Forum - View topicTen Old-School Anime Classics You Can Watch Streaming Right Now
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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And let's not cut ourselves too much on that Edginess, either. 
Sailor Moon was brought over by the Power Rangers producers hoping they could whitewash anything else Japanese (yes, we've all seen the YouTube clip, thank you) and get a piece of the toy marketing, and Dragon Ball Z came out of syndicators trying to follow on the "kiddy" success of whitewash-dubbing Dragon Ball: Classic for afternoon stations because it was cheaper than animating their own cartoons. But Ranma wasn't in everyone's afterschool-TV faces like Samurai Pizza Cats, and it wasn't in that guarded back VHS-shelf of the comic-book store like AD Vision's Demon Hunter Yohko--It was fueled by a big corporate Manga giant that wanted to get a bit of diverse product outreach for a targeted fan demographic that no one yet knew whether there was enough of yet, say "Look, your favorite manga characters speak!", and had the push to get Ranma and Maison Ikkoku into mainstream commerce. Before that, all we had was Carl Macek trying to shock us with how "weird!" Akira and Fist of the North Star were, and went down with his own ship when he tried to embrace the new series culture that didn't want hit-and-run art features. Like Record of Lodoss Wars--try finding anyone who still watches that--Ranma was one of the early series where manga fans could extend their fandom into the college anime culture, and the college anime culture now had something over-the-counter to buy that was already professionally subbed and dubbed. And the show was approachably un-whitewashed "Japanese" but internationally funny at the same time (they live in a dojo and learn martial arts, but the stubborn daughter brains our hero with a coffee table) to fight the mainstream "Tentacle porn!" image that this foreign Japanimation thing they'd heard about was too "weird" or humorless to show their impressionable children. If you think Ranma is icky because you want to keep fan grudges going for twenty years, FINE. That's why you said it was your column and not ANN's. Some here will still probably be whining about Sword Art Online twenty years later, whether it's still around or not. But it's not "geek nostalgia", or short-memory based on store shelves, to say that this series is in the Hall of Fame (I thought UY was the funnier Rumiko series, m'self, but in a completely different style, missed out on the Suncoasts, and harder to show a first-timer), or that it still pushes the same subversively addictable hook-buttons with first timers that it did twenty years ago. I'm not saying you still desire to "punish" the Show That Ran Too Long with "deserved" obscurity, but hey, it's Old, it's On, and it's a Classic. In qualification for the article, you can't argue with the first two. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13566 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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On Hulu, they have the original "Speed Racer" dub. I believe it is 1 of the 3 oldest TV anime with legal streams. The other 2 are the original "Astro Boy" and "Gigantor" dubs.
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5840 Location: Virginia, United States |
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@anime world order
Don't know about your Suncoast comment. I sure didn't buy any porn at Suncoast. But I do have a lot of the Ranma 1/2 vhs tapes, and the DVD's that followed. Then again, was Suncoast even a thing back then. Of course, being in the Navy I was a bit out of the normal loop of things, I remember buying the Tenchi Muyo laserdisc's at the Navy Exchange. Guess it was the same place I got Ranma 1/2 also. Will have to disagree with you on Ranma 1/2 though, I really didn't like Rumiko Takahashi's other stuff that much though Urusei Yatsura did come close.. |
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CoreSignal
 Posts: 727 Location: California, USA |
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I'm glad a lot of these older titles are available. Even as an older anime fan, I admit I've never seen Captain Harlock or Dirty Eden, which I remember as classics back in the day that I missed out on on. For some reason, I could never get into the Patlabor TV series. I love the movies and watched them first, and I just found the TV series too wacky for my taste. Maybe I'll give another shot.
I have to disagree with jroa. I watched FotNS for the first time around 3 or 4 ;years ago, and I had a great time watching it. The ripped dudes, violence, and melodrama basically make FotNS a manly soap opera. I like to think of it as almost a shonen show with (mostly) manly dudes. Also, I would take Daryl's advice on how to watch the show for anyone interested. Just watch a couple of the early episodes and then you can just skip to episode 41 and watch the rest. |
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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With the saturation of popular VHS, and the new '99-'00 explosion of DVD after the war ended, Suncoasts were not only a thing EVERYWHERE, in every mall, but one of the few chains like Media Play and FYE that stocked the mainstream anime titles from Viz, Pioneer and CPM as its own section. (At least, until Amazon crushed the brick-and-mortar video-sale stores.) That made them the anime fans' Safe-House, and "Suncoast" and "Media Play" became the main symbolic buzzword for keeping up with your expensive new anime habit--It's a lot more than nostalgia-hypnosis for "the only things we could buy back then" that makes us fondly remember Tenchi or Slayers, but actually being able to buy them in the same places we bought our cool movies was very helpful to early mainstream saturation. You could also buy Dominion and Serial Experiment Lain over the counter everywhere you turned, but who watches those today? The fact that anime itself was more mainstream on television--before it became the stuff of Lazy Horny Internet-Addicted Otaku--meant that the "Old-School" 80's and 90's titles had more universal crossover appeal, and could appeal to wider audiences and even kid audiences curious to try. Tenchi Universe/Tokyo seem practically fresh-faced and innocent compared to what passes for harem comedy today, and that they're still showing it on HuluPlus, you can prove it for yourself, which is the point of the article. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14773 |
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T'was Media Play, Suncoast, Sam Goody then before Best Buy |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16939 |
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Just a little FYI Media Play, Suncoast, & Sam Goody were all owned by the same parent company Musicland. Musicland going bust was also one of the big factors in the anime bubble burst as well. They were a big investor over there if I am not mistaken. Once Musicland went belly up FYE bought the remaining Suncoasts/Sam Goody stores I think. I worked for Suncoast/SamGoody for a few years in college. Pay was shit and no benefits but that employee discount was amazing. Made buying anime, and imported European heavy metal cds, a lot easier. Nothing like going through the weekly shipment that had new anime single dvd releases. Getting first crack at the old art boxes the dvd singles came with for series. |
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StudioToledo
 Posts: 847 Location: Toledo, U.S.A. |
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I'm just glad anyone remembers Media Play at all, that was my Go-To place for a lot of stuff 20 years ago and it was a sad time when they finally left. Surprised F.Y.E. still around at all, though I see the nearest location to me is some 20 miles out in Monroe at a dying mall I loved going to when it was new. |
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