On December 26, 1983, Bandai (though its newly-launched Emotion label) released Episode 2 of Dallos in Japan, becoming the first anime ever released straight to home video; yes, Episode 2 came out before Episode 1, so as to promote sales though a more action-packed offering. This would come to be known in Japan as the "Original Video Animation", or OVA for short; "Original Animation Video/OAV" is also often used. While Dallos was a success, though, it wouldn't be until the smash hit release of Megazone 23 (Part 1) on March 9, 1985 that the OVA would truly be considered a viable way to produce & release anime. Ever since then, the OVA has continued to exist in some form to this very day, though now they may be known more as an "OAD" (for disc-based media) or even an "ONA" (for online-first distribution). However, the OVA's greatest heyday was most definitely from 1986 to 1991, when the Japanese "Bubble Economy" allowed seemingly anyone with an idea & money to make their own anime. Even after the bubble burst, though, the OVA continued to see use as a means to release anime, which has resulted in just too many anime to count that saw release straight to home video. I've wanted to explore the depths of the OVA for a long time now, and have finally decided to start dipping my toes into these waters by relying on a format very similar to that of multi-series Demo Disc volumes.
Welcome to Oh Me, Oh My, OVA!
Just like those types of Demo Discs, every OM, OM, OVA! article will feature four anime that were released straight to home video, but with one major restriction: They can't be any longer than two episodes. Once you get to something that has three episodes or more, you start entering the potential for it to be worth giving a proper review of, since you have much more content to work with & write about; also, trust me when I say that there's already way too much anime I can rely on with this restriction. A little over a month ago I did a poll over on Twitter asking how I should tackle this series, and the winner wound up being "Theme Each Set of Four", so that's how I'll be handling OM, OM, OVA! from here on out. However, a decently close second place was to just handle this chronologically, so I think there's no better way to start OM, OM, OVA! off than to take a look at the some of the earliest OVAs ever released. Let's see what happened in between Dallos & Megazone 23!
Coming out on July 21, 1984, just over two weeks after the final episode of Dallos came out, Radio City Fantasy: Machikado no Märchen/A Street Corner Fairy Tale (no relation to the 1977 Mutsumi Katsura manga of the same subtitle) may be the first standalone OVA, based on an original concept, ever released. Produced by Kitty Film, it's the adaptation of a script written by the late Takeshi Shudo (Space Warrior Baldios, GoShogun, Minky Momo) back when he was just 18, about a good decade prior to his start in anime. The OVA is directed by Mizuho Nishikubo (California Crisis, Otogi Zoshi) in his second effort in the position (following 1983's Miyuki), with character designs being a collaborative effort between Kazushige Yusa, Toshiyuki Sakurai, & Yoshitaka Amano, & all of the music is provided by Virgin VS, a new wave band headed up by singer-songwriter (&, on rare occasion, film director) Morio Agata; old school anime fans will know Virgin VS from Urusei Yatsura, as two of its songs were used for it.
After bumping into each other a few times while going their own ways, a young woman named Yuko comes across a notebook titled "Machikado no Märchen" written by a college student named Hiroshi Yamamoto, which he dropped during their latest accidental encounter. This leads to Hiroshi & Yuko becoming close friends, especially since Yuko enjoys Hiroshi's imaginative penchant for fairy tale-like scenes that she can envision in her mind. The two continue to see each other throughout the Spring, Summer & Autumn, only for Yuko to suddenly disappear in the Winter. Though Hiroshi manages to finish "Machikado no Märchen" during that time, he does wonder where Yuko went. The following Spring, however, brings Yuko back, and Hiroshi manages to find her once again.
Being such an early example of the OVA, I'm honestly not all that surprised to say that this is something that can easily be best described as "experimental". Radio City Fantasy's plot is extremely basic &, admittedly, rather weak, namely in regards to Yuko. While I think the OVA does a great job at showcasing the two as being a good couple with so little development, the whole "Yuko disappears" part in the last third is done with pretty much no explanation. Early on, it's established that Yuko & Hiroshi's constant bumping into each other is because Hiroshi's in a rush, while Yuko is being chased by some mysterious men-in-black, but once the two start going out these MIBs are completely forgotten about until the Winter, when they catch her before she meets up with Hiroshi again, and she agrees to simply go with them. Then, after Hiroshi's lonely Winter section, Yuko suddenly appears again, she & Hiroshi cross paths on opposite ends of a street, and Hiroshi only manages to notice that she's returned when he happens to take a look back. However, to really harp on this is to completely ignore the real appeal of Radio City Fantasy.
You see, there really isn't much in terms of traditional storytelling in this OVA. Instead, it's best described as a consecutive series of Virgin VS music videos, with some simply showcasing Hiroshi & Yuko going on dates & having fun, while others are visual representations of Hiroshi's various fairy tales, usually under the guise of Hiroshi telling Yuko to close her eyes & imagine them herself. We see things like the two flying a plane around the city, going up into the night sky to hang out with the constellations & a bunch of proper-looking guys wearing top hats, or two the two being a pair of abandoned wind-up toys in a junkyard. It's in these bits that Nishikubo gets to show his talents as a director, as these sections are filled with all manner of really cool & imaginative animation (if you've seen California Crisis & its own memorable visuals, think of this as a spiritual precursor), and Virgin VS's various songs fit all of them really well, whether they're upbeat & fun to match the happy moments, or more somber to match the sad moments; in fact, one of the songs, "Moonlight Coaster", would be reused for Urusei Yatsura! The usage of multiple character designers is also really neat, as you can easily tell that Yuko is designed by Amano, and she notably clashes so much with literally everyone else. In fact, prior to the crossing paths moment at the very end, the OVA did one last imaginative bit which actually made me think that Yuko was nothing more than a muse, a personification of inspiration to help Hiroshi finish his book, and Amano's style helped push me toward that interpretation until that last scene. Personally, I think Shudo should have gone with the muse angle for the ending, as it would have matched the whole "fairy tale" theme really well.
Overall, Radio City Fantasy: Machikado no Märchen isn't something that will appeal to most, especially those who want a strong story, but those who just want to see some really cool animation sequences matched to good music will find something worthwhile.
The same day that Radio City Fantasy saw release on home video, the anime Birth actually debuted in select theaters, like the Tokyu Pantheon in Shibuya, before coming out on home video on August 21, 1984. Despite this, it's still categorized as an OVA, and its far from the only time an OVA would technically appear in theaters first as a limited event. This feature-length OVA, not to be confused with the Masakazu Yamaguchi manga that was renamed Arm of Kannon for its English release, is based on a single-volume manga from 1983 by the late Yoshinori Kanada, a well versed & experienced animator of the time; Kanada would handle the character designs & act as animation director for the OVA. It also acts as an interesting early or starting point for various people, as it features a score by Joe Hisashi (a year before he hit it big with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind), is the first anime to be directed by Shinya Sadamitsu (who'd go on to direct the beloved Dragon Half & Shinesman OVAs), & it marks the voice acting debut for the venerable Kazuki Yao. It also is notable for having had two different English dubs, one by Harmony Gold & Streamline Pictures in 1987 (where it was renamed both The World of the Talisman & Planet Busters), & a second by ADV in 2004 when it was given a dual-audio DVD release with its original title; since this isn't a full review, though, I'll just be covering it via the original Japanese audio. Finally, Birth is also the first anime ever released by a record company, in this case Victor Music, and while this OVA didn't quite reach its projected sales (18,000 out of an expected 30,000), it was still deemed enough of a success for Victor to give another potential OVA project the green light. That other project would be Megazone 23, so technically we all have Birth to thank for the long-term success of the OVA. So let's see what the direct precursor to the first megahit OVA is like.
Shade is a legendary sword that represents the will of the universe, which is still in its embryonic form due to the existence of Inorganics, which exist solely to kill Organic life. Shade has now found itself on a desolate world named Aqualoid, where it's picked up by a young man named Nam, who must now find a way to help bring about the true rebirth of the universe with the help of his friend Rasa & their friends Bao & Kim, interstellar merchants who were also looking for Shade to make a quick buck from the Star Military.
While this is my first time ever watching Birth, I had known of it for a good while because of people occasionally sharing animation sequences from it. There's good reason for that, because this OVA is just absolutely stunning in how well animated it is, with a lot of lengthy sequences all animated in the equivalent of a "single take", and just a ton of little visual gags all over the place. When combined with Hisaishi's score, Birth is just a visual feast for the eyes that still holds up spectacularly well today, nearly 40 years later. That being said, the visuals really have to be the main attraction here, because Birth's story, well... Isn't. That's not to say that there isn't an actual plot to be told in this anime, because there is & it does make enough sense in its own way, but it really wouldn't be all that much of a lie to describe the plot of this OVA as "Stuff happens without much rhyme or reason".
For example, the literal first 33 minutes of this 80-minute production are nothing more than some quick introductions to Rasa, Bao & Kim, and then Nam, followed by a gigantic pair of sequences where Rasa & Nam are both being chased by Inorganics. In Rasa's case, it's a trio of bikers who are pretty much just harassing her because she has a cute butt, while in Nam's case it's because he just happens to come across Shade, and Inorganics just kind of go after anyone who has that sword. Make no mistake, these two sequences are a lot of fun & do converge together in the last third or so of it, but it's also no exaggeration in saying that this takes up over the first third of the entire runtime. After that, the plot kind of just happens, as Bao & Kim meet up with Nam & Rasa, followed by them just deciding to head to the old abandoned underground city, which was hit by a nuclear weapon hundreds of years ago during an old war with the Inorganics, all while being attacked & chased by increasingly larger Inorganics, until they're literally escaping from a pair of kaiju-sized ones while in the city. There's really no reason given for why they actually go to the city, however, though Bao does mention to Kim that there's an old experimental weapon somewhere there that the military was intending to use, but it'd also result in the destruction of whatever planet it's on when fired. Meanwhile, the literal climax of the entire thing comes about because of a character who had only been seen once early on by Rasa for what was nothing more than a silly comedy bit. It really makes me wonder how accurate this is to Kanada's manga, especially since this was (apparently) meant to be a TV series, just like Megazone was.
Still, I'd be lying if I didn't say that Birth isn't worth a watch, in the long run. It's definitely an anime that you simply take at face value & don't question the logic of, all while taking in the absolutely beautiful animation it provides you. This was obviously a showpiece for the animators, including early work by the likes of Hideaki Anno, Atsuko Ishida, Hajime Kamegaki, Mahiro Maeda, & Kenichi Ohnuki, and they delivered on that. Without a doubt, it's definitely something to behold visually, even if the plot itself is pretty much set to auto-pilot; once again, "It's just plain cool".
 |
| The term "OVA" was still so new that Greed was actually labeled an "Original Bouken/Adventure Anime" |
On January 21, 1985, producer Mataichiro Yamamoto (the future founder of American anime distributor Urban Vision) entered the OVA market via his company Filmlink International with two releases. One was Nora, an adaptation of Satomi Mikuriya's manga which would apparently do well enough to get a second OVA made... And I'll just stop there. The other release, however, was the simply-titled Greed, an original production conceived of by Tomonori Kogawa (Aura Battler Dunbine, Space Runaway Ideon), who's been with the anime industry ever since 1970 (though primarily known as a character designer) & has gone by a litany of various pseudonyms, like Hiromichi Ochinanokuni, Jinto Tameie, Kou Aiba, or TOIIIO (which he used for Tekkaman Blade). For Greed, Kogawa goes by his actual name & is the director, writer, storyboarder, character designer, & animation director, the last one alongside Hidetoshi Omori & Hiroyuki Kitazume. So let's see if giving Kogawa this much control results in something unique, especially in comparison to the prior two OVAs covered so far, or if he collapsed under the weight of it all.
Upon returning home from an excursion in the forest he calls home, Lid Kyle sees his father on death's door. Lid's father tells Lid that the world they live on has been hiding its true self from everyone & to head north to finish the battle against the "distortion" his father helped fight long ago, only to fail. After getting out of the forest, Lid meets & befriends Kii Mi, a young woman who lives with wild animals called Weakies, & Baguda, a human who can transform into a dragon-like form that can breathe fire. The two agree to help Lid out, partially because Baguda's clan was wiped out by the "distortion". As they continue on, they meet & recruit Rongun, whose clan has been burdened with being mute ever since their ancestors fought the "distortion", & Mimau, the self-proclaimed ruler of a desolate high-tech city; Rongun, Mimau, & Lid all have a similar birth mark on their napes, indicating that their meeting was destined.
 |
| Believe me, this shot makes perfect sense once you watch this OVA. |
Simply put, Greed is... a lot to take in just an hour. To be perfectly honest, Birth & Greed could have swapped their respective lengths (80 & 60 minutes), and both would have benefited in terms of storytelling, because Greed feels like Kogawa is throwing a lot of stuff at you, with very little time to relax & get ready for the next part. I mean, within the first three minutes Lid's father has died & sent Lid out on his mission, though the finer details are pretty much nonexistent. Let that be a perfect distillation of the kind of breakneck pace Greed goes with, as Lid, Kii, Baguda, Rongun, & (later) Mimau just go from one sequence to another, whether it's crossing a frozen ocean while escaping a giant, getting past another giant to enter an opening to a new land that's only open for a short period of time, escaping a sort of pocket dimension in which you can live in ignorant bliss, or surviving a futuristic city filled with killer robots. That last one is especially notable, because Greed's first half is handled like its straight fantasy, only for the second half (which is where Mimau is introduced) to suddenly shift things over to a sci-fi aesthetic (though Lid, Kii, Baguda, & Rongun still look like they're from the world of Conan the Barbarian). Finally, the end of this OVA is honestly a bit of a wild trip, and even predates stuff like Megazone 23 (by just two months!) & Hydlide III: The Space Memories in completely messing with expectations, so much so that I'll include the spoiler, but make it optional to read:
After escaping the high-tech city in Mimau's jet, the team flies up towards the sky, only to eventually reach into space... Where they see that the world they all call home is actually a giant dome-like space ship. The "distortion" is Vailly, an all-powerful alien that calls itself the personification of all greed & malice in the universe, with the dome actually originally being a place where Vailly threw the most greedy beings in the universe together as ultimate punishment, which would become the ancestors to Lid & the others. Our heroes team up to defeat Vailly, only to realize that they've fused into a horrific creature just like Vailly due to their collective greed, but this realization allows them to break the chain & free all of the various races from the dome, allowing everyone to return to the worlds their ancestors originally came from, even if it means that they'll never see each other again.
In all honesty, I must admit that I actually wound up enjoying Greed, mainly because of just how hard it keeps moving without taking much of a break, and that climax is definitely a wild one. In fact, I'm honestly rather shocked that Mataichiro Yamamoto never released Greed in North America via Urban Vision, as the company did release a good majority of Filmlink International's anime output, like BioHunter, Twilight of the Dark Master, Psycho Diver: Soul Siren, the Golgo 13 movie & OVA, & Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust; really, the only stuff UV didn't touch was Filmlink's stuff from the 80s. Had Yamamoto started up UV in the early 90s, we likely would have gotten an official English release for Greed, & it might have gone down as a memorable one for older anime fans. I'm not saying that it would have become a classic, because it definitely isn't, but Greed is just way too wild for it to have not found a fanbase.
That being said, however, that means that we might have also gotten an official English release for Twinkle Nora Rock Me!, so maybe it's for the best that Urban Vision started up when it did.
Interestingly enough, both our second & last entry for this first ever OM, OM, OVA! not only saw official English release, but both also have notable cult followings, and they even had similar releases in Japan... Sort of. You see, while Birth first saw release in theaters, Genmu Senki/Record of Phantom War Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko actually first saw release on home video (March 1, 1985, specifically), but apparently did so well upon release, selling over 30,000 copies, that it got a theatrical release on December 21, 1985, as part of a double-billing with the brand-new Vampire Hunter D OVA! Leda would then later get licensed by Right Stuf & receive a VHS release in 1997 in both subbed & dubbed flavors (though I've heard almost no one talk about the dub itself, as it was apparently an old one produced by Japanese distributor Toho). Apparently Right Stuf had wanted to put out a DVD release in the early 00s, but were prohibited from doing so before Japan received one, which didn't happen until much, much later, though at this point there's now a 4K HD remaster on Blu-Ray over there. Ever since that old Right Stuf release, though, Leda has maintained a cult status as one of the best standalone OVAs of the 80s, so let's see what all the fuss is about.
After failing to finally admit her love in-person for a (faceless) classmate she's smitten with, high school student Yohko Asagiri is suddenly whisked away to a seeming dimensional void, where a cloaked man demands the "Heart of Leda". Before he can grab her, though, Yohko is teleported away once again, this time to a fantasy world called Ashanti, where she quickly meets & befriends Lingam, a flying talking dog who wishes to explore the world; to the people of Ashanti, Yohko's world is called "Noah". Soon enough, the two realize that Yohko is one of the "warriors" of Leda, the goddess who separated access between Ashanti & Noah (for the latter's protection), and with the help of Yoni, the last remaining student of Leda, they have to prevent Zell, a former student of Leda, from using the "Heart" (i.e. the song Yohko composed to help her admit her love) to open a path to Noah so that he can take it over.
An original creation of anime studio Kaname Production, the same studio that made Birth, & directed by Kunihiko Yuyama, just a month prior to the theatrical release of fellow cult-classic GoShogun: The Time Étranger, Leda is a fitting way to finish out this first OM, OM, OVA!, because it's as if it learned from the prior OVAs in all the best ways, especially when compared to the middle two. Similar to Birth, Leda is filled with lots of excellent animation, all directed by character designer Mutsumi Inomata, but it never feels as though the plot is just an excuse to allow the animators to just run wild; it's a simple plot, sure, but a solidly told one. Similar to Greed, however, it's also not too long of an OVA (70 minutes) to feel like it might drag, though unlike Greed it still has enough time to allow for the moments to slow down & actually let the plot (& the small bit of character drama for Yohko) to take control. Whereas Greed felt like Tomonori Kogawa wanting to cram in as much stuff as he possibly could in a short amount of time, & Birth felt like Yoshinori Kanada's manga was given way more time than needed to fully adapt, Leda follows the Goldilocks principle perfectly, with Yuyama & Junki Takegami's script being able to tell its story without feeling either rushed or stretched for time.
Also, both Yohko & Yoni operate giant robots at some points, which is always a positive in my book.
Simply put, it's easy to see why Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko wound up being enough of a success to be deemed worthy of being given a theatrical release later in the year, though I will admit that it makes for a bit of an odd pair with something like Vampire Hunter D. Regardless, Leda's cult-classic status makes perfect sense, because it's just a damn good little self-contained short film (& an early example of isekai anime) that both looks great & has an enjoyable plot, while Shiro Sagisu's score & the vocal songs by Rio Akimoto do nothing but add to the experience. Unfortunately, while Kaname Pro was able to make a name for itself during the OVA Boom that Megazone 23 would usher in just a week after Leda's original home video release, it sadly wasn't a way for the studio to continue living, as not long after renaming itself Diva Co., Ltd. in 1988 the studio would go bankrupt. Still, Kaname's influence on the OVA market is definitely felt in this look at the medium's earliest days, as Birth's "good enough" success & Leda's legit success showed the potential of it as a viable form of anime production, which Megazone 23 would then build off of & create an actual production boom out of.
-----
And with that we come to the end of what one can call the pilot for Oh Me, Oh My, OVA!. I hope any who read this article found it interesting & are looking forward for more in the future. The Original Video Animation is a giant chasm of a well to dive into, and now that the earliest days are behind us I can now pick & choose as I please with any & all future installments.
(Kitty Film literally never included a copyright listing for Radio City Fantasy: Machikado no Märchen. However, the OVA effectively being a series of Virgin VS music videos means that it's essentially "owned" by Kitty, regardless.)
Birth © Victor Entertainment
Greed © Towa Pony Co., Ltd./Pony Co., Ltd.
Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko © 1984 Toho Co., Ltd. (Kaname Productions used to be listed, but today it's just Toho)
No comments:
Post a Comment