There was a discussion that took place amongst myself and a few GAF users several months ago on the value of animation before Neon Genesis Evangelion came about, and whilst there was a lot of bumping of the heads and verbal mumblings on certain people's ignorance, the truth eventuated that not many people knew about anime before then outside of the few who were discussing the situation in the first place.
Granted it is Evangelion, a series that whether it enjoys it or not has been selected to define what anime is and what anime has become. The problem is this: it's from 1995. In fact, out of the top 20 NeoGAF anime list (here), there are only two anime listed that predate 1995; both of which are positioned at #14 and #18 respectively, both have a very big reputation in terms of the field they are in, and both were helmed by respected directors in Katsuhiro Otomo and Shoji Kawamori. Even then, Akira is the only title in the top 20 that was released in the late 1980s. What about the anime from before Akira's inception? Or why was there never a series or movie listed in the top 20 that was from the 1970s?
That is where this thread steps in. There are countless of series, movies and OVAs in the latter half of the 20th century that deserve attention. Back when some of the most noted and esteemed directors of today were merely young and brash directors providing brilliant ideas to their studios, or staff who were part of the key animation processes in some of most honoured anime that we reflect back on. Why go back to this era? In a similar way.. it's like someone being born in the 1980s going back and listening to bands such as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc - just because their creation output was done before you were born does not necessarily mean you cannot go back and experience it for yourself.
I had enlisted the aid from several people to help list titles after titles of anime, some of which I had not even seen or heard about before. One person who went out of their way was FnordChan, who had sent me three massive PMs filled to the brim with information not only on titles, but descriptions and his own personal opinions as well. I felt that I couldn't let these go to waste so I included a lot of his own writings into this list because without his help, this thread would be in shambles. As a side-note, if I had included everything he listed, it would be 100+ titles. Major props and gratitude also head out to duckroll, Hitokage, 7Th, Himuro (no idea what your new username is!), Orin, syllogism, and dead, who helped fill the list substantially on that lonely night. Thanks also to Tera and Ono on Rizon for listing several hentai when I requested help.
So now comes the listing area. I wasn't too sure exactly how to go about it but I've decided to give a rough list, provide the year/s it was produced in, genre of type if applicable, and perhaps a picture to accompany it (all of which were supplied via ANN). Hopefully through this way some people might notice something in the myriad of the list and decide to track down a certain anime. If you're an anime fan and only see one title from this list that you've never seen before then this thread has served its purpose.
Granted it is Evangelion, a series that whether it enjoys it or not has been selected to define what anime is and what anime has become. The problem is this: it's from 1995. In fact, out of the top 20 NeoGAF anime list (here), there are only two anime listed that predate 1995; both of which are positioned at #14 and #18 respectively, both have a very big reputation in terms of the field they are in, and both were helmed by respected directors in Katsuhiro Otomo and Shoji Kawamori. Even then, Akira is the only title in the top 20 that was released in the late 1980s. What about the anime from before Akira's inception? Or why was there never a series or movie listed in the top 20 that was from the 1970s?
That is where this thread steps in. There are countless of series, movies and OVAs in the latter half of the 20th century that deserve attention. Back when some of the most noted and esteemed directors of today were merely young and brash directors providing brilliant ideas to their studios, or staff who were part of the key animation processes in some of most honoured anime that we reflect back on. Why go back to this era? In a similar way.. it's like someone being born in the 1980s going back and listening to bands such as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc - just because their creation output was done before you were born does not necessarily mean you cannot go back and experience it for yourself.
I had enlisted the aid from several people to help list titles after titles of anime, some of which I had not even seen or heard about before. One person who went out of their way was FnordChan, who had sent me three massive PMs filled to the brim with information not only on titles, but descriptions and his own personal opinions as well. I felt that I couldn't let these go to waste so I included a lot of his own writings into this list because without his help, this thread would be in shambles. As a side-note, if I had included everything he listed, it would be 100+ titles. Major props and gratitude also head out to duckroll, Hitokage, 7Th, Himuro (no idea what your new username is!), Orin, syllogism, and dead, who helped fill the list substantially on that lonely night. Thanks also to Tera and Ono on Rizon for listing several hentai when I requested help.
So now comes the listing area. I wasn't too sure exactly how to go about it but I've decided to give a rough list, provide the year/s it was produced in, genre of type if applicable, and perhaps a picture to accompany it (all of which were supplied via ANN). Hopefully through this way some people might notice something in the myriad of the list and decide to track down a certain anime. If you're an anime fan and only see one title from this list that you've never seen before then this thread has served its purpose.