Absolute Anime

This thread is dedicated to what has come to be called Old School Anime. The purpose is to generate discussion regarding works that blazed the trail and laid the foundations for the creators of today’s Anime.

-What marked the transition form Cartoon to Anime?
-How old does a series have to be to be considered Old School?
-What are the most important Old School titles?
-Which Old School titles best transcend time and are just as good today as they were “way back when?”

... and anything else that adds to the discussion.

What marked the transition isn't clear, as there are still many that refer to anime as a cartoon. Some will say it's the story lines as anime tends to have more deep stories. I say that is rubish as there are anime that are just as light and fluffy as a cartoon.

How old to be oldschool?
That should probably be determind by when advances in animation changed the way it was done. Up till a few years ago all anime was done with the use of cels, now it is all done on a computer. But there is a different look between the anime from the 80's and the 90's. As far as I'm concerned it's not oldschool until it's past the age of being a classic. This will likely be debated.

Important oldschool titles.
Well the original Gundam should be up there. It was a first! As prior to Gundam all giant robot series were of the "super robot" types in that the hero had the only giant robot on their side or maybe the good guys had a very small number of them.

Gundam created a new genre called "realistic robots" or "giant robots at war", the giant robots were nothing more than a common engine of war and mass produced. Gundam started it all and soon other "giant robots at war" followed, Macross, AT Votoms, Dougram, Aura Battlers Dunbine. All mass produced, piloted by regular people for the most part, and expendable.

Urusei Yatsura, it brought Rumiko Takahshi name recignition in Japan and pretty much around the world. It also pretty much started the "exotic girlfriend" genre to which we now have various takes on this genre, Ah My Goddess, Tenchi Muyo (which is also a Harem type anime) to name a few.

Wasn't Robotech, Macross, one of the first animes to receive nation wide acknowledgment in the US?

I haven't seen the series, but I keep hearing that Robotech was the anime that brought anime into the spotlight in the US.

-How old does a series have to be to be considered Old School?
I think "Old School" is mroe of a style of performance than an age. Some anime that's more recent is still done in a more original framework.

-What are the most important Old School titles?
Gundam
Robotech
Ghost In The Shell (Original)
Akira

-Which Old School titles best transcend time and are just as good today as they were “way back when?”
See abve

Astro Boy is old school.

Old school super robot anime should be also up there. Stuff like
UFO Robo Grendizer
Mazinger Z
Great Mazinger
Getter Robo
Getter Robo G
Combattler V
Voltes V
Yuusha Raideen (Made by Yoshiyuki Tomino by the way)
Kotetsu Jeeg
Ninja Senshi Tobikage (although I'm not sure if this is super robot or real robot)
Daimos

Yes, Gundam is important for ushering the age of real robot anime, but the classic stuff is just as important. Mazinger Z should be given credit for being the first Super Robot anime made (Astro boy and Tetsujin 28 don't count as Super robot anime)

On another note, I just saw the movie Be Cool, and I noticed on the shelf in Uma Thurman's office are a bunch of super robot action figures. I recognized Getter Robo, Getter Robo G, Mazinger Z, and a few more that I can't remember. I thought that was cool.

Ah, Mazinger Z by Go Nagi the bad boy of manga. I was never big on the Super Robot genre, but TurnA you probably know the original names of the 2 series that in the states would be known as Voltron. Am I right?

Robotech maybe old school, but it's also a problematic issue. While Robotech did introduce anime to some in Japan it wasn't Robotech. Most older fans know Robotech was made by editing 3 completely unrelated series together. The original titles are-
Macross
Super Dimensional Calvary Southern Cross
Geneisis Climber Mospeda

You can thank Carl "The Razor" Macek for this.

I think so, they showed two Voltrons here in the Philippines a long time ago. The ones here were vehicle voltron and lion voltron. vehicle voltron's original name is Dairugger XXV, and the lion voltron's original name is... something Golion, I can't remember the first name, They didn't air the Voltrons very long in the Philippines.

I knew Robotech was made up of three different series, but I didn't know they were unrelated.

Yeah, They screwed up the storylines to make them all fit, which is why I've been looking for the original macross, not robotech

Yes, Carl "The Razor" Macek did it so Harmony Gold could sell a series into syndication. For that a series has to have over a certain number of episodes. By themselves each series did not have enough, with Macross haveing 36 episodes and Southern Cross and Mospeda only 25 or 26 each. Combined they made an 85 episode series which was enough for syndication.

Hamony Gold must have been suprized by the popularity they recieved from it at first, because after that Carl "The Razor" Macek hacked the first Megazone 23 up into a Robotech the movie that we can only hope will never see the light of day again.

It's scary to think that Harmony Gold is now with ADV, and still holds the license on Robotech. And as long as they still try to sell it as Robotech we may never get to see Macross as it originally was again. It was released once, but I haven't seen it lately.

How about the old school classic "Space Battleship Yamato" or it's US title "Star Blazers". One of Leiji Matsumoto's earliest works, and probably his best know one.

Oh yeah, I know that show! My uncle has the whole series on DVD (He loves old school anime more than I do). I have got to remember to ask if I could borrow it. Really hope its subtitled, older dubs really have a tendency to suck

Try to get an imported version of Macross. That may be the only way to get it now. Maybe you would luck out with an ebay search.

Older dubs are low quality, because they didn't quite know what they were doing back then. Sometimes I still don't think they know what they are doing now.

yeah, lol. I'm just gonna check around some of the local malls here, they sell quite a bit of macross stuff. last saturday i just got dvds of macross plus, zero, and II: lovers again

that was me up there, i forgot to sign in again

Hey, will one of you guys take a look at the Robotech available on Netflix and or Anime Takeout and tell me if it looks worth renting?

I mean, does it look like most of it is there?

Have seen a good amount of old Gundam and love it.

Just Google either one of them and they will come up. Don't have to be a memeber to browse the library.