The Old School Otaku Lounge

Aw yeah, that's mah jam!

I'm a huge fan of the old Transformers and GI Joe cartoons. I picked both series up on DVD and watch them pretty regularly. The plots for most episodes are so corny that my adult brain starts to shudder, so I like to have them on in the background when I'm doing something else. That way, I can absorb the good stuff and ignore the rest. Though its surprising how much of GI Joe especially still holds up pretty well. There's a lot of clever writing in there.
And don't get me started on either the live action Transformers or GI Joe movies. They're not only irritating because of how they completely missed the point of what was good about the source material, but more importantly, they're both shining examples of what sucks about most movies. All style and no substance.
As for my guilty pleasure: An anime isn't coming to mind, so I'm going to cheat and say The Video Girl Ai manga. It's so sappy and cheesy, but I love it. I couldn't tell you how many times I've re-read that series.

Hehe, I know G1 is stupid, but I don't feel guilty at all! Well... maybe a little for my parents having to listen to it when I was a kid.

My guilty pleasure? Hmmm...that'd be Magical Princess Minky Momo (the '80s version, thank you). I still don't know quite why. It was just so...pretty, and it was fun to see what personality Momo would assume in a given episode. There was one where she actually had a giant robot, and the launch was in the style of Goshogun (no surprise, since both were produced by Ashi Pro). I never got to see her as Agent Zero Zero Momo, though; I was out of town that week.

I was also fascinated at how the series didn't end until seven episodes after she died. That was when I learned that in anime, death isn't necessarily final.

"Pipiruma pipiruma puririnpa..." I miss that show.

The Minky Momo death scene is still a big crowd pleaser. Every once in awhile I haul it out during one of my "Anime Hell" shows.

Oh, uh, spoiler warning, I guess.

Momo is still my favorite of the magical girl shows; some of the later Studio Pierrot shows get a little, I dunno, male-gazey. A little subtextural.

Yeah, I watched Creamy Mami and Magical Emi afterwards, and they were good, but they just never quite reached Momo's level. She remains my favorite magical girl, too.
I would love to see it subbed someday.

I always get Creamy Mami and Minky Momo mixed up. I've seen neither one of them. Minky Momo does? Yikes!

If all else fails: Momo's the redhead.

To-Love-Ru is a guilty pleasure of mine. I've been a fan of the Kentaro Yabuki's art since high school. So it's really the only thing keeping me interested in it. It's really fanservicey fluff with no substance...but I read it anyways.

A lot of 80s cartoons are guilty pleasures for me. They seemed awesome when I was a kid, now they are only awesome during parties of drunk friends. But I still keep buying the boxsets. One specific one I've been enjoying recently is Jem. I was never really into most girly shows, but I can't stop. Its such an insane children's soap opera, and every episode has MTV style music videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSPb56-_I98

Tell me that isn't the most girly 80s opening ever?