So put on some "Samurai Soul" by Ulfuls as we take a look at a bunch of examples of people who may or may not be literal samurai, but they've at least got it deep within them & that's what really counts!... right?
First up we have an OVA with what seriously sounds like something some fly-by-night dollar-bin distributor would have come up with out of sheer laziness... but, no, this is literally its name in Japanese: The Samurai. Now, to be fair, this is actually what the original manga by Mitsuhiro Kasuga is also called, a manga that debuted in the pages of Weekly Young Jump back in 1984 & would run for 20 volumes before eventually getting a semi-sequel (with a different lead), Samurai Deka, that ran in Weekly Comic Bunch from 2002 to 2007 for a further eight volumes (which were later re-released as 20 eBooks). The Samurai was successful enough to warrant the production of both a live-action theatrical film adaptation by Toei that was directed by Norifumi Suzuki (Truck Yaro) & a live-action TV special adaptation by Tsuburaya Productions, which was actually one of Shusuke Kaneko's earlier directorial works, & aired on Fuji TV's Monday Drama Land program. Shockingly enough, both of these came out in 1986, with the TV special airing literally just nine days after the movie starting running in theaters! The following year a 45-minute OVA adaptation of The Samurai would come out on November 1, 1987 & was co-produced by CBS Sony Group, the precursor company of what's now Aniplex. Before it would eventually get locked away in "Aniplex Jail" ADV Films actually licensed & released The Samurai on dual-audio DVD in early 2003, keeping its immensely generic title intact. No one really knows why The Samurai was licensed that long after it first came out in Japan, but it was likely part of a package deal from Aniplex, so I won't judge. To be fair, reviews at the time generally felt that The Samurai was perfectly fine, if nothing especially noteworthy, so time to see if I feel the same about it as those reviews back in the day did over 20 years after its English release
Takeshi Chimatsuri is a 16-year old high school student who dedicates himself to the ideals of being a true samurai... despite living in modern-day Japan, where samurai no longer exist. He even brings a sword with him to school, though this time it comes in handy as he arrives to homeroom late, only to see his class & teacher held hostage by armed robbers, which Takeshi manages to deal with. However, on this same day two new transfer students arrive, the twins Akari & Kagiri Toki... who have a beef with Takeshi. Namely, they've trained in the ways of the ninja for the past 10 years so that they can finally recover their family sword, which has been in the hands of the Chimatsuri family since & currently is with Takeshi. Takeshi's late father Raizo rightfully won the sword in a duel with the Toki twins' father, Kagemaru, & now want to win it back in battle, on order from their grandmother. The Toki twins will do whatever they can to get the sword back, whether that's trying to take advantage of Takeshi's notorious "female allergy" (i.e. bare boobs & scantily clad women halt him in his tracks), using an elixir to make Akari temporarily invisible, using disguises to fool Takeshi, kidnapping Takeshi's classmate Atsuko (the only girl that Takeshi isn't "allergic" to), or piloting a literal giant clockwork mech.
Due to its simple title, The Samurai can be a little tough to discern at first, but quite simply it's a sitcom. The entire point of this OVA is seeing the Toki twins' continual efforts in trying to get their family heirloom back from Takeshi, with each new attempt being more outrageous than the last, and there's actually a surprising lack of Takeshi's (mostly) stalwart samurai attitude clashing with the more normal ideas of modern Japanese life to be seen here. Without a doubt this is an OVA that's technically intended for readers of the original manga, as while the story told here is given all of the backstory that it needs there's really nothing to set up our main cast, outside of the Toki twins being introduced. But, yeah, this is 100% a sitcom that, due to it being based on a seinen manga, has no qualms with being a tad bit raunchy at points, so bare boobs are a common sight here. In fact, as an example, after hearing the situation themselves Takeshi's classmates Atsuko & Torai (who looks to be a bit of a gun nut, going off of the OP sequence & one quick scene halfway in), plus their teacher Ms. Ayatsugi, volunteer to help Takeshi prepare for the initial fight, which entails Torai shoving a bunch of dirty magazines at Takeshi, while Ms. Ayatsugi has her & Atsuko wear leotards & perform aerobics in front of him. There are all sorts of silly and/or dirty jokes & scenarios like this to be found throughout The Samurai, and once you get used to the concept (to be fair, it's arguably at its most raunchy in the first 20 minutes) it's honestly some good fun to watch. Takeshi is also not portrayed as an idiot by any means, as after Akari's initial disguise later on fails due to her own haphephobia when it comes to men she tries another one after barely managing to escape Takeshi chasing her... only for Takeshi to instantly figure out the new disguise without a problem.
Still, there's no doubt that this can be a bit of a raunchy little OVA at points. As I said the first half kind of hits you with a lot of it over & over, like Kagiri being asked on a date by Torai & two his classmates literally during the twins' introduction to the class, so Kagiri summarily strips down to nothing but a sheet & offers herself to all three of them right then & there, in an effort to placate them ASAP. Akari, in turn, instantly punches her in the head in response, and this kind of result is actually a pretty common response to some of the more raunchy moments. A little bit of an odder gag is that whenever Atsuko gives Takeshi her handkerchief he instantly goes to hug her while profusely espousing how thankful he is for her kindness, which Atsuko responds to with a proclamation that he squeeze her even tighter. However, the OVA doesn't really make any direct indication that the two are madly in love with each other, and Atsuko even takes advantage of this Pavlovian response from Takeshi a couple of times to have him hug something (or someone) else in the same manner, so here it just comes off as more bizarre than anything with a logical explanation behind it; apparently Atsuko does fall in love with Takeshi in manga, & is too shy to admit it, but the OVA doesn't show this. Overall, though, The Samurai is indeed a fun time to be had, and watching this OVA I can kind of see why it wound up running for so long in Young Jump, as it likely was a reliable source for silly sitcom-style humor in the magazine that knew not to take itself too seriously, but still gave readers memorable characters to see in action. It's really more sitcom than romcom, but if you ever get the chance to watch The Samurai then I say give it a go.
OK, this next one definitely requires a bit of set up to explain its provenance, though it really doesn't explain why this still came to be. Living from 1907 to 1986, novelist Tatsuro Jinde would get his first novel published in 1941, but one of his most successful works was his Toyama no Kin-san series of books from 1955 to 1974, based on a fictionalized version of Toyama Kagemoto that first originated via kabuki theater & oral kodan stories, as well as a series of live-action movies by Toei from 1950 to 1962. One of Jinde's books, 1966's Maboroshi Bugyo/The Phantom Magistrate, would then get reinterpreted as a sci-fi novel written by Kyosuke Yuki in 1987 under the title Toyama Sakura Space-cho: Yatsu no Na wa Gold/Toyama's Sakura Space Book: His Name is Gold, with illustrations done by Hiroyuki Kitazume; Kyosuke Yuki would later be better known for helping write the scenario for 1989's Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket. For whatever reason Tokuma Shoten, which published His Name is Gold, decided to adapt Yuki's sci-fi reimagining of Tatsuro Jinde's period piece into anime, teaming with Toei Animation to produce an hour-long OVA that came out on July 25, 1988, & it even saw a limited theatrical run; there was even a Famicom Disk System adaptation released the week prior, an adventure game titled Toyama no Kin-san Space-cho: Mr. Gold.
Normally this would be where the setup would up end, but the His Name is Gold OVA would eventually get licensed by Western Connection, the infamous UK outfit that more or less stumbled into small success with anime during the 90s, with a sub-only VHS tape release coming out in the UK in late 1994 under the heavily simplified name Samurai Gold. This would be one of WC's eight English-release exclusives (i.e. no North American release), alongside Salamander (based on Konami's Gradius series), Slow Step (the only Mitsuru Adachi anime to receive a physical English release until Mix in 2020), Hummingbirds, God Bless Dancouga (which gloriously used a 4:3 master that showed where the staff stopped drawing on the cels!), Galactic Pirates (i.e. a dub-only release of The Enemy's the Pirates!), Ladius (i.e. Le Deus), & The Sensualist (WC's very first anime). So... is all of this set up even worth it for Samurai Gold?
Gold is the estranged son of Retklaad Dithersmount, one of the five Overseers of EDO, the supercomputer that governs the giant cities & space colonies under Japan's control. Years ago Retklaad disowned Gold due to his habit of constantly finding himself in dangerous situations, but after returning from a trip to the space colony Fedovar he's attacked by a masked assailant, one that Retklaad only refers to as a "ghost"; Gold himself is attacked by a group of android ninja & a pickaxe-wielding giant. When Gold is told of what happened to his father he visits him in the hospital, and despite the two still despising each other Gold decides to head to Fedovar to find out who attacked his father, as it likely has some connection to that trip. Joining Gold is his girlfriend Midi, who performs at the bar he frequents, & Ritt, Gold's cousin who lives on Fedovar & has already been doing his own investigation into the attack on his uncle. Turns out that Retklaad's visit to Fedovar involved giving the final approval of a ship called the Ovconia, which shortly later went on its maiden voyage with Lord Tonomono Plenmatz, Fedovar's ruler, & his son Ion piloting it... a voyage that ended with a crash that killed all onboard, though Ion's body was never discovered, followed by the death of both the Plenmatz Family's bodyguard & the architect of the Ovconia itself. Looking at the evidence, including the fact that Tonomono Plenmatz wasn't a fan of a supercomputer like EDO running the government, it definitely seems as though Retklaad is behind this tragedy... but is it really that open & shut of a case?
Samurai Gold is a bit of an odd duck, in all honesty, though I guess if I was previously familiar with Toyama no Kin-san it wouldn't be as odd, in many regards. That's because this OVA at first makes you think that this would be a mix of mystery & action, with Gold discovering the truth behind what really happened with the Ovconia & how his father was involved, all while fighting off assailants after his head. However, while that is true for some of the OVA, it really isn't a factor overall. Instead, the main mystery behind who attacked Retklaad & why is mostly revealed by the halfway point, and instead of a grand action scene between Gold & the final villain to end things off the climax is instead a public trial involving Retklaad, his assailant, & even the other Overseers, with Gold himself acting as the judge; in context it makes much more sense, but where's the fun in just giving it all away? However, when you consider who Gold himself is based on, Toyama Kagemoto, is makes sense that this OVA wouldn't really be all about an action-packed finale, but rather is about dealing with corruption & greed within the government by way of a man who himself became a magistrate to do what's best for the common folk. Granted, this OVA (like the novel it's directly adapting) changes things up to better fit the sci-fi aesthetic, but the overall theme remains true, I'd say.
Despite this being animated by Toei, Samurai Gold does come off a bit like a "for hire" work from the studio, though it's nothing terrible looking by any means. That being said, the only rips that exist are from WC's release, & WC wasn't known for quality releases, as even the solid translation by the legendary Jonathan Clements is let down by a bunch of awkward timing for the subs by WC's founder Sasha Cipkalo, plus a handful of lines that simply aren't subbed at all; I mean, there are only three people credited for the English release, & one (David M) is credited as "Cloud observer". In terms of the animation & character designs Toei & Tokuma Shoten at least brought back Hiyoruki Kitazume, so I imagine it's about as accurate to his illustrations for Yuki's novel as humanly possible, and I actually do kind of like Gold's general design; the way his body tattoo is handled (another Toyama reference) is neat, too. Beyond that, though, this OVA is perfectly "serviceable" from a visual standpoint, though I honestly liked how Fedovar's sky actually showed space above the clouds, and even the music by Kentaro Haneda (i.e. the man behind the original Macross soundtrack) isn't anything super memorable. A specific song even plays a factor later on in the story but I didn't realize it at first, though that could also just be due to me watching a poor VHS rip of what was already a subpar subbed VHS release from the start. At least Kazuki Yao was honestly on his A-game here as Gold himself, helping make the character memorable, despite not really getting much of a proper introduction in the OVA itself. Yeah, it kind of assumes that you already know who Gold is, which is a little odd considering that Kyosuke Yuki only wrote a single novel starring him; maybe a proper intro was lost in the adaptation to anime.
In all honesty, I went into Samurai Gold not really expecting much from it, despite it being an OVA that I've been curious about for a while. Thankfully, while on the production standpoint it's admittedly nothing really special, I still found myself having a good little time here, as I do enjoy it when something goes against seemingly every standard practice you'd normally expect to see from other (seemingly) similar works. While I still can't really understand why Tokuma Shoten felt that His Name is Gold was the right choice for an OVA, it's certainly not without merit as a standalone story, and it's a fine enough way to spend an hour; I just wish it had a better release than from Western Connection.
I'll be perfectly honest, part of the entire reason I'm even doing this OM, OM, OVA! is because of this one anime, as I've been curious about it for some time solely due to its title. Debuting in the pages of Young Magazine Kaizokuban for two chapters before getting moved to Weekly Young Magazine, Samurider by Shinichi Sugimura was a manga that ran from 1987 to 1989 for only three volumes, but would eventually get revived in Young Magazine Uppers from 2003 to 2004 for an additional five volumes, though the two runs had only some minor things in common, like the title; the original run would later get renamed Samurider '88, in turn. On February 22, 1991 a 50-minute OVA titled Samurider: Nazo no Tenkousei/The Mysterious Transfer Student would get released on home video in Japan & was produced by Daiei Film (yes, the Gamera company) during its foray into anime... which admittedly didn't really amount to much of note beyond, of all things, some hentai under its dez/Dreamy Express Zone label, most notably the La Blue Girl OVAs throughout the 90s. Much like the initial La Blue Girl OVA, Samurider was also released under the dez label (though this isn't hentai) & animated by a studio called... MTV; yeah, seriously, the studio was literally called "MTV". Is the Samurider OVA good? Is it bad? I have no idea but I think the word "Samurider" (yes, most English-based places online write it out as "Samuraider", but the manga itself uses "Samurider") sounds awesome, so time to see if the anime can live up to such a cool title.
Masao Mori is a motorcycle-loving high school student in an area of Sapporo inundated with biker gangs that he'd rather have nothing to do with. One night while riding, though, he encounters two masked men on motorcycles having a duel, with Masao managing the catch a glimpse of the winner, an armored & helmeted man with a katana, though Masao did notice that he had a scar below one eye. The next day he manages to see that same guy on the road & decides to chase after him, only for the man to cut his brake line with the katana, resulting in Masao crashing his bike into the river. The same day, though, a new transfer student named Tetsuro Sawamura comes to school... and Masao notices that he has a scar under his eye. Instantly assuming him to be the masked biker Masao immediately hates Sawamura, which isn't helped when Sawamura starts making moves on Yumiko, Masao's friend who Masao also has feelings for. Eventually the masked biker is given a name, "Samurider", as he starts to become notorious for taking on both the biker gangs & even the police, and with Masao thinking that Sawamura is indeed Samurider he winds up getting himself, his friends, & even Yumiko caught up with the gangs, most notably the Helmet Corps (who all hide their identities behind their helmets), especially after Samurider makes the Corps think that Masao is in fact Samurider.
The Samurider OVA... is sadly not all that great, but that's mainly due to its production values. Simply put, while there are some fun visual gags at points (like Masao's buds bringing up a local tale about a figure, only for Masao to punch out the visual representation of said tale) this is a rather lackluster anime, visually. The animation itself is overall fine & doesn't do anything "terrible", but it's the drawings themselves that honestly look pretty amateur & rough, and not even the lower quality VHS source I watched from really masks that fact. Animation director/character designer Moriyasu Taniguchi has had much better titles to showcase his skills (Blue Comet SPT Lazyner, prior OM, OM, OVA! entry Milky Passion, & even The Real Ghostbusters!), so I can only imagine that this was down more to a lack of budget or time from Daiei for MTV to produce better animation from. Even the music by Teruo Takahama isn't all that great, with a heavy reliance on a single main track that honestly sounds like it'd fit better in a Sega CD or PC-Engine CD game of the time. Not just that, but this OVA doesn't even really have anything resembling an "ending" or even one of those "the story continues on" non-endings that some one-off OVAs would have that made it obvious that everyone was hoping to continue it later down the line. Instead, the Samurider OVA ends on a note that, quite frankly, is a total downer, with Masao beaten down by the Helmet Corps under false pretense, Yumiko nearly raped by them (but thankfully stopped by intervention by Sawamura & Miyuki, the woman who repairs Masao's bike), a no real progress has been made whatsoever in regards to the overall story itself.
And that sucks, because it's not as though Samurider itself comes off as bad. Masao is a bit of a hapless fool who's in over his head when it comes to one-upping Samurider, but his gumption & never-ceasing endurance is fun to watch, and he's super lucky that Miyuki is willing to repair his bike multiple times (twice in this OVA alone) for free. Yumiko is immensely caring when it comes to Masao, but also clearly seems to be interested in Sawamura, which makes for an interesting dichotomy with her. Sawamura being Samurider is more or less blatantly obvious to the viewer, but the OVA does a decent job at making sure that Masao's anger comes off more as his own haplessness in his inability to surpass Sawamura than it is purely because Samurider is an enigmatic badass. Plus, the idea of a masked biker who goes around messing with trouble-causing hooligans (& cops who honestly aren't portrayed as that much better, at points) while swinging a katana is a fun little concept, with Samurider himself really coming off as more of a "force" than a "man"; plus, his bike is literally a Suzuki Katana, so you know Shinichi Sugimura was just having fun. Looking up some more information indicates that Masao & his friends later wind up creating their own group, the Samuriders (named specifically to compete with & spite Samurider), which Miyuki's family business takes advantage of that to sell battle suits for anyone that wishes to join the Samuriders, essentially creating a bit of a war between the biker gangs. Meanwhile, the later (more or less unrelated) Samurider manga takes place in an alternate future where Japan has become the United States' 51 state (sigh) & deals with a man who hunts after Samurider, who in this story is a notorious serial mass murderer.
Simply put, there's definitely more to Samurider than what the OVA covers, which is understandable & common to see from this kind of production, but unfortunately said OVA honestly kind of masks showing the potential the manga seems to actually have within itself. I truly wouldn't mind checking out the Samurider manga one day (either one, or even both), but this OVA has sadly let both me & (seemingly) its source material down.
For our last entry in this volume of OM, OM, OVA! we have a common sight for OVAs of the 90s: a video game adaptation! Originally released for Windows in 1997 by Imagineer, Kaitoh Ranma (named after a Japanese saying resembling the idea of "cutting the Gordian Knot", i.e. cutting through something quickly & skillfully) is an example of a "social/life simulator", like Gainax's Princess Maker or Enix's Wonder Project J. However, Kaitoh Ranma differed by also mixing in dating sim elements, as your goal is to rebuild your father's swordsmanship dojo during Japan's Kyoho era by bringing back & training the female students who left, with the ultimate goal being to win the tournament that's held every two months, & the ending differs depending on not just the performance in the tournament but which girl you managed to bring back & train. On January 21, 1999 the game was remade & ported to the PS1 as Kaitoh Ranma Miyabi, which featured brand new character designs done by artist Yuji Naruse, a change in time period to the Edo era (along with influences taken from the iconic jidaigeki series Abarenbo Shogun), & a more focused overall storyline alongside the personal stories each main female character had, as well as the requisite "best" endings being marriage. It's this PS1 remake that would then be the basis for the two-episode OVA Kaitoh Ranma: The Animation, which came out in November & December of 1999. It would then get licensed for English release by Media Blasters, which renamed it Samurai: Hunt for the Sword when the OVA was released on dual-audio DVD on May 29, 2001. From what I remember this was often considered a pretty throwaway release, even back in the day, and admittedly the English title honestly feels even more generic than The Samurai, if you can believe it; at least that one is short & straight to the point. So, after two manga adaptations & an adaptation of a sci-fi reimagining of a classic period piece novel, let's see how a video game adaptation fares to finish this volume of OM, OM, OVA! off.
Shinjuro is the son of Tesshusai, master at the Tateoka School for Katsujin-style Swordsmanship, & has awoken to shocking news: From out of the blue Tesshusai has suddenly departed & left his son to run the school as its master. Despite Shinjuro being talented at the sword himself, his young age results in all of the school's students leaving in protest. Around the same time a new Shuhei School is trying to find both the blade & hilt that make up Mizuchi, a powerful sword with which one of its students, Mahoro Mikage, hopes to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate with. Mikage also has an interest in testing Shinjuro's skills, seeing the Katsujin style as nothing more than an "illusion"... a concept that Shinjuro has also felt at times. Luckily for him, Shinjuro has the help of four young women: Koharu, the sole daughter of a samurai who's known Shinjuro since they were kids; Lei Lin, who claims to be the daughter of the man who provided Tesshusai with room & board during a trip to China years ago; Sana, a young nurse friend of his; & Miren, another friend of Shijuro's who seems to have the scoop on recent events.
Samurai: Hunt for the Sword is... perfectly fine, utterly cromulent, absolutely serviceable, etc. To be fair, one would naturally think that with the pedigree that it has (i.e. effectively a dating sim/visual novel) would result in this maybe being more of a harem-based romantic comedy, where the appeal is simply seeing Shinjuro become flummoxed by silly scenarios involving the multitude of women around him, but that's actually not what this OVA is. Instead, the focus is primarily on telling a focused & (mostly) serious story about Shinjuro finding himself becoming part of a situation brought about partially by the shogunate, but also partially the result of the man his own father was, & needing to step up to a challenge. The women are there mostly in supporting roles, primarily emotional but also for the occasional bit of levity & even plot relevance. That being said, this OVA still felt obligated to include certain elements of the harem concept, like a handful of scenes focused around comedy (mostly of the boob-related kind, right down to Koharu beating up Shinjuro due to a misunderstanding) & even the standard "the 'main' romantic interest sees the lead kiss another woman & secretly starts fretting over it", though to be fair the latter is resolved rather quickly when Koharu simply asks Shinjuro about it; the wonders of just "talking it out"! However, due to Hunt for the Sword focusing primarily on the actualy serious story these harem-related moments wind up feeling very at odds with the rest of the OVA, truly coming off as though they were included out of formula than necessity.
Even when just looking at the serious storyline, though, it's nothing more than adequate. It's one of those stories where you can very easily figure out the general idea behind what some of the twists are, but naturally it's not until right before the climax that everything is fully explained, and the OVA even ends by cutting away right before the direct end of the climax to some time later, relying more on visual indications than actually showing how everything fully resolved; this honestly happened a lot with video game-based OVAs of the 90s, didn't it? Also, the girls themselves are more or less defined by their personalities (childhood friend who's blatantly in love with the guy, soft-spoken & caring, loud & brash but fun-loving, little sister archetype, & even secret fifth romanceable girl who's the quiet & shy type, but also on the side of the villains), which can only do so much when only one of them actually plays a direct role in the main plot itself. Still, just the fact that this focuses mainly on telling a proper story puts Samurai: Hunt for the Sword above many other game-based OVAs of the time, though I guess it wouldn't be unfair to say that this is simply more competent than others. From a production standpoint it's very easy to tell that this is an early example of a (at least mostly) digital production, as things like screen pans are way too smooth to have been done by an actual person, and there was at least one shot where I could actually see the stairstep "jaggies" along the edge of a character's drawing. The doesn't mean that it looks bad, mind you, but it definitely does age this OVA is a way that I honestly wasn't quite expecting to see. Overall Samurai: Hunt for the Sword is simply decent, but nothing really worth searching after unless you happened to have played Kaitoh Ranma Miyabi, liked it, & wanted to see these characters in proper animation.
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So... did any of these short-form OVAs manage to have the "soul" of a samurai? In some way or another... yes, all of them did. When it comes to each of them being worthwhile watches, though, it's a bit more mixed. The Samurai was more of a wacky sitcom, but it certainly made me smile enough to say that it's a fun watch. Samurai Gold is the one I'd say was the best or most interesting of the lot this time around, delivering something that zagged when other titles of its ilk (superficially, at least) would have zigged, and I can honestly respect it for that. Samurider, sadly, was probably the worst of the lot simply due to its subpar production values, though I think the original source is likely much better. Finally, Samurai: Hunt for the Sword was honestly better than I was expecting, but even then it's simply just fine; not great, not bad, merely OK. Hey, sometimes that's just how things roll when it comes to short-form OVAs, but at least they all did fit the theme of "samurai" to some extent, despite me going with this theme for a rather arbitrary reason.
The Samurai © CBS/Sony Group (now Aniplex), Tokyo Broadcasting System, Suna-Kobo Corp
Samurai Gold © Tatsuro Jinde・Kyosuke Yuki/Tokuma Shoten
Samurider: Nazo no Tenkousei © 1990 Shinichi Sugimura/Kodansha・Daiei Film (now Kadokawa Daiei Studio)
Samurai: Hunt for the Sword © Imagineer/King Records・Movic
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