Collecting the Kawajiri Films
Most anime film clusters are collected in Japanese objects. This one is collected in Western ones. The editions that matter for Kawajiri are the artifacts of the video store era and its long aftermath: the tapes that were rented to death, the dubs that split by country, the discs that reunited them. This is the census of those editions, film by film.
Wicked City: Streamline’s 1993 VHS began it; Urban Vision’s DVD of 2000 kept the American dub in print; the collector’s terminus is Discotek’s Remastered Special Edition (DVD 2016, Blu-ray after), the only edition carrying both English dubs and the uncut film together. Demon City Shinjuku: U.S. Manga Corps tapes (subtitled in 1993, dubbed after), Central Park Media’s DVD of 1998, then Discotek’s remastered DVD of 2011 and Blu-ray of 2020.
Ninja Scroll has the deepest bench: Manga Entertainment’s 1995 VHS in dubbed and subtitled lines; a LaserDisc credited to Geneon in Anime News Network’s listing; early DVD; the anniversary editions that restored the British cuts; Manga UK’s twentieth anniversary steelbook of 2013 with its twenty-page booklet, produced in the low thousands; Sentai’s Blu-ray line from its 2012 license, the 2024 steelbook, and the 4K UHD steelbook due in early 2027. Japan’s own Blu-ray arrived on 23 May 2012.
Bloodlust: Urban Vision’s DVD and VHS of 12 February 2002; Avex’s Japanese DVD of 19 December 2001, the one edition with both the English original and the Japanese dub; Discotek’s Blu-ray of 8 September 2015, English-only by licensor rule. And on paper, the shelf’s prize: Kawajiri’s Bloodlust storyboard collection, published by Asahi Sonorama in 2001, the entire film in his own boards.