Regardless of all of that, though, 1999 & 2000 are still notable when it comes to late-night anime for a few reasons. 1999 was (possibly) the first year to feature what's now known as a "split-cour" anime, as 2000 was home to the first true long-form anime to air in late-night. Also, while not as inundated as 1998, there were still some iconic classics that debuted in late-night during these two years, so let's see what 1999 & 2000 offered in their (comparatively) meager individual years.
We begin 1999 with WOWOW, the satellite network that first entered the late-night anime business in 1998 with Nessa no Haoh Gandalla &, more importantly, the first full run of Cowboy Bebop. In fact, by the start of 1999 Bebop was still running, with Episode 11 even airing on New Year's Day(... sort of), so WOWOW clearly wanted to continue that momentum by having a second late-night anime airing semi-alongside Bebop. So the very next night, "January 2 at 24:30", saw the debut of Crest of the Stars, a 13-episode TV anime adaptation of the 1996 space opera light novel series by Hiroyuki Morioka (story) & Toshihiro Ono (art) from Hayakawa Publishing. The series starred Lin Shu Rock Yalulug Dril Hydal Jinto, the son of ex-president of the Hyde Star System who had surrendered to the Abh Empire that had invaded. This resulted in Jinto's family becoming nobility, with Jinto being sent to military school where he meets Abriel Nei Debrusc Borl Paryun Lafiel, a pilot trainee who (unbeknowst to Jinto) is actually an Abh princess. However, the two become quick friends that balance each other out, Jinto being familiar with terrestrial things & Lafiel being familiar with space travel, before war eventually breaks out between the Abh Empire & the Four Nations Alliance of Humankind. In true space opera fashion Crest of the Stars did not tell the entire story of the war, instead only acting as the opening act, & its success (which was unexpected, as space operas were seen as mostly dead in Japan at the time) led to a sequel novel series shortly after in late 1996... but we'll get to that in the next overview. From what I can tell, the Crest of the Stars TV anime by Sunrise looks to adapt the entire three-book series across 13 episodes, & on April 7, 2000 a "Special Edition" film edit of the series came out, more than likely to help promote the TV anime adaptation of the sequel novels... which initially debuted in prime time but, again, we'll get to the sequel series next time.
TokyoPop actually released the Crest of the Stars novels in English back in the mid-00s, while J-Novel Club would re-release them together in hardcover omnibus form in 2020. As for the Crest of the Stars anime, Bandai Entertainment first released it in English in the first half of the 00s, both via dual-audio DVD singles & later DVD boxsets, while FUNimation would later re-release the anime via DVD boxset in 2018, alongside its anime sequel productions.
Two nights later, we'd see what might possibly have been the first example of a "split-cour" anime, i.e. a production that was designed from the start to air on TV with a gap between the two halves, rather than the then-standard of either making something really long from the start (or simply extending it, if the ratings are excellent) or simply producing a follow up series later down the line, after a long gap. Replacing St. Luminous Mission High School, "January 4 at 25:15" saw the debut of Stellar Buster Mito no Daibouken/Stellar Buster Mito's Big Adventure on TV Tokyo, better known abroad as simply Space Pirate Mito. This was an original work, though inspired in part by the iconic jidaigeki Mito Komon, designed partially to evoke the feeling of a vintage anime, what with its more cartoonish character designs & a more spunky & upbeat OP theme than was traditional of the then-current era. The series was a slapstick comedy starring Aoi Mitsukuni, a 15-year old high school student in Japan who discovers that his mother Mito is actually a notorious (& actually three-foot tall) intergalactic space pirate who's constantly fighting off the Galactic Patrol, mainly because Mito's in a battle against Galactic Emperor Ranban over the Inro that gives authority over the galaxy. Space Pirate Mito focused mainly on Mito's battle against Ranban, all while trying to keep away the chasing Patrol agents Masatsuki & Mutsuki Nenga, with Aoi & Mutsuki's growing affections for each other also playing a major role throughout. Without a doubt, Space Pirate Mito was very much a series unlike anything else airing in late-night alongside it, and after a break to allow another show to air following it the story continued on with a second season, which we'll get to in a bit.
Media Blasters first released Space Pirate Mito in English in the early 00s via dual-audio DVD singles, followed by a DVD boxset. Then in 2014 Right Stuf, under its Lucky Penny label, re-released the series via DVD boxset, this one containing both seasons together.
Rounding out the first month of 1999 was another example of the good-ol' media mix, in this case Legend of Himiko. Debuting in anime form on "January 6 at 25:45" on TV Tokyo, Legend of Himiko told the story of Himiko Himejima, a high school girl who winds up being teleported back in time with her friend Masahiko Kutani to ancient Japan, namely the era of Yamatai. The people of Yamatai were about to see the selection of their first ever queen when the Kingdom of Kune attack the land. To protect those involved the mysterious Bokka separate the six queen candidates, waiting for the day when they can lead a proper resistance against Kune, which has an undead army at their disposal. The series focused on Himiko & Masahiko helping fight against Kune so as to save the land of Yamatai, with their respective relations to this past era slowly coming to light over the course of the series. As mentioned, though, Legend of Himiko was a media mix production created by novelist Ko Maisaka, who has previously also created the media mix production Princess Minerva, with technically the first version of the story debuting a month prior via a manga adaptation that was actually drawn by Ito Ogure, a.k.a. Oh! great, who had debuted Tenjho Tenge in Ultra Jump back in 1997. After the manga & anime came a video game version released on March 11, 1999 for the PS1, which also featured character designs by Oh! great &, despite coming out later, is actually credited in the anime as the "original" work the anime was based on; Far East of Eden & Sakura Wars co-creator Oji Hiroi was a producer on the game. Finally, there was also a light novel series that debuted later that March, this one written directly by Ko Maisaka (& also featuring art by Oh! great), so it could be argued that the novels are the "truest" version of Legend of Himiko; while Himiko was a main character in the anime, Masahiko was the sole lead of the novels. While the anime ended on March 31 after only 12 episodes, & the manga only totaled a single volume, the Legend of Himiko novels would run until 2003 & total 10 volumes, and a year later Maisaka debuted a sequel novel series, Himiko Ensenki/Himiko: Record of Flame War, that ran from 2004 to 2007 for an additional 11 volumes; Yukiyanagi drew the art for Himiko Ensenki.
While there was a lot of Legend of Himiko released in Japan, the only part of it that has ever seen English release (official or otherwise) is the TV anime version, which Central Park Media released throughout 2002 via both dubbed VHS & dual-audio DVDs.
We now move into April 1999, and it's with the return of anime on the original "Thursday" night slot that began it all back in late 1996! Yes, after Shadow Skill finished out 1998 for the time slot TV Tokyo decided to experiment by having a non-anime series air from January 7 to March 25, 1999, namely the show Face4/4... which, unfortunately, is nigh-impossible to find any info about whatsoever due to its rather generic title, outside of it seemingly being a J-Drama of some sort. Anyway, after the end of Face4/4 the time slot returned to anime on "April 1 at 25:15" with the debut of Betterman (insert Pearl Jam reference here), a mech anime by Sunrise that was actually a (mostly) standalone spin-off of The King of Braves GaoGaiGar, the 1997 series that wound up being the final (animated) entry in the Brave Series of mech anime that Sunrise & Takara co-produced throughout the 90s for kids. However, GaoGaiGar wound up being much more popular with older audiences & otaku, who enjoyed the throwback approach the series was known for, which would partially explain why this spin-off wound up airing in late-night. Anyway, Betterman took place in 2006, one year after GaoGaiGar, & starred Keita Aono, a high-school student who finds himself becoming a "Head Diver" for Akamatsu Industries' Neruonoids, giant robots that normally require two pilots, with Keita's partner being Hinoki Sai, a childhood friend of his he hadn't seen in years. Together Keita & Hinoki, alongside the rest of Akamatsu Industries, find themselves dealing with various scenarios across four story arcs, often involving the mysterious disease Algernon, which can drive people to suicide & murder, & the Somnium, a race a powerful creatures better known as "Bettermen". The Somnium that got the most focus was Betterman Lamia, who looked like Hinoki's long lost older brother & often came to her & Keita's rescue. Where GaoGaiGar was a very straightforward & to-the-point super robot anime with a generally upbeat & hopeful tone, Betterman was the complete & utter opposite by being immensely obtuse & dour, sometimes feeling more like a horror series, and while the two shows took place in the same world the connections between them were rather small. For example, Akamatsu Industries was mentioned in GaoGaiGar a handful of times more or less simply as a company that existed, while one of Keita's high school buddies was the older brother of one of the elementary school friends of Mamoru Amami, the lead child in GaoGaiGar.
The connections between GaoGaiGar & Betterman were made much more concrete via future works, like GaoGaiGar Final featuring Papillon Noir (a Betterman supporting cast member) as a new & important member of 3G, or Shigeru Akamatsu (the head of Akamatsu Industries) later being revealed as the son of Liger Shishioh, the uncle of GGG's main character Guy Shishioh. It all came to a head in 2017 when the novel series Hakaioh ~GaoGaiGar vs. Betterman~ debuted, which acted as a direct sequel to both GaoGaiGar Final & Betterman, seeing the casts of both series crossover in full as they team up to take on both a new intergalactic foe as well as new Somnium Bettermen. As for the original Betterman, Bandai Entertainment released the entire series via dual-audio DVD during the first half of the 00s, while at Otakon 2013 Betterman was one of the titles announced as part of Sentai Filmworks' infamously aborted package deal with Sunrise, and unfortunately has not been re-released yet; of the 12 shows that were announced, only five have since happened, mostly via other companies.
Up next is the second TV anime made specifically to debut via UHF networks, since after Legend of Basara in 1998 there were TV airings of two OVAs. However, much like Dokyusei 2 & élf Version Kakyusei: Anatadake wo Mitsumete..., this was also an adaptation of a PC game originally aimed at adults, though this time around we have a game categorized as a "visual novel" & not a "ren'ai adventure" game. Originally released for Windows PCs on March 23, 1997, To Heart is generally considered the game that put developer Leaf on the map, and over time the studio would be considered the biggest rival to Key (of Kanon, Air, & Clannad fame) when it came to early romance-focused visual novels. The game told the story of Hiroyuki Fujita, a high school student who meets up with 10 different girls, including his childhood friend Akari Kamigishi, & it was up to the player to make decisions at key points so as to determine which girl Hiroyuki would wind up in love with. A pretty standard concept today, sure, though Leaf did mix things up by making one of the romanceable girls a literal humanoid maid robot, so it wasn't 100% serious. The quick success of To Heart resulted in a manga adaptation by Ukyo Takao later that same year, and on March 25, 1999 a port to the PS1 was released, one that removed all of the "adult" content (i.e. the sex scenes). To help promote the PS1 version, then, a TV anime adaptation of ToHeart (note the lack of a space in the title, which was the same as the PS1 port) debuted on "April 2 at 24:35" on Sun TV first, while TV Hokkaido debuted it an hour later. Just as with Legend of Basara, the ToHeart anime was produced by KSS, but instead of trying to fully replicate the multiple female options in the game the anime instead focused mainly on Hiroyuki's relationship with Akari (though fellow classmate Shiho Nagaoka also had feelings for him here), resulting in a very different story than in the PS1 game but one that likely works much better as a linear storytelling experience for anime.
There would be a second TV anime in late 2004, To Heart ~Remember My Memories~ (hey, the space is back!), that was technically a direct continuation to the game to help promote the then-recent PS2 port, but that actually didn't debut in late-night as AT-X first aired it on Saturday mornings, though broadcasts on other networks did air it in late-night; regardless, this overview is stopping after 2002, so we won't be covering it here. There was also a sequel to the original game, which itself received a TV anime adaptation in 2005 & a variety of OVA spin-offs up through 2012. As for the original ToHeart anime, it took a little bit of time to see an official English release, but one eventually happened by way of Right Stuf, which originally announced their license in mid-2004 but went through a long delay due to bad video masters. This resulted in the entire show getting remastered over in Japan, & the English release finally happened in 2007 via dual-audio DVDs (& a boxset in 2008), but has never been license rescued.
So far 1999's late-night anime track record has been two adaptations, a media mix, a spin-off of a prior anime, & one wholly original work, so let's add another mark for the original works with the next show! From the minds of anime studio Madhouse & renown anime comedy director (& possible sexual harasser) Akitaro Daichi came Jubei-chan the Ninja Girl: Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch, which debuted on TV Tokyo on "April 5 at 25:15", replacing Space Pirate Mito. This told the story of Jiyu Nanohana, a high school girl who discovers that she's actually the perfect candidate to be the "Second Generation Yagyu Jubei", as when she wears the heart-shaped "Lovely Eyepatch" that was passed down by Jubei himself 300 years prior she becomes a master swordswoman; turns out that Jubei wanted his successor to have "plump, bouncy bon bons". Naturally, Jiyu has no interest in being a modern-day Jubei, but she's left no choice when the descendants of the Ryujoji Clan start coming after Jiyu, as they wish to get revenge on "Jubei" for when their greatest swordsman lost to him 300 years ago. In essence, Jubei-chan is pretty much a magical girl series, only in place of Jiyu becoming someone who uses magical powers to defeat evil she instead becomes a master swordsman & fights to maintain the honor of the Jubei name. Of course, since it's an Akitaro Daichi series it mixes together both wacky comedy (especially when it comes to Jiyu's voluptuous figure) with serious character drama (like Jiyu's father coming to terms with his own guilt over the death of Jiyu's mother, which happened when he was working at an office), and while not generally seen as an all-time classic the series had maintained a cult following. The anime did well enough that five years later it'd receive a sequel, early 2004's Jubei-chan 2: The Counterattack of Siberia Yagyu, which saw Jiyu have to don the Lovely Eyepatch again to take on Freesia, the daughter of Yagyu Jubei himself, to see who's the true successor; Freesia was trapped in a glacier for 300 years, if you're curious.
Bandai Entertainment first released Jubei-chan the Ninja Girl: Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch via dual-audio DVD in 2000, followed by a re-release in 2004 (there were also boxsets both times around), while Geneon Entertainment released Jubei-chan 2: The Counterattack of Siberia Yagyu in 2005 via dual-audio DVD; Geneon even used the same dubbing studio & cast as Bandai, to maintain continuity. Media Blasters would then re-release both seasons, with Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch coming out in 2013 via DVD boxset & The Counterattack of Siberia Yagyu coming out in 2020 on both DVD & BD.
Since we had a second original work just now, let's even things (somewhat) up with a second spin-off work. Two nights after the debut of Jubei-chan TV Tokyo debuted another new late-night anime, this one being the replacement for Legend of Himiko. In this case it was A.D. Police, which debuted on "April 7 at 25:45" & was a spin-off of Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, which actually had just finished its original run on TV Tokyo the week prior. Same as how Tokyo 2040 was a re-imagining of a late 80s/early 90s OVA classic, A.D. Police was itself a re-imagining of another OVA, in this case 1990's Another Story of Bubblegum Crisis: AD.Police, better known abroad as simply AD Police Files, with the original version actually being a prequel to the BC OVAs that detailed the early days of supporting cast member (& Priss' love interest) Leon McNichol's time in the "Advanced/AD Police". In comparison, A.D. Police TV (which is sometimes given the subtitle To Protect and Serve abroad) is a prequel to Tokyo 2040, but starred the duo of Kenji Sasaki & Hans Kleif, a mismatched pair of officers who argue about as often as they take on the robotic Boomers. While AD Police Files was known for its unflinching violence, as one could get away with via the OVA format, A.D. Police TV was understandably a bit more tame in comparison, though now with a longer format it was able to tell more of a proper overarching story than the original OVA could; essentially, a bit of give & take. To be fair, neither reimagining of the Bubblegum Crisis universe has managed to achieve the same amount of love & adoration that the original OVAs have maintained, but both Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 & A.D. Police TV have generally been seen as solid & unique titles, in their own right. After A.D. Police TV finished up there would be only one more Bubblegum Crisis anime released, the 2003 OVA series Parasite Dolls, though I've read conflicting reports as to which universe it takes place in.
As for A.D. Police TV, ADV Films first released it via dubbed VHS in 2001, but stopped after only two tapes (likely due to low sales) before simply releasing the entire thing in 2002 via dual-audio DVD boxset; it would then get re-released in 2008 as part of a double-pack with Parasite Dolls. Right Stuf would then license rescue the series under its Nozomi Entertainment label & re-release it in 2020 via SD-BD.
It took a while, but with July 1999 we now reach a late-night anime from this year that hasn't received an official English release yet! As mentioned last time, & even earlier in this piece, the seeming success of Legend of Basara resulted in UHF networks wanting more anime that was exclusive to them, which resulted in two OVAs based on élf's romance games being aired. The second, élf Version Kakyusei: Anatadake wo Mitsumete..., must have done especially well for the UHF networks, because it was decided that a proper TV anime adaptation of that game would get made & debut via UHF. So on "July 1 at 24:35" Kakyusei/Underclassmates debuted on Sun TV, and this time it was truly exclusive to just one UHF network on its debut night, as other networks wouldn't debut it until July 4, at the earliest; it looks to have been the day of the week prior to when ToHeart aired, so it wasn't a direct replacement. The Kakyusei game was about a high school student named Kentaro trying to find love with one of the various female classmates at school, with the biggest difference from Dokyusei being that you could now also buy & give items to the girls, instead of just relying on communication; also, sex scenes were less erotic, likely to help sell to a wider audience. Both the two OVA adaptations & the TV anime, however, starred completely new characters, with Kakyusei TV being about Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi & his growing feelings towards both Miyuki Iijima & Ai Minamizato, though there were also episodes that focused on other female classmates, as well. Amusingly, while the Kakyusei game didn't focus on literal underclassmates (the title was more symbolic, i.e. "Dokyusei's Little Sisters"), both Miyuki & Ai in Kakyusei TV were actually younger than Tsuyoshi, making this more of a literal "Kakyusei" than the game. The later home video version also featured more fanservice scenes than the UHF TV broadcast, as well as a bonus 14th episode.
Eventually élf would release Kakyusei 2 in 2004, and with that would come anime adaptations of that, both a TV anime in 2004 & two OVAs in 2006 & 2007. As mentioned last time, the initial Kakyusei OVA from 1994 did see an official English release on VHS via SoftCel Pictures under the name First Loves (though only the first half), while none of the other Kakyusei anime productions have so far been given one. However, I wouldn't be surprised if OceanVeil, the anime streaming service which has a working relationship with Softgarage (the current owner of the KSS & PinkPineapple catalog), one day adds the various Kakyusei & even Dokyusei anime to its catalog, as OceanVeil is very big on offering more "sexual" anime, alongside its more general audience offerings.
As mentioned earlier, Space Pirate Mito looks to possibly be the first ever split-court anime, as after the first season aired during the Winter 1999 "season" it was replaced by Jubei-chan the Ninja Girl: Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch for the Spring 1999 "season". However, once Jubei-chan ended Mito came right back for the Summer 1999 "season" with its second half, Stellar Buster Mito no Daibouken: Futari no Jo'ou-sama/Stellar Buster Mito's Big Adventure: The Two Queens, which debuted on "July 12 at 25:15" over on TV Tokyo; this would later be known abroad as Aoi & Mutsuki: A Pair of Queens!. This was a direct sequel to the first season, taking place after Mito finally defeated Ranban & claimed ownership of the galaxy, with her son Aoi now declared Queen of the Universe... oh, yeah, Aoi also became a woman at the end of Space Pirate Mito, due to a quirk of Mito's alien heritage that passed down to her child. Now a mysterious & powerful being calling itself the "True Queen of the Universe" is coming to take what's rightfully Aoi's, so she has to team up with both her mother's pirate forces as well as Mutsuki, who's now conflicted over her feelings towards Aoi after her gender change, to save the day once again. In amusing little twist, though, despite the gender change Aoi was still voiced Soichiro Hoshi from Season 1, which I imagine was done solely for fourth-wall comedy.
Aoi & Mutsuki: A Pair of Queens! would look to be the final anime to air in the "Mondays at 25:15" time slot on TV Tokyo, at least for a good while, as the show that replaced this would be non-anime Live on TV Genseki, which ran from October 5, 1999 to June 27, 2000, after which the trail goes cold on what replaced that. This brings an end to one of the first late-night expansion time slots that was introduced in April 1997 (starting with Hareluya II BØY), resulting in a ~2.5-year run of late-night anime without break; the other two slots alongside it would run for longer, but both had non-anime gaps. It'd take four years after Season 1's original English release, but eventually Media Blasters would put out Aoi & Mutsuki: A Pair of Queens! in English in 2007 via sub-only DVD boxset (with an MSRP of only $19.99!), & later there was a Best Buy-exclusive complete collection for both seasons of Space Pirate Mito in 2008. Then in 2014 there was the previously mentioned re-release by Right Stuf's Lucky Penny label, which collected both seasons right away via DVD boxset.
Up next is an interesting case, because here we have a TV anime that actually first debuted in prime time, but halfway into its original airing moved over to late-night. We also already reach October, which is where (just over) the majority of 1999's new standard-length late-night anime debuted. Running from 1997 to 2000 for 18 volumes in Shogakukan's Shojo Comic, a.k.a. Sho-Comi, Kaikan/Sensual Phrase by Mayu Shinjo told the story of Aine Yukimura, a high school girl who winds up becoming the official lyricist for the rock band Lucifer, which is fronted by the handsome Sakuya Ookochi, who Aine falls in love with. The manga did well enough that on April 20, 1999 a TV anime adaptation called Kaikan Phrase (in this case "Kaikan" was written in English, instead of manga's kanji) debuted across the TV Tokyo Network, a.k.a. TXN, in prime time at 19:00/7:00 pm, and to help promote the anime a real-life version of Lucifer was even formed that became so popular that it outlived both the anime & manga, performing until 2003 & even had a reunion run from 2009 to 2012; the real-life band even performed three of the anime's four OP themes. In fact, Lucifer was given so much focus & attention in the anime that Aine didn't even appear in the anime until Episode 19; yeah, the Kaikan Phrase anime was notably different from the manga. However, said Episode 19 on September 23 would air at 10:55 pm, due to a scheduling conflict, and starting with Episode 20 Kaikan Phrase would move over to late night starting on "October 2 at 24:20", where it replaced movie reporting show Cinematic Report. Kaikan Phrase would air its remaining 25 episodes in late-night before ending with Episode 44 on "March 25, 2000". Despite the move to late-night, the anime didn't seem to add in any extra bits of sexuality that the manga had, which had to be excised due to it originally being a prime time anime.
While Viz Media would release all of the Sensual Phrase manga in English from 2004 to 2007, the Kaikan Phrase TV anime has yet to see an official English release. Even in Japan, though, the anime has only ever seen a VHS release, seemingly due to music rights, though it did eventually get re-aired in 2009 as part of AT-X's Anime Girls' Club programming block... something that Mayu Shinjo was not informed of in advance & only found out by visiting AT-X's website. Yeah, Shinjo actually had a notorious falling out with Shogakukan in 2007 & went freelance, citing a stressful work environment with demanding & abusive editors, so it's entirely possible that there may never be a new physical release for the Kaikan Phrase TV anime, domestically or abroad.
After A.D. Police ended on June 30 TV Tokyo pulled another "let's air a non-anime program in late-night" scenario & replaced it with the talk show Shimojima, which had first debuted earlier in April but was moved to the "Wednesday at 25:45" slot. This would only last up through September 29, though, when Shimojima moved again, which allowed an anime to claim the time slot once again; Shimojima would end on June 29, 2000, likely not helped by the three different time slots it had. Replacing it on "October 6 at 25:45" would be Seraphim Call, which in some ways was kind of a spiritual successor to Sentimental Journey the year prior, but with a wholly different origin. In this case Seraphim Call first debuted in the April 1996 issue of Dengeki PC Engine & was a "reader participation project", a play-by-mail game where readers were told about the lives of 11 girls who all reside in Yokohama Neo-Acropolis & were split up into two groups, "α" and "β", that alternated focus each issue. The project finished up two years later in August 1998 (by then the magazine was renamed to Dengeki G's Magazine), but it seemingly performed well enough that a TV anime based on it was put into production with Sunrise at the helm. I call the Seraphim Call anime a "spiritual successor to Sentimental Journey" pretty much because the two shows were very much the same type of series, i.e. an episodic anthology where each episode starred a different girl, in this case one of the 11 girls from the reader participation project. The main difference with Seraphim Call, though, was that romance wasn't necessarily a factor in the stories of each of these girls, and since they weren't all the same age this also allowed each episode to feature its own unique style, like science fiction, adventure, a Thunderbirds parody, seeing a story through the eyes of a girl's plush toy, or something more akin to a shojo anime. Also, the 12th & final episode actually saw all 11 girls come together for the finale, and each episode even featured its own unique ED theme. While the show would mostly be forgotten with time it does look to have found itself a small cult following that enjoys its more experimental anthology format. If nothing else Seraphim Call definitely has a unique origin story behind it.
Media Blasters would eventually release Seraphim Call in late 2004, a few months after Sentimental Journey, via sub-only DVD boxset, which remains its one & only official English release.
Unlike with 1998, which had big names & iconic classics debut on a semi-regular basis, 1999 has so far been much more subdued in comparison, with a number of cult favorites at best. However, we've now reached what is easily the most well known & "iconic" late-night anime to have debuted in 1999... and easily one of the most bizarre & "experimental" late-night anime to have debuted in the modern-day infomercial format's early years. Debuting on TV Tokyo on "October 7 at 25:15", & replacing Betterman, Heppoko Jikken Animation Excel♥Saga was based on the manga Excel Saga by Koshi Rikudo that was running in Shonen Gahosha's Young King OURs, with the "Heppoko Jikken Animation" preamble generally being translated as "Quack Experimental Animation"... because, yeah, that's probably the simplest way to describe Excel Saga in a nutshell. Ostensibly, Excel Saga followed the exploits of the secret organization Across led by Il Palazzo, which plans to one day rule the world, & specifically focused on the sole two agents of Across, the insanely hyperactive Excel & the constantly dying & reviving Hyatt. In reality, however, the Excel Saga anime was, by intention, an absurd metafictional parody series, once where Rikudo himself is killed in the first episode, series director Shinichi Watanabe made continual on-screen appearances (in turn creating the iconic "Nabeshin" self-insert character that'd appear in numerous other Watanabe-directed anime), & the very concept of what was considered "in good taste" was often pushed to its very brink. In fact, the home video-exclusive final episode purposefully took things beyond what could be allowed on TV & was even offered in an "18+" version with sexual content; fittingly, the final episode was titled "Going Too Far".
ADV Films would first release Excel Saga between 2002 & 2003 via dual-audio DVDs, with Excel's original voice actress Jessica Calvello infamously damaging her vocal chords while recording Episode 4, due to just how loud, hyper, & fast-talking Excel could get in the show, eventually resulting in her being replaced by Larissa Wolcott starting with Episode 14. ADV would keep the show in print up to the mid-00s via DVD boxsets, & in 2011 FUNimation would re-release the anime via another DVD boxset. As of this piece the Excel Saga anime is still streaming over on Crunchyroll.
That's it for TV Tokyo for the remainder of 1999, while NTV pulled a "Berserk in 1998" & simply re-ran Master Keaton after its original run finished, so let's see what was debuting in October over on the remaining major networks. First up is TBS, and while we'll get to what aired on Wonderful in a bit there was a single new "traditional" late-night anime debuting in October. Debuting on "October 7 at 25:50", so just after Excel Saga's first episode had finished airing on TV Tokyo, Blue Gender was an original work conceived of by the legendary Ryosuke Takahashi, creator of classic mech anime like Armored Trooper Votoms, Blue Comet SPT Layzner, & Panzer World Galient. Unlike those works though, which saw Takahashi also write & direct, Blue Gender was simply conceived of by Takahashi (with some minor screenplay credits) & instead headed up by director Masashi Abe & writer Katsumi Hasegawa. Also, while mecha were featured in this anime, instead of detailing a war between two sides of humanity it instead focused on humanity taking on a race of alien insect invaders called the Blue, a la Starship Troopers' Bugs. The story specifically followed Yuji Kaido, a man who took a chance on cryogenics to see if he could be cured with future medicine, only to awaken in the year 2031 during Earth's desperate attempt at fighting back against the Blue. He winds up teaming with Marlene Angel, a soldier from the space colony Second Earth, to help take on the Blue & see if they can rescue the planet from destruction. Two years after the show finished there would be 2002's Blue Gender: The Warrior, a compilation movie of the TV anime's plot, but with an alternate ending.
FUNimation would release Blue Gender throughout 2001 & 2002 via both dubbed VHS & dual-audio DVD, though it looks like the VHS release stopped one tape shy of completion, followed by a DVD boxset in 2003. The Warrior would then get released in 2004 (plus a re-release in 2007), and all future boxsets afterwards bundled the TV anime & movie together, most recently in 2011. Blue Gender also saw American TV broadcast on Adult Swim in late-night 2003, after the UK first aired it on the Sci Fi Channel, though since the original plan was to air it on Toonami (which was a weekday afternoon block at the time) the broadcast was censored beyond what was normally done for Adult Swim; it would later air 100% uncut on FUNimation Channel.
A little over two years after TV Asahi first gave late-night anime a try with Shinkai Densetsu Meremanoid back in October 1997, & about 1.5 years after the show ended in April 1998, TV Asahi finally decided to give the concept a second chance, and moving forward we'll be seeing TV Asahi appear every year from here on out except for 2002; that being said, however, TV Asahi wouldn't truly embrace the format until 2004. The anime that TV Asahi decided to return to late-night with would be Trouble Chocolate, which debuted on "October 8 at 26:00" & like some prior entries had an non-traditional origin story. Namely, Trouble Chocolate was the creation of producer Tsunefumi Harada & first conceived of in 1997, before finally making its initial debut in 1998 as a radio drama originally titled Trouble Girigiri Chocolate, which also received some drama CDs alongside the radio show; there were would be three main radio shows between October 1998 & March 2001. The 1999 TV anime, in turn, followed the lives of the students of the magic school Micro-Grand Academy (changed from the radio show's Micro-Grind, due to a previously existing trademark), namely the lazy & constantly hungry Cacao and the fairy Hinano, who Cacao accidentally frees from magic captivity (because Cacao got drunk off of chocolate) & decides to live with & protect Cacao. The anime was essentially nothing more than a giant parody of various anime clichés & tropes, which Viz Media only reinforced when it licensed the show for English release, as they hired comedy writer Panela Ribon to write the dub script, which bore little to no resemblance to the original Japanese & instead leaned into the parodical nature in its own way.
Looking online I've seen mention that Trouble Chocolate was seemingly the first late-night anime to credit a "Seisaku Iinkai/Production Committee" instead of using the then-standard "Project" label for such a group. That's not exactly true, the first looks to be Hareluya II BØY in 1997, but I can say that, due to me now making it a habit to try to list the copyrights for almost any anime featured on this blog, this show is seemingly the first to be wholly conceived of via production committee, i.e. the copyright solely lists the "Trouble Chocolate Production Committee", with no original creator copyright given towards Tsunefumi Harada at all. This was, quite literally, "designed by committee," and from the general reception I can find Trouble Chocolate itself looks to truly be representative of that pejorative phrase. As mentioned, Viz Media released Trouble Chocolate via dual-audio DVD singles between 2002 & 2003, and then was it never heard from again; it never even received a boxset release in America.
Finally, at least for the standalone broadcasts, we end our look at 1999's late-night anime output with Fuji TV, which decided to air the second season of a hit from the year prior. Last time we went over the TV anime adaptation of Initial D, based on the hit touge racing manga by Shuichi Shigeno, and that anime did well enough to warrant a second season. That would finally come to pass on "October 14 at 25:45" when Initial D: Second Stage made its debut on Fuji TV (the first season would retroactively be named "First Stage", in turn), with this 13-episode continuation covering tofu delivery boy-turned-mountain drift racing master Takumi Fujiwara needing to take on a racing group calling themselves Emperor, who all drive Lancer Evos & claim the decals of those they beat. Second Stage differed from First Stage in a number of ways, namely in that (aside from only being half the number of episodes) the anime now had the permission to use the actual brands & logos of the cars featured (including featuring proper license plates), but it also marked a shift in animation studios & staff. While Ryuichi Katsumata's iconic Eurobeat-inspired score returned for Second Stage, this season was now animated over at Pastel instead of Studio Comet & Studio Gallop, and with it a change in directors & writers, and from what I can tell this did result in Second Stage not being as warmly received as First Stage; it's not considered a bad season, but the changes were seemingly noticeable. Still, Second Stage was considered enough of a success that the next part of the Initial D story, i.e. Third Stage, wasn't done as a TV anime but rather was a theatrically released movie in 2001; this was done by Studio Deen, though Pastel did the CG work for the cars. There was a two-episode OVA in 2000 (Extra Stage) & a compilation of the various races seen in the first three "stages" in 2002 (Battle Stage) before Initial D: Fourth Stage (a proper TV anime continuation, this time done by A.C.G.T.) finally debuted in 2004, though this debuted on SkyPerfecTV!'s Perfect Choice PPV service, so it wasn't a late-night anime, & from 2012 to 2014 two more seasons (Fifth Stage & Sixth Stage) were produced that adapted the remainder of the Initial D manga; just as with Fourth Stage, these also debuted on PPV. Finally, from 2014 to 2016 a trio of brand new Initial D Legend films were made by Sanzigen & Liden Films that re-adapted the story that was originally covered in First Stage.
Just as with First Stage, Initial D: Second Stage was initially released in English by TokyoPop via dual-audio DVDs in 2005, which featured an English dub that replaced the iconic Eurobeat soundtrack with hip hop music, due to TokyoPop CEO Stu Levy simply not liking Eurobeat. FUNimation would then work with TokyoPop to re-release Second Stage via DVD boxset in 2007, before later licensing everything made up to that point (i.e. First Stage to Fourth Stage) for their own release. In place of TokyoPop's dub was a brand new one produced by FUNimation themselves, one that kept all of the original names intact & made sure that the Eurobeat was also kept. To placate long-term fans Third Stage & Fourth Stage came out first in 2010, followed by the new releases of First Stage in late 2010 & finally Second Stage in 2011, while later in 2011 all four "stages" were re-released for cheap via the notorious S.A.V.E. label. While FUNimation continued to offer Initial D via streaming it currently is not available over on Crunchyroll, after their merger, & nothing beyond Fourth Stage has been licensed for official English release yet.
Before we move on to 2000, though, let's rewind things back to January 1999 & see what TBS was offering over on Wonderful over the entire year via lightning round, as this would be the last year the variety show would feature anime; from 2000 to the show's end in 2002 anime would be replaced with dramas & other live-action segments. From January 5 to January 29 there was Nippon Ichi no Otoko no Tamashii/The #1 Manly Spirit in Japan, a series of 16 eight-minute shorts based on the Young Sunday manga by Masahiko Kikuni which was a sexually charged gag anthology series, though there were also elements of Kikuni's debut manga, Kizudarake no Tenshi-tachi. From February 2 to February 26 there was Iketeru Futari/The Cool Couple, based on the Young King manga by Takashi Sano, which was also made up eight-minute episodes & detailed the blossoming relationship between Kyosuke Saji & Akira Koizumi from mere compensated dating to actual feelings of love; naturally, though, things weren't quite that simple for a romantic comedy like this. Easily the most well known of the Wonderful anime from 1999 was Pet Shop of Horrors, which ran from March 1 to March 25 & was made up of four full-length episodes based on the manga by Matsuri Akino about a mysterious pet shop run by Count D that sells mythical creatures that all come with specific rules that must be followed... or else the shop won't be held liable. March 29 to April 29 had an interesting choice with You're Under Arrest Special, which was a series of 21 seven-minute shorts (minus the last episode, which was full-length) based on Kousuke Fujishima's debut manga about a pair of female patrol officers that had already previously seen both a four-episode OVA & a 47-episode TV anime. However, the director for YUA Special, Junji Nishimura, stated that he aimed to specifically evoke the feel of the early parts of the manga, and since it debuted in late-night this could also feature more adult elements; no TV anime-exclusive kindergarten kids in this version, for example. From May 4 to May 28 we saw the return of Masahiko Kikuni with Nippon Ichi no Otoko no Tamashii 2, which was another set of 16 shorts based around the same concept, effectively resulting in a 32-episode series, in total.
May 31 to July 1 featured Surf Side High-School, based on the Young Sunday manga by Ken Sawai, which was a set of shorts that followed the antics of three wannabe surfers who go to school at a fictional seaside town modeled after Shonan; you might find some online claiming this to be a "lost" anime, but it simply hasn't received anything better than VHS in Japan. From July 5 to September 2, seemingly because it wound up being re-run after its initial run, was Papa to Odorou/Let's Dance with Papa, a series of shorts based on the Young Magazine manga by Chuya Chikazawa that followed the oftentimes bizarre & absurd lives of the Amachi Family, made up of single father Shigeru, his son Yoshiharu, & his daughter Fukiko; the manga (& likely the anime, too) was known for its use of gore, eroticism, & general nonsense for its humor. After that came Colorful (not to be confused with the 2010 anime film), a series of shorts based on the Young Magazine manga by Torajiro Kishi that ran from September 6 to September 30 & depicted all manner of scenarios where men find themselves needing to deal with some form of female eroticism, both intentional & inadvertent. From October 5 to October 28 Wonderful featured Ippatsu Kiki Musume/Miss Critical Moment, a series of shorts based on the Young Magazine manga by Shigemitsu Harada that followed the ridiculously (& oftentimes absurdly) dangerous predicaments the Chinese beauty Kunyan & her friends Linda & Nadja find themselves in & need to escape from, almost always in the most idiotic way possible; this is easily the most well known of the Wonderful 1999 line-up that has yet to be licensed for English release.
After that would be probably the least known title ever featured on Wonderful, Itsumo Kokoro ni Taiyo wo/Always Keep the Sun in Your Heart, which was a series of shorts based on the manga by Masahiko Kikuni that ran from November 1 to November 25 &, like Nippon Ichi no Otoko no Tamashii before it, was an anthology series about mainly (but not always) sexually charged scenarios, this time with a focus on male/female couples; from what I can tell this anime has never seen a home video release, even in Japan. Finally, TBS closed out Wonderful's two+-year run of anime with Di Gi Charat, which aired from Novmbver 29 to December 23. This was based on a set of mascot characters originally designed for media company Broccoli's retail store chain Gamers, and the anime saw Dejiko & her friends wind up working at a Gamers while comically trying to achieve their dreams. The anime notoriously portrayed all supporting cast & background characters as thumbs... because thumbs are what are primarily used to play video games.
Out of the entire Wonderful 1999 line-up, only Pet Shop of Horrors, You're Under Arrest Special, Colorful, & Di Gi Charat have so far seen official English releases, via Urban Vision, ADV Films (YUA Special & Colorful), & Synch-Point (Broccoli's short-lived North American division), respectively, while Sentai Filmworks has since given both Pet Shop of Horrors & Di Gi Charat later re-releases in English; Papa to Odorou was licensed by ADV Films at one point, but never saw release.
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If there was any indication that late-night anime was seemingly on the verge of being another dying fad, it'd be the year 2000, as there were only nine new anime that debuted in late-night over the course of the entire year; yeah, less than one/month, on average. However, this really only applies to the first 3/4 of the year, as a literal 2/3 of 2000's new late-night output debuted in October alone. This also means that January 2000 saw just a single new late-night anime debut, which would be Boogiepop wa Warawanai/Boogiepop Doesn't Laugh: Boogiepop Phantom on "January 5 at 21:45" on TV Tokyo, replacing Seraphim Call. Based on the light novel series by Kouhei Kadono (story) & Kouji Ogata (art) starring the mysterious shinigami known as Boggiepop who takes on synthetic humans created by the Towa Organization, & is still running to this very day, Boogiepop Phantom was technically a media mix production. The anime was an original story that acted as the aftermath to the books Boogiepop Doesn't Laugh & Boogiepop at Dawn & was produced to go alongside a live-action film adaptation (known abroad as Boogiepop & Others, which is also what the first novel is known as abroad) that, due to delays, debuted in theaters right as the anime was finishing up. The titular "Boogiepop Phantom" was actually a second Boogiepop that didn't have a physical body that was 100% original to the anime, and from what I can tell while the anime was technically an episodic series by & large, it did kind of require that the viewer was at least familiar with the story of Boogiepop Doesn't Laugh, with the live-action movie intended to act as a replacement for newcomers to watch first... only for the film's release to get delayed; whoops. Despite all of this, & the staff behind the anime feeling that they had to make an original story because they felt that the light novels simply weren't structured in a way that made sense for a TV anime, Boogiepop Phantom has managed to maintain a strong cult following that adores its non-traditional stylings, storytelling that rewards those who pay attention to every detail, & general uniqueness. There would later be a second TV anime in 2019 that directly adapted four of the light novels, including both Boogiepop & Others and Boogiepop at Dawn, and while it was also well received it's entirely possible that it'll never achieve the legendary status of the first anime adaptation.
Once Boogiepop Phantom, Kaikan Phrase, & Excel Saga all ended in late March 2000, though, TV Tokyo would literally be without any new late-night anime until later that October. Kaikan Phrase would be replaced with music show Japan Countdown (which would run in that same late-night slot for just over 11 years), while Excel Saga would be replaced by sports show Sports Beat, though this would be like Face4/4 in 1999 & only be a temporary anime replacement; the trail goes cold on what replaced Boogiepop Phantom. As for Boogiepop Phantom's history in English, Right Stuf would first release the anime via dubbed VHS & dual-audio DVD in 2001 & 2002, followed by the live-action movie via sub-only DVD in 2005, and some boxset re-releases bundled both the anime & movie together. In 2019 Right Stuf would re-release Boogiepop Phantom on Blu-Ray under their Nozomi Entertainment label, though the movie's last re-release was on DVD in 2012.
It's amusing that You're Under Arrest Special was a part of TBS' Wonderful's line-up when it came to late-night anime in 1999, because in 2000 MBS aired what could easily be seen as the Kansai equivalent of YUA... because, you know, MBS is the Kansai flagship for the Japan News Network, while TBS is the Kanto flagship; you may boo the terrible joke. Anyway, on "February 5 at 25:45" MBS debuted Miami Guns, the TV anime adaptation of the Magazine Special manga by Takeaki Momose that had just finished up the year prior, though the anime itself was an original story & not a direct adaptation of the manga. Anyway, Miami Guns focused on the police exploits of Yao Sakurakouji & Lu Amano, two members of the fictional Miami (as in "舞網/Maiami") City Police who often find themselves in all manner of law enforcement scenarios, both in dealing with criminals as well as ones brought about by their own actions, as Yao is all about just shooting things & making them blow up, while Lu is usually the more reasonable of the two, due to her being the daughter of the Chief of Police. Miami Guns was also not shy to be more silly & ridiculous with its situations & gags than something like You're Under Arrest, as well as parodying of other shows, like Episode 4 being a giant Initial D pastiche. To be honest, while I try to keep my personal opinion out of these overviews as much as possible, Miami Guns is an exception as I do recall watching a few episodes back in the day & was thoroughly underwhelmed by it. I've never even seen You're Under Arrest, so I had no comparative reference point to rely on & still felt that it wasn't anything all that great. Considering that the anime was apparently an original story I can only hope that Takeaki Momose's original manga is a better overall product, but Miami Guns has mostly become forgotten for good reason, in my opinion.
AN Entertainment, the short-lived licensing division of now-defunct (as a retailer, at least) online anime store AnimeNation, licensed & released Miami Guns in English via dual-audio DVDs in 2004, using the same North Carolina-based dubbing staff that the original AnimEigo (& Media Blasters, to some extent) consistently relied on for its dubs, so it's entirely possible that the dub was at least pretty funny. However, outside of a bundle sold exclusively at AnimeNation after the singles (though not technically a boxset release), the anime has never been touched again afterwards in English. This is also the sole late-night anime to debut in February 2000, and (as mentioned) there would be nothing new in March.
We move over to April 2000, and the Spring season that saw the debuts of series like Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, Genso Maden Saiyuki, Love Hina, Sakura Wars TV, NieA_7, & Platinumhugen Ordian only saw a single brand new late-night anime. NieA_7 & Ordian were both WOWOW debuts, but by this point even that network was sticking with prime time, and even a title I originally had listed for this overview, Banner of the Stars, technically first aired in a prime time slot on WOWOW, before getting re-run later in the week in late-night, which is a disqualification. What's even more wild is that this one & only late-night anime from the Spring 2000 season came from a creator who you'd probably never really associate with such a time slot: Osamu Tezuka! Yes, on "April 4 at 24:50" NTV debuted, as the replacement for Master Keaton re-runs, the first episode of Hidamari no Ki/A Tree in the Sun, a 25-episode adaptation of Tezuka's 11-volume manga that ran in Big Comic from 1981 to 1986, making it the last long-running manga Tezuka ever serialized & completed before his passing in 1989. This took place during the final decade of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1858-1868) & detailed the friendship between a samurai (Manjiro Ibuya) & a local doctor (Ryoan Tezuka) during what was a very turbulent time in Japan prior to the Meiji Restoration. In fact, Tezuka based Ryoan off of his own great-grandfather, Ryosen Tezuka, a physician who heavily pushed for the acceptance of Western medical practices in Japan during late Tokugawa period. Meanwhile, the title was a metaphor for the Tokugawa Shogunate itself, i.e. a tree that has basked in the sun & shade for over 300 years, but deep down is being eaten from the inside by various termites & gribbles. Hidamari no Ki is actually one of the manga from Tezuka that has yet to see an official English release, likely due to its length, and the anime debuting in late-night made sense since it was one of Tezuka's more adult-oriented works, which he started doing more of in response to the rise of gekiga in the 70s & continued making until his death. Considering the kinds of late-night anime NTV was airing up to this point, something like Hidamari no Ki made perfect sense for the network, especially since it was animated by Madhouse, though it still apparently had some cuts from the manga due to TV restraints; this also looks to have been the last TV anime fully directed by Gisaburo Sugii, i.e. he was the sole series director. Finally, & bizarrely, Tezuka Productions had absolutely nothing to do with this anime, though it's still listed by the company as an official adaptation.
Much like how the manga has yet to see an official English release, the Hidamari no Ki anime has never been licensed for official English release, and despite the Tezuka pedigree behind it it's entirely possible that it may never see one, due to the subject matter; simply put, straight historical pieces like this have always been hard sells in English.
We've now reached the main attraction for the year 2000, October (yeah, there was literally no new late-night anime from May to September!), as in just six days the year saw six new late-night anime, or a literal 2/3 of the year's entire late-night output. If the prior nine months of the year made it look like late-night anime was dying out once again, then this literal single week alone showed that there was indeed still life within the concept. For out next two titles we'll be sticking with NTV, which really started to embrace late-night anime at this point, and first up is a title that I'm pretty sure no one (not even me) has ever heard of previously: Digital Tokoro-san, or (as the image above states) Mr. Digital Tokoro The Comical Cartoon. Debuting on "October 2 at 24:25" & airing six nights a week, though on "Fridays" it aired at "25:15", Digital Tokoro-san was an all-CG series of five-minute shorts conceived of by Takayuki Haga, a comedian, TV personality, & singer-songwriter better known by his stage name, George Tokoro; if you've ever seen the Toy Story movies dubbed into Japanese, he's the voice of Buzz Lightyear. Unfortunately, since I'm not familiar with George Tokoro's work I can't really comment on what exactly this short anime was like, but from what I can tell it was essentially focused on absurd & ridiculous humor based mostly around Tokoro's variety of wild inventions, with which he aimed to "conquer the world & not have to do anything else in life", but at the same time he's a bit of an idiot so his inventions often failed spectacularly. Alongside Tokoro was his dog Indy, his mistress/wife Fumiko, his cat TV, & his two kids Okochama No. 1 & No. 2, alongside other recurring characters. Digital Tokoro-san was also notable for its seemingly revolving door of sponsors that apparently changed daily, and sometimes episodes aired without any sponsors at all. Easily the most notable thing about Digital Tokoro-san, though, would be that this was technically the very first TV anime ever animated by Polygon Pictures, getting the gig due to the studio previously producing the music video for Tokoro's song "Aruite Mikka!"; however, Polygon Pictures wouldn't become a major name in anime for close to another decade after this.
To no one's surprise, Digital Tokoro-san has never been licensed for official English release, and no doubt will never get licensed.
Up to this point all late-night anime, more or less by their very nature, had a natural length cap to them of either one or two cours, i.e. generally between 12 & 26 episodes. The only exceptions were shows that were made up short-length episodes, like Roppo Yabure-kun's 110 episodes in 1969 that were only five minutes each, Heart Cocktail's 78 episodes in the late 80s that were only three minutes each, or some of the shows that aired as a part of Wonderful on TBS; hell, Digital Tokoro-san totaled 245 episodes, but was also only five minutes each. The idea of airing a truly long-term TV anime in late-night with proper, standard-length (i.e. ~24-25 minutes) episodes was likely just seen as an absurd concept, due to late-night's naturally smaller reach... but in late 2000 NTV, VAP, & Madhouse decided to give such a concept a go. Replacing Hidamari no Ki, on "October 3 at 24:50" NTV debuted the first episode of Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting!, based on the boxing manga by George Morikawa that debuted in late 1989 & is still running in Weekly Shonen Magazine to this very day, with a current total of 145 volumes. The anime told the story of Ippo Makunouchi, a meek high school student who's bullied by the local delinquents but finds inspiration to take up boxing after Mamoru Takamura, a pro boxer from the nearby Kamogawa Gym, saves Ippo from a beating. Despite his shy & polite demeanor Ippo actually has tons of determination & dedication when it comes to training, and since he helps his mom run the family fishing charter business he actually already has a decently trained body, so Kamogawa decides to give the kid a try... which begins a journey that'll take Ippo all the way to the top of the Japanese Featherweight boxing world. Simply out, Hajime no Ippo is a true epic detailing Ippo's rise from a literal nobody to one of the best boxers in all of Japan, though currently the manga sees Ippo as retired due to injury & working as a coach, and Madhouse's TV anime adaptation carried that through to perfection, creating one of the best & most beloved sports anime of all time. As stated, Hajime no Ippo would be the first "true" long-running TV anime to air in late-night, lasting 76 episodes before finally ending on "March 26, 2002", covering the first 30 volumes of the manga. Since the Ippo anime ran for so long, and did experience a minor shift in time slot as it aired, I'll come back to this, in passing, in both the 2001 & 2002 overviews, so I'll stop here for now.
Hajime no Ippo has had a notoriously bumpy road when it comes official English releases, with Generon Entertainment first giving it a go from 2004 to 2006 across 15 triple-audio DVD singles (English, Japanese, & Spanish!), under the name Fighting Spirit; notably, Geneon did not include Episode 76, which was about how Takamura became a boxer. To no surprise, Geneon's release bombed extremely hard, and by the time it released two DVD boxsets in October 2007 the company was essentially dead; those boxsets would be some of Geneon's final releases in North America. The anime wouldn't be given another chance physically until 2021, when Discotek Media re-released all of Hajime no Ippo (this time including Episode 76, plus some other productions we'll cover in later overviews) across three BD boxsets (including all of the same audio options as Geneon's DVDs), & in late 2025 collected all three sets into a single BD boxset release. Today the anime is available via streaming over on Netflix, alongside the two TV anime sequel series that came years later; again, we'll get to those when I cover Ippo's end in 2002.
We finally return to TV Tokyo for our next late-night anime, and it's the show that replaced Sports Beat & brought late-night anime back to the network! It's also the return of Sunrise in late-night, following Betterman & Seraphim Call, as well as (technically) another giant robot anime with Argento Soma, which is Greek for "The Silver Body" & officially stylized as "ΑΠΗΕΝΤΟ ΣΟΜΑ"... but that's actually incorrect Greek & should be read as "Apiento Soma", or "The Dead Body"; whoops. Debuting on "October 5 at 25:15", Argento Soma told the story of Takuto Kaneshiro, a college student who finds himself assisting on a scientific project involving the revival of a patchwork being named "Frank" made up of parts of aliens (which the Earth is currently fighting back against), only for things to go immensely wrong after Frank's brought to life, destroying the lab & killing everyone there, including Takuto's girlfriend... except for Takuto himself, who barely survives but is immensely scarred. Takuto is rescued by the mysterious "Mr. X", who offers to help Takuto get his revenge by giving him a new face & name (Ryu Soma) & joining the group Funeral that's actively fighting the aliens... and, if Ryu's lucky, kill Frank as well. In essence, Argento Soma was a bizarre fusion of Frankenstein, The Count of Monte Cristo, & even a little bit of Neon Genesis Evangelion (though, here, imagine if Gendou was actually the main character of Eva, instead of Shinji), as Takuto/Ryu would pilot a giant transforming jet/mech to fight the alien threat while looking for information regarding Frank's whereabouts, though eventually Funeral discovers that Frank is actually their best chance at winning the war against the aliens, creating an interesting conflict within who's essentially the main character that the viewer should be relating to; i.e. does Takuto/Ryu's thirst for vengeance matter more than the fate of humanity itself? Argento Soma was essentially director Kazutoshi Katayama's follow up after making the first season of The Big O the year prior, which I think would help explain the interesting fusion of influences for this series; without a doubt, there wasn't much out there quite like Argento Soma.
Bandai Entertainment would release all of Argento Soma in English in 2003 via dual-audio DVD singles, followed by what looks to have been a second run of singles in 2004, & was then re-released via DVD boxset in both late 2004 & mid-2006. Just as with Betterman, Sentai Filmworks had announced a license rescue for Argento Soma at Otakon 2013 as part of that giant package deal with Sunrise, though also like Betterman this anime has yet to actually see a new English release.
We end 2000's late-night anime output with a trio of shows that all debuted over on TV Asahi; see, I told you that they'd stick with it (somewhat) more regularly. If there's one thing you'd have thought would have been prevalent when it comes to late-night anime programming it'd be mahjong anime. However, the only real example of such a thing in late-night up until this point was Super Zugan in 1992, but that would all change on "October 6 at 26:40" when TV Asahi debuted Gambler Densetsu Tetsuya, an adaptation of the 1997-2005 manga Tetsuya - Jansei to Yobareta Otoko/Tetsuya - The Man They Called the Mahjong Saint by Fumei Sai (story) & Yasushi Hoshino (art) that ran in, of all places... Weekly Shonen Magazine. To be fair, Shonen Magazine tends to skew a little older than rival publication like Shonen Jump or Shonen Sunday, but this period piece mahjong manga still ran alongside the likes of Love Hina, GetBackers, Rave, School Rumble, Air Gear, Negima!, Hajime no Ippo, & even the early days of (the still running) Ahiru no Sora. Anyway, the anime followed the exploits of the titular Tetsuya Asada in post-war Japan as he becomes a master of gambling, mostly in mahjong but also other games on occasion, with a strong focus put towards not just being a good player but also a good cheater; after all, the tagline for the anime was "Eat or Be Eaten, Lose & You're in Hell". The story itself was actually based on various gambling novels written by the late Takehiro Irokawa (under his pen name "Tetsuya Asada", hence the fictional Tetsuya's name), with some of the characters from his novels even appearing in Tetsuya. The Tetsuya anime was actually originally intended to be aired in prime time over on ABC, but was moved to late-night on TV Asahi due to the content, with the usage of methamphetamines in Episodes 8 to 11 even including an on-screen disclaimer, a la those modern-day historical disclaimers for classic animation that feature racist stereotypes! Because of the shift in time slot Gambler Densetsu Tetsuya would become the very first anime produced by Toei Animation to ever debut in late-night, and while it wasn't by intention this time around Toei would start purposefully making late-night anime in 2002.
Naturally, due to it being a mahjong anime, Gambler Densetsu Tetsuya has never been licensed for official English release. Normally I'd include an aside of "and, obviously, it will never get licensed"... but we have had numerous mahjong anime licensed for streaming in the past already (Saki, Akagi, Pon no Michi, Tohai), and Mahjong Pros is literally giving mahjong manga a chance in English right now, so you never know.
If you thought Digital Tokoro-san was the most unknown anime you'd see in this two-year overview, then how about this?! Debuting on TV Asahi on "October 6 at 25:39", & replacing on-location challenge/variety show Hizakurige, Barry Party is a most curious anime to cover for a simple reason: There's barely any information regarding it at all. It's not listed at all on any of the most comprehensive English anime listings you can think of (ANN, MAL, AniDB, Anime Planet, etc.), trying to search for information about it tends to bring up the character Barry from I Left My A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths!, & even Google's default AI overview when searching can barely say anything about the show. However, there is some info to be dug up in Japanese, so here's the best I can relay to you. From what I can tell, Barry Party was a 26-episode series, made up of five-minute episodes, about a race of aliens from the planet Warly that suffer a water shortage due to the antics of their prince, Barry Kicchu. To solve this conundrum King Warly travels to Earth in search of water... which leaves Warly at the unfortunate mercy of Barry & his friends, who love to play pranks & make trouble. Looking up the (thankfully) archived website for the anime indicates that it was considered a bit of a "variety/infotainment" show, though with the short run time for each episode I imagine it was mostly just a silly comedy, & it was directed by Kazunari Kume (a.k.a. Rei Sayumi), who has worked as a key animator & animation/episode director for a variety of titles, & would later direct the drama anthology TV anime Human Crossing in 2003; meanwhile, the character designs were by Yuji Shigekuni, who did the original designs for Chibi Maruko-chan TV. Beyond that, and the usual goodies that were sold in relation to the anime, there's really not much else that I can find about Barry Party aside from the fact that a production company named Foursome was involved, and Foursome would also be involved in our last title for 2000.
As for Barry Party's history of official English licensing... WAIT, THAT ACTUALLY EXISTS!?!?!?!?! Yes, though brief, it was reported in early 2002 that Super Techno Arts, the North American division of A.P.P.P. that released the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure [Part 3] OVAs in the first half of the 00s, actually did once confirm that it had the distribution rights to Barry Party! Unfortunately, all Super Techno Arts would ever manage to release were the JoJo OVAs before being shut down in 2008, and from what I can tell Barry Party was never brought up again beyond this single confirmation of distribution rights. Speaking of Super Techno Arts...
Finally, we end out 2000 with a series that has a bit of an interesting little history behind it, but at the same time truly did befit its late-night time slot, in some ways. Japanese film director/writer George Iida is, without a doubt, best known for Night Head, a late-night live-action series where a pair of brothers with ESP solve a variety of mysteries while dealing with the mysterious Ark Corporation that's related to their own tragic pasts. Night Head would go on to receive a number of adaptations, including two different TV anime (both of which saw official English release, though only one physically), but it wasn't the only "sci-fi" story Iida had created involving people with ESP. In 1995 Iida teamed with mangaka Asami Tojo to make the manga Sci-Fi HARRY, which lasted two volumes & was left incomplete, with (from my recollection, at least) the basic idea being that this was based on some of the initial concepts Iida had that would later be turned into Night Head, which itself was based on an episode of Tales of the Unusual, a Twilight Zone-esque series that ran from 1990 to 1992, titled "The Common Sense Bar". Five years later, Iida would revive Sci-Fi-HARRY as a TV anime that was co-produced by TV Asahi & Nagoya TV (the latter's first late-night anime since Roppo Yabure-kun in 1969) that debuted on "October 7 at 26:00", though due to both networks airing the discussion program Live TV Until Morning! on the last Friday of every month the show only ran for 20 episodes. Regardless, Sci-Fi HARRY took place in the United States & told the story of Harry McQuinn, a highly ostracized high schooler who's befriended by a cute classmate named Catherine, and in return Harry reveals that he can psychically bend spoons. Wanting to help break Harry out of his shell, Catherine manages to convince Harry to show his spoon-bending powers on live TV... only for things to go horribly wrong when a ton of people at the TV studio have their necks fatally snapped the moment Harry bends (& then snaps off) the head of the spoon. Harry is then kidnapped by a mysterious organization called Accuser, who wishes to figure out how to use Harry's ESP for their own purposes, while Catherine, her boyfriend John, & a police officer named Mike try to figure out where Harry was kidnapped to. In true George Iida fashion, Sci-Fi HARRY was filled with twists, turns, & lots of mystery, though one that was still wholly unique when compared to Night Head, and (in my opinion) is an anime that more people should experience.
Just as with Barry Party, Sci-Fi HARRY was another anime that Super Techno Arts had North American distribution rights to, but unfortunately never managed to actually put it out. However, Super Techno Arts did at least confirm its intention to release Sci-Fi HARRY in 2003, same as with the anthology film Robot Carnival (which eventually did see re-release via Discotek Media a few times between 2015 & 2021) & later the sexual ninja OVA Shadow (which also never came to pass in English), unlike how Barry Party was brought up just once & then never mentioned again.
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And with that we've cleared out two more years of late-night anime! As you can see, after the massive whirlwind that was 1998 things definitely slowed down in 1999, while in 2000 things came to an absolute crawl. I honestly can't tell why things changed so sharply for the next two years after what was seriously a landmark year for late-night anime, but I imagine various titles in 1998 likely just didn't do as well as hoped. Remember, while titles like Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Outlaw Star, & Serial Experiments Lain are today considered all-time classics abroad, over in Japan their successes were sometimes much more muted (while Cowboy Bebop's "lack" of success in Japan is often overstated, Trigun has always been known to be less popular in Japan than overseas), and that likely meant that networks may have become a bit more gunshy after 1998; meanwhile, a network like WOWOW decided to more embrace prime time than late-night. I mean, the literal sole sequel from this list of 1999 & 2000 that continued to debut in late-night was Initial D Second Stage, which I think says enough.
In that case, what 1999 & 2000 each got when it came to late-night anime were either more experimental works or titles that were likely seen as "lesser" to the companies producing them, and the former case is definitely easy to see. Titles like Betterman, Excel Saga, Trouble Chocolate, Digital Tokoro-san, Boogiepop Phantom, & even Hajime no Ippo were truly experiments that may not ever have been approved for prime time, whether it was due to subject matter, visual style, denseness of storytelling, or even simply because its very production was an experiment in how far the production committee idea could be taken. While there were certainly more lesser-known late-night anime in these two years, the ones that have remained in the minds of anime fans are arguably extremely strong.
However, things will start returning back to a sense of "normalcy" in 2001, as networks decide to come back to late-night in stronger force, beginning the true rise of the "modern day late-night anime infomercial" into the behemoth that it is today... and we'll take a look at that year in September.
Crest of the Stars © Hiroyuki Morioka/Hayakawa Publishing, Inc. © Sunrise
Space Pirate Mito © Mito Project/Bandai Visual/Ayers
Legend of Himiko © 1999 Hakuhodo/Amuse/RED © Himiko-den Animation Production Committee
Betterman © Sunrise
To Heart © AquaPlus/KSS [now Softgarage]
Jubei-chan the Ninja Girl: Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch © 1999 Akitaroh Daichi・Madhouse/Bandai Visual
A.D. Police © AIC © 1999 A.D.Police Production Committee
Kakyusei © 1999 élf/Pink Pineapple
Aoi & Mutsuki: A Pair of Queens! © Mito Project/Mito Committee
Kaikan Phrase © Mayu Shinjo・Shogakukan
Seraphim Call © Aoi Nanase・Mediaworks/Sunrise・Banpresto・MC
Excel Saga © 1999 Koshi Rikdo/Shonen Gahosha・Flying Dog
Blue Gender © 1999 AIC/Toshiba EMI
Trouble Chocolate © 1999 Trouble Chocolate Production Committee
Initial D 2nd Stage © Shuichi Shigeno/Kodansha・avex entertainment・OB Planning
Nippon Ichi no Otoko no Tamashii 1 & 2 © Masahiko Kikuni/Shogakukan・TBS
Iketeru Futari © Takashi Sano/Shonen Gahosha・Pioneer LDC・TBS
Petshop of Horrors © Matsuri Akino/Polygram・TBS・Madhouse
You're Under Arrest Special © 1999 Kousuke Fujishima/Kodansha・Bandai Visual・TBS・Studio Deen
Surf Side High-School © Ken Sawai/Shogakukan・Polydor・TBS
Papa to Odorou © Chuya Chikazawa/Kodansha・TBS
Colorful © Torajiro Kishi/Shueisha・TBS
Ippatsu Kiki Musume © Shigemitsu Harada/Kodansha・TBS
Itsumo Kokoro ni Taiyo wo © Masahiko Kikuni/Takeshobo・TBS
Di Gi Charat © Broccoli・TBS
Boogiepop Phantom © Kohei Kadono/MediaWorks・Project Boogiepop
Miami Guns © 2000 Takeaki Momose・Kodansha/Toho・Group TAC・MBS
Hidamari no Ki © Tezuka Productions・VAP・Shogakukan・NTV
Digital Tokoro-san © TV Club・Polygon Pictures・VAP・NTV
Hajime no Ippo © Jyoji Morikawa/Kodansha・VAP © VAP
Argento Soma © 2000 Sunrise・Flying Dog
Gambler Densetsu Tetsuya © Fumei Sai・Yasushi Hoshino/Kodansha・Tetsuya Production Committee (TV Asahi, Toei Agency, Toei Animation, Toei Video)
Barry Party © Barry Party 2000
Sci-Fi HARRY © George Iida/Sci-Fi Harry 2000 (Foursome, TV Asahi, Nagoya TV, A.P.P.P.)
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