Four CAV discs. PILA-1231 through PILA-1234. Armitage III (アミテージ・ザ・サード), a four-episode OVA released between 1995 and 1996 on Pioneer LDC — the company that manufactured LaserDisc players. Each volume priced at ¥5,800. Each pressed in CAV, supporting frame-by-frame access to every cel of animation. Each containing a fold-out liner insert titled The Incidental Martian's Chronicle: character and mechanical settei on one face, an atmospheric Martian cityscape illustration on the other. The inserts are color-coded by volume — blue, orange, green, red — building a complete production design archive across four discs.
Mars, 22nd century. Naomi Armitage is a plainclothes cop on the Martian police force and a Third — a third-generation android indistinguishable from humans, capable of reproduction. Someone is systematically hunting Thirds, exposing them in public, dismantling them on camera. Armitage and her new partner Ross Sylibus, a human detective transferred from Earth, follow the conspiracy from the streets of Saint Lowell into the political machinery that built the Third program. The OVA is direct about its Blade Runner inheritance and direct about the question it carries forward: what happens when the line between human and machine becomes a political problem rather than a philosophical one.
Pioneer LDC both produced this OVA and released it on its own format. The CAV pressing, the ¥5,800 price point, the fold-out settei inserts — this is a format manufacturer packaging its own content in the configuration that showed its hardware at its best.
The Format
PILA-1231 opens the set. CAV, both sides, 45 minutes — Episode 1 'Electro Blood' split across two sides with opening, ending, and a preview of Episode 2. Volumes 2 through 4 are single-sided at 30 minutes each. All four discs support frame-by-frame stepping. Pioneer LDC manufactured the players that read these discs and produced the animation pressed onto them. The レンタル禁止 (rental prohibited) stamp on each back cover marks this as purchase-only — a release for the collector who already owned the hardware.
Volume 1 back. 'EPISODE 1 ELECTRO BLOOD.' PILA-1231, CAV, 2面/45min, NTSC, stereo. ¥5,800. Staff and cast credits, chapter listings, scene screenshots. Pioneer LDC copyright 1994.
Volume 2 — 'Flesh & Stone.' Armitage surrounded by cables and dismantled electronics, the word 'CONCEPTION' ghosted behind the title. PILA-1232.
Volume 3 — 'Heart Core.' Armitage's body fragmenting into circuitry and liquid, hair exploding upward with circuit traces. The android revealed. PILA-1233.
Volume 4 — 'Bit of Love.' Armitage battle-damaged against a red desert landscape, clothing torn, posture defiant. The final cover. PILA-1234.
Volume 4 back. 'EPISODE 4 BIT OF LOVE.' Scene screenshots showing Ross and Armitage in the Martian desert — the series' emotional register shifting from conspiracy thriller to something closer to elegy. PILA-1234, CAV, 1面/30min.
The Episode Titles
Each episode carries an English subtitle. 'Electro Blood.' 'Flesh & Stone.' 'Heart Core.' 'Bit of Love.' The progression is deliberate — from circuitry to materiality to interiority to emotion. The jacket illustrations follow the same arc: Volume 1 shows Armitage intact and posed; Volume 2 entangles her in cables; Volume 3 fragments her body into its component parts; Volume 4 puts her in a desert, damaged, with nothing mechanical visible. Four covers tracking a character from what she appears to be to what she is.
The Incidental Martian's Chronicle
Every volume includes a fold-out liner insert. The series title across all four: The Incidental Martian's Chronicle. One face carries production settei — character model sheets, mechanical designs, prop references — printed in a single color that changes per volume. Blue for Volume 1 (Armitage's full character turnaround and expression sheets). Orange for Volume 2 (supporting cast, with a large question mark at the center — the mystery still open). Green for Volume 3 (vehicles, weapons, the MAVI equipment collection). Red for Volume 4 (remaining cast and comparison sheets). Across four inserts, a complete design reference for the series.
Volume 1 settei insert — blue. Naomi Armitage character design sheets: full-body turnaround, facial expressions, costume details. Production-grade model sheets distributed as packaging.
Volume 2 settei insert — orange. Supporting character designs with a prominent '?' at center. Character model sheets for Ross Sylibus and the secondary cast, printed in warm monochrome.
Volume 3 settei insert — green. Mechanical and prop designs: vehicles, weapons, equipment. 'MAVI COLLECTION' section with technical drawings of the Martian police hardware.
Volume 4 settei insert — red. The final character reference sheets, including height comparison charts and remaining cast members. The design archive closes in the warmest color.
Volume 1 reverse — 'Electro Blood.' A Martian orbital station rendered in deep blue, the colony city stretching below. Armitage stands small at the bottom of the frame. Story synopsis in the lower third.
Volume 2 reverse — 'Flesh & Stone.' Scene screenshots arranged inside monitor frames spelling 'ARMITAGE III.' Armitage's portrait at the bottom, looking directly at the viewer.
Volume 3 reverse — 'Heart Core.' The Martian cityscape at its darkest: massive structures in shadow, green targeting grid overlaid. Armitage in civilian clothes, eyes closed.
Volume 4 reverse — 'Bit of Love.' Abstract targeting reticle over a sky that shifts from blue to nothing. Armitage at the bottom, small against a glowing neon frame. The last illustration in the set.
Volume 2 back. 'EPISODE 2 FLESH & STONE.' Orange-framed scene screenshots. PILA-1232, CAV, 1面/30min, ¥5,800.
Volume 3 back. 'EPISODE 3 HEART CORE.' Green-framed screenshots. PILA-1233. The back covers maintain the same color coding as the settei inserts — blue, orange, green, red.
In 1997, Pioneer released the Poly-Matrix theatrical compilation — the four episodes compressed into 90 minutes, dubbed into English with Kiefer Sutherland and Elizabeth Berkley. The OVA reached a wider audience in that form. The CAV formatting, the settei inserts, the color-coded liner series, and the Martian cityscape illustrations on the reverse of every insert did not travel with it.
Pioneer LDC produced the animation, pressed the discs, and manufactured the players that read them. The CAV formatting, the settei inserts, and the Martian cityscape illustrations belong to four twelve-inch discs from a company that also built the hardware to play them.
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