Chrome Mirage
dir. Reiko Tachibana · obi: magenta
A getaway driver dreams in mirrored freeway light; the city dreams her back.
Tokyo · Shibuya basement · est. 1983 — folded 1989 — found 2019
NEONDYNASTY
ネオン・ダイナスティ ビデオワークス
A lost video label, found in a Nakano storage locker. Six synth films re‑mastered from the last surviving masters — and returned to tape.
- Current master
- ND-006 / LAST ARCADE
- Signal chain
- NTSC-J · SP · Hi-Fi AFM
- Edition window
- 500 chrome shells · silver obi
The Label
レーベルBetween 1983 and 1989, from a basement office under a Udagawachō record bar, engineer Kazuo Arakida released synth-scored genre films that nobody distributed and almost nobody saw. Chrome shells. Numbered obi strips. Liner notes typeset by hand.
The label folded quietly in the spring of 1989. Arakida paid five years of rent on a Nakano storage locker, taped the key inside a paperback, and never spoke of it again. In 2019 the locker was opened for auction: forty-one first-generation masters, still wound tails-out, still in their silvered sleeves.
The Neon Dynasty Archive now restores those masters one at a time — and re-issues them the only way Arakida would sanction. On tape. Real-time duplicated. Numbered in silver ink.
- Masters recovered
- 41
- Restorations issued
- 06
- Active years
- 1983–89
- Shells per edition
- 500
RF transfer · 05 seconds · May 03 1986
Street Signal
Last Arcade opens with this rain-slick Shinjuku pass: one white coupe, five seconds of forward motion, and a chrome skyline reflected hard enough to feel printed on oxide.
- Generated still
- GPT Image 2 · local JPEG
- Motion pass
- Kling 3.0 · Higgsfield loop
- Grade
- NTSC blue lift · magenta brake bloom
The Catalog
カタログSix restorations to date. Hover a sleeve — the channels remember how the signal used to drift.
Midnight Circuit
dir. Shō Kurosaki · obi: cyan
Street racers chase a pirate FM signal that only broadcasts at 3:33 a.m.
Vesper Drive
dir. Anna Lindqvist · obi: chrome
A Swedish synth composer scores her own disappearance, one tape at a time.
Terminal Bloom
dir. Hideo Maruyama · obi: magenta
In a departure lounge that never boards, two strangers grow a neon garden.
Phantom Frequency
dir. Marcus Vey · obi: cyan
A late-night radio engineer records a voice that answers from next Tuesday.
Last Arcade
dir. Yumi Onodera · obi: chrome
The final night of a Shibuya game hall, told in attract-mode loops.
Archive batch 07
41 masters recovered / 6 cleared for issue
Color timed from RF capture logs, not theatrical memory
Restoration
修復Nothing is decided in analog. Everything is kept. The grain stays; the chrome stays chrome.
- 01
Bake
Masters are incubated at 55 °C for twelve hours to re-set sticky binder before the first wind. One pass. No second chances with 40-year-old oxide.
- 02
RF Capture
We tap the head-drum RF directly and sample it at 40 MS/s — the whole signal, before any deck electronics can flatten it into opinion.
- 03
Software TBC
Time-base error is corrected in software, line by line. Dropouts are patched from redundant fields, never painted in. Every fix is logged.
- 04
The Grade
Rec.601 is respected like scripture. No de-noise passes, no sharpening. If Arakida lit it magenta, it ships magenta.
- Source
- S-VHS studio masters, first generation, tails-out
- Signal
- FM luma 3.4–4.4 MHz · chroma-under 629 kHz
- Audio
- Hi-Fi AFM stereo + linear mono safety track
- Scan
- 4K overscan, aperture-corrected, grain intact
- Duplication
- Real-time · National NV-8200 bank · TDK HD-Pro stock
Transmissions
通信“Six films nobody saw, restored like they were Ozu. The discipline is the point.”
— Static & Chrome, issue 14 · 2025
“The obi strips alone justify the import fee. This is preservation as couture.”
— Analog Preservation Society Bulletin · spring 2026
“Arakida shoots for an audience that does not exist yet.”
— Video Insider · August 1986, recovered clipping
Mail Order
通販Current issue — ND-006 “Last Arcade”. Edition of 500 chrome shells, each numbered by hand in silver ink.
- Price¥6,800 · $48 · €44
- IncludesNumbered obi · 16-page liner notes · replica ticket stub
- DuplicationReal-time from the 4K restoration master
- ShipsWorldwide, from Nakano, wound tails-out
The 4K scans stream nowhere. The tape is the film. Write to us the old way — Neon Dynasty Archive, P.O. Box 47, Nakano, Tokyo 164-0001 — or join the list below.
Request the tape