Angel’s Egg (天使のたまご, Tenshi no Tamago) is a 1985 original video anime film directed and written by Mamoru Oshii and produced by studio Deen. Staff credits also include character designer and story writer Yoshitaka Amano, and music composer Yoshihiro Kanno. The OVA was first released in Japan in December 1985.
Background:
“In an underwater city, a young girl takes care of a large egg she holds carefully in her arms. A boy with a gun arrives in search of a bird he saw in his dream. At first, it seems as if feelings of sympathy are developing between the two.
Forty years after the film’s original release, GKIDS is proud to present an all-new 4K restoration of the film, supervised by director Mamoru Oshii.
The film is a creative collaboration between acclaimed director Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell), who wrote and directed the feature, and revered artist Yoshitaka Amano (Final Fantasy, Vampire Hunter D). The film beautifully intertwines Oshii’s thematic reflections on philosophy and theology with Amano’s distinctive ink painting style, culminating in an arrestingly beautiful hand-drawn allegorical fantasy.”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, November 2026.
Before he directed Ghost in the Shell, Mamoru Oshii previously worked on other projects early on in his career, which included Dallos, one of the first Original Video Animation projects released in Japan that’s also not an adult work, and the Urusei Yatsura 1980s anime as both chief director for the first half of the television series and main director for the first two films Only You and Beautiful Dreamer.
Angel’s Egg followed not long after which had its own unique history over the years since. It’s a mostly silent film with various imagery throughout, with Final Fantasy illustrator Yoshitaka Amano involved with the artwork, and there’s some dialogue here and there. Tokuma Shoten, who also worked with Studio Ghibli and Daiei Films (known for their involvement with the Gamera franchise), distributed the anime direct-to-video at the end of 1985.
Not long after its Japanese release, the international rights were acquired by an American studio New World Pictures who utilised the anime’s scenes for Carl Colpaert’s 1987 film In the Aftermath. While UK distributor Arrow Video licensed the live-action film with its own 2K restoration, they weren’t able to secure the rights to the original anime itself after all these years. Angel’s Egg did receive a few theatrical releases from film festivals as one-offs here and there, but in general it was never released outside Japan or at least in any English speaking territory in its entirety for home video.
Fast-forward to present day, Angel’s Egg celebrated its 40th anniversary with a new 4K restoration produced using the 35mm film negative by Tokuma Shoten which not only screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025, but had finally licensed outside Japan by GKIDS for North America, Umbrella Entertainment for Australia and Anime Limited for the United Kingdom.
Umbrella released the anime first for home video at the end of 2025 which received a pretty impressive collector’s edition and authoring done by Fidelity in Motion, who are one of the best companies for disc authoring in the west being used by many boutique labels including Arrow Video and Radiance Films. The other two distributors followed suit in 2026 after their theatrical releases.
Collector’s Edition Contents:
GKIDS handled the packaging design for Angel’s Egg and released their collector’s edition first in September 2026, which Anime Limited brought over to the United Kingdom since both distributors are owned by TOHO and the two can share costs and assets together whenever possible. The main difference will be the size of the 4K Amaray case, since UK use thicker cases whereas other regions have slimmer cases.
The collector’s edition release is presented with a rigid box, a 4K Amaray case housing the discs, a 24-page booklet that includes the “Chasing Shadows: Oshii’s Evolution towards Angel’s Egg” essay written by Danielle Burgos with some artwork from the film, and four art cards.
The rigid box artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The collector’s edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray combo pack release was printed for an unspecified number of units for an SRP of £79.99. Also available on the same day is a standard edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray combo pack.
I pre-ordered the film on its own during Anime Limited’s early bird offer last October for £49.99 (£45 with the 10% off Anime Unlimited discount) plus £3.50 postage.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with clean artwork
- 4K Amaray case packaging
- Info sheet includes specification and BBFC description
- 24-page Booklet
- 4 Art Cards
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 2nd November 2026
The collector’s edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray release for Angel’s Egg contains the film on a single 4K Ultra HD disc and a single Blu-ray disc, with the encode done by Fidelity in Motion (carried over from the Australian release) with other aspects of the disc authoring done by GKIDS.
Audio options include Japanese with English subtitles and the NYAV Post English dub commissioned by GKIDS with English subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing also available.
The 4K Ultra HD disc features High Dynamic Range 10 and Dolby Atmos audio tracks. The yellow subtitles are unlockable during playback, the 4K Ultra HD disc is playable to 4K players of any region and the Blu-ray disc is region locked to players set to B.
4K Ultra HD Specs:
| Languages | Japanese, English |
| Audio | Japanese Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1) Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Japanese Linear PCM 2.0 English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1) English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English Linear PCM 2.0 |
| Video | 2160p Ultra High Definition format 1.78:1 aspect ratio HDR10 |
| Region | All Region |
| Subtitles | English, English SDH |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 1 BD-66 |
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | Japanese, English |
| Audio | Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Japanese Linear PCM 2.0 English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English Linear PCM 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 1.78:1 aspect ratio |
| Region | B |
| Subtitles | English, English SDH |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 1 BD-50 |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
- Interview with Yoshitaka Amano (11:00 runtime)
- Interview with the Creators of Angel’s Egg (16:40 runtime)
- Japan Society Q&A with Yoshitaka Amano (32:14 runtime)
- Official U.S. Trailer (01:55 runtime)
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Angel’s Egg is available to purchase on 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray by Anime Limited in the UK & Ireland.
The collector’s edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray combo pack is exclusive to the AllTheAnime Store. The US variation of this release is exclusive to the GKIDS Store.
The standard edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray combo pack is available across different retailers including AllTheAnime Store, Amazon UK and Anime-on-Line.
(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)
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