Heavy Metal L-Gaim Memorial Box, Bandai Visual BELL-853 (mark-1) and BELL-854 (mark-2). Fourteen CLV discs across two simultaneous releases, December 18, 1995, eleven years and ten months after the Fuji TV premiere (February 4, 1984). Digital mono, NTSC. Seven discs each: three two-disc volumes (disc 1&2, 3&4, 5&6) plus a single disc 7. mark-1 covers episodes 1–26 of the original 54-episode run; mark-2 covers episodes 27–54. Side 2 of disc 7 in mark-1 appends the Full Metal Soldier OVA (March 28, 1987).
Each box ships with a multi-section booklet produced specifically for this 1995 release. mark-1: a Tomino retrospective interview (October 1995), character catalogue, and 永野護 conversation. mark-2: eight sections, STILL JUST A DREAM, YOUNGMAN GENERATION, THE CREATORS, THE CHARACTER VOICES, THE COMPOSER, THE ARTIST, THE FULL SCRATCH BUILDER, ILLUSTRATED ANTHOLOGY. All content new to the 1995 release.
Fourteen Discs
L-Gaim ran 54 episodes on Fuji TV from February 4, 1984 to February 23, 1985, produced by Sunrise. The Memorial Box appeared on December 18, 1995, a decade-plus retrospective in two simultaneous releases. mark-1 and mark-2 each hold seven discs: three two-disc volumes (disc 1&2, disc 3&4, disc 5&6) plus a single disc 7. Each CLV disc side carries two episodes, with OP/A-part/B-part/ED/preview assigned separate chapter stops, roughly ten chapter entries per episode. The chapter system functions as a complete index across all 54 episodes.
HEAVYMETAL L-GAIM MEMORIAL BOX Mark.2, outer box front. Catalog: BELL-854. Bandai Visual / EMOTION, December 18, 1995. Same Kaida illustration format, L-Gaim in blue-purple night sky. Episodes 27–54.
mark-1 disc 1&2 front jacket, sepia/brown filter. Episodes 1–8. Each two-disc volume in mark-1 uses the same Nagano mecha close-up illustration filtered to a distinct color temperature.
mark-1 disc 3&4 front jacket, cyan filter. Episodes 9–16. Abstract mecha detail: cabling, joint hardware, rendered without reference to scale.
mark-1 disc 5&6, deep pink/magenta. Episodes 17–24. The booklet spread visible inside lists each episode title, A/B-part, and per-episode staff credits.
mark-1 disc 7 back cover, the final disc of BELL-853. SIDE 1: episodes 25–26 (ラブ・アゲイン, サーチⅡ). SIDE 2: Full Metal Soldier OVA (フルメタルソルジャー/オープニングタイトル + 本篇 + エンディング). Catalog: BELL-853. 発売元: バンダイビジュアル株式会社.
Full Metal Soldier
Full Metal Soldier was the third of three L-Gaim theatrical OVAs, released March 28, 1987, two years after the TV series ended. An original standalone LD pressing in CAV format, distributed by Network Co. Ltd., released it as a self-contained disc. Disc 7 of mark-1 appends it on Side 2, listed explicitly in the chapter index on the back cover as 'OVAフルメタルソルジャー.' Episodes 25 and 26 fill Side 1; the OVA fills the side that remains.
Full Metal Soldier standalone LD back cover, original Network Co. Ltd. pressing, CAV, Digital Sound. The standalone release predates the Memorial Box by eight years. The same OVA content appears on disc 7 of mark-1 (BELL-853).
mark-1 booklet, 総監督 富野由悠季 / THE DIRECTOR Yoshiyuki Tomino. Page 7 of the Tomino retrospective interview, conducted October 1995. This spread covers his account of working with Nagano, the conditions of the 1984 production, and the decade of Zeta Gundam, ZZ, and Victory that followed.
The Last Anime
Tomino's October 1995 interview opens: もしかしたら「エルガイム」は、僕にとって最後のアニメだったかもしれない: L-Gaim might have been his last anime. He describes what followed as 自分にとってある意味で徒渡戦 (guerrilla warfare, in a way), looking back across a decade that included Zeta Gundam, Gundam ZZ, Char's Counterattack, and Victory Gundam.
L-Gaim aired when he was working with Mamoru Nagano, then 21, handling both character and mechanical design as his first professional assignment. Nagano started Five Star Stories serialization in 1986, during the L-Gaim run, and left Sunrise in 1989. The conditions of that production, that particular combination of staff, that particular moment of freedom, are what Tomino describes as unrepeatable.
mark-1 booklet, THE VISUALIST: Mamoru Nagano (page 14). Profile caption: 'メカだけでなく、キャラクターや基本設定を含めたコンセプト・デザイナーの立場で参加した永野護にとって、この作品は特別な意義を持っている.' Character, mecha, and conceptual design: one person, his professional debut.
mark-1 booklet, COMPILATION OF MAMORU NAGANO'S WORKS (page 28). Left: Shera Reef portrait ('Regretfully, he was seldom seen in the original animation'). Right: Auge with mask ('The image of Heavy Metal depends on how you see her. What if her mask's been ever taken off?'). Original Nagano illustration, not animation frame.
Designs Not Seen
The booklet's 'COMPILATION OF MAMORU NAGANO'S WORKS' spread reproduces original Nagano illustration with English-language captions written from his own notes. For Shera Reef: 'Regretfully, he was seldom seen in the original animation.' For Auge: the mask question, unanswered in 54 episodes. Nagano's 'THE VISUALIST' interview names the connection directly: 「ファイブスター物語」は、明らかに「エルガイム」の反発から生まれたんですよ: Five Star Stories grew as a clear reaction against L-Gaim. The spread carries designs that 54 episodes couldn't accommodate, alongside Nagano's account of where the unrealized work went.
mark-1 booklet, 永野護 × 森島隆之 conversation. Two-page spread. Nagano in discussion with editorial collaborator Morishima Takayuki. Profile: 'ながの まもる/1960年1月31日. 前のデザイナーとして入社、入社後4ヶ月に「重戦機エルガイム」のキャラクター、メカニック設計の担当を担当.' Also notes his later work on Five Star Stories.
mark-1 booklet, CHARACTER CATALOGUE. ダバ・マイロード (Daba Myroad) in full suit with weapon; supporting cast insets. Character profiles across both mark-1 and mark-2 booklets cover the principal cast with per-character production notes.
Yuji Kaida illustration, outer box art detail. L-Gaim arm and shoulder unit reaching outward against pastel cloud sky with two moons. This illustration wraps across the outer box exterior; the version here is the right-hand half. ILLUSTRATION BY YUJI KAIDA / DESIGNED BY THESEDAYS.
The 2025 Blu-ray (BCXA-1964, "重戦機エルガイム ドリーマーズ Blu-ray BOX," February 26, 2025) contains all 54 episodes, both TV compilation films, and all three OVAs at HD resolution, with a 60-page guidebook, at ¥74,800. It is the first domestic HD pressing. BELL-853 and BELL-854 carry the same TV run and OVA at standard definition, plus the 1995 booklets: Tomino's October 1995 retrospective on the conditions of the 1984 production and the decade that followed; Nagano's account of L-Gaim's relationship to Five Star Stories. The Blu-ray's guidebook is 60 pages. The two Memorial Box booklets together are longer, and those specific interviews, conducted for this release in 1995, do not appear in the Blu-ray documentation.
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