DNA Sights 999.9 - mystery Leijiverse missing from listing?

[Njr Scrawl]

What is this title like? Where is it in the AoD review list? N/t under DNA.

ANN lists an English cast, so it must be R1! But no synopsis is given on their page [img]/images/graemlins/stunned1.gif[/img]

Its got Tetsurou, Harlock but no Maetel [img]/images/graemlins/depresse.gif[/img]! Megumi Ogata (Tetsurou) & Megumi Hayashibara are among the seiyuus.

[crion]

I believe DNA Sights 999.9 was released on VHS by Urban Vision sometime in the middle ages. UV never released it on DVD (do they even have a license still?).

[littleharlock]

I love it. It may not be as decent as other Madhouse Matsumoto anime projects (i.e. The Cockpit) but it's quite good on its own. The OVA adaption of Kasei Ryodan DNA Sights 999.9 however is *quite* different (I'd say the biggest similarity these two versions share are basic plot outline and characters at best). I may be biased due to my Matsumoto/Studio Madhouse/Masayuki Kojima (director) obsession, but I found that Kojima did pretty well in telling a story within those 50min. of running time. The manga itself isn't that long, Leiji Matsumoto only released 14 chapters of the manga years back in Shônen Ou mangabon (with only 10 released collected as Tankôbon -.-) and didn't continue on the series ever since than (ironically he once stated in an interview regarding this work that he somewhat consideres DNA Sights to be the quintessence of his works ^_~).
My biggest gripe with Kasei Ryodan DNA Sights 999.9 is that it storywise ends when you (or at least I) expected the story to fully start at last. Animationwise it's decent Cel based animation and what I found pretty surprising is, that the few CG sequences included (handled by Satelight btw.) were "fitting" (meaning that they don't look out of the place like other anime around that time (1998) had included (CG animated Queen Emeraldas anyone? ^_~). The character designs by Marisuke Eguchi are among my alltime favorite adaptions of Matsumoto's original ones. Without exaggerating some scenes look (i.e. Rei's introduction) like Matsumoto himself did the designs for the adaption.
Kasei Ryodan DNA Sights 999.9 however doesn't share much love among fans. I guess people that haven't read the manga found it to be "Matsumoto repeating himself" with the main characters (though with names like Tetsurô Daiba and Rei Yûki you can't blame anyone for thinking "man this guy should come up wit at least *some* new names after all these years" [img]/images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif[/img]) and the guest-appearances of famous Leijiverse characters didn't appeal to a lot of fans either (however in this case you simply have to note that this OVA has been advertised even before it's been released that it'll going to feature a guest appearance of <span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'>Captain Herlock and the Arcadia as well as the Yamato</span>...so it's not like this was unexpected/dull but more "promotion tricks gone bad"). Personally I didn't mind the appearance of <span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'>Herlock</span>, in fact I found it rather enjoyable (and given how often he appears in stories by Matsumoto ever since he started the Eternal arc of Ginga Tetsudô 999 it wasn't that unfitting either)...but the one I just found plain stupid was <span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'>the Yamato quickly floating over the screen during the ending moments of the OVA -.-</span>. Furthermore you can't blame the anime staff for including those guest appearances...heck just look at the manga (<span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'>which even had Tochirô having an extended appearance</span>).
The story on its own is nothing outstanding, but director Kojima did a solid job in adapting the right "atmosphere" of Matsumoto works. With this atmosphere and the enjoyable adventureous story, the element that made this to me such a good anime project in the end were the Seiyuu performances. Megumi Ogata as Tetsurô Daiba (note: this is *not* Tetsurô Hoshino from Ginga Tetsudô 999 ^_~) who btw. also performed the OVA's ending song "RA-SE-N", Yuko Minaguchi as mysterious beatuy Mellow, Rika Matsumoto as Dr. Shimonaka's sexy helper Moriki (heck Moriki's love for Sake comes close to the classic Sake/Wine obsession of good old Mîme from Uchû Kaizoku Captain Herlock *though Mîme still stands out for her glowing whenever she drank a gulp too much ^_~*), Mami Koyama as Photon (you've got to love Koyama voicing the *evil* characters)...oh and you simply have to love Megumi Hayashibara as cat fellow Mî(kun).
Even Masako Ikeda (THE voice of Maetel) does have a small part as narrator at the opening of the OVA. Furthermore the jp. DVD release of Kasei Ryodan DNA Sights 999.9 includes a special track for blind people that features Masako Ikeda narrating all the events happening during the OVA.

If you're a fan of Matsumoto, I'd say go for it (the jp DVD is a decent release, including the aforementioned blind track, jp subtitles, making-off feature starting at the early production stages, seiyuu recording up until the first public presentation of the OVA and firstpress came with a clip of the film reel *I got a shot from a Tetsurô scene ^_^*)

so far
yours
littleharlock

[ObiKenobi]

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Wrath of the Njr said:
What is this title like? Where is it in the AoD review list? N/t under DNA.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not on the list. It was one of the properties that UV didn't release to DVD.

[Mr. Nail Bat]

[ QUOTE ]
ObiKenobi said:
[ QUOTE ]
Wrath of the Njr said:
What is this title like? Where is it in the AoD review list? N/t under DNA.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not on the list. It was one of the properties that UV didn't release to DVD.

[/ QUOTE ]

And if I recall correctly, that was one where they were trying to get people to buy the VHS in order for them to be convinced that they should put the title out on DVD.

...

[Hunter Sopko]

Well... they did a hell of a good job distributing it. I saw it once. Luckily, I picked it up them, but it wasn't nearly as widely released as other Urban Vision VHS in those days.

Oh well. Chalk that up to the establishment of the "Matsumoto Never Sells. Period." clause of anime distribution.