The Leaning Tower of Damocles

DVD Deluge (GB7 & 8)

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.

First new Classic DP art book in 18 years! (GB5)

When the OVA series for Classic DP ended its Japanese release (on cassettes and laserdiscs) back in April 1988, the publication of print merchandise for the anime pretty much ended with it. (The release of Conspiracy of Flight 005 in January 1990 was accompanied by very little in the way of associated “goods” of any sort.)

So it was a source of some excitement here when, while conducting one of my search sweeps close to a year ago, I happened across an entry at the HobbyLink Japan site for something called Dirty Pair Complete Art Works. There was next to no description of the contents, but the book was to have something like 200 pages and would be published in April of 2006. By that time, the release date had been bumped to July, by which time news of many of the other items discussed in this blog started turning up. So I sort of kept one eye on this book listing while looking forward to all the other stuff that would be coming out in the fall.

After several more “bumps”, many more on-line book stores in Japan were listing this and the date had finally settled into December, which would mean the book was coming out around the time of the new DVD releases (see the upcoming entry) and the figure set. (OK, November was going to be an expensive month and I hadn’t even started Christmas shopping yet…)

So, finally, here it is: on 1 December, Shinkigensha released Dirty Pair Complete Art Works (ISBN4-7753-0486-0) [#3 in their Entertainment Archive Series]. As is often the case with such titles, and given what DP anime has become since 1988, the book is not “complete”. It does cover all of the Classic productions under the direction of Dokite Tsukasa. (For those of us who are also Flash fans, we will have to hope that a similar book will appear eventually to supplement the 1995 art book which covers only the first DPF series and some of the planning for the second.)

Now, as a devoted collector of related materials (the polite way to phrase it; the psychiatric diagnosis is subject to physician-patient confidentiality), I believe I have all of the art books and other print items that were made available for “Classic” during 1985-89, yet I still went and bought this. I will recommend it to all new fans of the ’80s anime and to long-time followers of this version. For the first time, all of the productions are treated together in one place. There are extensive sections on each of our two heroines, with their early alternative designs and their subsequent redesigns in each outing, along with all of their various clothing and equipment in the individual episodes and stories. There are also sections for Mughi; the different versions of their ship, Lovely Angel; all of the supporting and many of the incidental characters; and much of the other equipment and mecha appearing in the stories. (While there are many drawings in the old books — and the booklet for the 1994 laserdisc boxed set — that are not found here, only a completist [like me, who’d actually even notice this] would miss them…). You’ll also find complete “cast and staff” lists for all the productions and special short articles on aspects of the anime’s history, including a brief interview with Dokite.

…and you get a foldout mini-poster based on the book’s wraparound cover, featuring a new work by Dokite himself. This book weighs in with 224 pages (32 in color) in a 7-1/4 x 10 inch (B5) format and is a great value for the price (about $20 plus shipping).

New Classic DP Figures (GB4)

One of the things about DP that always surprises me is how one version or another has managed to sustain a devoted fandom, even when no further new projects have appeared for years. “Classic” Dirty Pair has been out of production since 1990, yet it continues to gain new fans with the passage of time, to judge from the continued posting of new fan fiction and fan art.

And then there are the three-dimensional works. A new set of Classic DP figures turns up at a conclave like Wonder Festival in Japan or commercially just about every other year. Here’s the entry for 2006: a 1/10-scale set from WAVE, in pre-painted PVC. They were released toward the end of December (a bit too late to get them for Christmas). I got my set just last week, but still haven’t had a chance to take them out of the box yet (such is my work schedule).

So, rather than give you a review just now, here are two page links, where you can look them over in galleries of photographs:

http://www.hobby-wave.com/pickup/DTP/index.html

http://www.hobby-wave.com/pickup/DTP/report/index.html — this latter page has a report on the design of the figures, including revisions made to the prototypes.