Forum - View topicThe Mike Toole Show - Let's Talk It OVA
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2482 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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I see what you did there. |
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aoi yuuki fanboy
 Posts: 51 |
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NINETEEN19 is awful. I'm glad it's been forgotten.
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pachy_boy
Posts: 1340 |
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Love Magical Project S, but having said that, the first-season OVA will always be the classic. I specifically say the first season, because by Season 2 Kajishima took complete control and altered the tone and characters in ways that were notably different (the girls had far less stronger personalities by this time), as well as take the story in a direction that not everyone agreed with (Season 3, basically). Having said that as well, I believe Tenchi Universe is the best incarnation, since it takes all the distinct elements of the first OVA and expands it into a more epic storyline and caps off with two great movies. In currently watching the new Ai Tenchi Muyo, it took a while to get into it (short running time doesn't help much), but it's been kicking back into gear once all the familiar characters made their appearances.
Can't agree about Wanderers, for while the 1st OVA (just as equally classic as Tenchi) has great moments the TV version doesn't have, the TV version has great moments the OVA doesn't (such as a personal backstory between Shayla and Afuraman). However, I don't think much of the 2nd OVA or the Alternative World series, since the 1st OVA was a clearcut self-contained story with a beginning, a middle and end, with everything else afterwards being redundant and going nowhere. Once you know the ending to the 1st OVA, there really isn't much point in what happens afterwards, especially with Shayla and Nanami still losing their dignities in pining for Makoto. Just watched my copy of the import Blu-ray from Japan and El Hazard has never looked more magnificent and beautiful! No English subs anymore than there are Japanese subs, but if you're a dub fan, that's included! With the unfortunate exception of Ifurita's voice (she doesn't have a whole lot of lines anyway), the dub's aged remarkably well for itself, especially with its often witty and clever writing.
Total agreement there. I was fortunate to blind-buy the Media Blasters release, and then discovered the movie afterwards. Cheesy and campy as it is in places, it's solid fun entertainment. Here's hoping that Discotek or someone similar revives this title. Last edited by pachy_boy on Sun Oct 19, 2014 12:06 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Octulus
Posts: 6 |
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...................
Last edited by Octulus on Sun Dec 04, 2016 5:43 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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DerekTheRed
 Posts: 3544 Location: ::Points to hand:: |
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Yay, I've impressed Mike Toole. I've seen Desert Rose, Ninteen19, and Monkey Punch no Sekei - Alice. I feel like I recognize bottom center too. |
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luffypirate
 Posts: 3187 |
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Greenwood is a good old OVA.
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Akcoll99
Posts: 281 |
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I'm curious now, what are the titles you only showed the VHS covers for? The one in the top middle row actually looks decent- at least in the character design department.
And with OVA's, I remember being frustrated by so many of them because they had no real ending. The idea, of course, was that the consumer in Japan would then run out and buy the tie-in manga/novels/video games, etc. and get the ending themselves. But for us in the US back then, many of those tie-ins were never released and so we had to guess at how things turned out. Even now, with the internet, I have a hard time finding a good synopsis in English for some of those old titles where I was left wondering "What happened next?" And as for Mosquiton '99, I vaguely remember ADV admitting they had an option on it back in the days when they also had the OVA. The OVA is hilarious and I snatched it up when Anime Works put it on DVD. It has stayed in my possession despite various "cleanings" my collection has gone through over the years to get rid of the stuff I didn't enjoy anymore. That said, I was all excited when I found a bootleg DVD of the TV series at a used bookstore in Manassas, VA last year. I got home, put it on, and was aghast at HOW AWFUL IT IS. And I'm not talking about the poorly done fan-subtitles. The show itself is just dreadful. Unfunny, poorly animated and with a completely unlikeable lead heroine (the granddaughter of the OVA's main character), I can see now why ADV didn't take that option on this turkey... Last edited by Akcoll99 on Sun Oct 19, 2014 1:22 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Greg Aubry
 Posts: 224 Location: Detroit, MI |
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It's a small thing, but thank you for using the term "OVA" instead of Viz's bizarre made-up-for-America "OAV" rebranding of the format. I always thought OAV sounded lame.
In any case, I'd love to see El Hazard's original series re-released using the Japanese Blu-ray masters. I've been re-watching it recently and it's fun stuff. I love that, in English, Fujisawa is played by Michael McCarty, who later portrayed the serious, slightly gruff Ishikawa in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex dub. Lots of fun memories in this article. I fondly remember running to Media Play, Babbage's and local comic shops to get new VHS releases of Macross Plus, Orguss 02, the A-ko follow-ups, etc. I'd never go back to that era (streaming and Blu-ray are so much better, it's not even funny), but it's a nice bit of nostalgia to remember. |
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No Comment
 Posts: 83 |
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I recognize the bottom center-- that's Eiyuu Gaiden Mozaika. I only know that because I'm a big Ryousuke Takahashi fan; I haven't seen it yet, but the torrent is ready and waiting. Likewise with Gakusaver. I knew I had to see that when I saw a screencap of a monkey giving the finger, that's an instant watch.
I remember Justin brought up Wolf Guy in ANNCast once. I don't recall him being too crazy about it, the way you described it makes it seem somewhat more entertaining though. I'm usually pretty terrible at keeping any sort of pattern in my anime watching, usually something will come along and totally derail any sort of system I've set up, which is probably for the best. But one habit I've been able to keep going for about two months now is to just watch an OVA/film between every TV anime I watch, sort of as a comma. Most don't leave much of an impression on me, but it's very satisfying when they do, and there's no other way I'm gonna be able to watch all the obscure, disposable, and forgotten crap that has accumulated on my Plan To Watch list. Post 1996 OVAs that didn't get a NA release? Starlight Scramble Renai Kouhosei and Super Mobile Legend Dinagiga? That's all I got off the top of my head, there's more, but I get what you're saying. At least most of them are available online-- some are only raw, but hopefully they'll get subbed some day. I think it's more concerning how there's quite a few 90's TV anime that have completely seemed to have fallen off the face of the Earth in terms of availability. No subs, no raws, maybe an OP if you're lucky. I get the feeling that if they haven't been posted by now, they probably won't. At least all the raw terrible 90's TV anime online has a chance of getting subbed Despite the dubious quality of a lot, I love watching weird old OVAs. Most are weird, colorful, and remind me of days gone by. Sometimes terribly, but hey. Great column |
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chao8971
 Posts: 168 |
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I've seen both NINTEEN19 and Alice, which I enjoyed both pretty well, feels good to have seen some stuff that would make Mike Toole impressed with me. |
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Hunter Sopko
 Posts: 259 |
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Iria was my first, and still one of my favorite, anime. Characters are really fun, the gadgets and weapons are awesome, and the action sequences are excellent. The very organic, eastern inspired aesthetic of the setting still impresses me today, and the trippy OP sticks with me too. Lots of my old favorites here though, El Hazard chief among them.
My favorite that fell through the cracks though is Ruin Explorers, one of those mid-90's OVAs that kinda trades in on the popularity of Slayers. Really funny, and Brett Weaver as the hilarious braggart The Great Miguel steals the show. Really, really wish this had gotten a longer series. The setup could've easily supported it. MAPS is a guilty pleasure OVA of mine as well. Inexplicable why I still like it, but I did see it early enough in my anime viewing days for it to be a rose-colored glasses effect. Just silly and fun. As a Star Wars child, space adventure is the easiest way to my heart. Shame that there are some good but semi-forgotten OVAs that fall just outside the cusp of the 90's (Alien Nine). |
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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As for every single OVA from the later nineties being gobbled up, did Gal Force Revolution ever get released here? I know all of the others did, but that one stands on its own in some wants-to-be-LoGH kind of way. |
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jymmy
 Posts: 1244 |
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Shizukanaru Don - Yakuza Side Story Natsuki Crisis Desert Rose Monkey Punch no Sekai Alice Eiyuu Gaiden Mozaika Nineteen 19 Haven't seen any myself... |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2677 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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It's always fun to look at OVAs from before licensing became more commonplace. One that I was impressed by was 1991's Ninja Ryukenden, an OVA loosely based on the original Ninja Gaiden games for the NES (and was not only a precursor to the much more violent Team Ninja trilogy but also way better than the filth we got over here at the time). Another one would be the latter two Fuma no Kojirou OVAs, especially 1990's Seiken Sensou-hen (the 2nd one); it's easily the best part of the FnK story & the closest the series gets to being right up there with Masami Kurumada's best works.
Another two that I really enjoyed, though not technically OVAs since they were made for theaters, are the two Rokudenashi BLUES movies, based on Masanori Morita's Shonen Jump yankii manga. The first movie from 1992 is an enjoyable little half-hour production, but the second movie, Rokudenashi BLUES 1993 (here's another dating itself title, Mike!), was an excellent adaptation of an awesome story of the manga where everyone goes to the Kansai region for a field trip; it allows main character Taison Maeda to to tie up loose ends he left behind when it moved to Tokyo. Then there's Gainax's forgotten 90s OVAs that they seemingly disavow any involvement in (or, at the very least, they aren't listed in their website's "WORKS" page). The most well known one is Blazing Transfer Student, which finally got a much-needed re-release on BD this year, but there were three others from Gainax at around that time: Beat Shot!, a piss-poor 30-minute golf OVA that went as low as hiring porn stars to voice two females simply because the OVA featured some (ultra-tame) sex scenes; Circuit no Ookami II: Modena no Ken, a racing OVA that was only marginally better than what came before it; & Money Wars -Nerawareta Waterfront Keikaku-, which was based on a manga about the stock market that came about just a week before Otaku no Video did. Of the three, Money Wars is easily the best by being somewhat competently made, playing around with the idea of a stock broker being a more investigative & gung-ho hero, and simply being entertaining throughout. Finally, another interesting home video anime would be AWOL Compression Re-MIX, which was a condensed redo of 1998's late-night TV series AWOL -Absent WithOut Leave-. AWOL TV was easily one of the worst anime I have ever seen, mainly because of the non-existent pacing of the first half, and in Japan they knew how bad it was because their home video release wasn't what they got on TV (didn't stop d-rights from licensing the TV version to AnimeVillage.com in1999/2000, though). Instead, Japan's home video release "compressed" 12 TV episodes into 4 OVAs, each of which was 45-minutes long. Essentially, four entire episodes-worth of footage (which included the entirety of episode 3!) was removed, greatly improving the pacing & actually making AWOL watchable. While the original AWOL TV version is downright terrible, Compression Re-MIX is actually fairly enjoyable. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15565 |
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I've said before,but they could easily reboot the anime by making the dude a hipster collector of VHS tapes. |
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