Owner: Anime Classic Reviews URL:http://www.animeclassicreviews.com Join Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2007 15:19:53 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: The only website exclusively dedicated to bringing you the best and most obscure classic anime from the 80's. Site statistics:Click here
Dream Hunter Rem - 1985 2007-07-24 14:18:00 Dream Hunter
Rem is an very original and unique anime 3 episode OVA series released from 1985 to 1987. It is about a character called Rem Ayanokōji who is a dream hunter. She is a woman capable of entering the dreams of sleeping people in an attempt to extinguish the demons causing the nightmares. The artwork takes shape in a very cute and friendly form but don't let that fool you, although the show appears gentle on the surface it is infact layered with many adult themes which your understand upon viewing. The backgrounds are vibrant and detailed with the occasional unique camera angle appearing. The kind that can only really be seen in shows made from this decade due to the immese time, effort and pride animators used to in their work. Unlike today, animation back then was considered equally, if not more important that the actual content of the show but then thats another article for a different day. In the meantime see the Ask John column entry for more info - Why Does Anime Not L Read more:Dream
Call Me Tonight - 1986 2007-07-23 04:07:00 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 TV. 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
Gaga Communications - 1988 Trailer 2007-07-22 17:11:00 In 1987 a Japanese theatrical and TV marketing company called Gaga Communications
decided to try and break the US market by licensing and approaching a number of companies in the US which could be interested in aquiring the cutting edge animated shows from Japan. They put together a 37 minute reel of trailers with English subtitles for the dialogue and American voice narration for a brief synopsis of each OVA's plot.Their motivation in 1987 was to branch out and tap into a potentially large gap in the overseas market by being the first company to truly release Japanese shows in their original form with English subtitles. If OVA's were big sellers in Japan then their belief was that with the right support and marketing, companies would be able to sublicence from Gaga to generate a decent profitable business outlet to accomodate the small but growing number of fans in the US.In order to make a lot of titles seem more import friendly to the American market, Gaga decided to rename alot o Read more:Trailer
Space Fantasia 2001 Nights 2007-07-25 14:27:00 Space Fantasia
2001 Nights is an epic, profound and very serious 50 minute space opera anthology OVA from 1987. It was produced by TMS (Tokyo Movie Shinsha) who adapted the famous Yukinobu Hoshino manga from 1984 called 2001 Nights. Although this OVA has never been released in the US, the manga was licensed and fully translated by Viz in 1996. Don't worry though, it's still available today through the usual online retailers such as Amazon. It's a shame Viz didn't license this to coincide with it, like they did with the Grey Digital Target OVA which was released to partner the Grey Manga.Space Fantasia 2001 Nights was made when the Japanese economic boom was still going from strength to strength and the growing budgets within the industry reflected this as companies allocated as much time and money as they wanted to. The animation is nothing short of stunning, we've all dropped our mouths in awe when watching productions like Wings of Honneamise or Robot Carnival. This OVA is amon Read more:Space
Kimagure Orange Road: Jump Special - 1985 2007-07-27 12:06:00 Kimagure Orange
Road: Jump Special
is a 30 minute OVA created by Shonen Jump magazine in 1985 to test the waters for converting Izumi Matsumoto's popular manga from 1984 into a TV series. The OVA was successful enough that the start of the production for a tv series began in 1986, with the show airing on tv in April 1987 . This OVA is often referred to by fans as the KOR Pilot although in my opinion it's something slighty more special than that.There are many major differences in staff, voice casting, music, and direction between the Jump Special and the final TV series. This is because in the year between many changes, only the animation studio Pero and the character designer Akemi Takada were retained to work on the TV series which is why the transition from one format to the other was less than subtle.I've watched and enjoyed all that is Kimagure Orange Road including the TV series, movies and the 1989 OVA spinoff series but out of everything i've seen this is by far my favourit
Macross Flashback 2012 - 1987 2007-07-31 14:45:00 Macross Flashback 2012 is a 30 minute OVA released in 1987. It was created primarily to convert the original designs and plans that were made for the original ending of the movie Macross Do You Remember Love. This could not be animated during 1984 due to time conscritions. The creators had intended to include concert footage after Minimay's Countdown in DYRL, as well as possible some other short scenes to conclude the story for all the major characters. Instead all fans got were scrolling white credits down a black screen, although the song is fantastic, this could arguably be called somewhat of an anti climax. Later editions of Macross DYRL would however incorporate the concert footage from the first segment of Macross Flashback 2012, under the label 'Perfect Edition'. This version was released on Laserdisc in 1992 and later on DVD in 1998. Although Macross Flashback was released on DVD in 1998, it was given such a limited print run it's virtually impossible to find now without pa
Cosmo Police Justy - 1985 2007-07-29 13:05:00 Cosmo Police
Justy is a 50 minute OVA released in 1985. It was based on the popular 5 volume manga which was released through Shonen Sunday between 1982-1984. The manga's creator, Tsuguo Okazaki, assisted with the planning of the OVA as well as the character designs. Although you don't really see manga artists assisting anime productions anymore, the benefit back then was it allowed the creator to help guide the overall creative direction in order to keep the OVA true to his original work elements such as characterisation carefully monitored to remain consistant with the manga.It seems like a trend but while the OVA never got picked up for commercial release in the US, the manga was however released by Viz in 1988. It was one of three debut release into the US manga industry. Cosmo Police Justy got released along Area 88 and Mai, the Psychic Girl were released in the form of comics through the label Elcipse Comics. Viz released the manga in flipped (inverted) form which meant all the Read more:Cosmo
Macross Flashback 2012 - 1987 2007-07-31 14:45:00 Macross Flashback 2012 is a 30 minute OVA released in 1987. It was created primarily to convert the original designs and plans that were made for the original ending of the movie Macross Do You Remember Love. This could not be animated during 1984 due to time conscritions. The creators had intended to include concert footage after Minimay's Countdown in DYRL, as well as possible some other short scenes to conclude the story for all the major characters. Instead all fans got were scrolling white credits down a black screen, although the song is fantastic, this could arguably be called somewhat of an anti climax. Later editions of Macross DYRL would however incorporate the concert footage from the first segment of Macross Flashback 2012, under the label 'Perfect Edition'. This version was released on Laserdisc in 1992 and later on DVD in 1998. Although Macross Flashback was released on DVD in 1998, it was given such a limited print run it's virtually impossible to find now without pa
Cosmo Police Justy - 1985 2007-07-29 13:05:00 Cosmo Police
Justy is a 50 minute OVA released in 1985. It was based on the popular 5 volume manga which was released through Shonen Sunday between 1982-1984. The manga's creator, Tsuguo Okazaki, assisted with the planning of the OVA as well as the character designs. Although you don't really see manga artists assisting anime productions anymore, the benefit back then was it allowed the creator to help guide the overall creative direction in order to keep the OVA true to his original work elements such as characterisation carefully monitored to remain consistant with the manga.It seems like a trend but while the OVA never got picked up for commercial release in the US, the manga was however released by Viz in 1988. It was one of three debut release into the US manga industry. Cosmo Police Justy got released along Area 88 and Mai, the Psychic Girl were released in the form of comics through the label Elcipse Comics. Viz released the manga in flipped (inverted) form which meant all the Read more:Cosmo
Kimagure Orange Road: Jump Special - 1985 2007-07-27 12:06:00 Kimagure Orange
Road: Jump Special
is a 30 minute OVA created by Shonen Jump magazine in 1985 to test the waters for converting Izumi Matsumoto's popular manga from 1984 into a TV series. The OVA was successful enough that the start of the production for a tv series began in 1986, with the show airing on tv in April 1987 . This OVA is often referred to by fans as the KOR Pilot although in my opinion it's something slighty more special than that.There are many major differences in staff, voice casting, music, and direction between the Jump Special and the final TV series. This is because in the year between many changes, only the animation studio Pero and the character designer Akemi Takada were retained to work on the TV series which is why the transition from one format to the other was less than subtle.I've watched and enjoyed all that is Kimagure Orange Road including the TV series, movies and the 1989 OVA spinoff series but out of everything i've seen this is by far my favourit
Space Fantasia 2001 Nights 2007-07-25 14:27:00 Space Fantasia
2001 Nights is an epic, profound and very serious 50 minute space opera anthology OVA from 1987. It was produced by TMS (Tokyo Movie Shinsha) who adapted the famous Yukinobu Hoshino manga from 1984 called 2001 Nights. Although this OVA has never been released in the US, the manga was licensed and fully translated by Viz in 1996. Don't worry though, it's still available today through the usual online retailers such as Amazon. It's a shame Viz didn't license this to coincide with it, like they did with the Grey Digital Target OVA which was released to partner the Grey Manga.Space Fantasia 2001 Nights was made when the Japanese economic boom was still going from strength to strength and the growing budgets within the industry reflected this as companies allocated as much time and money as they wanted to. The animation is nothing short of stunning, we've all dropped our mouths in awe when watching productions like Wings of Honneamise or Robot Carnival. This OVA is amon Read more:Space
Dream Hunter Rem - 1985 2007-07-24 14:18:00 Dream Hunter
Rem is an very original and unique anime 3 episode OVA series released from 1985 to 1987. It is about a character called Rem Ayanokōji who is a dream hunter. She is a woman capable of entering the dreams of sleeping people in an attempt to extinguish the demons causing the nightmares. The artwork takes shape in a very cute and friendly form but don't let that fool you, although the show appears gentle on the surface it is infact layered with many adult themes which your understand upon viewing. The backgrounds are vibrant and detailed with the occasional unique camera angle appearing. The kind that can only really be seen in shows made from this decade due to the immese time, effort and pride animators used to in their work. Unlike today, animation back then was considered equally, if not more important that the actual content of the show but then thats another article for a different day. In the meantime see the Ask John column entry for more info - Why Does Anime Not L Read more:Dream
Call Me Tonight - 1986 2007-07-23 04:07:00 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 TV. 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
Gaga Communications - 1988 Trailer 2007-07-22 17:11:00 In 1987 a Japanese theatrical and TV marketing company called Gaga Communications
decided to try and break the US market by licensing and approaching a number of companies in the US which could be interested in aquiring the cutting edge animated shows from Japan. They put together a 37 minute reel of trailers with English subtitles for the dialogue and American voice narration for a brief synopsis of each OVA's plot.Their motivation in 1987 was to branch out and tap into a potentially large gap in the overseas market by being the first company to truly release Japanese shows in their original form with English subtitles. If OVA's were big sellers in Japan then their belief was that with the right support and marketing, companies would be able to sublicence from Gaga to generate a decent profitable business outlet to accomodate the small but growing number of fans in the US.In order to make a lot of titles seem more import friendly to the American market, Gaga decided to rename alot o Read more:Trailer
Campus Special Investigator Hikaruon - 1987 2007-08-11 07:08:00 Campus SpecialInvestigator
Hikaruon is an attractive 30 minute OVA from 1987. It is the second entry into an OVA series by the Pink Noise team of staff, following up the highly unique, romantic horror title called Call Me Tonight. The signature touch for all their productions were unique self contained OVA's that accompanied a certain degree of fan service.Hikaruon keeps this element nicely in tact but with a completly different style of story from the last.This OVA is a parody/tribute to the popular sentai genre of Japan from the early to mid 80's. Sentai is basically a show which features a person who transforms into a superhero to save the day. This show is also part of the sub genre Metal Hero which features a hero that uses a metallic metal suit. These shows are primarily about stylish combat moves and over the top fighting sequences, parrelled by loud voice commands. Many outside of Japan will recognise once popular English adaptations of the sentai genre, brought over and pro Read more:Campus
Nineteen19 - 1990 2007-08-30 17:05:00 Nineteen19 is an obscure, stylish 45 minute OVA. Produced in 1990 by the renound studio Madhouse, this particular title has been on my radar for quite some time now but it took reading a review on the Buried Treasure column to became motivated enough to dedicate precious time and resources into tracking it down. Anyway after months of searching I finally snagged myself a vhs copy of original fansub that was done way back in the early 90's by Nexus Studio.Nineteen19 is a delightful story about a gentle, intelligent man called Kubota who has yet to lose his virginity at the age of 19 despite plenty of offers from the girls around him. This could infact change though, when he meets the women of his dreams at a nightclub. Her name is Masana who is a beautiful and successful model whose geting plenty of exposure in the city of Tokyo. Kubota is completly stunned by her beauty and as later flashback scenes will show, they actually have quite a history. It's from here in the nightclub that t
Windaria - 1986 2007-08-14 08:12:00 Windaria is a 100 minute long movie from 1986 by the short lived but prolific Kanamae Productions. They were were famous for productions like Dream Dimension Hunter Fandora, Birth and Genmu Senki Leda. All of which sold very well and quickly became fan favourites. All of them including Windaria have been lucky enough to be released on to the dvd format in Japan making it easily accessible to the public again for a short period of time since most dvd releases in Japan are aimed at collectors so pressings are limited with titles often going out of print rather quickly. Windaria was released on dvd in 2000 and then reisused in 2005 by AIC along with other best sellers from their catalogue including Megazone 23 and Birth (both also remastered), once again all of these are now out of print and therefore will require some effort to aquire. Megazone 23 and Birth are widely available in the US and so fans shouldn't have any problems picking up the domestic release. Windaria on the other hand
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