Black Magic M-66: Part 1

Okay so lets have a look at some items I have in my collection that I probably won't be scanning. The focus of this post is (spoilers within this link) Black Magic M-66 a OVA from none other than Masamune Shirow.

 The rest of this post is after the jump because I don't want to cover the front page with it.

Black Magic M-66 is a vague adaptation of a chapter from the Black Magic manga from Shirow., first published in 1983 republished as a tankoboun in 1985. It got a western release courtesy of Dark Horse in 1998. Instead of trying to edit in the SFX or just leave it out in their release they've writen it in small text along the top/bottom of whatever panel it's from, so you get FX SPANG SPANG SPACK SPANG SPAK SPAK and the like under most panels.

Personally I think the easy stuff should have been edited in but maybe that's just me. Also as far as I'm aware there were no differences between the 1998 and the 2008 reprint apart from very minor ones in the information page.

So I mentioned it got an OVA adaptation right? I don't have the Japanese edition of it at the moment but as far as I know there was a VHS and possibly a Laser Disc release. This however is the american release VHS from 1995. If look around it's probably avilable online but I won't go into that.

Just as a side note here I haven't seen Manga Entertainment since back when they had some import stock floating around a few six or seven years ago. I think that was because they managed the dubbing on some mid/late 90's titles. In 2001 BM66 as we shall refer to it as also got a DVD release though Manga Entertainment - I don't know if that was a particularly small run or what but theres a fairly large amount of bootleg copies floating around ebay/amazon.

So they look pretty similar right?
But the one on the left is missing the logo's - there's your first red flag.

So at a glance they both look legit at a glance but the one on the left has some weirdly familar thing going on with it's description. Really familiar right?

And there we go, bam. Bootleg on the left. I like how the disc has email adresses on it and the bit which says 'AUTHORIED HOME VIDEO IN HONG KONG'. The person who sold me the bootleg on ebay used a picture of the legitimate cover and actually had 100% feedback even at 10,000 feedbacks so - buyer beware I guess. I've twice now gotten bootlegs looking for Shirow related stuff on ebay and although I do keep them I do the whole reporting bootleg goods thing. Usually nothing happens but I feel I've done my part in the scheme of things. Also good luck getting your money back off some of these people, seriously.

Thats enough of  the dvd talk though, back to the printed matter.
This is the storyboard book, a japan only release (as far as I am aware)

And for your consideration

As usual I'm not exactly sure what the title of this. But what it is, is a complete storyboard of the OVA. It's a decently sized book too, clocking in at  363 pages. It has character height charts, maps of the fight scenes, layout sketches, character sketches, what looks like a time line and an afterword from shirow so it's worth it's weight in money. The back cover may say 300¥ but I sure as heck didn't buy it for that cheap. Due to the size the only way I could scan this is either with one of those fancy two camera book archival custom builds or by disembering it. And I am in no hurry to take it apart or buy another copy to destroy. I could, take a few more shots of the pages if anyone is particularly interested but don't expect to see it scanned.

And last thing we'll look at for now is the Black Magic M-66 artbook.

 

Chick chack check the fold out poster.

This one is also really nice, it has a bunch of  large character sketches that are in the storyboard book along with new ones not included in it. There are a fair amount of location sketches including what looks like scans of animation cels, vehicle and weapon sketches with pretty much every motorcycle army truck and futuristic chopper covered. As with the last one though it's not possible to scan with the equipment I currently have.

So thats part one of the Black Magic M-66 product reveiw/filler.
I have photochop back - CS5 no less and I expect to get back on the road with my usual busieness soon enough - perhaps at a more relaxed pace than I've been pulling the last few months though. I might do a few more of these collection roundups too, not so much for the epeen as for showing things I'd like to scan but can't - like a consolation prize nahwhatamean?

Thats all for now hopefully this has been of interest to some Shirow collector out there.
 Till next time,
Superkawaii‼

Part two is over here.
Part three is here.
Part four is over here.