Laserdiscs

[Char Aznable]

Just took a few photos of my Dagger of Kamui laserdisc. This was the subtitled version. While it would have been nice for AnimEigo to include a dub, it's for the best they didn't since the English version (released only to VHS) was heavily edited with over 20 minutes cut out (and it was retitled Revenge of the Ninja Warrior). The LD cover is a gatefold, so there's a decent amount of informative liner notes included, along with the English lyrics to the songs featured in the film.

A fun film with great animation. It really had that 'epic' feel to it and the traditional cel animation is beautifully detailed. Also, fans of Japanese martial arts flicks will be interested to know that Dagger of Kamui features the voice of Hiroyuki Sanada (Henry Sanada), who trained under Sonny Chiba's Japan Action Club and starred in numerous film in the '80s like Legend of the Eight Samurai (Satomi Hakkenden). He's recently been in a bunch of American films like The Last Samurai, Speed Racer, Wolverine, and 47 Ronin.

[greg]

Wow, I didn't know there was a dub of Kamui! They apparently gave it the "Warriors of the Wind" treatment.

I barely remember Kamui, but I liked it up until he arrived in America. Suddenly he's in the Old West and he pals up with Mark Twain. The movie had me up until the Mark Twain part.

[llj]

I love Dagger of Kamui. Even the Mark Twain part. It really has this novelistic globetrotting feel and the addition of historical figures adds a certain charm. I'm still waiting for a proper re-release of Kamui on DVD or BD. The Animeigo DVD is not good--looks like it was taken from an overused VHS tape.

[greg]

Here are my newest acquisitions: Yamato 2520 LDs vols. 0-2. Vol. 0 is like a "making of" special to kick off the series.






Now I have to track down vol. 3, assuming it was ever made...

[SteveH]

Here are my newest acquisitions: Yamato 2520 LDs vols. 0-2. Vol. 0 is like a "making of" special to kick off the series.

...

Now I have to track down vol. 3, assuming it was ever made...

Vol. 3 was made, but that was the end. There is another LD to consider, a kind of 'history of Yamato/tease to 2520' called 'Yamato: the quickening' (at least that's the most reasonable transliteration I could come up with). The LD had a beautiful cover, and you get to see Syd Mead fondle a Franklin Mint Japan Yamato statue while he talks about 'trying to keep the ninja rocketship' dynamic in his design.

[greg]

Vol. 3 was made, but that was the end. There is another LD to consider, a kind of 'history of Yamato/tease to 2520' called 'Yamato: the quickening' (at least that's the most reasonable transliteration I could come up with). The LD had a beautiful cover, and you get to see Syd Mead fondle a Franklin Mint Japan Yamato statue while he talks about 'trying to keep the ninja rocketship' dynamic in his design.

Wow, that's cool. I know that vol. 3 made it to VHS, but I wasn't sure if it was on LD or not. I put an alert for these 2520 LDs on YAJ a long time ago, and finally these popped up. I paid 5,000 yen for the three of them. A bit more than I had hoped, but man, these are pretty cool.

[Drew_Sutton]

Judging by the overall artwork and style, Yamato 2520 looks to be about mid-nineties in vintage, no? Anything from that time period would have been reliably released on each format, almost regardless of sales. Now, whether how rare or easy to find it might be is a different question. The pics look great; looks like it might be a cool little series. How much of it is based off of the original Yamato series? I don't quite have the affinity for Yamato as a lot of people my age and generation do, so the more forked it is from the originals, the more appealing it might be.

That Kamui LD looks great - I think it really got some special treatment as I don't think there are many other AnimEigo LDs that were handled in the packaging as well as that one. I saw bits of the dub by happenstance but don't ever think I've seen the whole film.

[greg]

How much of it is based off of the original Yamato series? I don't quite have the affinity for Yamato as a lot of people my age and generation do, so the more forked it is from the originals, the more appealing it might be.

It's very forked. I would say that no prior knowledge of Yamato would be necessary to enjoy this show. The original first series occurred in the year 2199, and this one in the year 2520, over 300 years later. IIRC, this Yamato ship is like the fifth starship to ever bear the name "Yamato." This is after a galactic Terran war, and it starts out on some colony. The main characters discover the wrecked remains of the Yamato, and they salvage it in a secret shipyard according to the files they found on a computer disk.

[SteveH]

How much of it is based off of the original Yamato series? I don't quite have the affinity for Yamato as a lot of people my age and generation do, so the more forked it is from the originals, the more appealing it might be.

It's very forked. I would say that no prior knowledge of Yamato would be necessary to enjoy this show. The original first series occurred in the year 2199, and this one in the year 2520, over 300 years later. IIRC, this Yamato ship is like the fifth starship to ever bear the name "Yamato." This is after a galactic Terran war, and it starts out on some colony. The main characters discover the wrecked remains of the Yamato, and they salvage it in a secret shipyard according to the files they found on a computer disk.

Yamato 2520 was basically an attempt to 'catch the lightning in the bottle' again, minus all the key people who made Yamato such a glorious thing. It was a misguided attempt to make Yamato:The Next Generation at a time when the OAV was in decline, compared to the heyday of the '80s. There was a desire to emulate the critical acclaim of Giant Robo, and Bandai Visual thought for sure there would be piles of Yen to cart away. Except for the fact that Nishizaki pretty much had completely forgotten how to produce. Yamato 2520 was designed to be between 7 and 12 50 minute volumes, they managed to barely make out 3 over....hmmm, I want to say 3 year period.

While not mentioned in specific I've long believed that Bandai must have wanted their money back from Nishizaki and the utter failure of Yamato 2520 was key to his bankruptcy and later arrest and conviction on drug and weapons charges. (and to be fair, it wasn't THAT big a deal, to American eyes. Like a gram or less of speed and pot and a loaded semi-auto 'pocket pistol' under his chair. But if the Man is gunning for you, everything is a Major Case, right? I understand that in Japan drugs is GIANT BIG DON'T DO IT and that's cool.)

While all this was going on Nishizaki was also delusional that he was going to be a Big Deal in America. That's why there's Syd Mead and an American musician in the mix. This is when Voyager Entertainment Inc was created and all the screwing up of Star Blazers began.

Yes, it was assumed that Yamato 2520 was going to be a hit in America.

Boy were they wrong, on so many, many levels...

[greg]

Wow, thanks for the history lesson on 2520. I didn't know that it was produced so slowly, and I had no idea about Nishizaki. You're right about the drugs thing. I tell people here that I like Noriko Sakai's music and people will often mention that she did drugs. Well, it's still okay to like her singing, isn't it?

I've only seen the first OVA of 2520, I will watch it again this weekend (this time my new LD) and then I'll try to find that site that has the fansub to watch and watch the next two episodes. I'm looking forward to a quiet, relaxing weekend for a change.