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[DragoonWalker]

The first paragraph you are talking about Western pop-culture and general pop-culture's influence on anime in the past. Now, when I get too critical of modern anime; it tends to draw some bad attention. So, I can say that as a whole, I don't like it. I can also say why I can't get into it. However, I want to make sure the this thread doesn't end up like some of the past GAF classic anime threads where there was some warring going on between the different generations of anime. So, back to that pop-cultural influence. Let me ask a question. Who was one of the most renegade and daredevil-type animators in the West of the 1970's? To me...Ralph Bakshi. Ralph Bakshi drew inspiration from pop-culture and classic film to create the crazy stories and elaborate rotoscoped animation in many of his feature films. I would say that it's undeniable that Japanese in the 70's and 80's probably had more of a pull influence from seeing Bakshi's Wizards, Fire & Ice, LoTRs, Cool World, American Pop, and possibly some of his earlier ones too (the one's that were the most extreme).

Someone brought up in this group awhile back in a post how the Japanese had based several characters on a blonde singer (Italian, I believe but I'll have to search for that post). So, it seems no coincidence that early anime liked certain characters to have a European look to them. There's also the art-style of Crying Freeman. The realism in the character design alone is something I've seen in only a handful of older anime. The story is far beyond what I see writers would be willing to push today. Read the manga or watch the OVA. Either way, it's more like watching a piece of Western cinema mixed with Japanese and Chinese influence.

Some obvious parallels can be drawn from BladeRunner and A.D. Police. I get that many OVAs and anime movies in the 80's wanted to include cyberpunk elements that were a hat-tip to BladeRunner. However, I recall an entire scene of a Boomer (similar to a replicant) being chased through a glass window...that's straight out of BladeRunner when the snake charmer replicant is chased by Harrison Ford and breaks through a window.

Let's make this topic bigger.

Take a look at this fanmade BladeRunner poster. Try to think of all the classic anime the characters remind you of. Almost seems like BladeRunner was made in Japan sometimes when I watch it.

Interesting, I never really considered that anime would pull from Ralph Bakshi. His stuff is... so rugged and ugly (in a charming way). Lots of character, especially the early ones as you noted (Fritz the Cat, Coonskin, Heavy Traffic). Certainly there's some overlap there with Lupin pt 1.

But past that into the 80s, Western crime, action, and sci fi films seem like the biggest influence to me. Like you said, Blade Runner, besides AD Police it clearly also inspired the related Bubblegum Crisis (starting with the name Priss). But not just these, pretty much all 80s sci fi anime that's not mecha related owes their aesthetic to Blade Runner, including Cyber City Oedo, Goku Midnight Eyey, and Ghost in the Shell (then you got Kojima's Snatcher, which is anime Blade Runner: The Game). Then are lots of OVAs which names I can't remember that borrow images or characters from Star Wars Ep IV, James Bond, Mad Max, Commando and The Terminator (Daicon IV, Birth, Black Magic 88, Winds of Amnesia, Robot Carnival, it's all mixed up). The images come to mind but it's been a long time so the lesser ones fade away.

Good discussion though! Really glad you opened up this thread. Brings back great memories.

In a way this doesn't count due to being an American show but I think it should.


Back in 1984 we got The Transformers which everyone knows about but also in 1984 the little known show "Mighty Orbots" was also released. Basically in the future, a team of robots (And their Human creater/leader) called Mighty Orbots work for the usual "Galactic Patrol" type enforcement to battle against evil, in particular the Shadow organization led by Umbra. In Voltron fashion the Mighty Orbots would combine to form a giant robot, also called Mighty Orbots - and perhaps also looks a little too similar to Godmars. =P

What makes this show special is the animation duties were completely handled by TMS and Osamu Dezaki, who directed all the episodes. The production quality of this show is pretty wild, with Dezaki still in full Cobra mode and being allowed to go all out of the art and animation. Everything is high quality and the animation is generally always moving or in some action; utilizing more frames than you'd find in any Japanese animation outside of movies. Not to mention very complex camera work which frequently employs(And requires) the use of full environment animation. Couple that with amazing background and Cobra-lite art direction (Sans the individual Orbots) and you've got one of the best looking shows to come out of Japan.

Cobra!? Not quite.


I don't know what budget they gave Dezaki for this show but he definitely used it:








The big caveat of course is...the show itself is rather mediocre. By the standards of 80s tv cartoons the writing and storytelling is well, substandard. This is a show to en joy purely based on the animation, art and general production.

Only 13 episodes were made before it was sued by Tonka due to the name "Orbots" and the use of "Mighty" being too close to Gobots. Since the show wasn't a big hit during it's short run, rather than fight the lawsuit they pretty much dumped the show and moved on. For a long time a limited number of episodes were only available on VHS though a few years ago a dvd of the complete series was released.


If you're a fan of Dezaki or 80s animation in general then definitely give this one a look.

If you grew up in the 80s or early 90s, a good deal of saturday morning cartoons were outsourced to Japan. Specifically as you said, Tokyo Movie Shinsha. TMS handled the animation for the legendary Batman: The Animated Series, which continues to look amazing to this day. It also handled favorites like Ducktales, Inspector Gadget, and Tiny Toons, which resulted in high quality animation that was just leagues beyond the stuff that was done back in the states. Then you got Topcraft who did The Last Unicorn. These were, of course, many of the same animators who worked on your anime favorites, and if you look past the designs you'll begin to see some anime flavor slip through. Fascinating stuff really.

Speaking of TMS, I've been falling in love with Sherlock Hound lately. Sorry if already discussed in the thread, but it's such a great watch if you're specifically a Castle in the Sky fan, the tone is heavily similar. That can't really be said for other Ghibli films:

 

[Carna]

not exactly, a retro anime. but 2009's "Basquash" captures the look of otherworldly scifi anime of imagination. the show isn't the greatest. but it's a fun saturday watch.

 

[Space Runaway]

If you grew up in the 80s or early 90s, a good deal of saturday morning cartoons were outsourced to Japan. Specifically as you said, Tokyo Movie Shinsha. TMS handled the animation for the legendary Batman: The Animated Series, which continues to look amazing to this day. It also handled favorites like Ducktales, Inspector Gadget, and Tiny Toons, which resulted in high quality animation that was just leagues beyond the stuff that was done back in the states. Then you got Topcraft who did The Last Unicorn. These were, of course, many of the same animators who worked on your anime favorites, and if you look past the designs you'll begin to see some anime flavor slip through. Fascinating stuff really.

Speaking of TMS, I've been falling in love with Sherlock Hound lately. Sorry if already discussed in the thread, but it's such a great watch if you're specifically a Castle in the Sky fan, the tone is heavily similar. That can't really be said for other Ghibli films:

Yeah for a good while TMS was Disney TV's "dirty secret" they didn't want to talk about. =P Of all the companies used for subcontract work, TMS were definitely the best when it came to animation.

Course it was a good thing their output was such quality as it kept them in constant use. Toward the late 80s and early 90s all the US companies got wise to things and started bypassing the JP studios (Such as Toei) to avoid their middleman tactics and directly using the cheapo Korean studios that Japan themselves were dumping most of the work on. =P

 

[Space Runaway]

While I don't care for CG emulating 2D animation, I sure do like it when attempted with toys.

This custom Macross diorama is pretty neat:

 

[Happosai]

Interesting, I never really considered that anime would pull from Ralph Bakshi. His stuff is... so rugged and ugly (in a charming way). Lots of character, especially the early ones as you noted (Fritz the Cat, Coonskin, Heavy Traffic). Certainly there's some overlap there with Lupin pt 1.

But past that into the 80s, Western crime, action, and sci fi films seem like the biggest influence to me. Like you said, Blade Runner, besides AD Police it clearly also inspired the related Bubblegum Crisis (starting with the name Priss). But not just these, pretty much all 80s sci fi anime that's not mecha related owes their aesthetic to Blade Runner, including Cyber City Oedo, Goku Midnight Eyey, and Ghost in the Shell (then you got Kojima's Snatcher, which is anime Blade Runner: The Game). Then are lots of OVAs which names I can't remember that borrow images or characters from Star Wars Ep IV, James Bond, Mad Max, Commando and The Terminator (Daicon IV, Birth, Black Magic 88, Winds of Amnesia, Robot Carnival, it's all mixed up). The images come to mind but it's been a long time so the lesser ones fade away.

Good discussion though! Really glad you opened up this thread. Brings back great memories.


If you grew up in the 80s or early 90s, a good deal of saturday morning cartoons were outsourced to Japan. Specifically as you said, Tokyo Movie Shinsha. TMS handled the animation for the legendary Batman: The Animated Series, which continues to look amazing to this day. It also handled favorites like Ducktales, Inspector Gadget, and Tiny Toons, which resulted in high quality animation that was just leagues beyond the stuff that was done back in the states. Then you got Topcraft who did The Last Unicorn. These were, of course, many of the same animators who worked on your anime favorites, and if you look past the designs you'll begin to see some anime flavor slip through. Fascinating stuff really.

Speaking of TMS, I've been falling in love with Sherlock Hound lately. Sorry if already discussed in the thread, but it's such a great watch if you're specifically a Castle in the Sky fan, the tone is heavily similar. That can't really be said for other Ghibli films:

I'm not sure when Bakshi's first 3 films were imported to Japan exactly (Fritz, Coonskin, Heavy Traffic). I used to own all of his movies included a rare print of Hey Good Lookin'. I figure that they started importing Bakshi around the time of Wizards. Heavy Metal the movie was also shown in Japan and undoubted had a big influence on fantasy / sci-fi anime. Western movies from the 70's-80's had a bigger influence on the Japanese than Western animators did. Those that you mentioned and I'm surprised you didn't put Alien or Aliens in there. Everyone wanted to remake Alien before the 1986 sequel. Japan had Lily C.A.T. which is like Alien from Jonesey's (the cat in Alien) perspective and I recall Italy having two Alien remakes: Creature and Alien 2: Alien on Earth. Space Runaway has mentioned a couple other Alien tributes in classic anime in another post. I haven't watched Ducktales as an adult but I assumed that Disney protectively was only going to outsource to Korea for animators. Obviously, they went higher-end by having Ducktales animated in Japan. Tiny Toons...that blew my mind reading that. I thought that was an exclusively California production. The Last Unicorn is very easy to pin as Japanese animated and can be clearly seen in the credits. It also feels Japanese due to the sometimes adult nature to some scenes which challenged what most Americans would directly put into their animated movies (Ruby-Spears were pretty family friendly). I always wonder if Don Bluth films had any inspiration on anime. I'm sure back in the 80's that big shots like Miyazaki were watching Don Bluth and taking notes. He was much cleaner than Bakshi, rivaled Disney, and was employing more realistic rotoscoping.

These points are brought up to take a look back into the past at how anime was influenced from beyond their own borders. There are multiple anime that have creatures used from Star Wars (the original trilogy) and sometimes very direct without consent to infringement. I recall even anime made as late as Slayers Try (about 96') having a village of Jawas get attacked.

That's why this thread is here. Discuss classic anime and why it still has a big impact today. It really wasn't that long ago that James Cameron made a movie based on Battle Angel Aita. He had plenty of newer anime to pick from but if you listen to commentary; you can figure out why he picked something from the 90's. Anime isn't going to back in the direction it did 22-40 years ago. It's just something we can enjoy today because it gets better as it gets older. I'd say most 80's anime dynamically stands out to anything made in the 90's, 2000's, or 2010's. I don't think anyone will ever push that hard to put out animation again in our time.

 

[Happosai]

Yeah for a good while TMS was Disney TV's "dirty secret" they didn't want to talk about. =P Of all the companies used for subcontract work, TMS were definitely the best when it came to animation.

Course it was a good thing their output was such quality as it kept them in constant use. Toward the late 80s and early 90s all the US companies got wise to things and started bypassing the JP studios (Such as Toei) to avoid their middleman tactics and directly using the cheapo Korean studios that Japan themselves were dumping most of the work on. =P

Disney had many dirty secrets durings the 80's-90's for cutting corners in animation. TMS is fairly innocent compared to Disney's "The Lion Kimba...King ." I liked what came out of TMS but I'm sad to see how poorly they started to decline by the late-90's. They picked up a bunch of their own projects and projects for Canadian T.V. in the late-90's which were just bizarre, cheaply animated, and unappealing. A lot of stuff got tossed to Saturday morning timeslots then. I've never directly investigated but always suspected that Ruby-Spears were sending things like the second HeathCliff cartoon of the 80's and 80's Alvin and the Chipmunks to Japanese studios. The drawing style and coloring...everything about those two cartoons looks Japanese.

 

[Space Runaway]

Disney had many dirty secrets durings the 80's-90's for cutting corners in animation. TMS is fairly innocent compared to Disney's "The Lion Kimba...King ." I liked what came out of TMS but I'm sad to see how poorly they started to decline by the late-90's. They picked up a bunch of their own projects and projects for Canadian T.V. in the late-90's which were just bizarre, cheaply animated, and unappealing.

Yeah they ultimately became a pretty standard studio in terms of output quality. Seemed to be the fate of 2d animation in general.

A lot of stuff got tossed to Saturday morning timeslots then. I've never directly investigated but always suspected that Ruby-Spears were sending things like the second HeathCliff cartoon of the 80's and 80's Alvin and the Chipmunks to Japanese studios. The drawing style and coloring...everything about those two cartoons looks Japanese.

Oh yeah TMS was doing a bunch of the DIC cartoons in the mid-80s. Heathcliff, The Real Ghostbusters(Which had it's animation pumped up during the shorter seasons), Rainbow Brite (And the movie), among others.

 

[Happosai]

Yeah they ultimately became a pretty standard studio in terms of output quality. Seemed to be the fate of 2d animation in general.



Oh yeah TMS was doing a bunch of the DIC cartoons in the mid-80s. Heathcliff, The Real Ghostbusters(Which had it's animation pumped up during the shorter seasons), Rainbow Brite (And the movie), among others.

HeathCliff and Marmadork looks a bit cheaper in quality than the latter Japanese animated



This I could always tell was animated in Japan

 

[Space Runaway]

HeathCliff and Marmadork looks a bit cheaper in quality than the latter Japanese animated



This I could always tell was animated in Japan

Yeah TMS only did the Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats show.

The Marmaduke and Dingbat were done by Dong Seo Animation who were a Korean studio who were one of those unspoken outsource companies going back to the 70s. I think John K used to bitch about this in his pre-disgraced and cancelled years. =P

 

[Happosai]

Yeah TMS only did the Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats show.

The Marmaduke and Dingbat were done by Dong Seo Animation who were a Korean studio who were one of those unspoken outsource companies going back to the 70s. I think John K used to bitch about this in his pre-disgraced and cancelled years. =P

John K. did work on the first along with Strawberry Shortcake and the animated PacMan. I always hated Marmaduke, so that one didn't deserve the better animation. I'm guessing that we're not likely ever going to see Americans outsourcing to Japan again for animation since both are heavily reliant on their computer to do everything. Do Japanese studios still do storyboarding or did that get scrapped, too?

 

[Space Runaway]

I couldn't say as I'm not up to speed with the current animation industry.

Though for story boarding, back in the day it was usually uncommon for the outsource company to handle that. Stuff like GI Joe and Transformers would be storyboarded in the US and sent to Japan to turn it into animation. Japan seemed to have some leeway in how they presented it though. Like on the commentary for Galaxy Rangers they talked about how TMS added a bunch of additional animation flourishes and details not in the storyboards which ended up making the produciton look better while remaining in budget.

Though Orbots, which I had mentioned a few pages back, had the entire animation process handled by TMS. Course when you're working with Dezaki that should be an easy decision.

 

[Happosai]

I couldn't say as I'm not up to speed with the current animation industry.

Though for story boarding, back in the day it was usually uncommon for the outsource company to handle that. Stuff like GI Joe and Transformers would be storyboarded in the US and sent to Japan to turn it into animation. Japan seemed to have some leeway in how they presented it though. Like on the commentary for Galaxy Rangers they talked about how TMS added a bunch of additional animation flourishes and details not in the storyboards which ended up making the produciton look better while remaining in budget.

Though Orbots, which I had mentioned a few pages back, had the entire animation process handled by TMS. Course when you're working with Dezaki that should be an easy decision.

I'm not at all up to date with current animation trends. Last I studied was in 2009.

The storyboards from the Americans would not reflect some of those trademark Japanese art styles used in TMS. By the way, TMS has a bunch of their shows posted on their official North American YouTube channel.

Next subject. kunonabi . I just watched a Ranma 1/2 movie from the 2017 VIz release. The name was not one I had heard of. Just going by memory, something about Battle of the Brides. I'm a bit confused because I remember a movie being market as 'Nihao Mine Concubine,' or something like that. Would this be that movie or am I missing a movie. There are just 2 Ranma movies right?

 

[kunonabi]

If you're talking about Battle at Togenkyo! Get Back the Brides than yeah that should just be Nihao My Concubine.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

I asked this in the general anime discussion thread but didn't hear anything back. Maybe you gents can help me out. Did Clamp ever explain why they never finished X/1999? I really dug the anime and looked into the manga years ago but I learned it was never finished. Why?

 

[Happosai]

I asked this in the general anime discussion thread but didn't hear anything back. Maybe you gents can help me out. Did Clamp ever explain why they never finished X/1999? I really dug the anime and looked into the manga years ago but I learned it was never finished. Why?

Apologies for the late reply. From what I've read, the magazine publisher of X (retitled X/1999 in the U.S.) was always haphazard about giving the series a continual publishing contract in a major Japanese magazine. In about 2002-3-ish, the publishers dropped X the manga due to a nearly decade dispute about it's apocalyptic themes occurring in real geographical parts of Tokyo. The manga was then halted while Clamp tried to find a magazine bold enough to pick it back up; they never found anyone and so the manga has been stuck in limbo since 2003.

They did make the movie which is an animated masterpiece and the 2001 TV series. Those were means of bringing some closure. The movie more so tells the end of X and is more complete than the manga. You should check it out of you haven't. Once a manga gets on hiatus in Japan...there's no telling if they'll ever go back into circulation. I was reading the Geobreeders manga and it stops abruptly but for a different reason. The author had some health problems and was forced to retire from making manga or anything. Japan has gotten heavier on censorship for manga in recent years -- unfortunately, this means they probably won't be touching X again soon. Art in Japan is great but their backwards politics suck and they're the reason censors are hot to edit or remove anything they like from the popular media market.

 

[Happosai]

If you're talking about Battle at Togenkyo! Get Back the Brides than yeah that should just be Nihao My Concubine.

I like the original English marketing name. They changed it unexpectedly. I remember seeing the DVD back when VIZ first released it in a used video store. This new Warner/Viz collection of the movies has retitled all but one. ALthough, I wouldn't consider 'One Flew Over the Link's Nest / Team Ranma vs Legendary Phoenix ' to be a movie. They call it a special but two of the OVAs were also sold as specials, too. Going to rewatch the whole series in December. So, I need to finish up with DNA-squared, Inuyasha, and everything else soon.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

Apologies for the late reply. From what I've read, the magazine publisher of X (retitled X/1999 in the U.S.) was always haphazard about giving the series a continual publishing contract in a major Japanese magazine. In about 2002-3-ish, the publishers dropped X the manga due to a nearly decade dispute about it's apocalyptic themes occurring in real geographical parts of Tokyo. The manga was then halted while Clamp tried to find a magazine bold enough to pick it back up; they never found anyone and so the manga has been stuck in limbo since 2003.

They did make the movie which is an animated masterpiece and the 2001 TV series. Those were means of bringing some closure. The movie more so tells the end of X and is more complete than the manga. You should check it out of you haven't. Once a manga gets on hiatus in Japan...there's no telling if they'll ever go back into circulation. I was reading the Geobreeders manga and it stops abruptly but for a different reason. The author had some health problems and was forced to retire from making manga or anything. Japan has gotten heavier on censorship for manga in recent years -- unfortunately, this means they probably won't be touching X again soon. Art in Japan is great but their backwards politics suck and they're the reason censors are hot to edit or remove anything they like from the popular media market.

That's a shame. Thanks for the reply. X and Chobits were great back in the day. Loved me some Clamp.

 

[Happosai]

That's a shame. Thanks for the reply. X and Chobits were great back in the day. Loved me some Clamp.

I was just about to say Clamp was great back in the day. I've been reading manga online free lately so I don't come across as many publishers as I used to. Check out this library...that's where the manga was coming from that I used to read.

List of manga published by Shogakukan - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Happosai]

Okay, new sub-topic since I haven't made one in a couple weeks.

Weirdest Older Anime You've Ever Watched...What was it?

Here's mine: Back in 2008, I was finding a bunch of 80's anime titles which had never made it to North America and were mostly fan-subbed on a site called Veoh.com
I don't think YouTube allowed videos longer than 10-minutes back then, so they were pretty much a dead end for finding rare or oop anime (unlike today).
It was Winter and I would read the title of an old OVA or three, translate them, read a synopsis, download, and then watch.
I come across one which was fan-subbed and roughly translated to, "Butt-Attack Punisher Girl Gautama."
After having seen a few interesting unreleased (in the Americas) U-Jin OVAs and finding Devilman: The Birth on the same site I thought: Sounds weird -- but let's take a look. I've never re-watched it...nor have I forgotten what it was about.

My synopsis:
A girl goes to a remote catholic academy in Japan and befriends an Indian girl her first day. The Indian girl (from India...not Native American) talks back and forth about her religion and they become friends...close friends (pretty much Yuri without any extremely graphic scenes). The Indian girl gets abducted and taken to a cave by some weird guys and the protagonist (the catholic girl) is visited by a fat floating Gautama. Gautama gives her special super powers to find, attack, and rescue her friend. Her powers? She attacks with her butt...no I'm not joking and others have written about this OVA, too (no surprise why this never made it to the U.S.). She attacks the cave villains with her butt, saves her friend, has a weird reunion in a bathtub and then gets transferred to another school. Case closed!
This is all based on memory from like 12-years ago BUTT...I'll post the info on it anyway.

I nominate: kunonabi OmegaSupreme Space Runaway D DragoonWalker gela94 C Cannibalistic Dacon @SLoWMoTIoN Shouta and anyone else to contribute their experience watching a weird anime.

Dengeki Oshioki Musume Gōtaman: Gōtaman Tanjō-hen (OAV) - Anime News Network

www.animenewsnetwork.com

 

[kunonabi]

Okay, new sub-topic since I haven't made one in a couple weeks.

Weirdest Older Anime You've Ever Watched...What was it?

Here's mine: Back in 2008, I was finding a bunch of 80's anime titles which had never made it to North America and were mostly fan-subbed on a site called Veoh.com
I don't think YouTube allowed videos longer than 10-minutes back then, so they were pretty much a dead end for finding rare or oop anime (unlike today).
It was Winter and I would read the title of an old OVA or three, translate them, read a synopsis, download, and then watch.
I come across one which was fan-subbed and roughly translated to, "Butt-Attack Punisher Girl Gautama."
After having seen a few interesting unreleased (in the Americas) U-Jin OVAs and finding Devilman: The Birth on the same site I thought: Sounds weird -- but let's take a look. I've never re-watched it...nor have I forgotten what it was about.

My synopsis:
A girl goes to a remote catholic academy in Japan and befriends an Indian girl her first day. The Indian girl (from India...not Native American) talks back and forth about her religion and they become friends...close friends (pretty much Yuri without any extremely graphic scenes). The Indian girl gets abducted and taken to a cave by some weird guys and the protagonist (the catholic girl) is visited by a fat floating Gautama. Gautama gives her special super powers to find, attack, and rescue her friend. Her powers? She attacks with her butt...no I'm not joking and others have written about this OVA, too (no surprise why this never made it to the U.S.). She attacks the cave villains with her butt, saves her friend, has a weird reunion in a bathtub and then gets transferred to another school. Case closed!
This is all based on memory from like 12-years ago BUTT...I'll post the info on it anyway.

I nominate: kunonabi OmegaSupreme Space Runaway D DragoonWalker gela94 C Cannibalistic Dacon @SLoWMoTIoN Shouta and anyone else to contribute their experience watching a weird anime.

Dengeki Oshioki Musume Gōtaman: Gōtaman Tanjō-hen (OAV) - Anime News Network

www.animenewsnetwork.com

I'll have to sit and mull it over but I don't think I got anything that weird. That is one kick-ass character design though.

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

Weirdest Older Anime You've Ever Watched...What was it?
Her powers? She attacks with her butt...no I'm not joking and others have written about this OVA, too (no surprise why this never made it to the U.S.). She attacks the cave villains with her butt, saves her friend, has a weird reunion in a bathtub and then gets transferred to another school. Case closed!
This is all based on memory from like 12-years ago BUTT...I'll post the info on it anyway.1[/URL]

I'll have to sit and mull it over but I don't think I got anything that weird. That is one kick-ass character design though.

Same, I'd say something like Paprika. But that is far too new.

 

[Happosai]

I'll have to sit and mull it over but I don't think I got anything that weird. That is one kick-ass character design though.

Same, I'd say something like Paprika. But that is far too new.

The character design is pretty good but it's wasn't a super high-end OVA. I'm not sure who the audience was but it had a sequel OVA.
Paprika is 14-years old and is crawling into retro territory. Aoba's Gate of Bottylon? What kind of spell does that?!
I've seen weird ones which are weird simply because they're abstract. For example -- Cat Soup and Angel's Egg could be considered weird. Yet, they're actually interesting to watch. Butt Attack Punisher Girl Gautama was not so entertaining...and I'm not into yuri

Angel's Egg trailer


Cat Soup trailer

 

[Stiflers Mom]

Lol, weebs....

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

The character design is pretty good but it's wasn't a super high-end OVA. I'm not sure who the audience was but it had a sequel OVA.
Paprika is 14-years old and is crawling into retro territory. Aoba's Gate of Bottylon? What kind of spell does that?!
I've seen weird ones which are weird simply because they're abstract. For example -- Cat Soup and Angel's Egg could be considered weird. Yet, they're actually interesting to watch. Butt Attack Punisher Girl Gautama was not so entertaining...and I'm not into yuri

Angel's Egg trailer


Cat Soup trailer

It was Fate parody attack. Keijo was a manga/anime that was built around the sport of fighting with boobs/ass.

 

[Happosai]

Lol, weebs....

I was waiting for you to stop by. Had this thread up since July...YOU'RE LATE!

 

[Stiflers Mom]

I was waiting for you to stop by. Had this thread up since July...YOU'RE LATE!

Sorry, my dear friend.
I am not as strong as I used to be...

 

[Happosai]

It was Fate parody attack. Keijo was a manga/anime that was built around the sport of fighting with boobs/ass.

This should be a special combo-attack in the next D.O.A. game.

 

[Happosai]

Sorry, my dear friend.
I am not as strong as I used to be...

You're one of the classics of GAF. I think I remember you posting in my Alien movie poll thread or something awhile back. I miss seeing the regulars. If Cunth stops by...then we're really in trouble.

 

[Stiflers Mom]

You're one of the classics of GAF. I think I remember you posting in my Alien movie poll thread or something awhile back. I miss seeing the regulars. If Cunth stops by...then we're really in trouble.

Naaaah, I am just having a great summer time, with lots of booze, meeting friends, going skateboarding and some MJ. Will surely be posting a lot more in the winter again...

 

[Mobile Suit Gooch]

Watched a couple of eps of Outlaw Star the other night. Still holds up.

 

[Happosai]

Watched a couple of eps of Outlaw Star the other night. Still holds up.

Yeah, it's still looking good and has aged well. That's like 98' or 99' I think.

 

[Mobile Suit Gooch]

Yeah, it's still looking good and has aged well. That's like 98' or 99' I think.

Yup. Back when anime was hand-drawn.

 

[Happosai]

Yup. Back when anime was hand-drawn.

It was actually around the time Outlaw Star was airing that digital ink started to creep into Japanese anime. Monster Rancher was a low budget production and I recall it looking very digitally inked (that would have been around 99' or 2000). Many claim that Blood: The Last Vampire (the movie) was the first fully digital inked animation in Japan. That was in 2000 and it was actually animated very smoothly and appeared to be on a good budget with how detailed they got. I can't say much for what's come after. By about 2004, digital ink in anime became standard (as it had already become in the West 7-or more years prior). There's no going back. You just have to watch the anime of the past and appreciate that some...not all...made elaborate masterpieces using hand drawing, hand painting, even manual photography and non-MIDI soundtracks.

 

[Shouta]

Okay, new sub-topic since I haven't made one in a couple weeks.

Weirdest Older Anime You've Ever Watched...What was it?

Here's mine: Back in 2008, I was finding a bunch of 80's anime titles which had never made it to North America and were mostly fan-subbed on a site called Veoh.com
I don't think YouTube allowed videos longer than 10-minutes back then, so they were pretty much a dead end for finding rare or oop anime (unlike today).
It was Winter and I would read the title of an old OVA or three, translate them, read a synopsis, download, and then watch.
I come across one which was fan-subbed and roughly translated to, "Butt-Attack Punisher Girl Gautama."
After having seen a few interesting unreleased (in the Americas) U-Jin OVAs and finding Devilman: The Birth on the same site I thought: Sounds weird -- but let's take a look. I've never re-watched it...nor have I forgotten what it was about.

My synopsis:
A girl goes to a remote catholic academy in Japan and befriends an Indian girl her first day. The Indian girl (from India...not Native American) talks back and forth about her religion and they become friends...close friends (pretty much Yuri without any extremely graphic scenes). The Indian girl gets abducted and taken to a cave by some weird guys and the protagonist (the catholic girl) is visited by a fat floating Gautama. Gautama gives her special super powers to find, attack, and rescue her friend. Her powers? She attacks with her butt...no I'm not joking and others have written about this OVA, too (no surprise why this never made it to the U.S.). She attacks the cave villains with her butt, saves her friend, has a weird reunion in a bathtub and then gets transferred to another school. Case closed!
This is all based on memory from like 12-years ago BUTT...I'll post the info on it anyway.

I nominate: kunonabi OmegaSupreme Space Runaway D DragoonWalker gela94 C Cannibalistic Dacon @SLoWMoTIoN Shouta and anyone else to contribute their experience watching a weird anime.

Dengeki Oshioki Musume Gōtaman: Gōtaman Tanjō-hen (OAV) - Anime News Network

www.animenewsnetwork.com

Dunno if it's the weirdest I've seen but this OVA was pretty wat to me the first time I ever saw it, especially without context particularly the timestamped part when I randomly came up on it.

 

[Happosai]

Dunno if it's the weirdest I've seen but this OVA was pretty wat to me the first time I ever saw it, especially without context particularly the timestamped part when I randomly came up on it.

It's like they wanted a Heathcliff or Garfield-like tabby in an anime. I've never seen it but was able to locate it by it's strange title. The cat wrestling scene probably seemed stranger seeing it years ago. Today, it seems like there are more cartoon cats than in 1985. This OVA actually aired before many other cat-based anime including pre-Samurai Pizza Cats. The cats being drawn more realistic is a bit more of a strange element, too. I'll try to watch it all the way through. Thanks for finding one I'd never seen nor heard of but here's what I found on it.

What's Michael? (OAV) - Anime News Network

www.animenewsnetwork.com

 

[Happosai]

Smart Criticism: A Look into Two Differing Anime Review Sites
by: Happosai

Review sites as we all know are subjective to the viewer's own preferences and bias. However, when older anime review sites like Animetric still existed (sorry, they're gone now); Rowena used to watch the anime full-length before submitting a review. The reviewer could write things in a frivolous manner and still maintain a positive way to market and sometimes link a place where you could purchase the anime you were reading about. Once I grew away from watching VHS trailers in the late-90's to base my anime purchasing decisions; I turned my attention toward review sites. YouTube wasn't around until 2005, therefore most of my purchases were based simply on how well an anime was reviewed. Sometimes that worked and sometimes it didn't. When Animetric started to close down I sought out different websites for reviews and I'm here to tell you about the good and the bad of the two I've come across the most.

A forward note

Reviews should have some kind of personal bias when submitting a review. I don't trust those who give 2-stars to an anime that they've only watched 6 /26 episodes because there are many anime series that start off slowly and pick up as they get midway through. Reviewers need to be aware that they're talking about a product that they need to convince you to watch or convince you to possibly draw your own conclusions (inadvertently telling you to ignore the said anime). Some reviewers have a preference for popular titles and genre-based anime only and will simply down vote something that isn't in their personal criteria as "good."

Two sites: The Good and the Bad

When Animetric started to lose momentum in about 2009, I decided to venture elsewhere for anime reviews. I came across a site which had many titles listed (including classic anime which had never been released in North America). That site was T.H.E.M. Anime. I realized after about 4-years of using the site that I would buy something that they would give less-than 2-3 stars / 5 and find the shows were much better than what they were writing. After about 5-years with them, I left because the reviewers were divisive on reviews (a lot of second opinions) and seemed to prefer what was newer to give 5-stars or to simply give already overrated classic anime additional 5-star scores. Not much for variation. I started using more simple sites like M.A.L. for reviews as you can find people who will write more mature reviews and the review is not controlled by the same person who wrote the synopsis.

A comparison: Big Wars

This early 90's anime could be looked at by many as trash. However, it hits several big points that a reviewer needs to hold back their bias on. It shows great character design, flowing animation, interesting original characters, and it has a compelling story of science fiction and psychological terror. You won't read that kind of transparency from T.H.E.M.
I read the T.H.E.M. review before ever watching / buying Big Wars and avoided it for years due to the idiots spending their first paragraph just mocking the English name alone (do English names even matter that much???) and the last paragraph stabbing it so that no one would dare watch this dreaded anime. One day on a whim of purchasing similar titles, I came across a used clamp-case copy of Big Wars, bought it, and was impressed by what I saw. That was about the third time I'd read into an anime from T.H.E.M. where they black-listed the animation and yet, upon watching it...I could not validate any of their smug reviews. This is what their review for Big Wars looks like via the last paragraph.

They make it so it seems like you'd never want to watch this and their 2-star ratings are often used to demote or dismiss an anime entirely. Yet, I watched it and call B.S. on their narcissistic review and sham of a webpage.

There are select different reviews on My Anime List (M.A.L.) which give people looking to watch an anime different insights which aren't one-sided. Even those who have only a 4-star rating (out of 10) to Big Wars on M.A.L. seemed to be writing like mature adults and talking only about the anime. Not making snide remarks like "non-cerebral slowness." It's not a piece of Rembrandt artwork but it's also not far from what one might find in a Michael Crichton film adaptation to anime or somewhat David Cronenberg in it's sci-fi/psycho-terror style. Anyway, this is what one of the reviews reads like from an average user on M.A.L. for the same anime.

There's a big difference between transparency and attention to context and the epoch in which an anime was introduced that need to be understood prior to writing a review. The above guy doesn't work for M.A.L. -- he's simply one of few who wrote a review on it and gave it a fair and mature take.

NeoGAF being a gaming forum, we see how bad or biased game reviews look. Then, it should be said the same goes for anime. Classic anime comes from a different mindset, different economy, and completely different artistic world than anime made today. Therefore, when someone who favors modern anime or genres is reviewing something from before their time...you can expect it to look like that crap written by T.H.E.M.

That's my take on anime review pages for both the good and bad. When watching older anime, try to keep in mind the way pop culture was 3, 4, or even 5-decades ago to get an idea of what the storytellers were working with. Also, anyone can review on M.A.L. So, it's something not quite as subjective or exclusive to web page owners only. I have links for both sites below so you can see for yourself.

Big Wars: Kami Utsu Akaki Kouya ni

It is the dawn of the 21st century. Mankind has terraformed and colonized Mars. But we are not alone in the universe. An ancient race of alien beings, known only as "The Gods," has been watching mankind's progress ...and waiting. Now, these mysterious aliens have returned to halt mankind's...

myanimelist.net

THEM Anime Reviews 4.0 - Review List

Dedicated to reviews, as well as information, humor and discussion on Japanese animation.

www.themanime.org

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

I wouldn't worry much about MAL reviews.
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37999/Kaguya-sama_wa_Kokurasetai__Tensai-tachi_no_Renai_Zunousen <----dude meme dance
https://myanimelist.net/anime/356/Fate_stay_night<---I AM THE BONE OF MY SWO
https://myanimelist.net/anime/40708/Monster_Musume_no_Oishasan<---oh no it has boobs/10
https://myanimelist.net/anime/477/Aria_the_Animation <---I hate kids!
https://myanimelist.net/anime/21511/Kantai_Collection__KanColle <---trash that is actually 4/10

 

[Happosai]

I wouldn't worry much about MAL reviews.
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37999/Kaguya-sama_wa_Kokurasetai__Tensai-tachi_no_Renai_Zunousen <----dude meme dance
https://myanimelist.net/anime/356/Fate_stay_night<---I AM THE BONE OF MY SWO
https://myanimelist.net/anime/40708/Monster_Musume_no_Oishasan<---oh no it has boobs/10
https://myanimelist.net/anime/477/Aria_the_Animation <---I hate kids!
https://myanimelist.net/anime/21511/Kantai_Collection__KanColle <---trash that is actually 4/10

Well, that's the big difference between site reviews and user reviews. You can fix those, though. M.A.L. does have the problem of lacking moderation approval prior to submitting these reviews.

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

Idk I'm fine with user reviews and opinions. But for the most part MAL seems to be full of people I don't... agree with to the point I can't even bring myself to making a account there.

 

[Happosai]

Idk I'm fine with user reviews and opinions. But for the most part MAL seems to be full of people I don't... agree with to the point I can't even bring myself to making a account there.

I'm on par with you. I made an account to just organize all the anime I've seen, want to see, or dropped. I don't submit reviews. It's a much more archaic site than what GAF members are used to. Almost seems like they're running on an engine from the early 2000's. It's slow and no matter what browser, it dumps your password every week you're inactive. I like the user reviews and recommend it simple because anyone can review and it's not limited to an elite group (which is what T.H.E.M. has) operating everything. Would you believe that they don't have every anime title in their database? They don't. At least 3 titles I've seen including one Western anime release were no where I'm their catalogs. They do have a lot though and certainly more than T.H.E.M.

Did you ever use Animetric before they bit the dust? Those were fun reviews to read. I think the founder sold the page and the repurchased the domain to sell cosmetics.

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

Did you ever use Animetric before they bit the dust? Those were fun reviews to read. I think the founder sold the page and the repurchased the domain to sell cosmetics.

No. But from what I've seen Anime Planet has the better "tracking" interface.

 

[Happosai]

No. But from what I've seen Anime Planet has the better "tracking" interface.

I haven't checked them out for awhile but I'll take a look at how they reviewed some of the older controversial anime. They are a bit newer but so much smoother operating. I'm not the best guy to be putting out reviews, though. I have an ugly bias and can't give some of my own favorite anime a fair review without getting too critical.

 

[Happosai]

Space Runaway Haven't heard much from you this week...still with us?

Thought I'd also bring up the topic of music and anime. Listening to anime OSTs has always been enjoyable but it's not the only way I put anime and music together. When watching an anime where you've got a lot of emotion in the plot, a song usually clicks on in my head. I've tried matching Western (mostly British) artists with anime for about 14-years. YouTube is famous for having AMVs (Anime Music Videos); however, the majority of those really are based on one's musical tastes and can be nearly unwatchable. It's much better to make it a creative challenge when thinking about an episode from a classic anime OVA, series, or movies and try to find a song or piece by an artist which fits the environment. I have been creating soundtracks for about 8-years now and find that it sometimes takes watching an episode of a particular anime 3-5 times consecutively before sitting down to write the instrumental.


Tips on creating and original AMV of quality using your music or popular music:

- Watch the anime and make sure it's actually worth putting a song to. Not every anime needs a separate soundtrack, especially if you're planning on sharing this publicly on YouTube.

-Make sure that you run a display timer on while watching and mark timestamps of important emotive "moments" in the anime.

-Watch the full episode (s) or movie before you cut the sound out. You need to understand the context of what you're making and not rush into video editing without knowing everything about what you just watched.

-Rewatch the said anime without sound and memorize / notate all important timestamps. Omit anything that will not be in the final cut.

-Use a good video / audio editing software and pick an original song or professional artist song that fits the amount of data you will be using.

-Clips from the said anime don't need to be in chronological order. Try to match them in with lyrics or particular movements in the song or musical piece.

-Synchronize facial expressions, scenery changes, and other movements in the animation to particular rhythmic accents in the music. An example would be if a character is jumping off a building and percussive instruments mute during the song leaving a space for instrumental fade-in. Or, a character does something like turn their head in surprise...look for a particular percussive accent or ambiance which compliments that small scene.

-Before publishing, review the AMV to make sure that nothing went out-of-sync. Also, make sure you're not trimming copyrighted music or altering anything as that can get you into trouble if you're posting publicly.

-When using copyrighted music or music other than your own; list all parties which own the music. Music songs, soundtracks, pieces are some of the most expensive media that can be used in an amateur or professional film. When the movie "American Psycho" was made; producers had to spend millions getting the copyrights to using the music Christian Bale listens to in the movie. In fact, they spent almost more on music sharing rights than they did paying the actors (look it up). So, seeing as most of us are not millionaires...list every known proprietor of the copyrighted music. A song may belong to a subsidiary company and you'll have to list both: Warner Music Group > Reprise Records or Universal Music Group > Virgin records. If you fail to list all copyrighted parties and post the video to Facebook, YouTube, or Vimeo...they'll have it removed within an hour or less.

-Upon using copyrighted music...never ever claim ownership to the video. You made an AMV. You didn't create the anime, it's not yours. Be polite and list the studio, directors, distributors of the anime in the description. Upon reading the above information -- it should be noted that while using copyrighted music. You need to make it clear to the webpage that you're sharing the video freely and not trying to sell or promote something that obviously doesn't belong to you. Although it's fun to create AMVs...if it's not music you created...you own nothing.
If you have to file an appeal, don't bluff the copywriters using your own sentiments. If you're genuinely just sharing a video and music without intent of profit then cite the Fair Use Act of 1976. Make sure you read it first before citing:

Fair Use Act Disclaimer - Multiple Chronic Conditions

This virtual resource center provides healthcare professionals, patients and policy makers with current updates on policy and practice for patients living with more than two chronic conditions – and associated symptoms.

www.multiplechronicconditions.org

-Have fun with it. The legal binds aren't that difficult to go past if your heart is just to make a video with a song you like. Research the song / single to find out who owns the music and tag it in your description.

Here's a sample (not using a video, just a GIF) of what a video should look like before a viewer clicks on it and all the information you need to provide.

Sample AMV:

DNA² AMV - Off My Mind by Eric Johnson

About:

DNA² (TV) AMV with Eric Johnson's "Off My Mind." Figured an idiot like Junta can't stablize his mind or DNA and needs to get Ami, Tomoko, Kotomi, or Karin off his mind.

DNA² - Studio DEEN / MadHouse 1994
(Based on character created by: Masakasu Katsura)

Eric Johnson's "Off My Mind" is from the album "Tones"
Eric Johnson - Tones © Warner / Reprise Records 1986
written by Eric Johnson and produced by David Tickle

I OWN NO RIGHTS TO THIS VIDEO OR MUSIC. THIS VIDEO IS FOR RECREATIONAL VIEWING ONLY...NOT PROMOTION.
This video follows the guidelines of the Fair Use Act of 1976:

Fair Use

Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.

Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.

Fair Use Definition

Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching or scholarship. It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author’s work under a four-factor balancing test.

 

[Space Runaway]

A trio of b-tier obscurities

Good Morning Althea
A one-shot comic that became a one shot OVA. The OVA drops you in the middle of a situation hundreds of years into the future which has all sorta of random lore (Such as some kind of magic exists, though it rarely plays a part...) the OVA doesn't have time to cover. Long story short, our groups space fleet is obliterated and as a small band of characters, head into some giant mothership to save any surviving teammates and kill the big evil thing. The first half is a pretty dry setup while the second half is mostly just a bunch of mech action scenes. Though about 70% in they realized there was no character development and stop the plot to add some (If this was a Corman production this would have also been a sex scene ). The story is whatever and the main reason to watch this is mech action. Most of the second half is characters flying around in mechs and blowing up spider machines and shit like that. Art and animation are decent enough and occasionally look quite nice. Music is standard Turbo Grafx sounding stuff though the main theme sounds like something from an 80s Italian horror. It's definitely a watch it and forget it OVA but it's not without merit and you could certainly do a lot worse. =P

One of those OVAs that remain VHS and LD only. The youtube version is raw though there is a fansubbed version if you know where to look.

Crystal Triangle
Now here's a weird one. It's supposed to be some kind of Indiana Jones knock-off and at times it is, though as usual for these type of OVAs they couldn't help but implement a buncha weirdo elements. You get a very "constant series of events" opening before the Crystal Triangle is discovered (Actually there's two but...whatever) and our crew sets out to find "Gods Message". Then suddenly they're dealing with magic powered monks and at one point outright monsters (The monster segment is notable for introducing a bunch of splatter gore which is found nowhere else in the film) and we learn our Indiana Jones hero had some kind of training from a monk, so he has powers or some shit? For such an element it's pretty glossed over. Throw in a zillion characters and factions vying for the prize, a constant stop and go script, a fighter jet sequence that probably only exists because those involved liked Top Gun, an absurd ending and you got a bizarre but entertaining mess. Oh...and I should also mention there's occasional English but it's spoken by the Japanese VAs so it ends up being, well, laughable.

The budget is fairly decent for this one (I think they spent a lot of it on collapsing rocks and block structures, no really) with some pretty decent animation and art. Sadly there's really no standout animation sequences even though it clearly had the budget to do so.

It was licensed and subbed by CPM during the VHS era but has not seen a release since. It's an interesting curiosity though.

Love Position: The Legend of Halley
The infamous Love Position (I don't know why that is the title...) which was Tezuka Productions first OVA. Looking nothing like a Tezuka work, it's a strange story...How to even describe the plot...Well just know Halley's Comet sent a couple aliens down to destroy humanity or something. One decides they don't want to so the other must kill them and then do whatever. It basically leads to a quasi-Terminator knock-off. It starts pretty entertaining but the 2nd act is a total drag. It picks up again toward the end but it's still not great. Art and animation are above TV level but only just. It's not good but kinda watchable.

The real reason this OVA matters is because Tezuka Productions basically scrubbed it from their history. It got a VHS and LD release and has otherwise vanished, never being mention among the Tezuka works and not even being acknowledged on their website or history. So in a weird way, it's kinda lost media, though not lost. =P The main reason to watch it is just so you can say you've seen it.

kenny lauderdale did an amusing video on the OVA and it's scrubbing from history though it contains a lot of spoilers, so if you wish to watch it proper you should do that before viewing the kenny video.

 

[Happosai]

A trio of b-tier obscurities

Good Morning Althea
A one-shot comic that became a one shot OVA. The OVA drops you in the middle of a situation hundreds of years into the future which has all sorta of random lore (Such as some kind of magic exists, though it rarely plays a part...) the OVA doesn't have time to cover. Long story short, our groups space fleet is obliterated and as a small band of characters, head into some giant mothership to save any surviving teammates and kill the big evil thing. The first half is a pretty dry setup while the second half is mostly just a bunch of mech action scenes. Though about 70% in they realized there was no character development and stop the plot to add some (If this was a Corman production this would have also been a sex scene ). The story is whatever and the main reason to watch this is mech action. Most of the second half is characters flying around in mechs and blowing up spider machines and shit like that. Art and animation are decent enough and occasionally look quite nice. Music is standard Turbo Grafx sounding stuff though the main theme sounds like something from an 80s Italian horror. It's definitely a watch it and forget it OVA but it's not without merit and you could certainly do a lot worse. =P

One of those OVAs that remain VHS and LD only. The youtube version is raw though there is a fansubbed version if you know where to look.

Crystal Triangle
Now here's a weird one. It's supposed to be some kind of Indiana Jones knock-off and at times it is, though as usual for these type of OVAs they couldn't help but implement a buncha weirdo elements. You get a very "constant series of events" opening before the Crystal Triangle is discovered (Actually there's two but...whatever) and our crew sets out to find "Gods Message". Then suddenly they're dealing with magic powered monks and at one point outright monsters (The monster segment is notable for introducing a bunch of splatter gore which is found nowhere else in the film) and we learn our Indiana Jones hero had some kind of training from a monk, so he has powers or some shit? For such an element it's pretty glossed over. Throw in a zillion characters and factions vying for the prize, a constant stop and go script, a fighter jet sequence that probably only exists because those involved liked Top Gun, an absurd ending and you got a bizarre but entertaining mess. Oh...and I should also mention there's occasional English but it's spoken by the Japanese VAs so it ends up being, well, laughable.

The budget is fairly decent for this one (I think they spent a lot of it on collapsing rocks and block structures, no really) with some pretty decent animation and art. Sadly there's really no standout animation sequences even though it clearly had the budget to do so.

It was licensed and subbed by CPM during the VHS era but has not seen a release since. It's an interesting curiosity though.

Love Position: The Legend of Halley
The infamous Love Position (I don't know why that is the title...) which was Tezuka Productions first OVA. Looking nothing like a Tezuka work, it's a strange story...How to even describe the plot...Well just know Halley's Comet sent a couple aliens down to destroy humanity or something. One decides they don't want to so the other must kill them and then do whatever. It basically leads to a quasi-Terminator knock-off. It starts pretty entertaining but the 2nd act is a total drag. It picks up again toward the end but it's still not great. Art and animation are above TV level but only just. It's not good but kinda watchable.

The real reason this OVA matters is because Tezuka Productions basically scrubbed it from their history. It got a VHS and LD release and has otherwise vanished, never being mention among the Tezuka works and not even being acknowledged on their website or history. So in a weird way, it's kinda lost media, though not lost. =P The main reason to watch it is just so you can say you've seen it.

kenny lauderdale did an amusing video on the OVA and it's scrubbing from history though it contains a lot of spoilers, so if you wish to watch it proper you should do that before viewing the kenny video.

Quite the narrative on those three anime. The second and last are more up my alley. I like the story for Good Morning Althea and if it did bend into Roger Corman's b-movie years...then I'd watch it. I used to collect Corman films and if the same format of "never lost a dime on a movie" had been applied to OVAs; they may have still tried it today.

Crystal Triangle is on par with the point we made a couple weeks ago about anime being driven by pop culture and not just feeding on itself. Because of it's obscurity -- I can't imagine there's any demand to give a blu-ray or DVD release. VHS pretty much dominated the OVA era and DVD became a less welcoming format for OVAs. I still don't think this anime should be overlooked.

The last one makes me a bit furious to be honest. I'm a musician above anything else I can do. When I release an album and it sucks...I don't just remove the name. I can remove the album from online circulation but I won't take my name off. I haven't watched Kenny's video yet but I am subscribed to him and will get around to it. You said it's not good but kinda watchable. Well, many OVAs were the same. So I'm guessing it was either Tezuka's ego or possibly the distributors who scrubbed the names? Without having seen the video, I can only say that Tezuka didn't seem to be handling the transition into the OVA period on many levels. His mind was in another time or maybe he never pushed hard enough because he felt he was bigger than the lower budget projects OVAs had on the table.

 

[Space Runaway]

Quite the narrative on those three anime. The second and last are more up my alley. I like the story for Good Morning Althea and if it did bend into Roger Corman's b-movie years...then I'd watch it. I used to collect Corman films and if the same format of "never lost a dime on a movie" had been applied to OVAs; they may have still tried it today.

Crystal Triangle is on par with the point we made a couple weeks ago about anime being driven by pop culture and not just feeding on itself. Because of it's obscurity -- I can't imagine there's any demand to give a blu-ray or DVD release. VHS pretty much dominated the OVA era and DVD became a less welcoming format for OVAs. I still don't think this anime should be overlooked.

The last one makes me a bit furious to be honest. I'm a musician above anything else I can do. When I release an album and it sucks...I don't just remove the name. I can remove the album from online circulation but I won't take my name off. I haven't watched Kenny's video yet but I am subscribed to him and will get around to it. You said it's not good but kinda watchable. Well, many OVAs were the same. So I'm guessing it was either Tezuka's ego or possibly the distributors who scrubbed the names? Without having seen the video, I can only say that Tezuka didn't seem to be handling the transition into the OVA period on many levels. His mind was in another time or maybe he never pushed hard enough because he felt he was bigger than the lower budget projects OVAs had on the table.

Though of the 3 Althea is probably the easiest watch, mainly due to the length as it's just over 50 mins while the others are around 90. It's kinda like Madox-01 in that it's not great but the mech aspects are cool.

Yeah Crystal Triangle is a strange one. It does have a DVD release but only in Japan (And as I understand it, it didn't sell in that format either). Still like, it's watchable and has a production level to where it doesn't feel like it should be lost to past formats, especially with an official translation already available. Course at the same time it's not really something that has much of an audience either. Very much for a niche within a niche. Maybe it'll find an official release on a streaming service one day.

I'm not sure there has even been any official explanation on why they distanced themselves from this OVA. There's some theories but that's all they are. I'm not sure Tezuka himself had any say in the matter though. Despite coming out of Tezuka Productions he did not have any involvement with it and may not even be aware of it's current handling. Still, despite it's questionable quality, it's inoffensive and not something to be ashamed of.

 

[IfuckinghateReddit]

I remember seeing a "Manly Anime Thread" on Neogaf years ago, and I got some good stuff from it.

As far as older stuff I like

Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs



Belle & Sebastian



Fables of the Green Forest



Demon City Shinjuku



Yeah I know, "one of these things is not like the other".

 

[Happosai]

I remember seeing a "Manly Anime Thread" on Neogaf years ago, and I got some good stuff from it.

As far as older stuff I like

Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs



Belle & Sebastian



Fables of the Green Forest



Demon City Shinjuku



Yeah I know, "one of these things is not like the other".

The concept of this thread was based on the 'manly anime thread' and 2 other classic anime threads. The big difference being that this thread wasn't created with the intention of pissing off modern anime fans (which make up the majority of anime fans on GAF). Liking classic or retro anime isn't cool anymore and I know that if I made the OP look like the wrong kind of invitation; we'd end up with some big time trolling in this thread. It's relatively long and informative if you're willing to read through the 13 odd pages.

Regarding the classic anime you posted, it reflects what we watch and remember the most. You might have had Samurai Pizza Cats, Magical Knights RayEarth, and Violence Jack all in the same anime collection. Anime collecting and watching in the 90's was scarce and most of us were happy to get our hands on anything. So, there's a different aesthetic to classic anime fans due to scrutiny of titles being much more limited in the West and dealing with a very expensive video market. Series were too expensive and I only owned 4 series during th VHS years. The majority of my collection was built on OVAs and anime movies like Demon City Shinjuku or Monster City (as it was sold in Europe). A lot changed when distributors started picking up more of the older titles in the early 2000's and releasing complete series in one box and by 2009, it was starting to get affordable. By 2010, most of the Western distributors liquidated or filed bankruptcy, titles have open or lost licensing, and many of the great OVAs and classic movies quickly went out-of-print. So, now this is a hobby left for us dinosaurs who appreciate the hand drawn, hand painted, and more traditional style of anime that was first introduced to the West over 35-years ago.

Welcome!

 

[Space Runaway]

Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs

I never caught the Saber Rider version when it aired though I watched though the original Japanese version, Star Musketeer Bismarck, a year or two ago. Repetitive but nice production and had a pretty sweet 80s synth-mix soundtrack. =P

 

[Space Runaway]

Some less common intros




Funky intro for the failed Tatsunoko series Starzan S.



The wrestler was popular enough that he got his own anime. He started using this theme for his entrance at one point too. =P



More of a "movie opening" than a show intro but it still fits enough.



An obscure mecha spoof show by the Vifam crew



For those who want an intro that isn't the usual fare. She appears kinda lifeless and similar to a puppet on strings but that's on purpose.



Second(?) intro for the JP G1 Transformers. They cheaped out with this one and cut together a bunch of toy commercial footage.