S
SLoWMoTIoN
Unconfirmed Member
That's a JC staff anime...from the 90s. Maybe that is why?
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That's a JC staff anime...from the 90s. Maybe that is why?
Happosai
Hold onto your panties
Nothing seemed to be going well for Akahori after the Maze OVA. Which I think people kinda-sorta were okay with. The series that J.C. Staff worked didn't have the same effect and burned out no more than 5-years after production ceased. I'm not sure who or why a movie was made after the series flopped on Japan TV. That would explain why the movie was never and will never be released on any video format.
Maze does have interesting themes that a lot of anime prior never touched on. It was completely out-of-place with titles like Evangelion, Outlaw Star, and Trigun airing that same year (1997-ish) and you're the first in the thread that's admitted to owning or having seen Maze (other than myself). I too am watching from the DVD boxset right now. Moe was never cool for the record and that's the sum of princess Mil. My wife can't stand the character at all. You have to admit the soundtrack was pretty well made though.
Werewolf Jones
Member
Got my Cybercity Oedo 808 Blu-Ray and watched it dubbed with the English OST. I honestly miss 90s Manga so fucking much. Benten's episode is still the best it's just peak Kawajiri... Saying that I also miss Kawajiri, he's now stuck doing storyboards for MAPPA. 
Man what I really miss about these 80s Animes are their art style. It is a shame there is nothing like it anymore. Some more bnot well known Animes show the style I love the most.
One is Cat's Eye which was basically having my first teen anime girl crush. It was also the first anime that was a bit more sexual in some scenes. I mean how can you look at these women and not fall in love XD
It was a really nice show about these three girls stealing their fathers paintings and sculptures to maybe get a clue what did happen to him. It made it more compicated if when the left girl Hitomi (my crush) fell in love with a plice officer who alwys tried to catch them. This was made by Tsukasa Hoji who afterwards went on to do City Hunter another great Anime^^
And the second one is even more unkown I fear. It was airing here in Germany a few times. I can not even much remember much about it. Except it was a bout a reporter Girl who solved some crimes and was hunting some organization. But man the intro was pure fire and the reason why i loved he 80 and also 90s animes
One is Cat's Eye which was basically having my first teen anime girl crush. It was also the first anime that was a bit more sexual in some scenes. I mean how can you look at these women and not fall in love XD
It was a really nice show about these three girls stealing their fathers paintings and sculptures to maybe get a clue what did happen to him. It made it more compicated if when the left girl Hitomi (my crush) fell in love with a plice officer who alwys tried to catch them. This was made by Tsukasa Hoji who afterwards went on to do City Hunter another great Anime^^
And the second one is even more unkown I fear. It was airing here in Germany a few times. I can not even much remember much about it. Except it was a bout a reporter Girl who solved some crimes and was hunting some organization. But man the intro was pure fire and the reason why i loved he 80 and also 90s animes
OmegaSupreme
advanced basic bitch
Ninja Scroll Kawajiri? He's doing storyboards now?Got my Cybercity Oedo 808 Blu-Ray and watched it dubbed with the English OST. I honestly miss 90s Manga so fucking much. Benten's episode is still the best it's just peak Kawajiri... Saying that I also miss Kawajiri, he's now stuck doing storyboards for MAPPA.
Werewolf Jones
Member
Has been for years peep his Wikipedia article.
Virt McPolygon
Banned
Rewatched Urban Square and California Crisis over the weekend. I haven't bought any physical copies of anything in years, but I'd buy blu rays of both of those without hesitation.
OmegaSupreme
advanced basic bitch
What a waste. Someone give him a bunch of money to adapt another Vampire Hunter d book or Ninja Scroll 2.
Werewolf Jones
Member
Space Runaway
Member
Didn't realize Locke The Superman had released on bluray already. Snatched it up from amazon right away.
Very solid movie. The OVAs that followed...not so much. =P
Very solid movie. The OVAs that followed...not so much. =P
Happosai
Hold onto your panties
Man what I really miss about these 80s Animes are their art style. It is a shame there is nothing like it anymore. Some more bnot well known Animes show the style I love the most.
One is Cat's Eye which was basically having my first teen anime girl crush. It was also the first anime that was a bit more sexual in some scenes. I mean how can you look at these women and not fall in love XD
It was a really nice show about these three girls stealing their fathers paintings and sculptures to maybe get a clue what did happen to him. It made it more compicated if when the left girl Hitomi (my crush) fell in love with a plice officer who alwys tried to catch them. This was made by Tsukasa Hoji who afterwards went on to do City Hunter another great Anime^^
And the second one is even more unkown I fear. It was airing here in Germany a few times. I can not even much remember much about it. Except it was a bout a reporter Girl who solved some crimes and was hunting some organization. But man the intro was pure fire and the reason why i loved he 80 and also 90s animes
This is great. I never did get a chance to see Cat's Eye.
Happosai
Hold onto your panties
I would quote Neil Young on Kawajiri lowering himself to storyboards..."It's better to burn out, than it is to rust (Hey, Hey, My, My Live Rust)." He's rusting. It would have been better had he stopped and left his legacy with dignity.
Happosai
Hold onto your panties
I've seen you contribute info on Urban Square in the past
Space Runaway
; what have you got on the background of California Crisis? I know it had a short VHS release (subbed only) but I'm not clear on why it's become popular with people looking up older anime on YouTube. Did it ever make it to laserdisc or DVD?
Virt McPolygon
Banned
Huh? Wasnt aware these wete recently popular since I only had vhs rips from years ago. The stories might be pretty forgettable, but I could see both of them being new(at the time) AV hardware showcases in terms if art style and/or music.California Crisis was especially visually different from anything else.I've seen you contribute info on Urban Square in the past
Happosai
Hold onto your panties
It's internet popular and with the crowd who hopped on the retro anime wagon during the age of streaming. I've seen videos talking about California Crisis and seen it referenced in other threads in the past. Had streaming and YouTube not come along, Westerners would likely have never heard of it. That's also why I'm curious as to what type of video releases it did have that were licensed in times past.
OmegaSupreme
advanced basic bitch
Is Gonzo still around? They were super prolific during the boom period but I can't remember the last anime I saw with them on it.
OmegaSupreme
advanced basic bitch
double post
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Space Runaway
Member
I've seen you contribute info on Urban Square in the past
There's not too much to say about it. One of the handful of OVAs from Hiro Media and animated by the equally short lived Studio Unicorn (They did the infamous Bavi Stock along with small involvement in some other productions). Came out on VHS during the OVA boom, bombed out and disappeared with none of the planned sequels made.
You only hear about it these days because of the neat visuals and California setting. The OVA itself isn't very good outside of that and has a total non-ending. Never made it off VHS though luckily it was eventually fansubbed. =P
Edit: I prob shoulda brought up the soundtrack like mentioned in Werewolf Jones' post. The visuals are the reason the OVA was rescued from complete obscurity but the music certainly adds to the production.
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Space Runaway
Member
They're still around but they lost all their major talent after they spent themselves into oblivion during the late 00s.
Happosai
Hold onto your panties
There's not too much to say about it. One of the handful of OVAs from Hiro Media and animated by the equally short lived Studio Unicorn (They did the infamous Bavi Stock along with small involvement in some other productions). Came out on VHS during the OVA boom, bombed out and disappeared with none of the planned sequels made.
You only hear about it these days because of the neat visuals and California setting. The OVA itself isn't very good outside of that and has a total non-ending. Never made it off VHS though luckily it was eventually fansubbed. =P
Edit: I prob shoulda brought up the soundtrack like mentioned in Werewolf Jones' post. The visuals are the reason the OVA was rescued from complete obscurity but the music certainly adds to the production.
Soundtracks like that were impressive and that they were willing to put that much work in just shows you how big the home video was. That's not saying every OVA was great - plenty of duds out there that are better off being forgotten.
I kinda figured California Crisis was picked up for the visuals and it seems that multiple YouTube users have uploaded it within the past 10-years or more. I'll say it again, it's not that these OVAs popping up on YouTube were particularly popular in their time. What I think has been happening is people are going to YouTube to watch retro anime titles and these OVAs that were uploaded there 8 or more years ago end up in a recommended list and that's getting them publicity on the internet alone. I wouldn't expect any of those to be getting any further video releases than what they had. If you're a buff for animation, sure...check it out but as
Space Runaway
stated it doesn't have much of an ending and story is pretty bland too. It does sort of incapsule the vibe of 80's pop culture in the 80's and the scene with the guy and girl at the motel looks like it was cut from Terminator 1984 (the scene with Sarah Connor and Kyle checking into the Motel to get romantic and make pipe bombs).
Happosai
Hold onto your panties
One last note on Maze: The Mega Burst Space TV.
So, the OVA was a bit sleazy but had better animation and was good for some chuckles. However, I feel from watching the last episodes of the TV series on DVD right now that the manga was given more light in this version. It's been censored up a bit for TV, pretty low-budget (not much more to be expected given it was a bi-product of J.C. Staff as @SLoWMoTIoN pointed out), and the story runs backwards. This could possibly be the reason why Japan was ready to ditch Maze and bury it. People like anime which throws all the action and glory out in the first episode and most audiences don't like to wait 16 or so episodes to finally see the series get up and going. I won't say this ran backwards in story the way the movie "Memento" did (I hated that movie to boot); but if someone was only going to watch the first 10 episodes of Maze TV - it's easy to see why they would just give it a poor rating and move on without exploring further to find anything redeemable about it. It's one of the first anime of it's time to push certain character boundaries and the story is unique with added elements or quick nods to Western cinema. The story starts to come together right toward the end of the series in the last 10-episodes and the characters seem to get less obnoxious at that point. I believe Maze TV (or Maze in general) would have been given more publicity had they hired different screenwriters and also waited possibly until 98' to put it out there. 1997 (when it first aired) was a year of multiple blockbuster anime titles which were nearly impossible to compete with. Even the home video market wasn't fair to Maze: The Mega Burst Space. It had one VHS release in Japan of the OVA and the series. However, before the year 2000, Japan was so put-off by the failed "Maze: Movie" that they didn't even bother releasing it on DVD in Japan. Within 2-years after the airing of the 2 series...Japan and J.C. Staff altogether dropped any promotion or mention of the series.
It's 2021 and my wife and I have almost finished watching Maze:The Mega Burst Space. It's not forgotten...rust never sleeps. It's worth watching if you've got the patience to bear through the first 8 or so episodes.
So, the OVA was a bit sleazy but had better animation and was good for some chuckles. However, I feel from watching the last episodes of the TV series on DVD right now that the manga was given more light in this version. It's been censored up a bit for TV, pretty low-budget (not much more to be expected given it was a bi-product of J.C. Staff as @SLoWMoTIoN pointed out), and the story runs backwards. This could possibly be the reason why Japan was ready to ditch Maze and bury it. People like anime which throws all the action and glory out in the first episode and most audiences don't like to wait 16 or so episodes to finally see the series get up and going. I won't say this ran backwards in story the way the movie "Memento" did (I hated that movie to boot); but if someone was only going to watch the first 10 episodes of Maze TV - it's easy to see why they would just give it a poor rating and move on without exploring further to find anything redeemable about it. It's one of the first anime of it's time to push certain character boundaries and the story is unique with added elements or quick nods to Western cinema. The story starts to come together right toward the end of the series in the last 10-episodes and the characters seem to get less obnoxious at that point. I believe Maze TV (or Maze in general) would have been given more publicity had they hired different screenwriters and also waited possibly until 98' to put it out there. 1997 (when it first aired) was a year of multiple blockbuster anime titles which were nearly impossible to compete with. Even the home video market wasn't fair to Maze: The Mega Burst Space. It had one VHS release in Japan of the OVA and the series. However, before the year 2000, Japan was so put-off by the failed "Maze: Movie" that they didn't even bother releasing it on DVD in Japan. Within 2-years after the airing of the 2 series...Japan and J.C. Staff altogether dropped any promotion or mention of the series.
It's 2021 and my wife and I have almost finished watching Maze:The Mega Burst Space. It's not forgotten...rust never sleeps. It's worth watching if you've got the patience to bear through the first 8 or so episodes.
OmegaSupreme
advanced basic bitch
I wish Blood + was available to stream somewhere. I never finished it back in the day.
Happosai
Hold onto your panties
I was never partial to the spin-offs of "Blood." What I think really broke ground for it was the movie, "Blood: The Last Vampire." Beyond that, I'm not really a streamer but many are using third-party streaming for anime as the mainline are becoming more restricted. Possibly try looking in the less searched places to see if you can't find Blood + there. I do not condone any pirate webpages. If you're going to go that route - you can anticipate it will fall back on you too.
S
SLoWMoTIoN
Unconfirmed Member
Was Blood + the super gory one?
Labolas
Member
That's Blood C. That was pretty bad. Blood + is genuinely a good show.
Happosai
Hold onto your panties
My memory may be foggy but it seems like it was a little gory. Agree with above post that it was probably a later spin-off. However, I recall finding a manga in Borders right after the release of the original movie (Blood: The Last Vampire: Night of the Beasts) and that was pretty gory. Then again, manga tend to be more transparent in that way compared to anime. Based on that manga I read, it appeared that they were getting set to make a series but were just teasing at it in 2001. I never picked back up on it after the movie and those first promo mangas came out.
ValiantTraveler
Member
Space Runaway
thanks so much for sharing these mecha pictures! I'm a fervent collector of mecha artwork. These Galient illustrations are so metal.
Happosai
Hold onto your panties
That's why I think of
Space Runaway
as the historian unabridged in this thread. If you track back, he tends to post multiple high quality photos on a number of things retro anime related. I'm not sure where he finds it all but I tend to save a lot of it to my hard drive.
Happosai
Hold onto your panties
I want a few to weight into this question about how 80's and 90's anime were influenced by certain Western movies. Granted all of these movies had an influence on classic anime...but...which one do you think influenced to the point in which we were literally seeing anime movies/OVAs remaking the said movie? I'll just make this a short list:
1. The Terminator (1984)
2. Star Wars (1977)
3. Alien (1979)
4. Bladerunner (1982)
Space Runaway
ValiantTraveler
Shouta
M
mortal
Ballthyrm
lachesis
Valonquar
My vote stands with Bladerunner as it seems like many OVAs were being released with that type of cyberpunk vibe. This trend kinda died off in the early 1990's.
1. The Terminator (1984)
2. Star Wars (1977)
3. Alien (1979)
4. Bladerunner (1982)
Space Runaway
ValiantTraveler
Shouta
M
mortal
Ballthyrm
lachesis
Valonquar
My vote stands with Bladerunner as it seems like many OVAs were being released with that type of cyberpunk vibe. This trend kinda died off in the early 1990's.
Ballthyrm
Member
I want a few to weight into this question about how 80's and 90's anime were influenced by certain Western movies. Granted all of these movies had an influence on classic anime...but...which one do you think influenced to the point in which we were literally seeing anime movies/OVAs remaking the said movie? I'll just make this a short list:
1. The Terminator (1984)
2. Star Wars (1977)
3. Alien (1979)
4. Bladerunner (1982)
My vote stands with Bladerunner as it seems like many OVAs were being released with that type of cyberpunk vibe. This trend kinda died off in the early 1990's.
It's pretty well known that Cowboy Bebop has a ton of references to old westerns and sci fi movies.
You got Aliens like you said in "Toys In The Attic", numerous references to Hong Kong action movies with Jet doing jet kun do, the first episode being a direct reference to Desperado.
My god there is so many.
I don't think it makes a lot of sense to keep track of all of it, everything is a remix.
Anime directors aren't any different. It would be hard to see where inspiration begins and ends.
Space Runaway
Member
I want a few to weight into this question about how 80's and 90's anime were influenced by certain Western movies. Granted all of these movies had an influence on classic anime...but...which one do you think influenced to the point in which we were literally seeing anime movies/OVAs remaking the said movie? I'll just make this a short list:
1. The Terminator (1984)
2. Star Wars (1977)
3. Alien (1979)
4. Bladerunner (1982)
My vote stands with Bladerunner as it seems like many OVAs were being released with that type of cyberpunk vibe. This trend kinda died off in the early 1990's.
Well if I ignore manga and stick strictly to anime, I feel like Alien is the one we've seen the most direct and shameless remakes of in terms of outright copying the story structure. Perhaps Star Wars too if boiled down to the good guys vs space imperialists, with Gundam lifting heavily from it in many ways.
With Bladerunner they definitely used the aesthetic and corporate cyber future style but I don't recall too many based around the concept of humans chasing down replicants. They mostly just stole the theme(s) and/or look. Plus in most stuff the humanoid robots and such usually end up being more akin to Terminator rip-offs. Like Bubblegum Crisis is clearly lifting from Bladerunner but nearly all the Boomers are just Terminators (Though OVA 5 did have replicant-ish characters on the run).
And the Terminator concept was definitely copied a lot, though not many went with the actual chase based story outside of some stuff like Black Magic M-66. Course you do have anime like Rhea Gall Force which seemed to be based around Terminator's war torn human vs machine future.
All of those you listed definitely had their their aesthetics, themes and various individual concepts "borrowed" for an ass load of anime though. =P
I'm probably forgetting stuff though and of course, I'm ignoring most post-90s anime since I watch very little of that.
Happosai
Hold onto your panties
I was able to understand the idealogy behind ripping off Alien for many anime writers or expanding into the Alien universe as a couple live-action rip off/spin-offs were being made between 1980-85. Fans of Alien in Japan and everywhere else seemed impatient that a sequel (prior to 1986) had not been made for Alien and many felt like they were making their own extension. However, in some cases (like Lily C.A.T.) it's as if they were literally remaking Alien mixed in with John Carpenter's 'The Thing' remake.
I loved the whole concept in general and the cornier the OVA/Movie or short series was...the better (for me). I picked on Bladerunner due to seeing Japanese anime cyberpunk taking a huge influence from that one movie alone.
It always surprised me that they didn't just make a fully animated version of Star Wars 1977 with a Japanese-American team. I got vibes of Star Wars the first time I watched Lensman the movie but the story is way off.
Shouta
Member
If we're talking strictly 80s/90s anime then probably Blade Runner particularly on the man and machine/technology exploration? Alien might be up there because of various aspects that got cribbed but like thematically, I think Blade Runner would have the most influence. Terminator's humans vs machines concept shows up in a lot of places but it's also kind of a boilerplate one without the specific time-travel aspects.
Space Runaway
Member
Yeah they've definitely taken very liberally from Bladerunner's aesthetic and themes in a myriad of works. Though per your criteria of essentially remaking a movie, Alien is the one where, multiple times, they just outright did knock-offs in concept and structure. The same way we got all live action rip-offs like Creature/Titan Find, Forbidden World, Leviathan (Which also pulled from The Thing) and that sort of ilk. Really no effort in hiding their intention. =P
Lensman was one of those full circle situations the original novels had stuff that indirectly (Or perhaps directly) influenced Star Wars and sorta looped back around into being considered a Star Wars-alike when they did the anime decades later. =P
Space Runaway
Member
Random OVA watch, this time "Kyomu Senshi Miroku" from 1989.
A 6 part OVA series based on the comic series by Ken Ishikawa - who was basically Go Nagai's go-to guy, co-creating Getter Robo and doing the monster and mecha design for Cutey Honey, Mazinger and others.
This one was basic but fun. An evil demon, still just a head, is resurrected and is going to bring an end to the world and all that. Initially he needs his body restored and has a group of various monsters and super powered ninja henchmen to help bring it about. As a result our lead character, Miroku, along with his own group of colorful ninja characters, must work to stop him and his goons. This series ends up going the extra mile by having the demons coming from space(!), with them even hanging out in a bio-mechanical Giger-esque spaceship. So we're basically watching magic space demons vs super powered ninjas. =P
Actually a pretty decent watch. There's enough of a story to cling to and every episode is full of action sequences. At 25 minute per episode (And without the intro, recap and credits it's closer to 20) everything moves at a quick pace, leaving you with a very easy viewing experience. If you like ninja and youkai battles with all the usual ninpo stuff then you'll probably enjoy this one. Just don't expect anything too amazingly deep as action is the focus and no character is safe from death. If I do have one complaint, the final fight is rather anticlimactic but the episode kinda went off the deep end at that point, so you don't feel super shortchanged or anything.
For production we have Yoshio Takeuchi as director. He's one of Osamu Dezaki's guys and the co-director of Cobra and the second Ashita no Joe movie. He's also directed quite a few other projects, such as the first half of the Cat's Eye series and he was also the animation director of Akira.
Don't get excited over that last part though, as the animation director for Miroku is Hideyuki Motohashi, who despite having a very large body of work, is mostly a journeyman type when it comes to animation direction. His most interesting animation work being a key animatior on the Fist of the North Star movie and various Lupin specials...and Physic Wars...(Did everyone work on this fucking thing?
) He's more notable as a character designer for stuff Fushigi Yuigi, GoShogun, A-Ko Grey Side, God Mars and a bunch of other stuff. The animation isn't great or anything but it's above TV quality and never looks really frame-y or anything.This is another one that only exists on VHS and LD and I'm actually quite surprised this never got licensed by any western companies, especially considering some of the mega crap that's been put out. Could have easily done a 2 or 3 episode per tape release.
It probably falls somewhere in the C+ range but it's a fun and an easy watch if you're into ninjas and demons and want lots of fights.
And of course since it's an OVA series from the 80s, it has a fairly decent helping of gore. In particular they seemed to really like dismemberment and eyes popping out of skulls =P
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Red Rackham's Revenge
Member
I just started watching it too. Well, I watched the first episode before I noticed Part 1 was also available. Will jump back on Part 2 soon after I finish that. I only have access to the first 79 episodes though.
Happosai
Hold onto your panties
I see that they have an Italian subbed version on YouTube split into parts. I understand Italian well enough but I still think it sucks that this didn't get a push for release on DVD.
Random OVA watch, this time "Kyomu Senshi Miroku" from 1989.
A 6 part OVA series based on the comic series by Ken Ishikawa - who was basically Go Nagai's go-to guy, co-creating Getter Robo and doing the monster and mecha design for Cutey Honey, Mazinger and others.
This one was basic but fun. An evil demon, still just a head, is resurrected and is going to bring an end to the world and all that. Initially he needs his body restored and has a group of various monsters and super powered ninja henchmen to help bring it about. As a result our lead character, Miroku, along with his own group of colorful ninja characters, must work to stop him and his goons. This series ends up going the extra mile by having the demons coming from space(!), with them even hanging out in a bio-mechanical Giger-esque spaceship. So we're basically watching magic space demons vs super powered ninjas. =P
Actually a pretty decent watch. There's enough of a story to cling to and every episode is full of action sequences. At 25 minute per episode (And without the intro, recap and credits it's closer to 20) everything moves at a quick pace, leaving you with a very easy viewing experience. If you like ninja and youkai battles with all the usual ninpo stuff then you'll probably enjoy this one. Just don't expect anything too amazingly deep as action is the focus and no character is safe from death. If I do have one complaint, the final fight is rather anticlimactic but the episode kinda went off the deep end at that point, so you don't feel super shortchanged or anything.
For production we have Yoshio Takeuchi as director. He's one of Osamu Dezaki's guys and the co-director of Cobra and the second Ashita no Joe movie. He's also directed quite a few other projects, such as the first half of the Cat's Eye series and he was also the animation director of Akira.
Don't get excited over that last part though, as the animation director for Miroku is Hideyuki Motohashi, who despite having a very large body of work, is mostly a journeyman type when it comes to animation direction. His most interesting animation work being a key animatior on the Fist of the North Star movie and various Lupin specials...and Physic Wars...(Did everyone work on this fucking thing?
This is another one that only exists on VHS and LD and I'm actually quite surprised this never got licensed by any western companies, especially considering some of the mega crap that's been put out. Could have easily done a 2 or 3 episode per tape release.
It probably falls somewhere in the C+ range but it's a fun and an easy watch if you're into ninjas and demons and want lots of fights.
And of course since it's an OVA series from the 80s, it has a fairly decent helping of gore. In particular they seemed to really like dismemberment and eyes popping out of skulls =P
Happosai
Hold onto your panties
Lupin the Third part 2 is pretty exhaustive, so...I'd give you a tip of the hat for watching every episode.
Red Rackham's Revenge
...it's a long road but you'll stay entertained along the way. L Lupin the Third any particular releases planned for Spring or Summer of anything Lupin we haven't seen yet on the Discotek side?
Lupin the Third
Member
Can't think of anything off hand, but I know the Blu-ray set for Part III isn't terribly far off.
Space Runaway
Member
Might be interesting history to those in this thread.
Back in 1988 Gaga Communications tried to break into the Western market with a selection of subtitled anime. The OVA boom was in fulls wing in Japan so they figured it might translate outside of Japan as well. Despite being what was a pretty decent selection of titles, nothing even panned out. Interestingly their promo reel leaked out at some point, giving you a look at what and how they were selling it:
They infamously renamed several of them with some wacky titles and based on the announcer's descriptions, we would have seen some rather questionable changes to the original scripts too(Well maybe. The subs still seem accurate).
Project A-Ko became Supernova
They Were Eleven became Space Odyssey
Yotoden/Wrath of the Ninja became Blade of the Ninja
Nyuta became Aura
Roots Search became Alien X
Madox-01 became City of Steel
Bubblegum Crisis became Futurescape
The Humanoid became Metallia
MD Geist became Thunder Warrior
Maps (87 ver) became Star Quest
Circuit Angel became Thunder Road
A lot of this stuff would eventually be licensed but several, like Fandora, Scoopers, Nyuta, Maps'87 and Circuit Angel, have still never seen any kind of official English release. A couple of those only getting a fansub in recent years too.
Certainly a fun peak into "what could have been". =P
Back in 1988 Gaga Communications tried to break into the Western market with a selection of subtitled anime. The OVA boom was in fulls wing in Japan so they figured it might translate outside of Japan as well. Despite being what was a pretty decent selection of titles, nothing even panned out. Interestingly their promo reel leaked out at some point, giving you a look at what and how they were selling it:
They infamously renamed several of them with some wacky titles and based on the announcer's descriptions, we would have seen some rather questionable changes to the original scripts too(Well maybe. The subs still seem accurate).
Project A-Ko became Supernova
They Were Eleven became Space Odyssey
Yotoden/Wrath of the Ninja became Blade of the Ninja
Nyuta became Aura
Roots Search became Alien X
Madox-01 became City of Steel
Bubblegum Crisis became Futurescape
The Humanoid became Metallia
MD Geist became Thunder Warrior
Maps (87 ver) became Star Quest
Circuit Angel became Thunder Road
A lot of this stuff would eventually be licensed but several, like Fandora, Scoopers, Nyuta, Maps'87 and Circuit Angel, have still never seen any kind of official English release. A couple of those only getting a fansub in recent years too.
Certainly a fun peak into "what could have been". =P
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OmegaSupreme
advanced basic bitch
Remember a bit ago when I mentioned that Witch Hunter Robin looks a bit poor these days? You know what looks surprisingly good still? Chobits. Yes I'm watching Chobits. For whatever reason it looks great still. Did they do some sort of remaster?
KaitlyynDuff
Banned
An underrated anime in my opinion, one for the books hehe
An underrated anime in my opinion, one for the books hehe
I personally think that the Jdrama is better^^
Also as a big SportsAnime fan these two are one of my favorites:
Touch is an all time classic Baseball Slice of Life Romance anime. Which also set the groundstone for future adaptions and the genre in general IMO.
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One of them is definetly Aoki Densetsu Shoot!
A probably less known one about Soccer but with the same principles as Touch.
Both of these start with a tragedy which servers as their Motivation to move on and become the very best. Both are great if you Like sprts and Romance Anime and if you want something more modern instead of Touch. There is Cross Game which is pretty similar to it. Aoki Densetsu stays a bit more Unique since there is no Soccer Anime like that as far as I know and I watched A LOT of Soccer Animes XD
Happosai
Hold onto your panties
Bubblegum Crisis...Futurescape? That could be localizing nearly every futurist anime from the 80's into a title which sounds like an old PC game. I also got a kick out of Thunder Warrior. Fandora did have an infamously terrible dub if I'm correct? I'm not sure if that was a fandub but finding clips of it is something else.
Case in point...
Happosai
Hold onto your panties
An underrated anime in my opinion, one for the books hehe
RetroCrush previews a lot of great forgotten anime of the 90's. This was possibly underrated in it's time. Seems as time goes by that it is brought up as a common favorite with anime fans of the late-90's and today.
Happosai
Hold onto your panties
I personally think that the Jdrama is better^^
Also as a big SportsAnime fan these two are one of my favorites:
Touch is an all time classic Baseball Slice of Life Romance anime. Which also set the groundstone for future adaptions and the genre in general IMO.
One of them is definetly Aoki Densetsu Shoot!
A probably less known one about Soccer but with the same principles as Touch.
Both of these start with a tragedy which servers as their Motivation to move on and become the very best. Both are great if you Like sprts and Romance Anime and if you want something more modern instead of Touch. There is Cross Game which is pretty similar to it. Aoki Densetsu stays a bit more Unique since there is no Soccer Anime like that as far as I know and I watched A LOT of Soccer Animes XD
Seems that a lot of sports anime became more popular in Europe and even Latin America. I can't say many titles other than Slam Dunk were received as well in the U.S. during their run.
Not really. We never got Touch or any non soccer related Anime except maybe Mila Superstar or in Japanese Attack No 1.
Shoot did air like once on TV but due to school I never had the opportunity to watch it back then. Kickers and Captain Tsubasa were the most popular ones In Germany
I discovered all of the others when I went to university. I guess it always depends what sport is popular in the Country.
I can guess that Eyeshield 21 was also very popular in America since it was Football.
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