Windaria
Encyclopedia
Release and marketing
Windaria was released theatrically in Japan on July 19, 1986. In 1987, Harmony GoldHarmony Gold USA
Harmony Gold is a television production and distribution company established in 1983. It is best known as the “creator” and main distributor of the anime series Robotech. It also partially dubbed the Dragon Ball series in the late 1980s....
licensed Windaria for release in the United States, changing the title to Once Upon A Time and trimming the movie from its 101-minute running time to 95 minutes. The English language version was edited
Editing of anime in American distribution
Editing of anime in American distribution describes the process of altering anime to prepare it to be distributed in the United States and forms part of the process of localization. This process is generally applied only to series intended for broadcast on American television; series released...
in order to better market the movie to younger audiences. According to director Carl Macek
Carl Macek
Carl F. Macek was an American writer and controversial anime pioneer and producer of the 1980s and 1990s.-Robotech and Harmony Gold USA:...
, Harmony Gold was given no scipts or translations of the property and they thus had little insight into the plot details. The English version included a new script, an altered plot, scenes switched around, violent and adult-oriented scenes removed, the entire cast given Western names, and added narration provided by Russell Johnson
Russell Johnson
Russell David Johnson is an American television and film actor best known as "The Professor" on the CBS television sitcom Gilligan's Island...
(of Gilligan's Island
Gilligan's Island
Gilligan's Island is an American television series created and produced by Sherwood Schwartz and originally produced by United Artists Television. The situation comedy series featured Bob Denver; Alan Hale, Jr.; Jim Backus; Natalie Schafer; Tina Louise; Russell Johnson; and Dawn Wells. It aired for...
fame).
Windaria was first distributed in Japan to home video
Home video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
by Victor Entertainment
Victor Entertainment
is a subsidiary of Japan Victor Company that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It was formerly known as...
. The eventual laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
release contained a trailer, a pilot film (in which characters are colored differently than the final version), and a second audio track. Victor released Windaria on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in Japan on December 16, 2000. This release forgoes the laserdisc extras but includes a director interview on the insert. Atlus
Atlus
is a Japanese computer and video game developer, publisher, and distributor based in Tokyo, Japan, best known for developing the console role-playing game franchise Megami Tensei. The first Megami Tensei was a Nintendo Entertainment System video game published by Namco based on a trilogy of...
reissued the film on DVD on March 25, 2005. Streamline Pictures
Streamline Pictures
Streamline Pictures was an American media company that was best known for its distribution of English dubbed Japanese animation. -Founding:Founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1988, Streamline Pictures was one of the first North American companies that was created primarily for the intention of...
released the English version, titled Windaria, on North American VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
between 1992 and 1993. A laserdisc version was planned by Image Entertainment
Image Entertainment
Image Entertainment, Inc. is an independent licensee, producer and distributor of home entertainment programming and film & television productions in North America, with approximately 3,000 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 250 exclusive CD titles in domestic release, and approximately 450...
yet never distributed. ADV Films released the original English version Once Upon a Time on DVD on March 23, 2004. The uncut Japanese version has never been officially released in this region.
A generous amount of Windaria-related merchandise has been marketed in Japan since the movie's 1986 debut. Fujikawa's Douwa Meita Senshi Windaria bunkobon
Bunkobon
In Japan, bunkobon are small-format paperback books, designed to be affordable and portable.The great majority of bunkobon are A6 in size...
was published by Kadokawa Shoten
Kadokawa Shoten
is a well-known Japanese publishing company based in Tokyo, Japan. Kadokawa has published both manga novels and magazines, such as Newtype magazine...
during March 1986. Shortly after the premiere of Windaria, several official guide books were released, one (Settei: Windaria) containing Idol's sketches, storyboards, and promotional materials. A special omake
Omake
means extra in Japanese. Its primary meaning is general and widespread. It is used as an anime and manga fandom term to mean "extra or bonus". In USA, the term is most often used in a narrow sense by anime fans to describe special features on DVD releases: deleted scenes, interviews with the...
was published on August 25, 1986, as part of Kadokawa's "Mediamix Special" imprint. Inomata's 1988 art book Gatsu no Koe Hoshi no Yume contains some of her illustrations from the film. Arai's album Natsukashii Mirai
Natsukashii Mirai
Natsukashii Mirai is Akino Arai's first release.-Track listing:#"Ring Ring"#"月よ凍れ" #"金色の目" ...
, containing both the film's opening and ending themes, was released by Victor on October 21, 1986. The film's original soundtrack was released by Victor on both LP and CD on July 21, 1986, and CD was reprinted in March 24, 1994. It was reissued on June 23, 1999 alongside the soundtrack to Birth
Birth (anime)
, also known in the West as Planet Busters or The World of the Talisman, is a 1984 anime original video animation , which was released on VHS and DVD in North America by, variously, Streamline and ADV Films...
, another anime by Kaname. Finally, a 2008 Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
video game based on the movie was developed by Compile Heart
Compile Heart
is a Japanese video game developer and publisher founded in 2006-06-02. It is a division of Idea Factory. The company was formerly managed by Compile's former executive Moo Niitani before his retirement in 2006-12....
under the name and released in Japan.