VHS releases of anime before AnimEigo

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davemerrill
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VHS releases of anime before AnimEigo

Post by davemerrill »

There were many anime titles released on VHS in the United States prior to AnimEigo releasing "Madox 01", which is pretty much the first uncut, subtitled release of an anime title aimed at the anime fan market. Over in another thread Fireminer asked if there was any resource or listing of all the VHS anime releases in the US, and if there is one, I haven't found it. What I have found are some websites that list ALL VHS releases, and there's a lot of anime in there, mostly pitched at the children's market. For instance:

https://vhscollector.com/movie/adventures-polar-cubs

I know back in the heyday of VHS, rental and retail stores would get catalogs from distributors, and those catalogs from the 1980s would be a terrific resource to see what got released when. One person on Twitter said that one of these catalogs might have been called "Videolog". I imagine if anyone here has experience in video retail (hey Steve!) he might be able to shed light on this.
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DKop
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Re: VHS releases of anime before AnimEigo

Post by DKop »

The ones that come to mind that were before AnimEigo were titles from ZIV and FHE home releases. Ive got one copy of Super Grand Prix that came from American Video Presents which was adapting Arrow Emblem: Hawk of the Grand Prix from a 44 episode series to a 90 minute film. FHE releases were retitled like Baldios is Space Warriors, Cyborg 009 was titled Defenders of the Vortex and many others that escape me right now.
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Re: VHS releases of anime before AnimEigo

Post by davemerrill »

that American Video Presents also released the "Magnos the Robot" and that weird dub of Angie Girl retitled "The Casebook Of Charlotte Holmes." I once saw all three of those for rent in a video rental that was open for about a week before it closed and became a rent-to-own appliance store, but I only managed to rent the "Magnos". I still haven't ever seen that "Charlotte Holmes" dub.

FHE didn't release Baldios ("Space Warriors") or Cyborg 009 Legend Of The Super Galaxy ("Defenders Of The Vortex") - those titles were released by Celebrity Home Entertainment under their "Just For Kids" imprint, licensing those titles from Peregrine Film aka "Dynamagic."

https://letsanime.blogspot.com/2008/03/ ... frank.html

The Dynamagic slate of films were all edited, but some were later released by Best Film & Video in uncut versions.

Family Home Entertainment was a different beast entirely, and is now owned by Lionsgate. Celebrity went bye-bye in 2001.
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Re: VHS releases of anime before AnimEigo

Post by DKop »

davemerrill wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2020 6:34 am that American Video Presents also released the "Magnos the Robot" and that weird dub of Angie Girl retitled "The Casebook Of Charlotte Holmes." I once saw all three of those for rent in a video rental that was open for about a week before it closed and became a rent-to-own appliance store, but I only managed to rent the "Magnos". I still haven't ever seen that "Charlotte Holmes" dub.

FHE didn't release Baldios ("Space Warriors") or Cyborg 009 Legend Of The Super Galaxy ("Defenders Of The Vortex") - those titles were released by Celebrity Home Entertainment under their "Just For Kids" imprint, licensing those titles from Peregrine Film aka "Dynamagic."

https://letsanime.blogspot.com/2008/03/ ... frank.html

The Dynamagic slate of films were all edited, but some were later released by Best Film & Video in uncut versions.

Family Home Entertainment was a different beast entirely, and is now owned by Lionsgate. Celebrity went bye-bye in 2001.
Right Celebrity. I thought Family Home came from Celebrity in the 90's or something like a company rename/restructure, which is why I thought they were one in the same. Thanks for correcting that, had I gotten up and just pick up the Defenders of the Vortex VHS thats on my shelf I could've answered my own question :lol:

I'm trying to think who else released anime before AnimEigo and Rightstuf, but the companies stated might've been it at that time.
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Re: VHS releases of anime before AnimEigo

Post by davemerrill »

there were a whole slew of cheap VHS tapes of licensed, public domain and/or otherwise unclear copyrighted material filling the bins at K-Mart and (name another dead retailer) back in the mid to late 1980s, and a lot of anime titles got released that way. 8-man, the compilation film for the Zuizo Eizo Heidi series, that odd 80s dub of Kimba The White Lion, I mentioned Honey Honey and Little Women already, but the Sonic dub of Leo The Lion got a VHS release. Warriors Of The Wind, the first and the third Puss In Boots movies (the second one only in Canada and the UK), the Sanrio films like both Unicos, Ringing Bell, and Winds Of Change, the "Z-Bots" release of the Jim Terry Force Five series, that William Winckler dub of Tekkaman, Alakazam The Great, Panda And The Magic Serpent, the "Choppy & The Princess" dub of Princess Knight. Robby The Rascal, Ninja The Wonder Boy, the "Crushers" dub of Crusher Joe, the "Tranzor Z" dub of Mazinger Z, the "Timefighters" dub of Time Bokan, heck even Speed Racer got a limited home video release in the 80s on tapes alongside Mighty Hercules. Lots of anime home video out there at that time.
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Re: VHS releases of anime before AnimEigo

Post by DKop »

Till I see them I would never think of them. I've never seen Tranzor Z on VHS. Macron 1 is another title that im pretty sure Celebrity released as well. Id love to get a copy of Tranzor Z and Crushers if and when I come across them someday.
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Re: VHS releases of anime before AnimEigo

Post by davemerrill »

I overlooked so many of those releases myself, they were just background noise. At some point I said to myself, hey, I should really start trying to buy these things when I see them in the thrift stores and flea markets, and now I have The Blinkins and The Brave Frog and Maple Town and Superbook and Sherlock Hound VHS staring back at me.

I've never seen "Crushers" in the flesh, that would definitely be a find. It's what keeps me going back through antique malls, the hopes of finding this stuff.
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