I’ve decided to take a swing at making video content for Zimmerit, not as a replacement for written articles or the ‘zines, but to augment and expand the reach of this site. The first video is embedded above and you can find our YouTube channel here.
There’s a rough-around-the-edges, DIY feel to so much early otaku-targeted marketing that it’s not hard to see the lines between fan projects and professional endeavors. Even at the height of the bubble era, companies like Bandai were helping fund the Appleseed Special Prologue, a live-action, roughly three-minute short promo video for the 1988 OVA based on Masamune Shirow’s breakout manga series. That’s not a complaint, mind you, but a reminder that the promotional machines behind these projects weren’t too different from the heaps of doujinshi and fan videos that the early waves of otaku produced themselves.
I’ve wanted to talk about the Special Prologue for a long time because it seems like such a perfect encapsulation of the era in which it was made. It’s rough around the edges, but you can tell the people who made it had a good time.