Twelve Older Anime That Deserve License Rescues XI: Vertical Hold Syndrome Part 2

So last time I brought up how anime on VHS came to an end in North America, but how did things work out in Japan? The short answer would be "Anime came out on VHS for a fair bit longer over there", but to explain why requires going into the long answer. To put it simply, Japan's relationship with VHS, & home video in general, was never the same as it was in America, namely because Japan has never been big on actually purchasing a tape for a personal collection. For a variety of reasons, with the fact that the average Japanese home is physically smaller than the average American home being a notable one, Japan's rental market became the way the wide majority of Japanese people experienced VHS. Because of this, VHS tapes were primarily only sold to rental stores, which means that they were more expensive in general (usually ranging from ¥7,000-9,000, depending on when it came out) and that has held strong to this very day, hence why Japanese DVDs & Blu-Ray releases tend to be much more expensive there than anywhere else, especially for anime; hardcore otaku, however, are willing to spend that extra money to physically own their favorite works.

Therefore, VHS still had a use in Japan for anime, since the rental market still gave it value. That being said, it didn't last all that much longer, as the last anime to see complete release on VHS (to my research, at least) was Black Jack 21 in 2006, and that was mainly because it continued the volume numbering that had started back with Black Jack TV in 2004. However, the last TV anime to still see release on VHS looks to have been Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, which saw its final tape (Volume 37) sometime in mid-2007, even though it didn't finish the series; still, this is well beyond when Hollywood stopped releasing on VHS. However, the absolute final anime to see release on VHS, in general, looks to be Studio Ghibli's Ponyo in either 2008/2009, and that's only because Ghibli is obviously the exception to a lot of stuff, as by this point VHS was effectively dead in Japan. So, with that bit of trivial anime history out of the way, let's take a look at another six anime that you can currently only get with an English translation on good old magnetic tape!

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is the same as the VHS tape.

We've had the occasional small name English anime company across all of these license rescue lists, like Illumitoon, Western Connection, Synch Point, Super Techno Arts, & ArtsMagic. However, I don't think I've ever included a release from a defunct company quite like Star Anime Enterprises. Mike Toole wrote an excellent history (what little of it there is) back in 2016 over at ANN, but the short story is that SAE was just a single man, David Norell, who had previously worked at CPM and various anime cons, before simply (& incessantly) hassling as many Japanese anime licensors as possible. In the end, SAE managed to license two titles: 1994 OVA Homeroom Affairs from Tokuma Shoten (which SAE did fully release) & 1993 TV series Dragon League from FCI (which SAE did not fully release). If I had to pick between those two titles to include in a license rescue list, then believe me that I'll go with the latter anime. Part of that is because Dragon League only ever saw a single subbed VHS tape released, comprising of two episodes (i.e. "It still got more released than Shonan Bakusozoku did!"), but also because Dragon League is, by far, the way more interesting title. I mean, if one has to pick between a "softcore smut comedy" & a fantasy soccer series... I think most will go for the latter.

Twelve Older Anime That Deserve License Rescues XI: Vertical Hold Syndrome Part 1

A large factor in what titles I select for each of these license rescue lists every year is honestly a rather simple one: It could use a release that would allow for better quality, such as with the audiovisual side of things. Easily the biggest jump, in that regard, would be if the only prior way to buy an anime in English was on the Video Home System, better known under the acronym VHS. Developed by JVC & introduced in 1976, VHS would defeat Sony's Betamax in the format war of the late 70s & early 80s, becoming the de facto only way the wide majority of home consumers would watch (&/or record) things at their own leisure, up until the debut of DVD. Even then, though, DVD didn't actually fully surpass VHS until 2008 (i.e. AFTER Blu-Ray had already won the HD format war!), & VCR/DVD combo units were still produced up until 2016, when Funai Electric finally stopped doing so; there were even VCR/BD combo units!! In fact, VHS still exists to this day in some way, as you can still purchase blank VHS tapes for recording purposes, and while VHS hasn't been supported as a standard release format since A History of Violence in March of 2006, it still does see the occasional support as a limited edition novelty, such as with 2010's The House of the Devil, the V/H/S horror anthology series, & even as recently as 2018 with Transformers spin-off Bumblebee.

As for anime in North America (we'll get to Japan next time), VHS looks to have effectively died out after 2005 following dub-only releases for Duel Masters & Yu Yu Hakusho, after subbed tapes stopped coming out around after 2002/2003, with FUNimation actually cancelling the release of the tape that would have finished out all of Yu Yu Hakusho; there's word of Hello Kitty: Stump Village getting a VHS tape in 2006, but I can't proof of it. That being said, people at Discotek Media have admitted to tossing around the idea of putting out a VHS release as a novelty, but don't know what title to do it with. Regardless, let us celebrate the long (& seemingly never ending) life of VHS with a license rescue list of anime that, to this day, you can still only get with an English translation of via VHS!

We're starting things out with an interesting pick, namely because while the series it belongs to was part of the very first license rescue list in early 2011 & was actually rescued, this specific part of the franchise has yet to have been picked up. Also, this is likely the last of Western Connection's UK-exclusive releases that I'll ever do, mainly because I don't know if eventually including stuff like Le Deus, Samurai Gold, or Idol Defense Force Hummingbird might be a case of me getting desperate for picks, as I'll admit that this specific list is already going to be digging deep enough to start with. So, to recap, Dancouga: Super Beast Machine God is a mech anime produced by Ashi Productions in 1985, and though it was originally cancelled early during its TV run, it did remain popular enough to receive three OVA continuations from 1986 to 1990. In the mid-90s, Central Park Media licensed the TV series, & OVA finale Requiem for Victims, & released all of it across eight subbed VHS tapes, under the name Super Bestial Machine God Dancougar; it was through this licensing deal that CPM also "accidentally" licensed Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos. Then, in 2017, Discotek Media would finally give Dancouga a new release via a sub-only DVD boxset for the entire TV series, & in late 2020 would put out a sub-only Blu-Ray boxset that also now included Requiem for Victims & the final OVA, the four-episode Blazing Epilogue, which had never seen official English release before.