Hi everyone!

We all know (and remember fondly) the Evangelion Movie monster boxset: Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Movie: Limited Box (1997) [KILA 9401~4]

You can clearly see a barcode/UPC in the round obi on the front side.

Now comes this entry that required me to ask the author to submit pictures for confirmation: Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Movie: Limited Box (1997) [KFOLA-157]

There are several weird things about this entry:

• I never encountered a KFOLA- reference before, even after years in Japan
• Nobody ever entered another similar entry
• There is no UPC (unusual in Japan unless it's a very old release, or a promotional disc)
• There is an ISBN (also very unusual in Japan for LDs!)
  
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Googling around found a few more examples, but really not many:

• KFOLA-55 http://www.suruga-ya.jp/product/detail/122004015001
• KFOLA-184 http://www.disclegend.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=244427
  
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Price is in JPY so they would have been sold in a location under Japanese economic coverage.
Could it be a special reference scheme for US military bases in Japan?
Any idea?

Julien

Yeah, maybe it's for some kind of export. Maybe for shops like Books Nippon/Kinokuniya that are sometimes the only place to officially obtain certain items outside of Japan. I never actually saw an LD in one of those places, but they did at least still carry a lot of CDs back when this set came out.

My guess, and it's just this, is that it's a special package for a particular retailer, such as a bookshop or record store. I don't know about KFOLA (although I wonder if one of the numerous different catalog numbers for the Urusei Yatsura TV set might be one of these), but I have encountered some similar items, with variant catalogue numbers but otherwise virtually identical to the "standard" release. My copy of Black Jack OVA 4 is like this : FMLY catalogue number whereas all the others are Denon COLC. The obi is different, & the price is higher by Y1000, but that's it.

Black Jack has been released by several publishers over the years, as well as many other titles. For example I could mention "Mahjong Hishouden Naki no Ryuu" which was released as TYLY-1053, and as TVLA-5010 with almost identical front cover, but completely different backside. Still have to find Black Jack Karte 7 and 8 one day but that is off topic...

I think the KFOLA-xxx thing must be something different: and I suspect as Publius does that it is a release for a particular retailer, such as a bookshop for example. But I have never encountered a KFOLA disc before.

Yesterday I stumbled over another KFOLA reference while inspecting my Tenchi Muyo PILA-7074 box.
On the backside of the obi, there is a KADOKAWA Video logo, and below that one there is this reference:
KFOLA-122 -- Just taking a wild guess here... could KF stand for Kadokawa Film?

I know at least that the first set of Evangelion DVDs released in the late 90s had two pressings. One was through regular outlets by King Records and another sold directly from Gainax / Star Child. http://svenge.pcriot.com/evasite/jpolddvd/JPOLDDVD.htm