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Answerman - Why Did So Many OVA Series End Prematurely?

Hellsoldier wrote:

In other words, Yuri is in a better position than Yaoi is. Hell, some Yuri is critically acclaimed (i.g. Aoi Hana/Sweet Blue Flowers).

I don't know about better position... there is certainly a LOT more yaoi made than yuri. Yuri isn't as popular amongst straight men as yaoi is amongst straight women. I'd say yuri has the quality and yaoi has the quantity. There are plenty of yuri as you mentioned that deal with the subject respectfully without the fetish element. Sailor Moon, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Sweet Blue Flowers, Bodacious Space Pirates, Yuri Kuma Arashi, and Sasameki Koto are a few but there are others. However due to the large yaoi fanbase I feel like yaoi's always going to be a more popular, even if there are some women (myself included) that enjoy both yuri and yaoi.

Hellsoldier wrote:

Nowadays, over 80% of Japanese between 18-30 are supportive of the acceptance of Homosexuality and Bisexuality. From 30-50, I think it's around 52% or something, not sure. More females than males, usually... I guess Anime did a good job here

I don't know if anime can really take credit for this, esp. given that otaku of both genders are a minority of the population. Women have historically been more accepting of homosexuality when compared to men in the same age group and the same nationality. Sources here at the bottom of the page, and here towards the middle (ctrl+f search for gender) I hear the common theories on why is that feminism and gay rights go hand in hand. I think maybe it's because as we grow up we're told its totally normal to be affectionate with our same sex friends. We can hold hands, hug a lot and even sleep in the same bed and no one really cares much. Guys on the other hand seem to get discouraged from these things by their family or peers. Guys too I used to notice too often threw around homobophic slurs as an insult more often. So maybe earlier on their brains associate homosexuality as being abnormal or 'other'.

Sorry for getting a bit off topic but if anyone wants a good yuri OVA there's always Fight! Iczer One! lol I suppose maybe yaoi/yuri was more confined to OAVs because it was seen as controversial back then. Now we have yuri and yaoi tv series all over the place.

Take My Revolution

In my book, those are very open-ended ways to sign-off a show. It felt to me like the producers were counting on the OVAs bringing in good revenue, but when that didn't come to fruition, they pulled the plug. I don't know how the OVAs fared in Japan, but they gave me that feeling.

MarshalBanana wrote:

I've seen/checked out a fair number of these OVAs and most of them blur together. Cyberpunk setting, same city, dark blue generic looking buildings...

There certainly were a few Cyberpunk OVAs from that time but that's only a small slice of the pie. I am a fan of that genre and I can only name 7 OVAs between the 80's and mid-90's that I would call "cyberpunk":
-Bubblegum Crisis (+ its spinoffs AD Police and Bubblegum Crash)
-Cyber City Oedo
-Angel Cop
-Appleseed
-Battle Angel
Perhaps there are a handful more that I missed or are debatable as to whether or not they are "cyberpunk"....but out of the hundreds of OVAs made that's a small drop in the bucket.

By the way, if anyone remembers anything they consider to be an old-school cyberpunk OVA please let me know and thanks in advance.

In the cyberpunk genre, I would also add:
- Armittage III

Other OAVs I quite like:
- Angel Densetsu
- Black Magic M66
- Freedom
- Gall force
- Gunbuster
- Homeroom Affairs
- Hotori : Tada Saiwai wo Koinegau
- Locke the Superman
- Macross Plus
- Pale Cocoon
- Plastic Little
- Project Blue Earth SOS
- Shinigami no Ballad
- They were 11
- TO

Other OAVs I quite like:

Does anyone remember My Dear Marie? That was the first OVA I ever bought! I was going to buy Devil Hunter Youko but it looked a little too risque and I had only turned 14 or 15. Anime hyper

And MDM had a great dub for its time. The script and actors were very funny!

You could also argue for h-anime that needed sequels and never got them, since they too are OVAs. Front Innocent, Angel Blade Punish, and Soreyuke Marin-chan are immediate examples that stay fresh in the mind because they basically left off with a ton of story left to tell and ideas yet to be explored. Front Innocent especially because it even previewed the next episode that never happened during the credits. Angel Blade Punish showcased another facet of the villain at the very end that left me desperately wanting to see more of her in the future. This happens incredibly frequently in hentai, so the list you could come up with is virtually endless as very few plot-oriented hentai reach any kind of real conclusion, which is why I like that normal latenight TV anime have gotten so raunchy over the last few years, to make up for the lack of what h-anime provides in terms of episode count.

I have to admit, I used to regard the OVA era in a very biased positive light, but after taking off the goggles and sifting through the ones in my backlog, my god, there was a LOT of crap.

You could also argue for h-anime that needed sequels and never got them, since they too are OVAs. Front Innocent, Angel Blade Punish, and Soreyuke Marin-chan are immediate examples that stay fresh in the mind because they basically left off with a ton of story left to tell and ideas yet to be explored. Front Innocent especially because it even previewed the next episode that never happened during the credits. Angel Blade Punish showcased another facet of the villain at the very end that left me desperately wanting to see more of her in the future. This happens incredibly frequently in hentai, so the list you could come up with is virtually endless as very few plot-oriented hentai reach any kind of real conclusion, which is why I like that normal latenight TV anime have gotten so raunchy over the last few years, to make up for the lack of what h-anime provides in terms of episode count.