The Old School Otaku Lounge

I've been going back and watching a lot of the anime I first saw (in some cases, heavily-edited) on Sci-Fi Channel's "Anime Saturdays" - I think that's what is was called, the anime-block they would have Saturday afternoons, and sometimes was hosted by Apollo Smile - whatever happened to her?

So that's Vampire Hunter D, Green Legend Ran, Roujin Z, Record of Lodoss War, Dominion Tank Police, 8-Man After, and a bunch others I can't recall at the moment and haven't gotten to yet.

Being a big Alien fan, also been watching a few of the Alien-rip-offs to be found in 80s anime, like Roots Search and L.I.L.Y. Cat; I didn't think L.I.L.Y. Cat was that bad, as far as rip-offs go.

I remember catching Lodoss on the International Channel, subtitled. In college in the mid-90s, I had two friends who were fantasy buffs and they really loved Lodoss. I honestly didn't care much for fantasy at the time, and was zeroed in on SF primarily. I've since broadened my tastes, and after catching a few episodes of Lodoss on the International Channel, I decided that it was worth owning.

I took my DVD set with my to my in-laws' place over the weekend, but I didn't watch any of it. I've re-watched it up to the part when Beld is finally defeated, but haven't seen the second story arc in which Deedlit is captured by whats-his-name. I usually have been watching stuff like Lodoss and BGC while staying at the family's home in the mountains. There's a 3-day weekend coming up a month from now, so maybe I'll finish it then.

Guyver I wrote: Being a big Alien fan, also been watching a few of the Alien-rip-offs to be found in 80s anime, like Roots Search and L.I.L.Y. Cat; I didn't think L.I.L.Y. Cat was that bad, as far as rip-offs go.

Have you checked out Gall Force?

http://www.webm.cc/v4

ServantOfPriss wrote:Have you checked out Gall Force?

Everyone should see Gall Force, if ONLY so you can get all the gags in "Super Deformed Double Feature".
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... php?id=958

greg wrote:I remember catching Lodoss on the International Channel, subtitled. In college in the mid-90s, I had two friends who were fantasy buffs and they really loved Lodoss. I honestly didn't care much for fantasy at the time, and was zeroed in on SF primarily. I've since broadened my tastes, and after catching a few episodes of Lodoss on the International Channel, I decided that it was worth owning.

I took my DVD set with my to my in-laws' place over the weekend, but I didn't watch any of it. I've re-watched it up to the part when Beld is finally defeated, but haven't seen the second story arc in which Deedlit is captured by whats-his-name. I usually have been watching stuff like Lodoss and BGC while staying at the family's home in the mountains. There's a 3-day weekend coming up a month from now, so maybe I'll finish it then.

Lodoss came to the US smack dab in the middle of an RPG pen and paper craze among my friends in high school, so of course it was a must see anime title for a bunch of them. I was pretty into fantasy too, since I was still in that phase where I was reading Robert Jordan, RA Salvatore, and other D&D inspired fantasy novels. And of course, all of us were big into RPGs on the SNES and PC as well. To be honest, The Lodoss OVAs are probably a bit simplistic in storyline, but it really nailed the D&D fantasy atmosphere just right.

During that era of anime fandom, though, Lodoss was pretty much the only fantasy anime really worth watching, with our limited anime access. I remember at the time I would be pretty vocal about anime generally being better at doing SF than fantasy. These days they're neither good at traditional SF or traditional fantasy...they seem more into "science fantasy" these days. Hard SF shows...or even anything remotely "traditional" SF seems pretty rare now.

Heero wrote:

ServantOfPriss wrote:Have you checked out Gall Force?

Everyone should see Gall Force, if ONLY so you can get all the gags in "Super Deformed Double Feature".
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... php?id=958

So much this. The Super Deformed Double Feature is awesome.

AnimEigo should release the DVD of it.

ServantOfPriss wrote:So much this. The Super Deformed Double Feature is awesome.

AnimEigo should release the DVD of it.

Yes, they never did! However, I believe they did release a laserdisc of it, which I wouldn't mind owning. I rented this from my comic book store way back when.

Gall Force certainly did remind me of Alien in terms of a creature stalking the heroes in their space ship. That was so way, way cool. I'm glad to own the original trilogy on LD, getting it in a big-ass LD blowout eBay action with a lot of other great shows.

llj wrote:These days they're neither good at traditional SF or traditional fantasy...they seem more into "science fantasy" these days. Hard SF shows...or even anything remotely "traditional" SF seems pretty rare now.

Well, back then, there was the Heroic Legend of Arslan. I remember watching it with my friend back then and being indifferent to it, but I think that I would get more out of it today than I did back then. There was also the Fire Emblem OVA that ADV released only the first volume of. I got this from Daniel, but I have yet to hook up my VCR to watch it.

ServantOfPriss wrote:

Guyver I wrote: Being a big Alien fan, also been watching a few of the Alien-rip-offs to be found in 80s anime, like Roots Search and L.I.L.Y. Cat; I didn't think L.I.L.Y. Cat was that bad, as far as rip-offs go.

Have you checked out Gall Force?

http://www.webm.cc/v4

I did! A while back at least, although I don't believe I ever saw the remake, or retelling, or whatever the second version was that came out a few years later.

greg wrote:

ServantOfPriss wrote:So much this. The Super Deformed Double Feature is awesome.

AnimEigo should release the DVD of it.

Yes, they never did! However, I believe they did release a laserdisc of it, which I wouldn't mind owning. I rented this from my comic book store way back when.

There is a DVDRip floating around, I think. Meaning there WAS a DVD release, at least in Japan, contrary to what wiki says.

greg wrote:Gall Force certainly did remind me of Alien in terms of a creature stalking the heroes in their space ship. That was so way, way cool. I'm glad to own the original trilogy on LD, getting it in a big-ass LD blowout eBay action with a lot of other great shows.

Gall Force needs an HD remaster and Blu Ray release with everything in it, even The Revolution. Just imagine the improved visuals of Destruction and Stardust War, and Rhea.

Guyver I wrote:

ServantOfPriss wrote:

Guyver I wrote: Being a big Alien fan, also been watching a few of the Alien-rip-offs to be found in 80s anime, like Roots Search and L.I.L.Y. Cat; I didn't think L.I.L.Y. Cat was that bad, as far as rip-offs go.

Have you checked out Gall Force?

http://www.webm.cc/v4

I did! A while back at least, although I don't believe I ever saw the remake, or retelling, or whatever the second version was that came out a few years later.

Well, there were three movie sequels, and two OVA series follow-ups as well, and then a remake/reboot/continuation/something in the mid-90s.

ServantOfPriss wrote:
Well, there were three movie sequels, and two OVA series follow-ups as well, and then a remake/reboot/continuation/something in the mid-90s.

Yeah, it was the mid-90s version that I never got around to seeing, but now that I've been reminded of that, I'll have to check that out. Over the weekend I went to visit my parents, and grabbed a bunch of DVDs from my old room to bring back; tonight, Otaku No Video.