Last year at New York Anime Fest I had one of those experiences that reminded me all over again why I watch anime in the first place. It was the first installment in an OVA series based on an SF novel whose author I was vaguely aware of, but other than that I knew nothing walking in.
That OVA was Mardock Scramble, and immediately after seeing it I sent out prayers that someone on this side of the Pacific would see fit to release it. Those prayers were answered by Sentai Filmworks, who have just put out the first hour-long chapter on DVD. It's been worth the wait.
Part of what made discovering Mardock Scramble so special was, well, the feeling of discovering it. The folks at NYAF who scheduled the show had placed it relatively late in the evening and up against another screening that had major automatic draw for most of the folks there -- a new installment in the Gundam franchise -- so if someone was at the show and attending a screening, odds are that was where they would end up. Not the wisest of logistics.
The people in the Mardock Scramble screening were, I think, a little more adventurous and curious, and were by and large rewarded for their curiosity. Not just because they walked out of there with limited-edition posters for the film signed by Ubukata himself (who was very gracious and quite happy to see his work warmly received by American fans), but because they'd seen something original and special. "Original" in the sense that it didn't simply cobble together pieces of other, recently-made anime; "special" in that it made its material take wing and fly instead of just cover existing ground.
By the time 2011 rolled around, there was still no word about a possible licensor for Scramble. I knew full well negotiations for any title take place behind closed doors and that no announcement is made until the ink is dry, but the suspense was still aggravating -- especially when I saw so many other, lesser titles being picked up. Then Haikasoru -- the VIZ Media imprint that deals with literary SF and fantasy from Japan -- issued the original novel in English, and I snapped that off the shelf of my local Barnes & Noble without blinking. Reading it only made me anticipate all the more a release of both the current and future installments.
Finally, back in June, Sentai Filmworks announced they had picked up Scramble. It has been more than worth the wait, and if history is any guide it means they'll be in line to license the next two chapters as those are produced.
Scramble is also one of the very few projects I know of to have been canned but brought back to life. The original version was slated to go in front of cameras in 2005, courtesy of GONZO (the makers of, among other things, Basilisk), with character designs by Range Murata (Last Exile, Blue Submarine No. 6). The project was, unfortunately, killed in 2006 -- I wonder if it had something to do with GONZO's financial troubles at the time -- but the version we got is hardly a disappointment.
Now go read my review to find out what's been the cause of so much elation.
Images: Mardock Scramble © TOW UBUKATA / MS COMMITTEE. Image courtesy Section 23 Films.
Tow Ubukata at New York Anime Festival 2010. Image © Serdar Yegulalp.
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