Mini Yon Soldier Rin! (16mm 1080p HD Scan)

 



https://nyaa.si/view/1708448
Fansub credits can be found in the link above.

Another collab with Kineko Video—this one slightly has an interesting backstory to it!

Mini Yon Soldier Rin was released in 1989 on VHS only by some label I'm not familiar with—it later got re-issued by SEGA themselves. This OVA (which is the length of an average TV anime episode) tells the story of a kid champion of Mini 4WD races who, after winning a major competition, gets challenged by a psychic to race him in a life-size version of the race track used in the aforementioned competition. Hilarity ensues after.

I couldn't find much info surrounding this OVA online. Take this with a grain of salt, as I don't remember where I got this from, but I think the OVA was produced to cash in on the Mini 4WD boom in Japan. Considering the OVA's obscurity, I don't think it was successful...
I'm not into Mini 4WD racing all that much but I definitely think this could have benefited from a few sequels or so, as this OVA isn't really all that bad or anything.

As for how this project came to be...
This was actually one of the very first film reels I had ever purchased when I had just barely begun collecting these! I purchased this alongside Kentauros no Densetsu back in 2020—I was in a bit of situation here because I couldn't yet find any reliable people that could scan this for me, until I was eventually introduced to the folks from Kineko Video (back when they were known under a certain other handle...lol).

The print I acquired was eventually scanned, but this was plagued with a few problems: a few seconds from the beginning was cut out, as was a random scene in the middle. I was considering stitching in the missing footage straight from a VHS capture of the anime (which I also acquired for its stereo audio track), but regardless, the project was put on hold for a while until a 2nd print of the anime eventually resurfaced in February 2022, which I also acquired. This one is in considerably better condition and was scanned with an entirely new scanner, a different one that was used with the 1st print many years ago...however, the 1st print was scanned again with the new scanner since some scenes on it looked better than on the 2nd print.

Ultimately, what you're seeing here is a combination of both the 1st & 2nd prints of the OVA.

As mentioned earlier, the VHS version of this OVA is in stereo—I purchased the VHS, sent it over to "HuffaloB" for him to capture, which Kineko eventually used to replace the optical audio on the film reel with. So not only do you get to see this OVA in HD for the first time, but you also have great audio to pair it up with :)

Enjoy!

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