Ask John: Which Older Anime Should Fans Search For?

Question:
In an earlier editorial you were lamenting that most old series go unnoticed and get little attention from fans and fansubbers. However- can you blame them? Very few old anime get much attention- just look all the anime magazines each month. They focus on what’s newest and soon to be hippest. You won’t see one of the magazines give Touch a cover issue and do a lengthy article on it. They promote DVDs for shows which companies license, which is usually new stuff. To an extent, the powers that be (companies that license new/recent stuff and magazines that repeatedly report on the newest and hippest stuff) are responsible for this cycle.

So I ask- what are some good old school anime currently fansubbed you’d recommend to viewers? And to fansubbers out there who keep hearing about and only going after the newest shows, what old shows would you recommend to them that they should sub instead?

Answer:
Because I work for an anime specialty retailer I have a better than average familiarity with what American anime fans and consumers spend their money on. I can confirm from first hand experience that older anime titles do not sell remotely as well in America as contemporary productions. Older anime titles including Battle Royal High School, The Humanoid, Urusei Yatsura, Dirty Pair, Mobile Suit Gundam, Crusher Joe, Ariel, Amon Saga, Cleopatra D.C., Lupin the Third 2nd TV series, Dunbine, Maison Ikkoku, Dragonball, Iczer-One, Soar High Isami, Great Detective Holmes, Birth, St. Seiya, and many others do not sell briskly. The minimal interest in older anime in America may be partly blamed on the quality of some of the titles available in America but also reflects the market itself. I honestly believe that the average American anime fan isn’t interested in watching anime that’s older than him/herself. Present day American consumers have grown up with contemporary anime, are used to contemporary anime, and prefer to spend their limited finances on popular, trendy, current shows rather than dated material.

It should come as no surprise that contemporary American anime magazines like Newtype, Anime Insider, and Protoculture Addicts focus most of their coverage on contemporary shows. Early American professional fanzines including Animag, Animezine, and Animenominous frequently addressed obscure and vintage titles because their goal was to generate awareness and appreciation of anime and manga. The primary goal of contemporary commercial magazines is not to educate fans. The goal of magazines like Newtype and Anime Insider is to sell copies and earn profit for their publishers. Current major magazines cover and promote primarily only modern shows because the magazines are tailored around the interests of their consumers. You can legitimately argue that magazines like Newtype contribute to a cycle of focus on only contemporary anime, but consumers are also part of the cycle. Magazines would cover a wider variety of anime if consumers were interested in a wider variety of anime.

I don’t like to recommend specific anime titles because I believe that every viewer should let his or her own interests determine what to watch. I think the anime fans enjoy anime more, and learn more about anime by investigating it on their own. You can learn just as much from something bad as you can from something good. But I don’t object to discussing anime I’ve personally watched or happen to have opinions about. In fact, although there are still countless anime titles that have never been translated into English, there are actually very few significant anime titles that haven’t been made available to English speaking anime fans at all. Titles including Takarajima, Ashita no Joe, Heidi of the Alps, Cutey Honey, Ideon, Miyuki, Glass Mask, Mazinger-Z, Heavy Metal L-Gaim, Panzer World Galient, and High School! Kimengumi, just to name a few, are vintage shows that have been introduced to the American fan community through fan translations, but still aren’t well known. Fans who are interested in developing a more holistic familiarity with anime ought to look up some of these series, just to see what they’re like.

There are also highly influential, historically significant vintage titles that have not been introduced to American fans. I’m not aware of any existing English language translations of Sazae-san anime, even though this longest running animated series of all time is still airing new episodes in Japan. Likewise, I don’t think any of the original Patalliro television series has ever been widely exposed to the American fan community, despite the fact that a new Patalliro TV series started this year. Kyojin no Hoshi, Moomin, Memoru in the Pointed Hat, Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro, and Jarinko Chie are beloved Japanese shows that are practically unheard of in America. There have been numerous entire series in the Time Bokan franchise, and the Time Bokan OAV series was released in America, where it promptly flopped, probably because almost no one in America has ever heard of the Time Bokan anime. Bandai has canceled its plans to release the Giant Gorg and SPT Layzner anime series in America, depriving American fans of an opportunity to discover these popular early 80s robot shows. The 95 episode long Maitchingu Machiko-sensei ecchi comedy was recently released on Japanese DVD, and is now the basis of a live action Japanese movie while the original anime is still completely unknown in America. Gainax considered Fairy Princess Minky Momo important enough to commemorate its debut in the Otaku no Video anime, yet Minky Momo remains obscure in America.

There are also numerous older anime titles, of varying quality, that were once legitimately available from American anime distributors but no longer are. Titles including Gunbuster, Grey: Digital Target, Galaxy Express 999 movies 1 & 2, Ai City, Dancougar, Raven Tengu Kabuto, Phantasia, Hong Lang, Barefoot Gen, Scramble Wars and Ten Little Gall Force, Dragon Century, Blue Sonnet, Lilly C.A.T., Lensman, A.W.O.L., Ergheiz, Eat-Man, Ultimate Teacher, Leda, Gunnm, Twilight of the Cockroaches, Night on the Galactic Railroad, Silent Mobius movie 1, and Robot Carnival, just to name a few, were considered suitable and viable official American releases at one time. And at least a few of these titles dearly deserve to be rediscovered and re-released in America.

And finally, 80s and early or mid 90s anime titles such as To-y, Bobby ni Kubittake, Nineteen, Take the X Train, Twilight Q, Angel’s Egg, Dragon’s Heaven, the Neighborhood Story movie, Gosenzosama Banbanzai, Ryokunohara Labyrinth, and Good Morning Althea are excellent examples of the unique visual and cinematic style of “Golden Era” anime that’s now virtually extinct. Watching anime like these titles provides contemporary viewers with a field of reference and familiarity with an exciting, dynamic style of anime that many contemporary viewers have probably never experienced.

It’s not my intention to encourage video piracy or sharing unauthorized copies of anime. I’m not listing titles specifically as recommendations to fan translators. I’m just pointing out a small selection of noteworthy older titles that I think some American anime fans would find interesting or enlightening. It’s fine to prefer contemporary anime, but an anime fan is, in my definition, someone who likes all types of anime, and anime certainly consists of more than just the latest, trendiest shows.