So let's start off the second half of the 14th license rescue with a title that, many would argue, should NEVER be unavailable in English... even if its licensing scenario is a bit convoluted.
Debuting back in 1989 in Fujimi Shobo's Dragon Magazine & originally running until around 2000, though it did return for a bit in 2018 & 2019 (plus various spin-off series from 1991 to 2011, & a bunch of manga), the light novel series Slayers by Hajime Kanzaka (story) & Rui Araizumi (art) is often considered one of the all-time greatest fantasy franchises to come from Japan. It details the adventures of Lina Inverse, a powerful but immensely vain sorceress, & her friends as they travel the world & take on all manner of evil... all while also being a bit of a zany comedy. Likewise, the various anime adaptations of Slayers are also cited as some of the greatest anime of all time, with the 1995 to 1997 trilogy of TV anime (Slayers, Slayers Next, & Slayers Try) specifically being mentioned. When it comes to English releases, Central Park Media initially started releasing the first Slayers TV anime from 1996 to 1998 on both VHS & LD, with Next & Try later coming out in 1999 & 2000, respectively; Fox Kids even planned on airing the show on TV, but found it too much work to edit for TV standards. All three shows would then get re-released on DVD in the early 00s, before CPM's rights seemingly expired, resulting in FUNimation getting the license to Slayers TV in mid-2005, upon which all three seasons would get re-released via DVD boxsets in the late 00s, culminating in a "complete" boxset containing all three seasons in mid-2009.
During FUNi's re-release of Slayers TV, the series would actually get two new seasons, 2008's Slayers Revolution & 2009's Slayers Evolution-R, with FUNi also getting the rights to both of those in 2010, complete with most of the major voice actors from CPM's old dub reprising their roles, including Lisa Ortiz as Lina. The last time Slayers ever saw a new physical release was in 2013 when "Revolution-R" (the combined name for Seasons 4 & 5) got re-released together on DVD & BD, and today none of the Slayers anime are currently available in any way in North America, despite the original light novels finally receiving a complete English release by way of J-Novel Club (which even hired Lisa Ortiz to narrate an audiobook version of the novels). There's a simple reason for that, however: Enoki Films. As a reminder, Enoki Films is essentially a company that works as a sort of middleman licensing agent for certain titles where the original Japanese licensor may not necessarily have experience (or simply interest) in dealing with international anime licensing themselves; nearly half of the titles Enoki handles come from TV Tokyo Medianet (formerly SoftX) alone. The various Slayers TV anime have pretty much been something that Enoki has handled international licensing for since the very beginning (as they were co-produced by SoftX/Medianet), and even when Revolution-R was made it wound up going over to Enoki, likely just so that all five seasons wouldn't get caught up in a future licensing snafu (wait for it...). Unfortunately, Enoki Films looks to be have been in a bit of a persona non grata scenario for the past few years, dating back to when Discotek had to suddenly discontinue its releases of the J9 Series & Acrobunch (which Enoki also handled licensing for) in 2022. The general rumor I've heard (though I've never seen any proof of it whatsoever) is that Enoki Films wound up getting purchased wholesale by a new owner, which decided to end all current licensing deals ASAP, likely as a way to re-organize; to be fair it's not wholly unbelievable, though you'd hope things would be dealt with after a few years already. Regardless, the various Slayers TV anime are currently in a bit of licensing limbo right now, but I imagine one day things will eventually get figured out & this franchise will become available again in the future; it's just too iconic & beloved to remain ignored for long.
Also, if you're wondering why I keep saying "Slayers TV anime", that's because there are two OVA series (Special & Excellent) & five movies (Perfect, Return, Great, Gorgeous, & Premium) that have their own completely separate licensing situations involving King Records and/or Bandai Visual (depending on the production), instead of Medianet. That's why Enoki has no involvement with those & why it was ADV that released them throughout the 00s, complete with their own unique English dub cast; those were last released via a complete DVD collection in 2008. As for why those have never been license rescued, despite them not being caught up in Enoki Films' current situation... I really have no idea whatsoever, but it's entirely possible that they have their own licensing limbo, or something; they are all available via streaming in Japan, but who knows if that really means anything.
Back in 2021 I made a license rescue list for manga (likely the only one I'll ever do, as manga rescues are much less common than anime, though they've happened more often in recent years), but for that list I started with GetBackers, the Shonen Magazine series by Yuya Aoki (story) & Rando Ayamine (art) about a pair of superpowered for-hire item retrieval freelancers than ran for 39 volumes from 1999 to 2007, since TokyoPop never finished releasing the manga in English (& Kodansha USA didn't bother to complete it, likely because it was still over 10 volumes from the end). TokyoPop started releasing the manga in February 2004, but around that same exact time ADV announced that it had licensed the GetBackers TV anime that had aired in Japan from 2002 to 2003 for 49 episodes, and from mid-2004 to late 2005 ADV released the entire show across 10 dual-audio DVD singles. The show was also an early TV anime that was produced in widescreen, so the DVDs were released with a 16:9 aspect ratio, even though for the longest time I swear it looks like it's supposed to be watched in 4:3; even in Japan the DVDs are 16:9, though, so facts over feelings. I would have to imagine that the timing of the anime & manga coming out here was purely coincidental, but I'd say that it's likely what allowed GetBackers to be somewhat notable at the time within anime fandom (i.e. not a major hit, but also seemingly above a cult-classic), since the anime & manga were coming out pretty much simultaneously in English for a time... or, at least, it was notable for that exact time period when I first truly started getting into anime (i.e. 2004/2005), as ADV's release of the anime ended right as TokyoPop's release of the manga would start to slow down.
ADV would give the GetBackers anime a few re-releases over the next few years... though arguably too many in too short of a time span, as late 2006 saw a collection for the first half, early 2007 saw a collection for the second half, and then in early 2008 there was a complete collection for the entire show. It's been often argued that re-releases in such quick succession played at least a small part in the North American anime bubble's eventual collapse, and maybe that's why when Sentai Filmworks came about in 2008 it held off on re-releasing GetBackers for a few years, not releasing its own DVD boxset (now across eight DVDs, instead of 10) until mid-2012. And here is why, despite GetBackers still being legally available over on Hidive as of this piece, I'm including it on this list: It's not just Crunchyroll that has a catalog of anime that it doesn't (re-)release on home video. Sentai is no stranger to re-releasing various titles in its catalog repeatedly, with probably one of the more notorious examples being RahXephon getting three re-releases across a four-year period (2021, 2022, & 2024). However, despite that, there are a bunch of titles available to stream over on Hidive that are old ADV titles that Sentai hasn't re-released in over a decade, some of which are beloved classics; I just went with GetBackers because this is my list, and I have a fondness for it. I really could have gone with any other title for this list, like Azumanga Daioh, Chance Pop Session, Lunar Legend Tsukihime, Mahoromatic, Mezzo DSA, You're Under Arrest Seasons 1-3, Yozakura Quartet... hell, even Battle of the Planets! But the point would still stand that Sentai seemingly refuses to give some titles a new re-release simply because they likely don't have HD masters, possibly aren't good enough to upscale, and they long gave up on SD-BD as a format, due to possibly low sales of prior attempts (they STILL seemingly can't sell out of Hataraki Man, Human Crossing, Orphen, Rocket Girls, & Sakura Wars, which all came out in 2019, even at fire sale prices)... which likely happened simply because Sentai was infamous for making SD-BDs that had nagging video problems, due to them often focusing on the wrong interlaced frame/field for the video; they eventually put out some good SD-BDs, but the damage was mostly done by then.
This also applies to a more than decent number of titles that Hidive has simulcasted or streamed that have never been given a physical release over here (*cough*Hareluya II BØY*cough*), but this is about re-releases, so I won't focus on those examples. Still, while Crunchyroll more than deserves being dragged through the mud for having a massive catalog of anime that doesn't have a physical release in North America (& isn't interested in sub-licensing titles out anymore, post-Sony acquisition), the same can be said of Hidive, though on an understandably smaller scale; I guess, if anything, I should start considering (sub)-license rescues from here on out. The only question is if Sentai/Hidive is open to sub-licensing...
OK, this next one's neat simply because part of it actually debuted AFTER I started the blog, and in fact is the very first anime that was actually simulcasted to appear on a license rescue list! I always find it amusing that the production of this OVA confuses people so much, including those who even worked on it in Japan (composer Kaoru Wada admitted as such once), but it's actually rather simple. Once Toei Animation finished its anime adaptation of Saint Seiya's Hades Chapter in 2008 the studio literally had nothing else to adapt, manga-wise, from Masami Kurumada's most iconic manga. However, the IP itself was still successful, so TMS (which had previously done the anime adaptation of B't X in the 90s) took advantage of that opening & got the rights to produce an OVA adaptation of Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas, Shiori Teshirogi's alternate universe prequel that was (far & away) the most popular of the Seiya spin-off manga that Akita Shoten was publishing at the time. In all fairness, CBS/Sony Group (the precursor to Aniplex) & Movic did the same thing when they released the Fuma no Kojirou: Yasha-hen OVA in the immediate wake of Saint Seiya TV's finale in 1989. With the first episode of the Lost Canvas OVA coming out on DVD & BD in June 2009, less than a full year after the final episode of Hades Elysion came out in August 2008, 13 episodes would come out across six DVDs & BDs up through April 2010, and TMS was pleased with their performance. Therefore, a second season of 13 episodes of the Lost Canvas OVA would come out between February & July of 2011, and while they unfortunately didn't perform as well (which is why no more got made, despite what some will vehemently try to argue online) TMS did make a streaming deal with Crunchyroll, which resulted in Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas (or the second half, at least) being the first OVA to ever get simulcasted in English. If you're curious what Toei did in response, they produced Seasons 3 & 4 of the Ring ni Kakero 1 anime in 2010 & 2011 (which I was ecstatic to see happen, but I'll fully admit came off as petty from Toei).
Discotek Media, having previously released the first four Saint Seiya movies across two DVDs in 2013, decided to give the franchise a second chance by licensing the Lost Canvas OVAs & releasing all 26 episodes via a sub-only DVD boxset on November 24, 2015. Unfortunately, as time went on Discotek would admit that both the Seiya movies & the Lost Canvas OVAs bombed for them, and outside of re-releasing the movies on a single Blu-Ray in 2021 have had no interest in ever touching the property (& likely anything based on a Masami Kurumada manga) ever again. However, in a bit of a shock move, in mid-2018 the Lost Canvas OVAs found themselves on Netflix... with a brand new English dub produced by VSI Los Angeles, complete with some major voice actors in the cast, including Johnny Yong Bosch, Jameison K. Price, Bryce Papenbrook, Cristina Vee, & even (an uncredited) Beau Billingslea as the narrator. This had absolutely nothing to do with Discotek & was seemingly initiated by Netflix itself, since VSI is the studio it often relies on for anime dubs it produces. Unfortunately, sometime in 2022 or so Lost Canvas was removed from Netflix's catalog, and with it the English dub became completely unavailable; it's not technically "lost media", but you certainly can't find it officially anymore.
Today TMS still offers subbed streams for the Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas OVAs over on places like Crunchyroll & Tubi, with CR even offering a Spanish dub option, so it's not like the anime can't be watched in an official manner over here. However, Discotek's decade-old DVD release is now long out of print & super expensive, while the Netflix dub has been locked away without ever getting a physical release... and considering how notoriously poorly Discotek's DVD release for Lost Canvas apparently sold who knows if these OVAs will ever be given a second chance, with or without Netflix's dub (since Netflix-produced dubs are known to cost a lot to license for home video).
As a big fan of Masami Kurumada, I fully understand how much it sucks when a single work from an iconic mangaka is so massively big that it makes literally everything else feel insignificant, even if some of those other works are excellent and/or important in their way; not everyone can be an Osamu Tezuka, Shotaro Ishinomori, Go Nagai, or Rumiko Takahashi, unfortunately. This is also true for the late Akira Toriyama, who will forever be known & associated first & foremost with Dragon Ball, despite his first serialized manga, Dr. Slump, being immensely popular, iconic, & influential in its own right. While efforts have been made every once in a while to release Toriyama's non-DB manga in English, when it comes to the anime side of things it's mostly been "Dragon Ball or Bust", and that sucks when it comes to wanting people to potentially see the full breadth of Toriyama's skills & style. In fact, a non-DB anime adaptation of an Akira Toriyama manga wouldn't get an English release until July 29, 2014 when Discotek Media released "Akira Toriyama's Dr. Slump Arale the movies: Theatrical Films 1-5" in North America as a two-disc sub-only DVD release. As the title of the release indicates, this was a collection of the first five Dr. Slump movies that Toei Animation made, namely 1981's Hello! Wonder Island, 1982's "Hoyoyo!" Space Adventure, 1983's Hoyoyo! The Great Race Around the World, 1984's Hoyoyo! The Secret of Nanaba Castle, & 1985's Hoyoyo! The City of Dreams, Mechapolis; the 1982 film was a feature-length movie, while the other's were shorter films shown as part of the yearly Toei Manga Matsuri event.
As for how this Dr. Slump movie collection performed for Discotek... there actually have been conflicting reports, surprisingly. Early indications back then were that it actually sold OK, but later statements from the people who work with Discotek have since cited it as a poor seller (though there are indications that it did get at least one reprint after 2020). If I had to make a guess I imagine that, judging off of the mixed statements, it's entirely possible that the movie set did decently enough in terms of raw units sold (i.e. it "sold" OK), but not enough to offset what likely were higher licensing costs; I mean, Dr. Slump was a big deal in Japan. However, I can fully understand hesitation when it comes to licensing Dr. Slump as a TV anime, as the original Dr. Slump Arale-chan series ran from 1981 to 1986 for 243 episodes, while the later 90s reboot from from 1997 to 1999 for an additional 74 episodes. In fact, the two series acted as bookends for a literal 18+-year run of weekly Akira Toriyama anime on Fuji TV that included Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, & Dragon Ball GT running between the two Dr. Slump TV anime. Now, to be fair, the 90s Dr. Slump TV anime did actually get an official English subbed stream over on Tubi in 2021... but as of 2025 it's since been taken down, though the webpage itself still exists. Really, the only bit of Dr. Slump anime I could ever see be given a second chance are the movies, as aside from re-releasing the first five films on Blu-Ray there are an additional five short films made during the 90s as part of the yearly Toei Anime Fair event (the successor to Toei Manga Matsuri) in 1993, 1994, & 1999, as well as a five-minute short titled Dr. Slump: Dr. Mashirito & Abale-chan from 2007 that's since been considered the 11th film.
While Dragon Ball will always be what people associate Akira Toriyama with until the end of time, that shouldn't mean that it has to be at the expense of anything else being given the finger, outside of something new being made (Hi, Sand Land anime!). After all, Dragon Ball arguably wouldn't exist if Dr. Slump didn't come first & turn Akira Toriyama into a superstar in Japan, both in manga & anime form, so it should be given a spotlight every once in a while, even if it's only a small portion of it.
Back in the very first license rescue list in 2011 (the second entry, in fact) I included Tekkaman Blade II, which was chosen in large part because at the time Media Blasters' DVD boxsets for the original Tekkaman Blade TV anime were still in print. Then, for the 12th list in 2022, I finally included Tekkaman Blade, since by then MB's releases had been long out of print. Well, now it's time for similar treatment to be done for another title in which a related production was part of an older list! Running in Weekly Shonen Sunday from 1991 to 1999 for 39 volumes, Ghost Sweeper Mikami was Takashi Shiina's first hit manga & detailed the jobs of Reiko Mikami, a for-hire exorcist whose talent at dealing with supernatural threats is equaled (if not surpassed) by her obsession with making money. The manga was a big hit for Sunday at the time, so it's only natural that an anime adaptation would eventually happen, and from 1993 to 1994 a 45-episode TV anime ran in Japan, and then a few months after the show ended a 60-minute theatrical film ran in theaters as part of a triple-feature with the third Ranma 1/2 movie & a film for the anime Heisei Inu Monogatari Bow. It would be that GS Mikami film that wound up seeing English release first, when Manga Entertainment released it in 2002 via dual-audio DVD & dubbed VHS. I included the GS Mikami film as the second entry in the eight license rescue list back in 2017.
It would take another eight years before GS Mikami would ever be given a second chance in English, when Sentai Filmworks suddenly announced in mid-2010 that it would be releasing the original TV anime on DVD. It was a surprise, even for the time, as Sentai (much like ADV before it) has rarely licensed anime from Toei, even to this very day, and while the TV anime was now being given a chance Sentai did not license rescue the GS Mikami movie. Sentai would release all 45 episodes across four sub-only DVD boxsets from late 2010 to mid-2011, but some of those sets quickly became scarce & expensive once they sold out, likely indicating that Sentai didn't produce much of them. I think it's easy to see that someone at Sentai was likely a fan of the movie back when Manga released it, & the company needed stuff to put out early on, so it got licensed & released... but at the same time Sentai kept the print run to a minimum, so those who didn't take instant advantage of their availability got left out almost immediately. Now, to be fair, over in Japan the GS Mikami anime has not seen any sort of HD remaster, as in 2016 the entire TV anime was released in a two-disc SD-BD boxset, followed by a re-release in 2023 that now also included the movie. Still, considering when the GS Mikami TV anime came out in English, how quickly it disappeared from the market, & even taking into consideration that the movie never got a re-release at all, I think it'd be neat to see this series be given a new chance to find an audience. Takashi Shiina most recently made the manga adaptation of next-gen InuYasha sequel Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon (which I've actually generally heard is better than the anime), which is still coming out in English, so it's not as though Shiina is a complete unknown in modern times, either.
Finally, we end this year's license rescue list the same way we started this second half, i.e. with an all-time beloved classic that, for all intents & purposes, many feel should never not be available in English, in some way. Originally conceived of back in 1996, Serial Experiments Lain would finally debut on July 7, 1998 as an early example of "modern" late-night anime on TV Tokyo, and has since gone one to be deemed an all-time classic. A "media mix" project that also included a "graphic+text" serialization in Sony Magazines' Monthly AX & a video game for the PS1, the anime focused around Lain Iwakura, a 14-year old girl in a near-future Tokyo where reality is often looked at as mixed with the "Wired", a computer network that everyone signs into via computer, VR, AR, etc., & how Lain seems to be connected to "lain", a digital being that claims to be the "collected consciousness"... and the visual form it takes look remarkably similar to Lain herself. At the time the concepts regarding technology that Serial Experiments Lain looked at seemed futuristic, though not implausible, but today the series can be seen as eerily prescient, what with the heavy usage of things like social media in the modern world.
While the "G+T" serialization & video game stayed in Japan, the anime wouldn't take too long to see release in English, as Pioneer LDC was the primary production company behind it, so in July of 1999 the first dual-audio DVD for Serial Experiments Lain saw release by Pioneer Entertainment (USA). By the end of the year the entire 13-episode series was fully released across four DVDs, followed by a box set release in 2000 & 2001, with the former being a limited edition that came housed within a tin lunch box; look, English anime companies did some wild stuff back in the day. Once Dentsu acquired Pioneer & renamed them to Geneon Entertainment in 2003 the Lain anime would continue to see re-release, first by simply collecting backstocked Pioneer DVDs & selling them as a set exclusively on Amazon, followed by the singles getting re-released on their own as part of the "Geneon Signature Series" in 2004; those rebranded DVDs would then get their own box set in 2005. Simply put, Pioneer/Geneon made sure to keep Lain in print, but eventually Dentsu closed up Geneon in North America, before eventually selling everything off to Universal Pictures Japan in 2008, and today it's now known as NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan. During that time FUNimation would license rescue Serial Experiments Lain & re-release it via BD/DVD combo box set in 2012, followed by a re-release under the "Anime Classics" line in 2014. Meanwhile, MVM over in the UK would release the Lain anime in that region in 2017, and most recently is planning to re-release it via a BD steelbook on September 15, 2025, a literal week after this piece goes live.
However, here in North America Serial Experiments Lain hasn't seen a new release in over a decade, and that last release from 2014 now goes for ridiculous prices. I believe FUNimation did continue to offer it via streaming, but after the acquisition/merger with Crunchyroll Lain is now without any official streaming option, and who knows if the license FUNimation had is even still active over at Crunchyroll anymore. While not necessarily on the level of popularity as something like a Trigun, which continues to remain in print to this day on DVD, Serial Experiments Lain remains a favorite for a notable amount of anime fans, and its message on technology remains relevant in some way even 27 years later, so it's a shame that it's now unavailable in any form, at least in North America; the Brits have it lucky.
-----
And with that we come to the end of a new license rescue list, one with some emphasis on the word "new". With nearly 15 whole years behind my back doing this blog I have to start considering that what was one a new release early in the blog's life may very well be out of print & inaccessible a decade+ later. Two years ago I was feeling like the yearly license rescue list was becoming less & less relevant, as I was running more & more out of titles that felt "deserving" of a new release, so much so that the previous one was all about titles that could very well never see re-release, due to them being controlled by a single entity that doesn't license things out anymore. Last year I didn't even do a license rescue list, instead focusing on additional "content", for titles that did come over, that never saw English release.
However, while I'm sure I can still find the occasional older release that slipped me by I think it's time to look at what the past decade & beyond has left forgotten & abandoned. Sure, not all of those titles may necessarily be "deserving" of a license rescue, but I think there are more out there than you'd think.
Slayers © 1995-1997 Kanzaka・Araizumi/Fujimi Shobo・TV Tokyo・Medianet[・Marubeni (for Season 1 only)]
Slayers Revolution © Hajime Kanzaka・Rui Araizumi/Fujimi Shobo/Slayers-R Committee
Slayers Evolution-R © Hajime Kanzaka・Rui Araizumi/Fujimi Shobo/Slayers-ER Committee
GetBackers © Yuya Aoki・Rando Ayamine・Kodansha/Team GetBackers (Tetsuo Gensho, Hiroo Maruyama, Studio Deen)
Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas © Masami Kurumada・Shiori Teshirogi/Akita Shoten・TMS
Dr. Slump Movies 1-5 © Akira Toriyama/Shueisha・Toei Animation, Film © 1981-1985
Ghost Sweeper Mikami © Takashi Shiina/Shogakukan・Toei Animation
Serial Experiments Lain © NBCUniversal Entertainment
No comments:
Post a Comment