Gatchaman Best Selection DVDs

Hello all!

Nippon Columbia has announced the upcoming release of a new Gatchaman DVD Box Set, the Gatchaman Best Selection DVD-Box. At this point, details regarding the set are few. Specifically what is known is as follows: it is a 6-disc set, it retails for 9,450 yen, the stock number for the set is XT-2426, and it will be released on March 21, 2007.

By the name of the set, and the number of discs, I suspect that this is nothing more than a reissue of the six volume Gatchaman Best Selection series that Nippon Columbia released in 2004, now in a single box instead of as individual volumes. If that is the case, the discs will each have 3 episodes from the series (The "Best" episodes, of course), with no additional bonus material. The episodes included on the Best Selection discs from 2004 were as follows:

Vol. 1

#1 - Gatchaman Versus Turtle King
#8 - The Secret of the Crescent Coral Reef
#11 - The Mysterious Red Impulse

Vol. 2

#22 - The Firebird Versus the Fire-Eating Dragon
#27 - Gallactor's Witch Racer
#31 - The Plan to Assassinate Dr. Nambu

Vol. 3

#42 - The Great Breakout Trick Operation
#46 - Gatchaman in the Valley of Death
#53 - Farewell Red Impulse

Vol. 4

#56 - The Hated Bird Missile
#74 - Secret of the Birdstyles
#78 - Mortal Combat! 10,000 Meters Under the Sea

Vol. 5

#81 - The Duel of Gallactor Island
#88 - Iron Beast Snake 828
#92 - The End of the Crescent Base

Vol. 6

#99 - The Wounded G-2
#102 - Countermove! Checkmate X
#105 - Earth's Extinction! 0002

Whether or not you might consider these to be the "best" episodes from the series, they do make for a decent overview from the show for the casual viewer. If I discover the line-up included in the set is different than what was released in 2004, I'll let you know, but it's probably safe to assume these will be what is included in this set.

Also assume the usual caveats apply; it's Region 2 and won't play on unmodified U.S. DVD players, it's in straight Japanese with no subtitles, etc., etc.

If you're interested in this Gatchaman sampler set, it can be ordered through places like CD Japan
( http://www.cdjapan.co.jp )

or Amazon Japan
( http://www.amazon.co.jp )

I hope this helps!

James

You know I might have to buy this

__________________
Thanks Cep

Gatchamania.net Administrator

Hello all!

Well, the Gatchaman Best Selection DVD-Box was released in Japan yesterday, and I can finally confirm that it is made up of the contents of the six discs of individual Best Selection DVD release from 2004. I mean that literally, it is made up from the same six discs, individual cases, sleeves and all. Actually, Nippon Columbia is stretching things beyond credibility by even calling this a "DVD-Box," because they didn't even bother to put the discs in an actual box. Instead, they simply took the six discs from the 2004 release and put them inside an outer paper cover that proclaims this as the Best Selection DVD-Box, and put shrink wrap around the whole deal. The affair really screams of Nippon Columbia simply trying to figure out a way to get rid of overstock as cheaply as possible. I wouldn't mind so much if they'd gone through the effort to package these in a real box, but as it is, it fails to impress.

On the other hand, if you're interested in the discs, and didn't pick them up individually, getting them in this all-in-one set is far more cost effective than buying the separate volumes (9,480 yen for the "DVD-Box," as opposed to 2,940 yen per volume individually).

In case you care, this is what the front of the "box" looks like:



And this is the back of the package, showing pictures of the six individual volumes you'll find inside that paper wrapper:



I wonder now if they'll pull the same thing with the five "Super Best 1500" DVDs they released a few months after the Best Selection DVDs came out. I can't say I'll be surprised if they do!

James