The Old School Otaku Lounge

Windaria... crap, I just checked Wikipedia and it looks like this was never given a proper, unedited release in North America. I hope the likes of Discotek or Nozomi can release this film someday.

kndy wrote: This is where things can get a bit dangerous for old school anime fans who keep saying "they don't make anime like they used to" to a new generation of anime viewers. Have them watch "Voltron" or "Robotech" and not sure how those the younger children will feel towards the stuff that we watched.

I have rewatched "Bubblegum Crisis" and even the "Kimagure Orange Road" LD's and also the "Tenchi Muyou" OVA's and still enjoyed them.

Yeah, that's why I try not to make too broad a generalization...some people straight-up say "OLD ANIME WAS BETTER!", but honestly every era had their duds. Pre-00s anime is no exception! I like to explain that, out of the whole catalog of anime I've been exposed to, I have the fondest memories of the older stuff. Aesthetically & musically, it's just an era that has a lot to offer, y'know?

I rewatched "Bubblegum Crisis" a while back and I'd almost forgotten just how much I LOVED the music and Sonoda's designs. I miss the old-school cyberpunk look. You really don't see a lot like that anymore, even in Ghost in the Shell, it looks a lot more streamlined and modern. (Which isn't BAD, but y'know what I mean.)

kndy wrote:I really need to revisit "Dominion Tank Police", the old "Appleseed", "Venus Wars", "Windaria" and "Project A-Ko"..lol...

usamimi wrote:I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I felt SO STARVED for anime in the early 90s...I mean, I was up for watching anything I could get my hands on back then. But also, let's take Elf Princess Rane (or anything similar, really): it's a prime example of what anime was to a lot of people in a nutshell, right? Weird, silly, bright color schemes, goofy characters, fanservice, crazy plot (even though it didn't really get a conclusion of any kind), catchy music, etc etc. I guess me & others latched on to stuff like this because it was so "different" at the time, but now obviously there are probably hundreds of titles that did it better.

This is where things can get a bit dangerous for old school anime fans who keep saying "they don't make anime like they used to" to a new generation of anime viewers. Have them watch "Voltron" or "Robotech" and not sure how those the younger children will feel towards the stuff that we watched.

I have rewatched "Bubblegum Crisis" and even the "Kimagure Orange Road" LD's and also the "Tenchi Muyou" OVA's and still enjoyed them.

I have seen the same sentiment voiced by people watching the new TMNT CGI series about how us oldsters could watch Scooby Doo back in 1969 and think it was great! They sure didn't understand the time. Getting ready for the second seasons to Legend of Korra on Nickelodeon and Dragons: Defenders of Berk later this year. Berk is interesting as it directly follows the events of the first movie and will tie directly into the 2nd movie to be released in 2014. That usually doesn't happen in TV vs. movie franchises...

_D_ wrote:

kndy wrote:I really need to revisit "Dominion Tank Police", the old "Appleseed", "Venus Wars", "Windaria" and "Project A-Ko"..lol...

usamimi wrote:I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I felt SO STARVED for anime in the early 90s...I mean, I was up for watching anything I could get my hands on back then. But also, let's take Elf Princess Rane (or anything similar, really): it's a prime example of what anime was to a lot of people in a nutshell, right? Weird, silly, bright color schemes, goofy characters, fanservice, crazy plot (even though it didn't really get a conclusion of any kind), catchy music, etc etc. I guess me & others latched on to stuff like this because it was so "different" at the time, but now obviously there are probably hundreds of titles that did it better.

This is where things can get a bit dangerous for old school anime fans who keep saying "they don't make anime like they used to" to a new generation of anime viewers. Have them watch "Voltron" or "Robotech" and not sure how those the younger children will feel towards the stuff that we watched.

I have rewatched "Bubblegum Crisis" and even the "Kimagure Orange Road" LD's and also the "Tenchi Muyou" OVA's and still enjoyed them.

I have seen the same sentiment voiced by people watching the new TMNT CGI series about how us oldsters could watch Scooby Doo back in 1969 and think it was great! They sure didn't understand the time. Getting ready for the second seasons to Legend of Korra on Nickelodeon and Dragons: Defenders of Berk later this year. Berk is interesting as it directly follows the events of the first movie and will tie directly into the 2nd movie to be released in 2014. That usually doesn't happen in TV vs. movie franchises...

I actually did watch the TMNT animated series again....and I asked myself..."Why did I like this?". But I will say I liked the TMNT released in the early 2000's because it was much darker and violent. As for the new CG version, it's not bad. But so far the worse was the live-action version in the '90s.

The new one is actually pretty good. I was a little dubious at first, but for a kid's show they didn't dumb down the writing a whole lot (I HATE it when writers assume kids are stupid, or that older people don't also watch these shows) and the vocal cast is fantastic. It's not perfect, though...I still sometimes think the fact that they changed April into a teenager is a little weird, and that new theme song is pretty lame, but I can understand why these changes were made, yadda yadda. It's pretty good for a Saturday morning cartoon.

OH LORD, that live action series was the worst...I can't believe they're showing it on TV again. D: I'm also not fond of the fact that Micheal Bay wants to make a new movie where they're aliens and not mutants. UGH.

I have a theory that if we all just ignore Michael Bay, he will go away. Unfortunately, there are too many normaltards who watch his stupid crap and somehow aren't insulted by his puerile humor and racist charicatures.

So there was a live-action TMNT TV show? I only rememer the live-action movies, like Vanilla Ice and all that crap. I never saw them, but I have friends who say they were good. I was never into TMNT. I was in junior high at the time, about the time I stopped playing with toys, and I had a couple of younger friends who had the toys. They seemed cool, but they had too many weapons that I wouldn't know what to do with them.

Before moving to Japan last year, I would sometimes watch some Transformers G1 episodes and G.I. Joe that were shown on Hub at night. Oh man, those were best left to my nostalgic memories. As an adult, I have a deeper appreciation for Peanuts episodes than when I was a child. I just can't say that about most other cartoons I grew up with.

Green Legend Ran.

Loved watching it on Sci-Fi way back when. Rented it on Netflix a few years ago, watched it and thought "....I thought this was good?"

Weirdly enough, the original Jonny Quest still holds up after all these years. I never liked the later series after they decided to age him up or make it PC. As a kid back in the early 60's, that series was tops! I'm just glad that the old HB stuff is coming out on disc, though some of it is MOD and hard to get outside of the USA. I can't believe they want to make a live action Hong Kong Phooey! Did they not learn with movies like Underdog and Boris and Natasha? Watching those old Jay Ward cartoons is a hoot! Still funny and as an adult, you "get" a lot of the in jokes that you missed as a kid...

Dirty Pair TV definitely holds up better than Project Eden or Affair Of Nolandia, but even the Dirty Pair TV was at its heart a lightweight action/comedy. I don't know if it really was up to carrying the weight of decades of North American Dirty Pair fandom.

The Crusher Joe film has at least one climax too many; it's a great looking film but it just keeps ending, and then ending again, and then ending again... it's strangely paced.

I didn't care for Venus Wars when I first saw it, but it improved a lot on the second viewing. Don't know why, exactly.

I got to see a big chunk of Dancougar, and that's a great looking show, but the script totally does not live up to the visuals. It's one of the series that was a lot better when you were making up dialog in your head.

The My Youth In Arcadia movie... I know I'll probably lose my Harlock Fan Club card for this, but it's not a very good movie. The animation is hit-and-miss, the direction is aggressively pedestrian, and the story doesn't make a lick of sense.

Dave, I can't call you wrong about My Youth in Arcadia. I firmly believe the problem lies in that it wasn't directed by Rin Taro. In many ways it seemed...I dunno, rushed into production, maybe trying to ride the popularity of Harlock in the Galaxy Express movies. I have no proof but strongly suspect Bandai may have pushed hard, because they wanted to get their Arcadia kits to market (and take Takara down another notch).

Not a damn thing wrong with the Komatsubara chara designs however.

The story makes more sense if you filter it as yet another "WW II is the Future" allegory. Earth is Japan, Illumidas is America, I think Tokarga is meant to be either the Philippines or South Korea.

Yeah, I know, doesn't help much, but I think it gets one more into the 'headspace' of the writers.