2022 Old School (Pre-2001) Cosplay Gathering

[InsaneDavid]

Good evening old schoolers!

Apologies for being a couple days late for this week, things have been busier than usual!  This time around, an extremely popular series that I've been watching lately.

Celebrating An Era - 1980's!  Kimagure Orange Road (1987)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTOZhZSr6RY

[InsaneDavid]

Good late evening old schoolers!

On this Independence Day, how about something explosive?

Celebrating An Era - 1980's!  Dragon Ball Z (1989)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcdDnwm4pAE

[Amanojaku]

Good evening old schoolers!

Apologies for being a couple days late for this week, things have been busier than usual!  This time around, an extremely popular series that I've been watching lately.

Celebrating An Era - 1980's!  Kimagure Orange Road (1987)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTOZhZSr6RY

I just started watching this on RetroCrush and I love it.  How can something I've never watched before make me feel so nostalgic? lol

[InsaneDavid]

Good evening old schoolers!

Over the next week or so I'm going to get the gathering thread / events page set back to a regular "for the next Fanime" state rather than the "until we can all be together again" as it has been since mid 2020.  Weekly OP / ED posts will continue, though they may be anytime Friday - Sunday rather than always on Friday.  It also means I can get back to promoting the gathering once more as there is a really good chance we'll all be at-con again next year.

For this week, how about an odd one?  Pilot Candidate / The Candidate for Goddess began as a 1997 manga that had an anime adaptation begin in 2000 while the manga was ongoing.  It only ran for 12 episodes and was abruptly discontinued.  An OVA series of a single episode followed but did little to complete the narrative, making this an anime adaptation that was more or less quickly abandoned, possibly do to poor ratings.  For whatever reason Cartoon Network thought licensing and airing the series was a good idea - incomplete as it was.  I swear, who signed off on this over something else?

Celebrating An Era - 2000!  Pilot Candidate (2000)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RylNH1nTvhM

[InsaneDavid]

Good evening old schoolers!

Closing out the weekend with a true classic - a manga that began in 1964, had anime films in 1966 and 1967, and in 1968 an anime television adaptation that is this week's OP.  Over fifty years later and Cyborg 009 is still going strong.

Celebrating An Era - 1960's!  Cyborg 009 (1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUiqCoUGrnQ

[InsaneDavid]

Good afternoon old schoolers!

For this week, one I've already posted for this "year" of the gathering - but that was awhile ago and it's pretty appropriate at the moment.  A great series and an opening that looks more modern than the 1989 production would lead one to believe - at least it did so when it was featured at Vintage Anime - Name That Year last Fanime.

Celebrating An Era - 1980's!  Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl! (1989)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjXJrkxQeAE

[InsaneDavid]

Good morning old schoolers!

Another week and another month already, crazy!  For this week, a series I don't personally care a ton for but I do like the concept and always like to see the amazing cosplay that it generates!  Perhaps the years playing the terrible Famicom games based on the series have tainted my enjoyment...

Celebrating An Era - 1980's!  Saint Seiya (1986)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icmOvrKdpQo

[InsaneDavid]

Good evening old schoolers!

Almost missed this week!  This time around, the opening from the fourth Cyber Formula series, Cyber Formula SAGA.  This one tends to be the favorite of many Cyber Formula fans and although I prefer Zero, SAGA does have a very interesting narrative about where the limits of a cyber system lie - which factors into the final series, Cyber Formula Sin.  The art design also took its biggest modernization jump in SAGA, which is again why I like the middle ground of the earlier Zero a bit more, but everyone is a lot older by this spot in the timeline.

Celebrating An Era - 1990's!  Future GPX Cyber Formula SAGA (1996)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQiO6F4hthU

[InsaneDavid]

Good afternoon old schoolers!

Apologies for being away for a couple weeks, things have gotten busier than usual.  Everything's good however.  I'm officially moving the gathering updates back to our usual weekly posts as I remain optimistic that come Memorial Day Weekend 2022 we'll be having an in-person FanimeCon.  Although I have elected to personally skip conventions until 2022, they are starting to spin back up - even in downtown San Jose.  These are important, as they will set the precedent for how conventions will get rolling again and be planned out into the next year.  I know it can seem really discouraging that this isn't all behind us at this point, but we are so close to getting it under control - truly.  I hope you are all doing well.

For this week, an OP we've featured "this year" but it just seems appropriate with how things are.  At one point I planned it as a dirty trick for the tiebreaker round of our Vintage Anime - Name That Year panel, as visually the OP is mostly nothing but rolling flames until the very end.

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

[InsaneDavid]

Good late evening old schoolers!

I've actually been watching quite a bit of anime over the past few days and this week's OP is from one of them.  Cyber City Oedo 808 is a three episode OVA set in cyberpunk Japan of the year 2808.  Three criminals - Sengoku, Benten, and Gogl - are enlisted by the Cyber Police to complete assignments in exchange for a reduction in their sentences.  However with each of them serving terms of over 300 years, and each completed mission only removing a fraction of that time, the chances of any of them eventually going free are slim.  Each of them wears an exploding collar around their neck, controlled by their supervising officer, Chief Hasegawa.  Hasegawa sets a time limit for each assignment, with the collar exploding if it is not completed in the allotted time.  Additionally he can manually detonate a collar at any time and often changes the rules and parameters of an assignment on the fly.

The series is a futuristic take on the police practices of the Edo period of Japan, complete with each criminal being armed with a jitte both as a practical weapon and symbol.  It is beautifully animated, full of great action, interesting stories, and dynamic character designs.  It's also very short, with only three episodes that are each focused around one of the main characters as they complete assignments.  The whole thing is presented as if it is a small slice of a larger narrative but this is a one-take OVA, with no expanding anime series or manga.  Honestly it is done so well and is so interesting that it's kind of a shame there isn't more of it.  It was recently re-released on Blu-ray by the good people at Discotek Media, including both the US and UK English dubs in addition to the original Japanese with English subtitles.

If you like cyberpunk and the work of Yoshiaki Kawajiri (who also directed Wicked City, Demon City Shinjuku, Ninja Scroll, and much more) then this is either one you're familiar with or haven't seen in awhile.  Check it out again, outstanding opening song as well.

Celebrating An Era - 1990's!  Cyber City Oedo 808 (1990)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu0bReALU6Y

[InsaneDavid]

Good evening old schoolers!

Going over ground we've covered very early in the gathering thread but with the preview trailer for the live action Cowboy Bebop series being released, I figured we could do it again.  I've never been the biggest Cowboy Bebop fan - by that I mean I was never crazy into it the way so many others were / are but I do really like series.  If anything I think the live action series will be entertaining and if it isn't, it doesn't change what the anime was.  I mean, there was a French live action City Hunter movie released in 2019 that did the main characters justice and was fine, although it was gummed up with French slapstick comedy - which I've never been a fan of - but it wasn't terrible or anything, so who knows.

Celebrating An Era - 1990's!  Cowboy Bebop (1998)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRI_8PUXx2A

[InsaneDavid]

Good evening old schoolers!

A random pick for this week that happens to be a very early title.  While Tetsuwan Atom / Astro Boy isn't the first anime series by any stretch, it was still massively influential and important - and surprisingly holds up as well today as when it was first created.

Celebrating An Era - 1960's!  Tetsuwan Atom (1963)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSbaZuTW1Q0

[InsaneDavid]

Good evening old schoolers!

Although the Old School Cosplay Gathering generally features anime and manga characters, pre-2001 video game cosplay is also always welcomed.  In the years since I began hosting duties we have always had at least a couple old school video game cosplayers.  For this week's OP I'm going with the opening of what has remained my favorite RPG since first playing it back in 1999.  When the original version of Grandia was released on the Saturn in 1997 it was considered to be the pinnacle of traditional RPGs on the system.  A PlayStation conversion followed, which was localized into English and released in 1999.  The series would spawn sequels and spinoffs but this first game in the series is far and away the best title of them in my opinion.  To be honest, aside from the original the only other Grandia game I liked was Grandia III and it wasn't without its problems.  Funny enough, playing a demo of Grandia that was included with an issue of Official US PlayStation Magazine was what got me to buy the game way back when.  Proof that sometimes a demo does lead to a sale.

Celebrating An Era - 1990's!  Grandia (1997)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze7FPcxpQvI

[InsaneDavid]

A word from your host:

Hi everyone, this is David from Mokkori Cosplay.  First off, an apology for being MIA for a while.  Everything is good, just been busy with life and work and and the time of the year and everything else.  With that all said, I'm going to start spinning things up here again in preparation for Fanime 2022, with the goal to have weekly posts once more.

Cosplay Gatherings Department has begun to reach out in preparation for the upcoming convention.  As things stand, we are still on for Friday evening at 6pm at location G3.  Of course everything is subject to change and we will fully follow convention, convention center, city, county, and state requirements and regulations - which as you know are subject to being in flux.  If you've ever been to the Old School (Pre-2001) Gathering during my years as host, you know it has always been about celebration and safety for those of us who represent anime's history and the fandoms that created anime cons to begin with.  I wouldn't be a cosplayer if it wasn't for the Old School Gathering, and ensuring that you are able to be celebrated safely at FanimeCon is my top priority as host.

Fanime is more or less a half year away at this point.  A lot can happen in a half year.  Things can get a lot better, they can get a lot worse - but I remain optimistic.  If Fanime 2022 is an in-person convention that has gatherings, we will be there for you.  If it has to be outside, if it has to have specific restrictions and requirements - we will adapt.  If there's one thing I know about the retro anime fandom, it's that it perseveres.

Getting back to old school OP's and ED's - something a little different to kick off the year!  The pandemic has had an affect on everything to some degree, especially musicians.  J-MUSIC Ensemble is an awesome group of musicians who jam together performing classic video game and anime music, as well as tons of other stuff.  Let's start the year off with Patrick Bartley and Juna Serita covering the Theme from Lupin III '78 -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5SKH_gsj2g

[InsaneDavid]

Good afternoon old schoolers!

Wow, it's crazy to think that Fanime 2022 housing opens in two days.  I know the state of the pandemic isn't good right now and it may seem strange to think about going to a huge convention, especially staying at a hotel there.  However we all know the situation can change week to week, day to day.  Fanime is still over four full months away and things may look up considerably by then, it's impossible to predict one way or another.

Also to those outside of the San Jose area who may be confused by how slim the hotel list is this year, the problem is two fold.  Hotels in the downtown area have only recently begun to reopen in any realistic capacity, and the Fairmont San Jose has been closed since last March when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  It has since emerged with a new management contract and is slated to open sometime this year (2022) under "Signia Hilton San Jose" branding.  That's a huge chunk of rooms that are still a bit of an unknown at this time, not to mention how panels may shakeout without their ballrooms.  Of course, if that does reopen in a couple months, that could be a lot more housing added sometime later and panels may be business as usual - who knows.

Getting back to old school anime openings and endings - here's a bit of a nostalgia curveball for some.  If you watched Nickelodeon in the late 1980's - early 1990's you may remember a cartoon called Noozles about a stuffed koala who can be brought to life by rubbing noses with it.  The koala is in fact an extra-terrestrial named Blinky, and along with his sister Pinky, he goes on adventures under the care of his human friend Sandy.  The series is Japanese in origin and aired on Japanese television in 1984 as The Wondrous Koala Blinky.  For a kid's show, especially an anime kid's show that was reworked for English broadcast, it gets pretty out there... like, really out there.  I haven't seen it in a long time but I think I need to download it soon and give it another watch (you can find the complete English version on Archive).

Celebrating An Era - 1980's!  The Wondrous Koala Blinky (1984)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJeNN9NFTI0

[InsaneDavid]

Good afternoon old schoolers!

For this week I'm going with an OP that I am so happy to see online again.  For whatever reason it was always "the one that gets taken down immediately."  Blue Seed is an awesome series with a spectacular opening and a rocking theme song.  It's also a series that was hugely popular during the 90's anime boom in the West and is also a series that became almost completely forgotten after.  It was featured in our Vintage Anime - Name That Year panel in 2019 and has been rescued and re-released by Discotek as SD on Blu-ray.

I consider it Devil Hunter Yohko with a bigger cast or Evangelion with less hardware.  Now I get some flack for comparing it to Evangelion but hear me out on that... Ancient mythology mixed with modern government intrigue, spiritually superpowered children drafted by a gray organization to save humanity, and a young main character cast into the middle of it all - as it is their fate whether they agree or not.  It also has my vote for being the "most 90's anime."  Give it a look, it deserves way more attention these days and has both great visual style and an interesting story.

Celebrating An Era - 1990's!  Blue Seed (1994)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MihlQ4aLh8

[InsaneDavid]

Good late evening old schoolers!

I has been a long, long, long time since I've updated.  I apologize for that!  Everything is still moving along as usual (well, as usual as usual is these days), things have just been busy outside of FanimeCon stuff.  With that said, the intent is to move back to weekly posts, with an occasional mid-week like this one.  The only change of years previous is we will be shifting the gathering location outside, as part of a safety requirement request, with more information to follow once we are confirmed for a specific location.  We will still be ON SITE at the convention center, just not at our usual indoor perch where we had been since 2018.  Again, more details to follow once we're confirmed.

Let's get things moving here again...

Celebrating An Era - 1990's!  Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU21rCWkuJw

[InsaneDavid]

Good late evening old schoolers!

Just a quick post tonight, as the gathering has been approved and made official.  As per tradition, it will occur on Fanime Friday at 6pm.  However due to an outdoor requirement for gatherings this year, we will be moving to a new location.  We will be at Gatherings G7, The Slab - the raised area outside between the video rooms and Hilton.  All gatherings areas were considered and G7 is the most similar to where we are usually located inside, and will give us a similar degree of space and protection for the dedicated group that our gathering is known for.

In the next couple weeks I'll provide a map for those who are unfamiliar with the location of G7 or how to get there easily from what was our previous location.

[InsaneDavid]

Good late evening old schoolers!

Here is a map that will show you how to get to the Gatherings G7, The Slab location, starting at either the main entrance to the convention center or the area where we were in 2018 and 2019 (Gatherings G3).  Note that the maps of the street level don't show the large second floor ballroom expansion where Artist's Alley is generally located, as it's facilities operations space beneath, but I've filled it in so the map is more accurate to the actual layout.

Do not stop at Gatherings G8 (The Hilton Tree Walkway), keep going all the way to the end and up the little set of stairs to reach G7 - The Slab.



REMEMBER - There is NO ACCESS to G7 - The Slab from inside the convention center concourse!  If you attempt to go through the fire doors you will set the alarm off.  You have to approach G7 from the sidewalk along side San Carlos Street, either from the front of the convention center or by walking around the Hilton.

I have also added this information to the second post in this thread!

[InsaneDavid]

Good late evening old schoolers!

Apologies for stepping away for a bit, a lot going on outside of Fanime stuff.  Do know you can always reach me on the forums, or by posting in the Facebook Event Page (for when Facebook actually sends me the notification - which it doesn't always do).  We're getting pretty close to the convention weekend and things are still all systems go for the gathering.  Remember we are at a different location than in years previous due to safety requirements - look at the beginning of the forum thread or the pinned Facebook Event Page post for details!

I'm ALWAYS active on the Fanime forums, probably one of the most active people on the forums these days, so remember you can always contact me there.  I'm going to get back into the frequent updates and start to push promotion for the gathering.  That begins again tonight with one of my favorite series from the end of the old school era.  Dai-Guard is both an homage and parody - to both the super robot and real robot genres - that pits a group of office workers in a cheaply constructed giant robot against mysterious giant creatures, in the physics and red tape of the real world.  It's a lot of fun and is currently in print as a single box set after being rescued a few years ago.

Celebrating An Era - 1990's!  Earth Defense Corporation Dai-Guard (1999)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch8Zq10_luA