Forum - View topicTwenty Years Ago: The Best Anime of 1996 (And Some Others Too)
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BodaciousSpacePirate
 Subscriber Posts: 3025 |
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It's amazing how many titles from 1996 ended up becoming staple anime franchises for an entire generation of US anime fans. Slayers, 08th MS Team, Escaflowne, Nadesico, You're Under Arrest, Rurouni Kenshin, and X were among the first anime series I remember discovering through Anime Web Turnpike and Protoculture Addicts.
Yeah, I've heard that's super bad for you. |
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Marzan
 Posts: 521 |
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Twenty years! The nostalgia hit me like a jackhammer reading this. I'm oooold in anime terms.
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2939 |
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I love how slayers is still so relevant, with konsuab ahving a character named megumin, who also chants the dragon slave, I can't help it but laugh whenever I listen to the chant.
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N15PCA
 Posts: 37 Location: San Tan Valley, AZ |
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I agree with most on this list. Tenchi was great. Escaflowne had the prefect combo of a action and romance type of show. Gundam MS team was the best gundam show. The next year 1997 Revolutionary Girl Utena came out and was one the best animes ever. I think its the watchmen of animes.
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Animechic420
 Posts: 1734 Location: A Cave Filled With Riches |
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I honestly don't know what to say about this pleasant lineup. It's just....DAMMIT! I miss watching these anime on prime time TV! There was always something about anime airing on television in the morning & afternoon that brings back fond memories.
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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I have seen a lot of shows from 1996 even though I never watched anime until about 2003.
And Those Who Hunt Elves is one of my favorites. For me that is one of the funniest shows that I have seen. You're Under Arrest was in my top ten for a few years. It has fallen off of that list but I still like it a lot and still occasionally watch a few episodes. Others from that year that I like that have not been mentioned are Magical project S and Saber Marionette J. I could add Wedding Peach DX but I really think of that as just a continuation of Wedding Peach, another of my favorites, from 1995. |
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Hiroki not Takuya
 Posts: 2759 |
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I was surprised that the article missed Evangelion which aired from Nov 1995 through Mar 1996 but maybe that was intentional since the premier was in 1995? Looks like 1996 was forgettable for anime I like...
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Merxamers
 Posts: 720 |
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I would actually like to hear more about that; I saw that show on sale recently, and the synopsis sounds almost like a parody, to the point where it has to be either 1. the best thing ever made or 2. a wonderful disaster. So, how is it the apparent progenitor of modern anime? |
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Kikaioh
 Posts: 1205 Location: Antarctica |
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I guess "silly, charming" cool is out, and "edgy, melodramatic" cool is in. ...I'm all for bringing back Jackie Chan dressed in drag as Chun Li! 
Tenchi In Love is one of my favorite anime movies (pretty much the anime version of Back to The Future, from a time when Western entertainment seemed to have been a lot more influential on the anime scene). I should revisit it again sometime, it's been a while!  Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman was also a pretty funny and charming little OVA, that unfortunately never got finished, like so many other OVAs from the 90s.
Some other mentions from the time I think are Violinist of Hamelin, the Magic Users Club OVA, the Chrono Trigger OVA short, Nobody's Girl Remi, the last release for Ryu Knight, and some movies based on Mahoujin Guru Guru, Yawara!, and the Kindaichi Case Files. Dragonball Z also finished its run that year it looks like, and I'm sure there were other running series that haven't been mentioned yet, like El Hazard and Chibi Maruko-chan. |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
Subscriber Posts: 3025 |
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Although I would question the claim that Those Who Hunt Elves "opened the floodgates" for late-night TV anime, I can understand why people might see it as a missing link of sorts between Slayers et al. and the raunchier fantasy shows that you're more likely to see today. |
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L'Imperatore
 Posts: 948 |
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Back then, anime characters still had visible noses, eh?
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Thespacemaster
Posts: 1183 |
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I grew up in the 90's era and i remember some of the first anime series i watched back in toonami uk like Tenchi Muyo, Dragonballz, Vision of Escaflowne, Sailor Moon and every time i do it always take me back to my childhood days siiting in front of the TV.
Basically every series i watch that came out in the 90's gives me that feeling even for shows i did not watch until recently. However reading this article is a reminder just how many series i missed back when i was growing up, i really did not dig deep into anime until around 2010. Before that it was mainstream. I should check more on what i missed not just 96 but the entire decade. If anybody got a good series from the 90;s they can recommend. give me some pointer would you 
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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Pretty much the first thing I noticed when I popped in Escaflowne last night.
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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The likes of Martian Successor Nadesico, The 08th MS Team and You're Under Arrest merit the following claim: 1996 had some surprisingly endearing opening themes! Speaking at least for my own preferences in the world of mass-marketed Japanese popular tunes, it certainly compares favourably to the year either side thereof.
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2744 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Actually, Those Who Hunt Elves is the originator of modern late-night anime. Essentially, in 1996 TV stations & anime companies realized that otaku were actually watching late-night programming that were related to anime. These were "aniraji", or anime radio, which were TV broadcasts of radio stations that interviewed voice actors & the like. With an audience there, TV Tokyo decided to try a crazy idea: How about airing anime at late-night? There had been some late-night TV anime before, but they were aimed specifically at adults, while this idea was aimed at product-buying otaku. Since the OVA market had mostly crashed since the boom days of the 80s, some companies & studios were intrigued with the idea of airing anime in late-night slots. With it airing so late they could get away with more risqué content than prime-time or morning slots would allow, it could be allotted into seasonal time-slots, which meant that each anime was guaranteed at least 12-13 episodes, & the entire thing could act as an infomercial for the later home-video release (not to mention advertise the manga if it was an adaptation). Those Who Hunt Elves was the perfect example of something that could never air on regular TV, but could be allowed on late-night, and after that came Studio DEEN's barrage of titles (Eat-Man, Ehrgeiz, Haunted Juction, AWOL, etc.), a lot of which came form MediaWorks, which also published TWHE. In fact, about all of DEEN's output for 1997 & 1998 was late-night anime, which showed how much of an appeal it had even back then. I've covered the early days of modern late-night anime before, but I've considered doing a version I could do at cons as a panel, because the way late-night anime as we know it came about, plus the kind of stuff that was aired in those early days, is a really fun story to tell. |
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