The Leaning Tower of Damocles

DVD Deluge (GB7 & 8)

January 24, 2007 on 7:51 pm | In Classic, Flash |

This is perhaps the main salvo of the Great Barrage: the entire run of all of the DP anime productions have been re-released (or released in this format for the first time) on DVDs. Perhaps most surprising of all is that the price per disc from Japan has never been this low!

The first portion and larger portion of this explosion is the boxed set from VAP, referred to as Daatipea no Daiseikyou [Great Prosperity* of the Dirty Pair], following the “template” for the titles of the print novels, as was also done with the 1994 laserdisc box, called Daatipea no Daikessan [The Dirty Pair’s Big Payoff]. (Incidentally, the VAP site is worth visiting in itself, since it includes a story digest for all the episodes and a “Special” page showing the history of the character designs.

*another (plausible and/or appropriate) translation for the word is “boom”

This particular “big box” holds ten discs with the 26 Classic TV, 10 Classic OVA and 16 Flash episodes. Each series resides in its own folding jacket with new wraparound artwork: the five “TV” discs and the two “OVA” discs each with its own new piece by Dokite Tsukasa and the three “Flash” discs with a new work from Kimura Takahiro. These, in turn, slip into a box with its own new art by Dokite. Along with the discs, you get a 28-page booklet, which includes a brief history of DP anime, a short interview with Takachiho-sensei, story digests and “cast and staff” lists; half of the booklet is a new short story by Takachiho, Daatipea no Daishukun [The DP’s Meritorious Deed], which fills in a bit of their history. Daiseikyou was released on 22 November 2006.

Two days later, on the 24th, in coordination with the DVD set, Bandai Emotion at long last released newly-remastered DVDs of Affair of Nolandia and Conspiracy of Flight 005, which have never before been on DVD and have not been in print in the original language since the early ’90s. (I’m qualifying this statement, since Streamline put out its English dubs of these OVAs and “Project E.D.E.N.” during 1992-94.) Here also, the Bandai site is worth a look for its presentation of information on these discs, and on the Angels themselves, and as a nexus of links to pages on many of the other items in the Great Barrage, such as the WAVE figure set, the Lovely Angels radio show, Takachiho’s blog, etc.

In the first “print run” of this set, you will get an “art box” with your purchase of “Nolandia”, with yet more new cover artwork by Dokite and space for a third disc, that being the Bandai Emotion DVD release of Dirty Pair: The Motion Picture (a/k/a “Project E.D.E.N.”) from 2000 (which was re-mastered at that time). There is also new art for the individual disc jackets, blending Dokite’s current style with his re-creation of the appropriate character designs for each story. Each disc comes with its own little pamphlet on the respective projects.

If you bought the VAP DVD releases of the Classic and Flash episodes that came out during 2000-01, you won’t be getting much of anything new here (outside of the booklet). But if you’ve never had these discs (which are, of course, in Region-2 encoding), this new collection is a very good buy. With the sort of discounts that are available at many on-line stores, the price per disc works out to around $20, plus shipping. The Bandai discs (also R2) are more like $45 each, though deals are possible if you buy the pair.