A year later, the OVA was re-released in Japan in a new "Director's Cut" edit that turned the 3-episode OVA into a feature-length film, though only barely at just over 70-minutes; from what I can tell, little to nothing was actually cut out, aside from the OP & ED sequences. It would be this Director's Cut that would then get licensed by Image Entertainment for English release, first on DVD in 2004, followed by a release in 2005 on the most "universal" of "media"... Sony's UMD (you know, for the PSP). A few months after Image's DVD release, Galerians: Rion would actually start seeing heavy repeat airings on American television, and on a most-unexpected network at that: MTV2; this was during the network's short-lived attempt to air anime, like Heat Guy J. Therefore, there are actually people out there that would have some nostalgic memories of this OVA, especially because it aired on a well known network that didn't already have Toonami. Still, it's been a solid 15 years since Image's release, so I'd call it "forgotten" enough to be worthy of being covered on this blog. Also, the way Image handled the dub for this OVA is especially interesting, so let's see where on the infamous "video game-based anime scale" this endeavor comes out.
It's the year 2522, & an teenage amnesiac awakens in Michelangelo City Memorial Hospital strapped into a giant swinging mechanism, watched over by doctors. Hearing the calls from a girl asking for his help, he subconsciously breaks free, realizing that he has psychic powers based on various drugs that he was experimented with, like Nalcon (shockwave blasts) & Red (pyrokinesis); if he uses them too much, he risks shorting out, & without injecting himself with Delmetor, he'd die. After hijacking the hospital's computer, he finds out his name is Rion Steiner & where his family lives, leading him on his journey to find out who exactly he is, who the girl named Lilia Pascalle is that's sending him psychic messages, & what they have to do with Dorothy, the "Mother Computer" that's in control of Michelangelo City. Meanwhile, Rion & Lilia are being hunted by Birdman, Rainheart, Rita, & Cain, who are all Galerians, artificial humans with psychic powers created by Dorothy.
The original Galerians is a bit of a unique survival horror game, as while it follows a bunch of the same gameplay ideas that Resident Evil would solidify (pre-rendered backgrounds, fixed camera angles, limited "ammo", etc.), it also plays around with them by way of the use of ESP powers; think of it as "Resident Evil meets Akira". This includes being able to psychically read items to find out where they go, access residual "memories" left behind by people, & kill enemies by burning them alive; you also have no physical weapons, so if you run out of drugs to power your ESP, you're screwed. It's also a little bit of a larger game than most REs of the time, taking up three discs to cover a story with four different environments: Michelangelo Memorial Hospital, the Steiner Residence, Babylon Hotel (where Lilia is hiding out in), & the Mushroom Tower that Dorothy resides in. When it comes to the Galerians: Rion OVA, it does at least cover all four environments, hitting all of the major plot points & character arcs, but with such a reduced run time there is obviously a lot of stuff that got cut.
The Hospital, for example, is barely featured, lasting only about the first seven minutes & being nothing more than Rion freeing himself from captivity, figuring out his powers, & then fighting Dr. Rem, the head of the facility; while this area didn't explain much of the plot, it did set up a lot of underlying elements in the game. The Steiner Residence is easily the largest portion of the OVA, as it's where Rion figures out his past, how his father helped create Dorothy, & what his overall goal is; while there still is obviously a lot of compression here, it at least gives enough time to breathe. The Babylon Hotel may be the most disappointing of the cuts, as all we see here in the OVA is Rion meeting a drug dealer for later plot relevance, & then fighting against Rainheart & Rita; he fought Birdman earlier at his home. In the game, the Hotel was initially filled with a variety of unstable residents, and as you advanced each of them would be killed off, helping establish the threat that was looming over Rion, as well as help give some world building. In comparison, all we ever see in the OVA is a dead bellhop & Joule the drug dealer (only named via the credits), which makes the latter's continued existence all the more confounding; why was he spared? Finally, the Mushroom Tower is similar to the Hospital, featuring nothing more than Rion's fight with Cain, revealing the truth behind the "Family Project" that created the Galerians, & the final encounter with Dorothy.
All that being said, though, I'd still place this on the more favorable side of anime adaptations of video games, and that's mainly because it's still accurate to the source material, while also delivering a focused story that doesn't simply feel like it's shoving everything in for the sake of fan service. As much as it sucks to see stuff like the other Babylon Hotel residents cut out, it is to help cut the fat, allowing the plot to continue without any real hitches. Said plot, while nothing truly original (if you really think about it, you can likely guess all of the major plot points & twists before they happen), is still a solidly told tale about a computer A.I. that develops a God complex & how the sins of the fathers are meant to be solved by a younger generation, all while also implementing a bit of an anti-drug message. That last point can be looked at as being kind of awkward, since Rion is shown injecting himself with drugs numerous times to continue using his powers, but it's not like it actually glorifies the act. Like the drug dealer mentions, Rion doesn't look like a properly healthy young man (though the CG doesn't really match the dealer's description), having possibly become dependent on the drugs due to how it allows him to protect himself from everyone who wants him dead. Whenever Rion is locked in psychic combat, regardless of whether he's being attacked or simply pushing past his limit, he constantly winds up with a nosebleed, if not literally crying tears of blood. No matter what, Rion is killing his own body to find Lilia & put a stop to Dorothy, either by straining his body to use his powers, or by needing to inject more drugs into his body to continue using said powers; it's a vicious cycle.
The Galerians themselves are also portrayed as a sad lot, each of them affected by their very creation & psychic powers. Birdman is a teleporter who's effectively insane, taking pleasure in torturing Rion, both physically & mentally, though constant use of his powers gives him intense headaches. You get the feeling that Birdman's psychotic behavior may just be a coping mechanism for his own self-hatred, though, & his heterochromia eyes, complete with one being more open than the other, acts as a good visual indicator of that. Rainheart is a master of illusions who deep down is nothing more than a scared boy, fearing that there's a "monster" deep inside of him that the drugs bring out, one that feels no remorse for killing with what he deems to be nothing more than mere playthings. In another neat touch that's only alluded to, the "monster" also changes any nearby clocks to 2:50 in order to blame Rainheart for the killings, as the drugs are only injected into him at 3:00. Rita is a telekinetic who simply hates her very existence, with the indication being that she's even tried slitting her wrists, only to find that it doesn't work. She's even given a drug to use that literally does nothing more than cause in instant short, called Appolinar in the game, but even then she can't truly kill herself. Finally, Cain acts as a sort of dark reflection of Rion, one filled with rage & an embracing of everything that Rion only uses to protect himself. The OVA introduces each Galerian as a straight up villain, but by the time each meets their end, you wind up feeling sorry for them, as their entire existence is one of nothing but sorrow & hatred, either at themselves or at their circumstances. If the word "Galerian" truly comes from the french word "galérien", then I'd say that it's somewhat fitting, as these teens are nothing more than galley slaves for Dorothy to take advantage of.
When it comes to the CG itself, I think it actually holds up rather well today, at least in terms of early-00s Japanese CG. Obviously, it doesn't hold a candle to something like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which came out a year prior, but that's just not a fair comparison to make, as that film was absurdly expensive to produce; both productions did utilize motion capture, however. Rather, it should be compared to other anime that relied heavily on CG of it's time, like éX-Driver the Movie, Initial D, the Gunnm 3D Special, Guilstein, or even something like Shenmue the Movie. Compared to those, Galerians: Rion actually comes out rather favorable, and the fact that action sequences mostly revolve around psychic phenomena, i.e. it's not super physical, actually winds up working in the OVA's favor, as it doesn't have to worry much about direct impacts between CG models. What especially holds up are the faces, primarily when it comes to showing emotion. Considering that the plot involves the characters having to showcase harsh emotions like anger, self-pity, fear, & confusion, it's imperative that they showcase it visually, and the faces here absolutely deliver. Combined with how well Sho-U Tajima's distinctive character designs are transitioned into CG, all of the characters' faces emote extremely well; one could maybe argue that they emote better than some modern CG anime do today. Hell, even Dorothy's generally stiff & unmoving face manages to convey rage well using just a single lip quiver for a close up. Admittedly, it has still aged on the whole, as CG tends to do rather quickly, but this OVA actually holds up better than you might think, and that only speaks similarly well for the CG cutscenes in Galerians: Ash, as they were done at the same time by the same studio; some bits of the OVA are even used in Ash.
The OVA itself looks to have been produced by Polygon Magic itself, with direction lead by Masahiko Maesawa, who directed cutscenes for games like Murakumo, Rumble Roses, & (naturally) Galerians. In that case, it's all the more impressive that the CG holds up as well as it does, and while there is the occasional bit of stiffness, the CG does animate well, likely due to the use of motion capture. There are even a handful of moments where cutscenes from the original game sneak their way in, usually during collages & the like, where they don't clash, but there's one notable scene where Rion rides a tram to his home. While the reflection of Rion himself is obviously new, the cityscape he's going past is obviously form the PS1 game, due the simple fact that there's a blatant discrepancy in frame rates between Rion & the moving background. There may also be an innocuous scene where Rion opens a door, & the stiff animation looks like it it was just ripped from the PS1 game; since all you see is Rion's arm, it is plausible. On that note, there is absolutely no attempt to imitate traditional animation frame rates, which later became a common thing for full-CG anime to do, and I feel it does work well here. The script was handled by Chinfa Kang, who also wrote the script for the original game, so it naturally conveys the same overall plot & themes of the game, while trimming out anything extraneous in order to fit the shorter run time. As mentioned before, Sho-U Tajima handled the character designs, and his style really matches the bleak & depressing world of Galerians, with characters that all look either mentally beaten, angry, or downright insane, though props for giving everyone distinctive outfits; Rion's choker belt may a bit too on-the-nose, though.
As for the music, here's where things get interesting. On Image's original DVD release, you get three audio options: Japanese & English with the original score, & English with a brand-new soundtrack filled with licensed songs. Yes, similar to what Manga Entertainment did with the Street Fighter II Movie in the 90s, Galerians: Rion features its own English soundtrack. Said soundtrack is filled with an admittedly interesting mix of rock, metal, electronica, industrial, & even punk songs by the likes of Adema, Andy Hunter, Godhead, Sevendust, DevilDriver, Balligomingo, The Vandals, Fear Factory, Slipknot... & The Ataris; one of these is not like the others, I'd say (& is only used in the OST Image released, not the OVA itself). Anyway, the end result is a very different experience depending on which score you use, as the original score by Polygon Magic's Masahiko Hagio is mainly atmospheric & mostly amelodic, though there are parts that deliver more "traditional" beats & the like; it's also completely different from the game's soundtrack, though both are similar in concept. However, both the OP & ED themes, "Conversion" & "Cain", are extremely well done tracks that match the somewhat messed up concept of the story. Meanwhile, the English soundtrack amps up the anger & harshness of situations, with any sort of action sequence getting a hard rock or metal track to make everything feel more violent & chaotic. In comparison, the alternate OST uses "Elevate" by Balligoimingo as the ED theme, which is also more harsher in sound than "Cain", if only a little. If anything, it's very much more in the vein of, say, a music video at points; now it makes perfect sense as to why MTV2 aired this on repeat so much in 2004.
As for the later UMD release, however, you only have Japanese with the original score & English with the alternate soundtrack, as the "English with original score" option is nowhere to be found, sadly; also, the UMD is missing the "teaser trailer", which is literally just the original OP sequence from the OVA. Finally, while Image advertises its release as "widescreen", it's actually just letterboxed, even for the UMD release, and though you can zoom in well to fill modern screens (or a PSP screen), it's pointless for watching in Japanese, as the subtitles utilize the letterboxing for space. However, this is not the fault of Image, as even the original Japanese DVDs were released as "16:9 letterboxed". Still, I must commend Image for offering the English dub with Hagio's music, as Manga didn't even offer that for the Street Fighter II Movie; it wouldn't be until Discotek re-released it that we'd get that option. Personally, I do prefer the original soundtrack, but I can definitely see the appeal of the alternate soundtrack, and it's worth giving it a try, especially if you are a fan of what Manga did with the Street Fighter II Movie.
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| The Japanese cover for the "Director's Cut"... |
Regardless of soundtrack option, though, Image's DVD still only features two language tracks, Japanese & English, so let me cover both together, due to the small cast. One thing to note is that the Japanese cast is mostly the same as that of the game, with only one (minor) recasting, whereas the English cast is completely different from that of Crave's game cast, though both used notable voice actors. Anyway, leading things as Rion (& later Cain) are Akira Ishida & Dave Wittenberg, who both deliver similar quality performances, though with a different pitch, as Ishida goes for a slightly deeper voice, while Wittenberg is slightly higher; neither quite reaches the actual child-sounding voice of Frank Newman from the game, though. Lilia is voiced by Shiho Kikuchi & Kari Wahlgren (under the "Jennifer Jean" alias), and while one can argue that the character doesn't really do much, at least both women match her fragile emotional state well; Wahlgren also voices Elsa Steiner, Rion's mother, in a flashback. Birdman is performed by Takehito Koyasu & Peter Doyle (under the "Jim Taggart" alias), who both deliver intensely similar psychotic laughter, though Koyasu's delivery is overall better, as Doyle sounds a bit stiff in some instances. Also notably similar are Kenichi Suzumura & Dave Mallow, who both give Rainheart a more childish voice, though when his "monster" is out both voices come off a little deeper; Mallow also voices Dr. Pascalle, Lilia's father, in a flashback. Rita is voiced by Yuka Imai & Lia Sargent, who both do well with the little actual screen time that the character is given, especially when it comes to her sadder side. Finally, Ryoko Kinomiya & Laura Coyle both tackle Dorothy, and they deliver similar, if standard, performances for an A.I. that also has to come off like an angered & malicious mother. The Japanese cast is rounded out by Kazuo Oka (Dr. Pascalle), Kinryuu Arimoto (Dr. Steiner), Miho Yamada (Elsa Steiner; the only recasting from the game), Tomomichi Nishimura (Dr. Rem), & Masahiro Okazaki (Joule), while the dub also features Michael McConnohie as both Dr. Steiner & Dr. Rem, & Steve Areno as Joule (though here he's only credited as "Drug Dealer").
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| ...And the Japanese OVA covers, along with Image's DVD cover. |
A common complaint/problem with anime based on video games is that most of them (read: nearly every single one of them) are made with little to no real involvement from the original developers, resulting in many of them, especially those adapted into OVAs or movies, running the risk of not really delivering an accurate adaptation of the original product, or simply aim to be nothing more than glorified fan service. Galerians: Rion differs, then, by being something that was produced by the staff at Polygon Magic, the original developers of the PS1 video game. Therefore, the end product remains accurate to the feel, mood, & style of Galerians, while the plot remains accurate the original game, even with there being obvious cuts; to be fair, Galerians is a fair bit more of a cinematic story, compared to something like Reisdent Evil. I also do feel that it has a bit of "replay value" because of that alternate English soundtrack, as it does give the end product a notably different feel when compared to the original Japanese soundtrack; it really is worth checking it out at least twice, just to see the differences. Is Galerians: Rion one of the greatest game-based anime ever made? Maybe not, as it does have its own quirks that might rub people the wrong way, but it is unique in that it's something made by the people who made the game, which in turn gives it an edge over the majority of its ilk, and that alone makes it worth checking out.
Anime © 1999, 2002 Enterbrain, Inc./Polygon Magic, Inc./Chinfa Kang/Sho_U Tajima
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