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[Celebrating An Era - 1990's! Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (1991)]

Good ...well I guess it would be night... old schoolers!

A little late today but I haven't forgotten.  How about a mecha series that is part of an anime institution, has what many consider one of the best hero mecha designs of the franchise, an incredibly well designed and animated opening, a spectacular theme song, buuut... a hero character most don't like and a story that people seem to love or hate?  Yeah, it's Stardust Memory.  Can't say I disagree about a lot of the flack this series gets - I really need to watch it again soon and see if my opinion has changed.  Amazing OP though - and it is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year!

Celebrating An Era - 1990's!  Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (1991)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoM3nJVDaCk
*** 30th Anime Anniversary ***

[Celebrating An Era - 1980's! Cat's Eye (1983)]

Good evening old schoolers!

Happy New Year everyone, I hope you are all doing well.  For this week's classic anime OP or ED I was trying to think of something New Year's themed and came up with the most "new year's resolution" one I could think of off the top of my head.  Cat's Eye is a spectacular manga series, every bit as entertaining as Tsukasa Hojo's more popular City Hunter.  The first season of the anime is wonderful as well but it kind of falls apart in the second season (and the anime doesn't really have an ending), so I generally recommend that most people stop watching after the first season and go read fan translations of the manga afterward.  This is the first ending, a super catchy exercise theme that is undeniably of it's 1983 vintage.

Celebrating An Era - 1980's!  Cat's Eye (1983)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWgCK8fnjbU (ENDING)

[Celebrating An Era - 1980's! Akai Kodan Zillion (1987)]

Good afternoon old schoolers!

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas, and if you don't celebrate then I hope you had a nice day just the same.  This week's classic anime OP is one from a series I was just watching last night.  Zillion is a very interesting series, if not for the series itself then for the incredible amount of reach the series had - whether people knew it or not.  Although produced at Tatsunoko, Zillion series producer Mitsuhisa Ishikawa took the team he was heading and spun them off into IG Tatsunoko, which would later become Production I.G during the production of Patlabor 2 The Movie.  Due to that, Zillion is often regarded as Production I.G's first work.

Zillion is also known to most people in the west for a pair of video games on the Sega Master System (which were also released on the Sega Mark III in Japan).  Opa-Opa from the Fantasy Zone games, is actually a robot character in the series.  Additionally the three Zillion guns the main characters are armed with were used as the design of the Sega Light Phaser, the Sega Master System's light gun.  Additionally there were Zillion branded laser tag sets sold in Japan and Brazil - in fact the weapon loadout in the anime really does give off some serious 80's laser tag vibes.  Lastly, Zillion is the anime series briefly seen in the Michael Jackson Scream video - meaning Zillion is possibly a favorite series of Space Michael from Space Channel 5.  Wow, that's a lot of tie-ins.

On top of all that, the series is a lot of fun and has an outstanding opening theme.  It has also been recently re-released on Blu-ray (after being a DVD / Blu-ray combo pack a couple yeas ago), is very affordable, and the case and disc artwork is an homage to classic anime VHS rentals, with the US Master System cartridge label used as the disc art, complete with the episode numbers written as if done with a Sharpie.  It's pretty much the most intentional old school love I've ever seen on a modern anime release.

Celebrating An Era - 1980's!  Akai Kodan Zillion (1987)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la-lgb-BPhI

[Celebrating An Era - 1980's! Hokuto no Ken (1984)]

Good afternoon old schoolers!

A little later in the weekend for the weekly post but I didn't forget!  Let's go high energy for today with a much loved series, better known as Fist of the North Star in the west.

Celebrating An Era - 1980's!  Hokuto no Ken (1984)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s15JKP_TpIY

[Celebrating An Era - 1990's! His and Her Circumstances (1998)]

Good evening old schoolers!

I actually picked today's OP at random, basically scrolled around in my OP list with my eyes closed and stopped on it.  It's a really good one though.  Kare Kano (better known as His and Her Circumstances in the west) is often considered one of the best high school shojo anime series although it is noted as being quite a departure from the manga, which is rumored to have created disagreements which lead to only the first third of the long-running series being adapted.  While in my opinion it's no Marmalade Boy (ha ha), it's an entertaining series with some really cool visual quirks that border on being experimental.  I've head the manga turns into a mess near the end however, so the story may not be worth pursuing beyond the anime.

Celebrating An Era - 1990's!  His and Her Circumstances (1998)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Hym2-PDJ9A

[Celebrating An Era - 1990's! Kishin Douji Zenki (1995)]

Good evening old schoolers!

December is upon us and while we're still deep within the rough patches of the pandemic, the light is finally starting to shine at the end of the tunnel.  How long it takes to come out the other side remains to be seen but it is there - and it really does look like we're closer to the end than we are to the beginning.

For this week's OP, how about a badass series that no one talks about anymore?  Zenki is freaking awesome, it has one of the greatest anime themes ever, and it was always the anti-Inuyasha to me. (much to the irritation of some friends)  Check it out!

Celebrating An Era - 1990's!  Kishin Douji Zenki (1995)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G55UQClMw9I

[Celebrating An Era - 1980's! Armored Trooper VOTOMS (1983)]

Good morning old schoolers!

Here we are in the middle of a holiday weekend, one that looks very different than I'm sure many of us have seen before.  Then again there was another holiday weekend of traditions that was very different this year to all of us - Fanime.  Yet we're here, and we're moving along, and it's okay.  Here's looking forward to when that holiday weekend at Fanime can resume once again.

Today's OP is from a favorite series of mine, top five easily, Armored Troopers VOTOMS.  I've talked about it at length many times, including one year in our Vintage Anime panel, but this is a slow burn sci-fi war epic.  What's different is that rather than being told from the perspective of a society, or an armed force, or a military detachment - it's told from the perspective of one person, Chirico Cuvie, as he unravels his past and comes to command his future.  It's definitely not for everyone, and it sure has its goofy moments, but if you haven't seen it and you're looking for a mechanized war epic without all the wax and polish of some Gundam series, give it a try.

Sentai Filmworks online store actually has the entire series on Blu-ray right now on sale for $30.  It is EVERYTHING VOTOMS with the exception of the rather excellent Armor Hunter Mellowlink OVA spinoff series.  Some of the VOTOMS OVAs are really good while others are not but it's cool to be able to grab them all in one set, it also fixes some of the encoding issues with the previous Blu-ray releases.  Looks like inventory is low though, so move quick.

Celebrating An Era - 1980's!  Armored Trooper VOTOMS (1983)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjJt58geu9U

[Celebrating An Era - 1990's! Serial Experiments Lain (1998)]

Good afternoon old schoolers!

I do hope you are all doing well - or at least okay.  Before we get started with today's OP, I want to acknowledge the passing of voice actor Kirby Morrow.  While he provided English voice talent for many anime series that were important to the international mainstream anime boom in the 1990's, the role I always associated him with most was that of Trowa Barton in Gundam Wing.  As I've said previously, Gundam Wing is a series I don't care much for but Trowa is my favorite character in the entire Gundam franchise - a lot of that has to do with how he was voiced in the English dub.  That English dub running on Cartoon Network is really where Gundam outside of Japan began.  Unless you were hardcore into Gundam before then, you really owe that dub not only the creation of modern Gundam fandom outside of Japan, but also where gunpla really began to gain traction in earnest in the West.  I get kind of emotional when I think of his passing, as Trowa is a character I've always really loved since watching the first episode he appeared in - and when I first heard him speak, he was voiced by Kirby Morrow.  In the same way Susan Roman will ALWAYS be the voice of Makoto Kino in Sailor Moon (as much as I love Emi Shinohara's voicework), Kirby Morrow will ALWAYS be Trowa Barton to me.

I thought I'd ride some of the 90's nostalgia wave with the OP for this week.  In my experience, Serial Experiments Lain was the show that was kind of the "high concept, adult, mature" series that a lot of friends got into as their first anime series that was more serious in tone of storytelling.  It also hit at the perfect time for the explosion of online communities made up of regular people, that fansite and chat room era I seem to talk so much about.  Crazy that it was actually broadcast on extended cable TV (along with another surprise, Boogiepop Phantom) on a non-science fiction, non-animation channel - TechTV.  While I enjoy the series and its style and concepts, it never made a huge impact on me for whatever reason.  What surprises me these days is how little people talk about it, when it's honestly relevant now more than ever.

Celebrating An Era - 1990's!  Serial Experiments Lain (1998)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp5kUmni5Dk

[Celebrating An Era - 1990's! Ghost Sweeper Mikami (1993)]

Good evening old schoolers!

How about something Friday the 13th appropriate?  Ghost Sweeper Mikami is a cool series with unique character designs that not many people seem to know about.  Admittedly my first brush with the series was the Super Famicom game, which is also worth checking out.  This is also a series where the US licensing and release was totally fumbled by various distributors with Manga Entertainment first releasing the OVA film (which really makes no sense without any familiarity with the series) and nothing else.  Eventually Sentai Filmworks released the series, but it was sold as four individual volumes - and we all know how that goes with obscure anime.  Obviously it's long out of print.  However, Toei Animation still has the entire series with English subtitles on their YouTube channel (ToeiAnimationUS), so it can be enjoyed for free legally.  With a length of 45 episodes it will require a bit of an investment, but give it a try sometime, it's a lot of fun.

Celebrating An Era - 1990's!  Ghost Sweeper Mikami (1993)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avngzfSBvZc

[Celebrating An Era - 1980's! Area 88 (1985)]

Good evening old schoolers!

Going with an OVA for this week, and a rather stylized OP that features an excellent piece of music.  Area 88 is unique property, mostly a gritty air combat war drama - with just a tiny bit of shojo squeezed in.  A huge manga series (that was never fully translated into English - yet another abandonment from Viz many years ago) that spawned this three episode OVA (usually released as 1+2 condensed into a single episode) in 1985, and a short television series in 2004.  Also an arcade game, which was re-titled U.N. Squadron outside of Japan - with a fairly popular Super Nintendo release.

Celebrating An Era - 1980's!  Area 88 (1985)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlE-1lOHS6I

[Celebrating An Era - 1980's! Demon City Shinjuku (1988)]

Good morning old schoolers!

Held this week's old school post back a day to align with Halloween.  Today's title is a film rather than a series, so the opening of the film is what is being shared.  Demon City Shinjuku is one of my favorite anime films and has been one of my favorites since when I first really began to get into anime in the mid 1990's.  Unlike the other Yoshiaki Kawajiri films that tend to bookend it in most conversations (Wicked City and Ninja Scroll), Demon City Shinjuku is a much smaller and more contained story with a very slim cast.  That's actually one of the reasons I really like it - it has a strange isolated feel.  The story moves along very briskly, almost as a series of short interludes, which makes it unlike any other anime film I've since seen.  The great thing is it is available currently both on physical formats and streaming, the novel it was adapted from has been translate into English, as was the sequel novel.  A great film to watch this Halloween.

Celebrating An Era - 1980's!  Demon City Shinjuku (1988)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3CI_zgpyWk

[Celebrating An Era - 1980's! Armor Hunter Mellowlink (1988)]

Good evening old schoolers!

How about another hauntingly beautiful opening for this week?  Armor Hunter Mellowlink is an Armored Troopers VOTOMS spinoff, that unlike most VOTOMS spinoffs and sequel series, is actually really good and stands on its own.  Unfortunately it was not included in the recent VOTOMS Blu-ray releases, although pretty much everything else was.  Kind of a shame, since I doubt it would do very well if released on its own, simply because of limited recognition outside of Japan.  The entire series has been fansubbed however.

Celebrating An Era - 1980's!  Armor Hunter Mellowlink (1988)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySnuPN_3Xts

[Celebrating An Era - 1990's! Iria: Zeiram the Animation (1994)]

Good afternoon old schoolers!

Well the calendar says October but the weather outside sure feels like May or June - it's giving me Fanime vibes.  This week's OP is one of the coolest ever created in my opinion, from a very overlooked OVA series.  The thing is Iria: Zeiram the Animation shouldn't be all that overlooked, especially with it aired on the SciFi Channel during their annual anime festival days.  A prequel of sorts to the live action Zieram films (of which the first is a lot of fun and the second is just kinda boring), the series boasts some of the most unique environmental and character designs to ever grace anime.  In fact the only thing I don't like about Iria is that is just sort of ends as if there's another episode to come.  Granted, the live action films are supposed to follow but they don't quite match up.

As for the opening, it is freaking beautiful - and not just from an animation and design standpoint.  The opening theme, the way the visuals are cut to the music - the backdrops, the patterns, the lighting, the effects - it's all amazing.  No other anime series looks like Iria - a mash-up of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, the future and the past, technology and tradition.  If you haven't seen this one, it's a very short watch that is still unequaled over 25 years later.

Celebrating An Era - 1990's!  Iria: Zeiram the Animation (1994)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBZuBUw_F68

[Celebrating An Era - 1980's! City Hunter 2 (1988)]

Good evening old schoolers!

Going with an OP I really like, of a series I love, featuring characters we frequently cosplay as.  City Hunter 2 is arguably the best series of all the City Hunter adaptations, it was also the longest running (63 episodes).  It takes the very well established characters and concepts of the first series and continues to expand upon them - both dramatically and comedically.  It's also still very welcoming to new viewers, where City Hunter 3 and City Hunter '91 were more focused on additional adventures for long-time fans, which makes sense since they were adapted from later manga chapters.  Episodes 49 and 50 are the peak of the entire franchise for me, with a very serious and adult story that not only delivers action and thrills for new fans but is also a massive payoff to those coming in over 100 episodes deep in the adventures of Ryo and Kaori.  Come on, we wouldn't be Mokkori Cosplay if we didn't love City Hunter.

Celebrating An Era - 1980's!  City Hunter 2 (1988)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLWjBJMEMaU (OP2)

[Celebrating An Era - 1980's! Super Beast Machine God Dancouga (1985)]

Good evening old schoolers!

Sharing one of my favorite ending sequences today, the second from Dancouga.  The imagery, the instrumentation, and the lyrics aren't what one may expect from a series about a giant combiner robot.  Then again, Dancouga kind of does its own thing right from the start.  Even more interesting is that the ending sequence is all about the bad guy, Shapiro Keats, who betrays the Earth at the very beginning of the series.

Celebrating An Era - 1980's!  Super Beast Machine God Dancouga (1985)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4z6oVUtlJs (ENDING 2)

[Celebrating An Era - 1970's! Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (1972)]

Good evening old schoolers!

Closing out September with this week's post, which is kind of hard to believe, but every day brings advances that will lead to us all getting together once more again at FanimeCon and other conventions.  Today's OP is a true classic, Gatchaman!  I really need to sit down and re-watch the series but it's a MASSIVE time sink to complete the continuing story of the first three series.  I do love this OP, especially the little nod to Mach GoGoGo (Speed Racer) that Tatsunoko apparently slipped in.

Celebrating An Era - 1970's!  Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (1972)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sxKcF4VE9s

[Celebrating An Era - 1990's! Aika / Agent Aika (1997)]

Good evening old schoolers!

Some clear skies here today finally, a welcome change - even if just for a bit.  Today's OP is more of a fun, end of Summer vibes type thing, from a series that while isn't great - is pretty entertaining for its devotion to fan service.  This is actually the second opening theme and I believe the fourth opening as they changed up a bit of the animation each time.  Either way, I like this opening song way more than the original OP.

I also want to once again emphasize that we intend to host this gathering whenever FanimeCon gatherings resume, even if that means FanimeCon retruns with modifications on Memorial Day Weekend in 2021, or at another time.  The future continues to be very uncertain but one thing that is certain is that the conventions are going to be out there again sometime eventually.  I will continue to post weekly OP's and updates every Friday until the gathering, whether it occurs on the optimistic date of Memorial Weekend 2021 or the longshot of sometime in 2022.  That's all simply unknown at this point but until it all comes back, I'm going to continue with these posts.

Celebrating An Era - 1990's!  Aika / Agent Aika (1997)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1ay7HKlQd8

[Celebrating An Era - 1980's! Star Musketeer Bismark (1984)]

Good late evening old schoolers!

Horribly smoky skies overhead here lately but very thankfully no threat of fire.  Going with another ED rather than an OP tonight, from Star Musketeer Bismark - a series I love.  I posted the OP a few weeks ago but the ending is equally as awesome.  Honestly, the ending feels like the prototype for a Sailor Moon ending credits sequence - total shojo vibes.  Remember, the entire series has been fansubbed by GANGO Fansubs and can be found at the usual places.

Celebrating An Era - 1980's!  Star Musketeer Bismark (1984)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVKNA13C3yI (ENDING)

[Celebrating An Era - 1990's! Marmalade Boy (1994)]

Good late evening old schoolers!

With Labor Day just around the corner, the unofficial end of summer is upon us.  Kind of hard to believe, as this lost year of sorts continues to roll on.  Rather than an OP for tonight I'm going with an ED, from my favorite shojo series - looking forward to the possibility of a normal spring and summer next year.

Celebrating An Era - 1990's!  Marmalade Boy (1994)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YzKdSGVuGA (ENDING 1)

[Celebrating An Era - 1980's! Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (1983)]

Good evening old schoolers!

Still moving along here, these weekly posts are really helping me not drift away from cosplay and give a routine cap to each workweek.  True to my word, I'm going to keep going with these every week.  This week's OP is a series with an interesting English release history and a pretty rocking opening theme.  Mospeada was reworked in the USA to be the third "generation" of Robotech, heavily reworking the series as was done previously with Southern Cross.  Taken on its own, I like Mospeada fine, however the subtitled DVD release is a total mess.  Rather than romanize the Japanese names, ADV and Harmony Gold modified them into odd half-localized versions.  About half of the main cast had their names mangled in the subtitles, due to bringing along baggage from the Robotech fan community of the time.  I believe all releases that followed used these subtitles - which is kind of a shame.  I waited so long to have this series in its native Japanese, dropped the $120 for the box set when it was announced, only to get subtitles on par with a bootleg release.  Mospeada deserved better.

Celebrating An Era - 1980's!  Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (1983)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_xhAxuUvGE