This film contains graphic violence and brief nudity. Known as Gunnm in Japan and then Battle Angel Alita to Western manga readers, Battle Angel (in all of its incarnations) is now part of the canon of Blade Runner-inspired anime cyberpunk. The film version follows a "Hunter Warrior" and cyborg healer named Ido. Ido formerly lived in the floating land of Zalem (Tiphares in the book), the paradise that hovers over the refuse heap of Scrap Iron City in which he now resides with his former lover, Chiren. In his travels as a bounty hunter (killing spine thieves in a world in which human nerve tissue has become the most precious commodity), Ido one day discovers and repairs the remnants of a cyborg whom he names Gally (Alita in the manga). Though possessing the body of a young woman, Gally embodies Ido's most sophisticated and lethal cybernetic skill. In the first episode on the DVD, "Rusty Angel," Gally challenges Chiren's own creation, Greweicia-a brain-eating gladiator-to a death match. In "Tears Sign" Gally discovers that her first love, Yugo, has put himself in the employ of the spine trader Vector so that he can earn his way, he thinks, to Zalem. Gally confronts her fellow bounty hunters to protect Yugo, only to watch him horribly wounded in a plot to capture her for Vector. Yukito Kishiro's finely detailed line drawings in the original manga (like a cleaner version of Miyazaki's style in the Nausicaa books) are impossible to translate into film. [+]

Leiji Matsumoto helped to create the modern boom in anime with his series Space Battleship Yamato, released in the U. S. as Star Blazers. A long, episodic fable about an interstellar journey on an updated version of an old railway train, Galaxy Express boasts an enthusiastic cult following. Tetsuro is a boy living in the slums of a future Earth; his mother was killed by the evil cyborg, Count Mecha, who hunts humans for sport. To achieve his revenge, he must get to a distant planet where he can trade his mortal body for a deathless mechanical one. A mysterious woman named Maetel rescues him from the robo-police and travels with him among the planets via the Galaxy Express railway. Tetsuro's search for vengeance builds into a war between humans and cyborgs. As the battle reaches its climax, Matsumoto's popular creations, the space pirates Captain Harlock and Queen Emeraldas, arrive with unexpected assistance. Tetsuro ultimately learns that true beauty is always ephemeral, a concept that runs through Japanese art and culture. [+]

These OAVs were among the first Japanese series released as such in the U. S. and are remembered fondly by fans. An early example of cyberpunk that borrows heavily from Blade Runner and Robocop, Bubblegum Crisis depicts the adventures of the female vigilante group the Knight Sabers. In form-fitting, high-heeled mecha suits, Sylia, Priss, Linna, and Nene fight the rogue cyborgs of the sinister Genom Corporation in MegaTokyo, 2032. Sylia's brother Mackie, and A. D. Cop Leon, Priss's long-suffering suitor, assist them. The first three episodes (1987) form a single continuity; "Revenge Road" (1988) depicts a battle between an embittered man and a motorcycle gang. "Moonlight Rambler" (1988) and "Red Eyes" (1989) pit the Saber Knights against vampire cyborgs prowling MegaTokyo. [+]

Bolt Crank is the man who eats metal. And what's more, he can reconstitute the things he eats for later use. Now, you can follow Bolt from place to place as he solves crimes, punishes the guilty, and eats munitions. All twelve episodes of Eat-Man 98 are included in this special Collector's Box Set.