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Retro Anime Discussion |OT|

What retro anime titles are long overdue for a blu-ray release in North America?


  • Total voters
    74

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Off the top of my head: Lodoss, Guyver, the old Miyazaki films, almost all pre-00 Gundams (I loved 8th MS Team and 0083).

I watched Macross Do You Remember Love earlier this year and enjoyed it a lot. But after investigating other series, it seems that film encapsulates all that the franchise is about, and that other entries are simply iterations of the same core concepts. Gundam on the other hand has had a lot more variety after it broke away from the UC timeline. I'm watching Gundam 00 (not retro, I know) and I'm loving it so far; possibly my favorite Gundam show. I gave it a try some 12 years ago but I guess I was too young to appreciate the focus on geopolitical/economical strife, although it remains slightly touched on.

That aside, has anyone watched Neo Ranga? It seems like a very obscure show to me. I love the openings, especially the second:





I watched a dozen episodes a couple years and surprisingly it's more slice of life than giant mecha/deity action.

I've actually never seen any of the above mentioned, minus a few episodes of the Lodoss OVA and parts of Guyver. So, you're not alone in that. I wanted to watch Macross: Do You Remember Love but it fell oop during my collecting years and my maximum spending per anime series was $80...It was well over $100 and more now. Never saw or heard of Neo Ranga until now. I'll check out the trailers ,though.
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
It's okay. Took long time to watch serial experiments lain and bubblegum crisis tokyo.
I never finished SeL either but owned the Pioneer release on DVD for awhile. About Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo, it's okay if you haven't seen it. I didn't find it quite as good as the OVA, A.D. Police, or Total Crash.
 
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kunonabi

Member
So I'm backing the Megazone 23 kickstarter from animeigo and it's a nutty last 24 hours. They asked if they could DNR the project and they don't seem to have taken the overwhelmingly negative feedback all that well.
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
So I'm backing the Megazone 23 kickstarter from animeigo and it's a nutty last 24 hours. They asked if they could DNR the project and they don't seem to have taken the overwhelmingly negative feedback all that well.
This was would be a kickstarter to relicense, remaster, and redistribute the original Megazone 23? I know that it's license is far off from ADV but it's weird that an old company like AnimeEigo got it and not someone with more power for relicensing like Discotek. What has the negative feedback been about?
 
Popular anime series, OVAs, or movies from the past that you've never watched. What are they if any?

Never watched anything Saint Seiya even though it's popular internationally and still gets new shows.

Never saw any eps of Space Battleship Yamato (Though I've seen several from Starblazers).

I've seen most (maybe all) of the Galaxy Express 999 and Harlock movies but never any of the tv series.

Berserk (the 1997-98 series) I own it but never got around to watching it. I did start the manga based on a recommendation by Mista

Funny thing about this one. I really liked this series when first I saw it. After reading through a good amount of the comics I decided to rewatch it and it just lacked the same impact of the comics. =P You may wanna give the show a watch before getting further into the comics. There's some stuff at the end that is sooo much better when you don't know what's going to happen beforehand. :messenger_winking: Also great soundtrack.

Ghost in the Shell...any of them

The movie is still great but whenever you decide to watch it, avoid the 2.0 version as they basically George Lucas'd it and fucked with the color and replaced some 2d scenes with new cgi versions(Which are now dated...)
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Never watched anything Saint Seiya even though it's popular internationally and still gets new shows.

Never saw any eps of Space Battleship Yamato (Though I've seen several from Starblazers).

I've seen most (maybe all) of the Galaxy Express 999 and Harlock movies but never any of the tv series.



Funny thing about this one. I really liked this series when first I saw it. After reading through a good amount of the comics I decided to rewatch it and it just lacked the same impact of the comics. =P You may wanna give the show a watch before getting further into the comics. There's some stuff at the end that is sooo much better when you don't know what's going to happen beforehand. :messenger_winking: Also great soundtrack.



The movie is still great but whenever you decide to watch it, avoid the 2.0 version as they basically George Lucas'd it and fucked with the color and replaced some 2d scenes with new cgi versions(Which are now dated...)
There are scores of Leiji Matsumoto anime I've never seen. Likewise with Saint Seiya. It's super popular here in Mexico but I had never even heard of it when I was growing up in Illinois. My wife is Mexican and said she watched Saint Seiya (localized as "Los Cabelleros del Zodiaco") as a kid but admitted it's pretty boring to watch as an adult.

I watched Harlock Saga right after it first came out on VHS but never watched the older Harlock series prior to that one.

I'll take your advice on Berserk and switch to the anime. I feel it's something great I've been missing out on for decades. The issue is that my wife and I keep starting something new and some of the headliner popular anime that I own get passed up on. For example -- we were going to watch the original Dragon Ball but we opted to rewatch Ranma 1/2 the TV series. So, it will likely be another 6-months before we're ready for another series like Berserk.

With GotS, I appreciate that news on there being different versions. I'll look for the first DVD release as it should be fairly common considering that GotS was like the most popular anime movie of the 90's.

I've also never seen Slam Dunk although it's been brought up a lot in this thread.
 
With GotS, I appreciate that news on there being different versions. I'll look for the first DVD release as it should be fairly common considering that GotS was like the most popular anime movie of the 90's.

The sad part is original version did get a bluray release as the "25th Anniversary Edition" but then they went and botched the subs with tons of errors and retranslations that seem to have been done out of context. They even messed up the English audio track. It's quite an infamous bluray release unless you watch it raw. :messenger_poop: There's also the 4K release but I haven't looked into that since I'm still in 1080p world.
 
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Happosai

Hold onto your panties
The sad part is original version did get a bluray release as the "25th Anniversary Edition" but then they went and botched the subs with tons of errors and retranslations that seem to have been done out of context. They even messed up the English audio track. It's quite an infamous bluray release unless you watch it raw. :messenger_poop: There's also the 4K release but I haven't looked into that since I'm still in 1080p world.
That seemed to be a thing with more so with DVD Anniversary releases of anime. The thing I refer to is re-subbing and re-dubbing. I get that some of those old Animax and AnimeEigo things deserved a redub; but why re-sub? Was there something wrong with the initial subtitles and for such a popular title...how did they manage to botch it up like that? There must be a story behind that. Likewise, I won't be moving into 4K until a wider variety of hard-copy material gets released in 4K. That may not happen since 8K is already becoming the new kid.

I wanted to start another small sub-topic on anime as an afterthought. Is there expected to be a future video market for anime in Japan or the U.S.? I just looked at the price of the lump of Discotek's material and it's gotten expensive. There are TV series that were just released last year that are already running around $70-$85 without S&H or taxes (import taxes for me). I wanted to finally buy Kimagure Orange Road TV and it jumped from $48.99 in the Spring to $69.99 for the Fall. Giant Robo (which I've never gotten to see) is around $80. Is it common for anime fans to be paying so much in 2020 for hard copy releases? I mean, it seemed like the prices were finally becoming reasonable around 2008-2015. This jump in prices I'm assuming has something to do with low production numbers or what?
 

kunonabi

Member
This was would be a kickstarter to relicense, remaster, and redistribute the original Megazone 23? I know that it's license is far off from ADV but it's weird that an old company like AnimeEigo got it and not someone with more power for relicensing like Discotek. What has the negative feedback been about?

We just don't want DNR especially the kind of cheap program they suggesting. They've never done this before but they watched the footage on a new 4k set and they got antsy because it looked a little worse than the 1080P sets they were using before. We just don't want such a drastic step taken because they bought a bad TV.
 
I wanted to start another small sub-topic on anime as an afterthought. Is there expected to be a future video market for anime in Japan or the U.S.? I just looked at the price of the lump of Discotek's material and it's gotten expensive. There are TV series that were just released last year that are already running around $70-$85 without S&H or taxes (import taxes for me). I wanted to finally buy Kimagure Orange Road TV and it jumped from $48.99 in the Spring to $69.99 for the Fall. Giant Robo (which I've never gotten to see) is around $80. Is it common for anime fans to be paying so much in 2020 for hard copy releases? I mean, it seemed like the prices were finally becoming reasonable around 2008-2015. This jump in prices I'm assuming has something to do with low production numbers or what?

Yeah I've been buying stuff while it's available since a lot of these discotek releases seem to go out of print really fast and then command high prices on the after market. I picked up Chirin's Bell/Ringing Bell for like $15 and a few months later it was going for over a hundred dollars (At one point there was a $1000[!] listing on amazon). So I'm not taking any chances with any release that interests me.

As far as the future of physical media in the US and Japan? I couldn't say other than it's going to contract further and further until...
 
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mortal

Gold Member
Border 1939 The Lost Ghibli Movie, set in Occupied Seoul during the Japanese Imperialist Occupation and was suppose to be a dive into Japan's dark history.




STEVEM's channel has some amazing content imo, highly recommend to anyone interested in the filmography of prominent studios, animators & directors. He covers quite a lot of classic/retro animations as well.
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
We just don't want DNR especially the kind of cheap program they suggesting. They've never done this before but they watched the footage on a new 4k set and they got antsy because it looked a little worse than the 1080P sets they were using before. We just don't want such a drastic step taken because they bought a bad TV.
So, AnimeEigo have never remastered or restored anything to UHD/4K but they want to do this for Megazone 23? The problem with Kickstarter is that you won't get funded if you can't prove you have the tools to accomplish whatever it is you're funding.
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Yeah I've been buying stuff while it's available since a lot of these discotek releases seem to go out of print really fast and then command high prices on the after market. I picked up Chirin's Bell/Ringing Bell for like $15 and a few months later it was going for over a hundred dollars (At one point there was a $1000[!] listing on amazon). So I'm not taking any chances with any release that interests me.

As far as the future of physical media in the US and Japan? I couldn't say other than it's going to contract further and further until...
seems that way. Blu-ray was the last bit push I saw in the video market to garner new and old to buy in. That's how nearing 15-years, though and interest in buying 4K blu-ray seems to be low. Everyone wants to stream and seems to have forgotten why the video market was so important. With anime or anything else I was buying in the 2000's (when I knew more what titles interested me) allowed me to return back to the items in my collection. Say you buy Season 1 of Lupin the 3rd on Amazon Prime and one day it's no longer in your digital library due to licensing issues. You get no refund and it's just plain gone. I've never seen anime just randomly disappear from my collection because it was distributed by Pioneer and I bought a Samsung TV (silly example). I recall video allowing people to first see in anime what Japanese TV networks were censoring and the OVAs which seldom if ever ran on TV. I'm a dinosaur and no matter how much things change I will still be buying physical movies, anime, and music. I don't get the same joy from a compressed replica sitting on a hard drive.
 

lachesis

Member
Just found out Izumi Matsumoto - of Kimagure Orange Road just passed away. :( KOR was one of the defining 80's TV anime series for me - he was just 62 years old. I knew he fell ill (some heart issues) a while ago...

Although it came up a few times in this thread, putting up one more time.




Main heroine character Madoka Ayukawa was voiced by late Hiromi Tsuru (mostly known for being Bulma in Dragon Ball for 30+ years) - and also Anpanman's Dokin-Chan, Ranma's Ukyo Kuonji etc. She passed away a couple years ago at age of 58. (RIP...)

Being a fan of Akina Nakamori (Famous J-pop singer), I was also liked Ayukawa (who was based on the Akina's character - when she debuted - I think the management company pushed "Huryo"/Delinquent image - a total opposite of Seiko Matsuda to appeal her to the mass - and even today, they get compared to each other quite a bit. Unlike what the company pushed, the real Akina was more or less a super shy person, nothing sort of delinquent - but her sensual/singing style created such a gap in the perceived image, sorta like so-called early "gap-moe" - and Ayukawa was a character rich in such gap-moe too. (although being a Mary-Sue)

I loved the original TV series of KOR, but wasn't much of a big fan OVAs nor later 2 movies... that I tend to think of the TV ending as the good ending - that it left the whole thing a bit open-ended, and just like those bitter sweet first-love memories, it's better off to end like that IMO. The movie versions left me such bitter taste of hurting Hikaru, I didn't feel like I needed to see that. I liked Mdoka better, but I also didn't want to see Hikaru hurt either.

e3rsRiZ.jpg

Ayukawa Madoka (L) / Nakamori Akina (R)

The whole premise of the KOR is heavily influenced by Rumiko Takahashi's "Maison Ikkoku" and Mitsuru Adachi's "Miyuki" - and as a manga artist, early episodes of KOR wasn't that impressive, but got much much better thanks to many talented assistants... although there are rumors that in later days, Izumi's health wasn't in good condition, so assistants did the most work, and probably the reason that the manga pretty much ended rather quickly. Manga itself was pretty okay - it became rather repetitive towards middle, but the ending was pretty well done - especially on how the characters developed their feelings towards each other over the years in final episodes. Anime timeline was limited in 1 year period - but I kinda like it better overall as anime. There are only few anime that I prefer over the manga itself - and KOR was one of them... Probably mostly because of the music and character design.

TV Anime KOR - the character design was done by Akemi Takada, (Most well known for her work for Creamy Mami, Patlabor, Maison Ikkoku, and Urusei Yatsura) - and also music by Shiro Sagisu (Megazon 23, Nadia of Strange Waters, Macross 2, Evangelion, Bleach, Berserk etc...).... and was directed by Kunihiko Yuyama (Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko, Space Warrior Baldios, Windaria etc)

While something like Maison Ikkoku or Touch is still being talked about as a master piece - and while KOR is more or less being forgotten, but it will remain one of my favorite 80s romance comedy anime.

Rest in peace, both Matsumoto-san & Tsuru-san, and thank you for the characters and stories you created, and memories of my youth around them.
 
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Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Just found out Izumi Matsumoto - of Kimagure Orange Road just passed away. :( KOR was one of the defining 80's TV anime series for me - he was just 62 years old. I knew he fell ill (some heart issues) a while ago...

Although it came up a few times in this thread, putting up one more time.




Main heroine character Madoka Ayukawa was voiced by late Hiromi Tsuru (mostly known for being Bulma in Dragon Ball for 30+ years) - and also Anpanman's Dokin-Chan, Ranma's Ukyo Kuonji etc. She passed away a couple years ago at age of 58. (RIP...)

Being a fan of Akina Nakamori (Famous J-pop singer), I was also liked Ayukawa (who was based on the Akina's character - when she debuted - I think the management company pushed "Huryo"/Delinquent image - a total opposite of Seiko Matsuda to appeal her to the mass - and even today, they get compared to each other quite a bit. Unlike what the company pushed, the real Akina was more or less a super shy person, nothing sort of delinquent - but her sensual/singing style created such a gap in the perceived image, sorta like so-called early "gap-moe" - and Ayukawa was a character rich in such gap-moe too. (although being a Mary-Sue)

I loved the original TV series of KOR, but wasn't much of a big fan OVAs nor later 2 movies... that I tend to think of the TV ending as the good ending - that it left the whole thing a bit open-ended, and just like those bitter sweet first-love memories, it's better off to end like that IMO. The movie versions left me such bitter taste of hurting Hikaru, I didn't feel like I needed to see that. I liked Mdoka better, but I also didn't want to see Hikaru hurt either.

e3rsRiZ.jpg

Ayukawa Madoka (L) / Nakamori Akina (R)

The whole premise of the KOR is heavily influenced by Rumiko Takahashi's "Maison Ikkoku" and Mitsuru Adachi's "Miyuki" - and as a manga artist, early episodes of KOR wasn't that impressive, but got much much better thanks to many talented assistants... although there are rumors that in later days, Izumi's health wasn't in good condition, so assistants did the most work, and probably the reason that the manga pretty much ended rather quickly. Manga itself was pretty okay - it became rather repetitive towards middle, but the ending was pretty well done - especially on how the characters developed their feelings towards each other over the years in final episodes. Anime timeline was limited in 1 year period - but I kinda like it better overall as anime. There are only few anime that I prefer over the manga itself - and KOR was one of them... Probably mostly because of the music and character design.

TV Anime KOR - the character design was done by Akemi Takada, (Most well known for her work for Creamy Mami, Patlabor, Maison Ikkoku, and Urusei Yatsura) - and also music by Shiro Sagisu (Megazon 23, Nadia of Strange Waters, Macross 2, Evangelion, Bleach, Berserk etc...).... and was directed by Kunihiko Yuyama (Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko, Space Warrior Baldios, Windaria etc)

While something like Maison Ikkoku or Touch is still being talked about as a master piece - and while KOR is more or less being forgotten, but it will remain one of my favorite 80s romance comedy anime.

Rest in peace, both Matsumoto-san & Tsuru-san, and thank you for the characters and stories you created, and memories of my youth around them.

Sad that they died so young. But the work they've done reach a multitude and will be remembered. I still can't believe Satoshi Kon is already gone, too.
 

kunonabi

Member
So, AnimeEigo have never remastered or restored anything to UHD/4K but they want to do this for Megazone 23? The problem with Kickstarter is that you won't get funded if you can't prove you have the tools to accomplish whatever it is you're funding.
Nah, it's not going to be in 4k they just didnt like how it looked on their 4k set. It was already funded and in the later stages of production so it took everybody by surprise that they suggested it. They have agreed to not do it so it's all good.
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Nah, it's not going to be in 4k they just didnt like how it looked on their 4k set. It was already funded and in the later stages of production so it took everybody by surprise that they suggested it. They have agreed to not do it so it's all good.
So, that means I can hold onto my ADV release of Megazone 23. Now, fir the 10th time or more time in this thread...I say we demand Viz Medía release all seasons of Maison Ikkoku on blu-ray!
 
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6Ua7cGV.jpg

Dracula: Sovereign of The Damned

Wanted to watch something horror due to Oct and this one was frequently on all of those "worst" lists and I hadn't seen it so...

Yeah...something of a strange watch. A Satanic cult is offering a bride to Satan but she's stolen away by Dracula who then falls in love with her and has a child. Satan is none to pleased so we have a Satan vs Drac setup. We get introduced to what are supposed to be our heroes - a descendant of Dracula (pre-curse), a descendant of Jonathan Harker and a descendant of Van Helsing. Despite appearing to be the leads they're pretty quickly chucked into supporting roles as the movie mainly follows Dracula. Things start to go awry when our heroes first encounter Dracula and we get some Drac vs kung fu action. Our heroes fail miserably but aren't killed and do little else but follow Drac around for the rest of the movie.

It gets a kinda weirdo in the second half when Dracula's son is killed but then resurrected by God(yup) as an adult(Wearing a space anime jump suit) and is to kill Dracula. Things happen, Dracula eventually loses his power and wishes to regain it so he can protect his wife from Satan - as we find she is some kind of special person that can destroy evil or some shit. Rest of the movie is Dracula trying to get his powers back with poor results. We get a short zombie sequence (They're vampires but for the sequence they may as well be zombies) followed by a quick and worthless fight with Torgo( :messenger_smirking:) the new ruler of the vampires and finally a super quick and anticlimatic meeting with one of our three heroes before everything ends in a big explosion. As a result the whole Satan issue and the resurrected son stuff amount to mostly nothing.

Apparently this movie is a super truncated and cut down adaption of the "Tomb of Dracula" Marvel comic series. That was a 70 issue comic series and 90 minutes sure weren't going to contain anywhere near that much, so we get a "bunch of stuff" movie and basically zero character development for anyone, save Dracula (Who also had his Vlad the Impaler history changed so he was just a sympathetic ruler who did what he had to do and was made Dracula by Satan against his will). It's a 1980 Toei production so everything is still firmly rooted in the 70s, while the art and animation aren't really much better than tv level.

Not really good but I've seen sooo much worse that this wouldn't really enter my mind when discussing bottom tier anime. It's not really good or anything but ultimately more just an odd curiosity that would interest few.

 
Popular anime series, OVAs, or movies from the past that you've never watched. What are they if any?

I'll admit that I own Cowboy Bebop (the Remix DVD release) and have never gotten around to opening it.

Others that are very mainstream and I've seen almost nothing of for no particular reason:

1. Samurai X / Rurouni Kenshin (I saw part of an episode back in 2000 on Toonami but never followed up)

2. Outlaw Star (I've seen clips of the animation but never seen an actual episode)

3. Ghost in the Shell...any of them

4. Berserk (the 1997-98 series) I own it but never got around to watching it. I did start the manga based on a recommendation by @Mista

5. Anything of Patlabor

Nothing personal against any of these. I've purchased some of these but sometimes it takes a decade before I get around to watching them. Possibly reasoning is because I tend to pick the older and more obscure titles to watch first.

C Cannibalistic kunonabi kunonabi Space Runaway Space Runaway @Mobile Suit Gooch D DragoonWalker OmegaSupreme OmegaSupreme
I never watched any Inuyasha... or Full Metal Panic, which was big among my teen friends. I've been meaning to watch a lot of Gundam series but I never got beyond Wing (cheesy), Seed (shit), and MS 08th team (fantastic). And Char's Counter Attack (can't remember). That's a few but there's probably dozens of Gundam shows I'm missing, I know. It's true for a lot of mecha shows. Maybe I'll check out Mazinger Z and Getta Robo someday... Astro boy, should watch that, gotta know how it all started right?

I usually sample the popular stuff just to see what it's it's like. There's a lot of stuff where I only watched a 1-3 episodes and lost interest, or felt the time was past for me to get into it. Trigun, Ranma, Ruroni Kenshin... Never got into those. I've dabbled in random Robotech episodes from TV but I never got around to the og Macross. A lot of Clamp stuff doesn't do anything for me, even though they were probably one of the biggest creators of the 90s. A big oversight is never finishing Ninja Scroll. Watched like 30 mins lol. No interest in Berzerk. It wasn't a juggernaut franchise back in the day either. Full Metal Alchemist, I don't recall ever watching more than a couple on TV and thinking it wasn't for me. They say Brotherhood is great but it's another "someday".

Honestly have never been into big popular anime. The more popular it is, the more my friends and annoying people talk my ear off about it, spoiling everything and repeating lines nonstop, leading to a ruined experience when I try to get into it. I also don't like anything that lasts longer than 26 eps, hell more than 13 eps. I got no patience, which is why I love movies and OVAs so much.
 

Cannibalistic

Neo Member
Popular anime series, OVAs, or movies from the past that you've never watched. What are they if any?

I'll admit that I own Cowboy Bebop (the Remix DVD release) and have never gotten around to opening it.

Others that are very mainstream and I've seen almost nothing of for no particular reason:

1. Samurai X / Rurouni Kenshin (I saw part of an episode back in 2000 on Toonami but never followed up)

2. Outlaw Star (I've seen clips of the animation but never seen an actual episode)

3. Ghost in the Shell...any of them

4. Berserk (the 1997-98 series) I own it but never got around to watching it. I did start the manga based on a recommendation by @Mista

5. Anything of Patlabor

Nothing personal against any of these. I've purchased some of these but sometimes it takes a decade before I get around to watching them. Possibly reasoning is because I tend to pick the older and more obscure titles to watch first.

C Cannibalistic kunonabi kunonabi Space Runaway Space Runaway @Mobile Suit Gooch D DragoonWalker OmegaSupreme OmegaSupreme

I feel almost guilty for not having seen any of those you've mentioned. Watched a couple episodes of Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex and loved what I saw, but I'm way behind on what's even mainstream in anime. Only watched Neon Evangellion series for the first last year (really dug that one).

Was thinking about trying the 90s Berzerk series next. That seems to be one that has a huge presence in anime discourse.
 

Rickyiez

Member
Just finished Yuyu Hakusho anime and it's nothing to shout about. I'm a big fans of the Manga and had re-read it multiple times in the past so I'm like well Netflix has the anime so why not try. Ends up it's a colossal waste of time and kinda overrated.

Togashi's own HxH anime reboot is way better on all aspect.
 
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Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Just finished Yuyu Hakusho anime and it's nothing to shout about. I'm a big fans of the Manga and had re-read it multiple times in the past so I'm like well Netflix has the anime so why not try. Ends up it's a colossal waste of time and kinda overrated.

Togashi's own HxH anime reboot is way better on all aspect.
I think I mentioned in an early post how YYH is a lotta hype.
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
So, I finally bought the blu-ray boxset of Kimagure Orange Road TV for my birthday last weekend. Just a heads Up -- it was $80 +$16 for shipping and import fees on Amazon. So, the price will continúe to increase while the quantity in print decreases. Buy it before it's oop!
 
Going through a bunch of lesser stuff and so far watched 3 randoms from very large my pile of shame


USVMI0T.jpg

Del Power X (1986)

Wacky comedy one-shot OVA from 1986. Grandpa makes a mech suit for this grandaughter. They're challenged by the grandfather's rival and his buff underling "Nick Jagger", who have their own mech suits. Then they fight until a couple more characters inexplicably arrive and start doing tag-team wrestling. Ends with a credits gag showing the whole thing was a movie.

Nothing really special here and the comedy is whatever. Most of my entertainment came from spotting anime characters slipped into backgrounds. Art and animation are fine(-ish), aside from what was to be an elaborate full scene animation sequence but they either didn't have the budget or ran out of time, as most of it was reduced to a series of key frames. I'm 100% sure I watched this sometime in the past but I didn't remember anything because it's not really a memorable OVA. =P


0JBjLNp.jpg

Eiji (1990)

One-off boxing OVA based on a short lived comic. The rowdy out of control punk kid who is the son of a famous boxer, yet wants nothing to do with boxing but will ultimately become a boxer. Character wise you've seen these all before - from the delinquent lead to the old guy trainer to the quasi-rival he'll need to train to beat (Not that this OVA gets that far). Despite being a boxing OVA there's very little boxing. Most of it is just character melodrama and maybe something resembling a love plot. Ultimately it's just a giant setup to get our lead to take up boxing.

Visually it's kind of interesting. The animation is never really special outside of a couple concert scenes; however, the art direction is different with it's minimal use of color for backgrounds and even characters in the backgrounds. There's a very strong use of the color white and light pastels throughout this and only the aforementioned concert scenes having strong use of color. You also get character design by Hisashi Eguchi (Also the comic author) who did character designs for Roujin Z and Perfect Blue.

Possibly interesting if you've read the comic but if not, eh, watch some other stuff before seeking out something like this. =P


vUz2Vdm.jpg

Nayuta (1986)

Another OVA based on a comic. Can't say how it compares to the comic but it was fairly decent. Don't really want to spoil much for this one but basically starts as a typical naive school girl gets involved in a "aliens are among us" situation like V or (later) They Live. Eventually this gives way to action with espers shooting up aliens with lasers in space leads to a final act that goes a bit... eh, cosmic. Of course has the usual story reveals, character moments and such within that structure. Art and animation are pretty old looking for 1986, with everything still having 70's leftover look and animation that's not too far beyond TV. Course it doesn't help the available copies on the net are in poor qualuity. There seems to be a lot stuffed into this one and I can only assume that's due to them cramming in what they can from the comic. Luckily it's scripted and paced quite well and ultimately a fun watch. By no means a must see but worth a look if you like to watch obscure old stuff.

 
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Love that Nayuta art style. Feels kind of Voltron-y.

Yeah it's definitely still in that classic style which you didn't see too much of after the early 80s. The art director doesn't seem to seem to be anybody special but the character designer was Akio Sugino, who was Dezaki's go to guy for char design and did Cobra, Joe and a buncha other stuff.

Speaking of Voltron I need to get around to watching that subbed and uncut. That dub worked when I was five but outside of a few voices, it sounds truly awful now.

For sure the original GoLion version is a much better watch and is quite violent. Might cost you a pretty penny to acquire all the dvds at this point though.
 

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
Yeah it's definitely still in that classic style which you didn't see too much of after the early 80s. The art director doesn't seem to seem to be anybody special but the character designer was Akio Sugino, who was Dezaki's go to guy for char design and did Cobra, Joe and a buncha other stuff.



For sure the original GoLion version is a much better watch and is quite violent. Might cost you a pretty penny to acquire all the dvds at this point though.
I think I have them. I know I bought the tin box sets when they came out. Was that just the dub?
 
We got a bunch of Alien clones in this era and the anime realm followed suit. I think Roots Search may have been the first OVA attempt at one though LILY Cat has become the most known in the west due to availability from Streamline (And later others). Though the same year (87) as LILY Cat we also got "Hell Target", which is my favorite of these Alien clone OVAs.

Ixba1OJ.jpg


You know the drill, a multicultural crew are awakened from cryosleep to investigate some planet. In this case they're looking into what happened to a previous ship that went missing on this planet. Our lead has been having the same nightmare of death because why not have the premonition cliche. They encounter shit and are killed off one at a time in gruesome ways. Though Hell Target doesn't use the standard alien menace and instead decides to lift aspects from Galaxy of Horror (And Creature to come extent), allowing for a larger variety of ways to kill the cast. The OVA threatens to get a little too stupid when it starts to include some Japanese mysticism but luckily that doesn't play into things too much and the whole thing leads to an interesting ending. It some ways it feels like a more realized Corman feature (In a good way) and doesn't really have pretensions of being greater than what is it. Definitely a fun space gorefest if you're into such - especially if you want some melting faces, of which there are several. =P

X2n2KCD.gif


The production end is quite decent with a more realistic (By anime standards) look to the characters and lots of detail, especially in the gore. The director appears to be nobody though we have Hirokata Takahashi as DP, who also was DP for lots of Dezaki's works like Cobra, Golgo 13, Joe, Black Jack and even oldschool stuff like Mazinger. Also notable is Shigemi Ikeda on art direction, as he was art director for the first Urotsukidoji, various Gundams and an assload of other stuff. Plus lots of various production crew with some good credentials.

The art and animation are quite decent, with the aforementioned detailed look and animation that's mostly pretty good but never really standout - except for a sequence at the end involving a satellite which has really fantastic animation and must have taken up a good deal of the budget. If there's one flaw regarding the visuals it's that the OVA is dark. Everything is frequently either in heavy shadows or baked in a red haze. This is made worse by the fact that this OVA only ever saw a VHS and VHD release, so the quality is already a blurry by default. There's a few versions floating around but only one has a decent quality rip and subs are generally weak all around. It's a shame this didn't get a cheapie release in the DVD era as I feel it's too "good" to languish on VHS.

Definitely enjoyable trash and a fun watch, especially during this season. Give it a look if you can find it.

 
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OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
I'm trying to think of an ova that I use to see trailers for all the time on manga dvd's and vhs's twenty years ago. It looked like it dealt with monsters and it looked extremely violent. Other than that I can't remember much. It was paired with that pet shop trailer which I also can't remember the name of. lol. Help me out here. I really wanted to see that one.
 
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I'm trying to think of an ova that I use to see trailers for all the time on manga dvd's and vhs's twenty years ago. It looked like it dealt with monsters and it looked extremely violent. Other than that I can't remember much. It was paired with that pet shop trailer which I also can't remember the name of. lol. Help me out here. I really wanted to see that one.

That's so vague. =P You mention Petshop of Horrors so that should be Urban Vision. Perhaps it was Bio Hunter or their re-release of Wicked City?
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
We got a bunch of Alien clones in this era and the anime realm followed suit. I think Roots Search may have been the first OVA attempt at one though LILY Cat has become the most known in the west due to availability from Streamline (And later others). Though the same year (87) as LILY Cat we also got "Hell Target", which is my favorite of these Alien clone OVAs.

Ixba1OJ.jpg


You know the drill, a multicultural crew are awakened from cryosleep to investigate some planet. In this case they're looking into what happened to a previous ship that went missing on this planet. Our lead has been having the same nightmare of death because why not have the premonition cliche. They encounter shit and are killed off one at a time in gruesome ways. Though Hell Target doesn't use the standard alien menace and instead decides to lift aspects from Galaxy of Horror (And Creature to come extent), allowing for a larger variety of ways to kill the cast. The OVA threatens to get a little too stupid when it starts to include some Japanese mysticism but luckily that doesn't play into things too much and the whole thing leads to an interesting ending. It some ways it feels like a more realized Corman feature (In a good way) and doesn't really have pretensions of being greater than what is it. Definitely a fun space gorefest if you're into such - especially if you want some melting faces, of which there are several. =P

X2n2KCD.gif


The production end is quite decent with a more realistic (By anime standards) look to the characters and lots of detail, especially in the gore. The director appears to be nobody though we have Hirokata Takahashi as DP, who also was DP for lots of Dezaki's works like Cobra, Golgo 13, Joe, Black Jack and even oldschool stuff like Mazinger. Also notable is Shigemi Ikeda on art direction, as he was art director for the first Urotsukidoji, various Gundams and an assload of other stuff. Plus lots of various production crew with some good credentials.

The art and animation are quite decent, with the aforementioned detailed look and animation that's mostly pretty good but never really standout - except for a sequence at the end involving a satellite which has really fantastic animation and must have taken up a good deal of the budget. If there's one flaw regarding the visuals it's that the OVA is dark. Everything is frequently either in heavy shadows or baked in a red haze. This is made worse by the fact that this OVA only ever saw a VHS and VHD release, so the quality is already a blurry by default. There's a few versions floating around but only one has a decent quality rip and subs are generally weak all around. It's a shame this didn't get a cheapie release in the DVD era as I feel it's too "good" to languish on VHS.

Definitely enjoyable trash and a fun watch, especially during this season. Give it a look if you can find it.
Twilight of the Dark Master! Thanks for the Urban Vision hint. Has anyone seen it?


Space Runaway Space Runaway "Hell Target" just the name alone sounds like a B-movie from the 80's. Looks awesome and surprised I missed it. I have a VHS transfer copy of Roots Search (could never find the official VHS or Laser-Disc...I've been told it's rare. About Hell Target, I watched a little bit so far and noticed that they even took some interior features from the Nostromo and the music in parts is reminiscent of Jerry Goldsmith's "Alien" score. Looks like my kind of anime, really. Thanks for putting that one out there.

OmegaSupreme OmegaSupreme Space Runaway was right -- sounded like an Urban Vision title. I would have guessed Twilight of the Dark Master or BioHunter. Looks like you found it. I've still got all my U.V. VHS and DVD's. They're hard to find. There's some fine animation used in Twilight of the Dark Master. Also, look out for Mr. Spock when you're watching it...he's evil.
 
Space Runaway Space Runaway "Hell Target" just the name alone sounds like a B-movie from the 80's. Looks awesome and surprised I missed it. I have a VHS transfer copy of Roots Search (could never find the official VHS or Laser-Disc...I've been told it's rare. About Hell Target, I watched a little bit so far and noticed that they even took some interior features from the Nostromo and the music in parts is reminiscent of Jerry Goldsmith's "Alien" score. Looks like my kind of anime, really. Thanks for putting that one out there.

Yeah it's a fun one. If you can enjoy something like Galaxy of Terror then Hell Planet is a fun watch and these OVAs are only 50 minutes so you don't really have to wait for the good stuff.

Roots Search you're better off just getting a rip of the LD unless you just want to own a physical copy. It's a pretty junky OVA and it doesn't seem like they had the right staff for the concept. Admittedly I do enjoy it's particular type of trash though even then you still get a total BS ending for your trouble. =P
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Yeah it's a fun one. If you can enjoy something like Galaxy of Terror then Hell Planet is a fun watch and these OVAs are only 50 minutes so you don't really have to wait for the good stuff.

Roots Search you're better off just getting a rip of the LD unless you just want to own a physical copy. It's a pretty junky OVA and it doesn't seem like they had the right staff for the concept. Admittedly I do enjoy it's particular type of trash though even then you still get a total BS ending for your trouble. =P
I'll stick with the conversion copy I have of Roots. I don't really collect anime anymore. The collection's big enough with over 200 classic titles and I only buy when it's something I missed or something that long needs a re-release (then ends up getting put out by DiscoTek). Viz Media is acting pretty lazy about not giving a blu-ray release to Maison Ikkoku. I never got to watch much of the anime but enjoyed the manga big time. The DVDs were already oop and super expensive by the time I was ready to buy them. The last seasons are seldom even being sold on their old DVD printings on eBay.

What's with Urusei Yatsura never getting season releases in North America? They released a bunch of individual episodic discs and never organized them to make it affordable to ever buy the full series (even when it was being released on VHS). Americans don't handle Rumiko titles with care unless it's Ranma 1/2 (which I appreciate) and Inuyasha (which is boring as hell after season 2).
 
I'll stick with the conversion copy I have of Roots. I don't really collect anime anymore. The collection's big enough with over 200 classic titles and I only buy when it's something I missed or something that long needs a re-release (then ends up getting put out by DiscoTek). Viz Media is acting pretty lazy about not giving a blu-ray release to Maison Ikkoku. I never got to watch much of the anime but enjoyed the manga big time. The DVDs were already oop and super expensive by the time I was ready to buy them. The last seasons are seldom even being sold on their old DVD printings on eBay.

What's with Urusei Yatsura never getting season releases in North America? They released a bunch of individual episodic discs and never organized them to make it affordable to ever buy the full series (even when it was being released on VHS). Americans don't handle Rumiko titles with care unless it's Ranma 1/2 (which I appreciate) and Inuyasha (which is boring as hell after season 2).
With a lot of these new blurays for prior releases I'm definitely stuck with a lot of dvds that can't even be sold for much. Though many I keep because they have the old boxart. Now my VHS tapes are really a problem because nobody wants them but it feels so wasteful to just throw them in the trash.

Yeah I don't know. They did do a few box sets but they were just the regular 4 episode single audio track dvd releases packaged together in a sleeve. I know it was super early in the life of DVD when AnimEigo started releasing Urusei but it's curious there hasn't been a better US release from someone since.
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
With a lot of these new blurays for prior releases I'm definitely stuck with a lot of dvds that can't even be sold for much. Though many I keep because they have the old boxart. Now my VHS tapes are really a problem because nobody wants them but it feels so wasteful to just throw them in the trash.

Yeah I don't know. They did do a few box sets but they were just the regular 4 episode single audio track dvd releases packaged together in a sleeve. I know it was super early in the life of DVD when AnimEigo started releasing Urusei but it's curious there hasn't been a better US release from someone since.
What makes me laugh is when the new generation anime fans boast about getting everything from streaming. Most streaming services will cut or crop aspects and just gloss everything up. The point of DVD and blu-ray was to get the audio and visual as close to cinema as possible (which wasn't happening with VHS' pan and scan). Netflix will crop things and have been caught doing it. The other joke I find with digital and / or streaming is the fact that you built up a wonderful library of all the anime you like. Then you lose your job one day and can't pay for the service...so...they seize your library and or withhold it from you viewing until payment is updated. Ever see physical video just stop working because you refused to pay for it twice?
I may be a dinosaur but I feel streaming is the kind of dinosaur that got the short stick and a walnut-sized brain.

Besides that...where is the cover art with digital? Behind-the-scenes? Docs? ROM-extras? Music videos? Nope, streaming services don't offer anything extra. It's not cutting edge -- it's just convenient and cheap; that's the real reason bought into it is because they don't want to invest in something that may cost a little extra.
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
I finished Trigun not too long ago. Really enjoyed it. Great visual style and enjoyed the rock intro/transitions. Good cast of characters. The writing did really well to interject just the right amount of humor.
Trigun is something great. I remember being in middle-school and being dragged to a basketball game. I'm not a big sports fan and I had one of those fat Dark Horse releases of Trigun volume 1. I read the manga and engaged more into Trigun and the characters and completely missed whatever was going on with the basketball game. If the ball had gone rogue and hit me; I probably would have still kept reading. I say this because if you haven't read the manga...do it!
 

Evangelion Unit-01

Master Chief
Trigun is something great. I remember being in middle-school and being dragged to a basketball game. I'm not a big sports fan and I had one of those fat Dark Horse releases of Trigun volume 1. I read the manga and engaged more into Trigun and the characters and completely missed whatever was going on with the basketball game. If the ball had gone rogue and hit me; I probably would have still kept reading. I say this because if you haven't read the manga...do it!
I haven’t. I hear it’s better than the show. I really enjoyed the show though; something about it reminds me of simpler times.
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
I haven’t. I hear it’s better than the show. I really enjoyed the show though; something about it reminds me of simpler times.
It's better than the show without a doubt. There are few classic anime titles I've seen that follow a manga very closely to match (with the exceptions that some OVA's were based directly on manga with little story boarding to fill in). The TV writers for Trigun didn't want to depress their audience by starting up showing Vash's loss of REM. They do that pretty early on in the manga to give context to Vash as not being a villain but someone mislabeled by the sci-fi Western atmosphere. Trigun would have made a great 2-episode OVA. They could have covered a lot and increased the quality of the animation likewise. Either way, the TV series wasn't bad but it's not the manga. I've seen different Trigun manga releases in the West but this is the particular printing I was reading and gives the best context of the characters. So, whether it's in paper or digitial...look for the fat printings like this.


HlH5CKc.jpg
 
S

SLoWMoTIoN

Unconfirmed Member
Remember when isekai or virtual reality was either fantasy or science fiction? Also was Shakugan no Shana what started the terrible magic school anime genre/rise to popularity?
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Remember when isekai or virtual reality was either fantasy or science fiction? Also was Shakugan no Shana what started the terrible magic school anime genre/rise to popularity?
Indeed. Albeit, .hack//Sign isn't super retro; I recall watching it thinking that the VR-type terror in the story would be interesting in real life. VR has gotten closer but I'm not sure that people are getting lobotomized. It seems that the worst case scenario with a VR addict would be donuting themselves into a 800-lb couch potato living off CostCo pizzas. Psycho Diver kinda/sorta deals with a fantasy type VR as well. It was a not-so-popular OVA that Urban Vision released in the U.S. only on VHS. The main character Bosujima "Psycho-dives" as a "high-tech janitor" by using a VR like machine to enter into the minds of people with extreme psychological problems. That too still remains fantasy for the real world.

Actually, Ribon no Kishi (a Tezuka creation) was the first to get Japanese hyped into magical girl anime. The manga came out in the early 1950's and the anime in the late-60's. For Westerners, magic girl anime hadn't caught on until Sailor Moon was brought over and localized (because dubbing and Americanizing anime was the thing 30-some years ago). However, Shana brought the popularity of Magical Girl anime back to life. People were getting bored of it for awhile. I never got into it even when I was a young lad of 11-years old. Probably because I'm not big on people who have magical powers.


VjKjYEf.jpg
 
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S

SLoWMoTIoN

Unconfirmed Member
I don't even consider Shana to be magical girl even thought it literally takes place in a magic school. Mostly because of its harem elements and all the terrible tropes it brought along with it.
 
I haven't watched a lot of retro anime besides Astro Boy and Transformers and morning cartoon stuff like Samurai Pizza Cats and Voltron as a kid. I was really fond of a show called the Mysterious Cities of Gold which I think was a French-Japanese production. I didn't know any of this at the time though, just thought of them as cartoons. I got interested in "anime" when I saw Ninja Scroll on TV one night and thought it was so much better than other cartoons I had seen up until then. I hired some titles that my video store had, like Akira, Ghost in the Shell and some others that I can't remember. I think Patlabor sounds familiar. Being a kid at the time though, I didn't really understand much of what I was watching and can't really remember a lot. I had a few video catalogs I had requested from the distributor and I remember looking over them and marking all the titles I wanted. Never was allowed to order any though and being too young I just eventually lost interest.

I have recently watched Ghost in the Shell again and I think I enjoyed it far more than I did when I was a kid. I'll looking at watching the new 4K Akira after I get a new TV later on, so hopefully that will be as enjoyable. The reason I'm posting though, which may sound strange, is I found myself watching some 80s Japanese pop music videos on YouTube and scrolling through a bunch of 80s Japanese ads and anime stills that had this weird effect of making me feel nostalgic about something I'm not sure I ever experienced. I don't know how to explain it. I started recently watching some modern anime, and while some titles like Demon Slayer I think are great, it's a very different experience to the older stuff. Not sure if this post is appropriate here, I just thought I'd share.
 
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