Gundress (1999) on Netflix

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Gundress (1999)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

• Gundress was released with most of the film unfinished: theaters handed out slips apologizing for showing it that way, refunded advance tickets, and later mailed the completed video to 7,000 people.
• It was unprecedented for an anime feature to reach theaters mostly unfinished; earlier cases such as Final Yamato and Grave of the Fireflies had only some unfinished footage.
• The unfinished print had characters and mecha filled in flat single colors, likened to Kinnikuman erasers, with fingerprints left on the image and repeated movements; some viewers filmed the screen with video cameras.
• The distributor Toei only learned of the film's state at the first screening two days before release, on March 18, and decided to release it unfinished rather than cancel and cause confusion.
• After the unfinished release, Toei sued Nikkatsu, Nikkatsu sued Sanctuary and Sanctuary sued Studio Junio; Studio Junio, already in trouble over missed deliveries on the 1997 TV anime Hakugei Densetsu, later ceased operations.
• Director Katsuyoshi Yatabe said the script ran three hours for a 90-minute film and he was not allowed to touch it; staff walked out, so he also took the sound direction, and he said he "lost work" because of Gundress.
• Designer Masamune Shirow said the project began with the tomboy Yun Kei as the lead, but a producer influenced by Nikita changed it mid-way to a dark story led by Alisa, a change Shirow thought unwise.