Thirty Years Ago: The Best Anime of 1988

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DKop
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Re: Thirty Years Ago: The Best Anime of 1988

Post by DKop »

Fvlminatvs wrote: Tue May 01, 2018 7:31 pm
I have to rewatch Crash. I thought it was, overall, better than Crisis if only because the early Crisis episodes were very rough. I do think the last episodes of Crisis are better than Crash, though. I think I should go back and rewatch the shows.

What is funny is that I really thought AD Police had some great ideas but was far too bleak and dark in its execution. Also, I thought that the episodes needed to be longer and they felt like they rushed to a conclusion too quickly for me. It was also a pretty rough tonal shift going from it to Bubblegum Crisis, which felt like mahou shoujo meets tokusatsu in the Blade Runner setting.

Then again, I blasted through AD Police and perhaps should give it a second go the way I did Iria.
I never thought i'd see a Crash apologist online, you're a rare one indeed. I'll play devils advocate that Crash baseline of its story is workable, but there's so much other stuff in it I can't help but to laugh at and have fun with it. The last time I saw Crash was when I was on an old podcast episodes of One Pixel Jump, where me and the hosts got into great detail on that OVA and tore it apart, which was fun for us to do. I don't fully hate Crash at all, but I have to call out the issues in it that are ever so present.

https://archive.org/details/NoPolice
https://archive.org/details/ScissorsAreAlsoSharp
https://archive.org/details/ImYourFriendNuclearReactor

I love AD Police for its "dark and gritty tone," which some people either really like and others will mock it. I didn't have an issue with how that original OVA wanted to tell its story, which I think it did a good enough job making a series in the vain of a Law and Order/NYPD Blue type short series. At least for me it was interesting to see more indepth on a society trying to co-exist with rampaging robots running amok. I think the people that take issue with the OVA seem to pinpoint really minor stuff they don't personally like about it or doesn't akin to their tastes, but to each their own.
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Fvlminatvs
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Re: Thirty Years Ago: The Best Anime of 1988

Post by Fvlminatvs »

DKop wrote: Wed May 02, 2018 2:25 pmI never thought i'd see a Crash apologist online, you're a rare one indeed.
I'm not certain that I'm glad to be the bearer of such a title as "Crash apologist." :lol:
I'll play devils advocate that Crash baseline of its story is workable, but there's so much other stuff in it I can't help but to laugh at and have fun with it. The last time I saw Crash was when I was on an old podcast episodes of One Pixel Jump, where me and the hosts got into great detail on that OVA and tore it apart, which was fun for us to do. I don't fully hate Crash at all, but I have to call out the issues in it that are ever so present.
Oh, yeah, it has some issues. I'm not denying that. Like I said, I'll probably give it a rewatch. I've been really going out of my way to collect DVDs and Blu-Rays of older anime because I feel that digital distribution isn't as reliable as possession of the physical media. I'm kind of a preservationist of old things. It comes with the territory of being a historian, I guess. So I'll be putting Crisis and Crash on my list of DVDs/Blu-Rays to get next so I can rewatch them (assuming they're available).
I love AD Police for its "dark and gritty tone," which some people either really like and others will mock it. I didn't have an issue with how that original OVA wanted to tell its story, which I think it did a good enough job making a series in the vain of a Law and Order/NYPD Blue type short series. At least for me it was interesting to see more indepth on a society trying to co-exist with rampaging robots running amok. I think the people that take issue with the OVA seem to pinpoint really minor stuff they don't personally like about it or doesn't akin to their tastes, but to each their own.
For me it wasn't the gritty tone by itself but the big shift in atmosphere and style between AD Police and Crisis/Crash. That and I felt like Leon felt like a very different character in AD Police. That was a bit jarring as well. Granted, his personality fit the tone of each show but going from one show to the other felt like he was a completely different person in each and that sort of broke my sense of continuity.

I think my big problem with AD Police was that each episode felt rushed, like it had to hit too many story beats and didn't have enough time to breathe. I think if the episodes were an hour apiece they would have had enough time to develop more effectively. Some of the episodes had absolutely great ideas and I think the situations and characters needed more time to really develop.

I can't speak for the AD Police TV show, though. I haven't seen it but I intend to do so.
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Re: Thirty Years Ago: The Best Anime of 1988

Post by runesaint »

Fvlminatvs wrote: Tue May 01, 2018 7:31 pm I thought it would be interesting to point out that Yoroiden Samurai Troopers came out in 1988, which would start airing on weekday mornings before I had to catch the bus for high school in the mid-90s as Ronin Warriors. It was my jam, dude. I felt like it was Sailor Moon for guys. My brother and I would wake up earlier than we had to before school in order to catch it. Then... one tragic day... we got up, dressed, and got our breakfasts and turned the TV on to see... The Littlest Pet Shop. They'd cancelled its run for that crap. We were pretty mad.

Hehehe. One of my memories that would fit into about that time is DragonQuest/Dragon Warrior. It was shown real early on certain channels. What I did not find out until later was that they only dubbed the first 13 episodes and then circled back. It is a pity because from what I saw it was nicely done .. but apparently it was a 'failed experiment' as they never continued it or officially released the translations over here.
Actually (double checks; some things change and series that I never thought would come over here do)... nope, no american release. Ah! Directed by Rin Taro? Neat.
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