We're apparenly living in a golden age of 80s/90s anime
Jan 13, 2019 5:28:19 GMT -5
Post by edmonddantes on Jan 13, 2019 5:28:19 GMT -5
So I mentioned this in the Anime Reviews topic, but then made more discoveries.
To repeat what I said there... to my shock and delight, two classics, Zillion and Aura Battler Dunbine, have gotten the blu-ray treatment. If you've never heard of either... well, if you're a Sega Master System fan and you don't know what Zillion is, shame on you. As for Aura Battler Dunbine, imagine if Game of Thrones had giant mecha... and happened to also be based on a novel by the guy who did Gundam. With all that entails.
But afterwards, I looked through what Amazon was recommending and found out... basically, every obscure 80s/90s anime I had ever vaguely heard of is getting an English DVD (or even Blu-Ray) release. And not all of them are by Discotek (though I credit that company with getting the ball rolling).
Just a few examples I ran across:
God Mars - I heard about this for the first time last year, its apparently a highly regarded Mecha series. You can now buy the complete series on DVD in English (And no its not a bootleg)
A Journey Through Fairyland - A VHS tape of this was a childhood favorite of myself and my sister. The best summary is basically, if you've ever seen Disney's Fantasia, this is anime's answer to that... except it has an actual plot.
(Kingdom Hearts really needs a scene where Mickey chops up an animate broomstick. Just saying)
Space Warrior Baldios (both TV series and movie forms) - My first exposure to this was two years ago when I found a VHS tape of the dubbed form of the movie, under the title "Space Warriors: Battle for Planet X-1" (which is like the third time I've heard of an anime called Space Warriors... the first time was a dub of Locke The Superman: Lord Leon OVA which had a kickass English theme song). When I learned it was adapted from a TV series, I was kinda weirded out... primarily because the TV series is a mecha show and the movie form (at least the version on that VHS) almost entirely removed the mecha element. Which may have made it a stronger story overall, because the ending was... something to behold.
pretty much the entire Mazinger Z canon is on DVD in the US now.
GoShogun, including its sequel movie GoShogun the Time Etranger - Okay, so basic GoShogun isn't that special--its another giant robot series, and for America its only notable for being one-half of the insanity known as Macron-1 (For my money, the best thing about Macron-1 is its absolutely insane opening narration. Any time your summary includes the line "in the alternate universe" your story is probably too complicated). However, the Time Etranger movie is totally worth seeing... its a shockingly powerful movie, and ironically again it completely scraps the whole "giant robot" thing. Suffice to say: people who think there aren't enough feminist icons in anime will love Remy Shimada.
Mach Go Go Go - In an expensive collector set, its possible to get both the original Speed Racer and its year 2000 remake on blu-ray (the latter is JApanese-only as there was licensing issues surrounding the dubbed version that used to play on Nickelodeon). People are hoping these get released separately as the Japanese-language versions are currently exclusive to the collector set. Personally, I'm saving up.
Shin Tetsujin 28 - I discovered this as I was typing this post... we somehow got a US blu-ray of the 1980s remake of Gigantor in original Japanese. Which is just weird on all sorts of levels for me. I mean personally, I would rather have the original Japanese versions of Astro Boy and Kimba, but hopefully this is a sign of things to come.
.....
Just saying, for awhile I felt anime had become kinda hellish since we seemed to be getting a lot of lame otaku-centric stuff that was currently airing on Japanese TV (if I have to see another "look at this schoolgirl harem, see how moe and kawaii they are?" show, I'm gonna murder someone), and honestly I was beginning to feel that anime had not only lost the spark that made it attractive to me in the first place but that there was increasingly less chance of the retro stuff coming back outside of fansubs... and then I happen to get on Amazon and see all of the above, plus more I didn't mention and probably should've.
Anyway, it just makes me feel good.
To repeat what I said there... to my shock and delight, two classics, Zillion and Aura Battler Dunbine, have gotten the blu-ray treatment. If you've never heard of either... well, if you're a Sega Master System fan and you don't know what Zillion is, shame on you. As for Aura Battler Dunbine, imagine if Game of Thrones had giant mecha... and happened to also be based on a novel by the guy who did Gundam. With all that entails.
But afterwards, I looked through what Amazon was recommending and found out... basically, every obscure 80s/90s anime I had ever vaguely heard of is getting an English DVD (or even Blu-Ray) release. And not all of them are by Discotek (though I credit that company with getting the ball rolling).
Just a few examples I ran across:
God Mars - I heard about this for the first time last year, its apparently a highly regarded Mecha series. You can now buy the complete series on DVD in English (And no its not a bootleg)
A Journey Through Fairyland - A VHS tape of this was a childhood favorite of myself and my sister. The best summary is basically, if you've ever seen Disney's Fantasia, this is anime's answer to that... except it has an actual plot.
(Kingdom Hearts really needs a scene where Mickey chops up an animate broomstick. Just saying)
Space Warrior Baldios (both TV series and movie forms) - My first exposure to this was two years ago when I found a VHS tape of the dubbed form of the movie, under the title "Space Warriors: Battle for Planet X-1" (which is like the third time I've heard of an anime called Space Warriors... the first time was a dub of Locke The Superman: Lord Leon OVA which had a kickass English theme song). When I learned it was adapted from a TV series, I was kinda weirded out... primarily because the TV series is a mecha show and the movie form (at least the version on that VHS) almost entirely removed the mecha element. Which may have made it a stronger story overall, because the ending was... something to behold.
pretty much the entire Mazinger Z canon is on DVD in the US now.
GoShogun, including its sequel movie GoShogun the Time Etranger - Okay, so basic GoShogun isn't that special--its another giant robot series, and for America its only notable for being one-half of the insanity known as Macron-1 (For my money, the best thing about Macron-1 is its absolutely insane opening narration. Any time your summary includes the line "in the alternate universe" your story is probably too complicated). However, the Time Etranger movie is totally worth seeing... its a shockingly powerful movie, and ironically again it completely scraps the whole "giant robot" thing. Suffice to say: people who think there aren't enough feminist icons in anime will love Remy Shimada.
Mach Go Go Go - In an expensive collector set, its possible to get both the original Speed Racer and its year 2000 remake on blu-ray (the latter is JApanese-only as there was licensing issues surrounding the dubbed version that used to play on Nickelodeon). People are hoping these get released separately as the Japanese-language versions are currently exclusive to the collector set. Personally, I'm saving up.
Shin Tetsujin 28 - I discovered this as I was typing this post... we somehow got a US blu-ray of the 1980s remake of Gigantor in original Japanese. Which is just weird on all sorts of levels for me. I mean personally, I would rather have the original Japanese versions of Astro Boy and Kimba, but hopefully this is a sign of things to come.
.....
Just saying, for awhile I felt anime had become kinda hellish since we seemed to be getting a lot of lame otaku-centric stuff that was currently airing on Japanese TV (if I have to see another "look at this schoolgirl harem, see how moe and kawaii they are?" show, I'm gonna murder someone), and honestly I was beginning to feel that anime had not only lost the spark that made it attractive to me in the first place but that there was increasingly less chance of the retro stuff coming back outside of fansubs... and then I happen to get on Amazon and see all of the above, plus more I didn't mention and probably should've.
Anyway, it just makes me feel good.