Kenji Kawai – Ghost in the Shell (201x “RCA” Bootleg)

I don’t think I need to actually talk about Kenji Kawai’s score for Ghost in the Shell at all, to be honest. If you’re even remotely interested in anime, you’ll probably have seen Ghost in the Shell and enjoyed the soundtrack. Both are, in my book, amazing, and while I’m not exactly dogmatic when it comes to GITS, I’m not here to discuss the merits (or weaknesses) of either. That’s another discussion for another time.

A vinyl bootleg of a previously CD-only soundtrack, though? Now that’s something worth looking into. Or rambling a bit about. Or both.

Geinoh Yamashirogumi – Symphonic Suite Akira (2014 “JVC Musical Industries, Inc.” Bootleg)

Anyone who’s spent even a cursory amount of time on Discogs looking through anime soundtracks on vinyl will have noticed that the 1988 vinyl release of Geinoh Yamashirogumi’s Symphonic Suite Akira goes for pretty exorbitant sums of money. The median sale price is €325 at the time of writing, and the cheapest one on Discogs is going for €450 right now. Which is pretty crazy.

I’m a big fan of Akira, and a huge fan of the Geinoh Yamashirogumi soundtrack, so when I spotted this “JVC” bootleg on Discogs back at the tail end of 2014 I decided, possibly against my better judgement, to get a copy. At under 10% of the median price on Discogs, why not?

Roots Search: Shokushin Buttai X (1986)

I’ll get it out of the way right now: the only good thing about Roots Search is the cover. Everything else is bad. Quite bad. And not exactly in an interesting sense either. It’s also worth mentioning that whatever it is that’s depicted on the cover has, as far as I can tell, nothing to do with the actual OVA.

But, hey, it’s another one of those 80s space horror OVAs, so I’ll write about it a bit. It can’t be any worse than Hell Target, can it? Uh…

Shihaisha no Tasogare (1997)

And now we skip forward a decade to talk about something I actually like: Shihaisha no Tasogare, or Twilight of the Dark Master as it’s known in English. Directed by Akiyuki Shinbo (who would go on to direct Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, which I’m not ashamed to admit is a favourite of mine) and featuring the character design talents of Hisaishi Abe (Chobits), art direction by Youichi Nangou (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure OVA from 1993 – 94) and animation work by the one and only Madhouse, Shihaisha no Tasogare is a great example of a stylish and very enjoyable B-tier anime OVA from the 90s.

I would probably go so far as to say that Shihaisha no Tasogare is one of the main reasons I persevere with all the shit B-tier (and beyond) anime I tend to watch, in the hopes of finding another under-appreciated diamond. That means I should probably also hate it, given how much absolute shit I’ve ended up watching, but hey…

Daimajuu Gekitou: Hagane no Oni (1985)

I’ll get this out of the way right now: the only reason even I watched Daimajuu Gekitou: Hagane no Oni in the first place is that there cover. I mean, look at it: how could it not, at the very least, offer up some kickass boom-era Japanese OVA aesthetics, action and craziness, right?

Sadly, it somehow manages to not offer any of that.

Hell Target (1987)

Hell Target is one of those OVAs that only seems to exist online as a rip from a badly degraded VHS (or maybe even a second-generation dubbed copy), which should really tell you everything you need to know about its quality. But I’ll try anyway, because… I dunno, it’s one of those seemingly rare forays into space horror anime from the 80s, and is thus worth a bit of time. Or because I’m strange. Or both.