Post by thatgamingasshole on Jan 22, 2022 6:45:51 GMT
Ok so, this is something very peculiar and interesting. Apparently, sometime around the late 80s, there was a plan to produce an anime entitled--I think I got this right--but it was called "Masked Warrior Lavithunder."
God only knows what Lavithunder means, especially since it sounds shockingly like lavatory, but I digress...
The anime was, apparently, either unreleased or unproduced and the precise nature is unclear. According to available information, it was promoted, and actual animation in the form of a thirty-second short with a music soundtrack was produced, in fact TWO full songs were made, but this was supposedly a promotion for the supposedly then-unproduced anime. It's not clear how far it was in development, but what is beyond debate is this:
At least one thirty-second short, presented as a commercial, was made.
At least two songs, released commercially and available on YouTube, were made.
It was intended as a presentation for a future production, and possibly had work completed.
The location of the short is so far unknown, at least to me, and the only precise documentation was in a short-lived and extraordinarily obscure anime magazine. The songs were released on vinyl records, and from what I understand, can be bought and both songs can be found on YouTube in their entirety. However, so far I've not been able to find the shorts in question. The only evidence this ever existed are the songs, and a magazine article, but there are conflicting reports...
The magazine article says that it was designed as a promotion for the anime, and the songs are fully realized along with animation for the short, implying some development occurred. It's also repeatedly called "unreleased" despite being written off as "unproduced" by some, so whether or not it was actually developed past the shorts or music is in question. Even if all that existed was the shorts themselves, so far all that is available online of them are magazine articles detailing their confirmed existence and the music from them. No copies have been found. There is NO question that this existed, however far into production it was, and it even had a functional plot by the descriptions given, more than you would expect of just a short preview if you ask me. However, I've been unable to find anything but references to the articles and the music or links to the YouTube review.
See, a YouTube reviewer, Kenny Lauderdale, did two videos on this and while he dismisses it as just non-existent the fact the shorts existed at all and had a functional plot AND two songs were created says to me that some level of development beyond that must have occurred, as even then the previews were intended as, well, previews...to display upcoming materials and shows. It was released as a commercial, and they hoped it would be picked up, so I presume some development beyond paying for a thirty second showpiece and paying for two full songs released to the public on vinyl must have been. And again, even if that is all there was, as far as I can tell the short is nowhere to be found, only articles detailing it and the songs.
This is definitely some level of lost media, either a lost short or the short and, perhaps, lost production materials to go with it. If anyone thinks this is worth the trouble, and frankly I do since this is no Existence Unconfirmed thing, this is concrete evidence of lost media, but once more, I digress...if anyone thinks this is worth it I could personally gather up quotes from the videos and information and post an article as best as I can. Frankly I find this fascinating and the fact that at least one fully animated short was made, aired on television like an infomercial, along with I guess a short record of the soundtrack(?) of this anime tells me it got further into production than just a short film.
And the songs: The Fighter and The Winner
Hope this goes somewhere!
