More defunct Japanese media! : LaserDisc!

So, as this blog may not always be about retro gaming, I guess now is a good time to tell you how I got an instant collection of old school Japanese animation laserdiscs at some pretty amazing prices.

Some history, LaserDisc as you may or may not know is prety much the video equivalent of a 12" record, but looks more like a massive CD.

LD first came about in 1978, the video quality being superior to Betamax video tapes, featuring a consistently high quality image, and later also included AC3 digital audio.

It kind of took off for movie nerds in the US, but had its heyday in Japan.

Even now, the only official untouched widescreen cuts of the STAR WARS trilogy are still only available on LD and are used even now for the "despecialized" fan edits you may have come across online.





















I have always enjoyed the 1980's era of anime, big budgets, hand painted cel animation, much more depth of shading that what is seen nowadays, and the Sci-Fi and horror genres were well explored.

"Bubble Gum Crisis" A cyberpunk mecha anime with some gloriously cheesy eighties rock was one of my favourites.

.As was "Vampire Miyu" - A quietly spooky and low key 3 part series about an introverted vampire girl seeking to return escapee demons back to whence they came.

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Due to the "Bubble" era of Japan where disposable income meant studios could produce a plethora of stories, which didn't involve the modern projection fantasy of clueless dork teenager in a house of squeaking pre-teen subservient cliches, all vying for his affections despite the protagonist basically doing absolutely nothing to earn them! The level of shading and attention to detail and had a gloriously "spiky" look to everything big metallic and stompy, such as the sci fi robot series DANGAIO.

Of course, this was before the dark times.. before the "Moe-Kei", the all prevalent modern anime genre, deemed by a lot of my older ex-anime industry and game developer co-worker friends as "the easy way" - why bother with story and character development when you just need to draw a pre-teen in a maid outfit to make money???

Anyhoos, Paedoshit moe kei aside...

One evening watching the somewhat obscure 1980's anime "Prefectural Earth Defence Force" as a badly ripped low resolution MKV file, I began to recall my old collection of anime VHS tapes and Laser Discs I had amassed during my post college days when I first got a job.. "As I don{t really need subtitles anymore, I wonder how much LD's and players are nowadays" I pondered.

A quick search online revealed that they are cheap!

Very cheap!

Yahoo Auctions revealed a standard player cost around 1000Y for something like this DENON player..

..And a close to the top of the line player, like the somewhat monstrous Pioneer S9 at around 10,000 - 20,000 if you got lucky..These still sell at hardcore audiophile shops in Japan for around 79,000Y

The discs themselves on Yahoo were about 900Y each..My interest was piqued!

After a little more research I came across a used book, DVD and Laserdisc outlet with disc prices ranging from 50Y for a single disc and up to 2800Y for box sets! Plus free shipping should you buy 5 or more!

As Christmas was approaching, I decided that I would get myself a little Christmas treat in the shape of a player and an instant collection of all my old 1980's favorites.

Considering the source material of a lot of the old stuff probably wasn't remastered for DVD, or even re-issued, not to mention HD sources for Blu-rays, it seemed quite viable for my retro sensibilities.

Not to mention, the wealth of material that came in box sets, such as art books, making of documentaries, cels, posters and of course nice big cover artwork, getting a player and a set of discs probably wouldn't even cover the price of a single blu-ray disc in Japan..

The Japanese "Wings of Honneamise" Box set, containing art book, and bonus audio laserdisk with unreleased tracks of the unique Ryuichi Sakamoto (Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence) composed soundtrack.

Nice bonuses aside, let's say for example, the Gainax produced Sci-Fi straight to video series classic (Known in Japan as a OVA - Original Video Animation) GUNBUSTER box set on Blu Ray will set you back 9500 yen、or 4000 on DVD

The GUNBUSTER "Welcome home" LD box will cost you..220 yen!

With this in mind, I have to say, I Kind of went a bit silly.. On searching through the dirt cheap lists at Suruga-ya, I also came across hefty amount of Japanese music video LDs by Japanese Synthesizer-pop band YMO, who I have been a fan of since about 14 years old.. Live shows, TV clips, solo member shows..ADD TO CART!!  ADD TO CART!!  ADD TO CART!!

On finally confirming my order I realised I should have maybe tested the water on one disc to start off with. After all I hadn't even bought a damn player yet!!

And then a few realizations hit me.

• Disc rot. Metal layer oxidization.

As these things are so old, the inner metal layer can be decayed. On further research it seemed the majority of titles prone were mostly USA made movies.

• To good to be true?

What condition would these discs be in?? scratched up? mangled covers?

Well, I had committed at this point, so I started a search for a good player on Yahoo Auctions.

• Picture quality on a plasma TV?

The holy grail of Japanese players is still expensive, as the format was dominant in Japan only I guess a lot of hardcore collectors wanted to keep them, and play them on the best gear possible.

The best players out there, being the "Elite" range made by pioneer, such as the HLD-X0 still gets prices in the 100,000 yen mark, so the S9, the most affordable top of the line player was probably the best bet for my TV.

The discs arrived after 3 days in a HUGE box.

All my worries were instantly put to rest..The sleeves were in mint condition in additional protective plastic sleeves and the discs were pristine, some looked brand new. I salute you Japanese collectors and your obsessive ways!

 nd no rot!

So, after paying a little over the odds for a player, when I could have settled for a lesser model, I now have a top of the line player, and an instant collection of all my faves from my teenage years -  61 discs, and 4 box sets, all in pristine condition for about 250 bucks.

The picture quality from the S9 is fantastic, and doesn't look far different from DVD, truth be told.

Sugura-ya also have an alert service, so any other stuff I am yet to find will eventually be gotten within days of them getting it back in stock, they also ship overseas.

Back to games next time!