Rufi and I discussed the prospecting of ripping them last year and he gave me the confidence that buying and shipping 40 VHS tapes from Japan was totally a good idea.
Regarding the video rips: VHS is already a lossy format, but I recorded these using the NTSC converter on a PAL VCR through a SCART cable, so it's as lossy as lossy gets. (i did import an NTSC VCR with better output just for these tapes... only for it to arrive busted. welp!) If anyone's better equipped to rip them in higher quality, get in touch!
I've probably told you enough on Twitter, but thanks for all your support, Rufi! I'm way behind on the recaps, but I've really enjoyed what I've read and these links are a great help.