Area88

I've been wanting to see the late 80's anime OVA Ariel. Is it any good and did it ever have a US DVD release?

It's yet another title bashed by the critics however don't let this disuade you it might actually be good. I havn't seen it myself but i do know Central Park Media released it on dvd. It's out of print so it's geting hard to find however you can get it cheap from here - Ariel DVD (Click Here)

Know if their is a site that lists older anime?

If you want a complete list of all the older anime released in the US then try this - List of anime (Click Here) and use it in combination with sites like animeondvd reviews (click here)

Also just for the record Appleseed and Black Magic M-66 are made by the same creator but are completly different from each other. The only similarity is they both have futuristic settings and are both in the cyberpunk genre.

I've gotta dig deeper into the 80's anime...

I'm glad this thread inspired you to do so.

Other stuff that gets a lot of flak from fandom yet i absolutly love include stuff like Appleseed OVA, Black Magic M-66 and Outlanders. Even the so called online critics bash these titles yet i think they all have unique and distinct qualities just not seen in present anime.

Just take a look at the wonderfully detailed backdrop of the Olympus city in Appleseed, does it not look simply stunning?

This is the kind of love, care and detail sorely lacking in contemporay animation, gotta love the electronic jazz music too. I've also realised that because anime is so subjective on most occasions you have to ignore the general consensus among fans and critics to truly discover some of the best gems.

One mans trash is another man's treasure.

I've also enjoyed a few obscure things myself - Cats Eye being a particular favourite of mine.

Ah the female equivalent to City Hunter, only seen a few episodes but found it fairly enjoyable. I really must watch Votoms soon, i've been curious about it for a while now.

Another title I loved was Otaku No Video.

Me too, i wish more people would watch this since it really is a monumental parody and one of Gainax's best efforts, they really were at their peak in 1991.

Like others I can understand your need of story and anime personality rather then trend material. Heck I picked up Harmagedon(1983), which was basically a dry run for the Akira movie, and found it quite nice(my God where have the quality backgrounds gone!).

I really enjoyed the first 60 minutes of Harmagedon but i felt it really lost it's direction half way through the film which is a shame because it had a lot of potential. Glad you understand the desire for originality rather than the same tried and tested formula

Roots Search was not that bad of a title, even though it was a blatant knock off of the movie Alien. I even own the VHS myself. I don't think it was ever released on DVD; Central Park Media may have lost the license to that jewel.

Yay, someone else who enjoyed Roots Search, at last my search is over. Great to know you liked Nolandia too, i wish more Dirty Pair fans felt the same.

I'm not afraid to admit it but i enjoyed the 1986 OVA called Roots Search.

For years i've avoided it as i've heard fans labeled it as the worst domestic release ever seen in the US. For starters this isn't even close to being a terrible title let alone the worst domestic release of all time. I've seen far worse like the crudely animated Ultimate Teacher, the incoherent mess of a story Crystal Triangle or the ultra violent excuse that is MD Geist.

I think Roots Search is a decent suspence science fiction anime. The character designs were nice, mainly for two central characters plus it was good to see some brief romance thrown in to it.

Does anyone else like Roots Search or if not at least explain to me what you find so bad about it?

It's available on VHS (which i own) or by torrent (click here) for anyone who wants to give a try.

Speaking of other anime people usually bash, is anyone anyone fond of Dirty Pair: Affair of Nolandia?

I rewatched this recently and found the story to be extremely engaging. I really enjoyed the more serious edge to the story and characters designs. I also loved it's unconventional pacing which made it unpredictable and gave it an almost artsy feel to it (it almost had an Oshii or Twlight Zone feel to it). Overall i enjoyed Affair of Nolandia as much or perhaps more than i do with Project Eden.

At least i can't be the only one with an appreciation for Nolandia as this review 1 (click here) proves and this review 2 (click here) too.

Also another movie i've watched recently is Lupin: Gold of Babylon which i absolutly loved. Again ironically many regard this as the weakest of the Lupin movies yet i regard it as one of the strongest. Overall the style felt as if they'd sampled the hyper feel of Project A-ko, added in the pop culture style of Megazone 23 and finished the cocktail by mixing it with a touch of Looney Tunes humour. The character designs and soundtrack are by far my favourite of out all of the Lupin movies, it really felt like 1985. I can't wait to own this on dvd so i can share the pure insanity of Lupin with fellow peers.

Finishing my theme of ambigous taste towards the most obscure and unique of anime, would it be sacrilege to say i don't like Akira? lol, even my taste for anime from the 80's isn't mainstream since i always end up loving most titles people hate and vice versa. I even find titles like Gunbuster and Bubblegum Crisis once the pinnacle of my love for anime, seem as generic as it gets and no longer meet my high set benchmark for my dvd collection anymore (time can be so cruel). The only pattern i can see emerging is my love for very artsy anime like Robot Carnival, Angel's Egg and Twilight Q, at least these have more appreciation from fan groups... i hope. Oh and 1984-1987 seem to be my absolute peak in adoring animation. Thats all i have to do say so now my journey to understand must continue, so much more i must learn.

Does anyone else understand my bloggish post?

Recommandtions:

Area88 OVA

Aura Dunbine

Birth

Kimagure Orange Road: Summer's Beginning

Megazone 23

Original Dirty Pair

Prefectural Earth Defense Force

Saint Seiya

Click here to go to the ADV SALE

Disclaimer (please read):

Products offered through this sale are clearance and close-out items. As such, product bar codes will be reconfigured, replaced or physically altered (including by means of cutting, punching or drilling). Some products may be open box. Some products may be delivered without full retail packaging. Except as expressly provided otherwise, products are sold as-is.

Apparantly I'm the only one here who will say Minmay, Misa just isn't my type.

I would choose Misa in the TV series where she straightened her hair in the last third of the series.

But in DYRL i would choose the more attractive and mature Minmay.

I felt so sad for her at the end of the movie, tossed a side like a piece of rubbish.

I've heard tell that there was a torrent at some point for Body Jack.

I have this but it's a poor quality vhs rip in raw Japanese without any subtitles.

Call Me Tonight was made in 1986 and was the first in a series of fanservice OVA's from Pink Noise in the mid 80s. While most shows that use fan service as it's core are often shallow and repetive, Call Me Tonight breaks the mould and makes it's an integral part of it's heart warming and comical story. Infact i loved the story and characters so much that i've watched this anime quite a number of times now. Although it only has a short running time of only 30 minutes, i actually felt it was the perfect length and achieved everything it set out to do.

Visually this is a very beautiful anime and defintly one of my favourites to look at. The character designs and colour pallete seem to be almost a combination of Megazone 23 (Part I) and Dirty Pair. The soundtrack is mainly upbeat 80's style jazzy J-Pop with the standout theme being the song 'Please Call Me Tonight' which plays at both the very start and end of the OVA.

Sadly like so many other great OVA's of it's time this title has not been reissued for release on dvd in Japan. I do expect this anime to get released eventually though as most of the AIC catalogue is gradually finding it's way out on to dvd slowly but surely.

Overall i would personally say that this is once again a personal favourite of mine. It is one of the few shows daring enough to blend an unique variety of genres including romance, comedy, science fiction and horror. Also with the bonus of it being a one shot OVA, it makes great replay value with very little time commitment needed. Infact I recommend all Pink Noise OVA's especially Body Jack (OVA 4) which comes in a close second place to Call Me Tonight.

Here is a list of the whole Pink Noise series:

Pink Noise OVA 1: Call Me Tonight (1986) - Download Here

Pink Noise OVA 2: Campus Special Investigator Hikaruon (1987) - Download Here

Pink Noise OVA 3: Evil Dragon War Chronicles 1 (1987)

Pink Noise OVA 4: Body Jack (1987)

Availability: VHS (Japan), Laserdisc (Japan), Fansub

Just finished watching the first two episodes. Okay, this is GOOD. Wow, this series has some potential. VERY different from your average anime. Subtle character designs, muted colors, somber tones and is that an orchestral theme I hear?

Story gets begins to unfold with the next episode so you should be hooked by episode 3 or 4.

What i truly love most about LOGH is there are so many different stories and sub-plots happening at once. LOGH seems to draw from every genre and every theme to amass this huge universe of locations and characters. Yet despite it's overwhelming scale of events, everything is explored fully making it a very captivating and engrossing expirience.

LOGH is defintly a series of the highest calibre and intellect, mixing high productions values with profound dialogue.

I guess it's about time i got round to watching the 2nd season...

I'm on episode 49 and the animation does take a nasty drop at episode 27 More on the level of a TV series. I'm hoping that it gets better later...

I havn't watched the the 2nd season yet so thats a disapointment to hear. It's almost certainly due to the fact that the economic bubble burst in 1990 and the 2nd season began in 1991.

The first season was made in 1988 during times of great economic prosperity so companies had a lot of money to throw at the series.

FYI, my torrents are comming from Central Anime. Looks like they're only up to 94 eps... or is that the total? And where can the movies be found?

I'd watch the first 26 episodes (season 1) before even considering watching any of the movies.

Here is the link to movie 1 - Click Here for torrent

Always wanted to see this series. I wonder if YouTube has any eps?

Yes they are but i would recommend downloading the fansubs Central Anime did.

Legend of Galactic Heroes is one of the greatest anime of all time, it holds the record for being the longest OVA series coming in at 110 episodes as well as having the most characters ever in an anime title.

Because LOGH is an OVA series made at the peak of the economic bubble in 1988, it has very high production values which you can clearly see from the detailed backgrounds.

I recommend this dialogue intensive show to everyone on these forums.

It is the cheapest you will probaly ever find Aura Dunbine it plus you get the 2 art boxes for free.

Recommendations:

Dirty Pair: Project Eden

Dirty Pair: Affair of Nolandia

Megazone 23 (with Artbox)

Aura Dunbine (with Artbox)

Five Star Stories

Birth

Click here to go to Rightstuf.com

Maybe Bandai Visual added back some grain in to the video like Animeigo did with their Macross release.

I bought the R3 (which mirrors the R2 release) and i couldn't barely see a speck of grain.

Could someone take a screen cap from episode 1 of the R1 (which i've yet to purchase) then we can do a comparison.

I have both of the Macross Special LD's and I have them on VHS. I dont know what Volume 0 is... They are Vol 1 and Vol 2.

What are the Macross Special LD's exactly?

What i've always wanted to know is:

Was Macross Flashback 2012 always intended to be a music video compilation or did the creators originally have any other plans at the time for the OVA?

Macross Flashback 2012 is a 30-minute music video OVA from 1987 filled with songs from the TV series and the Do You Remember Love movie.

The opening concert scene is stunning. The animation is very fluid and the older Minmay is very attractive wearing an original and fururistic outfit.

Then there are the music videos which are carefully edited together by the same staff that made Macross famous, adding in special video effects and live action scenes to make the impact of the music even greater. Like DYRL, Flashback 2012 mainly focuses in on the famous love triangle.

Everyone will have a favourite music video when watching this and mine is the 'Silvermoon Redmoon'.

Then of course there is the ending which was originally supposed to animated for the end of DYRL but due to time constraints was never finished. Every Macross fan will want to see this as it really is the perfect finale to the series.

How do you rate Macross Flashback 2012 and why?

I saw the series so much later than the movie.

Me too. It was DYRL that introducted me to the Macross series.

DYRL is a standalone title and i disagree that the movie is dependant on your knowledge of the TV series. The only reason to watch the TV series before hand is to understand some of the sub characters which don't really get explained but that was never a big deal for me because the only other character i cared for was Roy Focker.

Apart from that, i think DYRL can be watched by anyone since it does a brilliant job of explaining the plot and three central characters.

I only wish Roy Focker had got more screen time in both the series and the movie.

But of course - that's just not right... by skimming over stuff and focusing on battles, DYRL dilutes our emotional attachment...

Really? I thought DYRL had more emotional impact than the series. Almost the whole movie was developed to focus on the love triangle. The characters were more mature so we could sympathise with them more especially Minmay, you couldn't help but feel sorry for her at the end. Actually seeing Hikaru be decsive and following Focker's advice about sometimes needing to be aggressive when finding the woman he loves. I found the whole movie a very rewarding expirience.

Wait wait... Dangaioh had a story?

Not really, any plot there was just an excuse for more mech action.

Dangaio is one of my least favourite mech shows from the 80's.

Although the animation is nice, there are far better shows out there.

Do you prefer the original series Super Dimensional Fortress Macross from 1982 or the alternative retelling movie Macross: Do You Remember Love from 1984?

I'm one of the few who prefer the DYRL movie over the TV series.

Here are my reasons why:

a) Character Designs - updated, very detailed and fluid

b) Overall Tone - more serious tone with older and more mature characters in age and persona.

c) Soundtrack - Took all our favourite songs from the TV series and gave us even better ones to go with it.

d) Story - The movie is much more focused on the love triangle than the the TV series ever was. DYRL took all the best elements from the TV series and magnified them to deliver the perfect story.

Combine DYRL with the ending from Macross Flashback 2012 and you surely have a story that cannot be beaten?

What do you prefer and why?

Also regarding the Gunbuster contest thread, remember you have 2 votes.

Something i sadly missed otherwise i would have voted for Mercurial Morpheus as well, sorry!

I wonder how hard it would be to get the subs from the R1 disc.

Not too hard if you follow this guide - Click Here