closer to half the episodes, if not more. In fact, if you want even more blatant music promotion, any of the songs Ichijo plays with his band Fire Guns are just SPYKE songs, & Episode 1's ED sequence is literally nothing more than a short-form SPYKE music video (as you can see above), featuring almost nothing from BØY at all in it; Eps 2-13 simply show footage from each respective episode, with only a couple of shots of SPYKE. It's easy to see that King Records simply used BØY as way to promote its new signing like crazy, but here's the kicker: SPYKE never released an album with King Records. Yep, they put out two singles containing four songs used in BØY (the OP, both EDs, & one IN), but never actually released an album (despite having enough for one from the anime alone!), and the duo would disband for good after a live performance on August 30, 1998. Luckily, all nine SPYKE songs used in BØY would see split release via the OSTs, including the five that never saw single release.

It is, quite possibly, the biggest backfire in the entire history of music promotion via anime.

And that is a shame, because all of SPYKE's music in Hareluya II BØY is really damn good. Now with proper translated lyrics for some via Hidive it's easy to see that all of these songs are more or less about love & the like, but there's no denying that Shibata & Morikawa are excellent song makers. There's a great variety in style, with OP "Tight-Break", ED1 "Words of Free" (Eps 1-13), and INs "Egoistic" (Ep 3) & "Heat in Motion" (Ep 7) delivering a strong & catchy hard rock vibe. Meanwhile, ED2 "Closet Freak" (Eps 14-25) & IN "Breath" (Ep 24) deliver a more upbeat sound, even if "Closet Freak" is more about being attracted to failed "love in vain". Finally, INs "After" (Ep 10) & "Eve" (Ep 15) take the reigns when it comes to slower ballads. However, the jewel of the SPYKE songs is easily "Before Lies", the only IN heard vocally in multiple episodes, specifically 14, 20, & 25; it's also the only IN released via single. While the first time is simply done in-universe as a Fire Guns performance, the latter two times both feature "Before Lies" in the climaxes of hard-fought fights, and it fits both of them absolutely perfectly, with its slow build during the verse, rise in tension during the bridge, & hard rock delivery during the chorus; it's seriously one of my all-time favorite "finish to a fight" songs ever in anime. Hironori Morikawa also contributed to the anime's score itself, creating acoustic instrumental versions of "Tight-Break" & "Eve", with both sounding excellent.

If you look at the strands of Ibu's hair next to her face,
you can see the rainbow banding I mentioned earlier.

Finally, we move on to the voice cast, which has a small but extremely good set of recurring seiyuu, plus all manner of one-off performances. Absolutely stealing the entire show itself is the venerable Shinichiro Miki as Hareluya, who simply nails every single aspect of the character, from his egotistical cockiness to his silly moments to his downright serious and/or maniacal bits; it truly feels as though Miki was born to voice Hareluya. After him is Yuji Ueda as Kiyoshiro, who delivers a perfect mix of youthful exuberance & politeness, but can switch over to passionate & determined on a dime. Then there's Katsuaki Arima as Ichijo, who seriously just absolutely nails the character down perfectly, just about on the same level as Miki's Hareluya, and if things played out differently I'd even call this a bit of a star-making performance. However, Arima never really got many lead roles, despite his talent, & after 2003 switched over the pseudonym Yusei Oda (which is what Sentai/Hidive credits him under), with which he's since done various secondary & tertiary roles, with his "biggest" role being Kengo Miyazawa in Little Busters!, which he at least reprises to this very day in stuff like Kaginado; it's consistent work, sure, but BØY shows how good he can truly be. Finally, for the main cast, we have Naoko "Urara" Miura as Yamana, and she's honestly really good here, too. Miura didn't stay long in anime, though, leaving after 2001, though if you ever use the Japanese rail system, especially in the Kanto & Tohoku regions, you might actually still hear her voice, as she's been doing in-car broadcasts & announcements for various railway companies, most notably JR East, ever since the 00s!

Honestly, this is why I love checking out old & obscure anime, because you sometimes find fun little bits of trivia, like the stuff with Motohira & Miura, that you might otherwise never find out via more well known titles.

As for the rest of the cast, let's start with Kiyoyuki Yanada as Momiyama, who is another person that just nails the role, making the lovable lug either a semi-threatening louse, an absolute wuss, a cocky jerk, or an honestly reliable pal, depending on the episode/situation. Then there's Ginzo Matsuo as Harebare, who's fun & silly in the scenes he gets, while still managing to feel comforting when it counts; this character is a priest, after all. Fumihiko Tachiki is one of a few seiyuu who actually pull double-duty in this show, as while his main role here is as Grandpa Bob, he also voices Baraki for the Taro Momoyama storyline, and while you can tell that it's the same voice, he at least does give each character a different enough style to them. Meanwhile, Hiromi Tsuru voices Reiko Ibu, and she does a great job in helping give the character some nice layers in the handful of episodes she appears in, ranging from self-assured badass to loving friend to emotionally wrecked. Also, shout out to Natsumi Sasaki, who plays both members of Grandpa Bob's direct family: His deceased wife Marianne... and his cat Picasso. Beyond that we have a wide variety of seiyuu who appear in only a couple of episodes (at most), depending on the characters they voice, like Hiro Yuuki (Honjo), Mitsuaki Madono (Kanzaki), Natsumi Asaoka (Naomi), Naoki Tatsuta (Kageno), Kyoko Tsuruno (Taro), & Unsho Ishizuka (Goda), among others. Finally, there are the other seiyuu who pull double-duty, namely Nobuyuki Hiyama (Hido & Shinji), Kazuki Yao (Kiro Amakusa [Ep 7] & Reiji Marukido), & Tomohiro Nishimura ("The Dissector" [Ep 14] & Katakura High's Miyamura).

In all honesty, nothing about the circumstances resulting in this re-review even being possible makes a lick of sense, business-wise. Outside of the first episode episode being released on a themed Shonen Jump DVD in 2012, the Hareluya II BØY anime has never seen a home video release in Japan beyond its original VHS & LD releases in 1997 & 1998... and why should it? Beyond Shueisha re-releasing the manga here & there (including digitally), there's really been nothing new from BØY that would warrant re-releasing the anime, like how Toei finally decided to re-release the original Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai anime for the first time time since the 90s because it got a reboot. Haruto Umezawa doesn't seem to be interested in revisiting it, either, though I'd love a "Hareluya III MȺN". In fact, I imagine King Records doesn't really like being reminded of just how much time, effort, & money it put into SPYKE with this anime, only for the entire endeavor to wind up being effectively fruitless. The trick with anime made via production committee is that said committee has to be brought back together in order for any of these anime to see anything like a re-release, and if one of the parties just isn't interested (or, worst case scenario, goes out of business), then the chances of that re-release happening are close to 0.

And yet all of the stars seemed to align. The "BØY Production Committee" reunited & released the BØY anime to streaming outlets in Japan, though still without any physical re-release over there. The Committee also allowed Sentai Filmworks & Hidive to license the BØY anime for streaming in 26 different countries (plus "Central America"), with a home video release soon to follow. Finally, Sentai/Hidive's license not only allowed this re-review to exist, but it also gave me the perfect excuse to try pitching something to an legit professional outlet, which resulted in Anime News Network actually publishing an article about BØY that was written by me, something that would normally never happen because of its obscure irrelevance. Most importantly.... What in Heaven inspired Sentai/Hidive to even license Hareluya II BØY in the first place? How in the world did they even come to find out about this anime, & what convinced them to actually put money down & license an old anime from 1997, one that absolutely "no one" really knew about (even in Japan, to some extent), likely even being the impetus for the production committee reuniting in the first place?! Maybe it was part of a package deal, which still sometimes happens, but from what I can tell there's been nothing else announced to really support that theory. It truly is a bit of crazy random happenstance that I certainly can't explain, but at the same time I'm sure glad it happened.

No, thank you Sentai Filmworks & Hidive!

An entire decade ago I heartily recommended that people watch the Hareluya II BØY anime, even though most of it wasn't subbed, but bemoaned how nigh-unwatchable the only real source for it was at the time. Today, I can now make that same wholehearted recommendation, and this time it comes with no caveats regarding its availability, accessibility, & (for the most part) the condition of its source. It's by no means perfect, especially when it comes to the visuals, but Hareluya II BØY is great for fans of Gintama, SKET Dance, & even Tokyo Revengers, as well as fun for those who just like good stories with a memorable cast & cool music; or maybe you're just a Yasuhiro Imagawa fanatic who wants to watch everything he worked on. Hidive announced its stream for BØY by calling it a "hidden gem" of the 90s, and while that term might get thrown around a bit too much online nowadays, this is one of those instances where it's indeed 100% accurate.

Anime © S・E/Shueisha・BØY Production Committee・TV Tokyo