Oldschool OVAs You Wish Were Completed

Discuss anime, especially but not limited to 1950's~1990's series, and related sub-topics
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Elytron Frass
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Oldschool OVAs You Wish Were Completed

Post by Elytron Frass »

Let's face it, there's too many OVAs from the 80s and 90s which covered maybe a volume of whichever manga they were adapted from and were then prematurely cancelled for budgetary reasons (or otherwise). Thusly, there's so many OVAs with cliff hanger endings out there because of this. Do any of you still hypothetically pine to see some of your favorites completed?

Which ones? Why?
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Re: Oldschool OVAs You Wish Were Completed

Post by DKop »

The original Sol Bianca OVA. That is my prized OVA to me that I wish the second OVA lead to a final one that wrapped up the story. But due to low sales we never got a final OVA. I think The Legacy was the retelling with the ending that they wanted, but I wasn't impressed with Legacy all around. I should watch it again to see if my opinion would change.

Bubblegum Crisis is another one that seemed to go in a direction with an overarching story that with proper funding could've been fully complete. Crash didn't do the ending to the series justice, and Tokyo 2040 is just a retelling of the concepts of BGC but did their own thing. It does have an ending i'll give it that.

I kinda wish we had more Five Star Stories OVA's, the film was alright but the designs and animation are so fantastic to watch. Hopefully Discotek can pick that up...
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Re: Oldschool OVAs You Wish Were Completed

Post by runesaint »

So many... lets see, the first one I think of is Giant Robo.. since at one point that was going to be 'Chapter 6' of the series, with chapter 7 being 'the tower of babel'.
Next one is a little bit outside our normal range, 'Trinity Blood' just because it is -so- unfinished. First, the author was simultaneously writing two light novel series, then they died leaving both series incomplete, but with a final book with notes on all the things that were going to happen. Second, the novels were translated and released over here... but only the first few, stopping part way. Third, the anime didn't finish the stories either, ending on a cliff hanger despite doing well in Japan and the US.
.. next one would be Bubblegum Crisis, where the Artmic thingy resulted in it never concluding but having multiple sort of partial endings that didn't satisfy people?

As to Five Star Stories, isn't the series still coming out at a glacial pace, such that the series might actually take ...(checks) five billion, six hundred and seventy million years to finish?
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llj
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Re: Oldschool OVAs You Wish Were Completed

Post by llj »

Well, there was a later Giant Robo TV series, wasn't there?

I always thought the "preview" at the last episode of GR was more of a nod to its serial nature. Kinda like Star Wars starting at episode 4 originally--it was meant to evoke the feeling of old serials how you sort of jump in and out of a series and there's always the tease of more stories around the corner...

I'm actually trying to think of uncompleted OVAs and other than BGC I can't think of any prominent ones. I know there have been many completed but RUSHED OVAs though, like Dallos.
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Re: Oldschool OVAs You Wish Were Completed

Post by runesaint »

llj wrote: Wed Mar 17, 2021 8:44 am Well, there was a later Giant Robo TV series, wasn't there?

I always thought the "preview" at the last episode of GR was more of a nod to its serial nature. Kinda like Star Wars starting at episode 4 originally--it was meant to evoke the feeling of old serials how you sort of jump in and out of a series and there's always the tease of more stories around the corner...

I'm actually trying to think of uncompleted OVAs and other than BGC I can't think of any prominent ones. I know there have been many completed but RUSHED OVAs though, like Dallos.
To copy and paste from Wikipedia-land
Imagawa intended The Day the Earth Stood Still to be the second to final chapter in the conflict between the Experts of Justice and Big Fire.[11] The OVA would be preceded by The Birth of Zangetsu the Midday,[12] The Plan to Assassinate Daisaku - the Canary Penitentiary, The Boy of Three Days, The Greatest Battle in History - General Kanshin vs. Shokatsu Koumei and The Boy Detective, Kindaichi Shōtarō, Appears![13] The final chapter is titled The Siege of Babel. No further stories have been animated.[6]

Not an OVA... but it would have been nice to have X manga conclude as well (or X/1999 as it is called in the states)
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Re: Oldschool OVAs You Wish Were Completed

Post by mbanu »

I remember thinking that Battle Angel Alita was cool and wishing there was more of it. I guess we sort of got that, with James Cameron bargaining his way into making the Alita live-action, but more anime would also have been nice. :)

I wish they'd kept making Be-bop High School OVAs, but they did make a whole bunch, so I guess with those my wish is really for Discotek or someone else to give them a look. I really enjoyed the old Nintendo game "River City Ransom", and these OVAs were how I imagined an anime based on the game would have been.

I have a buddy who is convinced that What's Michael? is the peak of cat-related anime artistry, possibly due to growing up reading the manga, but it did get a TV show after the OAV. If a retro-revival What's Michael? was produced they'd be all over it, though. :lol:
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Re: Oldschool OVAs You Wish Were Completed

Post by DKop »

In terms of unfinished OVA releases in the states, Bomber Bikers of Shonan and Bite Me Chameleon come to mind. Bomber Bikers didn't sell well and wasn't worth releasing on DVD, and I can imagine the same for Bite Me. Neither have an English dub to them.
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Re: Oldschool OVAs You Wish Were Completed

Post by Drew_Sutton »

One that I started thinking of when I first saw the thread title was One Pound Gospel. Takahashi wrote a couple volumes worth in the mid-80s and a single episode OAV was made based on it. However, she came back to it in the early 2000s, wrote two more volumes' worth to conclude the story. Having a continuation (with an updated or modern animated version of the original as a first episode) would be fun for me.

Another OAV that only got a couple of episodes that is based on a longer manga I've been thinking of lately is Natsuki Crisis. I rented this on fansub a few times but never got my own copies of it. I've been wanting to revisit it again to see if it holds up and if there's anything good in the manga to warrant a continuation, even if it was just a single story arc.
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Elytron Frass
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Re: Oldschool OVAs You Wish Were Completed

Post by Elytron Frass »

Cameron's Battle Angel Alita feels more infuriating because it ends in absolute sequel bait but the OVA on the other hand does make for a satisfyingly tragic tale of unrequited love in a world of high tech and low life. Don't get me wrong I'd revel in the slightest prospects of more of Gunnm's manga to be animated - especially with the original OVAs team aboard but at least you can watch it and get some sense of closure, albeit bleak.

this is probably not only a controversial opinion but an extremely marginal one: my #1 OVA on this hypothetical wishlist has to Apocalypse Zero. The manga is just so imaginatively debauched and fun that I'd have loved to see its entirety animated in all its gory detail.

2nd to that I'd want to see Teito Monogatari (Doomed Megalopolis) completed. The tone is a bit wonky at times, but it also serves excellent nightmare fuel.

at least the characters and overall universe of Trava: Fist Planet was reincorporated into Redline, but I'd have like to see that offbeat style continue for as man installments as it would've taken to tell a complete yarn.

I second Sol Bianca & Bubblegum Crisis (although I accept what we got from BC and love the spinoff OVAs)
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Ninja Resurrection was...a weird one that I think about from time to time
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Re: Oldschool OVAs You Wish Were Completed

Post by DKop »

Elytron Frass wrote: Thu Mar 18, 2021 7:32 pm Cameron's Battle Angel Alita feels more infuriating because it ends in absolute sequel bait but the OVA on the other hand does make for a satisfyingly tragic tale of unrequited love in a world of high tech and low life. Don't get me wrong I'd revel in the slightest prospects of more of Gunnm's manga to be animated - especially with the original OVAs team aboard but at least you can watch it and get some sense of closure, albeit bleak.

this is probably not only a controversial opinion but an extremely marginal one: my #1 OVA on this hypothetical wishlist has to Apocalypse Zero. The manga is just so imaginatively debauched and fun that I'd have loved to see its entirety animated in all its gory detail.

2nd to that I'd want to see Teito Monogatari (Doomed Megalopolis) completed. The tone is a bit wonky at times, but it also serves excellent nightmare fuel.

at least the characters and overall universe of Trava: Fist Planet was reincorporated into Redline, but I'd have like to see that offbeat style continue for as man installments as it would've taken to tell a complete yarn.

I second Sol Bianca & Bubblegum Crisis (although I accept what we got from BC and love the spinoff OVAs)
Guyver BioBooster Armor (1989-90 version)
Ninja Resurrection was...a weird one that I think about from time to time
I used a clip of Ninja Resurrection for a panel titled "Christianity in Anime" at AWA 2018. I specifically used the sex-in-the-church scene of the crying Mary statue, albeit I had to pixelate a few things on screen since it was an all ages panel haha. Panel went really well overall.

I mean with Gunnm we got the other parts of the manga to adapt. The manga can get a whole couple of series adapted if need be, I hope that happens someday. Gunsmith Cats manga I would LOVE to see get adapted, but there would have to be some changes here and there (underaged girls for one- wait, just say their 18 but they look 12, no one will raise an eyebrow :lol:). Koike manga i'd like to see adapted would be like Offered. From what I read, id LOVE to see that get adapted.

Goku Midnight Eye is another OVA series that was never fully adopted from the manga, and we did get the manga in the states.
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