A cult classic in the schlock n’ gore OVA genre, Genocyber took an unlikely road from pitch to production.
Tag: artmic
Never Let a Good Idea Die: ARTMIC’s History of Recycled Ideas and Design
Drawing from their experience in TV anime, 3D photo stories, and other media, ARTMIC created rich OVAs that, more often than not, shared familiar thematic elements along with a consistently recognizable visual style.
The Sony HiTBiT F1 Game Robot: When Gall Force Sold Computers
Sony’s marketing campaigns for their MSX computers involved everyone from Syd Mead to Seiko Matsuda, but their most memorable bit of advertising may have been a print ad featuring a scratch-built powered suit to advertise their HiTBiT HB-F1 MSX2 machine.
Before Megazone 23: The Early Mecha & Character Designs of Omega City 23
A brief look at some of the early design work created by ARTMIC artists for Omega City 23 while it was still planned as a television series.
Kabukicho Wars: The Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01 Plan & Design Document
Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01 was one of the unsung heroes of the OVA boom. Presented here for the first time is an early design document outlining the OVA’s plot and designs, in both Japanese and English.
The Filming Models of Koichi Ohata’s Genocyber
Unearthed via the DVD-ROM features of an ancient US Manga Corps digital video disc, we speculate on the provenance of the models used for filming on Genocyber.
Omega City 23 and the Origins of Megazone 23
Originally conceptualized at the height of the real robot boom as a 26-episode TV series called Omega City 23, Megazone 23 went through numerous changes and iterations before it became a cutting edge OVA. For the first time, the original pitch document of Omega Zone 23 is available to read in Japanese and English.
Garage Kit Heroines: Gall Force Star Front
Seemingly everywhere during the VHS era, this early standout in the girls n’ guns genre began as a 3D photo novel and a series of garage kits.
Makoto Kobayashi’s Dragon’s Heaven
Thirty years after its release Dragon’s Heaven still stands out from the crowd of early OVA titles.
Shinji Aramaki’s MADOX-01 Turns Thirty
ARTMIC’s classic “boy-meets-mecha” OVA was released in December of 1987. Three decades later, it still rocks.