Genres: action, science fiction Themes: cyberpunk, mecha, police, power suits, real robot Objectionable content: Intense Plot Summary: In the near future, Tokyo was left flattened as a result from a great earthquake. A new city, MegaTokyo, was then recreated due in no small part from the aid of a multi-million dollar company, Genom Corp. Genom created and mass-produced biomechanical creatures called Boomers to aid in the restoration of MegaTokyo. When the Boomers began to run out of control, the ADPolice at first tried to stop them, but they proved to be far more difficult to deal with than was first imagined. Under the ever looming Boomer threat, a group of four girls from varying degrees of society banded together. Calling themselves The Knight Sabers, they were the only ones with enough firepower and resourcefullness to defend the fledgling MegaTokyo from Genom and its berserk Boomers. Number of episodes: 8 Vintage: 1987-02-25 to 1991-11-30
Genres: action, science fiction Themes: cyberpunk, mecha Objectionable content: Significant Plot Summary: After a mysterious earthquake levels Tokyo, Genom becomes a powerful influence providing their artificial organic life forms called Boomers to rebuild and act as a labor class to humanity. However, some of them occasionally run amok, and even the specially created AD Police are at a loss to stop them. Lina Yamazaki travels to Tokyo for employment but also hopes to join a vigilante force called the Knight Sabers, who pilot powered suits to destroy these rogue Boomers. Number of episodes: 26 Vintage: 1998-10-08 to 1999-03-31
Each episode was named after an album or song by a rock/punk band. Many songs were also the title tracks of their respective albums and thus shared the same name as the album. The songs were never played in the episodes themselves.
Can’t Buy a Thrill (album by Steely Dan)
Fragile (album by Yes and the name of a song by Sting, an album by the South African band Seether, and an album by Dead or Alive)
Keep Me Hanging On (song by The Supremes from the album The Supremes Sing Motown; covered by Vanilla Fudge and Kim Wilde, among others)
Machine Head (album by Deep Purple, also the name of a thrash metal band and a song by the band Bush)
Rough and Ready (album by Jeff Beck)
Get It On (song by T. Rex; covered by Power Station, various bands have also released songs with the same title)
Look at Yourself (album by Uriah Heep, also the title track of the same album)
Fire Ball (album by Deep Purple, also the title track of the same album)
My Nation Underground (album by Julian Cope)
Woke up with a Monster (album by Cheap Trick, also the title track of the same album)
Sheer Heart Attack (album by Queen, also the name of a song from the Queen album News of the World)
Made In Japan (album by Deep Purple)
Atom Heart Mother (album by Pink Floyd; also the title track of the same album, a six-part suite)
Shock Treatment (song by The Ramones from the album It’s Alive)
Minute by Minute (album by The Doobie Brothers, also the title track of the same album)
I Surrender (song by Cheap Trick from the album Heaven Tonight)
Moving Waves (album by Focus, also the title track of the same album)
We Built This City (song by Jefferson Starship from the album Knee Deep in the Hoopla)
Are You Experienced? (album by Jimi Hendrix, also the title trackof the same album)
One of These Nights (album by The Eagles, also the title track of the same album)
Close to the Edge (album by Yes, also the title track of the same album)
Physical Graffiti (album by Led Zeppelin)
Hydra (album by Toto, also the title track of the same album and the name of a southern rock band)
Light My Fire (song by The Doors from the album The Doors)
Walking on the Moon (song by The Police, from the album Reggatta de Blanc)
This is a great series that I recommend to anyone who likes Science Fiction, or Cyber-punk series or fans of ADV dubs or collectors.
In some ways it’s a big departure from the OVA series (both of which I love for different reasons). I remember recommending this series strongly to PP before and I’m glad he really enjoyed this when he got it. It really is a series worthy of the hype and praise it has been given by critics.
I adore the music in the series too, even though it doesn’t have the awesome 80s style music of the OVA.
For dub fans this is a must see… Direction is by Matt Greenfield and it’s really great. BGC 2040 in many ways is the title that launched the careers of Christine Auten, Hilary Haag, Kelly Manison, Jason Douglas and Chris Patton. I consider this one of the most collectible ones as far as the early ADV dubs go, for historic reasons.
I wonder if Funi improved the video encode of these DVDs. Video that is both-letter-and-pillarboxed is a cardinal crime of video work and interlaced video needs to go.
ADV’s DVDs were a product of the times, and they aren’t video wizards even today, but Funi, who really should know better, has pumped out some shoddily made DVD video releases in rather recent times (eg: Initial D, Vandread - Anime Classics, DragonBall Z: Rock the Dragon).
I still can’t believe that Funi is still too stingy to get even a subset of the wealth of ADV extras for this title and include them on their rerelease. No point to buy something inferior to the still-available ADV edition.
Animeigo and Kickstarter seem like a good combo to me. Pretty much what Animeigo used to do anyway. I will give some money if I don’t forget like other times.
Is this ever going to “go live”? I’ve heard it talked about for weeks now but nothing has come of it (besides reworkings of the reward tiers). I’d toss some money at this.
I’m still thinking that one of those reward tiers should be to get another dub on this; if they had a Seraphim Digital dub price point I’d do my part to get it over that magic number. I also wouldn’t mind if they fixed some of the shortcuts in the animation.
If you read the 1st post,it goes live @ 8pm EST tonight. If you pledge at a crowdfunding tier you get to help decide what to do with the extra budget. Just a note that if a new dub is done, it will delay the release.
I read the first post. After all the delays I won’t believe that it will go live until it has gone live. Kinda like how I don’t believe a Funimation release date until the DVD/BD combopak is in my mailbox.
It’s been decades since the original release and the better part of a decade since the debut of the newest DVD release. I can wait longer for a dub that doesn’t suck.
I did notice that this final revision does away with all the “With X funds raised we will do Y” tiers. Kinda disappointed as I liked definite goals rather than the rather wishy-washy “we’ll take your suggestions” substitute. But anything is better than nothing, I hope.
Hmmm. All these “pay to have your name thrown in the face of everyone who buys this” options seem rather obnoxious. I don’t know how they can show somone’s name while the bluray loads (or what they mean by “loads”) but it doesn’t sound all that great to me.
Still cool that I can get this for less than the price of the average anime BD though. 40 bucks minimum to buy in? Easy.
It’s somewhat like Nozomi/Rightstuf with Supergals S2 and Emma . If you pre-ordered in a certain time you got your name in a thank you section. Basically the names are there to thank those that made it possible to release. Wow already over 37,000.
The Kickstarter says that those who donate more will have their names listed in a special zone “when the disc loads”. Not sure what that means; other paid supporters get their name listed in a special “credits”-like section of the disc.
Also, the top tier donator (which was only 1,000 USD…!!) gets his name printed on the external packaging of EVERY copy made. Kinda kills the “custom, bespoke edition” feel when it has some other dude’s name slapped on it (even if it were my name I’d still not be really OK with it). Sigh.
I’ve seen some buzz about a new dub. Fingers crossed that it happens. I’d prefer Seraphim, obviously, but in contrast to the original dub I think that even Bang/Zoom (albeit not Studiopolis) might be capable of delivering an improved dub. I guess the original dub was alright for its time but…
Cool, they’re adding an option to get posters tomorrow (10/28). Sadly <200 of them are around but I think that sounds like a good reason to snag another copy.
I had to give up my current tier to get a poster (instead of, say, having an option to just buy the poster as an add-on). Oh well, more $ to the cause.
