In March of 1968, the Japanese Sony Corporation & American Columbia Broadcasting System/CBS incorporated a 50/50 joint venture which allowed Sony to distribute CBS' music releases in Japan. It was originally called CBS/Sony Records, but in 1983 had its name changed to CBS/Sony Group. Sony would then buy all of CBS' shares in 1988 & become sole owner of the company, though the "CBS/Sony" name would continue to be used until 1991, when it got renamed to Sony Music Entertainment Japan. During those last few years of the CBS/Sony era, the company had started producing various anime, most often OVAs, and in September of 1995 entered into a joint venture with sister company Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan to create Sony Pictures Entertainment/SPE Visual Works, which continued to produce things like anime. In January of 2001, Sony Music would become sole owner of SPE Visual Works, renaming it Sony Music Entertainment/SME Visual Works, where it would continue to produce new anime (both OVAs & for TV), as well as re-releasing its older CBS/Sony & SPE Visual Works catalog on DVD under the new name, before eventually being renamed in April of 2003 to something that has since stuck to this very day: Aniplex.
Celebrating 20 years under this name in 2023, Aniplex is arguably one of the most well known corporation names when it comes to anime... but for the past decade or so it's also been a bit of a controversial one, especially in English. Up until that point, Aniplex was a Japanese licensor like any other, i.e. if an English anime company wanted to license an anime from Aniplex, they would just need to get into contact & start making a deal. Even when Aniplex of America was founded in March of 2005, it was originally just an easier way for companies to license anime, as now there was an American division to initiate contact with. However, once "AoA" started releasing anime in English on its own in the 2010s, starting with the Gurren Lagann movies... things changed. I am not here to talk about AoA's focus on expensive, Japanese-style releases meant solely for the super-hardcore fans, as it's obviously a methodology that has worked for the company to this very day (they took what Bandai Visual USA tried & actually made it work), but I do want to focus on Aniplex's seeming refusal to license anything out to other companies for the past decade. Going all the way back to the CBS/Sony days in the 80s, there are literally decades-worth of anime that Aniplex owns the rights to, some of which I've reviewed in the past, yet literally nothing from said catalog has ever been licensed for home video release (either for the first time or as a rescue) by anything other than Aniplex of America, starting around 2013 or so. Who knows if things will even change now that "Sony" owns both Crunchyroll & FUNimation as, despite being semi-redundant now, Aniplex of America still continues to release new titles in English, seemingly only because that's 100% Sony Music's baby, so no one can actually stop them; in comparison, both FUNi & Crunchyroll are co-owned by Sony Pictures & Sony Music (though Aniplex). Remember, despite all being a part of the overall Sony conglomerate, these are still individual companies.
So, for the first time ever, I am dedicating an entire license rescue list to a single Japanese licensor, as even by instituting a restriction of "it can't still be available in English via streaming" I wound up with more than 12 entries & had to decide what wouldn't be included this around. Yes, I could literally do an entire SECOND Aniplex-only license rescue list in the future, and this was already excluding the various Aniplex titles that had already appeared in prior lists I've done (like Android Kikaider, Roujin Z, Kiba, Nerima Daikon Brothers & Crystal Triangle, etc.)! So let's just get started with my first six picks & see just a snippet of what is seemingly (and/or effectively) barred from re-release in English.
If there's someone who has had a minor resurgence in the past few years, at least in terms of their work seeing release in English (either for the first time or again after years), it's the legendary Shotaro Ishinomori. The past decade or so has seen a number of his most iconic works be given English release, whether it's Discotek releasing the 2001 Cyborg 009 TV anime & later the 1969 Flying Phantom Ship movie, Netflix streaming the 2015 Cyborg 009 vs. Devilman crossover OVA, FUNimation & Anime Limited releasing the 2012 009 Re:Cyborg CG movie, Generation Kikaida & JN Productions releasing the 2014 Kikaider Reboot live-action film, some of his various manga getting released by Comixology (Cyborg 009, The Skull Man, Inazuman, Kikaider), Viz (The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past), & Seven Seas (Himitsu Sentai Gorenger & Kamen Rider), & (arguably most notably) the Kamen Rider tokusatsu franchise finally receiving a steady stream of English releases (both digitally & physically) by a variety of companies; you know, that's even more than I thought it was! However, missing from all of this resurgence is one of Ishinomori's smaller works, though one that received an excellent anime adaptation in the mid-00s: 009-1.
Running from 1967 to 1974 in Futabasha's Weekly Manga Action for six volumes, 009ノ1 ("Zero-Zero-Ku-no-Ichi"... get it?) was similar to Cyborg 009 in that it focused on a group of cyborg soldiers, but the twist here was that the cyborgs were all femme fatales who worked as secret agents for the Western Bloc in an alternate universe Cold War that has raged for 140 years; think more "Female Cyborg James Bond" than "Spiritual Precursor to All-New, All-Different X-Men". The manga received a live-action TV series in 1969, but otherwise would lay dormant until late 2006, when Aniplex helped produce a 12-episode TV anime adaptation directed by Naoyuki Konno (A Centaur's Life), who had previously done the character designs for both the 2001 Cyborg 009 anime & the 2000 Android Kikaider anime. A perfect example of a cult-classic (i.e. few have seen it, but most who have absolutely love it), the 009-1 anime ("Zero-Zero-Nine-One", though the amazing OP theme pronounces it "Double-O-Nine-One") was pretty much ignored by the English fansub circle at the time, but luckily was quickly picked up by ADV Films, which released the entire show (plus the bonus OVA that takes place between Eps 4 & 5) across three DVDs in 2007; the artbox was even a snazzy little tin attaché case. Unfortunately, 009-1 was one of the many anime ADV had licensed during its notoriously bad working relationship with Sojitz Corporation, and when that relationship broke down & later went to court (where the amounts that were spent to license each of these shows was publicly revealed; 009-1 cost $325,000, or $25,000/ep), FUNimation wound up with the license, releasing a DVD boxset for the show in 2009, followed by a S.A.V.E.-branded re-release in 2010.
Ever since then, 009-1 has never been seen again, outside of Media Blasters releasing the 2013 live-action movie directed by legendary tokusatsu stunt coordinator Koichi Sakamoto, which Aniplex had nothing to do with; the movie is officially streaming, but not the anime. I remember absolutely loving the 009-1 anime, and while I still own my ADV DVDs (& attaché case), I would love for others to be able to give it a watch without having to hunt down the ADV or FUNimation releases.
Media Blasters wound up having a decent enough relationship with Aniplex's prior forms during the late 90s & early 00s, arguably culminating in MB releasing the original Rurouni Kenshin TV anime, which would become a massive success for the company & a generation-defining anime in North America due to it airing on Toonami; just a shame about that original creator. Anyway, Kenshin is still available via streaming (though using the not-beloved Samurai X dub), which makes it ineligible for this list (& with that anime reboot on the way, who knows if it'll ever get re-released, in the first place), so I decided to go with something that's not as well known, but definitely deserves more attention than it really got back in the day. Running from 1999 to 2005 in the pages of Ultra Jump magazine for 12 volumes, Sadamitsu the Destroyer is the most iconic work from Masahiro Nakahira that has nothing to do with Street Fighter, as he is most associated with that video game franchise, even being the original creator of both Evil Ryu & Karin Kanzuki. The manga stars Tsubaki Sadamitsu, a normal high school delinquent with a code of honor who winds up being the only man who can put a stop to an alien invasion by intergalactic criminals by becoming a power suit-wearing warrior with the help of a robot officer that he accidentally got destroyed early on.
At the start of 2001, a 10-episode TV anime adaptation of Sadamitsu the Destroyer by Studio Deen aired on WOWOW, with SME Visual Works being the sole producer. Directed by the legendary Koichi Ohata, his first time directing a TV series, the anime apparently isn't technically a direct adaptation of Nakahira's manga, instead taking the general plot & characters to tell its own story, one that winds up becoming more of a long-form origin story of a hero. This is best exemplified by the OP theme, which throughout the show is a fun Taku Iwasaki instrumental song with a strong spaghetti western feel, only for the final episode to change things up by adding vocals sung by Yuji Ueda (Sadamitsu himself), confirming that our lead has finally become the hero he always thought he could be; without a doubt, it's one of the coolest things I've ever seen done with an anime OP. Media Blasters would then license & release the anime across three dual-audio DVDs from late 2003 to mid 2004 (got to maximize as much profit as you can out of only 10 episodes, right?), followed by a complete collection in early 2005; the English dub was produced by NYAV Post & directed by Sean "Goku" Schemmel. Beyond that, there's been nothing else when it comes to Sadamitsu the Destroyer, which is sad. While it certainly won't go down as one of the first shows I'd except anime fans to clamor for should Aniplex titles ever become license-able again, it definitely deserves more attention & recognition for being the fun & very enjoyable series that it is.
Next up is a curious case, because it shows how inconsistent Aniplex can be when it comes to multi-season shows being made available officially in English. It's also another case where two different companies had the license in the past, but in this case it was through differing seasons. Debuting on October 4, 2005, Hell Girl is an original 26-episode TV anime series conceived of by animator/director Hiroshi Watanabe (The Law of Ueki, Slayers movies & OVAs) detailing the various episodic gigs taken on by Ai Enma, the titular "Hell Girl", & her associates, who take requests by people who wish have others sent to Hell in the name of things like revenge, injustice, hatred, & so on. Despite being the original creator, Watanabe actually didn't direct the show itself, instead having Takahiro Omori (Baccano!, Durarara!!, Natsume's Book of Friends) take the lead. Alongside a manga adaptation by Miyuki Eto, Hell Girl would become a success, resulting in both a second season (Hell Girl: Two Mirrors) & even a live-action TV drama debuting in late 2006.
In late 2007, FUNimation licensed the first season of the anime & released it on dual-audio DVDs through mid-2008, followed by boxset re-releases in 2009 & 2010. Sales must not have been great, as FUNi never released any more of the anime, but on May 25, 2010 (the literal same exact day as the second boxset re-release) Sentai Filmworks released a Part 1 sub-only DVD collection for Two Mirrors, followed by the second half coming out two months later; Sentai even hired the same translator, Shoko Oono, for consistency. By this point, a third series (Hell Girl: Three Vessels) had aired back in 2008, the only one that Watanabe himself directed, and Sentai would release that on DVD immediately after Two Mirrors; these two later seasons would then get complete collection DVD boxsets in 2011 & 2012, respectively. While FUNimation did stream the first season while it had the license & Sentai streamed the latter two seasons over at The Anime Network (& they all had a one-year run on Verizon's short-lived go90 streaming service in 2017/2018), none of them are currently available via streaming, while the various home video releases are all long out of print. What makes this all the more odd is that a 12-episode fourth season (Hell Girl: Fourth Twilight) would actually debut in mid-2017, first getting simulcasted as part of Amazon's Anime Strike service before finding its current home over at Crunchyroll; naturally, Shoko Oono was NOT brought back to translate. While the entire series is episodic by its very nature, it is weird that Aniplex only currently has the fourth season available in English in any way (outside of that single year when go90 had all four seasons), and not only are the first three seasons out of print physically... but Fourth Twilight has never received a physical release, in general!
I wouldn't necessarily expect Aniplex of America to physically release every single anime it owns in North America, but it is weird how it has never bothered to release the fourth season of a series that has had its prior three seasons released on DVD; you'd think there would be at least some sort of guaranteed fanbase for it, at that point. Really, Hell Girl is a perfect example of why Aniplex is so controversial in North America today: It won't stream the prior seasons of a show it currently has the latest season still streaming of (thereby making it a little tricky to attract newcomers), it won't release the latest season physically for fans who bought the prior seasons (so said fans can never own the entirety of a show they love), and it seemingly won't allow anyone else to do so, either!
While they are technically their own individual companies, it still only makes sense that if an anime adaptation of a Sony Computer Entertainment video game is in the works, then Sony Music Entertainment more than likely might be involved in some way. That would be the case for our next entry in this list, 1999's Wild Arms: Twilight Venom, a.k.a. "Wild Arms TV" (get it?), a 22-episode TV series based on the Wild Arms series of PlayStation RPGs, heavily inspired by the Wild West, developed by Media.Vision & published by Sony Computer Entertainment (though later entries would see international release by the likes of Agetec, XSEED, & 505 Games, depending on the region). Unlike most video game anime, Wild Arms TV isn't an adaptation of any of the games, but rather is an original story starring Sheyenne Rainstorm, a dangerous gunslinger who's been trapped in the body of a 10-year old boy, though it does take place in the same universe as the first two games (i.e. the only ones made, by that point), as characters from Wild Arms 1 & 2 do make cameo appearances of varying importance throughout the show. I haven't seen it myself yet, but from what I remember hearing way back in the day was that it was generally considered one of the better video game-based anime for its time (though, to be fair, that bar was generally set rather low), but overall not really talked about much beyond that. I imagine the point of making it an original plot was so that it could appeal to people who hadn't played the games, thereby making them interested in playing them if they liked the world of Filgaia, while fans of the games would enjoy the references & call backs throughout.
ADV Films would license Wild Arms TV & release it across five dual-audio DVD singles throughout 2003 (a non-standard number of episodes deserved a non-standard number of DVDs), before getting re-released in a thinpak complete collection ("which was the style at the time") in late 2005. Most interesting of all, though, is that a month after the thinkpak collection came out, Agetec would release Wild Arms Alter Code: f for the PS2, a full remake of the original game, and that English release included a bonus DVD containing the first episode of Wild Arms TV! What's neat is if you look at the bonus disc itself it says that the show was licensed to ADV by "SME Visual Works", despite Aniplex being the company's name for so long by that point that Aniplex of America was already a thing! Beyond that, ADV would also release two Wild Arms - Music the Best albums, which contained selected music tracks from Wild Arms 1-4, Alter Code: f, & even (two whole songs from) Twilight Venom; from what I can tell, though, these were likely just imports that ADV offered for sale. Since then, there's been more or less nothing new in regards to Wild Arms TV, outside of it being available for streaming rental over in Japan. Admittedly, this show wouldn't necessarily be high on my list of "Aniplex anime that I'd love to see get licensed or re-released", but at the same time it's also another perfect example of the repercussions of Aniplex's actions, as this is 100% wholly-owned by "Sony" (& is even streaming in Japan), yet even this can't get any love in North America.
This would make for a perfect "Hey, remember this show?!" SD-BD boxset release by Discotek Media, for sure.
Once SME Visual Works got renamed Aniplex, it didn't take long for Sony Music's baby to make a proper name for itself, as one of its earliest hits under the new name was 2003's Fullmetal Alchemist, based on the manga by Hiromu Arakawa. "FMA 2003" was replacing Mobile Suit Gundam Seed on MBS's Saturday 6 pm time slot, which itself had replaced Ultraman Cosmos, and the continual success of that time slot made it a hot commodity for a number of years in the 00s. Naturally, Aniplex kind of took command of that time slot, as after swapping back with Gundam Seed Destiny in 2004, Sony Music's baby would be the leading force for the next three shows that aired in that slot. While we'll get to the first two that aired after Seed Destiny next time, I want to start off with the last Aniplex anime that aired on MBS every Saturday at 6 pm: 2007's Toward the Terra. Based on the iconic 1977 sci-fi shojo manga by the legendary Keiko Takemiya, Toward the Terra (a.k.a. To Terra...) tells the story of Jomy Marcus Shin, who winds up becoming the savior & leader of the Mu, psionically-powered humans who have been persecuted & hunted after by "normal" humans. It received a radio drama on NHK-FM in 1979, followed by a theatrical anime film in 1980 by Toei. That latter production saw English release by Right Stuf, first on VHS & LD in 1995 & then re-released on DVD in late 2008, mainly because of the 2007 TV adaptation being released in English during that same time, a rare instance where an older version of an anime actually got released in North America in concert with a newer version.
Said English release of the TV anime came from Bandai Entertainment, who released it sub-only across six DVDs across the second half of 2008. This happened during an experimental period where the company gave fans the option of either buying one DVD for just $20 each, or buying a double-pack (Vol 1 & 2, 3 & 4, 5 & 6) for $35 each, with the latter option saving you $15, in total. Yeah, it does sound a bit much, but you do have to remember that this was right after the bubble burst for the North American anime market, so companies that were still around were looking for any ways to keep the train moving, & Crunchyroll was only just starting to put out some of its very first official streams & simulcasts during this time (Shugo Chara!, Skip Beat!, etc.). Bandai Entertainment would then re-release Toward the Terra TV as a complete collection boxset under the Anime Legend banner in late 2009 (which now goes for absurd prices on the secondhand market), and that would be the last we'd ever heard of this franchise in anime form (movie or TV) in North America. Today, the manga is only currently available over at Manga Planet (Vertical's physical release is long out-of-print), while over in Japan the movie has since seen an HD remaster on Blu-Ray in 2013 (complete with a deleted scene, a rarity for an anime film), while the TV series is currently set to receive its own Blu-Ray re-release in March.
Naturally, Aniplex of America has made no announcement regarding an English version of the TV series' Blu-Ray re-release, and if AoA won't do anything with it, it's entirely possible that NO ONE will be allowed to do anything with it. One can only hope that, one day, we'll get another re-release of movie by Toei, because at least that isn't seemingly off limits for licensing.
 |
| When there was literally no English home video release, the old website will do! |
We end Part 1 with an interesting pick, and that's simply because while it was indeed licensed for English release, it only ever happened via cable TV broadcast... and I'm sure barely anyone even knew that it had aired in North America, in the first place. Aniplex really isn't known for being involved with toys for children (again, it's an offshoot of a music company & focuses more on stuff appealing to anime otaku), but it made an exception back in late 2005 for Idaten Jump, a 52-episode TV anime by Trans Arts (with help from Production I.G.) that was created as part of a multimedia endeavor, with a 5-volume manga by Toshihiro Fujiwara that ran in Kodansha's now-defunct Comic BonBon magazine for young kids & a toy line by Tomy. The toys themselves were miniature mountain bikes/MTBs with a human rider on top that kids could put onto a charging station so that they could launch out at speed after pumping repeatedly, or simply via ripcord; yeah, it's about as interesting as it sounds. The manga & anime, in turn, starred Sho Yamato, a young boy who loves MTB & winds up being teleported to the "X Zone" with his friends Kakeru & Makoto, who now have to get 10 gold emblems by winning Idaten battles (a.k.a. MTB races) in order to get back home; at least, from what I can tell, that's how the first half of show works. I actually did watch the first episode of the Idaten Jump anime way back when out of curiosity, as it did have a short-lived fansub effort, and I remember it being a rather harmless show for kids, though seeing Kakeru & Makoto pumping a giant charging station for Sho's bike before a race naturally looked rather silly; at least it has a fun 1st OP theme.
What makes Idaten Jump eligible for this list comes down to the simple fact that the anime did indeed get licensed for English release... by Hasbro. Sure, the company also had licensed the toys from Tomy for release in North America, ones that I swear I never even knew came out until rather recently, but instead of teaming with another company for the anime, Hasbro decided to license it themselves & worked with D-Spot Post Production in Burbank, CA to produce an English dub, one that actually debuted on Cartoon Network on December 7, 2006... at 6 am in the morning; there was also an online option via Hasbro's own MonkeyBar TV. I honestly can't tell whether putting Idaten Jump on the time slot it got was either an attempt at getting kids who actually got up that early for school (like how Dragon Ball Z's initial syndication efforts, pre-Toonami, did something similar), or if this was simply a case of Cartoon Network not really caring about the show in any way & just plopped it into whatever time slot it had that could still be called "reasonable". To no surprise, Idaten Jump didn't manage to fully air on Cartoon Network, stopping after Episode 26, while YTV in Canada (which debuted the show a month after CN) did continue to air it, though it too stopped early after Episode 36; who knows if Hasbro & D-Spot even bothered to dub the entire show, in the first place. As for the dub itself, directed by Michael Sorich (Digimon Adventure, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo), it actually involved a ton of anime regulars, like Yuri Lowenthal, Dorothy Fahn, Dave Wittenberg, Mona Marshall, & even Steven Blum, so I imagine it's at least a solid enough dub; it was even translated by kids anime expert Travis Anderson (B-Daman, Digimon, Mon Colle Knights). But, yeah, since Hasbro itself had licensed the show, & it was never sub-licensed to another company, there is literally no home video release for the show in English, and even in Japan it only ever received a limited release meant for rental stores.
Normally, I wouldn't really bother to include a show like Idaten Jump in a license rescue list like this, but in the context of the theme of this list I think it actually makes for a rather interesting pick. While there are bits of Habsro's dub here & there online, like the entire first episode, it's essentially become lost to time. The idea of people finding & sharing old dubs that were once thought lost, via places like the Internet Archive, has become more & more common in the past years, while a company like Discotek has made a concerted effort to preserve old dubs, especially if they can match said dub to something like remastered footage. While the availability of Idaten Jump's dub may be murky due to it being produced by Hasbro (which likely still owns the rights to it), it's something that can't even be found out in the first place since Aniplex seemingly owns the rights to the show itself, which means that the chances of that dub being properly preserved in any way is even less likely.
-----
In some way, this year's license rescue list can potentially be interpreted as me "calling out" Aniplex, and I wouldn't really fault anyone for thinking that way. It is a fact that most anime involving Aniplex in some way from the past decade don't tend to get licensed & released in English unless it's by Aniplex of America, with there being very few exceptions (Right Stuf licensing Big Windup! Season 2, Sentai Filmworks licensing Urusei Yatsura [2022], etc.), and said exceptions could simply come down to Aniplex only being a single part of a larger production committee, which means that another company likely had the licensing rights. Also, to be perfectly honest, Aniplex doesn't give a crap about what I say or feel about this situation... and nor should it.
Still, a major factor of these license rescue lists are about reminding people (whether they be fans or even a part of the industry) of shows from the past that once saw official English release & I feel should be given another chance, and if a more-than-decent number of such anime are all owned by a single Japanese licensor, then so be it. Check back next week for another six entries that Aniplex may or may not be "holding hostage", as some would put it.
009-1 © Ishimori Entertainment/Project 009-1
Sadamitsu the Destroyer © 2001 Masahiko Nakahira・Shueisha/Aniplex
Hell Girl (Seasons 1 & 2) © Hell Girl Project/SKY PerfecTV Welthink・Aniplex
Hell Girl: Three Vessels © Hell Girl Project/Three Vessels Production Committee
Wild Arms TV © 1999 Sony Computer Entertainment Inc
Toward the Terra TV © Keiko Takemiya/MBS・SKYPerfecTV Wellthink・Aniplex・Dentsu
Idaten Jump © Toshihiro Fujiwara・Tomy・Kodansha/Aniplex・CUBE・MN・TV Tokyo
I need to own Blue Gender on blu ray
ReplyDelete