Oldest anime you've enjoyed
Forgive my old brain if this has been recently posted, but I am new, you see.
As a senior citizen, I of course cling to the old ways of cheesy OP songs with completely randomly translated lyrics and non-contextual visuals. I also cling to things without repetitive kewl storylines and endlessly recycling battles. This makes me feels obsolete (no accent on the "leet") here in young 'un land, so I thought I'd throw out a net for those who have seen the old ways and loved them well.
Oldest anime I liked was Voltron, though when I re-watched it ages ago it was horribly boring, so take my advice and don't do that. I loved Sailormoon, but everyone loves their first real anime crush, so let's move on. Mermaid Scream was a hoot, with some honestly brutal action. Ranma 1/2 was the best starter anime any future otaku could pray for, with the revered archetypes to anime in "awkward romance", "he vs. she", "martial arts mayhem", "team battle", and "homestead sitcom". Ghost in the Shell and Street Fighter II were the first anime to boldly go into the realm of English mainstream seriousness, and were two of the things you were mostly likely to be able to get your hands on at a regular video store (at the time). The internet wasn't very... well... existing at the time, so the difficulty of getting anime - or, in fact even having heard of it (Japanimation, *gigglesnort*) - was pretty slim, so stumbling across someone who knew someone who knew someone in a different timezone and continent and had a subtitler was pure divine happenstance, making your zeal for anything Japanese and animated obsessive and fiery.
I miss the days of City Hunter and Riding Bean, Project A-ko and Bubblegum Crisis. The latter 90's brought us such gems as Utena, arguably the most beautiful, metaphorical and weird anime ever coloured in, and Escaflowne, defining the "schoolgirl in another world" genre with more, uh, guy stuff than Fushigi Yuugi.
It makes me sad when I see people breezing through anime like they're free candy at a food convention. I worry the content is slicked up to be visually catchy instead of contextually interesting. It's hard for us old-timers to connect to newborn animites; I know the genre I love is in there somewhere, but maybe I'm afraid to look deeper for it on the chance it's turned into something I don't recognize.
Anyway, thoughts?
Re: Oldest anime you've enjoyed
Grumble Grumble Grumble
As the oldest active member of this Forum, I appreciate your point of view... With the current 'Bubble' in Anime production in Japan, quite a few series were produced that would never have been considered in the previous era of more limited resources. There are some good 'gems' that are out there, but finding out where they are is the real issue here...
Personally, I've been having good luck going with the major award winners of the two largest Anime Industry competitions in Japan. These are...
Also, some of the lost 'Gems' from the 'Golden Age' of Anime of the 1980s are starting to be made available to the US/Region 1 audience... The original 'Dirty Pair' TV series is about to be released... (I received my shipping notice this week) Dirty Pair - The Official Site
Bandai Entertainment has the original 'Mobile Suit Gundam' Movie Trilogy out, and their talking about finally releasing the original TV series in the original Japanese sound track with sub-titles...
And my personal 'Golden Age' favorite is the original 'Macross' series. It is most unfortunate that the 'Macross' trademark is tied up world wide outside of Japan in legal limbo, as all of the sequel series are fantastic works, with the most recent series 'Macross Flontier' being a major award winner...
Re: Oldest anime you've enjoyed
Voltron rocked my socks when I was a kid! I watched it every morning it came on. Never missed an episode. I'm re-watching it on Hulu currently. ^_^
Another great series from "back in the day" is Robotech. It aired a few years after Voltron did here in Minnesota and I was sucked in to it like a mosquito in a bug lamp. LOL. I didn't watch anything older than that until I grew older myself. I'm absolutely in love with Astroboy! It's so quirky and entertaining. I can really appreciate shows like Astroboy. Dominion: Tank Police is from around the mid 80s I think. I watch it every chance I get. It's hilarious. Same thing with Project A-Ko.
Re: Oldest anime you've enjoyed
Wonderful topic, welcome to the forums!
Voltron was amazing ,so was Gigantor and Astro Boy. However, my one true old anime love will always be Gatchaman ( Battle of the Planets). It was so much fun to watch as a kid, and even now when I hear its name I give a fangirl squeal. I'm not sure why, because looking back at the series now it's a bit cheesy. It could be that it's so nostalgic to me I ignore the corniness of it all.
I agree with you that anime has grown vastly popular to the point that some of the series seem more "visually catchy" rather than good context. This is why I prefer manga over anime, myself. Usually the manga I follow ends up being an anime, so I'll follow that series to compare and contrast.
Re: Oldest anime you've enjoyed
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Nocturne 
Wonderful topic, welcome to the forums!
Voltron was amazing ,so was
Gigantor and
Astro Boy. However, my one true old anime love will always be
Gatchaman ( Battle of the Planets). It was so much fun to watch as a kid, and even now when I hear its name I give a fangirl squeal. I'm not sure why, because looking back at the series now it's a bit cheesy. It could be that it's so nostalgic to me I ignore the corniness of it all.
I agree with you that anime has grown vastly popular to the point that some of the series seem more "visually catchy" rather than good context. This is why I prefer manga over anime, myself. Usually the manga I follow ends up being an anime, so I'll follow that series to compare and contrast.
Duuuuuude! I forgot about Gatchaman! It's kinda sad because I've been playing Tatsunoko vs. Capcom recently. You'd think I'd give Gatchaman props (Yay! Science Ninja Team! You ROCK!). ^_^ Another good series was Saint Seiya (AKA: Knights of the Zodiac). That was a pretty awesome series. I met a Japanese girl on WorldFriends that named her kid Seiya (after the series, of course).
It is pretty sad that being "visually catchy" is the high priority lately. Good context is what makes most series stand out in my opinion. Even with filler. But the filler needs to be good. None of those cheesy flashbacks that don't have a thing to do with what's goin' on in the series. LOL.
Re: Oldest anime you've enjoyed
I'm not sure which is older but i really like both Evangelion and Outlaw star. I'm too lazy to check the dates i just figured both were older by the animation style/coloration.
Re: Oldest anime you've enjoyed
Macross
Patlabor
Project A-Ko
Dirty Pair
Violence Jack
Fist of the North Star
Guyver
Some of the very oldest I can possibly recall were Ninja The Wonder Boy, Robbie The Rascal, Time Fighters and Unico The Last Unicorn.
All these bring back great memories growing up, I too feel old these day's but I keep my chin up and thank my long time on this planet for those great memories and hope for more like them.
Re: Oldest anime you've enjoyed
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rhyaniwhynn Macross
Patlabor
Project A-Ko
Dirty Pair
Violence Jack
Fist of the North Star
Guyver
Some of the very oldest I can possibly recall were Ninja The Wonder Boy, Robbie The Rascal, Time Fighters and Unico The Last Unicorn.
All these bring back great memories growing up, I too feel old these day's but I keep my chin up and thank my long time on this planet for those great memories and hope for more like them.
I suck at remembering to put other anime series I've enjoyed in my original post. LOL.
Fist of the North Star is one of my favorite anime! I can't begin to explain the awesome! When I first saw it, I was like, "OMG! I must own a copy of this movie!" Then when I go out to rent it again, I slipped up and got the live action movie which was crap! >_<
