APCG-4020: CD theater Dragon Quest II

[Ramza]

I am not at all sure that this Apollon version of the album exists. I've never once seen it in all my years of Y!J searching for the CD Theater albums. Is it possible that this was a canceled release?

[Phonograph]

maybe people who bought it want to keep it or lost it or forgot they had it
absence of proof isn't proof of absence =)

but it's also probable that the release never happened

[jfgslo]

It does exist, but I don't know if it's all that different from Enix's version. Check these images that I found in an auction (which unfortunately was no longer up, only the images remained):


What's relevant is the second image, in which the Apollon sticker with the catalog number and JAN are shown. The price is the same as the one printed on the case. But something confusing is the release date printed in the sticker, 1991-12-13, same as Enix's. Unfortunately it didn't have an image of the CD itself or the back part of the case to check if it's indeed a single track.

Both versions of the album are registered at Suruga-ya and Amazon Japan with different details. My best guess is that, given that Enix's version doesn't have a JAN but an ISBN (which doesn't coincide with Apollon's JAN using the full ISBN-13) is that Enix's version was sold as a book or magazine as part of its comic line, and Apollon sold it as a music album.

[jfgslo]

I found another auction that has the CD, which shows ECD-002 in the front, so I think it's exactly the same as Enix version, only sold by Apollon: https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/v703400835

However, Kinokuniya shows the Apollon album as having as single track:
https://www.kinokuniya.co.jp/f/dsg-10-4988015041538
I believe this is only a mistake and the CD should be exactly the same as Enix's, given that the images in the auction above show that there is no distinguishable difference between this CD and Enix's.

[Ramza]

So yeah ... it looks like APCG-4020 may exist only as that sticker on the outer plastic packaging of new-sealed copies, and even then, of those distributed by Apollon.

Mystery solved...?

[suicider]

I'll be putting this here since this is the only Apollon-related entry to the CD Theater Dragon Quest releases. I'm fairly certain there are several re-branded releases of the Enix counterpart. Just as shown on the pictures from @jfgslo these had an additional sticker on the backside. I was able to track down another one for proof which is CD Theater Dragon Quest III. And there I can spot the Apollon logo. Unfortunately the resolution is too low to spot anything else

My guess is the Theater Dragon Quest I + III releases with the additional sticker also carry a APCG-number, since they have been most likely (partially?) distributed by Apollon. I wouldn't even be surprised if the Theater CDs for Dragon Quest IV were still related to Apollon as Apollon released the original/orchestra soundtrack for DQIV too. I'll dig deeper into this when I find the time

EDIT: proof found, Dragon Quest III (ECD-003~4) is APCG-9005