My Hunt For A Nearly Lost 90s Anime

[@stnank]

Somewhere in Japan, there is a Hazel doppelganger working just as tirelessly in the hopes of archiving an extremely obscure Newgrounds flash animation

[@indigowendigo8165]

Ah, Flash... :p For games, I've always really liked these Mystery/Horror stuff like Detective Grimoire, The Dead Case, Crimson/Viridian Room, etc... :p There's also Fear Less, Memo Huntress, Phoenotopia, and so on. :? Some platformers like Tower of God... Some newer stuff that people might know are also Deep Sleep and Don't Escape. :p As for animation, well... I mainly watched a lot of weird comedies like The Decline of Video Gaming and LegendaryFrog stuff like Ark & Kerrigan, though there was also this awesome series called Xombie. :p And... it's not flash, but there's Knox Klaymation. ^^; Other than that, well... there was an old, weird, but interesting AMV based on Elfen Lied's Lillium of the same name, a flash called Lilium that I think was about some goth girl and some "deal with the devil", some kind of demon and stuff... :p That might count as obscure nowadays but I think it's otherwise one of the top viewed/rated animations on Newgrounds, but yeah. :?

[@indigowendigo8165]

Phew... I thought this comment wasn't going to post, it kept saying it didn't, ugh. >_< Glad it submitted, I spent a long time on that...

[@mayayamato7351]

one day, their paths are destined to meet

[@mityfresh8875]

lol kind of funny I tend to archive a lot of japanese flash animation onto the internet archive myself.

[@treehann]

I would LOVE to see a video like this but for an obscure lost flash animation I actually have a specific one I've tried to find for years but never could. It unfortunately had the unsearchable title of something like, "Sonic vs Mario". The only distinctive thing about it was that it had story segments for some reason in the Ganbare Goemon world. I don't think I'll ever find it though and I've resigned myself to accept that.

[@KnaveMurdok]

About ten years ago, I worked with a friend who owned this very small, very local anime mail order business. He was trying to be Netflix for anime, basically, but the whole thing folded when Crunchyroll came out, he could not compete. He had this MASSIVE storage locker full of DVDs he had bought over the past 25 or so years, and he tasked me with helping him clear it all out and sell it. Sadly, only about 40% of it was even in saleable condition, discs scratched to hell from over a quarter of a century of use and abuse, guh! I threw away about 20 copies of Arisa Good Luck that wouldn't have been fit to sell as drink coasters. I'm so mad at myself, knowing I threw away some of the last known copies XD Oh well, can't all be zingers!

[@AGale-eg7kl]

Such a small world.

[@bokuboke482]

Ultimately, Arisa's OVA title was a total jinx!

[@atomicskull6405]

Made worse by the fact that disks can be resurfaced.

[@KnaveMurdok]

@@atomicskull6405 oh no buddy, you don't know. Like some of these discs were almost snapped in half, or were missing chunks. Some looked like they'd been run over by a car. I worked for this little company for awhile and we resurfaced plenty of discs. I know when one's beyond hope.

[@Asterra2]

@@KnaveMurdok Fortunately it's just data and the ISO is of course now available, so rest easy. This reminds me of a similar scenario I found myself in, quite a while back. I had bought DVDs of a storm enthusiast series called "Tornado Video Classics". They were fairly miserable transfers of what I assumed to be D2 master tapes. Unfortunately, the DVDR media used was also miserable, as all three discs had issues making it impossible to recover every VOB. So I requested replacement DVDs and, after quite a bit of back and forth, finally got them. They were *also* corrupted in more or less the same way. Fortunately, however, in each disc's case, it was a different VOB that was non-recoverable. So I was able to piece together non-corrupt iterations of all three discs from the available data. As far as I know, I may be the only person on the planet who has the data from those DVDs in a fully intact state.

[@Sleepvertical]

Hazel teaching us to use search engines better than college librarians. (Reinstating my comment and rewatching!)

[@Guruc13]

Ahahah I was having deja vu at first!

[@witch2019]

Gotta like the dedication

[@Sleepvertical]

@@witch2019 gotta pay respect to good creators!

[@Dyundu]

Hear hear!

[@danksprite4557]

what was the site that she used?

[@bigzonks4393]

There’s a real “overly long, unprompted rant from your friend showing up in your messages out of nowhere” vibe to this video. I’m unclear on why this happened, I don’t know what to take away from it, and I enjoyed every moment of it.

[@SonicSanctuary]

bro thats just like hazel all the time

[@mayayamato7351]

the definition of hazelcore

[@RabbitEarsCh]

I sent this exact type of rant to my friend earlier this year because I found footage of what I *believe* is a Meiko Nakahara tribute band performing in 1984 and I went on an unhinged hunt trying to find any more information. This is just what happens when you Crave Information. ....and this is wonderfully done because it expresses that spirit perfectly. I love it.

[@heiner5945]

@@RabbitEarsCh You're a good friend! its always more enjoyable talking to people who are passionate about their interests than to someone who's always meh about everything

[@BloomBlanche]

I'd be that friend lmao

[@NineHundredDollarydoos]

This anime gives off a really specific vibe. It's like when you were a kid and woke up in the middle of the night, so you sneak into the living room and just flip on a random channel on really low volume and find some show that you've never even heard of before or since.

[@kokepasu4583]

Hazel, you might be interested in a mangaka named Matsuzaki Akemi. She has tons of queer 1970s manga that have not been archived anywhere online, and many of them have been lost. It's pretty upsetting to me, because queer history is so important! I want to know more about what she brought to the table, but sadly there isn't much information online.

[@rebeccalambert7240]

Do you have any good links for this? I’d be interested!

[@goldenbunnies4143]

this is wild

[@lulu5541]

What website you on tho?

[@azure-mist]

Yes, I’d also like to see some good links for this if anyone has them!

[@immkk1125]

@@azure-mist i replied with a link. still haven’t found any manga tho

[@itsJoshV]

"you should be afraid of... what I don't talk about!" hazel, we are literally here to hear you talk. Shower us with your tangents.

[@Toranagi]

when do we get 'hazel: after hours' where she talks about all that stuff

[@CarelessFoolFallsFlat]

It's unfortunate the first version of this video wasn't to your satisfaction, but I appreciate the diligence that went into both. That statement about how even mediocre art is just as much the product of blood, sweat, and tears as a masterpiece and worthy of preservation really struck a chord with me.

[@juliaap130]

I know it's been 2 years and you probably won't see this comment but this video genuinely changed my life for the better and made me dive deep into the artist behind this anime (ryo ramiya) and literally was the beginning of my weird art hobby ❤I'm so thankful I came across this a while ago

[@jasuko]

The baked‐in frame blending is a result of the telecine process. The animation _was_ produced at 24 frames per second. But home video formats of the era adhered to the (in the case of Japan) NTSC standard of ∼60 fields per second, so a conversion was required. The artifact seen at 49:21 is caused by the mixing of fields from two different source frames. It would be unnoticeable on a CRT TV, as it scans each field separately, but becomes evident when viewing the whole frame on a progressive‐scan display.

[@atomicskull6405]

DVDs can be recorded at 24fps and the player would then handle the telecine but a lot of times they weren't either because they were lazy and made them from the same 60hz master as the VHS and Laserdisk versions or because a 24fps master was no longer available or had simply never existed. Back in the day Japanese media was horrible about archiving, for example all of the source code and high res development assets for FF7 were deleted from Square Enix's PS1 dev stations to make room for FF8. They never even thought about backing that stuff up they just reformatted all of the hard drives and forgot about it. When Eidos was tasked with making a PC port they had to start with beta source code Square Enix found on a spare HD laying around their offices and use the assets off the PS1 disk.

[@Asterra2]

I'm grabbing the ISO now, just to see what the actual story is on this. I have very, very strong doubts that a DVD transfer from 1999 included digital processing that would have blended frames. Definitely feels like a case of using bad conversion software and not understanding the pitfalls. Nowadays, media players properly handle deinterlacing right out of the box (as long as you're not being a lazy ass and using VLC) so it's almost baffling that conversion software doesn't get this right by default.

[@Asterra2]

Alright, there are two things going on here. First, yes, there *is* some blending on the fields themselves. However, it is more subtle than what this video shows, which is a 50/50 blend-a typical artifact of crappy deinterlacing on the part of the player (that's the main thing that's going on). The blend seen in the individual fields is like 100% dry, 20% wet. The blending does not affect every field. It would most likely be possible to salvage this video from the available data: Do a proper deinterlace to 59.94fps and then discard a very specific set of 3 out of every 5 frames. This should give a much more watchable output than the straight mpeg2 from the ISO.

[@Shadepariah]

oh boy, I remember TELECIDE tools. A bunch of groups swore by them to go through and MANUALLY remove frame by frame of dupes. Yup, they did that.

[@Asterra2]

@@Shadepariah I can see that. Personally, what I often do is discard frames automatically but I must then find the spots where there were blips in the cadence. They're almost always there. Tweaking the video for those blips can be tedious but it eventually gets the job done. Naturally you wouldn't think about doing this for any movie that can be sourced from something better than 480i.

[@lovedelife]

I do a lot of preservation work and research for obscure communities myself, and all of the efforts in this video really made me happy. It's nice to know there are people as crazy as me going down the same rabbit holes, making the same mistakes, and who are similarly passionate about keeping lost art alive and sharing it with everyone. So proud of you, hazel!

[@LukSter18998]

what communities?

[@willo90li]

might be too late to ever get a reply but yeah which communities?

[@lovedelife]

@@willo90li i do archival work for Love-de-Lic and related video games. info is in my channel and on archive dot org

[@hunni2968]

Yeah I’d like to know which communities too

[@nonamedeviant6014]

Oh my fucking god, I thought I was insane, because I remember seeing that anime as a child. I very vividly remember the cover, the character design, the wings and the little star in the name. I could never remember the name of this and could never find it, so THANK YOU!

[@SpellboundWolf]

I have seen art of the purple-haired lady in lots of places on the internet for over a decade. It's great to finally learn where she came from.

[@grey5626]

As an honorary "broadcast encoding engineer" for CNEMedia (my actual job title was "Senior System Administrator") I feel your pain about transcoding challenges. As if to add insult to injury, MANY ripping tools will only transcode (presumably due to fears about backlash from RIAA/MPAA/etc. even though more or less all such tools are probably tenuous in violating the Berne Convention, international copyright law, and the DMCA [though there are exemptions, e.g. one of my employers has a DMCA Exemption granted by the Library of Congress]). Preservation is a challenging discipline!

[@coen123]

i bet the other reason is that the high quality files a good rip would provide will inevitable be larger than what most people would expect, so most people will perfer their ripping tools to shrink the file size through transcoding. for this reason i rarely rip my blu-ray collection because the last thing i want to deal with is 20-30 gig movie files on my hard drive(wonder how 4k collectors feel when it comes to putting movies on their computer lol)

[@Dyundu]

Reiterating my comment after the reupload: when people ask what historians do for a living, point them to this video, people! There is more care and patience on display in the original alone than most articles written by PhDs in the academy (and I know quite a few), and few if any of these PhDs would have even considered the (unnecessarily brutally) honest _mea culpa_ provided around the 47 min mark.

[@Orcawsom]

paraphrasing a comment from a different video i saw a long time ago: "the difference between a researcher and a historian is whether your journey ends at wikipedia or with a gravestone in the rain"

[@jackrockstar1]

The fact that you actually put the film on a GBA cart for what amounts to a 3 second gag is peak crackhead energy, and I'm 1000% here for it

[@icravedeath.1200]

I thought it was funny because it reminded me of something me and my brother would do for a joke to fuck with people.

[@lucianocoutrim14]

Hi, I'm Brazilian, and thanks to your video, they managed to make a PT-BR translation of this OVA, now finally the Latin American public can appreciate this wonder

[@cloudstrife4534]

As a big fan of Ramiya Ryo’s work, and who constantly looked over all of her illustrations on Aethereality Gallery when it was around, this video is an absolute treat for me! All of your other videos are too, but this fits my niche completely!

[@javierortiz82]

I'm currently trying to learn how to draw and I find the way she colors fascinating.

[@pastellified6040]

hello! as somebody who just discovered from Ramiya Ryo from this video and is absolutely entranced by her art, is there anywhere you would suggest looking to find more of it? i may be stupid and looking in the wrong places, but i can't find much when i look her up ...

[@bitteralmonds666]

Same here! Been a fan since 1994 🧉🦄

[@Arp1033]

As someone whose dream job is working in a historical archive and who is very passionate about media preservation, this is an incredibly cool vid! Thank you for all the hard work you put in, your dedication to these videos shines through so clear and makes each of these a treasure.

[@anxiousopossum]

I’m a collections management archivist and assist with research archives efforts at my workplace, and I wish you the best of luck in your career goals!! Media degradation is a big challenge a lot of archives are not prepared to face!

[@Arp1033]

@@anxiousopossum Thank you but i don't have even close to the correct degree to do archival work

[@anxiousopossum]

You may be surprised how flexible education can be when it comes to archive work. I have a masters in public history and historical administration, and my bachelors was general history. Some of my coworkers have backgrounds in library science, photography, anthropology, and audio engineering, we also have an educator on staff who uses our resources to put together outreach lessons for teachers in our area to use! Experience often matters more than schooling, as archive work is very hands on! Part time volunteers and archives assistants often go on to be full time. I myself started part time while doing my bachelors after speaking with archives staff during a tour about how I wanted to go into the field, those connections led to them contacting me directly about the opening. Never give up

[@chronoxxe]

You know, I love just listening to Hazel talk about the most randomest shit (With a fantastic background soundtrack) because there’s so much love and passion put into these videos that I just can’t help but admire. Also my two favorite songs are “Way of Life” from P3P and “Turnabout Sisters” from the Phoenix Wright games. Extra comfy shit.

[@rastko7261]

Same here. I love Hazel's channel because almost all of her videos remind me of myself where I find some obscure game/song I grow on quickly but have no one to properly talk to about. And the most important about her videos is that there is so much passion and pain splattered all over them.

[@Hankler_fish]

Yes holy shit, Way of Life is so good. That and "Time" are my favourite P3P songs

[@SleepyLestatSF]

I had a friend back in this era who was obsessed with small studio or independent one offs. She explained to me a lot of these were produced in hopes of getting the attention of a producer or studio and maybe get a job or even have their ideas picked up or something. Cons were a place they would be given out or sold. I had a fan sub of this by here sub group along with a ton of other one off ovas. I honestly dont know how accurate any of this was but she seemed somewhat knowledgeable. I wish i had that tape still

[@cthulusauce]

I do truly wish there was a book on “how to archive/ transfer media flawlessly”

[@kindredspirit9703]

56:44 "The otaku seem to me to be a pure expression of hunger for information, even if the information is essentially meaningless" -William Gibson You don't need to call us out like that, Will 😭

[@emanttnf]

Also, I really appreciate the lengths you went to preserve a piece of anime media that was on the brink of disappearing forever. You've recently got me thinking about how finite our time with our favorite media is. As PS1s and PS2s that I pick up secondhand start coming up with bad lasers and CMOS batteries, I start to feel really sad and the nostalgia that washes over me is someone jarring and painful instead of blissful. There's always a feeling of sadness when I feel nostalgic these days, especially regarding anime and Japanese adjacent media that turned me into who I am today. I hope that when I'm old as fuck I can continue watching more old shit that I never would have known about without the internet, so I wanna thank you a ton for making a whole piece on Arisa. I'm about to spend my Friday evening watching it with my cats.

[@ZX3000GT1]

Just get a DVD-RW and rip the contents for backup, it's not that hard. Emulation is also there and it's getting better for those old consoles.

[@assistmans]

Ah, yes. My favorite “time to bring you back in time and show you anime you may or may not have found on some old defunct forum back like 10-15 years ago and wondering if it was all a dream or not” youtuber. Been loving your videos!

[@smithwillnot]

The pain of googling something for days, just to find out that you can get better result from slightly different search terms. I swear google has become much harder to use, it was better in the past... right... right?!

[@crypticcorvid]

Imo, I think it's because a bunch of websites keep trying to SEO farm to keep getting clicks. However Google operates, it's definitely biased towards those specific sites, along with prioritizing only popular sites. I know a bunch of people have jumped ship to other search engines just to get around the search bias.

[@Dyundu]

Nope, you’re 100% correct. Been using Google for research through three degrees now, and it’s steadily gotten worse. G Scholar’s a joke nowadays.

[@KOTEBANAROT]

Its nearly impossible to actually find anything nowadays on google. I use other sites now

[@Terralventhe]

Ironically it's because Google staff nowadays takes it upon themselves to "curate" search results, meaning their algorithm is set up to promote websites THEY want you to look at first, or to reduce/filter out content they don't want you to see. Generally speaking this is done along political lines first and foremost, but the way it's set up it ends up filtering out tons of stuff that has nothing to do with Google's political ideology.

[@ghostbotmellow706]

@@crypticcorvid what browser would you recommend?

[@ElvenApparition]

thank you so much for introducing me to ramiya ryou. i had to pause and google her and i'm particularly a fan of her late 90s/early 2000s looking style. its probably due to nostalgia brain, but her art is so gorgeous in all forms.

[@Vividaze]

“Anonymous Russian Rippers” sounds like a cool name for a metal band

[@taakoadventurezone]

this is such a specific thing to notice, but i work at a public library and we're constantly having to replace the plastic cases in our dvds. you would honestly be surprised how many of those cases have the inserts still fully intact/undamaged/seemingly unused, so i frankly wouldn't be surprised if that pink case was the result of the original having been damaged and needing to be replaced, especially that thing in the middle that holds the dvd in place like you said. but also, the pink is really cute and seems to fit the anime so much there's this part of me that wants to think it was one of the original intended casings.

[@AoiUsagiOtoko]

as a big purveyor of vintage bishoujo stuff, this video is EVERYTHING. thank you so much for taking the time to hunt this down-- it always bums me out knowing how much anime stuff like this will never be found or appreciated, so your content always brings a smile to my face introduced me to another great artist in the process too! ramiya's stuff is so charming, her style truly is god-tier

[@jenky0182]

i will gladly give this a rewatch 😌

[@lizhasasthma]

God I fucking love this shit so much. I'm an archivist and so many people seem to thing preservation is about the big stuff but tbh the little things are where the good shit's at.

[@Shilverow2]

Honestly if you made a discord for your Patreon it'd probably be a pretty good collection of people who are into obscure anime. They'd be able to share info they find and maybe even help you look for stuff you otherwise might not have found. Idk just a thought I had

[@thierrydecker8110]

Oh wow! I watched a subtitled version of this a while back. I guess there is a good chance I have you to thank for its existence. I honestly loved it. It wasn't some crazy masterpiece, but it was charming and simply a lot of fun.

[@CursedCatTruffa]

Indie media search is insane, that's all I took from it. But also was one of the most interesting videos I've seen, as a librarian I appreciate a lot the effort of protecting information, culture and media. But insane story lmao

[@gustavohernandeza.890]

Great video, hazel. Don't worry. Keep up the good work. "so i did what i had to because who else is gonna" should be your tagline.

[@thischannelisajoke6810]

Watching this video makes me wonder what other works sold at Comiket has fallen through the crack

[@BknMoonStudios]

Videos like this and people like you are what keep the world interesting. It's almost magical, dare I say. In this information age where "everything" is available, finding lost artifacts with mysteries attached to them reinvigorates one's child-like curiosity for the world. What else is there that we don't know yet? Only time will tell.

[@cereal_21]

the part towards the end of the video where Hazel plays the clip of William Gibson and talks about not wanting things to go lost made me really emotional for some reason. I just think it's beautiful how humans can care about stuff like this so deeply

[@carmineknight9123]

Even "mid" content like these releases has a history with real people at its core, every crusty upload came from somewhere. I appreciate what you do and why you do it so much, hazel. Yes I got to this video really late but hey...

[@Riverzz_]

Wow omg i never expected to see video about arisa! i watched it like a year ago and i absolutely loved it but i just couldn't find more of the series and it made me so sad! thank u for this!!

[@bpinred]

I just wanted to say as a combat sports fan, "wrestling event" sounds perfectly fine and natural to me. Thanks for all of your hard work and dedication!

[@mc.gemstone]

Just wanna say, I seen that art before and just simply adored the art style. With it so colors and the cute girls wearing pretty outfits and clothing it just look so pleasing. Never knew who did it, until after watching this video. I was like oh no wonder the art style look so familiar. Also seeing her art in other media is really cool as well. I'm glad this video while talking about this OVA also will likely bring some more attention to the artist behind it too.

[@kitking6462]

Your voice is so relaxing, I could (and do) listen to you talk about anything! It somehow fits the aesthetic of older anime with their long takes and pacing.

[@lukegardiner1504]

Great video as always. Minor clarification on the Japanese review at 5:31 - they're not saying that the DVD was released before the PS2 - they're saying that even though DVDs existed by the time the VHS was released, they weren't that popular yet, since the PS2 hadn't come out yet in 1999 (and implying that that's perhaps why it was originally only released on VHS).

[@IAmEnormous]

The bit with the promotional CD-ROM honestly made me tear up a little. All that community passion for stuff that is, usually, just a fleeting trend... it's beautiful.

[@celery8059]

There is something so youthful and nostalgic about your passion for these things amidst the constant weight of having to be an adult. Thank you for your work, Hazel 😭

[@atomicskull6405]

As soon as I saw the CG and pixel art I was like "HOLY SHIT I KNOW THIS ART STYLE!" I've been seeing this artist's stuff around the internet since the early 90's without ever knowing who it was or even that it was from one specific artist.

[@Tesseract_King]

I appreciate you doing the journalistic integrity thing and updating your information, even though it sucks to do. Hopefully enough other folks will click with this one to mitigate any loss from the Machine.

[@Ishiken_]

Since the last anime season, I have been searching for old things that I never watched/play before, in my journey I found some channels like yours, that talk a lot about Anime/games people forgot or the majority doesn't even know about, and everytime I see a video about "random people searching for old anime/game" I get inspired seeing the steps you chose to make your research, and it always motivate me to go out of my confort zone just to watch something "new", thank you for the vídeo.

[@ATjfds]

53:40 : Lmao, I actually had a moment where I said "huh, is fall that early in Japan ? They might have some weird seasons" but then immediately thought that you probably messed up, it happens to everyone lol. Anyway, love the added details, keep up the good work

[@kohiVT]

The sheer amount of dedication just to see through to the logical conclusion of this piece of media is astounding 😭Thank you Hazel for your hard work (and also thanks to anyone else who works just as hard to preserve media!)

[@amwolfmusic]

As a person who hunted down not *lost media* in a sense but more or less *media that contains what I'm looking for and is incredibly difficult to find AND has lost media*. The media on the CD is quite literally incredibly easy to find and track down, but it was what was bundled WITH it that had no scans or even transcriptions of the story. In fact, the CD was so difficult to find that I bought the only one available on the internet, and it was the only one ever listed online with the short manga and light novel. I'm currently working on getting everything scanned and/or translated. And yes! It is really weird to keep books with a CD when they do not have combined packaging at all but someone was incredibly dedicated and kept it all together. It was wild multi-year hunt, and it ends once my work is done. From someone who knows the long hunt of looking for something that's like a ghost, this was an amazing video and entertaining! Commendable and incredibly relatable, thank you for helping keep something alive that could have been lost.

[@itsbasicboi]

hazel, how you make an hour long video go by so fast is beyond my comprehension. amazing as always 🥰 !!

[@beowulf3370]

Truly as someone currently working on a library degree with a specialization in archives, really hoping to go into AV archives and preservation this quest you went on is truly awe inspiring and makes me realize that even if I can't get a traditional job in the field I can still participate in this field I love so much, as much as yeah, trying to research and learn about AV shit really is its own special kind of hell lmao

[@Helena-dg3dh]

I do a lot of media preservation, especially Japanese stuff from the 90s and early 2000s. I've found OBS to be very good way to rip VHS with a capture card. For DVDs, you can get a 1:1 copy of the disk with DVD Decrypter. Thank you so much for your preservation work!

[@styxpieces]

dvd decrypter is a lifesaver

[@NathasyaStellaHermanus]

Hazel I know you probably won't see this, but I I thought that you might be interested in Nana Tomoko or the creator of Fashion Fade from the 1970s. This author is so obscure, I'm not even sure she has made mangas other than Fashion Fade. The only reason I know her is because of a 2014 tumblr post (Thank you to Fe Yeh's Vintage Mangas). According to MyAnimeList Fashion Fade has 8 completed volumes, but only 1 volume has only been translated (and 1 chapter of the second volume). Other than that I hope I can find more information on Nana Tomoko.

[@comicstripvo6654]

My first time seeing this channel. Oh my god. Amazing. I saw that art style, in that quality, and as a 27 year old it felt like I was watching my earliest memories. I've never been so invested in someone's research. Also a of the music 10/10

[@grimajo]

The reupload, mental breakdown, & new info gives this a level of sincerity that is always so fucking nice to see in YT vids. Keep it up, Mom.

[@xXSoulGeoXx]

59:26 its just amazing that most of the examples shown here were just dreams for people outside of Japan ( with the few that got fan translated, Muv Luv I think not completely, and Higurashi also being fan translated somewhat during the mids of the 2000-2010 era ) it makes me happy this medium at least its getting more recocnition compared to that time ( as those same VN, got PS2, PS3 and PSP ports, I think few on the DS as well, but they remain JP Exclusive, Little Busters and most of Key VN being ported to PSP with some losing their H Content if they had any )

[@Upscaler69]

I know I'm late, but I just saw this vid and decided to make an HD version of the OVA. Partly to see if I could, and partly because I think it's funny how there keep being multiple "best versions" of this random OVA. It's on my channel.

[@AquaCrystalOrb]

Fluent speaker of Japanese here. For anyone interested in the rundown on the telephone cards, according to the pamphlet they were only available to people who had already pre-ordered the VHS. It’s really hard to read but I managed to decipher that you could phone them, send a postcard or fax them details of which cards and how many you wanted. They already had your address because you had already pre-ordered the VHS. They would give you the details of the total cost of your order and then you would send them a bank transfer with that amount and then they would post you the cards. These cards were apparently made available due to high demand from people who made pre-orders. The pamphlet also features details of a poster for sale (item 1). Also, there were not only 500 copies of the OVA available. There were only 500 copies of each of the telephone cards, of which there were two, and the poster. Each of these items cost ¥2500 alone.

[@ll-cb3py]

the amount of work you put in always fucking astounds me, and, even though your videos are long, I literally am never bored or drawn away or anything. you are truly a talent, keep it up!

[@BirdBrain1337]

36:24 "-so everybody online was wrong..." I want this on a soundboard. XD Excellent work, as always!

[@rebekahjohnson5940]

You have inspired me to look into a weird obscure part of my childhood And hopefully make a video on it. Wish me luck

[@Fidoburger]

A: I love the fastidious archivist's urge toward obscure media and really appreciate your work B: As a recent transplant from Bloomington IN to Seattle that Good Luck song in the outro hit me with a wave of nostalgia that I want to explicitly thank you for.

[@elizaorlando1792]

Hazel's passionate research ethic is so intense. Mix of fear and admiration.

[@ZX3000GT1]

While I'm not into Animes like this personally (more into games myself. More recently trying to find several beta versions of old PS1 and PS2 Gran Turismo games), I like the fact that what was considered a lost media before is now being preserved. So many old things are lost. And there are a lot more things having the same risk, now with more things are online only or locked behind DRM.

[@cryptcres]

Just finished rewatching, I really like this video it feels like someone finding a rabbit hole and coming out with as much knowledge they have on said rabbit hole. I love doing research on topics that peak my interests even slightly so going into random rabbit holes like this is really fun to see in video form. Your diligence to your research which lead you to reuploading the video is really relatable to me because I feel like whenever I get new information on a topic I thought I knew pretty thoroughly I have to update everyone I gave information about the topic about this new information. Anyways always great to see a video from you!

[@SESauvie]

Lost media in general is a fascinating topic with some of the best stories attached, so this video gives the experience of a lost media hunt with a language barrier which had to have been something else. Thanks for the work on this video Hazel, it's a great look into something I had barely considered.

[@CEO0FMILFS]

So nice I had to watch twice! Thanks for the upload Hazel!

[@joshderieg]

Really enjoyed this video! I was booting up a game while it wrapped up when suddenly the final song came on and stopped me in my tracks. Good Luck is (was?) an incredible band, Into Lake Griffy is one of my favorite albums, and I consider the song you used ("stars were exploding") a genuine masterpiece. Thank you for a pretty amazing moment of things I love colliding!

[@Jess38044]

I am beyond thankful this came up as a recommended watch. I had a heap of random scans/fanart/etc saved on my pc from the late 90s-early 00s, but sadly I lost a ton of it. Some things I don't know if I'll find again, but seeing this, i feel comforted and connected with that past again. Keep up the fight to archive!

[@uraalice]

Super excited to watch this video again and see what was changed!

[@SanraiDalris]

58:10 “The hard work. The blood, sweat, and tears, and often cum.”… Anyway, listening to you go on an unhinged deep dive into niche anime history is always a pleasure.

[@UENShanix]

Sorry you had to pull the original video back and add that extra segment. Very cool of you to do so. Thank you for putting in this much effort, even though it hurt. low key jealous of Hazel's hoard of tech ngl.

[@lizardasslick]

she's like a mythical dragon but instead of gold and jewels, the treasure is old japanese media

[@UENShanix]

@@lizardasslick This has no right to be as accurate as it is.

[@lcke8380]

Man I have to love how people immerse themselves into the deepest darkness of internet to found the darkest and forgettable most random shit only 10 people know about and carefully archive it so in ten years one crazy ass dude can enjoy it.

[@applehappypple]

I think all your pitfalls during this search make for a really fun video and a good look into how baffling lost media searches can be, with all the technological hiccups and answers being hidden under one slightly different websearch term! I'm not sure how familiar you are with doing lost media search work prior, but really, the mistakes you made are forgivable and par for the course. I love your videos, you have great delivery and a really good sense of humor and refreshing self awareness, and it's a treat to see them pop up in my notification feed, You're a real gem. Thanks for documenting this random little ova and showcasing some cool old art!

[@ramengamer4806]

Ah yes, my favorite part of any eroge. The Skeleton *MORSE CODE INTENSIFIES*

[@WingWong]

omg... this was such a great dive into the 90's era and also a peek at the comiket elements... but also just the research that you put into all of this... seriously O_O

[@officialtheamazingfueltank3730]

The layers of Hazel correcting herself and changing her mind are so numerous that the video gets you as invested as Hazel is in finding this OVA. You are a creator like no other. Bravo, Hazel.

[@j.j.q1379]

I love your content so much. I just haven’t had time though to go through it all but I will

[@klu698]

god, your channel is a gem. please never stop doing what you are doing. your videos are so relaxing and informative, even if this information isn't particularly important. but it's sure as hell interesting!

[@FluxChanneler]

I appreciate all the work you do, holy shit.

[@napajwolf13]

Hazel’s video essays and retrospectives are all very comfy.

[@Synthanic]

I was prepared to call it a night, but now I have a lovely hour long video to continue to work along to! Thank you Hazel for another lengthy upload!

[@solidshadow01]

From an old anime fan, you do fantastic work. Thank you for all you do.

[@manofculture4228]

A.R.R. is notorious in the subbing community for his pour quality rips and subs

[@RayleReaper]

The Tidus laugh out of nowhere caused water to come out my nose! That just blind sided me! Great work as always Hazel!

[@ProxyLou]

Every time Hazel finds a way to sneak in an AVGN clip, I smile

[@anonymousposter6461]

hazel, your vids always fucking slap. i always love to see you upload. they're so choice. all the best!

[@sakiyaki-sashimi]

Hazel back at it again with the 90’s anime

[@animesoul479]

Geese you went through quite the time digging up all this info on an ova. I love the passion xD Made for a great watch.

[@nataliaalonzo580]

This video is absolutely amazing. As my first exposure to your content, I am fascinated and intrigued by all of the specific knowledge and skills it took to make this video. Every subsection led to a whole corner of media scholarship and context that was brand new to me. I have so much to learn from you.

[@Palooka37]

Oh Hazel, don't be so hard on yourself! This was endearing, charming and informative as per usual. Thank you. As an aside, if you want to cheat the KZbin compression algorithm - do a basic upscale by popping a video in a timeline that's in a higher resolution (ie 1080p on a 4k time line) and fiddle the scale till it fills the screen. When you upload it the smaller resolutions will look a lot cleaner.

[@tchukkelz2246]

My head did a fucking 360 spin on my shoulders when you casually dropped that the Katawa Shoujo guy worked on FATE Grand Order, having not read or watched any of the latter but having heared quite a lot about it

[@chibibble]

This is just… so neat. I love seeing videos about people digging through obscure rabbit holes over lost/near lost media for no discernible reason, even when the outcome might be unsatisfactory. Mostly because I’ve done it myself. A while ago, I discovered a figure was made of the mc from one of my favorite jrpgs where he’s partially transformed into his “powered up” state. In an attempt to get my hands on it, I spend a solid few hours looking around online, checking links, and asking the series’s reddit if anyone knew about it. Turns out only around 100 were made, making it extremely rare and very sought after (it’s from the tales of franchise, so not an obscure series). I gave up on wanting to have it since it would’ve expensive anyway, and the quality of the figure wasn’t great since it was a prize figure. More recently, I tried to track down what happened to my favorite flipnote hatena creator (I’m tempted to make a compiled list of where I went and what I found), just to find that they had only stopped being active online a couple of years ago. Even after hours of research, and though the conclusion wasn’t exactly satisfying, quenching that thirst for at least some knowledge of what happened to them was gratifying enough. All this to say, keep doing what you’re doing, and I’ll gladly watch another of your digs into lost media.

[@itsyagirlVofficial]

Oooo when that "good luck" track started at the end!

[@cabbusses]

Good idea on making sure the DVDISO is ripped. I remember struggling to figure out how to get the framerate to look right on Handbrake-generated DVD rips of F-Zero Falcon Densetsu (This tends to jump between 24fps animated scenes and racing scenes that are presumably 30fps interlaced to look 60fps, creating a motion that looks smooth like the games, but never quite rips right) for a long while before I just outright shrugged and gave up on the whole idea and settled on that.