TV on UMD: Viewtiful Joe

           

                                                                   Original Run

                                                  October 2, 2004 to September 24, 2005
                                                  Total Number of episodes 51

Plot

Following the games' storyline, movie lover Joe and his girlfriend Silvia enjoy a seemingly normal trip to the movies to see an action flick starring Joe's idol, Captain Blue, when suddenly the leader of the evil Jadow force reaches out of the screen and takes Silvia into the movie. Joe is forced to follow her by Captain Blue's mecha, Six Majin (renamed "Machine Six" in the English anime, and "Six Machine" in the Spanish dub), and meets Captain Blue in the flesh who grants Joe the power to become an action movie hero in his own right called Viewtiful Joe.

Media

Viewtiful Joe was produced by animation company Group TAC. The producer for the video game franchise, Atsushi Inaba, and his team gave Group TAC its character designs for the video games, as well as original character designs for the animated series.

The English version of the anime features voice acting by Jeff Nimoy, Philece Sampler, Mona Marshall, and Wendee Lee, among others. Bob Papenbrook, under the name John Smallberries, voiced Captain Blue for the show's first twenty-one English dubbed episodes. Papenbrook died on March 17, 2006, due to complications from a chronic lung condition, making Viewtiful Joe his final piece of work. He was replaced by Paul St. Peter for the remainder of the dub.

The U.S. broadcast began with the fifth episode, with the first three episodes not being shown until a month later. The show's pilot was localized in the United States by Phuuz entertainment. A few censoring edits were made to the English dubbed version of Viewtiful Joe. In Brazil and Spain, the show was aired completely uncut. In the English version, the name of Joe's flying machine, Six Machine, was renamed in the English dub to Machine Six. There is speculation that it was renamed because its original name sounded close to the phrase "sex machine". Also, Six Majin was renamed to Robo-Six. Joe's middle finger was edited out in his henshin transformation sequence. Silvia's super hero alter ego is renamed from "Sexy Silvia" (which was also used in the games) to "Go-Go Silvia". Sprocket's jumpsuit is always zipped up completely, though it was originally unzipped (showing large amounts of cleavage) and one of her signature moves was to zip it up. This move was eliminated in the dub by cutting out the scenes, resulting in Sprocket having much less screen time than in the original.

Although it was released on DVD, I could only confirm 8 three episode volumes were ever released. Meanwhile, only 1 three episodes UMD was ever released. In North America, Geneon partnered with Kids Foot Locker to promote the show by including DVDs with purchases at the shoe retailer.

                                                         Bonus UMD Insert

UMD on TV: Trigun

                                      Original run April 1, 1998 – September 30, 1998
                                                                    Episodes 26

PLOT

Trigun revolves around a man known as "Vash the Stampede" and two Bernardelli Insurance Society employees, Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, who follow him around in order to minimize the damages inevitably caused by his appearance. Most of the damage attributed to Vash is actually caused by bounty hunters in pursuit of the sixty billion double dollar bounty on Vash's head for the destruction of the city of July. However, he cannot remember the incident due to retrograde amnesia, being able to recall only fragments of the destroyed city and memories of his childhood. Throughout his travels, Vash tries to save lives using non-lethal force. He is occasionally joined by a priest, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, who, like Vash, is a superb gunfighter with a mysterious past. As the series progresses, more about Vash's past and the history of human civilization on the planet Gunsmoke is revealed.

Media

Madhouse produced an anime series based on the manga, also titled Trigun. Directed by Satoshi Nishimura, the series was broadcast on TV Tokyo from April 1 to September 30, 1998. It is licensed for DVD and Blu-ray in the United States by Funimation Entertainment, who re-released it on DVD on October 27, 2010. The show failed to garner a large audience in Japan during its original showing in 1998 but gained a substantial fan base following its North American premiere on Cartoon Network in early 2003. Nightow has stated that due to the finality of the anime's ending, it is unlikely any continuation will be made. The UMD which only 2 episodes was released on December 13, 2005, by Geneon only 1 volume was ever released.

                                                                Bonus

TV on UMD: Tenjioh Tenge

It turns out there are 2 color variations on the cover.

Original Run: November 1997 – September 2010
Episodes: 22

PLOT:

The plot begins with Souichiro Nagi and his friend Bob Makihara going to their first day of high school at Toudou Academy. They had intended to rule the school by beating up anybody that got in their way, as they had done at their previous schools. They soon learn that Toudou is no ordinary high school, but rather a school that was founded to teach and integrate different fighting styles. Its students are skilled in the various arts of combat with some students possessing supernatural abilities, such as pyrokinesis, precognition, and superhuman strength based on the abilities to use their "spirit" or "ki" in Japanese. After an altercation with the Executive Council, Souichiro and Bob join the only surviving club that opposes them, the Juken club. As the storyline develops, both groups find they are becoming increasingly involved in a long enduring conflict that was left unresolved from the Japanese Feudal era by some of the characters' ancestors.

Media

The Tenjho Tenge anime was directed by Toshifumi Kawase, animated by Madhouse, and produced by TV Asahi and Avex Mode, the animation division of the Avex group of companies. The twenty-four episodes were originally aired weekly on TV Asahi in Japan on Thursdays from April 1, 2004 to September 16, 2004. These episodes were made into eight-volume DVD box sets. Two additional episodes were broadcast by TV Asahi in Japan on March 16, 2005 and released in the form of an original video animation named Tenjho Tenge: Ultimate Fight. The anime follows closely to its source material up to the manga's eighth volume with the exception of the sexual content which was toned down.The anime has been dubbed into English, French, German and the Tagalog language. The anime series has been licensed for the English language by Geneon Entertainment, and has released all episodes except the DVD special named Tenjho Tenge: The Past Chapter, which is the back-story told through flashbacks in the second half of the anime television series condensed into the size of four episodes. The series was broadcast in North America by the cable channel Fuse TV.

Although not mentioned on the Geneon Entertainment's website, or the Tenjho Tenge mini-site, the OVA is available on the last volume, sometimes listed as Episodes 25 and 26. In Australia and the UK, the series was released over seven volumes, and include the OVA on the seventh disc. Almost 5 years after the closure of Geneon USA, Discotek Media re-licensed the series for a DVD release in 2013. The UMD was released in 2005 and only 1 - 2 episode UMD was ever released.

Media

                                                                         Bonus

TV on UMD: Samurai Champloo

                                          Original run May 19, 2004 – March 19, 2005
                                                            Episodes 26



As far as I know, it is the only TV on UMD release that they ever had 4 volumes

Plot

A young woman named Fuu is working as a waitress in a tea shop when she is abused by a band of samurai. She is saved by a mysterious rogue named Mugen and a young rōnin named Jin. Mugen attacks Jin after he proves to be a worthy opponent. The pair begin fighting one another and inadvertently cause the death of Shibui Tomonoshina, the magistrate's son. For this crime, they are to be executed. With help from Fuu, they are able to escape execution. In return, Fuu asks them to travel with her to find "the samurai who smells of sunflowers".

Media

Geneon licensed the show for distribution in North America almost a year prior to the show's airing in Japan. An English dub of the series premiered in the United States on the Adult Swim anime block on May 14, 2005. The version aired was edited and had foul language replaced with sound effects, in addition to cutting out blood and nudity. The final first run of the episodes concluded on March 18, 2006. Samurai Champloo debuted in Canada on December 24, 2006, on the digital station Razer. The series has also aired in the United Kingdom, France, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and Germany. Funimation has distributed Samurai Champloo for Geneon since they ceased in-house distribution of their titles in 2007. Geneon, in association with Funimation, re-released the entire 26-episode anime series in a box set in June 2009 and on Blu-ray in November 2009. As of November 26, 2010, Funimation has fully licensed the series and once again released the series under the Classics line on May 24, 2011 The UMD release was through Geneon between mid 2005 to 1-10-2006 when volume 4 was released.

Currently the only version that is available is the Blu-ray edition

Video

The entire series can be found on YouTube

Bonus Inserts

TV on UMD: R.O.D. The TV

Original Run Oct 1, 2003 to March 16, 2004

Total episodes 26 

Plot

The series begins in 2006, five years after the "I-Jin" incident detailed in the Read or Die OVA. Yomiko Readman (a.k.a. "The Paper", agent of British Library Task Force) has supposedly gone missing, and Nenene Sumiregawa, her former student and best friend, is still in Tokyo after her parents moved to the United States. Nenene has not written a book since Yomiko disappeared, as she has become lonely and frustrated that her sensei has never read her last book, and she feels she can't write again until she hears Yomiko's reaction to the book, so Nenene often disappears for long periods of time searching for Yomiko, and has been periodically doing so ever since her "disappearance".

During a trip to Hong Kong, Nenene meets the three sisters, Michelle, Maggie and Anita (from the Read or Dream manga), who are supposed to take care of her during her visit. However, the hotel at which Nenene is supposed to stay at is bombed, and at a press conference, Nenene is briefly held hostage by a jealous rival in her industry. The three sisters end up becoming her bodyguards and join her back to Tokyo.

The discouraged Nenene suffering from writer's block continues to lament the disappearance of Yomiko

Each sister has paper manipulation skills similar to Yomiko, although less powerful and more focused in scope. After the initial action-filled adventure, the first several episodes take on the feel of an odd-couple comedy which focuses on the tension between Nenene and the sisters, who move into her apartment and mooch off her, all while dealing with various crazies and psychos in their everyday lives. The sisters also perform odd jobs as agents of the Dokusensha (ostensibly a Chinese publishing company, but more like an Illuminati-type organization focusing on the collection of rare and powerful documents). This eventually puts them and Nenene in direct conflict with the British Library and the protagonists of Read or Die (Dokusensha is established as the British Library's rival in the Read or Die manga).

Events grow more serious as the series progresses as atrocities are committed by both sides, thrusting the main characters into the middle of a conflict between literary superpowers, the British Library and Dokusensha, who are both trying to collect ancient artifacts (books, of course) to control the entire world and even rewrite history. After a horrific collision between the two superpowers, Nenene and the Paper Sisters set out to find the missing Yomiko to learn the truth about the conflict and save the world from literary terrorism.
Characters

Media 

The UMD which only contained 2 episodes #1 The Papers Have Landed and #2 Oh Dregs of Humanity and only 1 volume was ever released. It was available on DVD with a total of 7 volumes. Both were released by Geneon back in 2005. It is currently not available and can only be seen on streaming sites such as Crunchy Roll.

                                                       Bonus UMD Insert

TV on UMD: Paranoid Agent

                                                Series ran Feb. 2, 2004 to May 18. 2004
                                                             Total episodes: 13

Plot
Tsukiko Sagi, a shy character designer who created the immensely popular pink dog Maromi, finds herself under pressure to repeat her success. As she walks home that night, she is attacked by an elementary school boy on inline skates. Two police detectives, Keiichi Ikari and Mitsuhiro Maniwa, are assigned to the case. They suspect that Tsukiko is lying about the attack, until they receive word of a second victim.

Soon the attacker, dubbed Lil' Slugger (Shōnen Batto in Japanese, meaning "Bat Boy"), is blamed for a series of street assaults in Tokyo. None of the victims can recall the boy's face and only three distinct details are left in their memories: golden inline skates, a baseball cap, and the weapon: a bent golden baseball bat. Ikari and Maniwa set out to track down the perpetrator and put an end to his crimes. Their hunt is unsuccessful, however, and the investigation eventually leads to both men losing their positions as police detectives.

As the attacks continue, it is revealed that they are not random. Instead, Lil' Slugger seems to target people in crisis, and the attacks, though violent, lead to some improvement in the life of the victim. Maniwa becomes convinced that Lil' Slugger is a supernatural force, driven to rescue the desperate from their tragedies through violence. He becomes obsessive, broadcasting his warning about Lil' Slugger via shortwave radio and seeking a way to kill the supernatural assailant.

As public fear of Lil' Slugger intensifies, so do his (supposed) attacks, and the line between truth and fiction becomes blurred. At the same time, public anticipation for the launch of the Maromi television series reaches a fanatical high, almost as if the fear of one is feeding (and feeding off) the anticipation for the other.

Things come to an end on the night that the Maromi show is set to air. Ikari, now a private security guard, and Maniwa, now a wandering "knight", attempt to battle Lil' Slugger, now an incredibly powerful force. They confront Tsukiko, and she confesses that Maromi was based on a real puppy that Tsukiko had in childhood, whose leash she had one day accidentally dropped, allowing the puppy to run into traffic where it was killed. Instead of taking responsibility for the puppy's death, young Tsukiko invented a story about a bat-wielding, skate-wearing puppy killer – Lil' Slugger's first "attack".

Ultimately, Lil' Slugger is a paranormal figment of Tsukiko's guilt and fear, brought inexplicably to life when the adult Tsukiko desperately needed to escape her responsibilities and then fed and nurtured by the fear of the populace. In a way, Tsukiko does fulfill her job by creating a character (Lil' Slugger) that becomes just as big a sensation as Maromi. When Tsukiko finally confesses the truth, and in doing so accepts the guilt for the death of Maromi, Lil' Slugger is defeated.

Media:
The series first aired on Japan's WOWOW between February 2, 2004 and May 18, 2004. Geneon had licensed the anime in North America and released the series on four DVDs between October 26, 2004 and May 10, 2005. A UMD version of Volume 1 was made available on October 10, 2005. The English-dubbed version began airing in the U.S. on Adult Swim on May 28, 2005 followed by an encore airing that began on June 6, 2006. In Canada, it began a run on the digital channel G4TechTV Canada on July 27, 2007, at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT. The anime is distributed by MVM Films in the UK.

Both not currently available

Episode 1 Part 1 dubbed

Episode 1 Part 2 dubbed

Bonus

TV on UMD: Last Exile

                                            Original run October 15, 2011 – March 23, 2012
                                                                    Episodes 26

PLOT

The story revolves around fifteen-year-old pilot Claus Valca and navigator Lavie Head, who fly their vanship as sky couriers in the nation of Anatoray. Although they usually take up missions of relatively low difficulty, they are one day asked to complete the mission of a dying courier. The mission, rated seven stars out of ten, is to deliver a young girl named Alvis Hamilton to the mysterious battleship Silvana. Despite their fears, Claus and Lavie deliver Alvis to the battleship but decide to remain aboard to keep her safe.

Claus and Lavie are initially treated as intruders but eventually befriend the crew of the Silvana. They learn that the Guild intends to capture Alvis for reasons unknown to them. In the first battle between the Silvana and Guild forces, Guild member Dio Eraclea takes an interest in Claus's flying skills and his signature move, the Immelmann turn. Wanting to learn more about Claus, Dio willingly allows himself to be captured. He reveals to the Silvana's captain, Alex Row, the existence of one of four Mysteria which act as a key to something known as Exile.

When the Silvana's executive officer, Sophia Forrester, is revealed to be the Emperor's daughter and heir, she returns to Anatoray at the request of the prime minister. Sophia assumes the throne after the Emperor is killed during a surprise attack at the capital by the Disith nation and pleads for an alliance with Disith in order to capture Exile and end the Guild's control. Sophia reveals to Claus that Alvis is linked to the Mysteria, but as preparations for the assault are made, Alvis is captured by the Guild.

Delphine Eraclea, the Maestro of the Guild, reveals that Exile is a colony ship used by those who first settled their world, and she intends to use Alvis and the Mysteria to take control of it. However, Claus and Alvis escape the Guild stronghold and are reunited with Lavie when the alliance fleet attacks. As the fleet follows Exile past the Grand Stream and enters Disith, it is able to destroy Delphine's forces. After Claus and Alvis recite the four Mysteria, Exile reveals itself as a starship that will carry people back to their old home world.

UMD

Like most UMD's only 1 volume was ever released and it contains only 2 episodes. #1 First Move and #2 Luft Vanship

DVD

Funimation released a complete series box set of all 26 episodes on June 14, 2011 and is currently available. Series was also dubbed into English.

Episode 17 with subtitles 

                                                                     Bonus

TV on UMD: Gungrave

Reverse

Original air dates: October 7, 2003 – March 30, 2004

Total number of episodes: 26

PLOT

Gungrave opens thirteen years after Brandon Heat is betrayed and killed by his best friend Harry MacDowell. He is reborn through the use of necrolyze as Beyond The Grave, and begins a quest of revenge against the crime syndicate. The series then backtracks to Brandon's youth, and follows him and Harry as they rise through the criminal underworld, detailing the circumstances that led to their eventual falling-out.

UMD

Only one volume was ever released and that contains the first 2 episodes of the series. Destroyer in the Dusk and Young Dogs

DVD

In 2003, Geneon Entertainment, formally Pioneer Entertainment, announced the license of Gungrave in North America. On July 3, 2008, Geneon Entertainment and Funimation Entertainment announced an agreement to distribute select titles in North America after Geneon ceased distribution of their own titles in October 2007. While Geneon Entertainment will still retain the license, Funimation Entertainment will assume exclusive rights to the manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution of select titles. Gungrave was announced as one of the several titles under the agreement on December 30, 2008. As of November 26, 2010, Funimation has fully licensed the anime series. The anime series returned to US television on May 11, 2011 on the Funimation Channel. Funimation also released a complete series box set on July 17, 2011

Complete episode

All episodes from the series are available on YouTube by Funimation

Bonus

TV on UMD: Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo

reverse

Original run October 5, 2004 – March 29, 2005

Episodes 24

Plot

The story takes place in the far future of the 51st Century, during the year 5053.

While visiting Luna for the festival, Viscount Albert de Morcerf and Baron Franz d'Épinay make the acquaintance of the Count of Monte Cristo, a self-made nobleman. When they part, the Count promises to visit Albert in Paris. After he arrives, he introduces himself to the most powerful families in France (the Morcerfs, the Danglars, and the Villeforts).

The general plot of Gankutsuou, while broadly the same as the novel on which it is based, changes many aspects of the source material. In the novel, the narrative arc follows the Count chronologically; in the anime, the story begins with Albert and Franz meeting the Count on Luna (which occurs, in Rome, many hundreds of pages into the book), and the Count's back story is pieced together throughout the series. The anime's plot includes futuristic elements, talking about space travel, computer systems and robots, different fates for some characters, the disposal of several side-plots, and an altogether different ending.

DVD

Originally released by Geneon Entertainment in 2005 in six DVD compilations and was distributed by Madman Entertainment. FUNimation has now gained the rights and released the complete series in a 4-DVD package on April 28, 2009 and not currently available.

UMD

Only 1 was ever released which contains the first 2 episodes of the series. "At Journey's End, We Meet" and "Until the Sun Rises on the Moon"

Funimation has made the entire series available to watch on YouTube

Bonus

TV on UMD: Cowboy Bebop

Bonus

Original run April 3, 1998 – April 24, 1999

Episodes 26 

PLOT

In 2071, roughly fifty years after an accident with a hyperspace gateway made the Earth almost uninhabitable, humanity has colonized most of the rocky planets and moons of the Solar System. Amid a rising crime rate, the Inter Solar System Police (ISSP) set up a legalized contract system, in which registered bounty hunters (also referred to as "Cowboys") chase criminals and bring them in alive in return for a reward. The series' protagonists are bounty hunters working from the spaceship Bebop. The original crew are Spike Spiegel, an exiled former hitman of the criminal Red Dragon Syndicate, and his partner Jet Black, a former ISSP officer. They are later joined by Faye Valentine, an amnesiac con artist; Edward Wong, an eccentric girl skilled in hacking; and Ein, a genetically-engineered Pembroke Welsh Corgi with human-like intelligence. Over the course of the series, the team get involved in disastrous mishaps leaving them out of pocket, while often confronting faces and events from their past: these include Jet's reasons for leaving the ISSP, and Faye's past as a young woman from Earth injured in an accident and cryogenically frozen to save her life.

The main story arc focuses on Spike and his deadly rivalry with Vicious, an enforcer for the Red Dragon Syndicate. Spike and Vicious were once partners and friends, but when Spike began an affair with Vicious's girlfriend Julia and resolved to leave the Syndicate with her, Vicious attempted to have Julia kill Spike. Julia goes into hiding to protect herself and Spike, while Spike fakes his death to escape the Syndicate. In the present, Julia comes out of hiding and reunites with Spike, planning to complete their plan. Vicious, having staged a coup d'état and taken over the Syndicate, sends hitmen after the pair. Julia is killed, leaving Spike alone. His heartbreak feeds his desire to kill Vicious once and for all. Spike leaves the Bebop after saying a final goodbye to Faye and Jet. Upon infiltrating the syndicate, he finds Vicious on the top floor of the building. In a final battle, Vicious is killed and Spike severely wounded. The series ends as Spike descends the main staircase of the building into the rising sun. He falls to the ground, leaving his ultimate fate ambiguous.

UMD 

Even though the case says volume 1 that was the only volume ever released and it contains the first 5 episodes of the series. Including Asteroid Blues, Stray Dog Strut, Honky Tonk Woman, Gateway Shuffle, and Ballad of Fallen Angels.

DVD

A complete set was released on 12/16/2014 and is currently available

Video of a complete episode

Cowboy Bebop- Episode 5 Balled of Fallen Angels

                                                          The Movie is excellent