Temporal Paralysis

Long before Odex came into existence, Games Mart had already been releasing anime releases.

According to an anecdote taken from a very confidential source, Games Mart used to be co-owned by three people. According to this person (whom we shall name him SD), the three co-owners were at loggerheads over how the business should run. In particular, one of the co-owners (I call him Gendl), of whom SD had a cordial relationship with, did not agree with some of the business practices that the other two were running. In spite of that, they did managed to release some shows. After one year and a couple of months later, Gendl quit from the business.

Subsequently, Games Mart were raided in 2000 for the very same crimes that Odex were now honkering after end-users.

But the purpose of this post wasn’t to talk about the current saga. I’m talking about one of the shows that Games Mart released in local production.

That show, was called “起動戦士ガンダム００８３：Stardust Memory.”

The show, made in 1990 by Sunrise Inc., was acquired by Games Mart in the year 2000 (the same year when they were raided), and was subsequently released for local distribution. Judging from the external appearance of the box, it’s pretty clear that they had went the idea of a game box model, when they conceptualized this release. (To be honest with you, it kind of reminded me of those nondescript boxes you see everyday. Which cheapens the value of the series.)

The box contains the shows in (S)VCD (well, at least somebody did made the acknowledgement to use a better format than the current succesor, or was it not?), a surreptitiously dual copies of a storybook, a handbook (primer into the Mobile Suit Gundam Universal Century storyline), and — get this — a commemorative TransitLink card!

What we have here, guys, is a rare piece of antiquity from the dark ages of pre-Internet days.

The following pictures are some of the sample shots I took from the first (S)VCD on the VCD holders.

Just to take note: it’s a VCD quality, so don’t expect high-end goodness.

Back when Games Mart were still around, Gendl had the balls to at least did something to “pull” their potential customers with freebies and goodness stuff. No matter that the format was in VCD.

After he pulled out, the remaining two were left to their devices, which led to the company’s downfall.

I won’t say whether these two are exactly the people behind Odex, or otherwise. My intention by posting this, is to highlight where exactly Odex’s predecessor did, and I will let readers to infer whether the product quality had went down since.