Anime Old School

[ArcticFox]

I started the thread here because this isn't about any specific title or genre within Anime.

I've recently acquired a DVD of my all all time favorite Anime movie and was watching it over the weekend. As I did, I was mentally comparing it with some of the more recent Anime offerings and I've come to the realization that most Anime fans today take a lot for granted.

Yes, it's time for me to be the grumpy old man again.

When I was in high school, Anime was something you acquired in one of two ways:

1) You went to a specialty shop that dealt in imports from Japan, specific to Anime and related themes.
2) You dubbed your buddy's VHS tape.

Mind you, your only alternative to the above 2 was to watch Americanized re-edits of original Japanese tv shows, like Star Blazers, Battle of the Planets and Robotech. Big Robotech fan here, and we were anime geeks way before it was cool by any standard.

You've probably never heard of Madox-1, Grey:Digital Target or any of that stuff. (Unless you're old school like me, that is.)

The crown jewel of my personal collection was a VHS copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of Macross: Do You Remember Love? The picture quality was so poor you could barely read any text that appeared on screen. The English dubbing was horrible to begin with and the fuzzy result of being through so many generations of copying made it all but impossible to understand... It was a retelling of Macross, the Japanese cartoon show that became the first part of Robotech, and it was utterly fascinating to see this alternate telling of the story. It was a massive influence on me as a gamer, as a sci fi author and as a GM. When I think, I think visually and a lot of it, even to this day, is recognizably from the style of this movie.

I don't think, if you're a fan of Anime today, that you'd enjoy it very much. It's so different that even if you can't put your finger on why, you probably won't find much to latch on to, but I will share a video clip here, so that you younger guys can get an insight into the wide gulf that separates some of us old school Anime geeks from the Anime fans of today. All I ask of you is that you watch the whole thing... it isn't long, but it's a part of the climactic final battle of the movie. It's the most intensely violent animated sequence I've ever seen and yet the background music gives it an odd, detached serenity... See for yourself.

(The video is about 7 minutes.)




And yes... this is the DVD I Mentioned at the top of the post.

[ccgr]

Jay and I watched this (dubbed of course)

[DeadManReedeemed]

Wow, ya'll must've had HARD back then.

[ChickenSoup]

Wow, ya'll must've had HARD back then.

uh.... what

[ArchAngel]

Back when people had to get VHS's shipped from Japan over to watch them, crowding in densely populated rooms full of people in terrible 80's sweaters huddled over an dying CRT.

[Orodrist]

It's the most intensely violent animated sequence I've ever seen

Really? Wow I have loose tolerances....

Heavy Metal/Heavy Metal 2000 are violent bits animation, though western.

[ArcticFox]

It's the most intensely violent animated sequence I've ever seen

Really? Wow I have loose tolerances....

Heavy Metal/Heavy Metal 2000 are violent bits animation, though western.

Heavy Meta's violence was more graphic overall, but I'm talking about the sheer number of things being killed/blown up/etc. The part at the beginning of the clip when the two characters are having their leisurely chat with explosions dotting the sky outside... Every single one of those is a starship exploding.

Think maybe the people in the battle were thinking "Er... hello... could you move it along, please?"

[blacksinow]

It's the most intensely violent animated sequence I've ever seen

Really? Wow I have loose tolerances....

Heavy Metal/Heavy Metal 2000 are violent bits animation, though western.

Heavy Meta's violence was more graphic overall, but I'm talking about the sheer number of things being killed/blown up/etc. The part at the beginning of the clip when the two characters are having their leisurely chat with explosions dotting the sky outside... Every single one of those is a starship exploding.

Think maybe the people in the battle were thinking "Er... hello... could you move it along, please?"

I've had the pleasure of watching quite a few old school animes. Let's see... I've watched Dirty Pair Flash, Apple Seed (the original), Bubblegum Crisis, Patlabor 2 (I think), 8-Man After, Gunsmith Cats, Megazone 23 (all parts)

[DeadManReedeemed]

Trigun.

[selderane]

Macross: Do You Remember Love is one of the best OVAs out there. Macross Plus is pretty solid as well, particularly the ending, but you kinda have to ignore some of the drama that could have been avoided if dudes just talked to one another. If you haven't seen it, get your hands on Macross Frontier, because it's amazing. If you don't want to invest the time in the series, the two OVAs that retell the series are very good too.

But, to the OP topic, I remember how hard it was getting hands on anime back then. One of the first animes I paid for was a bootleg copy of Vampire Hunter D. I didn't realize it was bootleg until after I had purchased it.

A few years later the guy who sold it to be was busted by the feds in a big way for that stuff.

I think I came into anime just as it was transitioning into more mainstream availability. It was still tricky to get sometimes, but it was getting easier. In fact, on of my fondest memories as a youngster was when I was very sick and my mother let me raid the anime section of my local Blockbuster. Gunbuster (my #2 all-time favorite anime), Project A-ko, 3x3 Eyes, and Dangaioh stick with me to this day. Particularly the latter because of how it ended. Bad guys beat the crap out of good guys and leave them to rot in space.

Mind. Blown.

Wasn't until fairly recently that I found out the series wasn't supposed to end that way. They production company simply ran out of money.

The problem with anime now is fan service. It's everywhere and getting worse.

Now I get most of my anime from Crunchyroll. It's pretty solid.

[blacksinow]

I admit, that I couldn't like Patlabor and I hated that they never finished Robotech properly.