The Japanese anime distributor Bandai Visual will release a Blu-ray box of Hideaki Anno's Aim for the Top! Gunbuster (1988), Gainax's first video anime project, on February 24, 2012. The box will include the first home-video release of the anime's 5.1-channel soundtrack (along with the original 2-channel soundtrack) with footage remastered through a new telecine transfer from the original film stock (under the supervision of Anno).
In addition, both the complete and regular editions of the box will add a new short movie, new audio commentary, and a 16-page booklet. (The specifications do not indicate if the short movie is live-action or animated.) Both will also have the video shorts "Harumi & Yumiko's Good Morning, Oki-Jo!", "AD 2032.7.23 Sentō Chūiki cosmic battle space orbit of Halley's comet," all five "Science Lessons," "Sizzler Project," a promotional video collection with the July 1988 and November 1988 video previews, and the 1989 in-store preview.
The complete edition will add a 115-minute bonus extras disc with an untrimmed original version of the sixth episode, the rough telecine transfer version of the fifth episode that was made for the episode's dialogue recording, footage from the video magazine Denei Teigoku, footage from the VHD magazine Anime Vision, a collection of production materials (displayed as still frames), and the video footage from the earlier Gunbuster Perfect release's bonus extras disc such as video comments from the staff and cast. The complete edition includes an exclusive 100-page booklet with an encyclopedia of production materials, the early image boards, and other items. The cover of the box itself will feature a new illustration.
The three-disc Blu-ray Box Complete Edition will sell for 15,540 yen (about US$201). Bandai Visual will offer a two-disc regular edition of the box without the bonus extras disc for 13,440 yen (US$174).
