Twelve(+2) Anime with "Missing" Portions Yet to be Licensed for English Release Part 1

As simple as we, as fans, might think it is, actually licensing anime can sometimes be a tricky thing. If it's an older production there can be situations like needing to reunite a production committee, figuring out who has the rights if a company is no longer in business (& then seeing if the seeming current owner even has the paperwork to prove it, for legal reasons), and if there are multiple parts to an anime then each of those individual parts could have their own licensing situations. That last one is what I want to focus on, as there have been multiple examples of an anime getting licensed for English release, only for it to not truly be "complete" due to there being other productions related to it in some fashion that weren't also licensed. Sometimes it's simply because said other productions weren't made yet, sometimes it was made by a completely different set of companies (& because of that it might purposefully be made unavailable for licensing, so as to prevent market confusion), sometimes there's just one change in companies that makes it a completely different licensing situation as everything else, and sometimes it's simply a case of "no one really wants to work with that company". Therefore, which anime are "missing" from English release, i.e. we got part of it, but not all of it?

I tried my best to include just 12 for this two-part list, but in the end I wanted to include all of the ones I could come across (though this is not a "complete" list, I'm sure), so I'm cheating & adding in a "(+2)" for this list! What is this, 2012?!

Debuting in early 2000, Kino's Journey -the Beautiful World- by Keiichi Sigsawa (story) & Kouhaku Kuroboshi (art) is a novel series detailing the travels of the titular Kino & her talking motorcycle Hermes as they visit various places in their world, staying no longer than three days so as to not feel like they'll ever "settle down", with the concept of the series being to showcase the different cultures & customs of the world's inhabitants; it's still running to this day & currently totals 23 volumes. In Spring 2003 a 13-episode TV anime adaptation aired on WOWOW, with animation by A.C.G.T. & direction by the late Ryutaro Nakamura (Serial Experiments Lain, Sakura Wars TV [2000]), and in early 2004 ADV Films started releasing it on dual-audio DVD. The reason why the release happened so quickly was because this anime was one of the handful that ADV actually managed to be part of a production committee for, with co-founder John Ledford even being listed in the Japanese credits as a producer. Because of this, ADV essentially has a perpetual license for this 2003 anime (there would later be a 12-episode reboot in 2017 that FUNimation/Crunchyroll currently has), which has resulted in it being both available via streaming over at Hidive & as well as the occasional modern re-release, most recently in 2019. While the 2017 reboot went on to receive a more mixed (though overall still positive) reception, the 2003 series is still considered an all-time classic, though maybe today it's probably more of a cult-classic.

However, there are three Kino's Journey anime productions that have never seen official English release, despite all of them being related to that 2003 series. First is February 2005's Kino's Journey: Nanika wo suru tame ni/The Reason to Do Something -Life Goes On-, a 30-minute theatrical short film which details how Kino learned to be self-sufficient & protect herself using guns, by way of her teacher "Shishou"; while A.C.G.T. still handled the animation, this was directed by Takashi Watanabe (Boogiepop Phantom). Then, in October 2005, a bonus 12-minute OVA, Episode 0: Tou no Kuni/The Tower Country -Free Lance-, came out on home video alongside Life Goes On. Ironically enough, about a week later ADV would re-release the TV anime via thinpak DVD boxset, which contained neither of these later productions. Finally, in April 2007, another 30-minute theatrical short, Kino's Journey: Byouki no Kuni/The Sick Country -For You-, debuted as part of the Dengeki Bunko Movie Festival, alongside movies for Shakugan no Shana & Inukami!; this time around Ryutaro Nakamura returned to direct, though now Shaft handled the animation. Interestingly enough, if you look at the production committees for these later productions you'll find the same exact companies involved (Media Works, Pony Canyon, Character and Anime.com [now Chara-ani], & Genco [not for Life Goes On & Free Lance, though])... all except for ADV Films, that is. While ADV managed to be a part of the committee for the TV anime back in 2003 it was left out of the proceedings for all three of these later productions, and (for all we know) maybe that was intentional on the part of the Japanese companies, though we can only speculate as to why ADV simply never bothered to just license them the traditional way. That being said, they likely would have gotten caught up in the whole mess with Sojitz, anyway, so maybe it was for the best that ADV didn't license them.

To this day these three short films remain the only bits of the various Kino's Journey anime productions to never see official English release, and it's not as though they've been forgotten in Japan, since all three are still streaming over there (Life Goes On & Free Lance are combined into a single video now), so the simple fact that they have yet to get licensed is a bit odd, as you'd think that maybe at least Sentai Filmworks would have given them a go by now; maybe they could have even gotten Kelli Cousins out of retirement to voice Kino herself for the dub again. Considering that these productions only total to around 70+ minutes or so, and the simple fact that "zombie ADV" has perpetual rights to the 2003 series, it's honestly entirely possible that we may never get these last remaining Kino anime (pun accidentally intended), if only because there's so little of it for any other company to bother licensing & releasing (if they even could), barring maybe the possibility to remaster them in HD, since at least two of them were theatrically released.

Chiaki only appears on the VHS cover, while Zenki gets
the LD cover all to himself (aside from the monster behind him).

Next is an interesting one, as the TV anime it's related to already had two prior English releases by (technically) two different companies, yet neither one ever got this later OVA production... and it's likely that it was never even available to them in the first place, at least from where they got the TV anime. Running in Monthly Shonen Jump between 1992 & 1996 for 12 volumes, Kishin Douji/Fierce God Boy Zenki by Kikuhide Tani (story) & Yoshihiro Kuroiwa (art) is a series that I've mentioned before in these 12 anime lists, specifically Part 2 of the fifth license rescue list, way back in 2014, an entire decade ago! An action-oriented series starring a young priestess & the young demon that she accidentally freed (so, in other words, it's kind of [Monthly] Jump's take on Ushio & Tora), it would receive a 51-episode TV anime that ran throughout all of 1995 done by Studio Deen & directed by Junji Nishimura (Violinist of Hameln TV, Simoun), though it apparently diverged notably from the original manga, and would be given two different official English releases. The first was actually as the show was still airing, as Software Sculptors licensed & released Zenki on subbed VHS, getting the first tape or two out as the show was just finishing up in Japan; unfortunately, though, only six tapes, covering the first 13 episodes, ever came out. After Central Park Media bought up Software Sculptors, & founder John Sirabella later left CPM to found Media Blasters, Zenki would be given a second chance in the early 00s, as MB would license rescue the show & released all 51 episodes across four dual-audio DVD boxsets; yep, they even dubbed it this time around!

However, that's not all there was to the Zenki anime, as on March 21, 1997 an OVA titled Kishin Douji Zenki Gaiden: Anki Kitan/The Mysterious Tale of the Dark Demon came out on VHS & LD in Japan. While it brought back much of the same staff & cast as the TV anime, this 45-minute OVA side story was notably darker & more serious in its tone than either the manga or TV series; the character designs were even altered slightly to match the new tone. While it made perfect sense that Software Sculptors didn't license it back in 1995, as it didn't even exist at the time, Anki Kitan was skipped over by Media Blasters in the 00s. The reason for that comes down to where John Sirabella got Zenki both times around: Enoki Films. I've brought up Enoki on occasion here, but for those unfamiliar its essentially a middleman licensing company that gets international licensing rights for various anime (mostly from the 80s, 90s, & early 00s, but has also gotten the rare later anime), so as to assist companies that maybe wouldn't normally license out anime itself... and has pretty much gotten the reputation of being the last company anyone in North America really wants to work with, unless absolutely necessary (see: Gensou Maden Saiyuki, Slayers, Utena, His & Her Circumstances, etc.); even Discotek Media eventually stopped working with Enoki, most recently. Back in the 90s & 00s, Enoki Films handled the licensing for Zenki (even getting included in the copyright for the subbed VHS tapes), and that seemed to only ever include the TV anime, despite Enoki saying that the show was 52 episodes. (Even Media Blasters' final DVD boxset says 52 episodes on the included physical chapter card, even though the final disc only has up to 51!) Therefore, it was impossible to license the Anki Kitan OVA through Enoki, and with an ever so slightly different copyright (Nippon Columbia is listed in place of TV Tokyo) that meant that it was 100% its own individual license from the get-go. One can only guess that Zenki's DVD boxsets likely underperformed, but who knows if the whole situation with Enoki having rights to the TV anime made licensing Anki Kitan more trouble than it was worth, to start with; for those curious, though, Anki Kitan was fansubbed a while ago.

Most notably, though, it looks as though Enoki Films may no longer have the rights to Zenki TV. If you go Enoki's current website the anime isn't listed anywhere at all, but if you take a trip through the Wayback Machine you can find that it once was, as late as mid-2011 in fact. Now, sure, that archived link was from Enoki Films USA's website, and that division shut down in 2010, but one would think that the main website for the company would also list Zenki as one of its titles if it still had it, right? Maybe K-Factory (an offshoot of Kitty Films) decided to take back licensing control of the TV anime, for all we know. Regardless, neither Zenki anime is readily available, even in Japan (the TV anime did eventually see DVD there, while Anki Kitan remains VHS & LD only), so maybe it's just not in the cards for Zenki to one day see a truly "complete" release, in general.

Here we have a perfect example of an initial anime adaptation being released before the property truly got popular due to a later anime reboot, and because of that the remainder of said initial anime adaptation now seems utterly redundant to ever license for English release. Prior to the 2011 anime reboot by Madhouse, Yoshihiro Togashi's Hunter x Hunter was a series that took a little bit to finally start seeing official English release, mainly due to Yu Yu Hakusho taking the spotlight throughout the early 00s. Therefore, by the time Viz finally started releasing the HxH manga in English in 2005 the first anime adaptation by Nippon Animation from 1999 had completely finished up, so for the first few years Viz was hoping that Togashi's name would be enough to carry the manga. Eventually, though, Viz decided to give the anime a go, so from 2008 to 2009 all 62 episodes of Nippon Animation's TV anime adaptation, which covered up through the halfway point of the Yorknew Arc, got released across four dual-audio DVD boxsets; the dub even got TV time on the Funimation Channel in 2009. After that, Viz more or less gave up on releasing the anime, until Madhouse's reboot in 2011 caught on like wildfire & turned Hunter x Hunter into a smash hit in English.

However, there were three OVA continuations for Nippon Animation's adaptation, adding another 30 episodes. After the TV anime ended in early 2001, the series would return in 2002 for (the rather generically titled) Hunter x Hunter: Original Video Animation, which adapted the remainder of the Yorknew Arc (or, at least, the stuff involving the Phantom Troupe) across eight episodes; while Kazuhiro Furuhashi (Spy x Family) directed the TV anime, this OVA was directed by Satoshi Saga (Green Legend Ran). The following year saw Hunter x Hunter: Greed Island, another eight-episode OVA run, this time adapting the first part of the Greed Island Arc, ending right as Biscuit Kreuger decides to start training Gon & Killua; this time around Hiroyuki Fukushima (Maria Watches Over Us) directed. Finally, 2004 saw one last OVA run, Hunter x Hunter: G.I. Final, which adapted the remainder of the Greed Island Arc across 14 episodes; Takeshi Hirota (Sukeban Deka OVA) took over directorial duties for this final run. Acting as the literal continuation of the TV anime, these OVA episodes are counted as Episodes 63 to 92 of Nippon Animation's adaptation, though when compared to Madhouse's 148 episodes these only equate up to Episode 75 of that adaptation.

Unfortunately, the chances of these Hunter x Hunter OVAs ever getting officially licensed for English release, much like the TV anime they're connected to getting license rescued, are likely extremely small today, mainly due to Madhouse's adaptation, even with that already being more than a decade old. I mean, there's isn't even an official streaming option for Nippon Animation's Hunter x Hunter in Japan, and it's entirely possible that it's 100% intentional. After all, it's seemingly an open secret that Toei's Yu-Gi-Oh! anime from 1998 is kept under lock & key because of the continual success & promotion of the YGO! franchise ever since the Duel Monsters anime (which are produced by different entities than Toei's anime), while it's been admitted that the old JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 3 OVAs (& likely the Phantom Blood movie, too) are currently not available to license because the Japanese companies want the focus to be on the modern JoJo TV anime productions. Obviously, this is a case-by-case sort of thing & there can be exceptions, but I wouldn't be surprised if this scenario is also applying to Hunter x Hunter, especially since there's that new fighting game coming out that's based on Madhouse's adaptation; don't want there to be brand confusion, right? Also, I should also note that there's the 1998 anime pilot for Hunter x Hunter by Studio Pierrot that's also never been licensed, but that's 100% solely owned by Shueisha, so it's never even been a possibility to license.

We return to Enoki Films for our next entry, though at least this one is still 100% with the company. Written in the 14th century by Luo Guanzhong, the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a fictionalized & romanticized (hence the title) version of Records of the Three Kingdoms by Chen Shou, a written record of China's Three Kingdoms era made shortly after the Jin dynasty brought it all to an end in 280. Despite being all about China, Romance is absurdly popular over in Japan & is often utilized for inspiration when it comes to all sorts of media, and sometimes Japanese creatives simply make their own adaptations of the story; easily the most well-known would be Koei Tecmo's Romance of the Three Kingdoms & Dynasty Warriors video game franchises. While the full title of Romance in Japanese is Sangokushi Engi, it's usually shortened to just Sangokushi, despite that technically being the Japanese name for Records, though I honestly doubt it ever really results in much confusion, outside of for historians. This also applies to anime, though there aren't actually that many anime that are based directly on the story of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. One of those is an anime movie trilogy produced by Shinano Kikaku, a production company known partially for producing adaptations of Soka Gakkai founder Daisaku Ikeda's works; these Romance films, though, have nothing to do with a cult like Soka Gakkai. Of those, the first film, 1992's Sangokushi 1: Eiyuu-tachi no Yoake/Dawn of the Heroes, was licensed & dubbed by Streamline Pictures back in the 90s, even getting the late, great Pat Morita to voice the narrator, calling it Great Conquest: The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In early 2020 Discotek Media would then license rescue this film & release it in a DVD twin-pack (one disc for the edited dub, and one for the subbed Japanese original), as well as announce that it would be the last DVD release ever from the company; Discotek has since exclusively released on Blu-Ray & SD-BD.

However, what of the other two films, 1993's Sangokushi 2: Chouko Moyu!/The Yangtze Burns! & 1994's Sangokushi 3: Harukanaru Daichi/The Faraway Land? Unfortunately, those have never been licensed for English release, though they've been kept available over in Japan, even having official streams. That means that all we ever got in English from this trilogy was the story up to the defeat of Lü Bu in 199, while the second movie covered Liu Bei's rise up through the Battle of Chibi in 208 & the foundation of the Shu Han in 221, & the third movie moved the focus over to Shu strategist Zhuge Liang & Guan Yiping (the daughter of Guan Yu) & covered all the way up to the Battle of Wuzhang Plains in 234, which is where Luo Guanzhong's novel covered up to; yeah, the actual Romance novel doesn't cover the last 46 years of the era, i.e. the rise of the Jin dynasty. Interestingly enough, for the longest time this movie trilogy was the only anime adaptation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms to actually cover the entire story (more or less), as the two-part TV special that Nippon TV produced in the mid-80s only covered up to the establishment of the Shu Han, the early 90s' TV anime adaptation of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's epic 60-volume manga retelling (which itself actually went further than the novel did) only covered up through the Battle of Chibi, 2007's Koutetsu Sangokushi did cover up to Wuzhang Plains but started in media res in the early 200s, & 2009's Souten Kouro only covered up to the defeat of Lü Bu, or so. It wouldn't be until 2010 that another anime adaptation would actually cover the entire (novel) story from start to end, and that was a 52-episode TV anime (Saikyo Bushouden Sangoku Engi) that was a Japan/China co-production. Naturally, it got absolutely no attention, barely any fansubs (only the first four episodes, from what I can tell), & is now utterly forgotten; this one also looks to be focused primarily on Lui Bei/Shu's perspective.

Anyway, to bring things back into focus, since Enoki Films handles the international licensing for Shinano Kikaku's movie trilogy (as well as the Yokoyama TV anime... thanks Dai Nippon Printing *sarcasm*), and with the current status of Enoki as "that company no one else wants to deal with", the chances of the entire trilogy being given a complete English release are now seemingly zero, which sucks. Romance of the Three Kingdoms is considered one of the "Classic Chinese Novels" (whether it's four or six is up to debate, apparently), so it honestly is kind of astounding that not a single (direct) anime adaptation of this iconic story has ever seen a complete & official English release, at least physically. Koutetsu Sangokushi was on Viki for a few years in the 10s with crowd-sourced subs, but that's a bit of a "tree falls, but no one hears it" scenario, like when Joost streamed Kaiji in the late 00s (right as Joost was on the verge of going out of business), or when Daisuki offered Heavy Metal L-Gaim for only a literal calendar season (i.e. 3-4 months) before going under.

To be frank, the current business climate of the English anime industry is a bit of a rough one, with Crunchyroll having an effective monopoly over it when it comes to anything current, Hidive is the closest thing to a "direct" competitor but can only do so much (even when it gets extremely lucky with one or two hits shows a year), only a handful of anime companies aren't outright owned by a large corporation of some sort, & the physical home video side of things is effectively held up solely by more boutique outfits, like Discotek Media; of course, there are also problems within the industry itself, like the undervaluing of translators. It's understandable that it reminds some long-time fans of when the anime bubble burst in the mid-to-late 00s, resulting in multiple companies dying over time (ADV, Geneon, Bandai Entertainment, Bandai Visual USA, Urban Vision, etc.; even Media Blasters almost died), and almost no companies rose up to replace them. Sure, Discotek resurfaced during that time & would become the cult-favorite company it is today, but that was founded back in 2005 & had simply ducked out of anime early on for a few years. No, aside from Sentai Filmworks (which was simply the phoenix that spawned out of ADV's ashes), the only truly "new" company to form out of the 00s bubble burst was Anime Midstream, a small, mostly fan run entity out of St. Louis, Missouri. It came out of the gate with a truly unexpected license, too: 1991's Matchless Raijin-Oh, a super robot anime meant for children that was part of the Eldoran Series, Tomy's equivalent to Takara's Brave Series; today, due to the merger of Takara Tomy, the two are essentially sister series. Being a small outfit that initially wanted to dub the show in-house using local talent (i.e. mostly fans), Anime Midstream originally released Raijin-Oh slowly, putting out dual-audio DVD singles on a yearly basis from 2009 to 2013 that covered the first half of the show, before company founder Jimmy Taylor moved the company over to Texas & released the entire second half of the series in 2014 via a sub-only DVD boxset.

However, this only covered the TV anime. Back when it was airing in Japan Matchless Raijin-Oh was a big hit, enough so that Sunrise decided to produce a quartet of OVAs that came out between 1992 & 1993, all while the second entry in the Eldoran Series, Energy Bomb Gambaruger, was airing on TV. While the initial OVA was nothing more than a series of music videos set to footage from the TV series, the remaining three were actual sequel stories, with Sunrise implementing an amusing gimmick where it acted as though an additional 53 episodes of Raijin-Oh existed (creating fake titles for a good number of them & even doing some as audio dramas), and these three OVAs were simply individual episodes from that make-believe continuation. While the first & final of this trio were related by featuring a new main villain for the Earth Defense Class to fight against, and the final OVA acted as the overall finale to all of Raijin-Oh, my personal favorite of these OVAs is easily the second one, Hinobori Castle Clockwork Dream Diary. Acting as "Episode 81", this was a self-contained story that reimagined Raijin-Oh as if it took place during the Edo era, complete with Raijin-Oh itself now being a giant clockwork mecha, instead of the traditional giant robot, and the team at Sunrise went through the trouble of showing how all of Class 5-3 have to work together in order to operate this cool alternate take on the titular robot. Naturally, the episode ends with this simply being a story made up by one of the kids, but this OVA was such an absolute joy to watch, and I maintain that it's possibly the best episode of the entire series, in general.

Sadly, Anime Midstream would never license & release the Matchless Raijin-Oh OVAs, and in an interview I did with Jimmy Taylor in 2018 he admitted that the company was pretty much done with Raijin-Oh, due to a computer fire that made it impossible for them to access the master files containing their work on the series, though they did manage to save the hard drives. The Raijin-Oh OVAs were never actually licensed by Anime Midstream, though, so they count for this list, and I guess I can also include the Rocket Kidz dub pilot that Sunrise had produced back in the 90s, as Midstream actually did get that & used it for inspiration for their dub (like casting Mike Reynolds, who was in both dubs), but never included it as an extra for the DVDs. Regardless, 2018 & 2019 saw Anime Midstream release both halves of the B't X anime via dual-audio DVD boxsets, this time working with Sound Cadence for the dub, before going quiet once again. Today, according to his LinkedIn page, Jimmy Taylor works for Crunchyroll as a "Standards & Practices Analyst", which he's been doing since mid-2022, though he still lists Anime Midstream as being an "active" job for him; that being said, I highly doubt he'll be licensing any anime while also working for Crunchyroll. Personally, while I'm glad to see Jimmy is still working in the industry, I am also sad to see that another English anime company is, for all intents & purposes, dead.

Yes, the Japanese DVDs have German on the covers.
I guess maybe it has something to do with the visual novel?

During the mid-to-late 00s it seemed as though there was almost nothing more beloved, at least within a notable part of anime fandom, than the anime adaptations of Visual Arts' & Key's visual novels. Specifically, I'm talking about Kyoto Animation's trilogy of Air in 2005 (based on the 2000 visual novel), Kanon in 2006 (based on Key's debut work from 1999), & Clannad's two seasons in 2007 & 2008 (based on the 2004 visual novel), with each successive entry receiving higher accolades than the one prior; there have been various other Key anime adaptations since, but the KyoAni trilogy is held in highest regard. However, these weren't the only anime adaptations of Key's visual novels at the time, and while two of those other adaptations did see official English release, one of them has remained exclusive to Japan. While KyoAni's TV adaptation of Air was airing in early 2005, Toei Animation released a 90-minute theatrical adaptation of Air directed by Osamu Dezaki on February 5, and in late 2007 ADV Films released a dual-audio DVD of this movie adaptation, shortly after it had fully released KyoAni's TV adaptation; just like Air TV & Kanon, the Air movie would later get moved over from ADV to FUNimation after the whole Sojitz debacle. Then, in 2007, Toei released another 90-minute theatrical adaptation by Osamu Dezaki (his final film before his death in 2011), this time for Clannad, though this one actually came out before KyoAni's TV adaptation, as the movie debuted on September 15, while Episode 1 debuted on October 4. This time around, Sentai Filmworks would release both Clannad TV & the Clannad movie, though there was at least a couple of years between releases, with KyoAni's TV adaptation originally releasing in 2009, while Toei's movie came out in 2011. Today, Sentai manages to keep both seasons of Clannad TV in print with the occasional re-release, most recently in 2023, while both Air TV & Kanon's re-releases by FUNimation from over a decade ago have only recently started to finally go out of print, as the Kanon DVD boxset is now sold out over at the Crunchyroll Store; Air TV, though, remains available for purchase, as of this piece. The Air & Clannad movies, though, are both fully out of print & now command higher prices, depending on the release.

However, despite all of that potential confusion due to both Kyoto Animation & Toei Animation producing Key anime adaptations at essentially the same time, there remains one last part of the puzzle that has never received an official English release... and it's actually the very first anime adaptation of a Key visual novel, predating all the others by at least three years. Marking the directorial debut of Naoyuki Ito (Overlord, No Guns Life), Toei Animation produced a 12-episode TV anime adaptation of Kanon back in early 2002, and a year after the final episode aired that March a bonus OVA episode, Kanon Kazehana, saw release in March 2003 as a free gift to people who bought all seven DVDs throughout 2002 & submitted proof. When compared to KyoAni's 2006 adaptation, the only thing the two Kanon anime share in common are literally just the voice cast (since they're all reprisals from the visual novel) & Shinji Orito composing music (since he composed the score to the visual novel), though technically Hiroyuki Kouzu actually scored the Toei anime, based on Orito's work. Beyond that, the general consensus is that Toei's Kanon is absolutely, positively, indubitably redundant, and has been the case ever since KyoAni's Kanon came into existence. Aside from being roughly half the length of KyoAni's production, so the storytelling had to be altered for a shorter total run time, Toei's production is also notorious for its visuals, as character designer Yoichi Onishi seemingly decided to be as accurate to Itaru Hinoue's original visual style as possible, and since Kanon was Key's first ever work that meant that the various girls had rather large eyes that may have worked well in stills for the visual novel but simply did not translate over to animation well; in comparison, Tomoe Aratani (Air) & Kazumi Ikeda (Kanon & Clannad) made subtle modifications for KyoAni's animations later on. For all intents & purposes, there's no real reason for anyone to ever watch Toei's Kanon, as KyoAni's Kanon is everything Toei's is, but bigger & better. This is even showcased in Japan, as KyoAni's Kanon is available via streaming there, but Toei's Kanon is not.

But, at the same time, that's what makes Toei's Kanon so fascinating, and I honestly wish that it had been given a chance officially in English. Yeah, there's no point in watching it outside of pure curiosity... but that's kind of the point. There are tons of remakes/reboots of older anime, but in almost every single other example I can think of there's at least something to that original version that still makes it worth watching, if not even being arguably superior to the later version(s) in some respects. Today, pretty much every single anime adaptation of a Key visual novel gets some sort of official English release, even if only via streaming, yet there remains one that we never got... and it's the very first one. Now, similar to the Hunter x Hunter OVAs, it's entirely possible that Visual Arts & Key simply don't want Toei's Kanon to ever be made available again in any official fashion, and if that's the case then it has to be respected. But, man, wouldn't it be an absolute trip to see a company announce that it's licensed the Kanon anime, only to reveal that it's Toei's Kanon?! I mean, with KyoAni's Kanon still being readily available for purchase it's not as though it'd prevent anyone from buying that version still, at least for the time being.

The last one for this first half is one of the "(+2)" entries I mentioned at the start, as while I think this one will actually, finally happen at some point I feel as though it's an obvious one to bring up, so let's just get it out of the way. Debuting in late 1989 in Weekly Shonen Magazine, Hajime no Ippo by George Morikawa is today one of the most celebrated manga of all time, let alone sports manga, and is still coming out to this very day (Volume 140 came out in Japan just a month prior to this list), detailing the life & career of Ippo Makunouchi (& his fellow boxers), from his simple beginnings to eventually becoming national champion to now being retired (for the time being, at least) & working as a coach & trainer. Naturally, with that success came an anime adaptation, starting in late 2000 by Madhouse, that ran for 75 consecutive episodes until early 2002 in late-night (one of only a handful to achieve a year+-long run in that kind of time slot), ending with Ippo becoming Japanese Featherweight Champion. Geneon Entertainment would eventually release that entire series (under the name Fighting Spirit) across 15 triple-audio DVDs (yes, a Spanish dub was also included!), plus the TV movie sequel on a 16th DVD, from 2004 to 2006, where it became a notorious bomb. Eventually, though, Discotek Media would license rescue this anime & release it across three triple-audio BD boxsets throughout 2021, also including the OVA & bonus 76th episode that Geneon never released; an updated DVD version of one episode was even included as a bonus. The continued popularity of Ippo in Japan would eventually result in future anime seasons being made, with the 25-episode third season (2013's Hajime no Ippo: Rising) even getting simulcasted over on Crunchyroll, though there is no physical release for it in English; for those curious, the entire anime currently adapts up to Volume 61, or ~44% of the manga.

However... wait, what about Season 2?! Yes, in 2009 there was a second season of the anime, Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger, which ran for 26 episodes & detailed Ippo's run of challengers for his new title, among other storylines. For whatever reason, when Crunchyroll announced that it got the license to simulcast & stream Rising in 2013 it never actually bothered to also license & stream New Challenger, which meant that those who only ever watched the original Ippo anime via Geneon's DVDs were skipping over literal volumes-worth of story from the manga, including Mamoru Takamura (the boxer who inspired Ippo to take up the sport) becoming WBC Junior-Middleweight Champion, which acted as the climax of New Challenger. Today, Crunchyroll now streams the original Hajime no Ippo anime, via sublicense from Discotek, but no longer offers Hajime no Ippo: Rising, so the lack of any New Challenger isn't as much of a problem as it once was, but the simple fact that there have been official English releases for Seasons 1 & 3 of Hajime no Ippo, but not for Season 2, remains a bizarre thing to think about.

That being said, though, I did mention that this is a bonus entry due to my feeling that this will eventually come to pass. The reason for that is that Discotek has admitted that its releases of the original Hajime no Ippo anime on Blu-Ray have apparently sold well, and seemingly have even performed better than expected, which is a shock considering how notoriously poor Geneon's DVDs performed back in the 00s. While part of it can be down to the simple fact that buying three BD boxsets is easier, less costly, & way less shelf-hogging than buying 16 DVD singles (trust me, I had those DVDs, & they took up space), I think it also just shows how much English anime fandom has matured in the time since the 00s anime bubble, and by that I mean "fans from back then have continued to remain fans, and now have the income to support more niche titles, like Ippo". Therefore, while Discotek has yet to announce anything regarding New Challenger (& Rising) being given a physical release, I do think this is more a case of when it will eventually happen, rather than if it will ever happen.

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That brings us to the end of just Part 1 of this look at anime with parts that English audiences have "missed" out on, at least officially. I decided to do this list in place of the traditional yearly license rescue list that I've always done, mainly because I want to put a hold on that kind of list, but I still wanted to keep the theme somewhat intact. I hope you've already had some fun with this first half, because I sure had a lot of fun writing this, so come back next week when we do it all over again with another six(+1) entries, which range from continuations to precursors to spin-offs to recaps to video game-exclusive epilogues!

Kino's Journey: Life Goes On & Free Lance © Keiichi Sigsawa・Media Works/Kino's Journey Special Story Meeting (Media Works, Pony Canyon, chara-ani)

Kino's Journey: For You © Keiichi Sigsawa・Media Works/Kino's Journey the Movie Production Committee (Media Works, Pony Canyon, chara-ani, Genco)

Kishin Douji Zenki Gaiden: Anki Kitan © Kikuhide Tani・Yoshihiro Kuroiwa/Shueisha・K-Factory・Nippon Columbia

Hunter x Hunter OVA, Greed Island, & G.I. Final © POT (Yoshihiro Togashi) 1998-2004/Shueisha・Nippon Animation

Romance of the Three Kingdoms Movies 2 & 3 © 1993 & 1994 Shinano Kikaku

Matchless Raijin-Oh OVAs © Sunrise

Kanon (2002) © Visual Arts/Key/Toei Animation

Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger © George Morikawa/Kodansha・VAP・Madhouse・NTV・D.N. Dream Partners