Retrospect in Retrograde: Haja Taisei Dangaioh

While The Land of Obscusion got its start on December 1, 2010, it actually wouldn't be until December 5 that the first actual review would get written & posted. As for why I chose Haja Taisei/Evil Crushing Great Star Dangaioh, I just felt that it would be appropriate that my first review for the blog should be for one of the earliest anime to be officially released in its original Japanese, with an English-subtitled translation. While exact dates are tough to nail down, due to early distribution wonkiness, U.S. Renditions' subbed VHS tape of Episode 1 of Dangaioh in early 1990 does look to have just beaten out AnimEigo's subbed VHS of MADOX-01 by a hair; therefore, me calling it "The Forgotten 'Start-of-it-All'" a decade ago was true, if only barely. So, after giving Next Senki Ehrgeiz the RiR treatment this spring & expanding on Momotaro's Sea Eagle with the Momotaro: Sacred Sailors review this summer, let's finally revisit the subject of the review that started it all here on The Land of Obscusion... And on the exact same day, only a literal decade later.

There's no eyecatch, so here's the end of the OP.

Toshihiro Hirano, also known by his pseudonym Toshiki Hirano (he seriously switches between them whenever he feels like it), got his start in the anime industry back in 1979 as a simple animator at Tatsunoko for Gatchaman Fighter, before moving on to titles like Urusei Yatsura, Dr. Slump Arale-chan, & Super Dimensional Fortress Macross. In 1985, though, he got his big break by doing the female character designs for Ninja Senshi Tobikage, being a major part of Megazone 23 (character designs, storyboard, & animation direction), & creating the Fight! Iczer-1 OVA, his directorial debut. He'd follow all of that up with doing the character designs for 1986's Cosmos Pink Shock, before returning to directing with two OVAs in 1987: Haja Taisei Dangaioh & Daimaju Gekito: Hagane no Oni. Both of them actually came from the dissolution of a planned OVA remake of Mazinger Z titled "Dai Mazinger", and from what I can tell Dangaioh seemingly maintained the super robot aesthetic, while Hagane no Oni maintained the darker aesthetic. Three episodes would come out from 1987 to 1989, before essentially disappearing into the void. Following U.S. Renditions' original VHS release from 1990 (Ep 1) & 1992 (Eps 2 & 3), Manga Entertainment would get the rights to the OVA after Renditions' demise, releasing a dubbed VHS titled Dangaioh: Hyper Combat Unit in 1996, followed by a DVD release in 2003. I purposefully ignored Manga's dub in the original review, and this time we will cover it, but enough backstory...

CROSS FIGHT!!!!! DAN-GAI-OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

D-Obscusion X: A Decade of Obscure & Forgotten Degeneracy

I know nobody knows where it comes and where it goes, but when you talk about things that nobody cares, or wearing out things that nobody wears, & when nobody's calling your name but you gotta make clear that you you can't say where you'll be in a year... And, boy, was the year 2020 a real good liar, 'cause the world stage boogie certainly set our pants on fire! There's nothing I can say about how the world itself, & especially the country I live in, that hasn't already been said online this entire year, so how about how things worked out for me? Admittedly, I got lucky in that the global pandemic didn't do anything with my actual job beyond changing me into an ad hoc employee, coming in to work when needed, while still getting paid regularly, since I have a salary; I wish everyone got that kind of treatment. Still, that resulted in me having a lot more time to write for the blog, & already I've put out slightly more this year than I did last year. However, all this extra time also got me thinking, likely too much so, about something:

Have these past 10 years of The Land of Obscusion really amounted to anything?

"Legacy" is something that no one naturally thinks of when they start doing something, and for some the concept never really comes to mind. However, the longer & longer you do the same thing, I think it's only human to start wondering if what you've been doing has any "point" to it, beyond doing so simply because you enjoy doing it; you don't have to think this, but I just think it's natural. This is all the more so when you do something in which the entire point is for others to experience it, such as writing. Really, the catalyst for this came this past May with the sudden passing of Zac Bertschy, Editorial Director for Anime News Network. There's no doubt that Zac was a polarizing person, and some might argue that he purposefully played it up as a way to encourage good conversation, but there's no denying that he left behind a legacy for ANN, one that transitioned the site from a simple "news & review site" into one that actively encouraged its visitors to not just enjoy anime/manga/games/etc., but also dig deeper & search for why they loved it, while also encouraging people to call out its problems (both meta & industry-wide) & hope for improvements. I certainly had my grievances with Zac at times, though nothing that reached into hateful, but I always had the highest respect for him & seeing how his death affected so many (including myself), regardless of whether they personally knew him or never even interacted with him online at all, made me start to think about what this blog's entire relevancy even is, after a decade in operation.

Giant Gorg: Standing Tall on the Head of My Dream

In October 2011 I made a two-part list titled Twelve Anime I Want to Review... But Can't (Anytime Soon, at Least), and over the course of the following nine years, I've knocked them out one at a time. Kingdom of Chaos - Born to Kill? Done in 2013. Fuma no Kojirou: Seiken Sensou-hen? Done in 2012 (& re-done in 2019!). GR -Giant Robo-? Done in 2018 for Mecha Month. Engage Planet Kiss Dum's original TV version? Done partially this year via Demo Disc Vol. 16 (& a full review for Kiss Dum R afterwards). AWOL -Absent WithOut Leave-? That was Review #150 back in 2014! Examurai Sengoku? That just happened via Demo Disc Vol. 18 last month. Get Ride! AMDriver? Demo Disc Vol. 6 in 2017. Hareluya II BØY? Also in 2012. Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos? It was the first "Single Series" Demo Disc (Vol. 4) in 2016. Touma Kijin Den Oni? Demo Disc Vol. 10 in 2017. King of the Braves GaoGaiGar Final Grand Glorious Gathering? Reviewed in the same Mecha Month as GR -Giant Robo- in 2018.

That's eleven down, leaving only one left to review & put an end to this original list. No better time than just before the 10th Anniversary to do this, so it's finally that "Gorg Time" to switch over to that "Gorg Channel"!

Yoshikazu Yasuhiko is one of those rare mangaka that actually went on to direct at least one anime (Hi, Monkey Punch!), and while "Yas" doesn't have quite the same legendary & acclaimed resume as Katsuhiro Otomo does, he has one thing that Otomo cannot claim the same to: Directing a TV series. Airing from April to September of 1984 for 26 episodes, Giant Gorg is not just the only time Yas ever directed an entire TV series, but it's also the only anime-original work he ever directed, as everything else he did was either adapting from his own work or was an adaptation of someone else's. You'd think that this being Yas' only TV series might mean that he had a bad experience making Giant Gorg, turning him off from directing more, but from all accounts it was actually quite the opposite; this was likely just an experiment for him. In a 2012 interview with the Hokkaido Shimbun, Yas revealed that the anime was originally meant to debut in the fall of 1983, but the show's sponsor asked for a delay, since they couldn't figure out a concept to sell merchandise for it at the time. Yas, however, simply used this extra time to allow him & his staff to simply produce the anime well in advance; because of this, the home video release started happening extremely fast for the time. Unfortunately, a more extreme variant would happen for its English release, as Bandai Entertainment originally announced at Anime Expo 2001 that it was starting a new sub-only DVD label called "Sunrise Classic Action", with Giant Gorg & Blue Comet SPT Layzner listed as the debut titles. Unfortunately, neither anime ever saw release, with the only word that came out being that the masters Sunrise had sent Bandai were tinted blue, for whatever reason. Anyway, it wouldn't be until April 2015 that Discotek Media announced that it had license rescued Giant Gorg (sorry Layzner, but you're still abandoned), with a sub-only DVD boxset finally coming out in January 2016; it has since also become available via streaming on services like Crunchyroll, Tubi TV, & RetroCrush. In a nice touch, Discotek's translation is done by David Fleming, the same man that was hired for the original Bandai release; in fact, it's plausible that Fleming had translated the show back in 2001, and Discotek got that translation.

Personally, I first experienced some of Giant Gorg at Otakon 2008, when I came upon a screening of the first few episodes in one of the video rooms (back when Otakon still screened fansubs), so now it's finally time to see if this show is just as cool as I remember those few episodes being all those years ago.

Obscusion B-Side: Dragon's Lair 3D (& III): You Either Die a Remake Hero, or You Live Long Enough to Become a Cash-Grab Villain

Arcade laserdisc game icon Dragon's Lair has had a surprisingly semi-active past few years. In 2016, after a failed initial attempt, Don Bluth & Gary Goldman successfully crowdfunded a pitch production for the long-awaited movie adaptation/prequel, which earlier this year actually got greenlit by Netflix as a live-action production (potentially) starring Ryan Reynolds. The game was even featured in a Season 2 episode of Netflix's smash hit series Stranger Things in 2017. Meanwhile, on the gaming front, Dragon's Lair (as well as it's successors, Space Ace & Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp) have seen ports to current hardware, whether it's through Steam, GOG, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch... or even an officially licensed release on the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A computer from the 80s! Essentially, if you own any sort of modern device that can play games, you can bet Dragon's Lair has been officially released on it, including smartphones. Most recently, however, is New Wave Toys' Dragon's Lair X Replicade unit, which is a 1/6 reproduction of the original arcade machine, right down to playing the 1983 OG version via the DAPHNE emulator & even including (non-working) 1/6 replicas of the laserdisc player & LD that housed the game itself.

However, while the Don Bluth-animated trio of arcade games have managed to remain in the spotlight, there is one game that has, sadly, gone forgotten: The "3D" remake, & the bizarre reworking that said remake would later receive.

Once video gaming started moving over to polygonal visuals during the second half of the 90s, anything well known was either remade or given sequels using polygons, becoming a common sight. Games like Pong, Spy Hunter, Breakout, Frogger, Pac-Man, Tetris, Q*Bert, Street Fighter, & even Worms all went "3D", so it was really only a matter of time before the same would happen with Dragon's Lair. While most would argue that it was an old relic by the start of the new millennium, it actually never really left the market during the 90s, as it was essentially released on anything that had a CD-ROM drive, minus (ironically enough) the PlayStation & Sega Saturn; it even saw a miracle port to the Game Boy Color in 2000. Still, with the 20th Anniversary on the horizon, co-creator Rick Dyer (who was the mind behind the "game" aspect of Dragon's Lair) brought back Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, & John Pomeroy (the minds behind the "animation" aspect), founded a development studio called Dragonstone Software, & all together they created Dragon's Lair 3D: Return to the Lair. Originally released in November 2002 on PC & Xbox, the game wound then see release on GameCube the following month, but only in North America at first by way of Ubisoft (PC & Xbox) & Encore Software (GC). Europe wouldn't get the game until September 2003 for PC & March 2004 on consoles, this time also including the PlayStation 2; THQ handled EU publishing for GC & PS2 as "Special Editions". Developed using WildTangent's Genesis 3D engine (which also powered the controversial FPS Ethnic Cleansing...oops), this would be Dragonstone Software's only game, so was it at least a good effort at bringing Dirk the Daring to the third dimension? Also, what was up with Dragon's Lair III?

Choju Kishin Dancouga Burn: Yatte Yaruwa!!??

The idea of serializing a manga alongside a newly-debuting anime has been around since at least the 70s, and has especially been a regular sight for mech anime, with Mazinger Z possibly being the first for that genre. However, the concept of making a tie-in for some upcoming production is one that requires plenty of planning ahead of time, so what happens when things don't quite work out for the "main attraction"? A good example of that would be the 1994 TV anime Shinken Legend Tight Road, which was produced by Toei in order to promote a fighting game developed by Gust (yes, that Gust) & published by Zamuse... Only for Zamuse to go out of business by the time the anime started airing, resulting in it being a tie-in to a video game that never got released (if even developed). Another example would be the initial shonen manga version of The Vision of Escaflowne by Aki Katsu that ran in Monthly Shonen Ace from 1994 to 1997, & was one of the series that appeared in the debut issue of the magazine, even though the anime it was meant to be a tie-in to wouldn't air until 1996. This is because Escaflowne went through a bit of production hell, completely changing from a Yasuhiro Imagawa-directed action series into the Kazuki Akane-directed drama it became beloved for, but a deal with Kadokawa Shoten had likely already been inked early on, so Katsu was left no choice but to make a manga based on the original action-focused concept, less than two years before the anime finally debuted; a shojo tie-in manga would debut alongside the anime, but would be forgotten with time. For a non-Japanese example, there's SpyHunter: Nowhere to Run, a 2006 video game based on a Hollywood movie starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson that never went into production.

So, to start the return of Mecha Month, let's look at another example of what one can call a "Vestigial Work", i.e. a weird remain that shouldn't really exist.

Running from April to December of 1985, Ashi Production's Choju Kishin/Super Beast Machine God Dancouga was a unique entry in the giant robot boom of the 80s. It behaved like it was a real robot anime by telling the story of how humanity fought its hardest against the seemingly insurmountable odds of the alien Zorbados Empire, especially since one of their own betrayed humanity & joined the enemy as a talented commander. However, the giant robots showcased (& especially the titular mech they eventually combined into) were undoubtedly super robot in nature. It even took 1/3 of the show's length for Dancouga itself to first appear, treating its formative animal-themed mechs as (semi-)realistic weapons of war. Unfortunately, poor ratings resulted in it getting cancelled early, ending unfinished after Episode 38, but strong merchandise sales resulted in it getting not just a proper finale OVA (Requiem for Victims) in 1986, but also two sequel OVAs in 1987 (God Bless Dancouga) & 1989-1990 (Blazing Epilogue); it also received a collection of official AMVs (Jyusenki-tai Songs). After that, Dancouga lay dormant until 1995, when Banpresto decided to include the anime in Super Robot Wars 4 for the Super Famicom. To build off of this, Ashi Pro then decided to reintroduce three of its mech anime properties to new audiences, starting with 1996's VS Knight Lamune & 40 Fire, a next generation sequel to a series Ashi Pro had success with in the early 90s.

Second in line was Dancouga, & pre-production work started on Choju Kishin Dancouga Burn. Unfortunately, the producer spearheading this mech anime initiative at Ashi Pro then left the studio, and after realizing that Dancouga's inclusion in SRW4 was only because the staff at Banpresto were big fans of the show, and not because it was especially popular, Ashi Pro decided to just can the entire initiative right then & there; the third was apparently going to be GoShogun, though Lamune would receive one last OVA in 1997. However, very similar to the Escaflowne manga, enough work had been put forward with Dancouga Burn that a deal with Kadokawa Shoten was finalized, so from 1997 to 1998 a two-volume manga adaptation by Yuichi Hasegawa (Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam, Maps) ran in the short-lived (as in "it literally existed the same years the manga did") spin-off magazine Monthly Shonen Ace Dash; in fact, all of this backstory comes from the 2005 research book The Otaku Gene: Yuichi Hasegawa - The World of SF Manga. So let's see how this vestigial manga born from a (seeming) misunderstanding of popularity (or lack thereof) fared in the end.