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[Happosai]

Retro Anime Discussion |OT|​

[Originally: [Retro Anime Discussion 2020 ]

Anime discussion is one of the main reasons I joined NeoGAF. Secondly, because I'm a casual gamer. Retro is just something that sorta spins my universe and I know it does for many others.

Popular titles which most are going to say are the only retro anime to watch by generalization are: Ninja Scroll, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Dragon Ball Z, Cowboy Bebop, Sailor Moon, Yu Yu FBeeEye and Trigun. Some others are much less discussed (you'll find those in the below timeline). To get this started. I'll start in 1978 when the Japan economic bubble was about to pop and slowly declined in the mid-late 1990's. (We're no longer discussing anime from the 2000's due to the transition from hand-drawn to digital which occured in the early millenium)

What's to discuss? What do you really like about retro anime? What's the difference between nostalgia & retro? Process, timelines, key figures and those who made it possible. Did you start watching during the 60's, 80', or in the 90's?
Anything you miss about the way anime was -- E.G. "Hand-painted cels, cel shading, influenced by Western/other pop culture, more adult-themed characters or stories, etc."

Also, feel free to discuss anime prior to 1978 like the works of Matsumoto, Nagai, etc.

Discuss!

==================================================================================
Random Retro anime from 1978-1998

Note: Of course there are many others from each year listed here. That's why I want you to add or replace your favorite on this list. I tried not to include the ones everyone knows even though some still ended up here.

1978 - Galaxy Express 999
1979 - Mobile Suit Gundam
1980 - Space Runaway Ideon
1981 - Urusei Yatsura
1982 - Space Adventure Cobra
1983 - Golgo 13: The Professional
1984 - Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star)
1985 - Dirty Pair
1986 - Project A-ko (Dragon Ball also debuted this year)
1987 - Bubblegum Crisis (City Hunter also debuted this year)
1988 - Gunbuster
1989 - Ranma 1/2
1990 - Record of Lodoss War
1991 - 3 X 3 Eyes
1992 - Tenchi Muyo OVA 1
1993 - Dragon Half (this deserves to be here even if it's only 2 episodes)
1994 - Iria Zeiram: The animation
1995 - The Slayers
1996 - Rurouni Kenshin
1997 - Berserk
1998 - (Drop me a line in a post)


Special thanks to: @EviLore 3rd time I've thanked you for preserving all the older retro/classic anime thread on GAF after the split happened in 2017, @Corpsepyre for inspiring me to create just one more retro anime thread, @SLoWMoTIoN for changing his/her AV almost weekly to a different anime character, @Shouta for his contributions to previous cool anime threads and to those who frequent the thread with often very useful history such as Space Runaway and J JunkerWoland !

Updated: May 2023

No thread for 2000's anime? Make it. This is for pre-digital anime discussion.

 

[V2Tommy]

90's anime LOOKS SO GOOD.

I need to get back into it.

 

[jshackles]

I've been re-watching Cowboy Bebop for the first time since right after it came out. I think I borrowed the VHS tapes from my boss back in the day and watched them on a 19 inch TV. Now it looks SO much better in HD on my 65 inch.

Watching with my son (who is experiencing it for the first time) and it holds up amazingly well.

 

[NecrosaroIII]

Fang of the Sun Dougram has the greatest anime villain ever.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

This arrived on Blu-Ray to me recently.

 

[Ulysses 31]

Cyber City OEDO 808
Fist of the North Star
Venus Wars (Mainline English dub has my preference for that one >.>)
Vampire Hunter D (1985 one, I like the 2001 one too)
Macross Plus
Saint Seiya
Vision of Escaflowne
Gaint Robo
Devilman OVA
Berserk

Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend (Yeah its hentai but surprisingly also a great horror/fantasy about the savior or destroyer of the world >.>)

 

[Old Retro]

I'd add the original 1983 Macross and Voltron II or "Lightspeed Electroid Albegas". I'm pretty sure I actually saw it back in 84, despite what the internet says.

 

[jshackles]

My first anime. I think we got the VHS tapes from my church way back when

 

[kunonabi]

The Crusher Joe movie just got a Blu-ray release and the OAV series is getting one at the end of the month too.

 

[lock2k]

80's and 90's anime has such a charm to it, it has soul, even in still pictures.

 

[Birdo]

Dominion Tank Police was my thing. The end credit music was awesome:

 

[Pejo]

Hellsing and later Ultimate are some of my favorite anime of all time. Also Vampire Hunter D is a classic.

Does anyone remember the weekly anime shown every week late night on the Sci Fi channel in the 90s/early 2000s? I think it had a name for the time blocked out, but I saw a ton of good movies on there like the Armitage movies, Akira, Casshan, Violence Jack, etc. Man I miss that.

 

[Happosai]

Cyber City OEDO 808
Fist of the North Star
Venus Wars (Mainline English dub has my preference for that one >.>)
Vampire Hunter D (1985 one, I like the 2001 one too)
Macross Plus
Saint Seiya
Vision of Escaflowne
Gaint Robo
Devilman OVA
Berserk

Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend (Yeah its hentai but surprisingly also a great horror/fantasy about the savior or destroyer of the world >.>)

I should have mentioned those 4 in the OP. I still don't have Venus Wars and yet I have 3 other wars (Vampire Wars, Psychic Wars, Big Wars). I own both Vampire Hunter D and Bloodlust (original 85' is still the best). Giant Robo the classic mecha/robo series that didn't get the Western attention it deserved at the time. Devilman OVA (Birth) is better than the original IMO. The dubs for Devilman OVA, Cyber City, and Dark Cat get a lot of flack. I think with Devilman OVA and Cyber City they were just trying to be edgy (let's drop an f-bomb every 5-second coz we can). Dark Cat's a great horror anime if you watch it subbed; I feel they deliberately didn't try in the English dubs.

Spoiler

I think both dubs and subs are great. There's an old GAF thread about that. However, I never liked the Yu Yu Hakusho dub (not for the series, not for the movies, not for the specials). The voice directing/acting just throws me off in places and I have to switch subs on. Especially Kuwabara (in the dub he's a 14-year old with the voice of a 55-year old chain smoker).

 

[Happosai]

My first anime. I think we got the VHS tapes from my church way back when

I saw this as a kid which Sanrio was marketing (Yeah, same guys who produced Hello Kitty). It's dark and was sold for children because the little lambs looked cute. I doubt Sanrio's U.S. VHS distributor in the 80's even bothered to watch more than 5-minutes. It was sold as "Ringing Bell."

 

[Space Runaway]

I saw this as a kid which Sanrio was marketing (Yeah, same guys who produced Hello Kitty). It's dark and was sold for children because the little lambs looked cute. I doubt Sanrio's U.S. VHS distributor in the 80's even bothered to watch more than 5-minutes. It was sold as "Ringing Bell."

Yeah Ringing Bell was quite something to casually have in the children's vhs rental section. =P

A year before that they also did a co-production with the US of The Mouse and His Child, which had a few infamous/disturbing scenes of it's own.

 

[Lionel Richie]

tfw Inuyasha is now retro

 

[Happosai]

tfw Inuyasha is now retro

It doesn't really feel retro as I had already been watching anime about 5-years prior to it being produced. The manga started in 1998 (22-years ago) the series first aired in Japan during the Fall season of 2000 (20-years ago). It has a more modern aesthetic to it (even if the setting is Feudal Japan).

 

[Tesseract]

rented a bunch of this stuff on vhs from the local mom and pop, those were good times

parents weren't too happy about some of the darker shit

 

[Mista]

90's anime LOOKS SO GOOD.

I need to get back into it.

Theres plenty of retro anime that shits on most of current day anime. Watch Cowboy Bebop, Monster, Serial Experiments Lain, Evangelion, Outlaw Star, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Samurai X. These are till today among my favourites

 

[Happosai]

Retro tends to do this to spin-off series. I'm sure you and many others have mentioned in the past the difference between the 1998 Berserk and...that other one. What were they thinking with that reboot?!

 

[Happosai]

rented a bunch of this stuff on vhs from the local mom and pop, those were good times

parents weren't too happy about some of the darker shit

My younger sister snitched on my VHS collection. I had Wicked City on VHS and I recall her reading the synopsis from the back of the tape to my mom. My dad didn't mind. I got a, "don't watch that Japanese smut" lecture and kept the tape. Tesseract what tape was it that pissed off your parents?

 

[Tesseract]

My younger sister snitched on my VHS collection. I had Wicked City on VHS and I recall her reading the synopsis from the back of the tape to my mom. My dad didn't mind. I got a, "don't watch that Japanese smut" lecture and kept the tape. Tesseract what tape was it that pissed off your parents?

i don't recall with great clarity, think it was ninja scroll

must've been 8 or 9

 

[Happosai]

i don't recall with great clarity, think it was ninja scroll

must've been 8 or 9

Could have been any number of small things in Ninja Scroll. It's pretty tame for an anime as I see it today. At least you didn't have a tape of Genocyber or Violence Jack lying around.

 

[Tesseract]

Could have been any number of small things in Ninja Scroll. It's pretty tame for an anime as I see it today. At least you didn't have a tape of Genocyber or Violence Jack lying around.

oh i did, lol

 

[Space Runaway]

One show that's something of am 80's semi-classic yet now fairly obscure is SPT Layzner


A mecha show from Sunrise by Ryosuke Takahashi; y'know the Dougram and VOTOMS guy. Much like those it retains his style of quasi-realism, interesting characters and tactics heavy action. Npot quite the usual show, the first several episodes actually leave you partially in the dark to whats happening, basically experiencing all the death, confusion and mayhem the same way the characters do and with much success. Eventually it settles into a more standardized format but keeps everything high tension and moving along. Notable is the animation, which is good quality (on a consistent episode to episode basis) for an 85 tv show, especially during the action sequences. It eventually builds up to a major moment halfway through the series and then...



...it time jumps several years ahead and suddenly it's a post-apocalyptic-esque series involving mecha. =P While this second half isn't as good as the first, it's still entertaining enough. Unfortunately toward the end of the series one of the sponsors went under and forced them to prematurely end the show with a bizarre final episode. Luckily an OVA was made to give a proper conclusion to the series, though it still kinda feels like we missed half a dozen episodes between the show and the events of the OVA. Still, even in this fractured format I'd recommend this to 80s mech fans, especially if you liked VOTOMS and want a show with a similar tone.

Almost had a Western release in the 00s but Sunrise provided damaged masters and nothing came of it. They've since released decent quality blurays in Japan so hopefully Discotek or one of those licenses it.

edit: fixed year

 

[NecrosaroIII]

What do you guys think of Sazae-san? I think it's pleasant but not exactly engaging

 

[lachesis]

I do have some fond memories of earlier Animes from 60-70s, but the one that resonate with me is this one. Ashita no Joe. (1970)



My first experience with this series was in early 80s - not the TV anime, but the two movie versions from 1980 and 1981. The anime reflects a lot about the society after Zenkyoto generation in 60s. I mean, this anime's been parodied in so many different ways - especially Joe's death scene on the ring.


And this "Umi no Triton" anime... Tomino Yoshiyuki's another one that really make you go "huh"? in the end. (I think this was his first one doing that)




Also in 70s... a lot of Gigantic Robot animes - including Mazinger-Z, Great Mazinger, Grandizer, Getter-Robot from Nagai Go... Jumbot, Combatler V, Voltes V, etc...
80s were more of the real robots like Z gundam.... but I also liked Heavy Metal L-gaim as well - which subsequently made me to follow The Five Star Stories. (hence my username, but urgh....)

I also loved Area 88 OVA series. Sure, it had different endings and all - but I really enjoyed it very much. Dog fighting scenes, specifically that harrier scene was so memorable.

Other than that...

Touch. Definitely Touch was very memorable. I came to love Atachi Mitsuru's work in 90's though - had full volume of his work with me.




And Kimagure Orange Road - especially dig this 2nd opening, heavily influenced by "Take On Me" lol I did like the TV anime series better than the Manga, which I think the author had a bit of issue of ending it for whatever reason, rather abrubtly. I don't like the OVA ones much though, especially the latest one.




Finally one of my favorite Anime movie from 80s was..



I mean, sure - it's definitely different from the original story - but god damn, this is definitely the one of the most ridiculously cell-animated movie ever in my opinion.

I did follow anime in 90s' but I think the ones that you see in your childhood, always have special place in your heart... (and not much fan of general 90's "Slayers" style of drawings)... I still watch some animes and all, but I am more or less casual watcher.

 

[quickwhips]

I dont watch much anime. I watched ninja scroll, guyver, dragon ballz, vampire hunter d and one weird shit where a demon fucked people with his multiple dicks and attack the planet with his multiple demon cocks. Werid shit. I thought ninja scroll was pretty cool(i think that was the name) guyver bio booster armor also. Anything like that and not moster demon cocks for recommendations?

 

[Happosai]

I dont watch much anime. I watched ninja scroll, guyver, dragon ballz, vampire hunter d and one weird shit where a demon fucked people with his multiple dicks and attack the planet with his multiple demon cocks. Werid shit. I thought ninja scroll was pretty cool(i think that was the name) guyver bio booster armor also. Anything like that and not moster demon cocks for recommendations?

So, basically monster or action retro anime without tentacles. Here are some known and lesser known titles that work with the ones you listed:

-Biohunter
-Demon City Shinjuku
-A Wind Called Amnesia
-Twilight of the Dark Master
-Lily C.A.T.
-Golgo 13: The Professional
-Crying Freeman
-NeoTokyo

Other than Dragon Ball Z , the titles you mentioned were movies. The list likewise is also movies.

 

[Happosai]

One show that's something of am 80's semi-classic yet now fairly obscure is SPT Layzner


A mecha show from Sunrise by Ryosuke Takahashi; y'know the Dougram and VOTOMS guy. Much like those it retains his style of quasi-realism, interesting characters and tactics heavy action. Npot quite the usual show, the first several episodes actually leave you partially in the dark to whats happening, basically experiencing all the death, confusion and mayhem the same way the characters do and with much success. Eventually it settles into a more standardized format but keeps everything high tension and moving along. Notable is the animation, which is good quality (on a consistent episode to episode basis) for an 85 tv show, especially during the action sequences. It eventually builds up to a major moment halfway through the series and then...



...it time jumps several years ahead and suddenly it's a post-apocalyptic-esque series involving mecha. =P While this second half isn't as good as the first, it's still entertaining enough. Unfortunately toward the end of the series one of the sponsors went under and forced them to prematurely end the show with a bizarre final episode. Luckily an OVA was made to give a proper conclusion to the series, though it still kinda feels like we missed half a dozen episodes between the show and the events of the OVA. Still, even in this fractured format I'd recommend this to 80s mech fans, especially if you liked VOTOMS and want a show with a similar tone.

Almost had a Western release in the 00s but Sunrise provided damaged masters and nothing came of it. They've since released decent quality blurays in Japan so hopefully Discotek or one of those licenses it.

edit: fixed year

If it had any kind of Western fanbase, Discotek will license it. Their licensing is slower and expensive when it comes to imports. Re-licensing is the only thing they rush out. Seems this parallels a lot with Space Runaway Ideon.

 

[God Enel]

Retro tends to do this to spin-off series. I'm sure you and many others have mentioned in the past the difference between the 1998 Berserk and...that other one. What were they thinking with that reboot?!

Not so long ago I watched the old berserk anime as a lot of people have been praising the manga as some of the best ever (and it’s in my top 5 if not too 3). As I’m not a manga guy I gave the old anime a shot and it was 10/10. Then wanted to watch the new one. Stopped in the middle of the first episode and started to read the manga. GTFO with this shit.

The new anime is a crime against humanity.

Edit: Thread subscribed and great op. Can’t wait for oldschool recommendations.
“Old art style” is king

is golden boy considered retro? It’s fucking fantastic <3

 

[RavageX]

Dominion Tank Police was my thing. The end credit music was awesome:

I remember seeing this on the scifi channel (pretty sure that's where).

This song made(makes) me feel a way I can't quite describe.

 

[kunonabi]

I just found out the Space Adventure Cobra TV series is finally getting a Blu-ray release. Hell yeah.

 

[Aggressive Carrot]

i don't recall with great clarity, think it was ninja scroll

must've been 8 or 9

I had the Ninja Scroll movie. There weren't a lot of kid friendly scenes. I watched the movie once or twice before it was taken away. I'm pretty sure it was tossed in the trash.

 

[Aggressive Carrot]

I just found out the Space Adventure Cobra TV series is finally getting a Blu-ray release. Hell yeah.

I might have to pick that up. I never got to finish the series.

 

[Dacon]

OP you name and DP fill me with a deep and inconsolable rage.

Great thread though.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

Just finished Evangelion yesterday, for some reason never saw it (along with a lot of other anime...). Interesting ending - I adore the fact that it exists, but the execution was a little... I don't want to say hamfisted, but it didn't feel fully natural. Still though, serious balls to go that route.

 

[Space Runaway]

If it had any kind of Western fanbase, Discotek will license it. Their licensing is slower and expensive when it comes to imports. Re-licensing is the only thing they rush out. Seems this parallels a lot with Space Runaway Ideon.

There's some parallels but it's a different experience with constant episode continuation and not really one of those group flies around on a mothership and foils the villain's new crappy plan each episode. =P Well, it does succumb to "plan of the week" during the HnK2 portion and that's one of the reasons that's the lesser half of the series.

I just found out the Space Adventure Cobra TV series is finally getting a Blu-ray release. Hell yeah.

Yeah I've had that pre-ordered since it went up. About time too. The blurays had already been long out when they were just barely releasing the dvds here. Which I still bought...

I was also hoping Discotek would license the new Dirty Pair blurays but they've been censor which is pretty disappointing....

 

[Ballthyrm]

If Moebius ever made an anime , it would look like Dragon's Heaven
An Obscure OVA with giant Mech and pretty cool artstyle.

The other one i really like from the old school animation is of course The Wings of Honneamise.
An amazing anime about the conquest of space.

Ninja Scroll is pretty gruesome too

Ahh, old school anime looked so much better IMHO.


also let's not forget one of the best mecha anime
Gunbuster !

 

[Happosai]

Not so long ago I watched the old berserk anime as a lot of people have been praising the manga as some of the best ever (and it’s in my top 5 if not too 3). As I’m not a manga guy I gave the old anime a shot and it was 10/10. Then wanted to watch the new one. Stopped in the middle of the first episode and started to read the manga. GTFO with this shit.

The new anime is a crime against humanity.

Edit: Thread subscribed and great op. Can’t wait for oldschool recommendations.
“Old art style” is king

is golden boy considered retro? It’s fucking fantastic <3

I've never read into the details as to why they took an extremely low-budget CG route for Berserk 2016; I feel modern anime creators have long lost touch with their audience. I can't imagine it was very well received in Japan either.

Golden Boy the anime ran from 1995-96. I guess most are going to consider that retro now. By the mid-90's, the art style and direction had changed already a lot in Japanese anime. They were doing a lot of this experimental geometrical camera perspective stuff and it caught on until the mid-2000's. After that...seems like art quality got lost and replaced with glowing software touch-ups, digital cels, and characters which have less form and detail. Of course, Western animation already went that route by the late 90's and isn't looking much better. I love CG in video games (without it, there's no basic structure); in animation it removes a lot of the human element. Using light CG with traditional animation looks nice...but that really depends on the budget of the project.

 

[Aggressive Carrot]

Ninja Resurrection was another good and bloody anime. For the longest time I thought it was related to Ninja Scroll. It wasn't until years later I found out Ninja Resurrection was marketed that way because of the popularity of Ninja Scroll.

It was pretty bloody for it's time too.

 

[Happosai]

Ninja Resurrection was another good and bloody anime. For the longest time I thought it was related to Ninja Scroll. It wasn't until years later I found out Ninja Resurrection was marketed that way because of the popularity of Ninja Scroll.

It was pretty bloody for it's time too.

This was a thing in like 2002-2003-ish. There were a few production companies in Japan that wanted to make short series based on popular anime from the 80's/early-90's. This happened with DevilLady, the New Fist of the North Star, and variations of Mazinger (Mazinkaiser) or Cutey Honey. I'm glad you appreciated the efforts as most didn't. People wanted original series in the early 2000's (now they've migrated back toward issuing a handful of spin-off every year) and they mostly ignored Ninja Resurrection. If it had been made more recently...maybe attitudes would be different.

 

[Sakura]

Only thing I miss about retro anime are the good mech series. Gundam, Gunbuster, Macross, Evangelion, etc. Now they all fucking suck.

 

[Happosai]

Only thing I miss about retro anime are the good mech series. Gundam, Gunbuster, Macross, Evangelion, etc. Now they all fucking suck.

Trends like that in anime tend to change every couple decades. 80's anime had some popular genres and have us some good rom-coms. I'm essence, they set the stage for anime today. Recreating that has not worked out so well. They (Japan) is willing to produce any genre now, rather than a select 5 or 6 from the past. Spin-offs are sometimes more successful than their originals. The Stardust Crusaders OVA was left mostly unfinished and unnoticed in the early 90's. When they brought it back as JoJo's Bizarre Adventure in the 2000's...It was redefined and relevant.

 

[O-N-E]

Muh old school animeeee.

 

[Happosai]

Muh old school animeeee.

av

Very good. Looks to be made about 87...maybe 88.' Appreciate the humour, mate. Cheers!

 

[kunonabi]

There's some parallels but it's a different experience with constant episode continuation and not really one of those group flies around on a mothership and foils the villain's new crappy plan each episode. =P Well, it does succumb to "plan of the week" during the HnK2 portion and that's one of the reasons that's the lesser half of the series.



Yeah I've had that pre-ordered since it went up. About time too. The blurays had already been long out when they were just barely releasing the dvds here. Which I still bought...

I was also hoping Discotek would license the new Dirty Pair blurays but they've been censor which is pretty disappointing....

Excuse me, they did what?

 

[Happosai]

80's and 90's anime has such a charm to it, it has soul, even in still pictures.

It had a quality that time worked away from but doesn't really age. I mean, yes, there were some duds from the 70's, 80's, and more so in the 90's; but overall...It was more artist/creator-driven. My stigma with most (not all) anime post-2003 is the cold producer-driven quality. Seems production companies regurgitate their animators and directors before even finishing a series. That's why some series loose momentum halfway, toward the closing, or entirely.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Gifs

New anime is good too but depends on the talent involved. Demon Slayer's revolving backgrounds aren't impressive. Sorry. Levi vs the Monkey Titan though is one of the best animated sequences of the decade. If you want to make a Zoomer anime thread you can.

Finished Giant Gorg after putting it on and off for a year and now back to watching HxH 1999. They sure don't make them like this anymore. Especially when babies cry about filler content, if I want the manga I'll just read it.

 

[Space Runaway]

Excuse me, they did what?

Yeah they removed or altered all the animator reference gags when they used licensed characters from other anime or properties

And then something innocuous like changing all the red crosses to black in the movie. I assume for similar reasons that got the Doom medkits changed. =/

Nothing that will truly ruin the show but now one has to hold onto the dvds.