Guilstein: The Monstrous Abel to Gundoh Musashi's Incompetent Cain?!

Naoyuki Sakai is a Japanese writer best known for working on J-Drama, but has also thrown his hat into the rings of tokusatsu (Tokusou Robo Janperson, Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger), anime (Nessa no Haoh Gandalla, Street Fighter II V), & even video games (Onimusha: Warlords, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Ages). This also applies to manga, one of which being Juuseiki/Record of Beast Star Guilstein, which was drawn by Hisao Tamaki (Star Wars: A New Hope's manga adaptation, Dirty Pair's 2010 manga reboot) & ran in Shogakukan's Monthly Sunday GX (short for "Gene-X") magazine from mid-2000 to late 2002 for four volumes; the word "Guilstein" is a portmanteau of "Guilty" & "Frankenstein". It tells the story of how various children start turning into monsters once they hit the age of 15, with the populace calling them "Guilstein", & how young Iori Takigawa tries to use his recent transformation into a Guilstein to help save humanity, rather than destroy it. If you are curious, it actually saw English release digitally by Wowmax Media back in 2010 under the title Teen Apocalypse: Guilstein, & is still available for purchase over at Amazon for $5, though only the first volume ever saw release.

Along with making that manga, though, Sakai also helped bring the concept to animation, with the end result being the movie Guilstein, a 2D/CG hybrid film that debuted in Japanese theaters on June 15, 2002... Maybe. You see, the film was actually finished back in 2001, and according to Amazon Japan the OST came out in March 2001, while the DVD release was in 2003, so I can't truly tell when the film debuted in Japanese theaters. Regardless, aside from having a similar basic concept behind it, the film has pretty much nothing to do with the manga. The film was produced by ACC Production, which had recently opened a new studio founded by Nobuyuki Sugaya, a director of photography-turned-producer who'd been around since the 60s, & the legendary mangaka Kazuhiko "Money Punch" Kato, both of whom have since passed away.

Wait a minute... ACC Pro? Monkey Punch? Nobuyuki Sugaya?!
This is from the people that gave the world
Gundoh Musashi?!

Yes, it is indeed the same exact studio & producer, though this movie came first. In fact, Sugaya & Monkey Punch even held a panel at San Diego Comic Con in 2001 (even though neither seemed to be there as guests, oddly enough), alongside John O'Donnell & Christopher Couch of Central Park Media, where they actually hyped up the Guilstein movie & talked as if a North American release was in the works (the third link is about that, in particular). From what I could tell, which included asking former employee (& former Answerman for ANN) Justin Sevakis, CPM never actually licensed the movie, so why O'Donnell & Couch were a part of that panel is beyond me. About a year ago or so I made a visit to the Book-Off store in New York City, and I actually came across the Japanese DVD release for Guilstein over there for a couple of bucks, so I think taking a look at a horror-ish anime movie produced by the studio that would give us "The Disaster Anime" itself a few years later is a perfect way to celebrate Halloween!

The Heart-B't of Monthly Shonen Ace, 25 Years Later

Kadokawa Corporation is one of the largest media conglomerates in Japan, and all book publishing is done through its Kadokawa Future Publishing arm. One of the divisions of that arm is Kadokawa Shoten, and on October 26, 1994 that division debuted a new manga anthology magazine, Monthly Shonen Ace. This year marks the 25th Anniversary of that magazine &, in turn, the 25th Anniversary of every single manga that made their debuts in that original issue. Rather than try to cover the 25-year history of this magazine, as its heavily cross-promotional nature makes it tricky to really detail what would be considered "major hits" of its own, I instead want to look at what notable (mostly) original works came out during the run of the manga that graced the cover of Shonen Ace's very first issue, B't X by Masami Kurumada. Admittedly, I did originally just want to celebrate that manga's 25th, but there is worth in celebrating the entire magazine's debut, especially with what's actually a rather strong & interesting debuting roster of manga.

Before that, though, let me explain how exactly Monthly Shonen Ace came about... Because it's a bit of a doozy.

Though published in October, Shonen Ace
lists its issues as two months later,
hence why it's the December issue.

Prior to the original magazine to carry the "Ace" moniker, Kadokawa Shoten already had other magazines, like shojo manga-focused Asuka &, relevant to this article, Comptiq. Debuting in 1983 to help promote computer software (though it'd eventually start serializing some manga), Comptiq would see its own spin-off manga magazine in 1988, Monthly Comic Comp, but in 1992 things got bad, & all because of familial blood. You see, Kadokawa Shoten was founded by Genyoshi Kadokawa, and after he passed away in 1975, his son Haruki became president. Haruki, though, had a younger brother, Tsuguhiko, and in the early 90s ousted his own sibling from the company in favor of his son, Taro. The younger Kadokawa, however, got revenge for his brother's actions by leading an exodus consisting of various editors & mangaka that worked with Comic Comp, with everyone moving over to Tsuguhiko's newly founded Media Works, which lead to the creation of Monthly Comic Dengeki GAO! in 1993; that magazine would last until 2008. The same year as GAO!'s debut, Haruki Kadokawa was arrested for smuggling cocaine into Japan from the United States via a close aide, as well as embezzling money from Kadokawa Shoten to help fund his cocaine purchases; he would be convicted in September 1994 & serve 2.5 of a 4-year prison sentence. In turn, Kadokawa Shoten would need a new head, with the end result being the return of Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, and after the conviction it was decided that Comic Comp would first be suspended, before being merged with a smaller magazine called Comic GENKi to create Monthly Shonen Ace. As for the fates of the Brothers Kadokawa, Tsuguhiko is currently the chairman of Kadokawa Future Publishing, while Haruki would found his own studio, Kadokawa Haruki Corporation (totally not to confuse potential partners, am I right?), after serving his time in jail & getting paroled. Isn't it nice when a magazine is seemingly created partially to spite a sibling, especially when it's essentially an act of vengeance?

Galerians: Rion: Screw Cocaine... Nalcon & Red are a Hell of a Drug!

Survival horror games are the perfect thing to experience during the month of October, but what about anime based on survival horror games? Well, to be honest, there really aren't many anime adaptations of the genre, with easily the most well known being the various CG movies based on Capcom's Resident Evil franchise. Obviously, that game series wound up inspiring plenty of "clones", but one of the most interesting to come about in the 90s was easily Galerians for the PlayStation. Developed by Polygon Magic (Incredible Crisis, Slap Happy Rhythm Busters) & published by ASCII Entertainment in August 1999, Galerians differed from the usual "Resident Evil clone" of the time by going for a heavy sci-fi aesthetic, in place of the usual zombies, vampires, & the like; also, the character designs by Sho-U Tajima (Madara, MPD Psycho) helped give it a unique look. Crave Entertainment would release it in North America & Europe in 2000, & in 2002 Enterbrain released a sequel in Japan for the PS2, Galerians: Ash; Sammy would release it internationally in 2003. To go with that new game, an full-CG OVA was also made that adapted the plot of the original game, releasing alongside the sequel; to match the naming style of said sequel, the OVA was titled Galerians: Rion.

A year later, the OVA was re-released in Japan in a new "Director's Cut" edit that turned the 3-episode OVA into a feature-length film, though only barely at just over 70-minutes; from what I can tell, little to nothing was actually cut out, aside from the OP & ED sequences. It would be this Director's Cut that would then get licensed by Image Entertainment for English release, first on DVD in 2004, followed by a release in 2005 on the most "universal" of "media"... Sony's UMD (you know, for the PSP). A few months after Image's DVD release, Galerians: Rion would actually start seeing heavy repeat airings on American television, and on a most-unexpected network at that: MTV2; this was during the network's short-lived attempt to air anime, like Heat Guy J. Therefore, there are actually people out there that would have some nostalgic memories of this OVA, especially because it aired on a well known network that didn't already have Toonami. Still, it's been a solid 15 years since Image's release, so I'd call it "forgotten" enough to be worthy of being covered on this blog. Also, the way Image handled the dub for this OVA is especially interesting, so let's see where on the infamous "video game-based anime scale" this endeavor comes out.

It's the year 2522, & an teenage amnesiac awakens in Michelangelo City Memorial Hospital strapped into a giant swinging mechanism, watched over by doctors. Hearing the calls from a girl asking for his help, he subconsciously breaks free, realizing that he has psychic powers based on various drugs that he was experimented with, like Nalcon (shockwave blasts) & Red (pyrokinesis); if he uses them too much, he risks shorting out, & without injecting himself with Delmetor, he'd die. After hijacking the hospital's computer, he finds out his name is Rion Steiner & where his family lives, leading him on his journey to find out who exactly he is, who the girl named Lilia Pascalle is that's sending him psychic messages, & what they have to do with Dorothy, the "Mother Computer" that's in control of Michelangelo City. Meanwhile, Rion & Lilia are being hunted by Birdman, Rainheart, Rita, & Cain, who are all Galerians, artificial humans with psychic powers created by Dorothy.

(Not Really) Ahead of My Time, But Too Lazy to Care: 10 Years After Starting a YouTube Channel

Previously on the 2019 Anniversary Retrospective:
"Anyway, after that entire moment with GameSpotting came to an end, life pretty much returned to normal. I graduated from high school, went to Rutgers, graduated after five years, tried making zero-budget YouTube videos for a year..."

Oh, I guess it's time to go over THAT in detail, isn't it? Ahem...
"Hey There, Gamers & Anime Aficionados!"

This was YouTube's logo back in 2009. Today, the tagline would be
"Broadcast What We Approve of, or Else No One Will Know About It".

So, as mentioned above, after that "I got published on GameSpot" thing happened in late February, I graduated from high school the following June, right before my 18th birthday. I then attended Rutgers University for five years to get a Bachelor's Degree in "Journalism & Media Studies", and it was during that time that the way we as a people interacted & learned new things changed. For example, I remember in what may have been my very first day of school at Rutgers, back in September of 2004, being told about this new-fangled website called "Facebook", which had only launched earlier that February, where college students could intermingle online & talk about their professors; today, Facebook is an absolute behemoth of social media. One year after that site launched, though, another website would launch & become a phenomenon of its own kind: YouTube. This site allowed people to upload videos that they had produced, and while online video hosting wasn't anything new, it was the first of its kind that allowed essentially anyone to upload & share content. And when it came to video games, one man in 2006 essentially changed everything via YouTube: James Rolfe.

Starting in May of 2004, a few months after my GuestSpotting piece (amusingly enough), Rolfe would go on to produce a trio of short videos where he bemoaned how horrible he felt the NES games Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde, & The Karate Kid were. In 2006, he uploaded them onto YouTube after an idea by his friend Mike Matei, and not long later the "Angry Nintendo Nerd", later the Angry Video Game Nerd, became a hit. Naturally, this influenced others to produce their own videos about old video games. Some of them would take a more positively-attuned focus, but many followed Rolfe's lead & simply trashed games they hated; the main difference, though, was that Rolfe would exaggerate his hatred, for simple comedic effect. Personally, while I might have heard of YouTube around 2006 & 2007, I didn't actually really start going to it regularly until around 2008, while my first AVGN episode was the one about the Atari 5200, which was first released in early 2007 over at GameTrailers, but wasn't uploaded to YouTube until mid-2008. Still, it was stuff like what James Rolfe was making, alongside other YouTube channels like MN12BIRD (who actually came back this year, after a 4-5 year hiatus!), Classic Game Room (itself a revived version of The Game Room from 2000, one of the very first online video shows), & Happy Console Gamer, as well as much smaller producers like MJC Reviews & JQJDaMan who have stopped making videos a long time ago, that started making me wonder if I could do something like that, too.

Retrospect in Retrograde: The Fuma no Kojirou OVAs

Following up a massive success is a tough proposition, to say the least. You now have these major expectations that didn't exist previously, and should you not meet those you run the risk of failure. This is especially true in the world of manga, because not everyone is an Akira Toriyama or Rumiko Takahashi, who can follow up a major hit (Dr. Slump or Urusei Yatsura, respectively) with a second, arguably bigger smash (Dragon Ball or Ranma ½, respectively). Some, though, manage to follow a major hit with something that, though not similarly successful, is still a decent enough hit. A perfect example of that latter situation is with Masami Kurumada, who in late 1981 finished Ring ni Kakero, the "SF Boxing" manga that made his name known to the Japanese populace & would influence so much manga that Shueisha would deem it "The Hot-Blooded Fighting Manga Bible" in 2014. Naturally, Shonen Jump readers were excited for what Kurumada would follow that up with, and a few months later, at the start of 1982, they found out with Fuma no Kojirou/Kojirou of the Fuma, a story revolving (ostensibly) around ninja. While it seemed to be a success of its own merit for the time, though obviously not on the level of RnK, the manga still wound up ending after only a solid two years, finishing up at the very end of 1983, after 10 volumes. My theory is Kurumada prematurely ended FnK in order to finally start working on the series he had been planning out for a decade, Otoko Zaka, only for said series to fizzle out after not even a year. Kurumada would then aim for the mainstream, creating Saint Seiya in 1986, and here's where we return to Fuma no Kojirou.

Saint Seiya was a bona fide smash hit during the second half of the 80s, arguably influencing more people than they realize (in particular, what people associate Dragon Ball with was likely due to Toriyama being encouraged to follow Saint Seiya's lead). It was such a instant hit that Toei Animation debuted a TV anime adaptation before the manga was even a year into its run, which itself wound up becoming a big hit, especially around the world (except for "North of Mexico", of course), and would end in April of 1989, after 114 episodes; the manga would run until late 1990. Likely seeing that Seiya's anime was coming to an end, though, producers from MOVIC, retail arm Animate, & CBS Sony Group obviously wanted to continue riding whatever wave of Saint Seiya popularity was still cresting, before it crashed. The end result was Fuma no Kojirou (later given the subtitle Yasha-hen/Yasha Chapter), a six-episode OVA adaptation of the first story arc of the FnK manga that came out during the summer of 1989, with the first episode coming out only two months after Saint Seiya's final episode aired; they started working on the OVA before the show finished, obviously. Sales must have been good, as the following year saw Fuma no Kojirou: Seiken Sensou-hen/Sacred Sword War Chapter, a six-episode OVA adaptation of the second story arc that came out during the fall of 1990. Finally, after a two-year hiatus, a 50-minute OVA titled Fuma no Kojirou Saishushou: Fuma Hanran-hen/The Final Chapter: Fuma Rebellion Chapter, which adapted the third & final story arc of the manga, came out at the very end of 1992; today, the entire thing is generally counted as a single, 13-episode series. There were five DVD releases covering all three OVAs in Japan throughout mid-2001, put out by SME Visual Works (the former CBS Sony Group, & now currently known as Aniplex), but nothing else since; admittedly, it'd be nice to see these be given an HD remaster & Blu-Ray release.

I reviewed each of these OVAs long ago, the first in 2010 & the other two in 2012, and at the time there was no English translation whatsoever, fansub or official, for any of them; there was supposedly one back in the old VHS fansub days, but it's never surfaced. Today, however, there is actually an English fansub out there, though most of it (read: 11 of the 13 episodes) is based on a Spanish fansub, which means that it's mostly a translation of a translation. Sadly, though the translation itself is okay, the video quality is that of a multi-generation copy of a VHS tape, & Fuma Hanran-hen's fansub literally just plasters English subs over the Spanish subs; it's the best we got, sadly. Still, with Masami Kurumada having returned to Fuma no Kojirou recently with the Jou no Maki/Prelude Chapter prequel manga, and an "Ultimate Final Edition" of the original manga planned for a November release, I'd say now's as good a time as any to finally give these OVAs a new, comprehensive look, and see if I feel any differently about the anime adaptation of "Masami Kurumada's Fourth-Most-Well-Known Manga".