PILA-1236 is 幻魔大戦 — Rintaro's Harmagedon, 1983, Madhouse animation, Haruki Kadokawa producing, Keith Emerson scoring, Katsuhiro Otomo doing character design five years before Akira. PILA-1237 is カムイの剣 — Rintaro's The Dagger of Kamui, 1985, Madhouse animation, Haruki Kadokawa producing, Ryudo Uzaki and Eitetsu Hayashi scoring, Sanada Hiroyuki voicing the lead in his anime debut. Pioneer LDC pressed both and numbered them consecutively. The catalog recorded what the production axis was before anyone was writing about it as an axis.
Both LaserDiscs are standard Pioneer releases — obi strip, catalog number on spine, Pioneer LaserVision mark. The difference is what's inside the jacket: PILA-1236 opens to Otomo's working drawings on a lavender hexagonal ground. PILA-1237 carries the theatrical poster art. One gatefold held a document. The other held a promotional image. The catalog number is what connects them.
AnimEigo US LaserDisc release — 1990s, English subtitles. Entirely different key visual: red diagonal title treatment against a darker composite. The AnimEigo logo, lower left. This is the release Western collectors know. Still sealed.
Pioneer LDC's PILA series is not a curated editorial selection. It is a catalog — a running number assigned to releases as they are pressed. PILA-1236 and PILA-1237 are adjacent because the films were made by the same people two years apart and pressed by the same distributor. The catalog did not know it was making an argument.
But the argument is there. Put both discs on a shelf. PILA-1236 and PILA-1237. Harmagedon and Dagger of Kamui. Rintaro's two Kadokawa productions, side by side, spine to spine. One is remembered as a preview of Otomo's visual language. The other is remembered mostly by people who own PILA-1237. The catalog number doesn't distinguish between them. It just counted.
AnimEigo released Dagger of Kamui on LaserDisc in the 1990s with English subtitles — the version most Western collectors know. The Pioneer original is the one that sits next to PILA-1236.
Loading...