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The Oldschool Anime PanelAt Ayacon 2011
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Here We Make Our Entrance Now! The Opening Curtain on ourNail-Biting Panel!
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What's This About? Welcome to the Ayacon 2011 Old-School Anime Panel! This talk is going to be about the history of Japanese animation from its
roots through to some stuff you'll know and love. First, let's get some questions out the way.
What's the title slide about?That's written in the style of an episode title!
Who are you?I'm Ray, and that's _______
It's not all going to be about sci-fi is it?No.
Will we get to ask questions of our own?Yes.
Will there be things to watch?Of course!
Who's the guy in the corner?More on him later!
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The Table of Contents We're going to start with a timeline to get this going
Then there'll be a bit about some famous names and faces
Then a bit about what you can expect from older shows
Then 7 absolute classics
Then a few to avoid
Then some underrated shows
And some stuff about remakes to bring us up to date! All that, and more! It's going to be hot-blooded, full of courage and
fighting spirit!
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Fun!! History Time!
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A Quick Timeline The first animation produced in Japan was a short clip of a boy made in
1907 in light of experiments in hand-drawn animation in Europe and
America.
Manga was made popular a little later as newspaper cartoons in the
western vein became popular early cartoonists such as Rakiten
Kitazawa were hugely popular with newspaper readers.
The 1918 animated film Peach Boy (Momotaro)is arguably the first
successful anime, and started a trend for short silent animations, often
about folk stories and myths that lasted through the 1920s.
Successful animators of the period included Oten Shimokawa and Sanae
Yamamoto (some of whose films are preserved today)
Early animation was often funded by theatres, although independent artists
predominated.
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A Quick Timeline During the Second World War, animated films were used as propaganda,
showing Japanese soldiers fighting. One example is Mitsuyo Seo's
Momotaro's Sea Eagles, about navy personnel.
The first feature-length animation was the 1945 Momotaro's Divine Sea
Warriors, another war film about sailors.
1956 saw the founding ofToei, and the first colour anime film The Taleof the White Serpent. It's a Disney-like fairytale with songs and talking
animals, done in a ukiyo-ewoodcut style.
Toei worked on similar Western-style cartoon films through to the 1970s,
with experiments such as the 1968 Horus: Prince of the Sunsowing theseeds for later movements including Progressive Anime (popularised by
Hayao Miyazaki and Mamoru Oshii)
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A Quick Timeline To compete with Toei, Osamu Tezuka opened his own production company,
Mushi Productions. Tezuka would go on to produce the first regularanimated serial on Japanese TV 1963's Astro Boy. However, the veryfirst TV anime was in fact Manga Calendar(1962).
This was then followed by a rush of legendary serials Mitsuteru
Yokoyama's Tetsujin-28, Tezuka's Kimba the White Lionand Tatsuo
Yoshida's Mach Go-Go-Go, which you may know as Speed Racer.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this was then followed by experiments into adult
films, with Tezuka producing a range of adult films in the 1970s.
Interestingly, the 1973 film Belladonna of Sadnesswould be a majorstylistic inspiration for the 1997 serial Revolutionary Girl Utena.
The first anime intended for older audiences, Lupin III(based on the Arsene
Lupinnovels of Maurice Leblanc) was released in 1971.
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A Quick Timeline The huge popularity of TV led to a shrinking of the Japanese film industry
in the 1970s. Toei were forced to downsize, and a flood of new studios
opened. Mushi were forced to close, but their staff would go on to open
big name studios like Madhouse and Sunrise. The rush of new talent led to a rush of new series, including legendary
boxing drama Ashita No Joeand family entertainment show Heidi: Girl of
the Alps.
A new series of novel adaptations, World Masterpiece Theatre, ensued, with
a young Hayao Miyazaki in a key role although more on him later!
Sci-fi also flourished, with a range of firsts 1972's Mazinger Z the firstmecha show, and 1979's Mobile Suit Gundam the first successfulmilitary sci-fi series.
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A Quick Timeline The huge popularity ofStar Warsled to a real sci-fi boom a feature film
based on 1974's Space Battleship Yamatoreleased in 1980 led to an eraof sci-fi films.
The popularity of sci-fi magazines like Newtypeprovided a natural fanbase
and from there producers went wild. At the time, US distributors looked
for new material and translated a range of these shows children
watched Tranzor Z, Robotech, Battle of the Planetsand of courseTransformers.
In an attempt to broaden the fanbase of sci-fi anime, experiments like
Urusei Yatsura(1981)were released a romantic comedy with sci-fi
themes.
Meanwhile, a small independent studio moved on from making short comic
sketches for conventions to a feature film, the 1987 Wings of
Honneamise at the time the highest-budget anime ever made. The
studio? GAINAX.
Miyazaki, meanwhile, had released Nausicaain 1984 and Grave of theFirefliesin 1987.
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A Quick Timeline The OVA genre (Original Video Animation) was invented arguably in 1985
with Mamoru Oshii's failure, Moon Base Dallos. However, this was followed
by Megazone 23, which did substantially better and opened up a new
medium.
OVAs and theatrical films allowed for budgets to increase immensely, with
films like 1984's Do You Remember Love, 1988's Char's Counterattack
and 1988's Akira which took Wings of Honneamise's crown for the
most expensive anime made.
However, many of these films and OVAs were economic failures, the costs
of lavish cel animation simply unsustainable and by the end of the 1980sthe boom was over.
From that point on, it's not fair to say there hasn't been good anime made
but there's less of it, and economic viability is now key rather than
wild experimentation.
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Great Shock! Piercing Through the Misconceptions!
!
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Weren't Old Shows all Episodic andBoring? Not all of them! While, say, Dancouga
(picture to the left) might be, not
every old show is.
The very earliest shows, mostly the sci-fi
or action ones, were indeed episodic
something like Mazinger Zhas a verysimple format of a new enemy each
week. It worked for the target
audience.
However, something like Rose of Versailles
is more loose with the form each
episode has a conflict, but the plot is
more linear and less episodic.
By the 1990s, episodic plots had changed
Revolutionary GirlUtenaused its
episodic format as part of its ongoing
plot, as did G Gundam(picture to theleft).
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I Bet Old Shows didn't have CutesyCharacters... Of course they did! An adorable child
sidekick is a sure audience grabber
while there weren't so many
shows like K-On!whiich were solely
about kids being kids, there were
sickeningly sweet characters.
Captain Harlock, a hot-blooded sci-fi
show about a pirate fighting alien
Amazons, has him doing it all for
the love of his doe-eyed child.
SDF Macrossis mostly about a
saccharine, love-struck pop singer's
love life. In between the bits about
F-14s in space shooting aliens.
And don't even start on animal
mascots like that one from Tenchi
Muyo!Or sidekicks like the twinsfrom Orguss.
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So if there was loads of money foranime, I bet the shows looked good... Most of the time yes. Take a still from Do
You Remember Loveor Wings of
Honneamiseand you'll be impressed.
Take a still from something else like
these from Dancougaand Raideenand
you probably won't be. Ultimately it was all about getting a lot of
cels done fast and profitably. While
the OVAs and movies had the big
budgets, many TV series didn't
leading to corner cutting.
One way of cutting corners was stock
footage, re-using something that would
feature every episode (attack
preparation, for example). Sometimes
this got pretty long Voltes Vtakes
over a minute and a half to combine!
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I Bet they'd Never have Stood for Sexin Old Shows... Sex sells. If anything there was more
of it in the past. Japan has actually
clamped down on that sort of thing
nowadays.
The worst offender would probably
be Go Nagai, who got in a spot of
hot water with his work HarenchiGakuen an X-rated comedy about
perverted teachers and violent
students.
However, one way to grab attention in
a sci-fi show was to stick the girls
in revealing outfits, and laddish
humour about spying on girls
featured prominently.
Cutey Honey(pictured right) was an
attempt by Go Nagai to make the
girl superhero genre appeal to boyswith saucy costumes and jokes.
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Old Shows Didn't Have Clever Endings,did they? Even the most formulaic show going,
Mazinger Z, has a simple twist ending.
However, compared to something like
Space Runaway Ideonor Zambot 3
(more on both of those later), it's
fairly predictable. There are some great old shows with
really unique and at times depressing
endings it's not fair at all to say
that just because a show is old it
won't have any twists.
One great example of a good ending is
SDF Macross it goes beyond the
human victory to show what happens
once the aliens want peace.
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So How About That MerchandiseThen? If you don't think there was
merchandising, and that selling stuffwasn't key, you're wrong.
Sci-fi shows did great business in
fact, model and toy sales saved
Mobile Suit Gundamfrom failing.
Gimmicks were created to sell more
toys. Getter Robohas three forms
but no logical way of switching
between them so you can sell
three toys!
Later entries in the Gundamfranchisechallenged this G Gundam's
ridiculous gimmicks and Victory
Gundam's bizarre designs were
intended to not be easily converted
into merchandise.
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Who are you?! Enter the Mysterious, Marvellous People!
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Hayao Miyazaki (1941-) An incredibly talented and prolific man,
Miyazaki has worked as an animator,
producer and director on various
projects.
His first work, for Toei, was the animation
Watchdog Bow-Wow;however, he isbest known for his work with Studio
Ghibli
His CV, though, includes series as diverse
as Lupin III, Space Adventure Cobra
and Akagi no Anna, an adaptation of
Anne of Green Gables
As well as working extensively in anime,
Miyazaki has worked on a range of
manga projects including Nausicaaand
Ponyo
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Yoshiyuki Tomino (1941-) A king of sci-fi anime, Tomino has an
extensive portfolio of mecha titlesto his name including the
legendary Gundamfranchise
His shows fall into two categories
depending on his mood
They are either exceptionally light-hearted, often slapstick and very
funny, or very depressing and bleak
Examples of the former are ZZ
Gundam, Overman King Gainerand
Heavy Metal L-Gaim
Examples of the latter are Space
Runaway Ideon, Victory Gundam
and Zambot 3
Tomino has also worked as a
composer under the pen-name RinIogi
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Rumiko Takahashi (1957-) A talented manga artist who has also
worked in animation, Takahashi is a
real expert at comedy
From cross-dressing screwball comedy
Ranma to the awkward and heart-
warming Maison Ikkoku, her shows andmanga series are made with an eye
for the absurdities of young people
She is renowned for taking a high level of
personal involvement in her work her
career began in 1978, and she has
consistently taken responsibility for theseries and franchises penned in her
name
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Matsumoto Leiji (1938-) A skilled artist, animator, and creator
of some great science fiction, Leijihas a unique style
His art is instantly recognisable by its
use of elongated and slender
female characters alongside heroic
men and bizarre caricatures
His most famous works have to be
Space Battleship Yamato, Galaxy
Express 999and Captain Harlock
although one of his more recent
projects was Daft Punk's Interstella
5555video. He has also worked in the manga
industry, producing adaptations of
his works as well as original ideas
like Wild West story Gun Frontier
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Go Nagai (1945-) A man prepared to take risks, Go Nagai
is renowned for producing violent, sexy
and funny stories
His big break was the manga Mao Dante
and its TV adaptation Devilman, a
violent story about a demon fightingmonsters which enjoyed huge success
in its prime-time slot
However, his enduring creations have to
be the Dynamic Pro mecha shows
Mazinger Z, the Getterfranchise and
more (from Grendizerto Steel Jeeg)
Not only this, shows like Enma-kunand
Cutey Honeyare examples of his
range of talents for applying a darkly
comic twist to all manner of genres
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And The List Goes On... Tadao Nagahama is best known for his attempts to bring a more serious aspect into
the mecha genre with shows like Voltes Vand Daimos Voltes'plotline about the
fall of a corrupt empire led to the show being banned in the Phillipines!
Haruhiko Mikimoto is a legendary artist and animator who has worked on a range ofvisually spectacular projects Macross, Gunbuster, War in the Pocketand many
others. Isao Sasaki is the voice of early anime soundtracks his unique sound defines the
theme tunes to so many classic shows, notably Space Battleship Yamato!
Osamu Tezuka's work on Astro Boyand Kimba The White Lionlaunched his careerand really opened up the potential for the anime industry.
Ryosuke Takahashi continued to take the science fiction genre in new directions, withshows like SPT Layzner, Fang of the Sun Dougramand the much later Gasaraki
and FLAGusing the traditional imagery of the mecha genre to tell political stories.
Masami Obari is a legendary animator who has worked on a vast range of showsfrom the 1980s to the present day from Detonator Orgun toGravion, he hasdone wonders for stock footage!
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The Great Seven Shows! The Best Series that You ShouldSee Are What Now?
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Bubblegum Crisis (1987-91)
A classic sci-fi OVA with some all-startalent behind it Masami Obari
directed two episodes, for one
With an all-action plot encompassing
corporate conspiracies, killer robots
and more, its quality soundtrackand beautiful animation make it a
must-see
It's about a secret police unit whose
duty it is to stop the crimes of the
future those committed by
cyborgs and machines
It is also packed full of sci-fi homages
(including a brilliant Blade Runner
reference)
Bubblegum Crisis Clip
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Maison Ikkoku (1986-88)
A heartwarming romantic comedy aboutan awkward, slacker student and his
one-way love for his landlady
While the main plot is hugely funny, with
a hilarious comedy dog used for
classic sight gags, it's the motley crewof supporting characters that really
contribute to the humour
With some classic dead-pan punchlines,
bizarre scenes and amusing twists on
classic sitcom moments, it's a great
example of a student sitcom that isfunny to this day
Maison Ikkoku Clip
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Fist of the North Star (1984-87) The definitive martial arts show, about
a post-apocalyptic world full of
gangs and villains
With a cast of many bizarre enemies
to fight, ridiculous finishing moves,
and fountains of blood, it is the
best in its genre
It's about the hero, Kenshiro, questing
to save his fiancee and in the
process using his legendary martial
arts skill to save the day
Fist of the North Star Clip
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Rose of Versailles (1979-80)
A historical drama and pop-culturephenomenon in Japan, Rose of
Versaillesis perhaps equally well
known for its stage musical adaptation,
performed by the Takarazukatroupes
The plot concerns a French noblewoman
raised as a boy who enters the court
of Marie Antoinette it is partially
based on historical events (although
made more glamorous)
While the show is supposedly aimed at an
audience of girls, it has universalappeal thanks to its strong plot and
character development
Rose of Versailles Clip
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Do You Remember Love (1984) This movie, an adaptation of the
classic series SDF Macross, stands
among the best-animated films of
the animation boom of the 1980s
Equal parts love story and sci-fi action
movie, it concerns a lone starshipprotecting the few surviving
members of the human race from
an alien force
The movie's adaptation of the plot
would become the official one,
with its designs and eventsinfluencing future franchise entries
Furthermore, the film's success
launched the career of singer and
voice actress Mari Iijima although
she since found herself typecast
Macross Clip
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Aim for the Top! Gunbuster (1988-89)
Mixing classic sci-fi novels, high schooldrama, inspirational sports movies and
1970s mecha, Gunbusteris a
fantastically animated OVA from
GAINAX
It's about a young girl's struggle to live
up to her father's legacy as she fights
alien invaders but at the same time
it's about the effects of relativistic
travel on people
Part of the show's appeal is its sound
pseudoscience basis for all thetechnology featured and the range
of sci-fi homages within it (including
references to The Forever War, 2001
and others)
Gunbuster Clip
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Legend of the Galactic Heroes(1988-1997) An epic 110-episode sci-fi series which
spans the rise and fall of empires
and great heroes, this series
spawned a hugely successful
franchise with spin-off OVAs,
manga, novels and video games
It concerns the wars between the
Alliance of Free Planets and the
Galactic Empire, and the rivalry
between two talented admirals
With a depth and serious plot not
often seen, Legend of the GalacticHeroesis a show that everyone
should take the time to watch
Legend of the Galactic Heroes
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Don't Go Away Yet! There's More!
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And The List Goes On... Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water is another GAINAX series, mixing pulp sci-fi with
steampunk adventure and silly humour Laputameets Gunbusterby way of Jules
Verne. Marred only by a divisive sequence of episodes written by a different staff,
the show has some classic moments and familiar faces to long-term GAINAX fans
Arcadia of My Youth is the best way to get started on Matsumoto Leiji's animation.The origin story for Captain Harlock, it's a dramatic and beautiful sci-fi movie.
War in the Pocket is the one entry in the Gundamfranchise everyone should watch.It's a mecha show without much action but heavy on character and with a very
powerful ending. Not a dry eye in the house.
The Slayers is a hilarious fantasy comedy based heavily on Dungeons and Dragons with some all star voices (you may recognise the voice actors of Rei Ayanami and
Mwu La Flaga in there) and great jokes.
Giant Robo is a retro-futuristic martial arts sci-fi adventure based on a very old live-action kids show (ala Power Rangers) an example of how something seemingly
absurd can be made great.
Macross Plus is an exceptional OVA a mecha show with plenty of drama, dog-fightsin beautiful futuristic planes and an exceptional soundtrack. It's best described as
Top Gunbut with a killer supercomputer.
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Screenshots: Arcadia of My Youth andNadia
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Great Disaster! Some Things Should Stay Hidden!
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M.D. Geist
While some people would call this theworst anime they've seen I'd instead
say it's OK but not a must-see
It's basically a rip-off ofThe Terminator
by way ofMad Max a psychopathic
super-soldier is awoken to stop a
supercomputer from causing
armageddon.
The focus is entirely on action the hero
fights tanks, robots, and large numbers
of enemies with a range of weapons,
stopping occasionally to pick up girls
What it does have going for it (despite an
awful plot) is a great soundtrack.
MD Geist Clip
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Fight! Iczer-1
When the major selling points of yourshow are girls kissing and people
explode into fountains of gore then
it is perhaps obvious what audience
you're aiming for.
Fight! Iczer-1 has a lot of those things,and not a lot else. There's a bad
plot about aliens and robots or
something, too.
That's mostly an excuse for people to
be taken over by body-snatching
squid aliens and menace the(female) protagonists
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Six-God Combination God Mars
God Marsshould have a lot going for it it is by the same author who created
Giant Robo, Tetsujin-28, Babel IIand
various other really great franchises
However, it isn't actually very good. The
main robot design is seriously ugly, for
one.
It also is 64 episodes of very boring
fights, with one attack used to start
and end battles in one shot.
It's made very clear from the start that
Godmars is nigh-invincible, and as a
result there's no tension in the battles
The end result is a slow-paced, boring
show with lots of lengthy recycled
scenes
Godmars Clip (by popular demand)
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Geo-Armor Kishin Corps
Not so much a bad show as a plainstupid one, this OVA concerns a
tasteless alternate history WW2
Imagine for a moment Eva Braun
defected to the Japanese along
with Einstein to form an alliance
with the US and fight aliens with a
giant robot
Imagine the Germans had a giant
robot with a giant swastika on it to
show it's a Nazi Super Robot
Essentially this makes Hellboyand
Indiana Joneslook like serious
presentations of the Third Reich
Geo-Armor Clip
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Cho-Gattai Majutsu-Robo Ginguiser
The title is a mouthful and a half, it'sincredibly poorly animated and all told
this is the worst thing I've ever seen.
And that's only from the first episode.
Nothing could convince me to watch
more of this show.
With eye-searingly bad colour
combinations, characters changing
shape as scenes progress, hideously
ugly enemies and mecha, Ginguiseris
something that perhaps was best
forgotten.
It's a perfect example of a show written
by people who were doing a job,
trying to make money. It's not original,
it's not inventive. It's just dull and ugly.
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Other Disappointments Relic Armour Legaciam is a well-animated and interesting OVA which sadly ends on a
cliffhanger and goes nowhere. After setting up its plot, it simply ends.
Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01 tries to be a slapstick comedy parodying mecha showsbut ultimately isn't funny. While it has some spectacular mechanical animation, it
doesn't have any substance to back it up
The Wings of Honneamise might have been the most expensive animated film evermade when it was released but sadly it's not very good. The main character is
truly vile and you never feel he is properly redeemed meaning the main hook of
the plot is not well-resolved
Techno Police 21C is hideously inconsistently animated, not funny at all andultimately an example of why the OVA boom was going to be short-lived there
was no quality control to speak of
Char's Counterattack was intended to finish off the Gundamfranchise's main plot, butsadly falls flat it's beautifully animated, has some great ideas, but the characters
don't seem consistent with how they've been portrayed in other entries and there's
entirely too much focus on new sidekicks.
Akira is influential without a doubt, but sadly not a patch on the manga it's rushedand doesn't cover anywhere near enough of the plot
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Hades Project Zeorymer has some fantastic ideas behind it, fantastic music andbeautiful mechanical designs. However, it's an example of how a show needs
tension the character drama isn't strong enough to make up for the slow-pacedand repetitive combat.
Stardust Memory was an attempt to make Gundammore serious and action-movielike. However, it's plagued with terrible plotholes, inconsistent characters and poor
pacing which mean ultimately it was a disappointment.
Macross II was a spin-off of the franchise so bad it is no longer considered part of it.While its core ideas were good a reversal of the situation seen in Do You
Remember Love, it feels too much like more of the same to really be great.
Detonator Orgun is a slow-paced OVA which was made out of rejected ideas forTekkaman Blade a lack of real tension and a tendency to rely on exposition
mean it never really gets your interest
Other Disappointments
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Screenshots: Macross II and Ginguiser
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Screenshots: Iczer-1 and Kishin Corps
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Buried Treasure?! I'm There to Claim It!
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Zambot 3 (1977-1978)
This show starts off like any other 1970smecha show it's about a plucky kid
and his friends piloting a combining
robot to fight an invading enemy
Then, things get a little bit odd. It carries
on looking like a childish adventure
show, but things start getting seriously
dark and violent
Mankind doesn't want to be saved by
kids, the enemies realise that there's
better ways to win than sending
monsters and the heroes findthemselves hated
The villain, Killer the Butcher, is
unbelievably cruel and unusually
successful it's this brutality and
bleak outlook that sets Zambot 3
apart from other shows
Zambot 3 Clip
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Space Warrior Baldios (1981)
Much like Zambot 3, Baldiosis a bleakand nihilistic take on the mecha
genre its final twist and climactic
battles aren't heroic affairs by any
means
A soldier from a dying race flees his
destroyed planet to find a new
home, pursued by the corrupt
military who want him dead
With the help of the few allies he can
find, he fights his ancient enemies,
and as the battle rages discovers aseries of shocking truths about
where he ended up
Baldiosis a show where the fights
tend to be short and decisive, with
character development the real
draw
Baldios Clip
Taiyou No Kiba Dougram
http://c/Users/R%20Webster/Videos/Baldios%20Combination.wmvhttp://c/Users/R%20Webster/Videos/Baldios%20Combination.wmv8/4/2019 New Oldschool Panel
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(1981-1983)
A gripping political story in the vein ofLegend of the Galactic Heroes,
Dougramis interesting in its use of
historical inspiration for a science
fiction show
About a defector from an occupying army
joining the resistance, it doesn't shyfrom showing the reality of
asymmetrical warfare despite being
at times touching and funny, it has
serious moments
With an arrestingly bleak opening whichleaves you watching the entire show
waiting for it to be explained, its
strong narrative arc sets it apart from
other more episodic series of the time
Dougram Clip
http://c/Users/R%20Webster/Videos/Dougram%20Opening.wmvhttp://c/Users/R%20Webster/Videos/Dougram%20Opening.wmv8/4/2019 New Oldschool Panel
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Honoo No Tenkousei (1991)
An affectionate parody of the martialarts genre, this GAINAX show takes
elements from classic fighting series
like Fist of the North Star, Ashita
No Joeand more
It then sets it in a parody of the
ultraviolent high schools Go Nagai
used frequently
The art style is an affectionate parody
of the Dynamic Pro style of heavy
lines and rough-looking characters
Despite ultimately being a wholly
slapstick vehicle, it has surprisingly
well-animated and tense fight
scenes it's a comedy that has
substance
8/4/2019 New Oldschool Panel
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And The List Goes On... Space Runaway Ideon is arguably the best of the Bleak Mecha genre the two
movies, A Contactand Be Invokedare beautifully animated, and while suffering
from some pacing issues come together to create a story epic in scale andthoroughly gripping.
Nana Toshi Monogatari is an interesting sci-fi piece about a flooded earth in whichsea power rules. It focuses on the battles between two unorthodox admirals, and
is instantly recognisable as from the same mould as Legend of the Galactic
Heroes Eiyuu Gaiden Mozaicka is a very visually impressive and intriguing fantasy story, with
unique character designs and an interesting mixture of future technology and
fantasy traditions.
Iria: Zeiram The Animation is a fun body-horror adventure with a really unique future-feudal-Japan setting and a creepy alien antagonist.