Ask John: What’s the Rarest American Anime DVD?

Question:
What is the rarest anime DVD? I think Angel Cop is. What do you think?

Answer:
From a collector’s perspective, it’s fun to catalog some of America’s rarest anime DVDs. It’s also a bit surprising to discover that many of America’s rarest anime DVDs are also among the least valuable. Many of America’s now scarce anime DVDs are rare specifically because few people wanted them when the discs were new, and few people want the discs now. So many of America’s rarest anime DVDs can still be acquired very inexpensively. For example, Vampire Princess Miyu TV series DVDs have been out of print for years, yet collectors can still acquire them today for about $5 each. Rare American anime DVDs fall into a couple different categories. Screener, review copy, sample, and advertising DVDs are typically rare because they’re only distributed to retailers and reviewers, or they’re widely disregarded and discarded like junk mail. Given the non-retail nature of these type of discs, I’ll exclude them from consideration. Numerous American anime DVDs are now rare by virtue of their age. Other domestic anime releases are rare because of poor or limited distribution.

America’s first anime DVD, Battle Arena Toshinden, was released 13 years ago. Since then, many domestic releases have come and gone. Releases including, but not limited to Bandai’s Eatman, Don’t Leave Me Alone Daisy, and Haunted Junction, Pioneer’s Kishin Corps, Catnapped, and Green Legend Ran, Tokyopop’s Spring & Chaos and Vampire Princess Miyu TV series, Geneon’s Sherlock Hound, Image Entertainment’s Hyper Police, Urban Vision’s Strange Dawn, AD Vision’s City Hunter TV series sets, AnimEigo’s Spirt of Wonder, Baoh, Crusher Joe, and Orange Road, Pathfinder’s Tristia of the Deep Blue Sea, Viz’s Boys Over Flowers and Corrector Yui releases, Manga Entertainment’s Angel Cop, Bounty Dog, Landlock, and Dangaioh, and most of Central Park Media’s catalog are all releases which were once common but are now scarce just because they’ve been out of print for so long. There are certainly numerous other domestic releases that are likewise now uncommon although years ago they enjoyed normal circulation and availability.

Perhaps more interesting, although not necessarily more collectible or desirable, are domestic releases which are now scarce because they’ve never been especially common. This realm of DVDs consists of releases that had limited availability – because they were exclusives, they suffered from poor distribution, or they were only available for a relatively short time. I’m sure that I’m not aware of all of the discs that fall into this category, but I can identify a number of them, in no particular order.

Hirameki didn’t fare too well in its efforts to produce and distribute domestic anime DVDs, so the American Idol Fight Suchi-Pai and Soar High Isami volumes 1-3 are rather scarce. Toei’s efforts to release DVDs directly into the American market didn’t succeed. So the domestic Air Master DVDs are uncommon, and Toei’s Interlude and Slam Dunk volumes 1-4 are slightly more obscure. Illumitoon was similarly ill fated in America, so the existing domestic DVD volumes of B’tX, Beet the Vandel Buster, and Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo are little seen. Bandai Visual’s Honneamise line of domestic DVD also fared poorly, with the domestic DVD release of the SOS! Tokyo Metro Explorers: The Next movie being the most obscure of its releases. The fact that the film itself wasn’t well known wasn’t helped by its 40 minute length and $55 retail price. Image Entertainment’s Hermes: Winds of Love movie release never got much promotion or recognition in America, so its DVD release blew away into obscurity rather quickly. Tokyopop released the Psychic Academy Aura Bansho anime series on two subtitled DVDs in 2005. Each DVD volume was bundled with a volume of the manga and both releases seemed to go out of print almost as soon as they hit store shelves. Central Park Media released the Time Bokan OVA series DVD in 2005, just before the distributor went dormant. The license was poorly considered. The domestic release bombed. Few American collectors know that it exists and even fewer want it. CPM also released the more respected CG anime short film Negadon: The Monster From Mars as one of its final DVD releases. Simply because CPM ceased distributing DVDs shortly after the release of Negadon, the domestic DVD has become rather rare. It’s not the only rare domestic CG anime release, though. Seemingly few American fans realize that FUNimation released the Garakuta: Mr. Stain on Junk Alley DVD in America in 2006. It quickly went out of print. FUNimation also initially released the Itsudatte My Santa DVD in December 2007. The 2007 release was actually recalled before its official street date because the DVD cover had a “TV-PG” rating that was supposed to be “TV-MA.” Original, first edition copies with the misprinted cover are fairly rare, but second edition copies with a corrected cover are in print and widely, inexpensively available today.

AD Vision had a few similar releases. Certain ADV produced single DVDs including Pumpkin Scissors volume 6, Red Garden volume 6, Kanon volumes 5 & 6, and Welcome to the NHK volume 6 were produced and released in limited quantities, but there’s little demand for these discs now because they’ve all been re-issued by FUNimation. ADV’s release of the Five Centimeters Per Second movie on domestic DVD, if I recall correctly, went out of print later the same year it was released. While the film did get a new English dub and a digital re-release, its American availability on DVD remains quite limited. However, even more rare is ADV’s storied 2006 release of the Prefectural Earth Defense Force DVD. ADV solicited the release to retailers, then announced that it would be available for purchase exclusively online from ADV, then reversed that decision, releasing it to limited American circulation. Prefectural Earth Defense Force may be ADV’s rarest DVD release, but it’s not an expensive collectible, unlike ADV’s Aura Battler Dunbine DVD volumes 11 & 12. Dunbine was a commercial failure for ADV to such an extent that the distributor literally gave away free Dunbine DVDs to consumers that purchased Dunbine DVDs. Since demand for the series was so small, very few copies of the series’ final two volumes were printed. As a result, they’re both now quite expensive collector’s items.

Finally, we come to what may be the rarest of all American anime DVDs. Gutsoon! Entertainment launched the English language manga magazine Raijin Comics in 2002. Charter annual subscribers to the publication had the opportunity to opt to receive a preview DVD of the Fist of the Blue Sky anime series (which didn’t debut until 2006, long after Raijin had ceased publishing). Two years after Raijin Comics launched, select charter subscribers received a sample DVD containing the first episode of the Shin Hokuto no Ken OVA series (ironically, just after AD Vision announced its domestic license to the series). The Raijin Comics’ New Fist of the North Star DVD has hardsubbed, watermarked video and comes on a DVDR housed in a simple illustrated keepcase. This DVD is an officially licensed American release, although its status as a commercial release is debatable. (As a collector, I remain bitterly disappointed that I never received my copy due to a change of address mix-up.)

During the 2003 Anime Expo convention, Fanboy Entertainment sold copies of Tetsuya Aoki’s original English language manga series Angel’s Wing. Consumers at the convention that purchased the Angel’s Wing comics were given a bonus DVD containing the five minute long English subtitled “Prichi Mari -Angel’s Wing-” anime OAV. Like Raijin’s New Fist of the North Star disc, the Angel’s Wing DVD is a legitimately authorized American commercial release. The DVD itself is labeled “Not For Sale,” but consumers did have to make a purchase to receive it. The Angel’s Wing OVA might be the rarest of all American anime DVDs, although I’m sure it’s not the most desirable nor the most valuable.