Forum - View topicThe Mike Toole Show - Let's Talk It OVA
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
|
|||||
I thought that "OAV" was the original term in Japan, but it fell out of favor because of confusion with Original Adult Video. Some people still prefer OAV. From the article: "El Hazard ... maybe it's for the best that they never made ... a magical girl parody featuring Alielle and the talking cat that turns into a suit of armor." I strongly disagree. 
That has the potential to be even better than Magical Project S. The world needs more yuri magical girls. 
It has been a long time since I watched El-Hazard. I remember that I enjoyed all of it, but back then I liked a lot of things that I probably would not like as much now. I have all of it on DVD and plan to watch it again before too long. The important word there is "plan." 
I also have have Video Girl Ai and Key the Metal Idol in my backlog. Two more things that I "plan" to watch soon. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
isahackjob
Posts: 55 |
|
|||||
|
Most of Deep Blue Fleet is up un-subetitled on youtube if anyone wants to check it out.
Zipang and Final Countdown are still the top weird alt-ww2 videos, but DBF Is surprisingly good looking for how old it is. |
||||||
|
||||||
penguintruth
 Posts: 8461 Location: Penguinopolis |
|
|||||
|
Boy did Kajishima bury Tenchi Muyo under a mountain of incompetence. I'm trying not to think about it too much, because I'll get an anger stroke. But needless to say, it's like Weekend at Bernie's.
The best OVAs, of course, are Giant Robo, Gundam 0080, Bubblegum Crisis, and Macross Plus. They're the super stars of OVAdom. Though, well, actually nobody in Japan cares about Imagawa's stuff, so Giant Robo is out, and most people have even forgotten about BGC. But that leaves Macross and Gundam! Iria is one of those things where the universe it takes place in holds up a little better than either the plot or characters, outside of Iria herself. There's nothing really that remarkable about the events of the OVA, and it doesn't hold up all that well after all. But it's still somewhat enjoyable. I'm not ashamed owning a copy, which I bought for a song on the last day of an Otakon. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6867 Location: Kazune City |
|
|||||
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
DmonHiro
|
|
|||||
|
While I, personally, enjoyed the heck out of the original Tenchi OVA (that weird, 3rd season not included), I adore Magical Project S. I'll never forget the battle between sexy and dandy.
|
||||||
Ji-L87
 Posts: 30 Location: SE, STHLM area |
|
|||||
I think it's pretty great. I like the drawing style - it's semi realistic and well detailed, the color pallette is really gentle and warm with some bloom here and there and the music video segments makes it really interesting. I also need to thank NINETEEN 19 for introducing me to Toshiki Kadomatsu, as the songs from him they used here are fantastic and works wonders for the overall feeling & atmosphere. Spent quite some time during spring and summer to listen through (and purchase!) his music. But maybe that's just me
Regarding the rest of the OVAs in that picture, I've seen Desert Rose and Natsuki Crisis as well - the latter I'm really fond of. Great fun with rocking tunes, again, really like this particular 90s drawing style. I bought the first volume of the manga for fun, sadly I don't feel it holds up nearly as well - was still interesting to work my way through though. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
nargun
Posts: 925 |
|
|||||
|
Luna Varga!
I picked up a second-hand import [because it never got an aus release] of Luna mfn varga at my local second-hand shop. Also vs 1 and 3 of Rayearth, but by all accounts missing v2 won't make the story any less coherent. Now, to see if my vhs deck still works. |
||||||
|
||||||
trilaan
 Posts: 1054 Location: Texas |
|
|||||
|
This was a great article. I am always on the lookout for a new OVA to watch so I'm super glad for all these suggestions.
El Hazard is one of my all-time favorites and everyone I show it to loves it to death. If that new blu-ray release doesn't get a stateside release sometime soon I'll definitely import it(something I have ever only done twice for the light novel series The Most Irresponsible Man in Space, AKA The Irresponsible Captain Tylor and A Record of the Delfinian War). The dub for El-Hazard is one of the best ever. I also discovered Iria through The Sci-Fi Channel's airings of it and quickly became a fan of the first live-action movie as well. I have some favorite 90's OVAs I was kinda sad you didn't mention such as Moldiver, the story begins with a guy who invents a transformation device to turn him into the superhero Captain Tokyo! It's not really about him because the device is quickly usurped by his younger sister who decides to make it more "fashionable" and then she becomes a superhero looking for love. There's also Twin Signal, a 2-episode OVA based on a manga about a young boy and his robot protector, named Signal, who transforms into a super-deformed, child-like, chocolate-loving version whenever the boy sneezes in his presence(it was a programming error). It's one of the few OVAs I've seen that desperately made me want to read the manga of which ONE volume was eventually released in the states. I also have a fondness for Idol Project which is a 4-episode parody series that, to cut it down to size, is about idols participating in a series of alien idol competitions on a distant planet. In fact, a double feature of Idol Project and Elf Princess Rane(2 episodes, very weird, "Gotchabagoose!") would make for a dizzyingly ridiculous double feature. And, of course, there is Photon: The Idiot Adventures which follows Photon, a very stupid, super strong boy(voiced by Naruto's Junko Takeuchi) on a desert planet who meets a space-faring young woman, Keyne, whom he practically marries by writing his "crest" or, more accurately, the word "Baka" on her forehead when he comes across her body in stasis. She's on the run from a vain, self-serving and flamboyant villain and his team of short, round, increasingly numbered and resilient henchmen. Man I can't help it, I gotta go look for some new(old) OVAs to watch! |
||||||
|
||||||
Greg Aubry
 Posts: 224 Location: Detroit, MI |
|
|||||
|
Moldiver's first few episodes are a blast! Unfortunately, the last few kind of wind down into a very typical dramedy that's not nearly as inspired as the goofy superhero comedy of that first handful. Very charming stuff that fans of both Tiger & Bunny and Ranma 1/2 would enjoy. (Ranma's OVAs are generally pretty good, if completely optional with regard to "needing to see where it all fits together with the TV show" IIRC.)
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
L stole my cookie!
Posts: 76 |
|
|||||
|
Y'know what OVA I hated? Wild Cards. It's the epitome of mediocrity.
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
Taskforce
Posts: 72 |
|
|||||
|
It surprises me that he didn't mention two of the heavy hitters of that period. Namely Ah! My Goddess and 3x3 Eyes. Those are easily as iconic as Tenchi, El Hazard, Video Girl Ai or others mentioned.
Then again, here are a few other early 90's OVA's not mentioned in the original article that I found quite enjoyable that were at one time released in the US (though not all of them to DVD) Detonator Orgun. This has been released on DVD in the US. It seems to be out of print now. Genesis Survivor Gaiarth. (which animeigo spelled Surviver for some reason), This never came to DVD in the US and it is a shame it didn't. It really is quite under-appreciated. I have the Laserdisc but sadly no LD player anymore. But I don't part with them because of the lack of a DVD. Long since out of print by Animeigo. Homeroom Affairs. This is definitely a type of guilty pleasure OVA because it is honestly not that good. Some people list it as adult but its no more adult than what comes on late night anime on TV these days. This is a story about a teacher who has a certain student that really enjoys sexually harassing him. This could be found on VHS once upon a time in the US. Very rare and hard to find these days. If you enjoyed stuff like I Dream of Mimi (Buttobi CPU) or 1+2=Paradise, both of which are also guilty pleasures, then you should check this one out if you find it (there is a VHS rip of ep 1 and a fansub rip of ep 2 out there, though not very good). I do not know if this had a Laserdisc release, I only know that it had a VHS release. Definitely never made it to DVD. Dragon Half. If you wanted an ova with a lot of toilet humor (literally), this was for you. This is available through Eastern Star today so you can own this one. The original release was by ADV Films back in the day. K.O. Beast. This was a somewhat interesting OVA series where humans were the bad guys. You've seen that a lot these days, but back then it was a bit of a fresher idea. It wasn't anything spectacular but it was a fun watch. Released by The Rightstuf Int. at one time and was available on DVD. Sadly, this is also out of print at this time. And one that didn't come out in the US but has a decent fansub out there... Bewitching Nozomi. A nice little boxing OVA from back in the early 90's. These are just a few off the top of my head that are less appreciated but can be enjoyable to watch for some. Last edited by Taskforce on Sun Oct 19, 2014 7:43 pm; edited 2 times in total |
||||||
|
||||||
|
pachy_boy
Posts: 1323 |
|
|||||
It seems sold out already on Amazon Japan, but as of this posting you can still get it on YesAsia or CDJapan. It's a limited edition release to begin with, so if you want to own it, don't wait too too long. |
||||||
|
||||||
EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
|
|||||
Video Girl Ai is straight out of my anime VHS-club days, and it's worth discovering-- Back when Megumi was Ranma and Lina Inverse, we couldn't get enough of that ultimate-uncute voice, but she made the "cute annoying" Ai a surprisingly likable and sympathetic character...In fact, both Youta and Ai end up with three-dimensional personalities transcending the "Horny teen" and "Girl in the bedroom closet" tropes of the 90's, resulting in some real sentimentality near the end. Anyone who doesn't figure out why the Horny Teen "has" to end up with the Girl in the Closet at the end just has to watch the chemistry between Y&A, in both the funny and heart-tugging scenes--Ai's got too much savvy to be a "protected" moe girl, and, unlike "wimpy" Tenchi, Youta really does come off as a Nice Guy. Oh, until it gets to that weird-@$$ acid-trip Ep. 5+6 ending, with Ai crucified and Youta walking on broken glass--The freakin' heck??
(And yes, the ED theme, out of many we remember from the 90's, could melt stone. Which fits perfectly with the series.  )
As for another article complaining about how the continued whoring of the Tenchi name doesn't "live up to" the original OVA...I grew up on the TV series, there IS no OVA.
(It's back?? Oh well, I've still got my ADV copy anyway.)
Think the creator of Dragon Half ended up in prison before the manga series could continue, but the OVA's one of the great "Could have been"'s of anime... Another one we used to show back in the club days, if UY, A-ko or Elf Princess Rane were too screwball as comedies to convert first-timers. You can always identify an old 90's anime fan, if he quotes either Shinesman lines, or "I, Damaramu, shall regret this..." Last edited by EricJ2 on Sun Oct 19, 2014 7:44 pm; edited 2 times in total |
||||||
|
||||||
jr240483
 Posts: 4378 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
|
|||||
That may be the case , but there are a lot of otakus that wouldnt have minded going back to that era. especially those that liked the high violent,sexual OVAs like Mad Bull 34 , Devil Man , Vampire Hunter D and Ninja Scroll. sure they wouldnt go for the VHS, but if it was a choice between the high violent era of anime and the cropped down kid / teen friendly era today , most of them would prefer that era.
Unfortunately you cant be surprised. the only thing that it likeable about that series and what fans really care for is the love story with makoto and the demon god ifurita. though that screw loose genai is what make the series funny.definitely cant disagree with that. however that's it. for one thing everything else about the characters arent as interesting and the two lebians fatora and alyelle are definitely the most disliked of the characters. especially fatora who is the most hated (which have been the MO for the men hating lesbian types ) and is probably the reason why she was never in the wanderers tv series. and the minute they made the alternative world like a psuedo harem with the intro of quallu tallice , it meant the end of the franchise. whereas in the tenchi series the main characters are all likeable though sasami and ryo-oki steal the show in popularity which is why that character have two magical girl spinoff series and OVA series. so moneywise you cant blame AIC for dumping el hazard for tenchi and milking the series for all its worth with these new spinoffs and short sequels ( Though personally they should find a way to end the series and have him choose someone for chirst sakes ).its kinda the way how toei and funimation have been milking the DB franchise for so many years now. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
trilaan
Posts: 1054 Location: Texas |
|
|||||
I am happy to say I have this on DVD and it is a lot of fun. A similar OVA title with animal people is Capricorn. You know, as long as the subject is up, Geobreeders(with humanoid "phantom" cats) is another favorite OVA of mine.
Thank you for the advice, I'll look into it soon.
I shall disagree(although it is very much a favorite), don't forget about us gender bender/alternate world/fish out of water trope nuts(just for some examples of other draws to the series). Last edited by trilaan on Sun Oct 19, 2014 7:49 pm; edited 1 time in total |
||||||
|
||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group