In other words, 2001's history of late-night anime can probably be best described as "The Calm Before the Storm" that would be the complete upheaval of how TV anime would primarily be made moving forward... and we begin things off with a title TV Tokyo would spend the entire year airing in late-night!
January 2001 would see only one new anime debut in late-night, but like I just indicated it's a big one that would run throughout the entire calendar year. Debuting over on TV Tokyo on "January 8 at 25:45", & replacing the variety show Sakura-yu featuring singer/actor/political analyst Kiyoshi Nakajo, Grappler Baki (or Baki the Grappler, as it's officially known in English) was an adaptation of the manga of the same name by Keisuke Itagaki that ran in Weekly Shonen Champion from 1991 to 1999 & detailed the journey of Baki Hanma, a powerful & talented fighter who fights & trains to one day surpass his utterly undefeatable & seemingly indestructible father, "The Ogre" Yujiro Hanma. Today, the Baki Series is currently made up of six manga totaling over 150 volumes of manga (& TV anime adaptations running up into the fourth manga), not to mention tons of various spin-offs, & is still running to this day. However, back in 2001 Itagaki was only on the second manga (New Grappler Baki, or just simply Baki), and the only prior anime adaptation was a 45-minute OVA in 1994 produced by Knack & released under Toei's V-Anime label. This time around, the Grappler Baki TV anime was produced solely by Free-Will, a record label run by Hiroshi "Dynamite Tommy" Tomioka that's best known for helping popularize visual kei; the animation itself, though, was done by Group TAC. Where Knack's OVA only adapted portions of the early part of the manga, which saw Baki fight in an underground arena, the TV anime actually adapted all 42 volumes of the original Grappler Baki manga (minus a handful of scenes being skipped over), though it did change things around by adapting the story purely in chronological order, so where the manga started with young adult Baki in the underground arena the anime began with teen Baki & his backstory regarding his mother. Halfway through the anime changed its title slightly, becoming Grappler Baki: Maximum Tournament (to relfect the story arc that the entire second half adapted), before ending on "December 25, 2001", where it was replaced with... the Japanese airing of The Naked Chef, starring Jamie Oliver; again, late-night has no continuity between shows.
FUNimation would license & release the anime as Baki the Grappler from 2005 to 2007, first across 12 dual-audio DVD singles, followed by two "shove the singles in the artbox" boxsets in 2006 & early 2008, & then a complete 48-episode boxset in late 2008. The international release was notable for replacing the two OP themes by Ryoko Aoyagi with the song "Child Prey" by dir en grey, though Aoyagi's two ED themes were kept intact, and even the Japanese credits were changed to reflect dir en grey's song, so this was a change implemented by Free-Will themselves, not FUNimation. I've even been told that Episodes 45 & 46 feature extra scenes in the Japanese DVD release that were not included internationally, likely also done by Free-Will. Regardless, the fact that Free-Will was the sole production company behind the Grappler Baki TV anime means that it very well could never see a re-release, since Free-Will is a music company first & foremost, despite all of the modern Baki anime produced by TMS being direct sequels to it.
Grappler Baki was the literal only new late-night anime for January in 2001, but things really started to pick up in April, which saw 10 debuts, and we begin with the series that, from all accounts, is generally seen as the show that truly made UHF anime the viable concept that would eventually take over the entire anime industry. Originally released on May 28, 1999 for Windows, Comic Party was a dating sim developed by Leaf & published by Aquaplus that was inspired by the doujinshi scene & Comiket. In the game the player character (Kazuki Sendo) is a doujin artist who has to balance drawing his doujinshi, attending the monthly Comic Party event to sell his comics, & date the various girls he meets along the way, some being fellow doujin artists, others being related to the doujin industry (i.e. an event planner or print shop employee), & the "main" girl (Mizuki Takase) being the player's friend who's initially uninterested in doujinshi but can be warmed up to being more interested in otaku culture. The game was a notable hit for Leaf & Aquaplus, with Leaf even holding a real life Comic Party doujinshi event at Tokyo Big Site (the home of Comiket) in April 2000... which from all reports was a bit of an unmitigated disaster. Anyway, 2001 would be a big year for the game, as alongside a port to the Dreamcast that August, as well as a five-volume manga adaptation by Sekihiko Inui that would run until 2005, "April 1 at 24:00" saw the debut of a UHF anime adaptation of Comic Party produced by KSS (the company that debuted the entire concept of UHF anime with Legend of Basara in 1998) that first appeared on Chiba TV, TV Wakayama, & tvk, in that order. This adaptation saw a number of changes made, most notably de-aging most of the cast from college age to high school age as well as focusing almost exclusively on the romance between Kazuki & Mizuki, alongside Kazuki's journey into the world of doujinshi, with most of the other girls from the game only making the occasional appearance throughout all 13 episodes.
However, where prior UHF anime only made so much of a splash, the Comic Party anime seemingly went well beyond that, becoming what looks to be the first truly "big" example of the concept. While part of that likely was due to it being based on a popular dating sim, there's also the simple fact that this show actually wasn't just exclusive the independent UHF stations, as over the course of April 2001 it'd eventually debut across 11 stations, with five of them being a part of a larger network's (i.e. TV Asahi, TV Tokyo, & NTV) reach. While it didn't air on the main networks themselves, being broadcast on stations that were a part of a larger network certainly meant that more people in Japan could watch it, and the fact that just shy of half of those stations aired the show at midnight (or not too long after) also meant that people didn't have to stay up as late to watch the show, either, allowing it to be more easily seen. While 2001 would only see three more UHF anime following Comic Party's debut, & another four in 2002, that number would explode after that point, from 19 in 2003 to 46 in 2006 (&, again, this is only for UHF anime, not late-night anime as a whole!), resulting in the true start of the "modern day anime hellscape" that's still going on strong today, where a single season can have as many new UHF anime debuting as an entire year would have had around 2004 or 2005. Ironically, while KSS was responsible for both the first UHF anime itself & the first "big" example of the concept, the company itself would go bankrupt in 2004, selling off its entire catalog to Softgarage, right as UHF anime was truly expanding in a big way.
As for the Comic Party anime's history in English, Right Stuf would first release it across four dual-audio DVD singles throughout 2004, followed by a couple of boxset releases, and in 2015 Discotek Media re-released it via another DVD boxset; all releases also included the four Comic Party Special shorts. Meanwhile, in 2005 a TV anime sequel titled Comic Party Revolution would air in Japan, & ADV Films would release that throughout the second half of the 2000s via dual-audio DVDs, before FUNimation would give it one last release in 2010 (after acquiring the show via the whole ADV/Sojitz fiasco); it would later be revealed via a court case that ADV licensed Comic Party Revolution for $30,336.
For our next late-night anime we move over to WOWOW, which returned to late-night for the first time since Crest of the Stars in early 1999, though this time it was only broadcasting its new late-night offering via the paid/scrambled option... because this was produced in a fashion not seen previously for a TV anime. On "April 4 at 23:00" the first episode of The SoulTaker debuted, which was a new superhero series by Tatsunoko that followed somewhat in the vein of Generator Gawl nearly three years prior by being more of a "dark" hero story, compared to kinds of heroes Tatsunoko was generally known for. The SoulTaker told the story of Kyosuke Date, a young man who had just been stabbed in the heart & left for dead by his adoptive mother, only to be resurrected & told to search for his twin sister Runa, who's wanted by a variety of evil forces, most notably the mysterious Kirihara Corporation & "The Hospital" run by Dr. Richard Vincent, Kyosuke & Runa's father; Kyosuke, in turn, can transform into The SoulTaker to fight mutants called Flickers from both opposing sides. Assisting Kyosuke are Shiro Mibu, who has a vendetta against the Kirihara Corporation, & Komugi Nakahara, a nurse who left the Hospital after falling in love with Kyosuke. Along with the Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko TV anime the year prior, The SoulTaker was one of the first titles that really made an early name for director Akiyuki Simbo, who gave this Tatsunoko series a heavy focus on visual abstraction & symbolism, creating a series that really wasn't like anything else from the studio; Simbo would go on to continue this style of directing after his move over to anime studio Shaft. However, the reason why WOWOW aired The SoulTaker on the scrambled channel was because, alongside being Tatsunoko's first ever digitally animated production, from all indications this was the first TV anime to ever be produced & broadcast in high definition via Hi-Vision, Japan's HDTV standard. Granted, this was still 2001 so while HDTVs certainly existed & were being sold I imagine the amount of people in Japan that actually managed to watch The SoulTaker in HD at the time were miniscule; still, it would explain why WOWOW made this exclusive to paid subscription viewers. Also of note is the OP theme, "Soul Taker" by JAM Project, which is arguably the first true hit song to come from the anison supergroup & also the group's very first TV anime theme song.
While The SoulTaker only ran for 13 episodes, plus three bonus OVAs, it would have a bit of a long tail by way of Komugi Nakahara, who was popular enough to get her own OVA series, Nurse Witch Komugi, from 2002 to 2005 that acted as a comical parody of both The SoulTaker & the magical girl genre, as a whole. Then in 2016 Tatsunoko made the TV anime Nurse Witch Komugi R, a complete reboot of the series, though still very much focused on parodying magical girl anime & various Tatsunoko icons. Geneon Entertainment would release The SoulTaker through 2002 across four dual-audio DVD singles, & then re-release them in 2004, but a true DVD boxset release never came & it's yet to be given a modern-day re-release; hell, there isn't even a Blu-Ray release for it in Japan, despite (apparently) being produced in HD! Meanwhile, Nurse Witch Komugi would see release by ADV during the mid-00s via dual-audio DVDs, & Nurse Witch Komugi R would be simulcasted by Crunchyroll, before getting a sub-only DVD & Blu-Ray boxset in 2017 from Sentai Filmworks.
Meanwhile, on the same night that WOWOW was debuting The SoulTaker, TV Tokyo would debut another late-night anime on its airwaves, one that was about as much of a complete & utter opposite from the still-airing Grappler Baki as possible. Originally debuting in March 1999, Sister Princess was a light novel series by Sakurako Kimino (story) & Naoto Tenhiro (art) that was published in Dengeki G's Magazine until September 2003, totaling 12 volumes. Today, Kimino is known more as the co-creator of the massive Love Live! franchise, but Sister Princess originally began as an in-magazine game about 12 sisters who long to spend time with their brother, but can only do so on a specific "Brother Day", otherwise only being able to communicate letters & e-mails. Eventually the game expanded into a proper story across multiple mediums, including multiple video games & some manga, but on "April 4, 2001 at 24:45" TV Tokyo debuted an anime version of Sister Princess that told the story of Wataru Minakami, a top student who actually fails his high school entrance exam due to a computer glitch. However, Wataru does manage to get enrolled into Stargazer Hill Academy, which is located on the mysterious Promised Island, and upon arriving on the island encounters 12 (later 13) different girls who all claim to be his sisters. In the end the Sister Princess anime would act both as a story of Wataru needing to be a caring older brother to all of the girls that claim to be his sisters over the course of the year he spends at Stargazer Hill, but also trying to figure out the mystery behind Promised Island, & why exactly all of them were sent there. While this, alongside Grappler Baki, was TV Tokyo re-entering the late-night anime mines with new shows, they had actually started this specific time slot back in January with a TV airing of the Getter Robo Armageddon OVA, and after Sister Princess finishing airing it would be replaced with Mobile Police Patlabor: Labor Selection, a 24-episode rerun of select episodes of both Patlabor TV & the New Files OVA sequel.
Sister Princess would first get released in English by ADV Films via dual-audio DVD singles between 2004 & 2005, followed by a variety of boxset re-releases in 2006 & 2009. Then, in 2018, Discotek Media would re-release Sister Princess via dual-audio Blu-Ray boxset... though it initially had to be recalled, due to Episodes 11 to 13 not having any subtitles on them. On the same day Discotek would also release Sister Princess Re:Pure, a standalone second anime series, but we'll go over that one next time when we cover 2002.
The next night TV Tokyo would debut another new late-night anime, though this time it was replacing Argento Soma, which had debuted back in the Fall of 2000. This was also the return of director Koichi Mashimo to late-night, as after directing the first Eat-Man anime in early 1997 (the second ever "modern day late-night anime infomercial") he went on to direct two video game adaptations in 1998's Popolocrois Monogatari & 1999's Wild Arms: Twilight Venom, neither of which aired in late-night. However, what came next from Mashimo would be the start of what he's arguably most well known for today, and it all began with the debut of Noir on "April 5 at 25:15" on TV Tokyo. An original work conceived of by novelist Ryoe Tsukimura, who had co-created El-Hazard with Hiroki Hayashi, Noir told the tale of Mireille Bouquet, a Corsican assassin who receives an e-mail from a high school girl named Kirika Yuumura that simply reads "Make a Pilgrimage for the Past, with me", and only takes it seriously when the music accompanying the e-mail sounds exactly like the song that was playing on the pocket watch her parents owned at the scene of her parents' murder years ago. While Kirika herself is an amnesiac she clearly has excellent combat abilities, so the two decide to team up as the duo "Noir", Mireille wanting to get revenge for her parents' murder & Kirika wanting to recall who she really is, all while dealing with forces sent after them by the mysterious organization Les Soldats. Noir would quickly become a cult favorite, with the relationship between Mireille & Kirika catching viewers' attention, while the mystery surrounding both them & Les Soldats keeping them engaged; the final shot of the show, where two gunshots are heard without any visuals, left things up to interpretation. Koichi Mashimo would eventually follow up Noir with two spiritual successors, 2004's Madlax & 2007's El Cazador de la Bruja, which followed a similar theme of two young women wielding firearms, creating what's now known as the "Girls with Guns Trilogy". While Mashimo has a number of iconic individual anime under his belt, and we'll be covering one of his most iconic next time, it's this trilogy that he's arguably best known for now.
ADV would first release Noir in English via dual-audio DVD singles throughout 2003, and it was one of the titles ADV tried out its "AniMini" line of miniDVD releases with, though these only held one dub-only episode each. ADV even planned an "HD Video" DVD release for Noir in 2005 that would have contained a high-definition video file that could be played back on Windows Media Player 9 or 10, but the entire planned line got cancelled. After a couple of DVD boxsets in 2005 & 2008 by ADV, Noir would eventually get license rescued by FUNimation, which re-released the series via DVD boxset in 2011, followed by a Blu-Ray boxset in 2015; it was also streaming over on Crunchyroll for a good while, but as of this piece is no longer available.
If there's one thing that the 00s would go on to become known best for, in terms of productions, it's the sheer amount of nostalgia-focused revivals, reboots, re-imaginings, & even sequels of titles that dated back to the 60s, 70s, & 80s, similar to how the 2020s have seen a lot of 90s titles be given similar treatment. The first of these revivals to debut in late-night would be a (mostly) standalone sequel to a cult favorite OVA dating back to 1987: Dangaioh. Directed by Toshihiro "Toshiki" Hirano, Haja Taisei/Evil Crushing Great Star Dangaioh was originally created from the wreckage that was a planned remake of Mazinger Z titled "Dai Mazinger", alongside the OVA Daimajuu Gekitou: Hagane no Oni. Dangaioh, though, would be very successful & wind up getting two additional episodes that came out in 1988 & 1989, before ending of a cliffhanger that declared that it was simply the end of "Act 1". Well, nearly 12 whole years later, Hirano would finally return with a second act when on "April 5 at 27:44" TV Asahi debuted the first episode of Haja Kyosei/Evil Crushing Giant Star Great Dangaioh... though, initially, its connection to the original OVA wasn't clear. Instead of being a direct continuation from where the OVA left off at, with the main characters left adrift in space after an intense battle, Great Dangaioh took place roughly a decade later on Earth, which played home to the battle seen in Episode 1 of the OVA, & told the story of a new team that pilot a brand new giant robot named Dangaioh that took on a variety of forces that all aim to rule the world. However, after a mostly episodic (& kind of repetitive) first half the show would finally establish its link to the original OVA by revealing that Mia Alice, the main character of the OVA, had managed to crash land back on Earth & while unconscious had been telepathically issuing a warning for the past decade about the Bunker, the evil pirates Mia & her friends had fought, which in turn resulted in the creation of the new Dangaioh to protect Earth. After 13 episodes, though, the series would infamously end on yet another cliffhanger, with the reveal of the actual Great Dangaioh itself, piloted by a character who only made the occasional appearance here & there, which takes off into space, leaving the cast of the actual series feeling like they were nothing more than supporting characters in their own story the whole time.
Needless to say, Great Dangaioh was not the continuation of the OVA story that people would have expected, with even Hirano later jokingly stating "I can't help but feel that any work bearing the name Dangaioh is fated never to reach a proper conclusion," and there hasn't been a third act made in the 25 years since Great Dangaioh. Meanwhile, Viz Media would release Great Dangaioh in English across four dual-audio DVDs in 2002 & 2003... and then the show was never heard from again, as there has never been a boxset release or any "modern" re-release. Considering that even the original Dangaioh has yet to receive any modern re-release in English, I highly doubt there's much chance for Great Dangaioh.
Luckily, those in Japan who watched late-night anime in 2001 were able to quickly wash away the vague (&, quite frankly, disappointing) taste of Great Dangaioh the very next night, as TV Tokyo had a second mech anime to debut... and this one had its own unique pedigree behind it. Originally in development on the Sega Dreamcast under the code name "Atlantis", Konami would eventually release the "Robot Anime Simulator" Zone of the Enders for the PlayStation 2 in March 2001 across all three major regions (Japan, Europe, & North America). It was a high-speed third-person action game where you played as Leon Stenbuck, a young teen who finds himself piloting a mysterious "Orbital Frame" named Jehuty as he tries to escape the space colony he lives on after it gets attacked by a military force called BAHRAM... which is looking, in part, for Jehuty itself. Produced (though not directed) by Hideo Kojima, ZOE was designed from the start as a media mix project, as alongside the PS2 game Sunrise would release Zone of the Enders 2167 Idolo, a single-episode OVA that took place before the game but otherwise didn't have a direct connection outside of the character Viola, who would later encounter & fight Leo a few times in the game; in Japan the game & Idolo OVA came out on the same exact day. However, the Idolo OVA would really act more as the prologue to what debuted on TV Tokyo on "April 6 at 26:30", which was Zone of the Enders: Dolores, i, a 26-episode anime series that starred the Links Family, specifically the husband & two adult children of Dr. Rachel Links, one of the co-creators of Orbital Frame technology who seemingly died during the climax of the Idolo OVA. However, husband (& professional courier) James Links refuses to believe it's true, and when one of his jobs results in him accidentally becoming the pilot of an Orbital Frame with an AI named Dolores who imprints on him as her "uncle", & he becomes a wanted man in the process, James & his kids find themselves on an adventure to not only find Rachel, but also discover the truth behind Dolores & eventually how it all relates to the events seen in the Idolo OVA. While the Dolores, i anime technically takes places both before (first half) & after (second half) the PS2 game, the anime didn't make too many direct connections to the events of the game (no more than a couple of spoken references in the second half), allowing it to be enjoyed as its own work & story, though aspects of the story told in the anime would get (very) vaguely referenced in the sequel game, 2003's Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner. If you want a (slightly) more connected sequel then play the 2001 game Zone of the Enders: The Fist of Mars for the Game Boy Advance, which more directly referenced the events of Dolores, i & even included a member of the anime's supporting cast as a cameo; the game was co-produced by Sunrise & VAP, just as the anime was.
ADV would first release both the Idolo OVA & Dolores, i in English via dual-audio DVD singles across 2002 & 2003, with The 2nd Runner even seeing North American release on PS2 during ADV's release of Dolores, i. After that came a thinpak boxset re-release by ADV in 2006 that collected both productions, and it'd take 20 whole years before both ZOE anime would ever see re-release again, when Discotek would re-release them via Blu-Ray boxset in early 2026, long after both "mainline" ZOE games would see various HD remasters & re-releases on later consoles.
One last late-night anime debut for TV Tokyo in April 2001 to cover, which definitely shows how re-committed the network had become towards the format that it introduced nearly five years prior, and much like Grappler Baki this was another long-term series. Debuting in Issue #16 of Weekly Shonen Sunday in 1997, ARMS by Kyoichi Nanatsuki (story) & Ryoji Minagawa (art) was a bit of a rarity for Shonen Sunday in that it was a sci-fi action series, something more akin to a series you'd maybe see in Shonen Jump or Shonen Champion at the time, detailing the lives of various teenagers who are all experimented on by a mysterious organization known as Egrigori. These experiments resulted in specific parts of their bodies being replaced by nanomachine powered implants called "ARMS", and after the girlfriend of main character Ryo Takatsuki is kidnapped by Egrigori these ARMS-powered youths start to fight back. The manga would run until Issue #20 of 2002, but during that final year or so serialization TV Tokyo debuted Project ARMS, a TV anime adaptation by TMS, on "April 7 at 24:50", becoming the first late-night anime adaptation of a Shogakukan-published manga. Similar to the Grappler Baki anime, Project ARMS would run for a solid year & total 52 episodes but halfway through had a slight title change, as the second half was called Project ARMS The 2nd Chapter, seeing as the story moved over to America for the rest of the adaptation. Part of this change in title was also because TMS switched from traditional cel animation to digital animation, with the later DVD release for The 2nd Chapter even being offered in "uncropped" widescreen. Project ARMS would mark the start of a run of late-night anime adaptations of Shogakukan manga on TV Tokyo that would continue on through 2007, and we'll cover the next of these in the following (& final) overview for 2002 later this year.
Viz initially released Project ARMS from late 2002 to late 2005 across 16 dual-audio DVD singles, during which Viz also started releasing the original manga in English, though using the anime's title, & all 22 volumes would see release between 2003 & 2009; unfortunately, there was never a digital release, so the manga isn't available today via the Viz Manga app. Viz would never re-release the Project ARMS anime via boxset, so that wouldn't happen until Discotek eventually license rescued the anime & finally gave it a DVD boxset release in 2018, followed by a re-release on SD-BD in 2025.
While TV Tokyo's (& TV Asahi's, too) April 2001 is out of the way we still aren't quite finished with the month just yet, as four nights later Fuji TV returned to late-night anime for the first time since Initial D: Second Stage ended on January 20, 2000. This is also the first of only three anime covered in this overview that have yet to be licensed for official English release, and in this anime's case it's extremely easy to see why, as it's all about what's often considered the bane of many anime fans today: Pachislot, i.e. Japan's equivalent to slot machines & the sister tech to pachinko. Yes, on "April 11 at 26:25" Fuji TV debuted Pachislo Kizoku Gin/Slot Noble Gin, the TV anime side of a media mix project (due to there also being a manga) conceived of by Kengo Asai, a former Technos Japan employee, that told the story of Gin Otonashi, a wannabe novelist who currently works as a writer for a pachinko publication that's been tasked with finding the best "Slotter" in Japan for an article. While searching Gin discovers the existence of the Slosseum, an underground pachislot organization where people compete against each to see who's the best Slotter, with the current top player being the "Ultimate King", Ryo Daiba. The anime showed Gin's rise up the Slosseum ranks, due to his tight reflexes allowing him to stop the reels at just the right time, all while also dealing with the revelation that his father (a pachislot maker who simply ditched his family one day) is still alive, & Gin wanting to find him so that he can discover why he left his wife & kids behind. Pachislo Kizoku Gin was... and odd series, to be sure, as alongside all of the character drama revolving around Gin (&, later, Ryo Daiba) there's also the pachislot battles, which by the second half effectively became the adult version of a kids anime featuring a cast of characters who are all obsessed with the primary subject matter of the series a little too much. For example, easily the most memorable of Gin's non-Ryo opponents would be Annie Kisaragi... a fusion of Annie Oakley & Cutie Honey.
Yeah, it's easy to see why Pachislo Kizoku Gin has never been licensed for official English release, & likely never will (especially since main production company Kids Media looks to be long defunct), though despite the bizarre concept, & animation studio A-Line sometimes aiming for visuals beyond than what they were capable of, it's not actually a terrible show at all; it was surprisingly better than it arguably had any right to be. In fact, its finale is immensely memorable in how gutsy & unflinching it is, especially since it kind of demonizes the very thing that the entire show is about, i.e. a gambling machine, which is even more shocking considering that Aruze (now Universal Entertainment), one of the biggest pachislot makers in Japan, provided financial backing for its production!
We finally reach the end of April 2001 with two shows that debuted the same night as a connected pair, but first we should go over a certain anime block. Debuting back on April 6, 1998, Anime Complex was an anthology programming block on WOWOW (unscrambled) that was sponsored by Pony Canyon, ran for an hour in prime time, & was made up of a couple of shows that each had 15-minute episodes. The initial Anime Complex broadcast Oh My Goddess! spin-off The Adventures of Mini-Goddess (April '98 to March '99), Android Announcer Maico 2010, Neo Ranga Season 1 (both April to September), & Kurogane Communication (October to March), while Anime Complex 2 (which was only 30 minutes long) featured Neo Ranga Season 2, D4 Princess (both April to September 1999), Omishi Magical Theater: Risky Safety, & Steel Angel Kurumi (October 1999 to April 2000); of these, the only anime never licensed for English release are Maico 2010 & D4 Princess. A year later the programming block would be revived again as Anime Complex Night on "April 12 at 23:30", and to match the name change this block now aired in late-night via UHF networks, though it was still sponsored by Pony Canyon via its new label Master of Entertainment, a.k.a. m.o.e. (get it?). The show that started this new take on Anime Complex was Steel Angel Kurumi 2, or literally Steel Angel Kurumi Type 2 in Japan, the continuation of the anime that aired as a part of Anime Complex 2 & was based on the manga by Kaishaku... though, technically, Kurumi 2 wasn't actually a manga adaptation. Instead of continuing the manga story of Nakahito Kagura & the various female "Steel Angels" he comes across during the Taisho Era, Kurumi 2 told an original story that took place in the 21st Century & starred Nako Kagura, a high school girl who comes across new "Type II" models of the Steel Angels, turning the anime into more of a yuri harem series.
Once the first episode of Steel Angel Kurumi 2 ended at 23:45 Anime Complex Night then continued on with the debut of Hanaukyo Maid Team, which was based on the Monthly Shonen Champion manga by Morishige. This anime followed the life of Taro Hanaukyo, a 14-year old boy who winds up inheriting his grandfather's giant mansion upon his passing, and that includes the massive amount of live-in maids, who are split up into various departments, from the more reasonable Finance, Secretarial, Business, & Garden to the more outlandish Foreign Affairs, Engineering, HR, Costume, Imperial Assistance, etc. Essentially, Hanaukyo Maid Team was a bit of a harem series, though Taro wanted to treat his maids as his family over being his employees, but this anime decided to emphasize the more absurd nature of the series by excising most of the manga's more seriously taken tone & turning Taro from someone who simply is put off by certain women to being downright allergic to all but Mariel, who's the ideal maid & the one Taro is most directly attracted towards. Both Steel Angel Kurumi 2 & Hanaukyo Maid Team would run for 12 episodes until the end of June 2001 via Anime Complex Night, though the latter would get three OVA episodes & later receive a second anime in 2004 titled Hanaukyo Maid Team La Verite, French for "The Truth", which was a full on reboot made by a completely production committee that better resembled the manga & had standard length episodes, though it had the same exact voice cast as the original anime. After June Anime Complex Night wouldn't return until 2002, and we'll cover the remainder of that programming block's life next time.
Just as with the first series, Steel Angel Kurumi 2 would see English release by ADV in 2003 via two-dual-audio DVDs, before getting packaged with the first series & the Encore OVA series via DVD boxset in 2004. Meanwhile, & rather confusingly, the Hanaukyo Maid Team anime has NEVER seen an official English release, though Studio Ironcat did release some of the manga in English from 2003 to 2004. However, Hanaukyo Maid Team La Verite DID see official English release, first by Geneon (as the Japanese division was the primary production company for it) in 2005 via dual-audio DVDs, with a boxset in 2006, followed by a license rescue & DVD boxset re-release by Sentai Filmworks in 2016. I actually didn't even realize this was the case until now, as I simply thought that both Hanaukyo Maid Team anime had seen official English release. Yeah, it's kind of confusing, but that's just how things work out when different production companies are involved (Pony Canyon vs. [what's now] NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan).
With that we can finally move on from April, which alone contained just shy of half of 2001's late-night output (10/21), but we aren't quite out of the Spring season just yet, as TV Tokyo had one more new show to debut in May... and it's the first time an English anime company ever helped produce a late-night anime. Back in 1999 there was an aniraji/anime radio program called Super Mobile Wave A/G Master on Nippon Cultural Broadcasting, the same station that broadcast the original St. Luminous Mission High School shows in 1997 & 1998, & one of the segments in A/G Master was Mayumi, Atsuko, & Maria's Triangle Session '99. This segment saw Mayumi Iizuka, Atsuko Enomoto, & Maria Yamamoto play three sisters (Akari, Yuki, & Nozomi Hinomoto) who work as an idol group, with a heavy focus on their comedic interludes with a rival named Reika, as well as the presidents of the agencies that represented the "3 Hinomoto Sisters" & Reika, respectively. A quartet of drama CDs would then come from this segment, as well as a one-off 30-minute TV special, but what the people behind Triangle Session really wanted was an anime, and that finally came to pass when on "May 20 at 25:30" TV Tokyo debuted Chance ~Triangle Session~. Rather than an adaptation, this was a 13-episode TV anime re-imagining which now had Akari, Yuki, & Nozomi be completely unrelated young ladies who meet at a concert performed by their idol, Reika, and after hearing about a music school run by Reika's manager all three take their chance to be a part of the prestigious "S Class"... but while Akari & Nozomi manage to get enrolled, Yuki has her entrance money stolen, resulting in her first having to make it as part of a street band. Despite an anime apparently being the main goal for Triangle Session from the very beginning, it looks like it only managed to finally become a reality once English anime company ADV Films got on board as a part of the "Chance TS Project" production committee. While ADV had previously helped co-produce the Burn Up W OVAs in 1996, this looks to be the first TV anime that ADV helped produce, and it'd be the first anime production that ADV would actually be credited for in Japan, right down to ADV being listed on the copyright for the show itself.
Despite being on the production committee & having its logo be listed on promotional materials in Japan back in 2001 (though, as you can barely see via the poster above, the ADV logo is barely visible in the bottom right corner, far away from its fellow companies' logos), ADV wouldn't first release the anime, now renamed Chance Pop Session, until late 2002 via dual-audio DVD singles, and after the initial three singles ADV would re-release the show via two DVD boxsets in 2006 & 2009. However, this is actually one of the handful of anime that ADV (& now Sentai Filmworks) has managed to have seemingly perpetual international rights to, due to them being a part of the production committee itself, so Chance Pop Session has continued to be available via streaming to this very day, both via Crunchyroll (Japanese audio only) & Hidive (dual-audio). ADV would later help co-produce Kino's Journey in 2003 and both Elfen Lied & Samurai Gun in 2004, which they've managed to also have perpetual rights to, though ADV was never listed in Elfen Lied's credits or copyright, while Samurai Gun hasn't been offered since 2008. ADV was also stated to have helped co-produce 2003's Kaleido Star & 2005's Guyver: The Bio-Boosted Armor, but they didn't manage to get perpetual rights to ether of those two, & likewise weren't listed anywhere in their respective credits or copyrights.
Summer 2001 would be mostly dry with only two new late-night anime debuting during it, and both of them happened in July. Amusingly, both were space operas based on iconic works but the first one had the more curious pedigree behind it. In 1972 the legendary (& late) Leiji Matsumoto created Gun Frontier, a wild west manga that introduced the characters Tochiro Oyama & (ex-)Captain Harlock, and after being involved in the creation of the iconic Space Battleship Yamato in 1974 Matsumoto would reinterpret Tochiro & Harlock as space-faring characters via 1977's Space Pirate Captain Harlock. This would mark the start of what's called the "Leijiverse", a loosely connected timeline of space operas (including Galaxy Express 999, Queen Millennia, Queen Emeraldas, etc.) by Matsumoto with a large cast of characters that would often cross over; despite technically being a shared universe it's best to just not try to think of it as a strictly linear timeline. Anyway, on May 18, 2000 Taito would release Cosmo Warrior Zero, a video game for the PlayStation that took place in the Leijiverse & was the most natural of genres befitting a franchise like this... a third-person, 1v1, arena combat game in the vein of Virtual-On. The game would later see a port to PC in 2002, but before that TV Tokyo debuted Cosmo Warrior Zero on "July 6, 2001 at 27:10", replacing music program Premier MelodiX, a TV anime adaptation of Taito's game that focused primarily on Warrius Zero, a man who once fought alongside Captain Harlock in the war against the Machine Men, but after Earth surrendered, & his wife & child wound up dead, Zero would become a captain under the command of the Machine Men, & his new bosses have now ordered him to locate & kill Harlock himself; naturally, Zero would eventually discover that there's more to this mission than what it seems. The first TV anime based on a Leiji Matsumoto work since Arcadia of My Youth: Endless Orbit SSX in 1982, the Cosmo Warrior Zero anime was one of the earliest TV anime produced by Tsuburaya Eizo, a company founded by Akira Tsuburaya, the third son of Ultraman creator Eiji Tsuburaya, that would become rather notorious for its variety of anime based on classic manga that ranged from pretty good... to absolute dreck. Luckily, Cosmo Warrior Zero would generally be seen as one of the better Tsuburaya Eizo productions (we'll get to an example of absolute dreck later on), and after its initial 13-episode run it would get a two-episode OVA side story that came out in July 2002, two months after the PC port of the PS1 game; these OVAs are today considered Episodes 14 & 15.
While the PS1/PC game has yet to see any release outside of Japan, Media Blasters would first release the Cosmo Warrior Zero anime from 2002 to 2003 via dual-audio DVD singles, & at least two dubbed VHS tapes, before re-releasing it via DVD boxset in late 2003. Fourteen years later Discotek would re-release the anime via DVD boxset in 2017, though since international rights to it, like most of Tsuburaya Eizo's TV anime output, is still handled by Enoki Films it's unknown if it may ever be given another chance in English.
Last time we started going over 1999 & 2000 together by covering Crest of the Stars, which debuted on WOWOW in late-night on January 2, 1999. So it makes sense that we'd return to the space opera based on the light novels by Hiroyuki Morioka with an adaptation of the sequel series, Banner of the Stars. Debuting in December 1996, Banner continued directly where Crest left off at, three years later with Jinto & Lafiel now entering the war between the Abh Empire & the Four Nations Alliance with a ship of their own, the Basroil. Toshihiro Ono would return to draw the artwork for the first three volumes, i.e. 1996 to 2001, but would be replaced by Gainax co-founder Takami Akai starting with Volume 4 in 2004, though Banner of the Stars' releases would slow down greatly after this, & it's been on indefinite hiatus since the release of Volume 6 in 2018. Anyway, the success of the franchise resulted in the continued production of the anime adaptation by Sunrise, but as you can see from the promotional poster next to this entry we looked to have skipped an entry. That's because the Banner of the Stars anime that aired on WOWOW during the Spring of 2000 didn't debut in late-night, instead airing at 19:30/7:30 pm, though it would get re-run later in the week on Saturdays in late-night. Because of that I couldn't cover Banner of the Stars in the prior overview, but Banner of the Stars II debuted on WOWOW on July 11 at 23:00, the literal start of the late-night time slot; there was also a recap special for the first season that aired in late-night three nights prior. Banner of the Stars II would be the last TV anime adaptation for this franchise, as while there would be a Banner of the Stars III it'd just be a two-episode OVA that came out in 2005; naturally, since the novels continued to come out through 2018, the anime doesn't adapt the entire story.
Bandai Entertainment would first release both seasons of Banner of the Stars via dual-audio DVD singles throughout 2003, followed by a full reprint in 2004 & then DVD boxsets for each season in late 2004 & mid-2006, though Bandai would never release Banner of the Stars III. FUNimation would eventually license rescue the entire anime franchise (Crest & Banner) & re-release them in 2018 via DVD boxsets, with the Banner of the Stars boxset containing both seasons together, along with Banner of the Stars III as a sub-only bonus.
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A quick sidebar, as there is one new anime that aired in late-night at this point that I should at least mention in passing, & that would be Samurai Girl Real Bout High School, which aired on UHF networks starting on "September 1 at 24:00". This was ostensibly based on the Real Bout High School light novel & manga series by Reiji Saiga (story) & Sora Inoue (art), but instead of a direct adaptation of either work, which told their own unique stories taking place at a high school focused around martial arts battles, the anime was actually an isekai story where the manga's main character, Ryoko Mitsurugi, gets teleported to the world of Solvania to save it from evil forces; yes that is rather weird, isn't it? However, Samurai Girl Real Bout High School actually didn't debut in late-night as the UHF broadcasts were technically re-runs, since the anime first debuted on cable satellite network Kids Station (which was part of the production committee) on July 30 at 20:30/8:30 pm. However, this is listed online here & there as a late-night UHF anime, which it technically was, but since it debuted first on a CS network in prime time I don't count it as fully eligible for this overview; I could have just ignored it, but I was feeling generous.
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We now finally reach October 2001, which would be home to the final seven new late-night anime for the year. We begin with the literal first night of the month, and while today most people would think of 2004's Samurai 7 when it comes to an anime re-imagining of an Akira Kurosawa film classic, though since it debuted on PPV it technically isn't a "modern day late-night infomercial", there was a prior Kurosawa anime re-imagining that today has become overshadowed. While Akira Kurosawa's most iconic movie in his legendary career would arguably be 1954's Seven Samurai, I think it's fair to say that another potential contender would be 1961's Yojimbo, the story of a ronin calling himself "Kuwabatake Sanjuro", played by the iconic Toshiro Mifune, who finds himself being hired by two rival crime lords in town, resulting in a massive war between the two sides. The film would be so successful that a sequel would get made (1962's Sanjuro), followed by an indirect crossover with Zatoichi in 1970, and numerous other films would get made that were inspired by it, including A Fistful of Dollars, Django, & Last Man Standing, among tons of other homages & the like. So on "October 1 at 24:45" NTV debuted Kaze no Yojimbo/The Whirlwind Bodyguard (while "Kaze/Wind" is the official word in the title, the kanji is for "Senpuu/Whirlwind"), a 25-episode TV anime that re-imagined Yojimbo as the modern day tale of George Kodama, a wanderer who comes across the town of Kimujuku while searching for a man named Genzo Araki, only to get caught up in a battle between two rival factions that's hiding a deep, dark secret that might have some connection to Genzo. Considering how well known Samurai 7 would wind up being, to the point that it's still readily available in English via both streaming & physical, it's actually rather surprising how forgotten Kaze no Yojimbo has become, though those who have seen it have generally given it positive reviews. Interestingly enough, in January 2003 there would be a live-action film adaptation of Kaze no Yojimbo in Japan, essentially bringing everything full circle, i.e. live-action film to TV anime back to live-action film; the film was co-produced by Sammy (now Sega Sammy), which had co-produced the anime.
Bandai Entertainment would release Kaze no Yojimbo in English via dual-audio DVD singles throughout 2004, ironically right as Samurai 7 was first airing in Japan (& getting fansubbed), followed by a DVD boxset on July 25, 2006... the literal same exact day that FUNimation's final DVD single for Samurai 7 saw release; seriously, this show just couldn't catch a break in English. Meanwhile, the live-action Kaze no Yojimbo movie has never seen release in English, though the original Yojimbo has continued to remain available via Criterion.
Up next we have a show that debuted on TBS, in what looks to have been the network's first late-night anime since Wonderful stopped airing anime after 1999. It's also a bit of a curious show for late-night, as everything about it really screams more "kids show" & I imagine it could have easily aired on a weekend morning. Anyway, on "October 2 at 26:20" the series A Little Snow Fairy Sugar debuted on TBS, telling the story of Saga Bergman, an 11-year old girl living in the fictional town of Mühlenburg, Germany (based on Rothenburg ob der Tauber) who one day comes across a little humanoid creature in need of food that she gives a waffle to. This creature winds up being Sugar, an apprentice "season fairy" who can bring about snow by playing her piccolo. Normally humans shouldn't be able to see season fairies, but Saga is an exception so she winds up helping Sugar, plus her fellow apprentices Salt the sun fairy & Pepper the wind fairy, become a full-fledged season fairy by finding mysterious objects simply known as "Twinkles". Again, despite running in a late-night time slot, A Little Snow Fairy Sugar was no adult-aimed subversion, but rather was exactly what it looked like, i.e. a whimsical series where Saga's extremely planned out & regimented life goes haywire after helping Sugar & her friends (which include even more fairies, as the story continued on) find Twinkles, as well as showcasing the ups & downs between Saga & Sugar's friendship. Truly, this was a literal kids show that just happened to first air in late-night, though there was also both a manga & light novel adaptation that came out alongside the anime. Granted, when A Little Snow Fairy Sugar starting airing on BS-i later that December it did air on Saturday mornings, while a re-run on TBS Channel (TBS' CS network) in 2003 had it run in prime time. If anything, maybe TBS didn't have any non-late-night time slots available come October 2001, and the network simply didn't want to wait until one became available.
Anyway, A Little Snow Fairy Sugar would first see release by Geneon via dual-audio DVD singles between 2003 & 2004, followed by a "Limited Edition" boxset (i.e. all six singles housed in the artbox) in 2005. After Geneon USA was shuttered in late 2007 Sentai Filmworks would then license rescue the show & re-release it via two DVD boxsets in 2009, followed by a "Complete Collection" DVD boxset in 2016. A Little Snow Fairy Sugar was actually still streaming over on Hidive until just this past April, when it left the service.
One last UHF anime to cover for 2001... and it's one with a rather notorious initial English release, due to what it came packaged with. It's also kinda-sorta a spiritual successor to something that aired in late-night as a part of Wonderful back in 1998, namely (Project) AIKa. Yeah, that four-episode OVA from 1997 to early 1998 about a beautiful salvage agent that got aired on TBS throughout April 1998 before getting an additional three OVA episodes? Well, that was directed by Katsuhiko Nishijima, had a musical score composed by Junichi Kanezaki, & was animated by Studio Fantasia, so a few years later these three teamed back up for a new work that debuted first on tvk on "October 4, 2001 at 25:40", and that was Najica Blitz Tactics, which would then debut on Chiba TV & TV Saitama the following night, followed by Kids Station airing it throughout all of Japan via CS starting October 11. This anime followed Najica Hiiragi, a perfumer at CRI Cosmetics known for her ability to identify over 500 scents... but, in reality, is a field agent for CRI's super top secret Intelligence Bureau, and after one mission Najica gets a partner in the form of Lila, a gynoid called a "Humaritt". Despite preferring to work alone, Najica comes to slowly trust Lila but questions her own employer, especially when the two are put on missions to recover other Humaritts. However, what Najica Blitz Tactics truly became notorious for was panty shots... lots & lots & lots & lots... & lots of panty shots, so much so that it sometimes could distract viewers from the actual story that was being told, which did look to actually be rather good. Still, there's no doubt what Nishijima & Studio Fantasia were really wanting viewers to focus on when they were watching Najica Blitz Tactics, so it quickly became a bit of an infamous series... especially when it came to its English release.
So back when Central Park Media was just getting started in the early 90s one of the first anime it licensed was an OVA titled Minna Agechau, which was a sex comedy with a penchant for showing panties. CPM thought it'd be amusing if they included a pair of pink paper panties with each copy of the VHS release, but once the licensor in Japan found out about this plan they panicked & pulled the license from CPM. Over a decade later ADV Films started releasing Najica Blitz Tactics via dual-audio DVD singles in the second half of 2003... and included with the "Volume 1+Artbox" release was a pair of panties. These weren't fake paper panties, like what CPM tried to do, but rather they were an actual, wearable &, I quote from the description itself, "exclusive pair of white cotton... bikini-cut panties!" Now, of course, Najica Blitz Tactics came from a totally different set of companies than Minna Agechau, but it is hilarious how the English anime industry went from one of its companies being told that it couldn't include fake panties in the early 90s to another being wholly allowed to include real panties in the early 00s! Anyway, after the initial DVD singles ADV would re-release Najica Blitz Tactics twice via DVD boxsets, once in 2005 & again in 2009; no panties were included with either of these boxsets, though. Today Najica Blitz Tactics has mostly become forgotten with time, it doesn't even look to be streaming over in Japan, but ADV including a literal pair of panties with its initial release will forever live on in infamy in the annals of English anime industry history.
Up next we have the first late-night anime to debut first on BS-i, the satellite digital broadcasting offshoot of TBS, and today it's simply called BS-TBS; I mentioned that A Little Snow Fairy Sugar did air on BS-i later in 2001, but this still came first. This is also, rather coincidentally, a sort of spiritual successor to Hanaukyo Maid Team's OG anime, since that ended its run on TBS at the end of June, though I do imagine that this wasn't intentional by any means. I mention that because what debuted on BS-i on "October 5 at 24:30" was Mahoromatic, a 12-episode TV anime adaptation of the manga by Bunjuro Nakayama (story) & Bow Ditama (art) that ran in Wani Books' Comic Gum from 1998 to 2004. The series followed the titular Mahoro, an android who was previously made for the sake of being a soldier to fight back against an alien invasion, but now that the war is over Mahoro is told that she only has another 398 days worth of energy left to keep her "alive". Feeling guilt over the death of her superior officer, who died as collateral when she killed the alien that held him hostage, Mahoro decides to spend her remaining days as the maid for Suguru Misato, the son of her superior officer. However, despite the surprisingly bittersweet & endearing backstory, Mahoromatic was first & foremost a silly romantic comedy detailing the wild & wacky days Suguru now has with Mahoro as his maid, with Mahoro still having access to the weapons she had used during the war... but also being immensely embarrassed at her small chest. The Mahoromatic anime was notable in that it was co-produced by both Shaft & Gainax, with Gainax co-founder Hiroyuki Yamaga himself directing it (& personally writing 3/4 of the episodes), the first TV anime Yamaga ever directed & the first time he had directed, in general, since the 1987 film The Wings of Honneamise. The Mahoromatic anime would be successful & get a second season, but we'll get to that next time in 2002. The Mahoromatic anime's production committee went under the name "Mahoroba Project", which shouldn't be confused with 2003's Maburaho or 2005's Mahoraba.
Pioneer Entertainment would first release the anime, under the name Mahoromatic - Automatic Maiden, in 2003 via dual-audio DVD singles, just shy of the company being bought up by Dentsu & being renamed to Geneon Entertainment; the show's OST would also be released in North America in mid-2003 by Geneon. In 2005 Geneon would release a "Complete Box Set" thinkpak that collected the first season & the follow up productions, while in 2009 Sentai Filmworks would license rescue the anime & re-release it physically, with the first season getting released as its own DVD boxset in early 2009, before getting re-released later that same year with the other productions, while in 2012 an "Ultimate Collection" DVD boxset came out that collected everything like before, as well as a new TV special that was made in 2009. The Mahoromatic anime was also available via streaming over on Hidive recently but left the service this past February, similar to what happened with A Little Snow Fairy Sugar.
On the same "night" that Mahoromatic debuted on BS-i, TV Tokyo debuted its own new late-night anime, and it's both another one of those "00s revivals of classic anime/manga" as well as the next TV anime to come from Tsuburaya Eizo. In fact, this new anime was Cosmo Warrior Zero's replacement, as on "October 5 at 27:10" TV Tokyo debuted Babel II, a new TV anime based on the iconic manga by the late Mitsuteru Yokoyama that ran in Weekly Shonen Champion from 1971 to 1973 & today is considered a pioneer when it comes to both sci-fi & action manga. This new anime had the same basic concept as the original manga, where a teenage boy named Koichi discovers that he's actually the descendant of an alien being known as Babel, & has to take on a man named Yomi using his newly found psychic powers and the assistance of three allies, namely the transforming panther Rodem, flying pterodactyl Ropross, & giant robot Poseidon. However, the similarities to Yokoyama's original series ended mostly there, as this new Babel II anime featured a bunch of new & original elements, like changing Koichi's last name to Kamiya & having him live with the Furumi family as a distant relative (a shout-out to Toei's 1973 TV anime giving Koichi the last name Furumi), as well as updating the series so that it took place in then-modern times. Unfortunately, this new Babel II TV anime was... just... not that good. I remember personally watching the first four episodes way back when in the day & I still remember being thoroughly underwhelmed by what I saw, and the general response to the series as a whole has generally been rather lackluster, with the only exception being the OP theme performed by Lapis Lazuli (the rock band headed up by anison legend Hiroshi Kitadani), which remains very good. After Babel II finished airing at the end of the year Tsuburaya Eizo would continue producing TV anime adaptations & re-imaginings of classic manga & franchises, but moved things over to AT-X where they'd be aired under the "AT-X Famous Author Series" banner, with the quality ranging from "rather good" (Beast Fighter: The Apocalypse, Shin Seiki Den Mars, Gun Frontier) to "all-time dreck" (Genma Wars: Eve of Mythology); both Cosmo Warrior Zero & Babel II would also be retroactively included under this banner, as well.
Media Blasters would be the only company to release this Babel II TV anime, under the name Babel II: Beyond Infinity, putting it out via dual-audio DVD singles from 2002 to 2003, followed by a "Complete Collection" re-release in late 2003, which I believe was literally just all four DVD singles bundled together. As with Cosmo Warrior Zero, Babel II: Beyond Infinity's international rights are with Enoki Films, so the chances of it ever getting re-released right now are extremely small. However, I think it says more than enough that Discotek never bothered to re-release this Babel II anime while it was actively working with Enoki, though it did re-release the 1992 OVA adaptation, first on DVD & later HD-remastered Blu-Ray. Discotek was willing to release a lot of Tsuburaya Eizo's anime productions through Enoki, but looked to have actively avoided re-releasing its worst output, namely Babel II: Beyond Infinity & Genma Wars: Eve of Mythology.
The penultimate late-night anime debut for 2001 is also the last one from this year to have yet receive an official English license & release, but has since been seen as an early precursor to two types of titles that would become especially popular during the 00s: Moe Anime & Iyashikei/Healing Anime. Born in 1968, Nobutaka Takagi initially made his name in the doujinshi scene under the pen name "Boo", but in 1998 he decided to become a professional mangaka. One of "Boo's" fans, though, was anime writer Yosuke Kuroda, who thought that at the age of 30 Takagi was too old to enter manga the traditional way, i.e. as an assistant, so he personally pitched Takagi to the editor-in-chief at Monthly Comic Dengeki Daioh, who accepted as long as Kuroda came up with the concept of the manga Takagi would make. This resulted in Nobutaka Takagi making his professional manga debut in the April 2000 issue of Dengeki Daioh, and on "October 11, 2001 at 25:15" TV Tokyo debuted Kokoro Library, the anime adaptation of the manga that Takagi & Kuroda conceived. The series had a simple concept, which was that deep in the mountains outside of Toaru City there's a small library run by three sisters (Iina, Aruto, & Kokoro) who serve the citizens of Toaru that visit it... though visitors are admittedly a rare sight. Though there were some episodes featuring something amounting to a "conflict", like a phantom thief or the threat of Toaru City's mayor pulling the library's funding due to how few people visit it, Kokoro Library was truly focused more on simply giving viewers a relaxed, calming experience for half an hour, with Kuroda himself admitting that it was tough to make a story that was "completely free of malice". However, as mentioned, over time the anime would be seen as an early example of what would later be the "moe boom" that was defined by titles like Kyoto Animation's adaptations of Key's visual novels (Air, Kanon, Clannad, etc.), due to the purposefully very cute designs of the sisters (especially Kokoro), while its relaxed, calming, & "healing" atmosphere would become more known later on via the likes of Aria the Animation, Natsume's Book of Friends, K-On!, & even Mushishi.
However, by being such an early example of either style of anime, years before they'd both become more popular & well known, that's resulted in Kokoro Library more or less being skipped over & forgotten when it comes to an official English license, both in anime & original manga form. At this point part of the novelty Kokoro Library had back in 2001 has been superseded by other, (arguably) better & more iconic anime, so today it's really known more simply for being one of the earliest examples, rather than being a must-watch example.
OK, I think it's fair to say that, compared to some other years (& especially 1998), 2001's slate of new late-night anime has been kind of light on true blue, iconic "classics", as a lot of the stuff that debuted in this year is maybe, at best, a strong cult hit or something that possibly wasn't truly appreciated back in its day. However, 2001 ended with easily the most iconic late-night anime debut for the entire year, and it was the anime that helped put an entire studio on the map. To finish up the new late-night anime for 2001 Fuji TV debuted Hellsing on "October 11 at 26:00", a TV anime based on the manga by Kouta Hirano that ran in Young King OURs from 1997 to 2008. Inspired very loosely by Bram Stoker's Dracula, Hellsing showcased the missions taken on by the agents of the Royal Order of Protestant Knights, a.k.a. the Hellsing Organization, a group whose aim is to kill any & all undead & supernatural threats to Great Britain. Their top two agents are Seras Victoria, an ex-policewoman who was recently turned into a vampire, & Alucard, an immortal vampire of seemingly infinite strength who is the one who turned Seras & swears absolute loyalty to Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, the head of the Organization. The Hellsing TV anime was the first hit anime to come from Gonzo (though at the time the actual animation side was simply called Digimation), a studio that would go on to burn immensely bright throughout the entire 00s, only to suffer a massive decline during the 2010s, though it's still around today as a division of ADK. Kouta Hirano himself voiced displeasure with Gonzo's take on his manga, however, & this adaptation only adapted he first two volumes before heading off into its own original story; there's no indication at all of the manga's main plot involving the Nazi group Millennium, for example. However, from 2006 to 2012 Hellsing would receive an immensely accurate 10-episode OVA adaptation, titled Hellsing Ultimate, that would cover the entire manga story from start to finish.
Geneon would first bring over Gonzo's Hellsing anime into English via dual-audio DVD singles in 2002 & early 2003, with the anime becoming a smash hit that instantly solidified the series' status as an all-time classic in English-speaking fandom. However, the English dub went with calling Alucard "Arucard", seemingly due to a demand from the Japanese side. Geneon would keep Hellsing in print for the entire life of the company, re-releasing the singles & collecting them together via boxsets, as well as even bundling them with two other successful anime they had, namely Trigun & Gungrave, as a quartet of triple-packs. After Geneon USA went out of business in late 2007, while it was in the midst of releasing Hellsing Ultimate, FUNimation would eventually license rescue both Hellsing anime productions, with Gonzo's TV anime getting re-released via a DVD boxset in 2012 that continues to remain in print to this very day, while both Hellsing anime are still available via streaming over on Crunchyroll. While 2001's late-night anime output may not have been as "strong" as something like 1998's output, there's no doubt it ended with one of the most iconic examples of them all.
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Whatever the reasons were for late-night anime in 2000 being so thin, it's clear to see that things had changed immensely the following year, because 2001 was most definitely a return to form, of sorts. While NTV continued on with Hajime no Ippo throughout the year, TV Tokyo decided to also join in on the long-form late-night anime train with two shows of their own in Grappler Baki & Project ARMS. UHF anime saw its first real hit with Comic Party, though the true effect of that wouldn't be felt for about another two years. The (allegedly) first TV anime ever produced in HD happened with The SoulTaker. The first indications of the entire decade's classic IP revival boom were seen with Great Dangaioh, Babel II: Beyond Infinity, & (to a small extent) Cosmo Warrior Zero. There were the first truly notable signs of both moe anime & iyashikei anime with Kokoro Library, & a future iconic studio's rise with Gonzo's Hellsing. We even saw the first sign at the English anime industry getting more involved with the direct production side of things (for TV, at least) via ADV's investment in Chance Pop Session.
Late-night anime in 2001 had a variety of titles that have either become cult favorites (or even a generation defining smash, in Hellsing) or have mostly become forgotten with time, with only a mere three titles still missing official English releases entirely (Pachislo Kizoki Gin, Hanaukyo Maid Team, & Kokoro Library), the lowest number seen since 1997's sole title (Shinkai Densetsu Meremanoid), & a marked improvement over 1998, 1999, & even the paltry amount 2000 had. When this series of overviews returns in December we'll finish things up by going over 2002's late-night output... because 2002 was the last year the concept of the "modern day late-night anime infomercial" remained mostly a novelty, rather than becoming a major part of yearly TV anime production.
Grappler Baki © Keisuke Itagaki・FREE-WILL
Comic Party © 2001 Aquaplus/Softgarage
The SoulTaker © Tatsunoko Pro・The SoulTaker Production Committee
Sister Princess © Naoto Tenhiro・Sakurako Kimino・MediaWorks/Sis Pri
Noir © 2001 Ryoe Tsukimura/Bee Train/FlyingDog
Great Dangaioh © 2001 Hirano Office/AIC・Sho-Pro・TV Asahi・avex
Zone of the Enders: Dolores, i © 2001 KCE Japan/Sunrise・VAP
Project ARMS © Ryoji Minagawa・Kyoichi Nanatsuki/Shogakukan・TMS
Pachislo Kizoku Gin © 2001 Kids Media [now defunct?]・Actas
Steel Angel Kurumi 2 © Kaishaku/Kadokawa Shoten・Pony Canyon
Hanaukyo Maid Team © Morishige・Akita Shoten/Hanaukyo Maid Staff
Chance Pop Session © Triangle Session Production Committee/avex・ADV Films・AMF・d-rights [now ADK Emotions]
Cosmo Warrior Zero © 2002 Leiji Matsumoto/Project Zero
Banner of the Stars II © Hiroyuki Morioka・Hayakawa Publishing, Inc. © Sunrise
Kaze no Yojimbo © 2001 Kurosawa Production/Sammy [now Sega Sammy]・Dentsu・Studio Pierrot・NTV
A Little Snow Fairy Sugar © Haruka Aoi/Project Sugar
Najica Blitz Tactics © 2001 Studio Fantasia・AFW/Najica Blitz Tactics Production Committee
Mahoromatic © Nakayama・Ditama/Wanibooks・Mahoroba Project
Babel II: Beyond Infinity © 2001 Mitsuteru Yokoyama・Hikari Pro/Project Babel II
Kokoro Library © Nobuyuki Takagi・MediaWorks/FlyingDog
Hellsing © Kouta Hirano・Shonen Gahosha/Hellsing K.G.
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