You know when Konami said they were going back to their roots years ago, they might as well just have became a jukebox rental and repair company. Instead of y'know a game company that's reputation is pretty much dead, and only now looking for redemption.

Gotta be honest. The best part of this video is the historical context of shoot'em'ups. I didn't even know Gradius had an OVA, but now I am glad I know. Great video as always Kaiser!

If you're going to talk about Konami games and anime, you need to find "Zone of the Enders IDOLO" OVA and "Dolores, I." television series. The first is a slightly connected prequel to the first game. The TV series is a heartwarming story about a space trucker father trying to bring his family together on a road trip from Mars to Earth and back to find his wife, with the giant robot 'daughter' and pet kitten.

respect to them because they really respected the game

I really appreciate you starting from the primordial soup when discussing almost anything, because really who is going to know this stuff. I haven't played a shoot 'em up since Chicken Invaders or something! Excellent video, got me sold on this Salamander OVA I never even heard of before!

the one sad part is that it would be almost impossible to watch the Salamander OVA by legal means because, of course Konami (and Japanese companies in general). So wave that flag, Luffy.

I'm working on following number of syllables and mouth movements in here to get a better translation made for the OVA that just flows better, and so be able to drop it in as a separate srt file, as wholly a solo effort. Separate from that, I DID manage to translate the OVA's ED song "I Remember You" into workable English and keep its message intact as a labor of love since I immediately took to the song when I heard it for the first time. It's in the comments of the video at *_watch?v=znufQ6d3Tx0_* if you'd like to see them. Finally, I am more of a story-and-plot-interested player of games, even in shmups. Maybe that makes me more rare? Honestly, if there WAS to be a series around the insanity of Parodius as a sub-universe with ALL of the classic fan service and self-referential work, plus the current definition of fan service, then covering the other, light-hearted spin-off games including the slightly too serious Otomedius in addition to the Bombergirl, Chase Chase Jokers, and Mahjong Fight Girl casts would provide no shortage of content. Personally, there's a ton there, and it feels like the sort of thing meant for Studio SHAFT. Enemies for a mirroring head tilt, ahoges and other hairstyles to animate in order to reflect character mental state, a lot of females to have interact, it would be like this generation's example of Negima?! they did. With so much, it can easily become a series all to itself and gesture warmly (hopefully) to the past when things were simpler.

Parodious OVA? No no no! Better idea: Cho Aniki OVA! Imagine the wonderful shit show *that* would be!

31:19 I will say Cyra's contribution to the discussion was short, yet very powerful. I like Shoot em ups as it is, but her statement really made me think about them further.

This anime looks surprisingly good. I'm used to video game OVAs dropping the ball, taking way too many liberties with the story, not giving action scenes enough budget to shine and then suffering from poor translation after the fact. But this? This looks Z Gundam as hell! Side note, the algorithm seems to be blessing me with a lot more queer gamer content and I couldn't be happier about that.

a little late, but didn't realize FM-Synth was helping on this one! I've seen them around in one of my other retro-arcade twitch circles, so funny small world there! I think I saw part of this on youtube I may need to look it up again. especially if one of the chapters covers Gradius II: Gofer's Ambition, definitely my favorite in the series so far.

I love Salamander. Dear Blue, at least the new version of it, is one of the best songs of all time.

While Konami is A shell of it's former self, at least Konami gave us 'The Cowabunga Collection'.

Queer Furries IN SPACE! What a wonderful world.

I always knew Gradius/Salamander was a big deal. But I never knew WHY it was a big deal

R-Type fans do love the insane R-Type lore, but I'm not sure they'd watch a R-Type anime

What's awesome is another one of my favorite Konami arcade games being Monster Maulers, there's not only an obvious brainy monster inspired by Gradius, but an animated Moai statue (they love em at Konami) boss which uses another remix of "Poison of Snake" for the theme. Makes me wish they made an anime of that game too, instead of just a manga which I cannot find any scans of online. Guess it's really rare even in Japan.

Props to you, KB, for a great video :) Nobody does retro anime like you :)

okay, I was already happy you put Contra stage one in the opening section, but come @23:46, you put “In The Wind” as the BGM, and that’s just love right there

Really was a great review and look back at an oft ignored game genre. The anime looked ok. Id like to track it down!

Video games are a performative form of entertainment. The player's actions are the story. Who pilots Vic Viper? It's the player, and each play is a telling of that player's story.

Based intro and based friend.

As always, great review and retrospective :D

This would have blown my mind if these were released in the US back in the NES era. I used to be fascinated with box art and seeing artwork in the magazines that fleshed out the 8 bit graphics you saw in the games. I would have worn the VHS out just playing it an running it back just to watch the art.

Simple reason it flopped, they did not use Itano Circus animation. Sorry I had to say it. Great video by the way.

I had no idea this existed, and now I MUST find a copy of the OST. I always loved the Gradius-series music. Oh and as a fairly casual shmup fan, yeah, I don't think I've ever cared about the plot of a shmup in my life. Although I might have watched this back in the day just because it looks cool, if I knew it existed.

Wow, thanks Cyra ❤

IMO this could have some potential for a remake.

Hay the guy in the funny hat is the wizard from Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors @24:03

WOW, this is an obscure one even for someone like me who's been an anime fan since the 80s.

Who can forget not gradius. I can totally believe Konami would burry a ova after they suffered a loss.

Perhaps Konami should had adapted the TMNT arcade game before Salamander to really ensure some success.

gosh dang I love your videos so much

KaizerBeamz also hates BlooberTeam hell yeaaaaah

-What's the name of this prince? -Something like Lord British, but less stupid. -Sure, we'll remember to change it later.

If you can find it, there’s a short ova that’s a pc game adaptation called “Download- Devil’s Circuit” that could make for a fun video. I think it’s directed by Rintaro and Kanada Yoshinori.

Theres a reason, so many of these have made it over into Yugioh cards than probably any other Konami property. They make up several srchtype decks of theit own as well as appearing as random one off cards in a variety of different themes or decks. Some have become iconic in early yugioh like Solar Flare Dragon and the several Moi cannon monsters.. they even adapted some of the story beats or lore into the card mechanics for some with varying sucess. The BES monsters are based on the boss monsters with counters as their health bar and thanks to a card called Boss Rush! Simualte the made by the same name afaisnt your opponent. The Vic Viper ships themsleves have unions like Graduus' Option and others specific to the kind of ship. Lord Brittish is its own fighter that can be equippped with trigon that looks like the salmander enemy comming out of the ship.

1:45 fucking fascinating clip imma show my parents later

Did you include the Yugioh piece in this because Konami put a big chunk of Gradius characters as cards in the game and not just because both titles are owned by Konami?

How did spoony not cover this?!

Only Konami shoot-em-up game I played was the entire Parodious series.

Thanks for a cool video. I used to play Lifeforce in the arcades, so I was excited when I found it for rent in an old Japanese video store. It was hard to get into without translations, but the end battle was fun. I think that fans who loved the game would have been happy to watch a video of their favorite video game. After all, there were many video games released as OVAs, tv series and movies. It may have just gotten lost in the shuffle of the video & OVA boom of the 80's. Sadly, this never got a US release. I'm curious about those (Lord)British VHS releases though. Great research on this video.

Cyra's hella cool

It's possible that Konami didn't have a good marketing or release strategy in mind for the Salamander OVA. They also may have overestimated how receptive the player base would be as mentioned in the video. After all, a gamer will predominately spend money on games. Had it seen a North American or European release during the anime boom of the late 90s and early 00s, the OVA may have seen a new lease on life; it certainly would scratch the sci-fi itch without being pornographic or too violent.

slightly off topic but I still think it was really funny a year or so back when the Getsu Fuma Den remake was announced during a Nintendo *Indie* Showcase. Ah yes, the small struggling indie developer *checks notes* Konami. What a time.

Seeing anything related to Konami just makes me sad...

BATH WARRIORS!! 🛀💥☄️

The purple headed girl looks like Nadia from blue water

I'd love to get this on a subbed DVD, even if it were a bootleg, but I can't find that or a legit one on ebay, etc which is a shame. Sure all three are free on YT, but still...

But sphix never mention in this ova because if the adapted they must mention any plot that connected the game

only important thing: is there an eng dub ver ? i just could find sub versions on a quick search... but i hate to read lines while watching a movie... simply sux. so if there is one, where ? :)

Could you please tell me the track's name that's being played at around 08:48 ?

Yeah this was long before Konami decided that "Oh yeah those MSX Gradius games we were doing at the same time as the arcade ones? That was the actual plot of Gradius." Hence these aren't canon by any stretch.

What is the Kyoto Video theme song?

Where can I find that contra cover

1 minute and 40 seconds later......

Am I the only one with the Deco 27 song playing in their head the whole time watching? Also wasn't there a Twinbee anime?

Whats the anime at 6:10?

Um, can we get a separate term for this style of anime? Lots of people may believe in "the anime style", which was more popularized with shows like Sailor Moon and possibly Astro Boy, but this style, associated with certain Gundam shows and Haruhiko Mikimoto, looks like it needs its own terminology. (...and no, I'm not talking cels and digital. I'm talking about a level of art detail.)

Speaking of which, any chance you might tackle modern Filipino remakes of classic mecha anime from the 70s?

Bro where the fans at? 266 views is such a disappointment coming from this channel.

You used completely the wrong text at 14:35 which is the on-screen text that you repeat again at 16:37 even though the first time at 14 minutes, it's a completely different paragraph you're reading and at 16 minutes, it's repeated again, except it's the correct text that time.