An Ode To Obscurity

A blog dedicated to the many random and/or forgotten anime and manga I find through my many online escapades.

[studioalmain]

I’m very tired.

I haven’t posted here in ages, but I just need to speak because my own tongue within my mouth fails me. I feel locked into my situation and unable to leave it. I’m nearly 30 and I still live with my family. I’ve never been asked out by anyone. I don’t find myself relating to a lot of people around me these days. I feel at once so enlightened in my thoughts and how I see the world around me, and yet suffocated the older I get.

I’m not an overly-romanticizing person, but there is something to stories like “The Last Unicorn” and other things that describe something strange yet cut-off from others like themselves, unable to return to how things were.

I feel like an endling and for all my life’s experiences, I feel like it is all going to end with me. When I fade to black, my experiences will be for naught. I feel the wetness of the rain on my skin, and I can appreciate the beautiful world around me for blessing us with that water in moderation, but fucking dammit I’m still huddled wet and shaking in my linens with no one or no thing to help me dry them with.

[studioalmain]

MODEL GRAPHIX SPECIAL - STAR FRONT GALL FORCE (1988)

Two rare sights online, I personally scanned and colored in some of Kenichi Sonoda’s lovely Gall Force art from the Model Graphix special for your delectation. :3c

First comes from the back cover sans dust cover and depicts Patty in an unused power armor not featured in the story proper.

Second is Rabby in her Struggle Suit with it’s iconic rabbit ears (hur hurrr get it it’s a punnnn) often featured in the model comic and in promo material, but alas a colorized version of the lineart is excruciatingly rare online, so I recreated it here.

Compare it to the vinyl model of Rabby they released around the same time!

[yui1107]

Fanzine “GRASS HOPPERS” : April 29 1984 , Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross  English photo archive.

The page  02 is fan-artist staff credit.

A: Mr. Hideaki Nakatsuka ( 中塚 秀昭 ) ,  his art Page 01,06,15. B: Mr. Black Cat (Mr. 黒猫) , his art Page 03,05 C: Mr. Toshiaki Yamazaki ( 山崎 敏昭 )  , his art Page 04,09,14 D: Ms. Megumi Hase ( はせ・めぐみ / 長谷めぐみ)  or another name  “Bou” ( ぼー ) , her art Page 07,11,13 E: Ms. Kasumi Haruka ( 遥 かすみ ) , her art  Page 08,10,12 The page from 17 to 26 ( the page 16  or   page 27 is “ INFORMATION ” , or the page 28 is the editor stuff credit )  , the another girls’ fan-art , I omitted scanning to the rest pages !

The original JAPANESE language Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross fanzine “GRASS HOPPERS” : April 29 1984  , the image archive URL is here .

The page from 17 to 26 ( the page 16 or  27 is “ INFORMATION ” , the page 28 is the editor stuff credit )  , the another girls’ fan-arts , I omitted scanning to the rest pages !

[yui1107]

VERITECH Hover Tank  VHT-02 A1 Spartus in battloid  to Red Bioroid  Gister'dohl (“Warlord”).

[studioalmain]

Unironically really enjoy Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, even if it is FAR from a perfect series.

[studioalmain]

Super Dimension Fortress Macross - Macross Model Hobby Handbook (1983)

Found this bad boy at a local comic and toy shop in my area. I got this for a fine little price of $14 (compared to the $60ish MacrossWorld estimates it at). There’s some great Macross expanded universe content in here (with some of the models being created by mashing together Valkyrie and Destroid kits, and a few even utilizing elements from other lines like Fang of the Sun Dougram or Combat Mecha Xabungle). The cult classic ELINT Seeker Valkyrie made famous from its cameo in Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? actually has a model kitbash precursor in this handbook (will get pics of it later).

Overall? A nice little find for $14, but unless you really want to own a physical copy, I recommend downloading a digitized copy from one of the many online sources available.

[studioalmain]

BUBBLEGUM CRISIS - Rare Promotional Cel Art (1987-1988)

These cel paintings were created to help promote the first three episodes of the 1987 OVA Bubblegum Crisis (Tinsel City Rhapsody, Born to Kill, and Blow Up). They were chiefly used for various posters and on the backs of albums, but also saw use in R. Talisorian Games’ RPG books during the mid-1990s.

While HD versions of the ep 1 art can be found easily, this version depicts the full coverage of the art including what would be cropped out ordinarily. The art for eps 2 and 3 are, however, much rarer and I could only normally find them as unscanned posters on Japanese auction sites. The “AD POLICE SUPER MECHANICS” one in particular was exceedingly difficult to find pictures of.

Hope you all enjoy this here slice of obscure, nearly lost Bubblegum Crisis art!

[studioalmain]

I am not dead, despite the universe’s best efforts.

Nor am I made of asparagus, to your dismay I’m sure.

[bantarleton]

Came across this badass in Prague Castle - totally looks like 16th. c. bomb disposal. Is it to help against firearms, or is it a jousting suit? Something else? @qsy-complains-a-lot @its-spelled-maille 

[its-spelled-maille]

@bantarleton looks like a 16th century jousting armor to us. The asymmetrical pauldrons speak to a cavalry specific armor, and the plate coming up in front of the face is characteristic of jousting armors, a (rather successful) attempt at minimizing shrapnel from getting into the oculars and blinding or killing the jouster.

The poor thing’s missing its visor too :(

-mod Armet

[studioalmain]

Isn’t this that one harness from “A Knight’s Tale”? It definitely looks like it.

[4k60]

METAL SKIN PANIC MADOX-01 (メタルスキンパニック MADOX-01) 1987 | dir. Shinji Aramaki

[studioalmain]

Check out this cute nekomimi from Kenichi Sonoda’s 1989 artbook BIJON! 

This adorable catgirl was featured on a few different products sold by ARTMIC in the late 80s.

[studioalmain]

Guess who contracted COVID???

[studioalmain]

1992 Genesis Climber Mospeada Wonder Box LD Set (Front and Back Covers)

Apologies for the low resolutions. I had to edit these from low quality online auction photographs.

[studioalmain]

1988 Bubblegum Crisis Episode 5 Moonlight Rambler Promo (Priss-only edit)

The fifth episode of the OVA series Bubblegum Crisis, Moonlight Rambler, was released to VHS on December 25th, 1988 (the perfect Christmas rental imo). A special promo ad with original cel art by Kenichi Sonoda was made to promote the upcoming OVA episode, with the actual painted cels being later reused for other promo ads including an ad on the back of one of R. Talisorian Games’ Bubblegum Crisis RPG books from the mid 1990s. I know the cels from this promo ad were later sold at some point (I’ll get pics up of that later when I have free time). This particular use of the MR ad cels came from one of Kenichi Sonoda’s late 1980s art books which featured art for Bubblegum Crisis and the 1989 OVA Riding Bean (based off Sonoda’s own manga from the time), along with original character art and art for various products released by the design company ARTMIC.

I cannot find any decent quality images of Priss in her hardsuit from that promo ad so I took the liberty of scanning my art book page and plucking her from it as it’s a very good full-body view of her first hardsuit.

[studioalmain]

Here are some other versions of the Moonlight Rambler promo!

The original Moonlight Rambler promo for Toshiba EMI! Notice how every version of the ad cels feature the five panels featuring various character separated with two at the top and three at the bottom.

Back of the Moonlight Rambler LD (can’t find a release date for this release atm)

The back of R. Talsorian Games’ 1996 RPG book for Bubblegum Crisis.

At some point, the original animation cels were sold on the Japanese auction site aucfan.com. The cels measure 254 mm x 203 mm (10 in x 7.99 in). 

[studioalmain]

Me in November 2020: *is looking up retro anime to take inspiration from for a book I’m working on* Hmmmm what was that one anime Bennet the Sage went on about in that one video? “Bubblegum Crisis”? I guess I can give that a go

Me in April 2022:

In the span of a year, I managed to buy a metric fuck ton of the books, manga, and CDs for this fucking franchise along with the very rare and expensive figures of Priss (one of which only had 250 copies made). All for an obscure old anime I literally never watched before 2020. Jesus Christ.

[studioalmain]

1992 Genesis Surviver Gaiarth - Artmic’s Forgotten Franchise

A 3-part OVA series released by ARTMIC from April 22, 1992 to April 28, 1993, Genesis Surviver Gaiarth is a sci-fi post-apocalyptic story that blends in elements of fantasy and mecha (the latter being ARTMIC’s staple).

The plot sees humanity living alongside powerful cyborgs, androids, and mechanical beasts on an Earth crippled long ago by a global war that pitted imperial and republican forces against each other. Orphaned as a young child, protagonist Ital Del Labard was raised by a robotic veteran of this war named Randis and trained in the art of sword combat. One day, their homestead is attacked and Randis is slain during the battle, forcing Ital to abandon his destroyed home and become a wanderer. During his desert travels, he encounters Zaxon, a war robot suffering from amnesia who bearing a striking resemblance to Randis,and the hot-headed junk hunter Sahari. Sahari quickly takes a liking to Ital and soon the three form an adventuring party, traveling from town to town in search of treasure and Randis’ lost memories amidst the ruins of the imperial and republican armies.

This OVA series, alongside 1994’s Genocyber OVA series, marks the end of ARTMIC’s golden age that first began with the OVA Gall Force: Eternal Story in 1986. By this time, ARTMIC’s legal and financial problems which began due to the lawsuit with Youmex over the ownership of the Bubblegum Crisis/AD Police franchise were starting to take a significant toll on the studio. After Genocyber’s conclusion, ARTMIC would decline further as they took on licensed projects to keep themselves afloat until the design studio’s dissolution in 1997, with the majority of its properties falling under the ownership of its frequent collaborator AIC. It is not known currently if Genesis Surviver Gaiarth is one of the properties acquired by AIC.

This series was also one of the earliest titles to be released in the US by the anime distribution company AnimEigo in the early 1990s. The OVA series was originally released subtitled, but later received a dub produced by Southwynde Studios/Swirl Studios, the same company which dubbed Bubblegum Crisis and 1989s’ Riding Bean OVA (even sharing a few voice actors with these anime). AnimEigo has never released a DVD or Blu-Ray for Genesis Surviver Gaiarth, and it is unlikely that they will for the foreseeable future. (Above is the cover of the screener VHS released by AnimEigo)

[classicgames-media-deactivated2]

Metroid

Famicom Disk System [Aug 6, 1986]

[nintendometro]

The Metroids ‘Metroid’ Famicom, Japanese Manual