Vintage Anime Thread

[J.Z.Castillo]

I LOVE vintage anime! There's so many good series out there! I realize younger people might not be able to participate on this thread, but hey, you never know.

What is your favorite vintage anime?

Here are the rules:

1. The anime must have started ON or BEFORE the year 2000
2. Try to avoid super-popular anime (like Evangelion, One Piece, and Dragon Ball for example) even if they started on or before the year 2000
3. Provide a video or image of the anime
4. Give a small summary (name, genre, and plot) NO SPOILERS THOUGH!
5. Tell us why you love it!

B't X

I LOVE these series! I have all the manga volumes (which were extremely difficult to get, like WTF!), the light novels, and the DVDs and VHS tapes lmao! Anyway, B't X (Beat Ex) is a mecha anime about this guy who goes looking for his brother after he is kidnapped by the Machine Kingdom. This kingdom wants to create extremely powerful AI and weaponize it to take over the world. There are robot battles in the sky, explosions, and I can promise you you will cry at least once. It's a really good series! I recommend it to anyone who's into mecha, action, and drama anime!

[jennula]

Okay, I loved this as a teen 100 years ago, and re-watched it recently and still love it: Slayers! Humoristic fantasy with super powerful mage Lina Inverse (who is also kind of a brat) and the dumb swordsman Gourry Gabriev with his sword of light. They have adventures, meet ridicolous enemies, even more ridiculous allies and sometimes things get a bit serious too. But I'm all in for the character dynamics and humour <3

[Kura]

Outlaw Star
Honestly I don't remember much about it, just that I LOVED it back when I watched it as a kid. Space adventures of a rag tag group of characters doing stuff, making money to fix their crap ship and I think they might have been looking for something. Had an opening that I friggen loved. For the most part I think I mostly watched this one because I really enjoyed the character's and their chemistry.

Turn A Gundam
Earthlings are living in a world where technology is old, (think steam driven stuff) while the Moonrace are humans who left earth after a war and live on a tec advanced society on the moon. Some members of the Moonrace are sent down to live on earth though must keep their heritage secret because Earthlings are very racist toward the Moonrace due to the bad terms their ancestors left the Earth in. Also has A gundam with a mustache, with the wars, politics and racial tension and themes familiar with the Gundam series.

This is one of the few gundam series that never actually got an English dub, I'm still waiting on that. It's also slow compared to other series, but for some reason, I just got attached to the main character really quickly and overall really liked it.

Great Teacher Onizuka
An ex-gang member who became a teacher because he thought it would be 'an easy way to pick up younger chicks' since school girls show a lot of respect to teachers. After going through school becoming a teacher though he discovers that he has a conscience and sense of morality that keeps him from taking advantage of the girls that put their trust in him, after realizing that they look up to and need an adult they can trust, cares and understands them, he decideds to try and become THE BEST TEACHER EVER. The schools are against him though because of his past as a gang member and give him the class with the worst students in the school who have managed to get rid of several teachers before him, as well as constantly do things to get in his way and make him lose his teaching license.

This series is probably the one that made me a sucker for the 'bad ass that turns out to have a heart of gold' trope. I enjoyed the comedy and the character development and the way Onizuka would develop bounds and earn the trust of his students who were delinquents, had bad attitudes or were just given up on by teachers was great.

For series probably counts as popular stuff... buut I'm not sure since watching stuff on the internet was NOT easy back then so you were very much limited to what was available in your Country and different things were popular in different countries (unless you REALLY went digging) Rurouni Kenshin, Berserk, Card Captor Sailor, Other Gundam series, Hunter x Hunter (though that one was not popular at the time, but has become popular now with the reboot)

[phoenixrenaissance]

@kurapikasuki If I could like your post multiple times for OutlawStar, I would. Prob still one of my top 5 anime.

I'm a 90's kid so I pretty much grew up watching the 2000 and after so let's what I remember. And 'm not so good at summaries so these are gonna a be a bit rushed/half-assed.

Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040
A reboot of an OVA I believe. 4 awesome vigilante women in normal sized mecha suits. Their earlier missions involve taking out corrupted robots that become pretty disgusting robots. The story gets more complex. Big time secrets and my personal favorite, robots with consciousness.

Big O
Just barely makes it in to the tale end of the 90's. I don't like a lot of giant robts but when it includes (once again) robots with consciousness, the mystery of a whole city having collective amnesia and some other neat psychological themes than I'm in. Also the style of the show is just super neat. And that cat episode hurts me every time.

Gundam 8th MS Team
Read as the only Gundam series that I made it through. I haven't watched it in a long time so memory's a bit fuzzy but I remember enjoying it quite a bit. Some sort of Romeo/Juliet plot going on. All in all, I just remember there being more personal interactions/drama rather then the political fare.

[StrangeVision]

Trying to avoid the more popular stuff, there's Gunsmith Cats from the 90s. It's about this bounty hunter and her kid sidekick demolition expert who run a gun shop by day in Chicago. Kind of a spinoff of Riding Bean, since Bean appears in the manga.
It's kind of gun porn at times, which is great.

Then there's City Hunter from the 80s about a private detective in Tokyo fighting crime and whatnot. Real 80s vibe, I love it.

The raw roughness, the pacing and the way the colors pop in older anime do it for me, I dislike most anime these days, especially if they utilize CGI too much.

[joannekwan]

Lupin III anyone?
One of my favorite anime movies, The Castle of Cagliostro.

The first Lupin III piece I watched, I was won over by the characters. The plot's really good for this particular adventure, full of action and mystery.

[UzukiCheverie]

My boyfriend has me watching Monster right now, and the moment you watch it you go "Yep this was definitely made for cable TV" lol It was created by Naoki Urasawa - the same guy who made 20th Century Boys - and is a pretty typical drama/crime anime, but it's not bad at all so far. But yes - it's very aged lol

I MEAN LOOK AT THIS OPENING JESUS CHRIST LOL SO OOOOLLLLD

[Mharz]

I actually prefer watching vintage animes than the newer ones.

@mrjonzap That is my childhood right there! I totally love the concept designs of Bt'x

Great Teacher Onizuka An ex-gang member who became a teacher because he thought it would be 'an easy way to pick up younger chicks' since school girls show a lot of respect to teachers.

Oh yeah! One of my favorites of all time!

I'll leave some as well!

You're Under Arrest

Story of the two of the most badass female traffic cops and their daily lives in and out of their work. I love how light-hearted this series and the fact that it doesn't focus on heinous crimes like almost all police series under the sun really appealed to me.

Cooking-master boy

I remember this when we used to have cable on our TV. I used to watch it on AXN. It's basically the story of Mao who became the youngest Master Chef. Like the title said, it's all about cooking.

Ranma 1/2

Okay I know you said avoid the popular ones but this is like one of my most favorite anime of all time. Ever. I'm pretty sure you guys are familiar with this but it's about a guy named Ranma transforms into a girl when soaked in cold water.

Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta Gundam, and Gundam ZZ



Three of them are a package. Basically I love the Universal Century Gundam series out of all the Gundam series out there. The universe is so elaborated they have like an entire timeline of history.

On a separate note here's another Gundam series. Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket

I just love how tragic this story is. Period.

[J.Z.Castillo]

@jennula YEEESSS!!!! Slayers was mah shiiieeett!!!! I love that anime!

Rurouni Kenshin, Berserk, Card Captor Sailor, Other Gundam series, Hunter x Hunter

Definitely popular stuff, lmao. I like that anime of the ex-gang member teacher! I'll check it out! And I didn't know about Turn A Gundam! I'll see that one, too! My favorite Gundam series was Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. That opening always gives the chills!

@phoenixrenaissance Tokyo 2040!!! YES! They had on Netflix a while back for like a month, I binged it in a weekend. Definitely one of my favorite series of all time! You'll like B't X, all the robots have consciousness and a blood pact with their riders, check it out!

The raw roughness, the pacing and the way the colors pop in older anime do it for me, I dislike most anime these days, especially if they utilize CGI too much.

Yeah, me, too! This si why I started this thread. I like the dirty, grittiness of older anime. Today's stuff is all very same same, nice colors, smooth backgrounds, BAD CGI (that new Berserk anime makes me want to stab my eyes out). City Hunter looks amazing! I'll give it a look!

@UzukiCheverie that is one of the best series of all time!!! Even though it aired in 2004, imma let it slip in the thread because it's so good and everyone should go see it! Let me know what you think of it when you finish it!

@avimHarZ you'd be surprised, Ranma 1/2 is not that popular lol which is a shame because it's a REALLY GOOD series!! Many people don't even know that Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha were created by the same author, Rumiko Takahashi.

[Menbung]

As I was reading the title, I was like "oh nice, a retro anime topic, cool, 70's, 80's so much retro". Then I read the description... anime from the 90's is considered vintage now????, I'm not old I promise!! =( . . .

Jokes aside, let's get it on! . Since I have to avoid the masterpiece of Evangelion, I'll go with:

Gunbuster

Master Hideaki Anno's directorial debut. If you like Evangelion, Gurren Lagann, look no futher, this is the start of all Gainax Mecha. A young girl following her father's footsteps rides a giant new weapon, the gunbuster!, to defeat an alien invasion. Starts like any other mecha series, filled with the chliches and tropes of the genre, but man o man! the second half of the series, namely OVA 3, 4, 5 and 6, I can't even.... the battle, the feels, the laws of physics... If you liked the artstyle of Kabaneri, well, this is the same guy that did those character designs, Haruhiko Mikimoto XD.

Cowboy Bebop

What an anime should be?, a masterpiece, one of the best animes of all time?, maybe =). A crew of bounty hunters travels the space in search of money!, kinda episodic, kinda with a backstory. It's funny, thrilling, action packed, sad, tragic, crazy, romantic, in the end, what life is!. If you haven't seen it, go watch it if u can. One of the best music in anime. Also, Spike can be one of the coolest characters ever, kinda like Lupin in a sense.

Shout out to all the fellow artists that mentioned those amazing animes, Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, City Hunter, Lupin the 3rd, Turn A, love em all. Cheers.

PD: Honorable mention to Revolutionary Girl Utena, the EVA of the Shojo genre.

[J.Z.Castillo]

cool choices but they fall under the popular category :/ let's try to dig up more obscure anime so everyone's library can grow! You can post ANY series older than 2000, it doesn't have to be from the 90s haha

[Menbung]

Oh, didn't know this was an obscure-vintage-anime topic. Thought it was your favorite vintage anime. Maybe you could be more clear about that in your description, that way peeps can dig deeper as you say. As far as I know all of the titles mentioned here are pretty popular =), And the lesser popular ones u didn't even mention em'. My bad I misunderstood this topic.

[Kura]

@mrjonzap yeah like I said not sure because I'm assuming you mean popular in the USA and I have no idea what is huge there, becaaaaaaaaause I don't live there, and for the most part I watched all of these before they got dubbed so I was already done with them / out of the loop by the time they got translated. Also when they were licence most of these were not very big in my country because they did not air on TV here (and if they did aired at 1am) and were very hard to get (weirdly enough Ranma 1/2, which counts as an less known one for you, was very well known here because for some reason even though it didn't air on TV it was REALLY easy to find and get)

Vision of Escaflowne was another I enjoyed, but I think that also may count as popular.

To add to the list

Kodomo no Omocha
This one I mostly watched because my little brother was obsessed with it and would watch it repetitively. I don't really know what it's about for the most part, mostly I remember REALLY hyper main character who was also a child actor, who had a crush on the boy she friggen hated. It was mostly spastic comedy and was actually not bad from what I watched. I also distinctively remember the main character talked so fast that the subtitles often had a hard time keeping up.

[acealmansoori]

This is a childhood anime I used to watch<3 Called Soar High Isami, I remember I used to ask someone to tape it for me since I had after school activities and I would come home to a film of 3 shows and sometimes the whole episode isn't showing lol.

[J.Z.Castillo]

Try to avoid super-popular anime (like Evangelion, One Piece, and Dragon Ball for example) even if they started on or before the year 2000

@Menbung thought this made it clear haha, but yeah, these anime get a lot of critical acclaim, they are on almost every list of "anime you should watch before you die omg" on the Internet lol

[Wolven_Sister]

I'll add some of my faves to the list:

Sorcerous Stabber Orphen
Six years ago at the magic school known as the Tower of Fang, a grave accident happened involving the magical sword Baltanders and the magic user Azali. Unable to control the sword's power, Azali was transformed into the shape of a great dragon who since that day became known as Bloody August. Krilancelo, a young magician at the Tower who cared greatly for Azali found much to his disgust that the elders of the Tower of Fang were less than willing to save Azali and wanted rather to pretend the accident never happened. Angered by their stand, Krilanceloa swore that he would find a way to return Azali to her former self. Thus he forsook the name Krilancelo and declared himself Orphen, leaving the Tower and his magical studies behind to wander the world...

I really loved this anime, I only watched the first season, but i loved the comedy, magic, well of course Orphen himself ;') I fell in love with each character and got seriously invested in their dilemmas.

The Jungle Book: The Adventures of Mowgli
After his parents died, Mowgli is raised by the Wolf Pack of the Seeonee Forest led by Akela and other wild animals such as Bagheera and Baloo. The young boy goes through several heartwarming, bittersweet, and life-threatening adventures as he seeks after his true purpose in life. And one of many dangers he has to face is the man-eating tiger, Shere Khan...

Another show I grew up with. I remember watching this really young on VHS tapes since that was the only way to get it back then. It wasn't on cable or anything. It's definitely a kid show, but it follows the original Rudyard Kipling story closer in some areas. Certain parts are dark, animals and people do die, but it displays important messages and lessons to kids. I still watch it on Youtube sometimes.

Blue Seed
Momiji is an average girl until the day she finds she is the descendant of the great Kushinada family. Only she, with her Kushinada blood, can stop the Aragami, demonic plant-like monsters threatening to destroy Japan. Along to help her is the TAC, and a possible love interest in a young man named Kusanagi.

No one EVER knows what I'm talking when I bring up this anime. They always think I'm talking about "Blue Gender" and I'm like "eheh...no" I remember watching this on VHS and renting it from Hollywood Video (at the time had the most anime selection to rent from). I was unable to finish the series since Hollywood Video only had the first tape which included three episodes at that time. But I fell in love with this anime. I loved the action, the "seeds" and they power they give, and the romance. It had everything I wanted in an anime. If I ever come across it again, I'm definitely gonna get it.

Dragon-Half
Mink—the daughter of a dragon and a retired dragonslaying knight—sets out on a journey to get tickets for a concert held by Dick Saucer, world-famous teen idol and dragon hunter. Meanwhile, the corrupt king of the land is trying to take her hostage to get at her mother, and his magic-using daughter seeks to foil Mink's quest out of sheer spite.

Another show no one ever knows what I'm talking about when I bring it up. This is is fantasy/comedy--and the jokes STILL hold up! I mean, this show is just hilarious! I love the jokes, and Mink the main character is such a lovable goofball. Although there's not too many episodes because the animation studio went bankrupt, I still suggest you check it out, but the manga series continued and was completed so there's that!

[Wolven_Sister]

omfg Outlaw Star is so awesome!! I'm so happy to have met another person whose seen it!! People always ask me what it's about and I have to descibe it as, think of something like Cowboy Bebop but more combat, alien cat-girls, and badass space fights.

[Kura]

Jungle Book: The Adventures of Mowgli

AHHHH the Mowgli anime!! I loved that so much as a kid I watched it all the time when I could (my TV couldn't get it so I watched it EVERY TIME I went to my cousins. I was REALLY young then though but loved it so much, I can't believe I didn't think of that one for my list. I'm hoping they do a DVD release or something cause I would love to watch that one again

[J.Z.Castillo]

I really loved this anime, I only watched the first season, but i loved the comedy, magic, well of course Orphen himself ;') I fell in love with each character and got seriously invested in their dilemmas.

Yo!!! Yes! Orphen is awesome! I actually use Krylancelo as my name when I play games like RPGs since it's almost never taken. They had the first season on Netflix a couple of years ago but they didn't have Revenge, which I still haven't seen lol. I need to get back on this one!

Blue Seed! I used to watch episodes whenever they were on but never in order and never finished it, I should watch that one, too haha. And that Jungle Book anime was on really early in the morning back in the day, I would only catch it when I woke up like at 7am on a Saturday

[jennula]

Oh yes, Lupin III, love it! <3 Castle of Cagliostro is one of my favourites!