A random search on Google led me to a Japanese twitter post with a scan of this flyer.



We already have:

Sakura Wars TV (2000) [BELT-1536] released March 16th 2001

But this one was unheard of (now added):

Invincible Robo Trider G7: Memorial Box 2 [BELT-1539] possibly released April 16th 2001

So I tried to travel back in time and they had ONE snapshot of the LD page here: https://web.archive.org/web/20001213020700/http://emotion.bandai.co.jp/ld/index.html

With more unknown releases!

Invincible Robo Trider G7: Memorial Box 1 [BELT-1538]
Infinite Ryvius: Infinity Box (1999) [BELT-1542]



That's all I could extract from this source.

Of course, we have no idea what could have been planned as BELT-1537, BELT-1540 and BELT-1541.

Julien

i believe this is a pretty late release set as well;

We have this one in the database: https://www.lddb.com/search/IMDb/3152146

That's 1999, we're talking 2001 here

Julien

Is that an Aa! Megami-sama! knock-off show? Looks like it on first glance. Interesting.

I knew about Trider G7 being on LD because I have another ad for it somewhere but I didn’t realize it was this late. Did it maybe get delayed? I’d love to have these.

Sakura Wars I’d like to see. Not for the anime, which is deeply mediocre every single time they make one, but I’d like to see the packaging. It could be very nice.

While looking around for info on this kind of thing I found something even weirder.

It’s a special box set of specially chosen episodes of old Tatsunoko Pro shows with a new cover illustration by Yoshitaka Amano. He worked there in the 70s and he’s always big so this was sort of a set to celebrate him and the old anime that at the time of this issue of Newtype’s publication (Jan 1999) were being rebooted a lot.

What’s crazy is that this weird box is VH f-ing S. No LD or DVD. This is clearly Japan being ahead of the game and seeing VHS as retro even in 1999 when Americans were still buying it first wave. I have anime mags covering about 1981 to today and VHS was very rarely mentioned and never photographed in favor of VHD or LD once they became available. The VHS (often called just ヴィデオ) is often mentioned but rarely seen in favor of the disc release after about 1984. Most anime released only in boxes had no equal on VHS or BII.

I know there is a VHS box of the Holmes Detective box, even more expensive of course, but I’ve never even seen that in a photo even when searching the reference number.

レトロ！

The item in question.

This the best I could find.



Julien

(Note to Tasuke: this topic really is about late Anime Boxset releases not in the database yet, self-made dolls are for the "Not related to LD" section.)

too bad the T.V. series sucked so much by the end. i mean, it started out so strong and all,
with Sakura being such a strong yet gentle-hearted thing and all,
but essentially turning out as yet another "Hai-Hai Girl" for our Noble Male Hero by the final climax...

That is very cool Zeta. Stuff like this is why I've been searching for a decent VHS deck for so long, now that I found one this year I'm looking forward to getting a few VHS exclusives from Japan like Macross Mecha Grafitti, already got a few tapes of idols I like not available on any other format.

if you can procure one in good, healthy operational nick,
i recommend both the MITSUBISHI HS-U80 and JVC HR-S8000U, both 1988 TOTL S-VHS models...

she does have the same cuteness as Bella

yeah I would love those but I got a good deal on a low hours Sony SLV-X810 locally this year.

I'm happy with a so far reliable and nice performing deck like this, especially since it came out very early '90s. Looks cool also.

Do S-VHS decks in general actually have better VHS playback or was this just a myth I picked up along the way?

well, TBH, the MITSUBISHI HS-U80 is a beautifully-crafted drop-dead looker, -if you're into those sorts of late-80's CE cosmetics, that is-
but it's raw video performance actually does lag behind that of the JVC HR-S8000U,
which, while also being a cosmetically handsome, well-built unit, (though not quite as all-out lovingly-crafted as the HS-U80, at least externally)
also has some of the cleanest, crispest raw video performance to be seen out of a VHS/S-VHS VCR.

in sum, if you can only own one, the HR-S8000U is THE vintage S-VHS VCR to own...

Yeah, there are a lot of very rare late release anime sets from Japan that the collectards (copyright-zeta) who will pay stupid prices for
MI:2 but won't pay for a really rare never released again set.

There are a handful of rare discs in my collection and that I've seen where the rights are in limbo or the masters were destroyed like ako but
have never seen a DVD release let alone a bluray release and the only version is on LD and it should be valuable but since its not late or you
can't pick it up at the grocery store on DVD for 2 bucks then its not valuable enough for my collection of highbrow collection of bad blockbusters.

Invincible Robo Trider G7 and Infinite Ryvius LD-box I have seen on yahoo auctions in the past.
Same for the Sakura Set. It has been a while though. A friend of mine keeps track of auction
prices, he might know final prices and when they last showed up, but then there is also aucfan.

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Trider on YAJ or someplace before too. I can’t say what it cost but it probably wasn’t more than $80 per half box or I would have remembered it. High prices in Japan on anime LDs always catch my eye since it’s so uncommon. Most are valueless. The reason why I eventually became a fan of Rascal is because it was $70+ for the LD box on a site where you could get mint Zeta Gundam boxes for $5 per half. That eventually got me curious enough to figure out what it was and now it’s one of my favorite shows.

If it was made in 2001 then there are for sure fewer copies. The interest level in the home market might be just as reduced though leaving the prices about the same (super low).

YAJ is a wonderland especially compared to eBay. Of course you need a connection or a proxy. I use Buyee because they are cheap and reliable but I recently had to try another proxy to order something from a site Buyee didn't support. Their CS has been really friendly and helpful confirming that I am getting exactly what I want (this is an item with an exclusive shop bonus from the store I am getting it from) so fingers crossed that they ship it well. There are probably loads of LD just sitting, many more probably binned by the likes of Book-off because they can't even sell them.

Real copy spotted on YAJ.

https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/j634016489



Julien