Ask John: Where Have the SD Omake Gone?

Question:
What ever happened to CD (comically deformed or chibi deformed) or SD (super deformed) and omake extras? I don’t see them as extras on U.S. release DVDs anymore. Are they out of favor in Japan? I still fondly remember them from Ushio & Tora, Infinite Ryvius, and Blue Seed.

Answer:
Actually “SD” has never been all that common in Japanese animation. It’s always been more common in illustrations than actual animation, despite the existence of anime including SD Gundam, Ten Little Gall Force, and CB Go Nagai World. There haven’t been a lot of SD omake animation sequences included on recent American anime DVDs because there haven’t been a lot of these type of sequences made and released in Japan lately. The DVD release of the 2004 Maria-sama ga Miteru TV series included short super deformed omake anime parodies, but “MariMite” hasn’t been licensed for American release. The forthcoming Fullmetal Alchemist Premium Collection DVD will include an SD segment, but the Premium Collection animation hasn’t been licensed for American release yet, either. I’ve never heard the acronym “CD” before, but I suspect that it may refer to short parody “extra” animation sequences like the Shakugan no Shana-tan short included with the Japanese Shakugan no Shana DVD release. I anticipate the Shakugan no Shana-tan anime parody to be included on the eventual American DVD release from Geneon.

For reference, Japan’s anime community uses the abbreviation “SD” to refer to “super deformed,” squashed parodies of characters or mecha. The 1991 CB Chara Go Nagai World OAV series used the abbreviation “CB” as a shortened form of “chibi.” I presume that the abbreviation “CD” is an American invention, particularly because native Japanese speakers probably wouldn’t use the redundant phrase “chibi deformed.”

Most of the time, omake (“extra”) animation sequences available on Japanese DVDs are also included in the American DVD release. For example, the American Ghost in the Shell television series DVDs do include the bonus tachikoma shorts. If there seem to be fewer omake segments included on contemporary DVDs, there are probably just fewer of these omake segments being made and released in Japan, possibly because there’s already so much anime being made these days.