I've been a fan of Guyver since the US Renditions days and never knew these were on Youtube until now; recalled/recovery versions of episodes 7/8 of Act II

[kenshin113]

Dunno if this is new for anyone else but it was definitely new to me!

Backstory; a little while ago I was doing a Guyver nostalgia deep dive (as y'do every so often) and came across a Japanese site that mentioned initial versions of episodes 7 and 8 of Act II that were recalled due to poor production quality and redone into the versions we know and... uh, know. I wasn't sure if they were anywhere online but lo and behold - here we are!

Episode 7 

Episode 8: 

Thoughts are as below, don't read if you wanna see for yourself first!

- The opening sequence/theme is taken from the original six episodes with bits and pieces from Act II being windowed in, the ending credits keep Strange Angel Milestone with a piece of art I've never seen anywhere else. Kinda torn on this because I really enjoyed the original Act II ending song as well!
- BGM cues vary throughout in different spots and IMO they're usually worse picks compared to the final versions.

Episode 7

- Guyver 1 comes into the scene with less flair (no flip) but better still art when he's dramatically pointing.
- The (much paler) Ramotith transformation/death isn't as detailed, same with the pressure cannon (though to be honest it actually works better)
- The second Chronos operative gets straight up disintegrated by the sonic busters. Almost certainly done for budget reasons but still kinda awesome.
- Murakami has brown hair in these two episodes. Neat.
- Balcus' outfit is identical design-wise but has a much more eye-searing color palette in the recall episodes. Also, green forehead gem.
- Sho and Agito have a face to face conversation about what (supposedly) happened to his dad instead of a phone call, nice touch.
- The explanation about the Guyver's blast field is more elaborate in the recall, complete with visual representation.
- The Ramotith that gets killed by Murakami is SSJ yellow. Interesting choice.
- The scenes with Murakami shooting down the Zoanoids are differently animated.
- Tetsuro does a full roll out of the van instead of stumbling out holding his head. Not sure if it's supposed to be funny, but it was.
- The fake Mizuki's transformation/death is different and the way Sho's reaction is framed/voiced makes it clear he has absolutely no idea what's going on behind him despite being handcuffed to a Zoanoid that's now twice his size. Sho. Dude. Duuuuuuuude. 
- The end of the fight is IMO a lot better; instead of a poorly drawn/animated Sho running to lead them away, he kills a bunch more in a really anime sequence before blasting the rest of the frozen crowd (and not because of bad animation, this is very clearly 'crap, we're so screwed') with the Megasmasher
- This is in both versions but Murakami effortlessly dodging Broize's strikes untransformed and without his mental powers is badass as all hell.

Episode 8

- Before anything else; the entire Lost Numbers fight takes place in an open environment with much better lighting. This changes the feel of that portion immensely.
- We get to see Fumio walked to the processing tank before the reveal. This combined with the altered music cues makes this sequence a lot less unsettling.
- Murakami's explanation to Sho and Tetsuro comes on the same road as the final version but this one has an attempted Chronos roadblock/trap that Sho easily handles. Take note of him timing the sonic busters so the first Zoanoid dies riiiiiight after transforming. 
- There's an attempt in the recalled version at hiding Murakami's RX-7 under scattered foliage. The key word here is attempt.
- We meet Onuma and Shizu waaaaay earlier in this one (Onuma looks close to his final version, Shizu has brown hair) along with a nice little touch of Murakami scanning them to make sure they're on the level.
- Aptom and Somlum initially confront Sho in human form.
- Zoanoid Somlum is bright red with almost no other colors/detail to break up his design. He also tries hit Sho with the glue twice in fifteen seconds and gets put on the ground twice in that same time, if he didn't have any backup there's a very real chance Sho might have just beaten him to death and gone on with his day.
- Dyme locking Sho down is a lot worse looking in this version to say the least.
- There's absolutely zero drama to Aptom's fake Guyver reveal. This is gonna to be a running trend for the rest of the episode, as you'll see shortly.
- Sho breaking free actually has some pretty decent still art even if the animation is iffy. Also, the shot of the broken blade landing in the grass is kept in the redone episode, which explains why the lighting looked so off to me even as a kid; it didn't take place in the same location.
- Murakami straight up blasts Somlum's head off in what has to the the lowlight of these two episodes. It needs to be seen to be believed.
- When Murakami starts messing with Dyme, we visibly see him react thanks to a cutaway to his human form.
- Aptom loses his arm to the sonic busters (that come out of Guyver 1's eyes, sure, why not) instead of the Zoanoid Buster and shows about as much reaction to that as Somlum's headshot.
- And his reaction to Dyme getting killed off? A semi-threatening raise of his remaining arm and an even less threatening 'onore'. This is co-worker energy, folks.
- Guyver 1 and 3 meeting up at the end has some animation differences and ends on a nice piece of artwork that I feel is better than what the final version had.

Needless to say, it was super interesting getting to experience 'new' Guyver content in 2025! I can also see why these two episodes were recalled, even considering Act II's reputation for rough quality these ones didn't even meet that bar even if a few sequences were really cool in isolation.

(And I guarantee you, as soon as this Aptom gained independence from Chronos he's bailing on the whole thing to retire somewhere).

Edited July 28 by kenshin113

[Masamune]

I had no idea that these existed. Great find!

Sorry that I'm the first one to respond, but this place is a ghost town since the series went on permanent hiatus. 

My first reaction was "Wait... There's a way to watch OVAs 7 & 8 with worse animation!?" 🤣

I agree with you there's some touches that OVA 7 does better than final. I wouldn't necessarily say that first version is better animated, I think it's less ambitious, using close-ups and still frames to cover up the lack of budget. The sequence of the Zoanoids chasing Sho through the water in the final version looked bad, but it was more dynamic than a bunch of static Zoanoids waiting for the Mega Smasher. 

As for OVA 8, the best thing I can say is that it doesn't have the glaring continuity errors of the final version!

Thank you for sharing these!

 

Edited August 22 by Masamune

[kenshin113]

No problem, I'm happy to know these were new to someone besides myself! Yeah, I definitely think it's a matter of picking your poison kinda thing for the end of 7 - I did like how they gave a story reason for the Zoanoids to be standing still when the blast came in that they were terrified as all hell but you're 100% right in that the final version had more dynamism to it.

I re-watched 8 and I gotta say that I'm real glad that Aptom's voice got a whole lot more energetic in the final cut (I don't think it was Issei Futamata in the recalled version but if it is the director dropped the ball big time), though it did seem kinda fitting to have a flat vocal performance paired with some decidedly flat animation for what turned out to be a pretty underwhelming fight.  At least the Zoanoid Buster still got to do some heavy lifting in the original even if the visual result was super janky!

Edited August 29 by kenshin113

[Salkafar]

Super cool!

[Masamune]

As a side note, although the animation quality dipped in the second half of the OVA series, it saved the best till last. OVA 12 had my favourite art style probably in the entire series. It's a pity that we never got to see more of that animation. Although the OVA continuity had steered too far from the manga that I don't know how they would've continued the plot. If Aptom had survived, they would've had to completely rewrite his attack on Chronos, as Team Five were already dead in that timeline. Not that I think there was any intention to carry on the OVAs anyway.