Bastard!! 暗黒の破壊神 (PILA-1149~1151, Pioneer LDC, 週刊少年ジャンプvideo, August 25, 1992–June 25, 1993) spans three CAV LaserDiscs. Two episodes per disc, six total. ¥7,800 per volume. Each disc includes an ALL ABOUT BASTARD!! WORLD booklet section — an A spread of color illustration and image board reference, and a B spread of character and world settei — organized per volume and labeled accordingly: WORLD I, WORLD II, WORLD III.
Kazushi Hagiwara (萩原一至) began the Bastard!! manga in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1988. Dark Schneider — an ancient sorcerer of catastrophic power, sealed fifteen years earlier inside a boy named Luche Renren — is repeatedly unleashed to defend the Kingdom of Metallicana. The spells are named after heavy metal bands: Venom, AC/DC, Exodus, Judas Priest. The four warlord antagonists take their names from album titles. AIC handled the animation under director Katsuhito Akiyama (秋山勝仁). Character designer 北爪宏幸 (Kitazume Hiroyuki) constructed the cast; 田中公平 (Tanaka Kohei) composed the score.
The OVA ran concurrent with the individual disc releases: Vol.1 shipped August 25, 1992, the same date as episodes 1 and 2. Vol.2 followed in December. Vol.3 closed the series on June 25, 1993. CAV format across all three discs gives each release frame-by-frame access to Kitazume's key animation on AIC's 1992 production line.
CAV, Three Volumes
Pioneer LDC issued all three volumes in CAV — not the typical choice for 60-minute double-episode content, which would fit on a single CLV side. The CAV pressing costs more to manufacture and retail, but gives the buyer still-frame and slow-motion access to every frame. For a series built around Kitazume Hiroyuki's character animation, the choice registers as a statement about what the format was for.
Each back cover carries the long two-handed sword motif vertically down the spine, episode stills in a column, a synopsis block, and full staff and cast credits. Catalog number and format specification at the foot. Production: Pioneer LDC / Shueisha.
Vol.1 back cover — PILA-1149, Pioneer LDC, 1992. Vertical sword motif down the spine, episode stills, synopsis, full staff/cast credits. Catalog number and format spec at foot.
Vol.1 gatefold interior — PILA-1149. All three volume jackets shown in miniature alongside episode stills, production photography, and supplemental visual reference. Pioneer LDC layout.
ALL ABOUT BASTARD!! WORLD I-A — Vol.1 booklet spread, A section. Color illustration pages: image boards and character portraiture across multiple panels. Production-era color reference.
ALL ABOUT BASTARD!! WORLD I-B — Vol.1 booklet spread, B section. Dense character and world settei: orthographic views, multiple expression studies, proportion notes, costume and equipment documentation.
ALL ABOUT BASTARD!! WORLD
Each volume includes its own labeled booklet section. The A spreads present color illustration material — Kitazume Hiroyuki's character art alongside image board paintings establishing the world's visual register. The B spreads carry the settei: dense grids of orthographic views, expression libraries, and detailed notes for every significant character introduced in that disc's two episodes. Three A spreads and three B spreads across the complete set; six booklet pages total, one pair per volume.
Vol.2 front cover — PILA-1150, Pioneer LDC, December 1992. Dark Schneider with Gara and Kall-Su; blue-dominant palette, different character configuration from Vol.1.
Vol.2 back cover — PILA-1150. Vertical sword motif, episode stills for episodes 3–4, synopsis, staff/cast credits.
Kitazume's Cast
北爪宏幸 (Kitazume Hiroyuki) had been one of AIC's primary character designers since the mid-1980s. The Bastard!! settei in each booklet's B spread documents his construction method: the head geometry, the body proportion ratios, the consistent face structure across characters of wildly different designs. The documentation holds because the source drawings are precise enough to reproduce.
Vol.2 gatefold interior — PILA-1150. Episode stills for Vol.2, production reference imagery, all three disc jacket miniatures. Same layout format as Vol.1.
ALL ABOUT BASTARD!! WORLD II-A — Vol.2 booklet spread, A section. Color illustration pages for Vol.2 characters and environments; expanded cast introduced in episodes 3–4.
ALL ABOUT BASTARD!! WORLD II-B — Vol.2 booklet spread, B section. Settei for the Vol.2 character set: orthographic grids, expression studies, secondary cast documentation.
Vol.3 front cover — PILA-1151, Pioneer LDC, June 25, 1993. Dark Schneider with Arshes Nei and additional characters; purple and magenta tones, denser character grouping than previous volumes.
Vol.3 back cover — PILA-1151. Vertical sword motif, episodes 5–6 stills, synopsis. Full series staff and cast credits on the final volume.
Vol.3 gatefold interior — PILA-1151. Series-complete reference: all three jacket sets, episode stills for Vol.3, full production visual index. Final entry in the three-volume gatefold series.
The Final Volume
Vol.3 closed the OVA on June 25, 1993, ten months after the series opened. The WORLD III booklet section covers the final episode's expanded character roster — Arshes Nei receives the most extensive settei documentation of any character across the three volumes. The 1999 Pioneer DVD release (PIBA-1030) compiled all six episodes on a single disc; the ALL ABOUT BASTARD!! WORLD booklet material was not carried forward.
ALL ABOUT BASTARD!! WORLD III-A — Vol.3 booklet spread, A section. Color illustration pages for the final episode's cast; Arshes Nei prominent. Image board paintings and character portraiture.
ALL ABOUT BASTARD!! WORLD III-B — Vol.3 booklet spread, B section. Final settei spread: character orthographics, expression studies, staff portraits, and production notes closing the documentation series.
The 1999 Pioneer DVD (PIBA-1030) collects all six episodes on a single disc. No ALL ABOUT BASTARD!! WORLD booklet material appears in it. The three CAV pressings carry both the episodes and a structured documentation package; the DVD carries only the episodes.
Each volume in the CAV set also holds something the DVD cannot replicate by format: frame-by-frame access. Kitazume Hiroyuki's key animation on AIC's 1992 production — the same drawing precision documented in the B-spread settei sheets — sits accessible in the disc itself, one frame at a time, thirty minutes per side.
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