Trivia / Armitage III

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• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • In the English dub of Poly-Matrix, Ross Sylibus is voiced by none other than Kiefer Sutherland.
  • Poly-Matrix's Armitage is voiced by the somewhat-less-well-known Elizabeth Berkley of Saved by the Bell and Showgirls fame.
  • Well before he broke through in Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston voiced Eddie in the dub of both the OAVs and the movie. That's right, folks. Jack Bauer and Walter White worked on the same project at one point.
• Character Outlives Actor: Larry Randolph's English voice actor, Edward Mannix, suffered a fatal heart attack in August 1995. As a result, Michael Reynolds voiced him for the last two episodes of the original OVA and would later reprise that role for Poly-Matrix.
• Follow the Leader: To both Ghost in the Shell and Angel Cop, two Japanese cyberpunk series from The '80s protagonized by a wild, female cyber-cop with plenty of Fanservice. Amusingly, Armitage III was released mere months before GitS released its own animated adaptation.
• Homage: Series writer Chiaki Konaka claims to have been inspired by The Dunwich Horror, as evidenced in Armitage's name, the character Lavinia Whateley, and the location of Dunwich, or Danich, Hill. Wilbur D'anclaude may also be a reference.
• In Memoriam: The OVA's fourth episode was dedicated to Edward Mannix, who died during the dub's production.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The 1995 laserdisc and VHS releases of the original Armitage OVA, as well as the later DVD releases by Pioneer, are now out of print.
• Milestone Celebration: Funimation's 2015 DVD release coincided with the 20th anniversary of the original series.
• No Dub for You: Poly-Matrix wasn't dubbed in Japanese, since it was originally recorded in English.
• The Original Darrin: After being replaced by Kiefer Sutherland for his appearances in Poly-Matrix, Skip Stellrecht returned to voice Ross in the English dub of Dual-Matrix.
• The Other Darrin:
  • In the Japanese version:
    • Naomi Armitage was voiced by Hiroko Kasahara in the first OVA. For the second OVA, she was played by Ryōka Yuzuki.
    • For the original OVA, Ross Sylibus was played by Yasunori Masutani. He was replaced by Hikaru Hanada for Dual-Matrix.
    • Julian Moore was voiced by Megumi Ogata in the first OVA and by Mitsuki Saiga in the second OVA.
  • In the English version:
    • Naomi Armitage was originally voiced by Joyce Kurtz in the first OVA. For Poly-Matrix, she was voiced by Elizabeth Berkley. Then, for Dual-Matrix, she was played by Juliette Lewis.
    • Wanda Nowicki played Julian Moore in the original OVA and reprised that role in Poly-Matrix. For his appearance in Dual-Matrix, he was voiced by Mona Marshall.
    • Larry Randolph was originally voiced by Edward Mannix. Due to his fatal heart attack in 1995, he was replaced by Michael Reynolds.
• Referenced by...:
  • The Armitage-class starship in Star Trek Online is named after the series (it's an evolution of the canon Akira-class, which was named after AKIRA).
  • Beast in Black's song "Moonlight Rendezvous" is a Whole-Plot Reference to Armitage III, complete with a clip from the English dub in the intro.
• Studio Hop:
  • When Dentsu acquired Pioneer LDC and renamed it Geneon in 2003, they acquired the rights to Armitage III as well. Five years later, the rights shifted to NBCUniversal after they bought out Geneon and renamed it NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan; distribution has remained with them ever since.
  • At first, the North American home media rights were handled by Pioneer, before they eventually switched to Funimation.

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