item"Behold the floating fortress of the Mighty Q'Thulu risen again from its slumber beneath the waves. Yeah... Let's kick some non-euclidean butt."... From the studios of White Radish comes a night in the life of three cute girls from all walks of life. As they face the forces of an unspeakable horror... Join Mecha, Jinx, and Bunni as they fight the unholy monstrosities in the twisted castle of the long-dead thing from ancient stars in order to get their hands on the Item... What is the Item? That's a surprise. With music by Vanilla Almond Creme.
Details
The Item is circa 1996... "...[it's] cell animation across a rendered background, digitally colored and composited. It is blended seamlessly, with Lightwave digital effects abound. Overall, [it's] ... lots of fun, especially if you want to see just how far some computer equipment can take a fan. It's amazing how the work of just a few dedicated people can pretty much outclass 90% of the other animation produced in America.
Commentary
Made by fans. I never get tired of watching this.
I happened to pick up a compilation CD of work released by Sakura Soft. The compilation CD included the Item. Upon further investigation, I found out that the animators had been deceived by Sakura Soft and that they were not being paid for the CD. I felt compelled to support the artists and repurchased legitimate versions of their work directly from them.
Over the years, I've kept tabs on their work and it is getting better and better with the passage of time. I'll certainly continue to support their efforts in the future.
I used to have the Item on VHS. I still have the Item on VCD and I enjoyed this title so much that I decided to repurchase it twice on DVD. This is one of the few titles that I've repurchased four times.
The thumbnail is a modified version of the VCD cover art, which included both the Item and the Apprentice artwork. The VHS cover art was a small card inserted into the case.
There were two different DVD releases. The "Perfect Collection", a DVD-R release which is being phased out, contained both the Apprentice and the Item as well as the Evil at Tentacle High. The packaging on the first DVD release, left a bit to be desired.
In their second DVD release, "Magic and Monsters", the White Radish crew made significant advances in their packaging. The second release includes the Apprentice and the Item as well as Cutethulhu (sorry, the Evil at Tentacle High isn't included).