The Old School Otaku Lounge

There are some members here that didn't get into anime until the very tail end of the 90s, so 2002 isn't that far from that. I'm sure a few members might have fudged the dates a bit when it came to their indoctrination into anime, too. And ACR/Area88 probably knows more about some older anime than even most members here (I have to say there is a lot of stuff in his youtube channel I'd never heard of or completely forgotten)

"Indoctrination." Ha! I never thought of it as such. You're right though, he does know a heck of a lot of stuff.

SteveH wrote:

greg wrote:I like that Kenshiro's outfit and such is reminiscent somewhat of Mel Gibson's Mad Max. When thinking of "post-apocalyptic, dystopian future," nothing says "badass" more than a partially unbuttoned leather jacket.

Speaking of which, I want to see the new Mad Max movie...

Ohhh, it's more than just Ken's outfit. The visual design style of the Mad Max movies completely permeates the show. It's as much the DNA of the show (and the manga of course) as Bruce Lee.

We used to joke, back in the day, that the way to survive in the post-apocalypse world is have a large supply of hair color, styling gel and mousse, plus shoulder/chest protectors from every sport that uses such padding.

Hey, somebody has to supply that stuff!

Oh yeah, the creator really REALLY loved Mad Max. I think I remember reading somewhere that was his main source of inspiration when he first started the series? I can't remember where I read it, though, hmm.

Getting back to "what are you watching?" I recently rewatched the 80s OAV "The Wanna-Bes" as part of a guest spot on a podcast about sports anime. It'd been so long since I'd seen it, I literally couldn't remember much other than I remembered thinking it was pretty cheesy when I first watched it and...hooooooooo boy, that one went beyond just cheesy and landed right into the "pretty darn bad" category, lol. It could almost be considered one of those "so bad it's good" types of things, but even then it was kinda lacking enough to really get it there. My main gripe was just the animation quality...you'd think with all the staff it shared with Bubblegum Crisis, it'd look a lot better but sadly it's one of the cheapest looking OAVs ever. XD;;

I'm almost finished Zillion, which I've been watching on and off for the past 2 months. Greg, did you ever watch this show, aside from the 5 episodes Macek dubbed and released in the U.S? It seems like the type of show you might enjoy watching casually. While the plots are fairly standard Sat AM stuff that wouldn't be out of place in a Sunbow show, the animation is actually rather solid, almost OVA quality, although I'm increasingly noticing that many TV anime from 1985-1989 had pretty strong production values (I guess this was the height of the 80s bubble economy). In fact, the animation staff were so pleased with their work that they went and formed Production IG just to keep the animation talent together. Of course you know that there was a Zillion Sega Master System game, but the anime actually sneaks in a lot of early Sega-era references as well. Opa Opa from Fantasy Zone is sort of a mascot character in the show, and JJ is seen playing a Sega Master System in one episode as well. My knowledge of early Sega isn't great so I might have missed a couple of other references.

It's a bit puzzling as to why Zillion was never picked up for US broadcast. It's a lot tamer than Robotech was, has better animated action than most of the shows in it (one of Zillion's best traits, as mentioned above) and episodes are faster paced too. Plus the toyetic element is more pronounced. It was only 31 episodes, but I'm sure Macek could have done a Robotech and stuck on another show to make the 60+ episode requirement for syndication. Apple's exposed cleavage might also be an issue, but I'm pretty sure Lady Jaye's cleavage was pretty prominent in many episodes of GI Joe and nobody complained about that.

As a side thought, I never understood why Macek felt the need to keep Mospeada and Southern Cross in the same universe as Macross. Honestly he could have kept all 3 shows in their own universes, stuck closer to their original storylines (at least for Southern Cross and Mospeada... Macross generally was left pretty intact) and just sold the 3 shows together under one name as "Robotech" and I doubt buyers would have complained. Would have saved a lot of trouble editing the moon in Southern Cross every time there was a shot of the sky.

Zillion's one of those series I only saw the Macek eps of and never finished...one of these days I should really do that.

I watched the first part of Scramble Wars (the SD special featuring all the Artmic characters at the time). It hugely influenced the way I draw SD/Chibi characters, and since I've been doing a lot of that lately, I figured I would show X-Kid Z. We decided to hold off on the Gall Force special, because he hasn't seen Eternal Story yet. I actually never saw all of Gaiarth either, so I wanted to try and watch that too. What I didn't notice before, because I didn't see it at the time, was the cameo of Riding Bean. I kept thinking to myself the whole race "How in the heck did Riding Bean not get first place?!"

I tried watching the first episode of the Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan. I was intrigued because Ikuko Itoh (one of my fave Sailor Moon animators) did the character designs, but they aren't really anything special. And the anime itself was boring. Minori Chihara's voice...is so forgettable, eventhough she's playing the same character. My brother commented (being a Mikuru fan, of the 3 girls) that he really loved Yuki in the movie, but in this new series she's so unappealing. I have to agree. Everything good about the original series is gone, and what you're left with is such a watered down, soulless version.

ryoran wrote: I tried watching the first episode of the Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan. I was intrigued because Ikuko Itoh (one of my fave Sailor Moon animators) did the character designs, but they aren't really anything special. And the anime itself was boring. Minori Chihara's voice...is so forgettable, eventhough she's playing the same character. My brother commented (being a Mikuru fan, of the 3 girls) that he really loved Yuki in the movie, but in this new series she's so unappealing. I have to agree. Everything good about the original series is gone, and what you're left with is such a watered down, soulless version.

Disappointing to hear about the new Haruhi series, but I've always said that the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie was the perfect way to end the anime side of the franchise.

llj wrote:

ryoran wrote: I tried watching the first episode of the Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan. I was intrigued because Ikuko Itoh (one of my fave Sailor Moon animators) did the character designs, but they aren't really anything special. And the anime itself was boring. Minori Chihara's voice...is so forgettable, eventhough she's playing the same character. My brother commented (being a Mikuru fan, of the 3 girls) that he really loved Yuki in the movie, but in this new series she's so unappealing. I have to agree. Everything good about the original series is gone, and what you're left with is such a watered down, soulless version.

Disappointing to hear about the new Haruhi series, but I've always said that the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie was the perfect way to end the anime side of the franchise.

Yeah, I know it's based on the spinoff manga, and I did read some of that and didn't like it, but tried out the anime version, and yeah, still didn't like it. The movie is so good, I was satisfied with that being the last of any anime versions. I plan on reading the novels when I can acquire them.

I started Kimagure Orange Road, I watched the pilot and first episode. I only saw bits and pieces when I was younger, since KOR was harder to rent or purchase for me then. Honestly, the only KOR I really remember watching was the ADV Films movie, with Takayuki Goto's character designs, and the more realistic style. KOR was always something I was deeply interested in because of it's Ranma-esque looking character designs, so I'm really looking forward to the series!

Just picked up some old VHS tapes that were still factory-sealed for $1 each, and one of them was an anime called Variable Geo, so I'll try giving that a watch this evening.

llj wrote:Disappointing to hear about the new Haruhi series, but I've always said that the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie was the perfect way to end the anime side of the franchise.

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya really was a great end to the anime. I had high hopes for the latest Haruhi series, but also had my doubts that any continuation of the series could ever top Disappearance.

Char Aznable wrote:Just picked up some old VHS tapes that were still factory-sealed for $1 each, and one of them was an anime called Variable Geo, so I'll try giving that a watch this evening.

Variable Geo is based on a fighting game series with all-female characters, so don't expect too much from it! I enjoyed it for what it was though, but the fighting games are hella fun! Definitely worth $1, I used to own it on VHS myself. I saw it on DVD at Half Price Books yesterday but they wanted a bit too much for it.