Let's see... CED? Just barely! Game Boy Advance Video? Yeah, a few made it on there, too!! VideoNow? Shockingly enough... YES!!! One of the most curious video formats anime has ever seen release on, though, would have to also be one of the most obscure, and in particular two specific OVAs that took advantage of a special feature that was actually decades ahead of its time: VHD.
First demonstrated back in 1978 by JVC, after the company first established a video disc lab in 1974, Video High Density/VHD was a capacitance-based video format that was most similar to RCA's Capacitance Electronic Disc/CED in that both housed their respective record-esque discs inside caddies, so that the user would never actually handle the disc itself, but where CED used physical grooves to read the data stored VHD was electronically read. Also much like RCA's format, though, JVC's format suffered numerous delays & wouldn't actually see release until 1983, two years after CED had already launched & bombed, and in the end VHD would only ever really see release in Japan, though it did see some minor usage in the US & UK for things like education, training, demonstration, & (most notably) karaoke, the last of which was more or less the main reason why it even saw continued (but highly limited) support by JVC until 2003. To no surprise, there were various anime that saw release on VHD in Japan, though it was in no way as supported as even LD was over there. However, VHD did have one thing up its sleeve that no other video format had: 3D Support!
In 1985 JVC started releasing VHD players that supported stereoscopic video playback by way of things like shutter glasses that could be plugged into the player, predating modern 3D support by ~20 years; in doing this, though, discs could only store 30 minutes of footage on each side, instead of the usual 60. Somehow, JVC managed to convince two anime studios to actually give this a try, resulting in two OVAs being released on "3D Video Disc", which quite honestly sounds both absolutely amazing ("Hand-Drawn Animation... in 3D!") & absolutely absurd ("Hand-Drawn Animation... in 3D?"). Unfortunately, likely because of just how wild this concept sounds, both of these OVAs didn't actually come out until the latter half of 1987, which by that point was way too late to the party for 3D anime on VHD; I mean, VHD was late to the party in general, but these OVAs were arriving right as everyone was leaving. Because of that, both of these OVAs did later see "normal" 2D release on VHS, and actually watching these in their originally intended style (i.e. on a 3D-compatible VHD player with shutter glasses) is both a bit obtuse & (more than likely) wildly expensive today. Still, was there anything to these OVAs other than a 3D gimmick? I say let's find out, as both have been fansubbed over the years.
Up first is Dead Heat, which came out on VHD on August 7, 1987 & comes to us from legendary anime studio Sunrise. In terms of the people behind this OVA, there's actually a rather respectable staff listing here, with Toshifumi Kawase (Matchless Raijin-Oh, Tenjho Tenge) making his directorial debut (& also doing the storyboards), "episode direction" (in this case, "the person who directly oversaw the meat & potatoes work") by Shinji Takamatsu (Gundam X, Gintama), scripting by Akinori Endo (Cyber City OEDO 808, Moonlight Mile), & music by Kohei Tanaka (Sakura Wars, One Piece). Most interesting of all, though, is that someone actually has gone through the trouble of not just capturing the footage from the VHD itself & uploading it to YouTube, matching the fansubs to the video via closed captions, but has also managed to convert it into 3D that's compatible with various modern 3D & VR devices (Oculus/VIVE, PS VR, Google Cardboard, 3D smart TVs, etc.), as well as simple anaglyph/red-&-blue glasses! So for this part of the "Double Feature" I actually decided to watch Dead Heat twice, once in 2D & then a second time later in anaglyph 3D via YouTube (since I don't have any sort of 3D or VR device), so that I can both judge it on its own as a simple 2D 30-minute OVA, and also as the very first 3D anime.
Formula X is a racing series utilizing humanoid mech-like robots that drive on two wheels, with part of the appeal for fans being in the allowed (if limited) use of combat, due to the vehicles' designs. Once ever year is the FX Open Cup, where racers of any class can compete against each other, with lower class racers hoping to get a quick raise in class, which in turn makes them more money. Makoto is the racer for his little quartet of a D-class team, but with the Open Cup coming up they want to truly test their mettle against the creme of the crop: A-class racers. The gang looks to come across a lucky break when a mysterious man offers them to use the FX engine he has with him, and it's way better than what they already had. However, it turns out the man, Gou, actually worked for the corporation that represents Natsuo Sawai, one of the best A-class racers out there... and Sawai's side claims that the engine is defective. Gou tells Makoto & the others that he's since finalized the engine, so now Makoto isn't simply racing for himself & his team; he's also racing to prove that Gou's engine is indeed great, & to shut up the pompous Natsuo.
On its own, Dead Heat is a rather simple & straightforward little 30-minute OVA that tells a self-contained story, but leaves enough of an opening that Sunrise could have turned this into a full-on TV series, if they really wanted to. It's split up pretty much between two halves, with the first half setting everything up with our cast. We see Makoto being the gung-ho, engine pushing driver (or I guess it'd technically be "rider", since FXes are just human-shaped bikes, right?), Kaori being the female member of the crew who has feelings for Makoto (but has no problem dealing with his more stupid moments), Saburo being the mechanic who knows what he's doing but has no problem sometimes taking a shortcut, & Yoshio being... their somewhat chubby buddy; it's not really established what role he plays on the team, aside from being a secondary pit mechanic. Meanwhile, Gou is initially introduced as a seeming homeless man who claims to have spent all his money on the engine he wishes to give the crew, before the truth behind him gets revealed by Natsuo & his agent Maria shortly before the race; as for why Gou went with a D-class racer, he simply liked the amount of drive (heh) Makoto has. Finally, Natsuo is initially seen as an idol that Makoto wants to live up to, only for him to reveal his snobby & brash attitude, making Makoto want to beat him now after getting insulted by him; Maria, on the other hand, is there to establish Gou's backstory, and nothing more.
The second half, then, is the Open Cup race itself, and it's an enjoyable one to watch. The closest modern-day example I can think of it would be IGPX, as they both involved people riding bipedal mechs that race around courses in laps, but Dead Heat very visibly has the mechs using wheels on their "heels" for movement, giving it more of a motorcycle feel to them; there's also Rideback, which I have no real familiarity with. Also, outside of one hill seen on the track, the course itself is more normal than IGPX's sometimes more wild course layouts could be, giving it a more grounded feel. Still, the general concept of an FX race is a cool one, the race shown here is well paced & fun to see in action, and I do like the little touches seen throughout, like the multiple pit stops & the fact that attacking your opponent is allowed between both the FXes themselves as well as even the riders (as seen when Makoto kicks Natsuo at one point). While Dead Heat wound up being nothing more than a one-off OVA, there was enough potential here for an entire TV series to have been made later on, and I do wonder if the people who conceived of IGPX might have remembered this OVA all those years later.
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| This is obviously an image meant for 3D... |
Before I go into how Dead Heat works as a 3D anime, let's first go over the staff & cast, in general. As mentioned, this OVA marks the directorial debut of Toshifumi Kawase, who had previously had a good stretch of experience as a storyboarder & episode director for various mech anime of the time (namely L-Gaim, Gundam [both Z & ZZ], & Dragonar), before eventually having a 14-year run of directing TV anime (almost) every single year from 1991 to 2004. With all of that in mind, animation directed by character designer Toshimitsu Kobayashi (Ayatsuri Sakon, Spice & Wolf II) & Shinji Takamatsu directing the nuts & bolts work itself, it's no surprise that Dead Heat honestly looks rather solid & still holds up well to this day, especially since the best video quality you can find is VHS or VHD, the latter of which is honestly not that much different (maybe marginally better) than VHS. Akinori Endo's script is rather straight-to-the-point by keeping the characters simple & focusing on the general plot itself, but because of that it is very laser focused & does just enough to make you care about Makoto & his friends wanting to beat Natsuo. As for Kohei Tanaka's musical score, it may not exactly be anything that'll instantly stick in your mind after you finish watching, but it's still an energetic & catchy little score, and I like how there's a single song that plays throughout the entire 6-minute long race section, made up of different segments that match the different moments; Tanaka really shows his skills there. As for the cast, it's a small one made up of Kazuki Yao (Makoto), the late Chieko Honda (Kaori), Hochu Ohtsuka (Saburo), Toshiharo Sakurai (Yoshio), Ryusuke Obayashi (Gou), the late Kazuyuki Sogabe (Natsuo), & Masako Katsuki (Maria), who all deliver very solid or good performances; it's always tough to make things work with such limited time, but they all do it.
Now, we have the main attraction: Does Dead Heat actually work in 3D?
Amazingly enough... It does, even in anaglyph 3D! However, it is important to remember that there are two main uses of 3D in cases like these: Adding depth to the background elements or having foreground elements "pop out". While Dead Heat does do the latter here & there, like Gou throwing an empty cup towards the camera or an FX arm bending out in front of the camera, the staff knew that it was more important to put the primary focus on adding depth. Naturally, the fact that hand-drawn animation is a two-dimensional product by its very nature does mean that there is the risk making it a 3D image with depth can result in a feel that you're simply looking at flat objects in front of each other, and there is the occasional shot where that does exist, like Makoto's leg being in front of him not really feeling like it's actually a part of him, but rather is more like a cardboard cut-out in front of him. However, the large majority of the time the 3D effect actually does work, and it's always when the focus is more on background depth than foreground "popping". A chain link fence really does look like it's front of the main image, group shots have some characters being noticeably behind others, what would look like two shelves being next to each other in 2D actually does look like one is more in front of the other in 3D, the small windshield on an FX does have a slight feel of being in front of the rider, & the reflection of the speed & tachometer on Makoto's helmet visor is subtle enough that you fully buy it; even the title splash itself uses depth remarkably well. In all seriousness, I was actually shocked at just how well the 3D works in Dead Heat, even when viewed on my computer monitor through YouTube's website using red-&-blue anaglyph glasses (because the YouTube app doesn't support anaglyph, oddly enough), and I would imagine watching it on a VR setup of some sort with the all of the proper intended color (instead of a slight tint for the anaglyph effect) would be all the more impressive. It's not just a testament to the staff at Sunrise, but also to the person who actually managed to capture from the original VHD & offer it as originally intended on YouTube. I can't even imagine how the hell Sunrise even managed to pull off the 3D effect as well as it did, and I have even less of an idea how the fan actually managed to capture 3D video off of a VHD.
Overall, Dead Heat is a solid little one-off OVA that, without the 3D gimmick, is still worth a watch, especially if you liked something like IGPX or even Rideback. With the 3D gimmick, though, I would say that it is absolutely worth the watch to see how the team at Sunrise actually managed to accomplish the effect, because while it certainly isn't 100% perfect it seriously does work better than I ever thought it would.
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| Don't you love how the logo is just ever-so-slightly off-center? |
The other 3D anime that came out on VHD was Scoopers, a 60-minute OVA released on December 1, 1987. This OVA came by way of the now-defunct ACC Production, a studio known generally for assistance work but did it work as the lead for a handful of anime during its existence, including 1994's Omakase Scrappers & 2006's... Gundoh Musashi; NOOOOOOOOOO! In all seriousness, though, ACC was also the studio behind the 2002 movie Guilstein, which I actually did wind up legitimately enjoying well enough (though that CG aged very quickly), so we're technically 1-1 when it comes to ACC on the blog. As for the staff, Scoopers is based on a concept by the late Monkey Punch, who also did the character designs himself, while we have Hideo Watanabe & Jun Hirabayashi acting as co-directors/supervisors, Yuji Asada (Queen Emeraldas OVAs, Early Reigns) as Unit/Episode Director, Masakazu Amiya handling the script, & Yasuo "Funky Y.K." Kosugi composing the musical score (the only anime he actually did that for, as he's generally known more for composing just theme songs). Yeah, with a staff like that, Scoopers really does seem like the "lesser" of the two 3D anime when compared to Dead Heat, and unlike that OVA no one has bothered to actually capture the original VHD for Scoopers & provide a 3D option for modern solutions. Therefore, I'll just be judging this OVA on its own merit as a simple 2D production, though if I feel I notice how the 3D would have worked I'll bring it up.
Yoko & Beat are a reporter & cameraman, respectively, who work for Private Eyes magazine, which deals in big scoops. One day, Private Eyes gets a call from someone who claims to have info on "Mister X", a mysterious man who's known for his penchant for destroying spy satellites, having most recently both crashed one onto a city, causing countless damage, as well as blowing up a space shuttle shortly after blast off, simply because it had a new spy satellite on board. As Yoko was the one who picked up the anonymous call, she & Beat are given the task of finding out what they can, and while Mister X's power armor-wearing forces manage to kill their contact before he can tell them everything, he does leave the duo a card with a mermaid on it. With the help of their friends Cain & Capa, they discover that the card relates to Techno Land, a gigantic amusement park that takes up the entirety of an island. While the journey to discovering the truth behind Mister X is dangerous, Yoko & Beat do have a trump card of their own, which is that Beat is actually an android created by Capa (who merely runs a camera shop as a front) & maintained by Cain (who was "scouted" by Capa before he could join NASA), and at the press of a button Yoko can make Beat perform amazing feats.
Scoopers is... a weird anime, to put it simply. What initially seems like a bit of a investigative mystery/thriller plot about a pair of journalists trying to find out the truth behind an enigmatic figure quickly starts going into lunacy in just a few minutes, when Yoko first has Beat become a seemingly unstoppable action star with just a single button press. Then, 10 minutes in, it's suddenly revealed that Beat is an android & is taking on people donning giant power armors, before becoming nothing more than a heap of scrap, though he can still speak with his head. Then we get the only appearances of Cain & Capa, who help repair Beat to normal & give Yoko a warning about how dangerous Mister X can be; naturally, Yoko fears nothing. The second third of this OVA then sees our dynamic duo head to Techno Land, where they get into a fight while on a roller coaster with a bunch of X's goons... who are quickly revealed to be Terminator-style androids, kind of making Beat not look that special anymore. X's robot lackeys just become ever wilder after that with a literal unicorn that he can communicate with people through & fembots who ride on pegasus-driven flying chariots & can transform into mythical monsters. Finally, the last third goes completely bonkers by having Beat (& later Yoko) take on Mister X himself inside of cyberspace/VR... and while the majority of this OVA actually is shown with a slight letterbox (which I removed for the screens shown above, the entire cyberspace battle is actually done in full 4:3 aspect ratio, for whatever reason. There's also this mysterious woman who really only appears at the very start & the last 1/3, acting as a bit of a deus ex machina (though at least she was sort of established early on), and the OVA even has the balls to not even tell a complete story! Yes, Mister X actually manages to escape, allegedly with "the President" (though the visual you see only shows X), so the entire point of Scoopers' plot (finding out the truth behind Mister X) is left unfulfilled, and you come out of this OVA knowing absolutely nothing about the villain, except that he wears a weird mask with a third eye on top; we aren't even given a reason behind his obsession with destroying spy satellites. There's also an evil AI named Baudelaire that's helping Mister X, but it just kind of exists; also, why name an evil AI after a celebrated 19th century French poet?
So are our main characters interesting, at the very least? Well, kind of.
Yoko is a definite go-getter kind of lead, willing to take risks to get the scoop she's looking for, though there are a couple of moments where something like death & blood does get to her, understandably so. However, outside of one or two moments, she's also kind of portrayed slightly like a damsel in distress, as despite her general attitude she's not really able to protect herself. That's admittedly where Beat comes in, as he's a rather straightforward android that simply has stuff like super strength & is a competent fighter, but (in true Monkey Punch fashion) can definitely be a bit of lech, often trying to hit on Yoko (or those fembots, even), just like Lupin the 3rd would; Yoko & Beat aren't a 1:1 match for Fujiko Mine & Lupin, but they definitely are similar enough. We don't see much of Cain & Capa, but they have an amusing enough banter between each other, and because of Capa's beady eyes he honestly looks more like a Leiji Matsumoto character than one designed by Monkey Punch. As for Mister X, he's nothing more than a generic & mysterious villain, and in some ways isn't even all that smart, when you really think about it. For example, he could have simply never attacked Yoko & Beat on the roller coaster, as they were just trying to have fun, and likely would have been able to succeed at whatever his mission was if he kept his cover.
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| Yes, that's Mister X's face on a CG cyberspace snowflake... No, that's not even the weirdest thing in this OVA. |
In comparison to Dead Heat, Scoopers isn't really anything all that special, in terms of visuals. While Gundoh Musashi is essentially the representative work for ACC Pro, that really was a case of circumstances beyond the Japanese staff's control, so while Scoopers only looks decent, it's at least consistent & never really falls apart. The usage of 3D GC during the entire cyberspace section honestly holds up decent enough, mainly because it's kept to a minimalist style & doesn't try to be more than it should; because of that it also meshes OK enough with the 2D animation. While neither Hideo Watanabe nor Jun Hirabayashi would go on to achieve any real notoriety (only Watanabe would ever direct anything else, namely 1990 OVA Kanta and the Deer), this OVA shows that neither of them were terrible directors by any means, while the animation directed by Hirohide Shikishima, who still works on the occasional anime to this day, is fine, as mentioned earlier. As for the script by Masakazu Amiya, who's traditionally a storyboarder & episode director... well, let's just say there's likely good reason why Scoopers looks to be the first & only time he ever wrote anything. It's not that it's poorly written, though it does have its quirks & a couple of logic holes, but it's just the sheer bizarreness of it all, and while that does result in it being rather unpredictable while watching it also makes it hard to really get into as a story, beyond the "Get a load of this!" factor. Some of the bizarreness may have come from Monkey Punch himself, but I imagine all he thought up was the general concept & characters, while Amiya was allowed (more or less) free reign beyond that. Scoopers isn't quite on the level of bat**** insanity as something like Crystal Triangle is, but it's at least up there, to some extent.
As for the music by Yasuo Kosugi, it's a decent enough mix of rock & some slight jazz, but otherwise isn't anything special. Again, Kosugi's specialty was theme songs, and while there is a general "theme" used a number of times throughout the OVA, the rest of it is kind of generic. Then there's the cast, which is understandably small, but even then only four of the seiyuu are actually matched to their characters. For example, Cain is literally a named character but Kenyuu Horiuchi (who voiced him) goes uncredited, as in "His name is listed, but it doesn't say who he voiced"! Anyway, Mayuki Ohashi (who looks to have only ever worked on three anime, & nothing else, with this being her biggest role) is probably the best as Yoko, while Shinya Ohtaki is fine as Beat, but hearing a deep voice matched to someone who looks somewhat like Lupin just feels awkward, personally. Meanwhile, Shiegezou Sasaoka delivers a fitting villain voice as Mister X, Kenichi Ogata is similarly fitting as the nerdy Capa, Horiuchi is fine enough as Cain, & Yuzuru Fujimoto does a decent robotic voice for Baudelaire. There's also the late Kei Tomiyama as Dr. Cameron (the main Yoko & Beat are initially contacted by) & Kumiko Takizawa as the mysterious unnamed woman, who does have a title at the very least but might as well just be a mysterious woman, honestly. As for how the 3D might have worked out from what I could guess watching in 2D, I honestly think it would have looked kind of cheap. While I'm sure there was likely a utilization of extra depth, it really does feel like "popping out" would have been more of this OVA's focus, as there are a number of shots where one part of the image was very obviously composited on top of the background (& kind of poorly, at that), making it blatantly obvious that it was intended to pop out to the viewer in 3D; honestly, the portion with the CG likely would have worked the best, but that's really it.
Overall, Scoopers is kind of right in the middle when it comes to the three ACC Pro anime I've covered here, so far. It's nowhere near as terrible as Gundoh Musashi, though it's arguably just as bizarre (if not even more so, at points), but it's also nowhere near as good as Guilstein, and even that movie was admittedly flawed. Still, it is (at the very least) just so utterly bizarre of a watch that I kind of still recommend giving it a go, and while I'm sure the 3D more than likely wouldn't be as good as Dead Heat's was, I think it would have actually helped with the overall experience of watching it.
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| Man, even the cover to Scoopers feels so cheap! |
In the end, while neither of JVC's 3D anime co-productions wound up doing anything to help the already-flailing VHD video format, I wouldn't say that the endeavor was without any merit. It made some sense to try producing anime in 3D at the time, since live-action movies were in the midst of a 3D revival at that point, and while VHD itself wasn't really anything special when compared to the likes of VHS, Beta, & LD, it is remarkable that it was even capable of producing a 3D image; definitely a "way ahead of its time" product, in that sense. As for the two anime produced in 3D for VHD, Dead Heat is the clear winner, by all regards. While the people in charge of the production weren't yet major names in any way, they were definitely up-&-coming talent over at Sunrise who showed clear-as-crystal potential, and in the end delivered a very enjoyable little one-off that tells a clear & concise story, while leaving the potential for more in the future, should it have gotten enough interest. Not just that, but the 3D effect is remarkably effective, with only a handful of moments where the inherent "flatness" of hand-drawn animation rears its head.
But where Dead Heat feels like Sunrise wanting to challenge its staff with an intriguing concept, Scoopers feels more like ACC Pro was simply trying to take advantage of a fad. Beyond Monkey Punch, none of the staff were notable or would go on to greater heights (except for maybe Hirohide Shikishima), the entire thing feels more like an excuse to just get weird & bizarre with what should have honestly been a rather straightforward concept, & from what I could parse together from the later 2D version the entire 3D effect would have likely not matched up to what Sunrise had managed to achieve. To really best describe things, if Sunrise was the big name Hollywood studio for this entire "3D anime on VHD" endeavor, then ACC Pro was definitely Cannon Films. Scoopers absolutely matches the kind of output that Cannon was notorious for during the 80s: Memorably weird or bizarre, & maybe even a little better than it has any right to be, but without a doubt produced by people who didn't care much beyond "make it work!", regardless of what that actually meant for the cast & crew that was making the thing. Considering the kind of person producer Nobuyuki Sugaya was, I think that assessment would be 100% accurate.
At the very least, I'd love to see if Sunrise would actually be able to remaster Dead Heat for a 3D Blu-Ray re-release, since the tech is theoretically there now to make such a thing possible. [UPDATE: Turns out Sunrise has already given Dead Heat an HD remaster that's been shown on TV & streaming, but it may only be for the later 2D version.]
Dead Heat © Sunrise
Scoopers © 1987 Video Tech Co. Ltd.
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