Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Gnarly Ninja Robots
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ZelosZoidberg
 Posts: 764 |
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Discotek: The anime community's best friend
Their release of Project A-Ko on Blu-ray was like getting Lord of the Rings Extended Edition on DVD but for a western anime release. Same thing goes for their Memories release. I'll be picking this up just to support their hard work. In the meantime I'll be watching it on RetroCrush while awaiting their Gunbuster and Urusei Yatsura releases along with any other surprises they have in store. Last edited by ZelosZoidberg on Tue Jan 18, 2022 10:31 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Triltaison
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Saw some clips of the dub presented by Neil Nadelman at AWA this past fall, and ended up immediately preordering the Discotek release as a result. I'm just waiting on it to be shipped to enjoy some ridiculous robotic ninja action.
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FireChick
 Subscriber Posts: 2515 Location: United States |
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Oh, you guys haven't even gotten into some of the best ridiculous lines the dub has to offer.
"What's up with Mr. Clean?" "Your father didn't beat you enough as a kid!" |
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 675 |
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I have no idea how I forgot the "What's up with Mr Clean" line, I was just reeling from ROWENA THE ALIEN PRINCESS from the intro. |
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Covnam
 Posts: 3876 |
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 That line cracked me up as well. The intro wasn't too unusual up to that point, but then it's like someone off to the side went, "Hey, make sure you mention the princess!"
Too bad this never came to the US, I'm sure I would have loved it as a kid! |
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 675 |
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I did some minor research when I looked into the dub and as it turns out, not only was it even recorded in Miami, but there was a whole other cast that had been used for a pilot episode. Apparently, the old cast included veteran VA Cam Clarke, but for whatever reason they switched from an LA cast to a Miami cast... and kept crediting the LA cast for the first bunch of episodes. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11667 |
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I think I would be very interested in reading an article about the process of this sort of anime archaeology. I mean how do people know who to ask when the most obvious initial leads come up short? How do you get people interested in looking for the materials you need when they're going to have to do some digging and are already busy themselves? It's really hard for me to imagine how this all comes together.
I've read bits and pieces about trying to find old episodes of The Avengers and Dr. Who and Dark Shadows, from the days when tapes were reused and not archived, and even that seems like more than a few miracles occurred. I'd think it would be even more difficult across nations and languages, and rights paperwork filed away in the warehouse from Raiders.
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PMDR
Posts: 143 |
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Studio Pierrot sure did have some amazing background artists. Bismark, the predecessor to Tobikage, is dripping with the same art style. Cities LOOK like scifi cities simply should look. Planets look like planets. Stuff moves and explodes the way it just should, like there is a certain logic to it.
Pierrot's Cosmo Police Justy movie also shares the same design language, and was originally going to be a TV series. Pierrot clearly had a very specific way they wanted their space/scifi/mecha shows to look and feel and I absolutely love it regardless of what the show is even about. Or whether the mecha designs are up to par. Bismark is kneecapped by awful mecha designs for the first half of the series. It is extremely easy to see when they got the infusion of money to make the second half of the show because everything suddenly gets much better looking and better written, and more beautiful backgrounds! I just adore that show. One of those projects I want to do when I have time (ha!) Is make a supercut of just these art elements, panning shots across backgrounds, whatever, from all three properties. It won't matter if nobody else will ever see it for obvious copyright reason. I just want to admire the work all in one place. The sad part is neither Bismark nor Tobikage were particuticularly successful in their day. My understanding is Pierrot decided they had enough with this sort of show and went on to do other things. So the three projects that got this look and feel is all Pierrot ever did that looked like this. There should have been much more. |
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Primus
 Posts: 2835 Location: Toronto |
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Ninja Robots highlights the impact even amateur archivists can have. Discotek sourced the last 20 episodes (the first 20 were released on DVD in Australia) from off-air fan recordings. If those didn't exist, their complete release wouldn't either.
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 675 |
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MST3K said it best, "Keep circulating the tapes!". |
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Zeino
Posts: 1098 |
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Personally, I found Tobikage to be one of the dullest mecha series I've ever seen. Very little happens over it's 43 episode run and much of it's robot action is recycled animation used over and over again. And extra detrimental points for the series ending on a pair of clip show episodes of all things. You want a fun Super Robot series from 1985, go watch Dancougar instead.
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Big Kahuna
Posts: 57 |
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Well, you did it: Discotek's got my money and they deserve it, if only for the awesome opening, especially the incredible jamming rhythm of the end credit. BTW, your various nostalgia reviews recently have triggered memories (trauma) of Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer. I have images of you all watching it back to back with Rainbow. May be the color design is different, but the concept of "prison" seems to be at home in both.
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