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[Happosai]

One of the reasons I joined GAF was from reading the extensive anime threads from the past 10-15 years. I don't see many regarding the topic of classic anime (mostly mainstream or super popular titles only). So, here are few rare or lesser-known anime movies/OVAs that I've watched and like just fine (even with some of the content not being the best). For me, it's the 70's-90's that produced most of this cryptic stuff. Here's a sample of some rare interesting titles I've held onto on Laserdisc, VHS, bootleg, and occasionally DVD.

Know any others?

GoShogun (marketed as 'Time Etranger and The Time Stranger in Western countries)
Melancholic way the creators of the TV show GoShogun decided to end their series.


Call Me Tonight This is an interesting sci-fi/horror/comedy revolving around strange happenings surrounding an adult call center worker


Laughing Target Seldom heard of Rumiko Takahashi horror title produced in the 1980's. Full subbed version.


BioHunter Horror type anime which has a Roger Corman-type vibe to it. Biological blood contamination causes a normal human to develop an uncontrollable hunger and eventually start mutating and possibly eating humans.

 

[Nymphae]

I really like Galaxy Express 999 I don't know how rare it is but I never see anyone talk about it

 

[Happosai]

I really like Galaxy Express 999 I don't know how rare it is but I never see anyone talk about it

It's not necessarily rare. In fact, it was rather popular. However, people who started watching anime in the past 20-years have likely only heard of the original and few having taking the initiative to watch it. People tend to watch the spin-offs, sequels, prequels, remakes, of older anime. If you tell people that Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure had it's manga over 30-years ago and the OVA in the 90's...they'll likely be clueless. I watched the 1992 OVA of Ushio to Tora recently. If I mention it to someone, they tend to think I'm referring to the 2015 TV remake.

 

[Nymphae]

In fact, it was rather popular. However, people who started watching anime in the past 20-years have likely only heard of the original and few having taking the initiative to watch it.

Makes sense I suppose. Damn shame it doesn't get more love though. I adore the character designs and the overall artistic style, a lot of anime looks the same to me but Leiji Matsumoto's style always spoke to me

Interstella 5555 is amazing

 

[God Enel]

I love Threads like this. Subscribed.

 

[spandexmonkey]

I enjoyed A Wind Named Amnesia.

As the title suggest a wind comes through and everyone across the world loses their memory/knowledge, sending us back to the stone age. The main character, thanks to technology, is given an education and now travels along with a mysterious girl examining the effects.



Black Magic M-66 is a film based on the works of Masamune Shirow. It's a great 80's style action film about a pair of killer robots accidentally set loose to kill the creator's grand daughter.

 

[Mitsuda Maniac]

Air Gear was my first anime when I was really young and it holds a special place because of it. I recently found this OVA I have never heard of and thought it was kinda neat.

Air Gear: Kuro no Hane to Nemuri no Mori - Break on the Sky

First episode is based on the 16th volume of the manga. Features Ikki vs. Ringo. Second episode is based on the 23rd/24th volume of the manga. Features Kogarasumaru vs. Sleeping Forest inside Inorganic Net.

myanimelist.net

 

[Benjamin_MFF]

Mitsuda Maniac Thank you for reminding me of Air Gear! I was a huge fan of the manga in college and was super confused when the TV series dropped. I'm down to catch the OVA. As my contribution to this thread, is Gunbuster

 

[Werewolf Jones]

I really like Galaxy Express 999 I don't know how rare it is but I never see anyone talk about it

I watched the Rintaro movie a week ago. It's fucking amazing. An easy 9/10 experience.

Hi-Speed Jecy



Le Deus



Giant Gorg



Take the X Train

 

[OmegaSupreme]

There's something about the look of 80's ovas that I just love. Wicked City is a great one but not exactly rare. In fact, I think it has a new blu ray coming out.

 

[Ceallach]

My best friend collects 80s horror and anime VHS and LDs, all kinds of interesting stuff I have found through her.

Can't link shit, but shout outs to Violence Jack, Demon City Shinjuku, MAPS, Dominion Tank Police, MD Geist, Genocyber, Detonator Orgun.

Fuck, I just had a wicked flashback to watching rented anime in the 90s and the other titles video rolls that played at the beginning of tapes.

 

[Mitsuda Maniac]

There's something about the look of 80's ovas that I just love. Wicked City is a great one but not exactly rare. In fact, I think it has a new blu ray coming out.

Man, thanks to you I just found out that this has already been released. I am sure the Devilman OVAs are not considered rare to most anime fans though.

Amazon.com: Devilman Complete 1987-1988 OVA Series [Blu-ray] : Sho HAYAMI, Tsutomu IIDA, Umanosuke IIDA: Movies & TV

Amazon.com: Devilman Complete 1987-1988 OVA Series [Blu-ray] : Sho HAYAMI, Tsutomu IIDA, Umanosuke IIDA: Movies & TV

www.amazon.com

 

[carlosrox]

If you wanna see something ultra depressing and a bit dark I highly recommend this.

This kinda fucked me up and I saw it as an adult. If I saw it as a kid it woulda fuckin' ruined my life.

 

[Thing on a Spring]

Watched a lot in the early 90s. Not sure how rare but I used to love Monster City, Ultimate Teacher, Crying Freeman, Cyber City Oedo 808 and 3x3 Eyes. All the usual stuff too like Vampire Hunter D, Fist of The North Star etc.

 

[Mr Nash]

Gosenzo-sama Banbanzai is interesting, but might take a couple of viewings to absorb since there are so many soliloquies.



Dragon's Heaven has some great art.



A buddy of mine has a site that talks about fairly forgotten anime from time to time (among other things). It isn't updated very often, but may be useful for people who are into this sort of thing.

https://iroiro.neocities.org/

 

[carlosrox]

Extremely gory. LOVED THIS ONE SINCE I WAS A KID! This, Fatal Fury, and Vampire Hunter D basically define what Anime is to me. Fuck all the new school shit. For me it's about 80s and 90s anime.

Some of the most over the top anime stuff ever!

17:40 for super over the top anime violence/swearing.

41:14 = hyper Japanese anime nonsense AND I LOVE IT!

 

[DragoonWalker]

Time has rendered all anime OVAs obscure. I'm seeing once popular classics in this thread like Gunbuster and Galaxy Express... Here's some truly deep cuts that exemplify the experimental format:

Bobby's in Deep/Bobby's Girl: An extremely stylish, moody, one of a kind coming of age story. It's so obscure, there's no trailer and the whole thing is on YT in the wrong aspect ratio. Was never even on DVD, I don't believe there is any other legal way to watch it. Here's a video that talks about it's amazing visuals.



California Crisis: A teen adventure drama that's hard to pin down. What were they smoking when they made this, we'll never know. But the art style sure is something else, and worth watching for that alone. Can you imagine something like this being made today? Find it on YT. Here's a taste, from a music video segment:



Dragon's Heaven (damn, got beaten to it): Thought Ghibli's Nausicaa was vaguely inspired by French artist Mobieus's art? Wait til you see Dragon's Heaven. It's Mobieus in anime form. The visual are mindblowing, the story less so. But hey, isnt' that what OVAs are all about? Again, whole thing on YT you can search yourself, but here's an introductory video:



Wild 7: A fantastic action feast of brutal proportions, made even better by the hilarious, extremely American English dub. Violence is off the charts, like Robocop in animated form. Again, available possibly only on YT, be sure to check out the 2 hour movie cut that combines the 2 episodes Trailer:



Angel Cop: Possibly my favorite anime OVA of all time, this deliciously crude action saga has a trucker's mouth of a dub, gorgeous and detailed animation, explosive action, and flashy effects ups the wazoo. Characters are lovable, in an asshole kinda way, far removed from the softies of today's millennial anime. Watch it now, in all it's glory:



Other, slightly less obscure, but still awesome OVAs: Angel's Egg, Legend of Lemnear, Robot Carnival, Neo Tokyo, Battle Royal High School, Starship Troopers (before it became a movie), Shoujo Tsubaki, Ultimate Teacher (like most abandoned OVAs, most of these are available readily on YT. There's way more out there than can possibly be listed here)

 

[Happosai]

Makes sense I suppose. Damn shame it doesn't get more love though. I adore the character designs and the overall artistic style, a lot of anime looks the same to me but Leiji Matsumoto's style always spoke to me

Interstella 5555 is amazing

Leiji Matsumoto is one of the greatest!

 

[carlosrox]

Not an OVA, but it is a sequel to two awesome OVA.

Perfection. The 3 Fatal Fury anime will always have a place in my heart.

The music...



The original OVA. I remember seeing this intro as a kid and being blown away. I had never seen anything like this up to this point. My only experience with anime til this point was Akira, Sailor Moon, Samurai Pizza Cats, and maybe the original Dragonball. Oh, and the unbelievably rare Aladdin Anime (which is magnificent).




I love the abstraction of anime. Old school anime sound effects give me life.

 

[shoplifter]

Not exactly obscure, but I rarely see anyone talk about it these days. Aside from the normal stuff you could watch on TV in the States, this was probably what got me into Anime back when I was 13.

 

[Valonquar]

I remember the LD for this back in the day being an unattainable holy grail.

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

I really like Galaxy Express 999 I don't know how rare it is but I never see anyone talk about it

About as rare as Aria.

 

[Space Runaway]

I feel like almost everything from these eras might as well be rare or obscure these days. =P

Well, puling from the "never hear about this" pile:

Take the X Train - Offbeat OVA from Rintaro. Good for those who want some experimental stuff



Scoopers - Fun junkfood ova



Lesnman The Movie - I think this would be considered rare these days. Mainly worth watching for the animation, particularly the crazy chase scene that starts at the 1:11:00 mark.



Hell Target - One of the several Alien rip-off OVAs from the 80s and possibly the most obscure. It's enjoyable in a trash b-movie way and certainly better some of of it's contemporaries like Roots Search.



Space Firebird 2772/Phoenix 2772 - I believe this only got a dubbed VHS release in the US so it should fall under rare. Classic movie based on Tezuka's Phoenix series and wonderfully depressing. Standout animated sequence at 9:50 which looks like there was computer involvement yet was entirely hand animated.

 

[Shouta]

Combustible Campus Guardress - 1994

It's a 4 episode OVA about a high school, and the town its in, that guards a gate to a realm of evil from evil doers that want to open it. It's pretty wacky and a decent action series. Ep 4 is really low quality.









Natsuki Crisis - 1994

A 2 episode OVA based off a 18 Volume manga of the same name. The main character, Natsuki, is a karate master that gets involved in a bunch of things at her school ending up fighting a bunch of people. There was a SNES/Super Famicom fighting game that was made based on this series too.

 

[Happosai]

Time has rendered all anime OVAs obscure. I'm seeing once popular classics in this thread like Gunbuster and Galaxy Express... Here's some truly deep cuts that exemplify the experimental format:

Bobby's in Deep/Bobby's Girl: An extremely stylish, moody, one of a kind coming of age story. It's so obscure, there's no trailer and the whole thing is on YT in the wrong aspect ratio. Was never even on DVD, I don't believe there is any other legal way to watch it. Here's a video that talks about it's amazing visuals.



California Crisis: A teen adventure drama that's hard to pin down. What were they smoking when they made this, we'll never know. But the art style sure is something else, and worth watching for that alone. Can you imagine something like this being made today? Find it on YT. Here's a taste, from a music video segment:



Dragon's Heaven (damn, got beaten to it): Thought Ghibli's Nausicaa was vaguely inspired by French artist Mobieus's art? Wait til you see Dragon's Heaven. It's Mobieus in anime form. The visual are mindblowing, the story less so. But hey, isnt' that what OVAs are all about? Again, whole thing on YT you can search yourself, but here's an introductory video:



Wild 7: A fantastic action feast of brutal proportions, made even better by the hilarious, extremely American English dub. Violence is off the charts, like Robocop in animated form. Again, available possibly only on YT, be sure to check out the 2 hour movie cut that combines the 2 episodes Trailer:



Angel Cop: Possibly my favorite anime OVA of all time, this deliciously crude action saga has a trucker's mouth of a dub, gorgeous and detailed animation, explosive action, and flashy effects ups the wazoo. Characters are lovable, in an asshole kinda way, far removed from the softies of today's millennial anime. Watch it now, in all it's glory:



Other, slightly less obscure, but still awesome OVAs: Angel's Egg, Legend of Lemnear, Robot Carnival, Neo Tokyo, Battle Royal High School, Starship Troopers (before it became a movie), Shoujo Tsubaki, Ultimate Teacher (like most abandoned OVAs, most of these are available readily on YT. There's way more out there than can possibly be listed here)

I really think the OVAs and anime movies from the golden era are unsurpassed. Real difficult to pull of what animators did then (especially in the bubble economy of the 80's) compared to now. I happily have most of the in my collection. Like an idiot I sold NeoTokyo about 12-years ago and the price had inflate too much to buy it back. The ADV release sells at a minimum $90 right now used.

 

[Happosai]

My best friend collects 80s horror and anime VHS and LDs, all kinds of interesting stuff I have found through her.

Can't link shit, but shout outs to Violence Jack, Demon City Shinjuku, MAPS, Dominion Tank Police, MD Geist, Genocyber, Detonator Orgun.

Fuck, I just had a wicked flashback to watching rented anime in the 90s and the other titles video rolls that played at the beginning of tapes.

I went through a buy-back phase of older anime in about 2010. Fortunately, I was able to grab most of those gory titles you mentioned before they went out-of-print. Many find M.D. Giest, Genocyber, and Cybernetics Guardian (all by the same director) off-putting due to the gore. I used to sit back and have fun with them. I have the soundtracks, too.

 

[Happosai]

I feel like almost everything from these eras might as well be rare or obscure these days. =P

Well, puling from the "never hear about this" pile:

Take the X Train - Offbeat OVA from Rintaro. Good for those who want some experimental stuff



Scoopers - Fun junkfood ova



Lesnman The Movie - I think this would be considered rare these days. Mainly worth watching for the animation, particularly the crazy chase scene that starts at the 1:11:00 mark.



Hell Target - One of the several Alien rip-off OVAs from the 80s and possibly the most obscure. It's enjoyable in a trash b-movie way and certainly better some of of it's contemporaries like Roots Search.



Space Firebird 2772/Phoenix 2772 - I believe this only got a dubbed VHS release in the US so it should fall under rare. Classic movie based on Tezuka's Phoenix series and wonderfully depressing. Standout animated sequence at 9:50 which looks like there was computer involvement yet was entirely hand animated.

Whoa, this post blew me away. I have the Lensman movie on VHS but the others...Never saw those. Thanks for linking them to this thread! Another Alien dip-off that's kinda cool is one called Lily C.A.T. from about the same time.

 

[carlosrox]

God tier theme and intro. Love the engrish way he says PROGRAM.

 

[Happosai]

Combustible Campus Guardress - 1994

It's a 4 episode OVA about a high school, and the town its in, that guards a gate to a realm of evil from evil doers that want to open it. It's pretty wacky and a decent action series. Ep 4 is really low quality.









Natsuki Crisis - 1994

A 2 episode OVA based off a 18 Volume manga of the same name. The main character, Natsuki, is a karate master that gets involved in a bunch of things at her school ending up fighting a bunch of people. There was a SNES/Super Famicom fighting game that was made based on this series too.

I do not have these rare ones either. Thanks for sharing and contributing some great posts in the past. I used to read your posts from about 7 or 8-years ago in anime threads. Great to see you're still here in GAF, mate.

 

[J-Roderton]

Damn. Cool stuff.

 

[Happosai]

I remember the LD for this back in the day being an unattainable holy grail.

Had some great artwork on the Laserdisc. I got this and Roots Search on LD...like VHS artwork on a record sleeve. They're rare now and likely won't be seeing a digital release.

 

[Ceallach]

Someone not on shitty govvie computers post Otaku no Video.

 

[carlosrox]

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (1982)

This is so rare it hardly even exists. It's very hard to find anything about this. Does anyone here even know about it?

There is a garbage (truly garbage) english dub that is pointless, and the original English dub I grew up with that was excellent.

This is the dogshit dub where it seems they dragged people off the street to do voices.

Shit gets a little creepy around the 50 min mark and I've always loved it. First anime anything I ever saw in my life in the early 90s.


I re-uploaded someone else's video but can't even seem to find it, as that person had the whole thing broken up into parts with the proper dub. I only got the last part though. It seems the rest is gone once again.

The tone of the dub I watched was perfect, as it had this song play at the end.




Again, it doesn't get much rarer than this. The Aladdin Anime (as me and my brothers call it) barely seems to exist. It's hard finding even info of this thing.

 

[Happosai]

God tier theme and intro. Love the engrish way he says PROGRAM.

The are a few rare cases where Japan would have random lines of English written into Japanese scripts. After seeing these videos...I wonder if the voice director wasn't just trolling these poor VAs.

 

[Happosai]

Someone not on shitty govvie computers post Otaku no Video.

There you go. This was iconic for the screenwriters actually trying to introduce existing anime in third-party to the meaning Otaku had in the late 80's and early 90's. This is the full English subbed feature.

 

[Space Runaway]

Whoa, this post blew me away. I have the Lensman movie on VHS but the others...Never saw those. Thanks for linking them to this thread! Another Alien dip-off that's kinda cool is one called Lily C.A.T. from about the same time.

Yeah I remember Lily Cat from the Streamline VHS days. I think it's streamable on amazon video, albeit only with the old dub.

 

[Ceallach]

I can't see anythign in this thread, lol, but I appreciate everyone's efforts.

 

[Happosai]

This was a fun OVA based on a video game. Trailer here but the full OVA is on YouTube in 3 parts.


Then there's Japan's take on Miami Vice...Tokyo Vice. This is the dub...I recommend the sub though.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

Dangaioh(sp?) Was a great mech ova series.

 

[Valonquar]

Back when Animego VHS clamshells were $49++ for a single episode of Bubblegum Crisis. It was difficult to be an anime fan in the late 80's / early 90's. I knew a guy that sold plama for extra cash to buy LDs... me, I just went to clubs and got fansubs like a scrub.

 

[Rat Rage]

Cyber City Oedo 808 is great (One of those few Anime where the English dub is best)

 

[Happosai]

Back when Animego VHS clamshells were $49++ for a single episode of Bubblegum Crisis. It was difficult to be an anime fan in the late 80's / early 90's. I knew a guy that sold plama for extra cash to buy LDs... me, I just went to clubs and got fansubs like a scrub.

AnimeEigo was one of the first North American distributors of anime. They licensed and dubbed Bubblegum Crisis back in like 1989 or 90. Buying it back then would have been super expensive. They're still selling overstocked DVD sets today. Seems like they were ahead of their time as anime didn't really gain much Western popularity until about 6-years after. Fansubs were fun...like about 60% or less accuracy and they would usually insert jokes that reflected dubbing from dual VCRs. VHS/LD days were something else. I remember buying a series like Maze: The Mega Burst Space on two 4-VHS packs for about $79 and then thinking (I got that practically for free). I mean, when I first bought Wicked City on VHS the dub was $19.99 and the sub $29.99. Then DVD came out with dual language options...should have just waited. Maze...another rare one.