アニメ Republic

The round of items for February has a good mix of titles including a number of Blu-ray discs. Though the Akira and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence discs are in fact the US release versions, I decided to add them in just for the continuity. The main feature however is the Ghost in the Shell 2.0 BD box set from Japan. You can see the covers, booklet and TrueHD card here. I’ll probably still pick up the US release of Ghost in the Shell 2.0 BD due out later this year if it comes with an English audio track. If not though, I think I will just stick with this set. The set comes with both versions of the film plus a bonus disc. The original version disc has both English subtitles as well as English audio while the 2.0 version has English subtitles only.

Moving on we have the final volume for Ikki Tousen Great Guardians complete with First Press mini-poster, postcards, and pencil board. I have also included the Limited Edition version of the Great Guardians OP/ED CD which comes with a bonus DVD containing clean OP/ED sequences for the series. Also in the shot are a couple of card holders that were being offered at the same time. They turned out to be somewhat different then I had thought. Fortunately they were only around $8 each. Now we just sit back and wait to see if they decide to do a forth anime series.

Next up is the first volume in the new Kodomo no Jikan series. This comes with a box, booklet and plastic slip-cover for the DVD case. You can see the front covers here as well as the back cover of the box and DVD case plus the disc art for the DVDs and a sample page of the booklet here. I also included both pillow covers I picked up this month here though I already mentioned them separately. Here is the Ryomou front and back (or is it the other way around?) and here is the Zoku Satsuriku no Jango front and back.

Enjoy!!

Something I have been questing for quite some time now has been the deck of tarot cards released by then Pioneer as a mail-in offer for their release of the Sol Bianca OVA series (not to be confused with the two OVA/Movies that were released in the early 90’s).

You can see the whole deck here as well as a couple of shots I took of the deck I finally found recently on eBay here and here. I really don’t know much of anything about tarot, but this was one of those anime related rare treasure items that was released in limited quantities almost ten years ago that I just had to have.

Enjoy!!

Well I know wonders never cease, but I have added a couple of new pillow covers to the Linens & Things collection.

First up is the latest in a long line of Ryomou Shimei (Ikki Tousen, like you needed that) pillow covers. You can see one side here and the other here.

Also added to the collection is this one from Zoku Satsuriku no Jango video game/visual novel/whatever thing. Honestly, it was on sale and she looks hot. I have never played or even seen the game for that matter. Yeah, it doesn’t take much. You can see the other side here.

More later.

Enjoy!!

This is the third and for the most part final entry in the VHS flashbacks I have presented. I have managed to acquire most of the old and hard to find titles that were only released on VHS that I have been questing for. There are of course a rare few, including this impossible to find title, that are still out there but none are ones I am truly questing to find.

Up first is a bit of a repeat of sorts from the first round. This lot features Sol Bianca 1 (English dubbed version) and Sol Bianca 2 (subtitled version), both of which I had listed in one form or another already. Also in this lot are Gude Crest from ADV (subtitled version) and Dragon Century from the late US Renditions (subtitled version).

Next up are a number of “also-rans” in terms of general quality and fan opinion. Such titles as Armageddon and especially the English dubbed (and butchered) version of the original Dangaioh OVA add to the list of forgettable titles that also include Dragon Slayer and Psycho Diver. Nothing much better is on hand in the following round of ADV releases with such unmemorable titles as Fire Emblem and Panzer Dragoon.  There are a couple of titles that bring things up a notch however with the addition of Rail of the Star and Dragon Knight – Another Knight on the Town (the only Dragon Knight title not released on DVD).  More filling in the gaps this time with the subtitled version of Compiler vol. 1 and the clam-shell release of Dangaio (just to be a completist) adding to a couple of titles from AnimEigo and TRSI.

The next round brings things home in a big way as far as hard-to-find titles go. We have both volumes 1 & 2 of Homeroom Affairs (by Star Anime) and volumes 1 & 2 of First Loves (by ADV’s long lost adult label SoftCel Pictures). All four tapes are Japanese with English subtitles and at the time were considered “adult” titles but by today’s standards would hardly be considered anything more than “R” rated material. First Loves was the last of the SoftCel Pictures VHS titles (that had never been released on DVD) that I had been hunting for.

Finishing things off we have a few rounds of miscellaneous titles that either finish off series I had started or were alternative versions of titles that had been released in other forms such as Windaria (by Streamline), Outlanders (original English dub) and Mermaid Forest (English dub version to add to the subtitled version I have on LD already).  Some more forgettable titles by Viz and ADV such as Ogre Slayer and Hanappe Bazooka make you realize why some titles were never brought to DVD. Let’s not forget about Mad Bull either. After all it’s important to have that complete series. And lastly adding to the completion of another series is the second volume of End of Summer by SoftCel Pictures (the first volume had been released under the ADV logo as SoftCel had not yet been created).

That brings the majority of the VHS hunting to a close. There are only a few titles left on the list of “anime that DVD forgot” that I am even remotely interested in so I doubt I will do another major update. If anything notable comes in I will more than likely post it separately.

Enjoy!!

This represents the 40th Ikki Tousen figure in my collection, not counting duplicates or trading figures. I guess it is appropriate that this would be one of Ryomou. This is the “Festival version” from Dragon Destiny released last year by Amie-Grand. The other 39 figures can be seen in various places in the collection including here and here.

In retrospect I think I should have used a different color background for these pictures, but it still works for the most part. Here are a few shots of her from the front and slightly closer; from the back; from one side and then the other; and a couple of close-ups, one with flash and the other without. And just to add a bit of completeness here are a couple of shot of the box, from the front and then the back.

Enjoy!!

January has a number of interesting items in the group. I posted previously about the Macross game LD I picked up at the beginning of the month. Adding to that is this round of items.

First up we have Ikki Tousen Great Guardians Volume 5. This volume comes with the usual round of extras including mini-poster, pencil board and two more postcards. Also included is a booklet and reversible cover (same image as the pencil board).

Next up to bat is one I have been looking forward to for a while. This is volume 1 of a two-volume OVA series for Ichigo Mashimaro. The only bad thing about this is that it is only two episodes. Hopefully it will sell well enough to encourage them to produce more anime for this series. More Nobue is always a good thing.  This volume comes with a box for both volumes, a booklet, a notepad with five different recurring images watermarked onto the pages (but who would ever actually USE this? No true fan that’s for sure!), and a mini-poster (first press item) of Anna and Matsuri.

The last couple of items are both from Ikki Tousen. The first is the Great Guardians fan book. If the fan book for Dragon Destiny was considered to be nothing but extreme fan service, this can be considered one step away from porn. Pretty much nothing is left to the imagination. I’m trying to figure out a way to scan the pages without damaging the book its self. If I can I’ll update the page accordingly. The second is one I saw on the pre-order list and to be honest wasn’t that sure what is was but since it was pretty cheap I figured I’d give it a shot. It is a collection of covers (presumably for the Japanese version) for the Ikki Tousen manga volumes. There are eight different designs total. They are on two types of paper. The first is just standard poster paper and the second is a more plastic type. On the second type the folds have been pre-pressed. I assume to make it easier to put them on the manga volumes. Each image comes in both paper and plastic versions with a total of 16 covers in the box. Here are some shots to give an example of what they look like. Here, here, here, and here. There are 8 more covers in the set, but they are the same images as these, just on a different type of paper. That was certainly hard to convey.

Enjoy!!

I got in this latest addition to the collection as part of my January orders. This one is far more “official” then the last couple I got in. Here is a quick shot of one side and then the other side.

Enjoy!!

Recently I made a trip up to Diamond Bar to meet someone in the parking lot of a K-Mart by a McDonalds off the 57 FWY. Now that may seem rather seedy, but it wasn’t drugs or anything else nefarious like that. It was boxes of anime VHS tapes. This person was selling a huge lot of something like 300+ anime VHS tapes on eBay. Now as you may guess shipping on something like that, even ground super-slow, would be rather high. My guess is that is what scared off any other potential buyer. Fortunately the seller was from Ontario so I figured I could just drive up and pick them up. They went the extra mile, literally, by agreeing to meet me half way, which brings us back to the parking lot in question. While transferring the boxes to my car I asked why he was selling them (figuring he was getting out of anime, dumping all VHS, or something else of that nature). Turns out he had bought them sight unseen from some dude back east who listed them on Craig’s List as “anime movies” and promised most were DVDs. Well, of course it turned out there were absolutely zero DVDs, just all VHS tapes.

Here’s the funny part. Though I didn’t want to stand there in the parking lot looking through ever box as not only would that have taken way too much time it would have just been un-cool. I did happen to notice however that all the ones I was seeing appeared to be new still in factory seal. Once I got them home I did a further inspection and to my amazement found that there were almost no duplicates and nearly all of them were still “new” and had never been opened. Now one may wonder what prompted me to go through all this effort for a bunch of boxes of old anime videos. The primary reason was, first and foremost, these four tapes of the two Galaxy Express 999 movies from VIZ in both subtitled and English dubbed form. When you look at what a couple of these go for on places like eBay you will soon discover that they alone were worth the price of admission.

To my surprise however, I found a number of other lost treasures hidden away in these boxes. These included complete sets of “AWOL” and “Ehrgeiz” both from Bandai back during the Anime Village days. Others in the lot included the English dubbed versions of all three of the original Gundam movies available only on VHS as the DVD box set included only the subtitle version.  Also in the lot were some old OVA series from CPM (Blue Sonnet and Akai Hayate) that never made their way to DVD. Add to that a couple from both ADV (Luna Varga) and Urban Vision (Goku Midnight Eye) and the whole lot becomes that much more worth it.

The remaining 200+ VHS tapes that are all from titles that have since made it to DVD will be used as give-a-ways at Anime LA 6 in January 2010 and official convention events leading up to the con in an attempt to bribe or otherwise coerce people to help out running the anime video room.

Though not in the group picked up in the lot above, I figured this would be a good time to include these others as well. First off we have the complete set of videos from the series “Super Bestial Machine God Dancougar” released back in the day by CPM under the Software Sculptors label.  Interestingly enough they managed to get the whole series released on VHS (though only a subtitled version) including the final OVA “Requiem for Victims”. A few more still include a few more from ADV (Capricorn, Girl from Phantasia and Dragoon) plus the still quite funny OVA “Junk Boy” from Manga Entertainment. Finishing things out for this round are a couple of titles from VIZ (Mermaid’s Scar and Grey: Digital Target [English dubbed version]) plus one from Right Stuff (Godmars) and the second of two volumes of “Twin Dolls” from ADV (under their SoftCel Pictures label).

That about covers all of them for the moment, but I am still on the hunt for more anime on VHS that have never made it to DVD (or Laserdisc!) and should have at least one more addition to this group in the months ahead.

Enjoy!!

As a somewhat early start to the haul for January 2009, I’ve posted some shots of an LD I just picked up off eBay. It was quite a rare find and as the seller had a ‘buy it now’ option and the listing hadn’t been up for more than half a day I was lucky enough to snag it.

From what I can tell from the reference here at the Macross World site, this is rather rare indeed. I haven’t had a chance to play it yet as I still have to get my main LD player set-up again after Anime LA. Here is a shot of the front cover with obi on and the back cover with obi off to the side. And here is a group shot with the front cover with obi off plus the two inserts. The first insert is a one-sheet with a postcard attachment and the other insert is a two sided tri-fold with character information and sketches.

Enjoy!!

A few items came in that fall neatly into this category so I figured I would list them all together. Please note that many of these images in this update are very much NSFW. You have been warned.

First up is a figure I picked up recently off eBay. This is a modified version of an existing figure with added…..enhancements. I would put the scale at about 1/6. I have included a few shots of this new one in its new home along with Ryofu and Kanu, also in various states of undress. I also included the detailed pictures from the eBay auction listing (thanks!) as they are very good and thus save me the time in taking my own. At the end of the batch are the “censored” shots mainly just for humor value. These were used on the eBay listing its self as eBay tends to not like boobs.

And in the “why even bother” category I have added in a couple more pillow covers, both from Ikki Tousen. These are also to be considered very NSFW. For whatever reason I decided pony up a few bucks for a couple of these more than likely bootleg pillow covers from some dude in China. I really don’t need to say any more than that.

First up is the Kanu cover. Here is a shot of one side and the other. Next up is the Ryomou cover. Again here is a shot of one side and the other side. Notice the high degree of sheen on these. Yeah, that’s pretty much what they look like. Well, at least now I know. I also picked up a slightly less suspect “sports” towel of Ryomou from the same guy. At least this one looks somewhat legit.

This concludes the NSFW update. Into storage they go. After all it’s not like I will actually use them.

Enjoy!!