Twelve Older Anime That Deserve License Rescues XII: Duodenary Decisions Part 2

In an English anime industry that's now only become more & more contracted over time (remember, FUNimation technically dies after this May!), it is something to think back at the 00s bubble days & considering how many "major" names there were, all vying for the biggest slice of the pie, and each of them having at least one or two titles that made them giants for a period of time. Because of that, though, I have been able to continually make license rescue lists like these consistently for 12 years, and as titles go out of print for long enough I could theoretically keep it going until the end of time. Who knows, maybe I can at least stretch this out for another 8 entries & make it to #20!

Speaking of something being made to celebrate a 20th of some sort.... G-Saviour!

On the very first license rescue list back at the start of 2011, I included both G Gundam & Gundam Wing as a double entry, and while both have since happened as part of Right Stuf's working relationship with Sunrise, in retrospect it was a little silly to do that, since Bandai Entertainment was still actually around at the time; that company wouldn't get killed off until 2012, an entire decade ago! Even after Bandai Entertainment got killed off, though, I still pretty much never really considered adding another Gundam production to any of these lists, mainly because I figured that the franchise was too big to never be given another chance. Not like I would have had much time to consider them, anyway, since Right Stuf announced its partnership with Sunrise in 2014, with said partnership still going strong to this day. That said, there really isn't much left in the Gundam vault for Right Stuf to release that hasn't been released before, let alone stuff that actually did see release in English back in the day...

Yes, while G-Saviour isn't the sole remaining Gundam production that has yet to be re-released, at this point I wouldn't be surprised if SD Gundam Force gets a new release before this live-action made-for-TV movie does. Often considered the butt of jokes, G-Saviour honestly isn't bad at all, but suffers primarily because the movie is only the middle of a three-part multimedia effort to celebrate Gundam's 20th Anniversary back in 1999, with a trio of audio dramas acting as the prequel/beginning & a PS2 game acting as a sequel/finish. Bandai Entertainment did give the movie a North American release in early 2002, but was allegedly pulled from the market just half a year later, after Yoshiyuki Tomino voiced dissatisfaction with the movie at Big Apple Anime Fest 2002, the same event where Tomino admitted that he requested that the infamous Cucuruz Doan's Island episode of the original series not be released outside of Japan. The most Right Stuf has ever acknowledged the possibility of G-Saviour getting re-released was a tweet back in 2019 saying "Sunrise has no plans to release G-Saviour at this time. If you have a copy, hold it tight!". Also, Shawne Kleckner once beaned me with a Normad plush for daring to speak G-Saviour's name in front of him during an Otakon panel; I still have that plush.

Still, despite all of that... I'll hold out hope. Maybe one day we can get an HD-remastered Blu-Ray of G-Saviour, complete with both Japanese dubs (with actual English subtitles, this time around!), and maybe (if we're going crazy) those three audio drama prequels could get included in some fashion, similar to how Frozen Teardrop was included in Gundam Wing's Ultra Edition release.

If there's one iconic mangaka who has seen a bit of a mini-renaissance in North America in the past 10+ years, it's Leiji Matsumoto. Prior to the 2010s there was the occasional attempt at releasing something by Matsumoto, either a manga he drew or an anime adaptation of some sort, but pretty much none of them really seemed to find any sort of success. However, in the past decade-plus we've seen the following released in North America: The Galaxy Express 999 TV series & movies (including the never-before-released-in-English Eternal Fantasy), the original Space Pirate Captain Harlock manga & TV anime (plus the Dimensional Voyage manga reboot), Arcadia of My Youth (both the movie & the Endless Orbit SSX TV sequel), the CG Harlock: Space Pirate movie, Cosmowarrior Zero, the Galaxy Railways OVA, Gun Frontier (see: the 6th license rescue list back in 2015), both the original Queen Emeraldas & Space Battleship Yamato manga, & even the freaking Submarine Super 99 anime!  Even after all of that, there are still numerous other "Leijiverse" anime that have yet to even get re-released, though some of those may potentially be stuck in licensing limbo at the moment. Still, for the first time in seven years, let's include something adapted from one of the greatest of all time... Even if the name of the iconic character he created is altered slightly.

Space Pirate Captain Herlock: The Endless Odyssey (yes, it's "Herlock" in this case, even in the original Japanese) is a 13-episode sequel/retelling of the original story (it's both, as it technically takes place after the fight with the Mazon, yet still has Tadashi Daiba meeting Harlock "for the first time"), though here it's specially based off of the 1978 TV anime, right down to Rintaro himself returning to direct, though Madhouse was the animation studio this time around, not Toei; Matsumoto even remarked that this was not "his" Harlock, but rather was Rintaro's. Originally intended to air on AT-X during the Summer of 2002, the anime went through delays, as Matsumoto himself did not like seeing the Star of David used as the insignia for the new villains, which in turn resulted in it actually being sold on DVD first, before finally airing on NTV during the Fall of 2003. Geneon Entertainment would then license The Endless Odyssey for English release just before it started airing on NTV, releasing the entire series across four dual-audio DVDs throughout 2004, while Geneon's usual "all singles housed within the artbox" collection release happened in 2006; notably, though, the then-standard artbox was initially sold with the final DVD, not the first. Since then, Captain Herlock has more or less drifted away into obscurity, & due to its production history it's likely a bit of an island when it comes to Leijiverse licensing.

Admittedly, this series doesn't look to be all that expensive to buy all of Geneon's DVDs for nowadays (though I recall they once were, oddly enough), so its inclusion here is more because of Leiji Matsumoto becoming more of a consistent presence in the North American market. Hopefully The Endless Odyssey isn't one of those Leijiverse titles that's stuck in licensing limbo, and can one day join its brethren once again.

Sometimes, you wind up finding two works that, despite being made completely separate from each other, wind up becoming intrinsically linked, so much so that the thought of one without the other feels weird, even though they are two different works. A perfect example would be Magical Witch Punie-chan & Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan, two works that essentially are darkly comedic parodies of magical girls. Punie-chan, known in Japan at Dai Mahou Touge/Great Magical Gap (a parody of the Japanese title for 1966 film The Sword of Doom), was originally a manga by Hideki Ohwada (The Legend of Koizumi, The Men Who Created Gundam) that ran in Kadokawa Shoten's Ace MonoGumi & Monthly Shonen Ace magazines from 2001 to 2007 for four volumes, & received a four-episode OVA (made up of eight half-length shorts) from 2006 to 2007. Meanwhile, Dokuro-chan was originally a light novel series by Masaki Okayu (story) & Torishima (art) that was published by MediaWorks' Dengeki Bunko from 2003 to 2007 across 11 novels & received a pair of OVAs in 2005 & 2007 that totaled 12 episodes (split 8 & 4).

Despite being from different mediums, creators, & publishers, though, Punie-chan & Dokuro-chan were almost instantly joined at the hip once both received anime adaptations, no doubt buoyed by the fact that they shared a lot of the same staff (though animated at different studios), most notably Tsutomu Mizushima (Shirobako, Squid Girl), who acted as director, writer, storyboarder, episode director, & even theme song lyricist for both productions! This "separated at birth" relation was pushed all the more in 2008, when Media Blasters released both Punie-chan & Dokuro-chan on sub-only DVD in North America, with their respective releases literally being just a month apart from each other. Both would also later get dual-audio "Special Edition" DVD releases, though those were a year apart from each other & were dubbed by completely different studios & casts. However, ever since those dual-audio DVDs by MB, only Dokuro-chan has since been license rescued, in this case by Discotek Media, which released all 12 episodes on Blu-Ray in early 2020. That leaves Punie-chan as having been left alone, separated from her fellow deadly magical girl bestie, despite the fact that both OVAs were produced in part by Geneon Entertainment Japan, now NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan.

I don't want to say that Discotek "got it wrong", but Media Blasters knew that it was imperative that Dokuro-chan & Punie-chan be licensed seemingly together, and now it just feels awkward. Hopefully this is one of those cases of a license rescue being more about "when", and not "if". Otherwise, I'm sure Punie-chan will shout out her iconic transformation phrase, "Lyrical Tokarev, Kill Them All!", and may God have mercy on all who wind up in her way.

[11/2023 UPDATE: It was announced in a bit of a sudden, matter-of-fact fashion, but Media Blasters has since license rescued Punie-chan for a Blu-Ray re-release.]

It's always fun when I can use cover art
for something that never came out.

So this is truly an interesting inclusion, because it technically DID get license rescued.... only for the new release to never come to fruition, and I think 9 years is more than enough time to count it as being eligible for the list again. Anyway, mech anime Zegapain originally debuted back in 2006 & was the creation of Sunrise Studio 9, which created Gasaraki, & mangaka Takehiko Ito (a.k.a. Hiroyuki Hataike), the creator of titles like Lord of Lords Ryu Knight & Outlaw Star. It was also a big multimedia project, as alongside the anime would come the Xbox 360 video game duology of Zegapain XOR (released as the anime aired) & Zegapain NOT (released after the anime), as well as two light novels,  The Queen of Oblivion & The Door of Loss. While most of what got made stayed exclusive to Japan (including both 360 games), Bandai Entertainment did license & release the anime for North American release, putting out all 26 episodes across six dual-audio DVDs from late 2007 to mid-2008. Unfortunately, this was all Zegapain ever received, as while a complete collection under the "Anime Legends" banner was scheduled for May 5, 2009 (and cover art was even revealed, as seen above), it wound up getting cancelled, alongside a boxset for another show left to wallow in singles, FLAG; this was still a few years out from Bandai Entertainment's death, too, so this was odd. Today, the first three DVD singles for Zegapain can still be bought for reasonable or even cheap prices, but the latter half has been claimed by scalpers.

However, things looks to have changed during the Summer of 2013! In what at the time was considered one of the wildest licensing announcements ever made, Sentai Filmworks announced at Otakon's 20th Anniversary convention that it had made a giant deal with Sunrise. Specifically, it had licensed 13 anime (12, if you combine both seasons of The Big O), and Zegapain was one of those titles. However, time would march on, and there would be absolutely no further news regarding any of the Sunrise titles that Sentai had licensed, with the only peep of information indicating a delay in materials being sent over. Eventually, Sentai finally did manage to release just a single anime from this deal, The Big O, and that didn't happen until 2017. Not long later, it was quietly agreed by anime fans & industry insiders alike that Sentai's deal with Sunrise had more or less long expired, especially once Discotek Media announced that it had license rescued s-CRY-ed, another of those 13 titles, in 2020.

Quite honestly, this entire "Sentai 13" thing could be something that I can mine from for future license rescue lists for years. So why did I pick Zegapain to start it all off? I guess the title just has always stuck in my mind, that's all.

This pick is a unique one, because it would technically be a license rescue of a license rescue, despite its original status as a rescue dates back close to 20 years ago, i.e. some people didn't even realize that it was a rescue back when it was rescued! Debuting back in 1996, Master of Mosquiton was both a six-episode OVA & a four-volume manga co-created by the legendary Satoru Akahori (Sorcerer Hunters, Kasimasi ~Girl Meets Girl) & Hiroshi Negishi (Tekkaman Blade, Knight Lamune & 40). It details the 1920s adventures of Inaho Hitomibore (modeled after Akahori's wife, mangaka Miyuki Kitagawa), the daughter of a well-to-do family who uses her blood to re-awaken the vampire Alucard von Mosquiton so that he can help her search for the mysterious O-Parts that are hidden away around the world; when not fueled by Inaho's blood, Mosquiton is rather meek & pathetic for a vampire. ADV originally released it in North America back in 1998 via a pair of VHS tapes, both dubbed & subbed, where it looked to receive a relatively warm reception, due to its offbeat & zany execution.

In 2005, Media Blasters would then license rescue the Mosquiton OVA & release it via a two-disc dual-audio DVD collection. Afterwards, Master of Mosquiton has more or less been forgotten with time, except by those who have seen it, who generally remember it fondly. However, just like with Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko in the previous part of this list, there's actually an entire second anime production to bring up! Debuting in September of 1997, Master of Mosquiton '99 (technically pronounced "Double-Nine", though the official logo does show "1999 Master of Mosquiton" as an alternate title) is a 26-episode remake of the OVA, showcasing even more adventures from Inaho, Mosquiton, & their friends & foes. Unlike most anime remakes, though, Mosquiton '99 was produced by a lot of the same major staff as the OVA series, & retains most of the main cast, as well, though it's never received any sort of physical re-release in Japan, remaining VHS & LD-only over there; it doesn't even look to be streaming, either. Media Blasters actually did admit that if sales for the Mosquiton OVA were good enough then they'd consider licensing Mosquiton '99, so considering that it never happened, one can guess that it likely underperformed. As it is today, though, I think it'd be unlikely for any company to only license rescue the Master of Mosquiton OVA & simply not touch the TV remake, so take that into consideration for the chances of this ever happening in English again.

We end this list with an entry that, once again, I'm honestly surprised I have never included, though I guess I always kind of assumed that it would have simply happened by now, considering how much of a cult favorite it once was. In the years since this series' heyday we've had other shows that took the magical girl genre & shook it up in various ways, like Puella Magi Madoka Magica's penchant for getting shockingly dark or Symphogear's predilection for turning its singing leads into utter fighting machine badasses. However, before either of those franchises came into existence, there was Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, which itself was actually an alternate-universe spinoff of the Triangle Heart series of eroge. In short, minor character Nanoha Takamachi from Triangle Heart 3 was originally cast as a magical girl as a bit of a gag for a merchandise CD in 2001, which then later resulted in Nanoha getting her own spin-off series where she eventually becomes the magical girl equivalent to a super robot that can fire off devastating beams of destruction in a battle against evil, while also having a bit of a "budding relationship" with rival-turned-ally Fate Testarossa.

Why can't all erotic video games get their own spin-offs like this?!

After finding itself a cult following via fansubs after its debut in late 2004, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha & its second season, 2005's Nanoha A's, were eventually licensed for official English release by Geneon Entertainment, with it being announced at Anime Expo 2007. Unfortunately, just two months later that September, Geneon announced that it was effectively shutting down, with even the previously-announced distribution deal with ADV being cancelled. Luckily, in July of 2008, FUNimation announced that it would be distributing a select number of Geneon titles as part of a distribution deal, with Nanoha being included. The first season would finally see English release on November 11, 2008, in what was essentially an artbox housing the three dual-audio DVD singles that Geneon likely originally planned to put out individually. Nanoha A's would then come out in January of 2009, while the first season would get re-released in traditional boxset form in November of 2009, as part of FUNimation's old "Viridian Collection" label; Nanoha A's was also planned to get this treatment, but got cancelled. Afterwards, North America hasn't really seen anything official from the Nanoha series since, outside of spin-off series ViVid Strike! (which doesn't feature Nanoha or Fate at all, apparently) from 2016 getting streamed by Amazon, but no physical release for it has happened as of yet.

Due to the series having a cult following, any of those three releases that we did get now go for triple digits, and there's even more Nanoha out there beyond these first two seasons & ViVid Strike!. There's 2007's Nanoha StrikerS (a "10 years later" third season), 2015's Nanoha ViVid (a fourth season spin-off that does feature Nanoha & Fate), & a four-movie retelling/reimagining that ran from 2010 to 2018... and this is just counting the various anime productions! Maybe one day Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha will be given a second chance in North America, but doing so now would put it in a very different anime fandom than what it was entering in the late 00s, one where its very uniqueness might not feel quite as... unique.

[11/2023 UPDATE: After first releasing two of the more recent movie entries in the franchise, Discotek has announced that Nanoha TV will finally be given a new release on English via Blu-Ray.]

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And with that brings an end to another year's license rescue list. Are the chances of any of these 12 older "anime" good for being rescued? Maybe, possibly... Who knows? But as long as there are people who do remember that they exist, they at least will not be forgotten with time.

How's that for faux-philosophizing?

G-Saviour © Sunrise

Space Pirate Captain Herlock The Endless Odyssey © Leiji Matsumoto・Kobunsha・VAP・NTV © 2002 VAP・NTV

Magical Witch Punie-chan © Hideki Owada・Kadokawa Shoten/Daimahou Touge

Zegapain © Sunrise・Project Zega

Master of Mosquiton © Mosquiton Project・Columbia Music Entertainment

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha & Nanoha A's © Nanoha Project