Otakon 2024 hosted several industry panels including: dark horse, Bandai Namco movies and Xiaodou Comics. But the conference was always about more than industry guests. The fan panel has always been key to the Otakon experience. This year, old favorites are back (“AMV Hell 8”) and new ones are debuting (“Why are blue penguins so common in Japanese media?”). The biggest surprise for me, though, is the pop-up “anime” home video museum .
Sponsor: Great SG creationThe Anime Home Video Museum believes that the storage and dissemination of animation are an important part of the history of the media. Decades of development in home video technology have produced a plethora of dead ends and hilarious mistakes. It’s easy to forget these topics when streaming is so ubiquitous. But that would mean erasing decades of stories about anime buying and selling in Japan and abroad.
laser disc
The anime’s release in the United States is done in stages. Fans traded subtitled VHS tapes (and used them to create early AMVs). The publisher retained and resumed animation production through Blu-ray Disc after ending formal DVD production and distribution many years ago.
However, these are not the only platforms for commercialization of Western animation. A memorable early format (according to GreatSG) was laserdisc, which debuted in 1978 and was supplied by Phillips in Europe, MCA in the United States, and Pioneer Corporation in Japan. Although expensive at first, it became popular among anime fans due to its high-quality footage and packaging. According to the Encyclopedia of Anime News website, for quite some time, LD animation was more popular than VHS due to its superior era image quality and storage convenience in comparison. To this day, collectors still look for rare LDs at shows.
Gameboy Advance player and VideoNow
However, pre-streaming video distribution is much stranger than Jumbo LaserDisc. Just look at the Gameboy Advance video player released in 2004 by Majesco Entertainment. Its closest competitor at the time, Universal Media Disc (a media format designed by Sony for its portable game consoles), was superior in every way. But I can’t help but find the Gameboy Advance video player even more fascinating. It was probably the worst way to watch anime at the time, but hell, it was on the GBA!
Surprisingly, VideoNow Player is the favorite among viewers. Released in 2003 by Tiger Electronics, special “PVD” episodes are aired one episode per episode. The player has a small grayscale screen and can play media at 15 frames per second. I have no personal experience with VideoNow Player, but viewers certainly have. It got me thinking about how your date of birth and family income level determine your familiarity with these different devices.
Video8 and QuickTime CD-ROM
Some of the techniques covered in the Animation Home Video Museum are notable not because of their functionality, but because animation is fundamentally made for this format. One example is the Video8 cassette developed in 1984 by Kodak and Sony. Video8 can store up to 300 minutes of video, is very expensive, and is suitable for amateur video cameras. However, according to the panelists, at least one anime was released on the platform: 1981’s Honey, Honey.
Other technologies are included because of their historical relevance. QuickTime CD-Rom was developed by Software Sculptors, a company originally known for its video screensavers and released in 1996. . Developers founded Media Blasters in 1996, and the company still exists today.
Explore the Anime Home Video Museum
The most impressive part of the panel was after the oral part. Audiences lined up to visit the physical “Animation Home Video Museum” set up around the podium. Many of the devices I mentioned here—LaserDiscs, GameBoy Advance Players, even Honey Honey Video8 tapes—were on display. I was especially happy to see the GameBoy Advance Player, which is every bit as adorable as I remembered it being dysfunctional.
My only criticism is that the museum section is rather short. After just five to ten minutes, the team members have to pack everything up so they can start the next task as planned. I can’t help but wish the museum had an expanded (perhaps permanent) exhibition. Otakon 2024 itself also hosts a 30th anniversary exhibition, showcasing past conference buttons, brochures and flyers. A proper home video museum should be very feasible.
endangered species
One thing in particular stood out to me: a Blu-ray copy of the 2003 edition Fullmetal Alchemist. This series is an animated classic from the early 2000s and a childhood favorite of mine. Now it’s an “endangered species,” unavailable for streaming and out of print on physical media. “If you have the means,” the accompanying blurb reads, “try to actually collect your favorite shows before you lose the ability to do so due to arbitrary corporate decisions.”
When people imagine “lost media,” they might think of things like Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Save Princess Peach Or various lost dubs. Panelists praised organizations such as Kineko Video and the Internet Archive for restoring and preserving these forgotten works. However if Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 was a sign that nothing is immune to the intense pressures of capitalism and time. Anything can become lost media. That’s exactly why preservation – whether spearheaded by the industry or fans themselves – is so important.